mid-thirties... here we come!!

I took Hunter to his soccer practice Saturday morning and sat with five other moms while the coach ran the practice. Through the course of what seemed like normal conversation, I found out that all five of them were divorced.

It rattled me a little bit.

Five out of six women divorced? Ouch.

My parents divorced when I was ten years old. Any way you cut it, divorce is hard. No matter the reason, no matter the process - it is hard all around.

While explaining some of the reasons for her divorce, one of the moms leaned over to me with a big jovial smile on her face and said, "You just have to do what is best for the kids, right Laurie?"

She did not want me to answer that question. So I stayed silent and smiled.

One the drive home it struck me how marriage needs to be protected. No one is exempt from a crumbling marriage.

Although, in general, Kenyon and I would both consider our marriage strong, we had a rough previous 24 hours, so my heart was a little tender. He spent the weekend out in the woods with his bow and arrow, so I spent a lot of time appreciating the great things about him, and resolving not to pull bricks out of our wall of marriage anymore.

It also occurred to me that his birthday passed while we were traveling and I never took the time to do a birthday post for him. Here it goes!

Happy birthday to my Prince Charming! In honor of your 34th birthday, I'm picking (only) 34 things (some quite random and I'm sure you haven't heard before) that I love about you.

1. I love that three of our four boys favor your looks.
2. I love that you carried your energy level from your childhood into adulthood.

3. I love that you don't let people call you Ken.
4. I love that you were a blondie as a baby.
5. I love how your mom talks about how you exhausted her with your energy as a little kid.
6. I love that your mom got so frustrated with you and your brother that she dumped a bucket of ice water on you and locked you out of the house for a little while. It makes me feel a little better about my parenting.

7. I love that even though you may not naturally be good at something, it doesn't mean that you won't keep trying to get good at it.

8. I love that now as a dad, you communicate to your dad how much you appreciate him.

9. I love that you get so good at things that you get bored and elevate the challenge to a new level. Like you went from alpine skiing to telemark, and from rifle hunting to muzzleloader to bow and arrow.
10. I love that you update your skiing look every couple of years (and that you didn't hang on to the 80's).

11. I love that you have been responsible and hard working from a young age. Like the story about you and your brother wanting a dog so badly that you earned the money to buy your Westie, Clover.

12. I love that every so often you tell the same story over and over again, like when you and Tom S. were teenagers and were hired to paint some lady's house and it took you about a whole week and she only paid you $350 - and you had to split it!

13. I love that you didn't give up on house painting even though she screwed underpaid you.

14. I love that you constantly think up new ways to do things that may seem impossible.

15. I love that you really studied and got great grades in college.
16. I love that you transferred colleges three times but still graduated in four years.
17. I love that you listened to your dad and didn't drop out of college to become a missionary.
18. I love that you still entertain the possibility that we may hit the mission field together someday.

19. I love that you stopped studying so hard when we started dating.
20. I love that you almost didn't graduate because you missed so many Spanish classes.
21. I love that you missed so many Spanish classes because you were at my apartment.

22. I love that you almost didn't get your first job offer because you were hanging out at my apartment so much and you never checked your messages.
23. I love that from the second I said I loved Rottweilers, you loved them too.
24. I love that you brought dogs home despite my objections and despite all common sense.
25. I love the fact that even though you came from a relatively small family, you still gave me the big family that I wanted.
26. I love that before our garage gets messy, you get frustrated with it and reorganize it (about three times a year). OK, I don't love it at that moment, but I love it inbetween those times
27. I love that we compliment each other - I want things clean, you want things organized.
28. I love that you don't care what I cook for dinner and have never complained about what we eat.

29. I love that you accept that you cannot handle seeing the total at the checkout at Costco, so you take the kids over to the food court and live in ignorance about how much it costs to feed this family.
30. I love that instead of moving our family for a different job, you are getting your MBA to keep your mind challenged.
31. I love that even though you have a packed schedule, you still volunteered to coach soccer.

32. I love that you adore your grandmother.
33. I love that you kept your roots, but grew wings.
34. I love that those wings include cheering for Chicago teams because you know that I love them and that is where my roots lie.

Happy belated birthday Kenyon. I could not ask for any more than you have given me!

Through thick and thin... I'm yours always.

P.S. I'm savoring my 18 days of being your young, hot wife before my #34 comes along!