My Real Anniversary

My husband, Aaron, reading a book to some of our kids

Eighteen years ago this weekend, my husband and I were married.

In a few years I will be married longer than I was single--yikes!

I am so grateful and blessed to have him as my husband, and here are some of the reasons why:

• He is funny and zany and makes me and the kids laugh many times every day.
• He sacrifices in so many ways to make me and our family happy.  My oldest son goes to seminary (an early-morning religious class for high school age kids at our church) at 6 a.m.  four times a week.  At first, my husband and I were trading off taking him every other week.  With the baby being up to nurse at night and getting up so early, I was dying, but I was trying hard not to complain too much, because my husband's schedule can be pretty demanding, too.  As a New Year's resolution, he offered to take over all the mornings without any strings attached.  It makes me love him even more each morning when I don't have to get up (but I should probably show it by helping us get to bed earlier and not getting all chit-chatty when we are going to bed at night).
• He actually likes a good period drama as much as I do.  On rainy days, he's the one who will say, "Know what this makes me feel like watching...?  Sense and Sensibility."  He's my favorite person to go to the movies with.
• He will call me on the carpet when I need it, but he also often refrains from rubbing it in when I am in a mess of my own making, and just helps me clean it up.
• He supports things I want to do to fulfill my own personal dreams and ambitions--like getting my Masters degree (he babysat countless hours while I was finishing my thesis), working out and blogging.
• He is a really hard worker.  He comes home from working hard all day long and helps with everything we have going on here, too.
• He also knows how to play.  I don't really know how to play very well.  I came from a family that either worked hard, prepared to work or worked slower practically all the time.  It is good for me to be married to a man who knows how to take a vacation, because we are making amazing memories with our children.  If it were up to me, I would probably just buy furniture and stay at home :).
• He listens to me when I talk about all sorts of dreams, ambitions, frustrations, etc. and has good advice when I am stuck.
• He is a good-looking guy and works on staying in shape, but still loves me and finds me attractive even if I'm in not-so-great shape right now :).
• Most of all, I love and respect him for being the spiritual man that he is.  He sacrifices to help other people in our congregation, leads our family in prayer and reading the scriptures and is my partner in crime in getting everyone to church each week (not an easy task).
• Plus, as irritating as it can sometimes be, I usually think it's kind of fun that his name is Aaron...

I know you are all now very jealous of what a great man I have, but you can't all be me (sniff) :).  Happy anniversary to us!