Ten Things I Love About Him

1. He's handsome. I'm sorry to say but that's important and I remember being a young girl, unsure about how my life would unfold and I clearly remember thinking "What if God has an ugly guy picked out for me." I am picturing the pouty face as I said it too. LOL

2. He challenges me...a lot! I like being challenged but sometimes it hurts. Before we got married I was really a spoiled little girl and I had no freakin clue!

3. He's a great daddy. That is why I fell in love with him in the first place and I have tried to remember that while facing challenges that come along with being a blended family. He was a sweet daddy to his little girl. Then he adopted my little girl. Then he put up with and actually loved having girl after girl and living a life surrounded by pretty ladies:) Now I watch him with his son and can't imagine a more tender and loving as well as playful and challenging father for our kids.

4. He is an amazing provider for our family. He works hard six sometimes seven days a week and so I can be a home maker and be here for our kids.

5. He loves the Lord. I remember having the picture of the perfect spiritual leader, you know the guy who tenderly takes out the family bible every night for devotions. We have had family devotions maybe once during our marriage, but he is an amazing leader by example as well as by being faithful to listen and obey God when it comes to relationships. He's so good at seeing how each person in our family is unique and therefore has their own set of unique needs for their soul and spirit. I'm glad I forgot about "Mr. Family Devotions" because otherwise I might have missed the annointed man of God my husband has become.

6. He loves me. I was listening to Focus on the Family the other day and they were talking about the physiological differences between male and female brains. They were talking about women's brains being like a ball of yarn (I like the thought of spaghetti more still) and men's brains being like drawers and how they have a "nothing drawer". I thought my husband would get a kick out of it so I asked him to listen. As soon as he started listening they started going on and on about how women need to be touched tenderly, carassed and hugged. I laughed at him rolling his eyes and saying "of course". But later, he caught me in the kitchen, gave me a big long hug and a couple of kisses on the forehead and told me he listened to that and he would try to be more tender because he loves me. Ahhh....that will stay with me for a long time:)

7. He's a guy's guy. I love it that guys like my husband. I also love it that he takes that as a serious responsibility and tries to be someone who is worthy of being looked up to.

8. He's a very good lover;)

9. He works on our marriage. He goes out of his way to be a better husband, even going to marriage conferences...okay so we've been to all of one, but still, he enjoyed it and learned from it and applied what he learned when he got home.

10. He's my best friend. I have heard that your husband isn't supposed to be your best friend and I disagree. I mean, of course it's important to have friends who are the same sex because there are some needs for both women and men that can only be met by someone who truly understands, but my husband is definitely the one I want to run to and tell as soon as something great happens. He's definitely the one I miss if I don't see every day.

Motivated Monday

I have a few different projects that are in the works. Here is one of them. This is our dining area and what has been done so far is my husband's doing. He installed drywall, which took care of my #1 complaint about owning an "old" house. The walls are tongue and groove planks and they were covered with thick wall paper. So non practical!

He also put in a ceiling system and is going to install 1/4 inch MDF boards up between the beams, but you can already envision it right? Oh, and that light/fan? My #2 complaint! It's going!

My project is to prime and paint. Before the room was painted Dutch Boy's "Red Wine" which I have continued to love for 3 years now. But we're thinking we might be putting our house up for sale sometime soon, and according the the experts over at HGTV, "red is not a color for everyone". So, I think I'm going to go with a muted teal. I am too lazy to look for examples so stay tuned for the finished pictures:) It might be awhile though. After husband is done with the ceiling and we paint, we're going to sand and laquer our hardwood floors.

This project isn't really going to be my doing, but I just wanted to show something sad. Remember when it snowed and then the ground froze? And then it snowed some more and then froze some more? Well, I remember wondering what would happen to my poor plants. So, when spring finally showed its sweet self, I went out with the pruners to give my roses a little care. This is the finished result after cutting away all the dead branches. Boo hoo:( My neighbor and closest rose expert tells me they may have gone back to wild and I may or may not be getting roses at all this summer.

Here's another project that is going to take some work. I am not a baker. I always say I love to cook, but baking is not my thing. Maybe because I think the professionals already do it so well, so why try? I think I have potential to be a good baker. I like measuring things exactly right, leveling off the cup of flour and whatnot. Maybe I don't want to bake because baked goodies are my absolute weakness and I don't want to find myself eating whole cakes. Or half cakes.

But I want to learn how to bake bread. I already know how to put a mix into a bread machine and press the button, but I would like to learn the old fashioned way of doing it. I would love to teach my kids too. So, after making up my mind that I would learn I committed myself by purchasing a 50 pound bag of bread flour at Costco. The bag on top is the 5 pound bag that I usually buy.

I have another project that has to do with this but it's a secret for now.

And this isn't a project but I thought I throw in a picture of my two guys. Aren't they adorable??? Last night we went and relaxed at the Camano Island State Park. Lovely night, lovely sunset, lovely family time!