I have now been married to the world's best husband for a decade. It does not seem possible. But then again, in a way, it does seem like 10 years. In a good way.


So many, many unexpected life events have directed our life to the place we are now. Many moments we would love to do over and make different decisions. Many we would like to do over just to feel the blessings again. All in all, I'm looking forward to the next decade with my sweet and wonderful hubby.


For years we have been trying to go to Vegas for our anniversary. This year, we finally made it, ha, ha! We dropped the kids off at the sitter's, and headed over to a Vegas buffet.


Our original desire for our anniversary was to attend the America's Got Talent concert just up the street at the MGM and see the winner, Neil E. Boyd, perform since we rooted and voted for him all summer long. But the financial times have affected us too. Paul loses a client or has a job project end from time to time, and October just happens to be our month for tightening our belt and getting other projects off the ground. No problem, and next month will be better, we simply didn't have a lot of money to spend.


We had a coupon for one person to get a free buffet. We didn't know Friday nights are seafood night and the price is double. We ate there once before and the food was awesome, but last night they took away a lot of the selection to make room for the crab and oysters. Which we do not eat. You would think you could find a bit of salmon, cod or tilapia on a seafood buffet, but not last night. It was an unclean food extravaganza. But I still managed to eat my money's worth of other goodies.


Then we saw a movie. I knew nothing about any of the movies out, and Paul picked "Body of Lies", which he said was a spy movie with Russell Crowe. So I'm thinking a James Bond type of movie would be good. He forgot to mention in addition to spying there would be Muslim terrorists and torture. I had just eaten my weight in food at a Vegas buffet. I really didn't need to see people blown up and fingers cut off. And profanity. Lots of that too.


Add severe bloating (I could hardly get my wedding ring on), a bad headache, a complexion that decided to pretend I'm fifteen again, plus a hot day, and the evening was just a little on the disappointing side.


But I REALLY should NOT complain. I have a wonderful life with a wonderful husband who is the best father on the planet. So to end on a thankful note, I will think about some things that I love about my man, and some things that make me smile.


*He cannot be comfortable living in a state that is landlocked, yet does not like to swim or visit the ocean or lakes.


*He will not drink the last inch of milk in a carton. It has been 10 years, and I still don't understand this.


*He is allergic to clutter of any kind. It affects his ability to work and his ability to be happy. And his definition of clutter varies greatly from mine!


*He would give a stranger the shirt off his back if there was a need, yet fully understands the "not throwing your pearls before swine" principle.


*He is the smartest person I know.


*He has the spiritual gift of discernment. He can meet someone once, or even see a clip of someone new on TV, and instantly know that person is shady or evil. So many times this has happened and he always ends up being 100% correct. It is amazing. I am so in awe of this ability, when we go new places together, I grill him on different people to get his opinion.


*He has a sixth sense. Countless times a thought just pops into his head like "change lanes", and he will, and then a tire pops off the truck in front of him in the original lane. This has happened so many times over the years. I am still trying to figure out if this is some sort of spiritual gift, or an unused human ability that he has unknowingly tapped into. He has had dreams to come true. When he was a teenager, he dreamed the next day's lottery numbers!


*He will not wear denim, shorts or t-shirts.


*He does not care what other people think of him.


*He is a MAN. He wears the pants and is the leader of our home. He is not soft spoken, he has a real handshake, and there is nothing effeminate about him. Not a girlie-man or sissy-wimp! There seems to be a shortage of real men. I'm glad I have one.


*He is a wise father.


*No matter how bad times have gotten in the last 10 years, not once has he ever demanded or even 'allowed' me to get an outside job. He wants me to be able to stay with our children. That is pretty awesome.


*He is spontaneous. After spending nearly 40 years of his life in Michigan, one night before we fell asleep he said, "Let's move to Oregon". We had never even visited Oregon and knew nothing about it. A couple of weeks later we vacationed there, and six months later we moved there.

*He is a terrible liar.

*He is the most ticklish human being on planet earth. I still laugh thinking about taking a childbirth class when I was pregnant with our first child. The other 20 or so couples in the room were practicing the wife massaging the husband's shoulders to show them how we want it done during labor. Paul and I just sat on our mat and watched everyone else. He is far too ticklish for massages.

*He has phases of obsession. A phase may last anywhere from a few weeks to six months or more.

--There was the dinosaur phase, where he learned every name of every discovered dinosaur, their statistics, and all sorts of dinosaur related trivia, even putting together materials to teach a children's creation class on dinosaurs. He watched dinosaur documentaries and read a gazillion books.

--The gun phase. He bought a glock and an M-16 something or other. He spent weeks of daily attendance at a shooting gallery. This was back when we had money and no kids, of course.

--The multi-level-marketing phase. He spent three days in his office, not sleeping, just studying the fine print on MLM companies. He ran numbers, projections. I periodically shoved food under the door. This phase ended with the conclusion that most MLM companies are not good.

--The castle house phase. He drew up blueprints for a castle house, and refined them over and over. He planned each room in detail. We still have the folder and all his efforts around somewhere. Maybe we will build it someday.

--The Partridge Family phase. We watched every available episode in just a couple of days, and listened to CDs for weeks. I know all their songs now.

--The James Bond phase. One day he said, "Let's watch all the James Bond movies." And we did. In order. In one weekend. He researched all the related trivia of Sean Connery and all the other dudes. We learned we do not care for Pierce Brosnan as Bond.

--There are so many more, these are just off the top of my head. Currently, it's a political phase. I know so much more about NObama than I want to know. I will be glad when November 5 arrives, and the end of this phase!

*He has very good taste.

*He is handsome.

*He is patient.

*He lives life with the Bible as his guidebook. He has the ability to see and study Biblical passages and principles without the bondage of wearing a denominational hat. He is not theologically pre-conditioned.

I could go on and on and on, but the point is, I have been blessed with an awesome hubby, and thank God for him every day. I look forward to the next 10 years.