Thankful on Paper, Week 2: My better half

*My grandfather sang this song at our wedding. As soon as I sat down to begin gushing about my one-and-only, I was reminded of this moment in our wedding. This song is so special. It says exactly how I felt then, how I feel now, how I'll feel always.


It's Week #2 of Thankful on Paper and it's a doozie for me. It's time to thank the most incredible man I've ever known and I'm overwhelmed with stress in thinking I cannot find enough words to do him the justice he truly deserves for the man he is. Along with his vast amount of admirable qualities, my hubby is humble, so I'll spare him a bit and just refer to him as "G." 


G and I met half of our lifetime ago, at the age of 17. We worked at an amusement park, where he was a sweeper and I was a balloon girl. He loves to tell people this story and then add the line "I swept her off her feet." Ba dum bum! ;) Did I mention he's a comedian?


To spare the long and winding details of our road to marriage, I'll keep it brief and say that we dated on and off for seven years before deciding we couldn't stop God and making it official in year eight. 


We've now been married nearly 10 years, and my heart can barely contain all the love I have for this man of mine. 


Enough exposition, let me tell you why he's a keeper!


G is my honest-to-God soulmate. He is it for me and I for him. We're like peas and carrots. Seriously. He's actually the only person I think who truly knows me in and out. When we're standing barefoot, I fit just perfectly underneath his arm. We fit. We work. We're a team.


Knowing me as G does is no easy feat, and he takes it in stride. He knows me angry. He knows me ugly. He knows me bratty. He knows ME. He's seen my kind of crazy and he accepts it. He not only accepts it, he bought a daily subscription to it when he signed the marriage license. It's legit. I'm pretty sure there are days where he thinks, "What the heck did I sign up for?" but he's never let me know it. Not once. 


He's my hero. He has rescued me from myself more times than I care to count. He's also other people's hero. I've never come across a better friend than him. He cares genuinely for people and their circumstances. He's found/gotten jobs for people, he's given money to people, he's given housing to people. There's not much he won't do if it can help someone else. I often wonder how he walks so swiftly carrying that huge heart around in his chest. 


He is ambitious and driven, but he doesn't let it consume him. He works SO very hard in a high-stress job, but his countenance is consistent every time he walks through our front door after work. He's smiling. It doesn't matter what happened that day. He's smiling. He's happy to see his family and get to spend some time with us. That's admirable. 


He's funny. Real funny. Not funny queer. Funny haha. He has a loud voice and an even more booming, boisterous laugh. I recall seeing Ace Ventura with him for the first time in high school and being riveted by his laugh. It's contagious. It brings joy. 


He's authentic. He's the real deal. What you see is what you get. I often compliment him because he can say anything to anyone and get away with it. Because they know it's from the heart. 


He takes care of us. GOOD care of us. We are blessed by a life that is beyond anything I could've imagined in my wildest dreams. He works hard so I can stay home, raising our boy (and hopefully more to come). 


He gave me my son. My pride and joy. My burst of energy topped with a mess of blonde curls and the kind of blue eyes that make girls melt. I pray he turns out more like his father than like me. 


G is a picture of Christ to me. He loves God with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind. And it shows. He's a wonderful example. He is a man of prayer and faith. I can't tell you how awesome that is. He's so encouraging. Just today, he told me, "Try to get in the word today, at least one chapter. God wants to speak to you." It's beautiful to have that kind of encouragement. 


I don't know if I'll ever figure out what I did to deserve such a prize. One thing's for sure though: I've got my prize, I'm greedy, and I'm not letting him go. Ever. 


I'll be loving him always. With a love that's true. Always. Not for just an hour. Not for just a day. Not for just a year. But always. 

Howdy! It's share a lyric Sunday y'all!

I've got a whole mind full of things to blog about, but not enough wits about me to put any of those thoughts together into meaningful sentences, let alone a whole blog post, so I'm going to keep it short and sweet tonight. Forgive me, for I've just spent the last almost hour and a half at the sink doing dishes. Seriously. That's what happens when I let my routines go by the wayside, and then I turn up sick on the day I plan to catch up. Things do not go well around here if I don't stick to my routines. Lesson learned. 


I'd like to get back to my idea of sharing song lyrics that mean a lot to me, so I'm sliding this one in here on a Sunday instead of Saturday. Who really cares anyway? :) This is actually an entire chorus from a country song called "Love Like Crazy" by Lee Brice that's currently in heavy rotation. Bear with me here if you're not a country fan because this chorus is absolutely beautiful. 


Here's a little background on what happens in the song before the chorus starts for those who haven't heard it. There's a couple who've been together for 58 years (I can only wish) and this chorus is the man's response to how they've managed to stay together that long. He says:


Be a best friend, tell the truth
And overuse I love you
Go to work, do your best
Don't outsmart your common sense
Never let your prayin' knees get lazy
And love like crazy


I am totally in love with this song. It reminds me every time I hear it to be sweet to my husband and always remind him how much I love him, even when I think he'll tire of hearing it. Because he won't. Ever. He'll never tire of hearing how I love and adore him any more than I'll ever tire of hearing how much he loves and adores me. That's what true love's all about. It's a magical codependency like I've never experienced, until I became a mom. 


There I go getting all sappy on you. Sorry, but the emotion I feel when I hear this song is mostly why I LOVE music so much. It touches your heart and your soul, and when it's done well, it can make you a better person. 


As a quick aside, while I am typing this, I can hear "Oh How I Love Jesus" softly emanating from my son's room. This is our hope and prayer for him. I pray that one day, when he's grown, he will love this song as much as I do and will sing it with pure conviction and a love of Jesus realized. 


God Bless,
Miss K

It sure is nice to just be the woman with you

The Mister and I ventured off on a little holiday in San Diego this past weekend. It was much needed, and cherished. Our little Jerry Lewis in the making was safely at home with his Nana, being spoiled rotten (which I'm not even sure can happen, seeing as the boy's so rotten now he reeks of 12-day-old, hard-boiled eggs). Nonetheless, you can pretty much assume that if Nana's around, the hubs and I are sneaking off for at least a night out, and more if we can get by with it. 


Since we love California and exploring all the nooks and crannies of our wonderfully beautiful state, we headed down to Shelter Island in San Diego. It's a quaint little place off Point Loma. If you're local and have never been there, you should check it out. San Diego is one of my favorite places in California, and this area was like a fun little undiscovered treasure for these two kids. I'll post some pics soon.


We got to eat some great food, have some even better wine, take walks, take naps, do some Latin dancing, and catch up with a good friend. Then, we headed back up to the LBC on Saturday to hit up a little Oktoberfest shindig with a group of friends, which was just the kind of laid-back evening we needed to end our excursion. All in all, it was just what we needed. 


Of all the fun, food, and frivolity experienced, my favorite part of the trip was just getting time to be my husband's girl again. I didn't have to play chef, medic, chauffeur, therapist, nothing. I just got to be me for a while. We just got to be US, and I realized how important it is that we do that from time to time. 


I need time to gaze into my husband's eyes and see that young man I fell in love with more than 17 years ago. We need to dance together like we used to, like it was just us and no one else in the world existed. 


We got to do that in our time away. It was such a blessed reminder from God that He gave me my soulmate  and I should be thankful every day for that wonderful gift.