It had to be you

Our 17th legal anniversary was Sunday. Monday my neice was married. I pray her partnership will be as satisfying and joyful as ours has been.

The budget is running pretty tight and with the heating bills for winter terrorizing us it won't change anytime soon. We have gone into emergency lock down on spending since the storms and that makes it tighter around here than it has been in awhile. But we didn't need money to be happy when we started out and we don't need it now. Just us and the menagerie.

Instead of giving Hallmark and the floral shop and the candy store our cash to show our love we decided to go out for breakfast (less expensive than dinner) and then took a drive along the back roads. This is called "taking the scenic route" or "two tracking" where we are. We even found a road or two we had never been on before. We listened to the radio and talked about our time together and our love still being strong for each other. Nothing too mushy, just the facts, ma'm. Then we went home and enjoyed each other the old fashioned way - I'll spare you the graphic details but - mmmmmmmm........what a MAN!

The mate let me watch some musicals, one really fun one that is sort of an Australian "Full Monty" or "Tap", both of which I heartily recommend for humor and dancing fun. Usually the mate does sports on the weekend (and monday night and thursday night) but I don't watch that much TV anyway. So it's always fun to luck into a few good old musicals.

And that was our big celebration. No real whoop. We even felt a little guilty about using the gas to go nowhere. Still, it was our party and we deserve a little splurge.

For those of you that don't think it sounded like much, you are right, it wasn't much in the way of parties. It was just another day with my favorite person on earth beside me where I could tell him how much I love him and hear how much he still loves me. Wouldn't trade it for anything.

Let's see - this week he has had dinner ready, home made sloppy joes last night, yum! Supervised the nephew in law who is working off his Silverwing saddle bags and trunks by painting the garage, found a parts bike for the other nephew, put a set of real saddle bags on my bike, mowed the lawn and taken out the trash as well as many more house help chores.

I have taped the Lions game for him, gone to work, come right home every night, done laundry and been building auctions and websites to make some on the side so we have enough to get by and still wanted the mate's bod.

Yup - we love each other. Seems like a pretty boring list doesn't it? I don't know how to explain to you that each tiny thing we do for each other not only shows love but we SEE the love in it.

When you are a kid, home with the sitter after school or alone, Dad and Mom are just gone. You have no concept of what they do every day or why. You know they are tired in the evening but still try to spend time with you for a few minutes, even if it's just chatting while you help with dishes or other chores and then the day starts all over again. What starts out as self preservation or self love when you are on your own is done for love when you have a family.

You want the kid to have nice clothes, you go to work everyday. You want the family to have a home, you go to work every day.

Now anyone in their right mind can tell you we would all rather be fishing, biking, traveling the world, hanging with super models or anything rather than doing the old work routine. But we put aside our dreams and wonders and maybes to buckle down and make the now good out of love. We do things we don't like, hate, never thought we could when we care about someone else's well being ahead of our own.

To put the team or the family first is not always easy. We all have times we just want to run screaming for the nearest party bar and order 17 tequilla's, no lime, no lemon, no salt! Or get that stupidly expensive doodad just because. The trick is to learn how to be happy stopping for just one drink or getting on line to find the gadget cheaper. You still have to indulge yourself sometimes - but not at the expense of the family.

So we had a quiet day. Wrapped up in our love for each other. I wish you all the joy of a comparable day at least once in your lives.