I love to make jokes with him and tell him jokes and everything. One joke that started with our correspondence and has gone A LONG WAY is that when I catch a cold, I call it being "married to a box of Kleenex", and I refer to the Kleenex box as my "husband". I have confused so many people with this joke that it makes me laugh even more. Alex also joked about it, but because he IS married, he calls Kleenex his "friend" instead of a spouse name.
Another joke that we like to make is about how big our yawns are, as we tend to be either e-mailing each other or instant messaging each other when one of us is tired. He is 12 hours ahead of us, so when we're in bed, he and his family are up(although he stays up late, so he may be up as it is!). I usually call my biggest yawns my "dog-yawns" because I feel like my mouth has to open as wide as it will go, or possibly even wider than that, for me to yawn. Since my family used to have dogs, I've seen dogs yawn so big that it looked as if their mouths were open at 180 degree angles! So when I tell him I'm having my dog-yawns, I mean that I feel like I'm yawning that big. Alex, however, has compared his yawns not only to huge dogs, but to open garage doors and even to hippopotamuses. Obviously he thinks he needs to get more and more creative with his description. I have a feeling he's having plenty of success.
Alex and I are both very interested in foreign languages. He is determined to be fluent in English and I hope to someday be fluent in Spanish. He told me that speaking English was like singing a song, and frankly I feel the same way about Spanish. Unfortunately, though, I'm nowhere NEAR as stubborn as he is about practicing, and I'm EXTREMELY nervous about practicing with a NATIVE speaker! Alex seems to have no fears whatsoever. He claims he is nervous, but I would never know it.
Following are photos of Alex and his family. His wife is a psychology professor and his daughter is in elementary school. Their family, although not related to us unless you choose to go back to Noah's Ark, seems like family to us. They care about us and we care about them. Enjoy the photos!