open book open heart

Some things happened last week that are making me work to love my husband better.

First, I told a (fairly empty) room full of people that loving someone doesn’t require biology – that, in fact, you love who you serve. I may have even used the word, “hogwash.” (Proud of that. What a great word!) I was presenting at a meeting to recruit and/or solicit funds to support foster parents.  So, it hit me like a back-o-the-head-two-by-four that I so love my man with whom I share zero biology and… I should serve him more.

Also, I gave a friend some hang-in-there, it-gets-better marriage advice along the same lines, “So, you’re telling me I should just fake liking him?” she said. “No,” I said, “think of it more along the lines of practicing. Practice liking him until you do.”

So, I decided since my husband’s birthday was on Friday, it was time to do it up right for him in the exact way he’d appreciate. (You’ve read The 5 Love Languages right? My hubs is a quality time guy.)  I surprised him with this:

The gift of sleeping in.  Seriously.  What were you thinking?

For the record, SHEER HEAVEN!  For the last almost two years now, the two-almost-three-year-old has been waking us, on average, two hours before the crack of dawn – when he actually sleeps through the night.  Sleeping until nine a.m. (though I had to keep making myself do it, “self, go back to sleep – for reals, no one needs you, no one is crying, no one needs a diaper change”) was pure awesome!

By the way, when we returned home, the babysitter had called in backup and was fast asleep on the couch – kind of made me feel better about being so dang tired all the time.

Besides sleeping in, the best parts of my husband’s birthday celebrations were:

• when our 11-year-old asked his dad to guess his presents and his dad came up with such a fabulous list. (Using it for Father’s Day! Don’t tell!) It included boring things like, new pants (for traveling haha!), silly things like Joey dressing up like a ninja to serve him breakfast in bed, and stuff I wish I’d thought of like a surprise cruise or a new phone.
• that his birthday landed on Memorial Day Weekend so when his employees at work wished him a happy birthday, he responded with, “Thanks!  That’s so nice, I’d like to do something for you… why don’t you take Monday off?”
• that those employees love him so much, they took him to his favorite restaurant for lunch as a surprise – McDonalds! Even his vegetarian employees went along. That’s love people.
• A conversation I had with my biggest son after getting a screaming deal on his dad’s present (half price! totally unexpected!) where he full-on scripted how we would tell his dad about said deal.

Our lines as written by Joey:

Me: “This gift is from ALL of the kids because it was SO expensive. But…”

Joey: “… because of my awesomeness and handsomeness…”

Me: “… and cuteness!”

Joey (with feeling): “Moooooom!”

Joey (starting again): “because of my awesomeness and handsomeness, we got your present for HALF PRICE!”

That, my friends, is how we roll.

By the by, in only sort-of related news, my husband stole my phone and added some new text shortcuts for me.  Whenever I try to type “no,” my phone autocorrects it to, “I love my husband David so much!” So, in case you text me something like this; “Laurie! I just saw Justin Beiber!” You may have to forgive my respond text that will say, “I love my husband David so much! Way!”

I know how to fix it but I chose not to.  It’s not a lie people.  I do love him so much! Way!

I mentioned… tired. all. the. time? okay.