OMG, I'm married!

If you read my husband's blog last week on this same website (Mad Rantings from the Beard: Christmas creeping up with a Billy club), you already know we have trouble finding things, especially gifts, in our house.

While looking for a special gift for a very special lady (Happy Birthday Cathy!) the other night, I basically destroyed the bedroom. I drug out everything (and trust me, it's a lot) stored inside the closet and was ready to start digging the stuff out from under the bed when I finally spotted the bag containing the gift hiding under a table. We both had been looking for that silly thing for three days!

So, standing in the middle of complete chaos, I decided to giggle instead of getting mad. It's fall, and I had been planning to clean out the closet anyway.

Everyone in our house knows there are two times a year when they are going to get their hands dirty, and that's for spring and fall cleaning.

However, my husband made me promise a few years ago to not start cleaning projects in the middle of the night. I guess he has a good reason for jokingly referring to me as Mary Poppins.

Shortly after we started to live together in the late summer of 2007, I got the urge to clean the house at midnight. My 6-foot, 3-inch tall, 290-pound husband went from falling asleep (without his glasses) in a recliner on one side of the living room to waking up in an entirely different spot and ultimately stumbling into a wall.

While laughing, I tried my best to apologize.

And Jason's such a gentleman, but the last straw for him was coming home late one night to finding the bedroom completely turned around from what it was when he left earlier in the day.

"You've only been home for two hours," he said while shaking his head in amazement. "How on earth did you do all this?"

He's a patient, understanding man.

The other night, his reply wasn't exactly the same.

When he got home late from work, I told him the story of how I found the gift so we could laugh together about it.

Then something amazing happened when he said, "You're cleaning this up, right?"

We both looked at each other and realized in that moment we were officially a married couple.

In celebration, I think I'll make my "NEW" husband a special treat.

Crispy Nutty Bars

12 Cinnamon Graham Crackers

2 cups of finely chopped walnuts

1 cup salted butter

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

½ teaspoon of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Arrange crackers in a single layer with sides touching on the bottom of a greased cookie pan. Sprinkle walnuts evenly over crackers.

In a heavy small saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, Stirring constantly, cook the mixture over medium heat slowly until sugar dissolves and it begins to boil for 3-4 minutes.

Remove pan from stove; pour mixture over crackers until completely covered.

Bake 8-10 minutes or until bubbly and slightly darker around the edges. Cool completely in pan. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.

For a little extra, sprinkle some mini chocolate chips over the top of the crackers while cooling. Break apart after the bars are completely cool.