35 for 35

Please give me some grace for an unusually sappy post this week.  One thing I would like to improve upon, is celebrating the people in my life.  I know that sometimes I go day to day and take for granted how blessed I am to share my “world” with people who mean the world to me. 

So, even though I’m a day early, today I’m celebrating (A)’s 35^th birthday with 35 things I appreciate about him/favorite memories of our life together.  If you know him, maybe you will learn something you didn’t know, if you don’t know him, you will find out a little about the “calm to my chaos.”  Either way, I hope it gives you a chance to reflect on the people in your life, and the way you appreciate them, and what is special about the way you do life together.

35. He is a rock star at doing the dishes!

34.  When it is ISTEP testing week and I am an exhausted stressed out teacher, he comes home with Coke and gummy bears.  He knows I gave up soda years ago, but he also knows every now and then I NEED one, and he seems to know just when those days are.

33.  After 16 years together, he is learning to appreciate “good” music. 😉

32.  One of our earliest dates was to the tiny town of Lexington, IN… (A) worked for a shoe store in his hometown and the store had been contacted by a church in Lexington to purchase shoes for children in the town who needed them for the upcoming school year.  They had a little dinner/open house evening at the church shelter house and advertised that any child who would like a new pair of shoes should come.  We loaded up a vehicle with tons of pairs of shoes and another employee and drove over.  That evening I watched him sit on the ground on his knees and help child after child find a pair of shoes that they liked AND that fit appropriately with some room to grow.  He wasn’t phased by their dirty little feet or the hard concrete he was sitting on (that was prior to 2 knee injuries and 3 knee surgeries).  I realized then that he knew what it meant to be the hands of feet of Jesus.  What I had no idea about, was that a few years later we would return to the tiny town of Lexington, IN for his first full time ministry or that Lexington would be where he would propose to me and where we would live for the first 7 months of our marriage.

31.  He willingly and of his own accord watches Hallmark movies (sometimes for hours) when he is in control of the remote.

30.  He loves kids, and they love him.

29.  I never have to worry about “dressing” him.  He likes to shop for his own clothes and has no trouble putting sharp outfits together. (Maybe that seems like a silly thing- but until I married him I didn’t know men were capable of that!)

28.  If he wants us to be somewhere on time, he tells me a time that is 15 minutes earlier. (Did I mention that he’s smart?)

27.  Nothing is beneath him.  In college he shoveled horse manure and drove a $400 Ford escort (the station wagon style) because it paid the bills and kept his college education debt free.

26.  He prefers to read non-fiction, and often shares with me interesting things he is reading.  I appreciate this, because I do NOT like to read non-fiction, but since he shares his interesting facts with me I feel like he has both of us covered.

25.  When we are together and I am too tired to drive, he will always do it, whether he wants to or not.

24.  He is quick to rescue me when I have a flat tire or randomly get a blanket wrapped around my front axle.

23.  I do NOT have to beg to get him to go see a Broadway musical with me (Fiddler on the Roof is his favorite!) I DO sometimes have to beg him to stop singing his version of the songs from the musicals we have seen.

22.  He knows lots of ways to keep me laughing.

21.  When I was expecting (a), he never missed a single doctor’s appointment.

20.  Time and time again I have watched him give people a second chance, or third or fourth if they needed it.

19.  I love seeing him come alive when he gets behind the pulpit.  He has such a heart for teaching people through God’s word.

18.  He is willing to do whatever it takes to take care of his family.  I have watched him, at his most broken, pull himself together and step out of his comfort zone to provide for us.  I will never forget that morning as long as we live.  My heart had never been so hurt for him, and I had never been so proud of him all wrapped in the same moment.

17.  I could tell thousands of stories about what an epic dad he is.

16.  When we first started dating, his promise to me was that there would never be a dull moment- and he has held true to that.  He can create “adventure” even in the day to day.

15.  He gives good advice.  When I follow it things usually work out well, and when I don’t I usually wish that I would have listened.

14.  He is super competitive.  This is usually fun, but sometimes stressful.  When we were first dating I quickly learned that I had to lose in things like bowling and putt-putt if I wanted the date to continue to go well.  If I didn’t, he was so grumpy from losing that he would hardly talk the entire way home. 

13.  Generosity is a big part of his heart.  If there is a way he can help with time, or money, or energy, or effort he is going to do it.

12.  His gift of leadership has been a blessing to many organizations.

11.  He loves traveling as much as I do, and is patient with me when I want to spend 8 hrs a day lying on the beach even though he would be done after 3 hrs if given his choice.

10.  He supports my dreams and God’s calling on my life as if they were his own, and he is more than willing to help out with (a) or the house or whatever needs to be done so I can pursue those things.

9.  While a “romantic” he is NOT, he does have a way of sharing words of encouragement and affirmation at just the times I need them most.

8.  He does laundry!!

7.  Mentorship is a role he takes seriously and I love watching him mentor other young men as a coach, leader, husband, father, and friend.

6.  Our years of doing church camp together whether it was as campers, paid staff, or volunteer leadership have always served as a reminder to me how much I love to be on his “team.”  Though he is a leader, he is a team player and I love serving beside him in those ways.

5.  When something is important to me, he is willing to compromise… even if it means coordinating outfits for pictures.

4.  He is (a)’s hero and favorite person.

3.  When I am a mess, he knows how to put me back together emotionally, or he shows up with the 75 important things I forgot.

2.  He never passes up an opportunity to dress in a ridiculous costume of some sort.

1.  More than once (A) has told me that the day (a) was born was his most wonderful and most scary ever.  I don’t remember many of the scary parts as they involved some complications I had postpartum,  and I was not conscious enough to really know what was happening.  However, I do remember waking up in the night and seeing him standing over me and beside the hospital cradle bed containing our tiny new baby.  And was he was praying over us and crying.  In that moment I knew more than ever before how blessed I was, and how much he loved us. 

Happy Birthday, (A)! We love and appreciate you for who you are day in and day out!  Thank you, God, for letting me do life with him!

“For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8