Gentle, Strong, and ... Surprising??

How many of you KNOW that we have our husbands figured out? Let's all say a "ME!!!" together. I know that when Harry gets ready for bed, he frowns, smacks his lips, puts his hands up a little ways and say "what do we got to eat?". Something cold, of course. Let me make you a verbal menu, sweetheart.

Or if I notice he is frowning more than usual I can ask "Are you okay?" and I will immediately get a response with a bigger frown: "Yeah, are YOU okay?" LOL, that's a classic. Pegged.

*Note: forgive me for all the punctuation errors here and run-ons, but it happened like this in my head.

So, last week on a Saturday I was going to be helping a friend, Mary, serving food at a basketball game for our church. I went to garage sales that morning, and then came home to hang out for a few hours before leaving for the night. My husband was extra attractive to me all day, and I admit, I had to let him know how I felt about him. He had this glow about him - wow, this man is gorgeous. :) And he's MINE! Little did I know where this glow was coming from. It wasn't me imagining it - it was excitement all bottled up.

Almost 5:00, have to be there by 5:30, so I started getting wipes filled up, diapers, bottles/sippy cups to go, you know...be prepared for toddlerhood ...... outside the house. Oh, Stacy still needs socks and shoes on. Then a friend of mine, Lisa, shows up with her daughter, and I ask her if she was "just in the neighborhood" - which....NO. ONE. is. just. in. the. neighborhood. out. here. Middle of nowhere - seriously. So here I am trying to think of a polite way to kick her back out the door because we have to be leaving....like now... - oh no - she's taking her shoes off....ahh, wait! Don't take those off just yet...we have to leave....Stacy needs socks and shoes, still....all these thoughts in the midst of small talk.

Then Harry pops up behind me and starts pulling me out the door. Wait- the kids! What?! He's dressed up for a basketball game. Do I have to wash nacho cheese dip out of that outfit tomorrow? "Ahh, do I need to change?" Lisa says "bye!" with a big smile on her face and takes Stacy in the living room to look out the window - at the middle of nowhere, and I am still worried about finishing the diaper bag packing.
"What is going on here - what just happened? Do I need to call Mary?"
"No, Mary's in on it. Here, put this on." as he hands me a bag with a dress, shoes, and matching undergarments, because that's just a complex I have. Okay, no basketball game I assume. This man will not tell me anything. AT. ALL! We played 60 questions on the way there, and I finally realized that he was telling me nothing of the truth as he answered these. I think it was the one he answered about "we're going to a Motley Crew concert" that I finally picked up on the fact that this was all bull hunkey. He told me about 10 times to just sit back and enjoy the evening. But me, being this planning fruitcake, has to have it all figured out before it happens. HELLO!

We get to a nice restaurant, very nice meal, good conversation, relaxing, glass of wine....did I mention no kids? You can actually hear each other talk quietly! lol Then he takes me to UNI - Walked in, this is the Waterloo/CF Symphony. Now, I LOVE things like this and my husband planned this whole day just for us....well, me really. Made all the phone calls, worked everything out, kept it a secret - and I knew this man.....he baffled me.

I know he reads these, so honey, I just want to let you know how absolutely special you are and it's times like these that I really realize how much I take you for granted. Thank you, thank you for putting our marriage on the top priority list. It would be so easy after Andy's death for us to fall apart, and by you taking the extra time lately and pouring it into us really shows me that we can come through this together, holding hands. I love you so, so much.