Why I Love My Husband

I woke up this morning and rolled out of bed--I couldn't sleep. I gazed on that sleeping man next to me, and I started feeling all mushy and sentimental like. And I started mentally ticking off all the things about him that I love. So I thought I'd post it here, just so I could show my love for him. He deserves it for putting up with me.

Yeah, I'm feelin' all mushy and sentimental today. It's a nice feeling.

1. I love that when he is in bed and it's too hot for him under the covers but he knows that I like to snuggle up to him and get nice and toasty warm that he just barely sneaks out of the blankets so that his back is exposed and keeps him nice and cool, while I still get to snuggle into him and keep nice and warm.

2. I love the way he tells me that he doesn't think it's funny when he makes me yell "SIR, YES, SIR!" in response to a question he's posed, but then when I say it, he laughs like hell.

3. I love the noise he makes when he puts in his hearing aids.

4. I love that when he gets dressed in the morning, before he buttons and zips his pants, he tucks in the pockets and makes sure they're just so.

5. I love his smile.

6. I love that when we discuss bad habits, he says, "I know, it's gross" and then he laughs like hell.

7. I love when he says, "That's it!" and smacks something to make a point. As in, "We're going to Papa Gino's and that's it!" and then he smacks his hand and we go to Papa Gino's.

8. I love when he attempts to demonstrate how big or small something is. If it's big, he throws his arms wide. If it's little, he pats his hands together very gently. Oh my God, do I love this.

9. I love that he threatens to make stew out of TomTom and then I get TomTom and put him in The General's arms and he buries his face in TomTom's fur and says, "Oh my God, he smells so good." I'll be stew before that rabbit is.

10. I love the Google face.

11. I love that he gags when touching pumpkin guts. I don't know why, but it cracks me up.

12. I love that he does the laundry.

13. I love that he comes home and does everything in order: lunchbag near the microwave, cane by the front door, upstairs where the wallet goes in the caddy on the bureau, keys in another section, badges get all wrapped up, and then it's time for a trip to the bathroom. Without fail, this happens every single work day.

14. I love that when he gets dressed in a button down shirt, he buttons every button, then smooths them all down nice, making sure they're in a perfect line, then puts on his pants, and rechecks the buttons to make sure they didn't go anywhere and they're in line with the zipper on his pants.

15. I love the "Susan is a bigfoot" song that he sings in the shower.

16. I love that if he doesn't like something I've made for dinner and I ask him if he wants more, he diplomatically replies, "I think I'll just have a snack later."

17. I love that my driving doesn't bother him in the least.

18. I love that he lets me be the boss when I want to be, and lets me think I'm the boss at all other times.

19. I love that he will come streaking down the stairs from the radio tower yelling, "I got the Canary Islands" only to return a few minutes later to say, "I think I already had the Canary Islands."

20. I love that he never lets me quit, even if I am begging to give up. Quit is not in his vocabulary.

21. I love that he believes in such big dreams for himself and he truly believes that his own success is inevitable. He makes me believe it too.

22. I love that he meets every person convinced that they're going to love him/us. Where I think everyone I meet is trying to figure out why they shouldn't like me, he's convinced that everyone on the planet thinks we're awesome. What a great attitude!

23. I love our 7:30AM Monday phone calls. They make Mondays more tolerable.

24. I love that he does his 25 on the treadmill, gets off dripping with sweat, hurls himself on the couch and yells, "That must have been a mile!"

25. I love that he cleans the bathrooms.

26. I love that he thinks my parents are the cats' meow and he loves having coffee with my mom and pizza with my dad.

27. I love that he calls all his female friends his 'honeys' and refers to them as "My Honey Debbie" or "My Honey Elizabeth" as in "How's My Honey Lesley today?"

28. I love that he is convinced I have written a major bestseller.

29. I love that he screams and yells when the football game is on, and then he comes downstairs grumbling, "Susan, they played like little kids."

30. I love that he waited up for me last night.

31. I love that he tucks me in in the mornings before he goes to work.

32. I love that he supports my participation in the book club and knows how much it means to me.

33. I love the compliments he gives me when he really, really, really loves something I've made or done. I can live off those for a year.

34. I love when he gets excited and does the excited hand thing.

35. I love when I point out the excited hand thing and he says, "Jesus, I must look like a dumbass" and then vows never to do it again, only to do it again next time he gets excited.

36. I don't know why, but I love the hell out of it when he calls me "Cheap Cherepon".

37. I love that when I tell him, "Oh, that cologne smells so good", the next day he about takes a bath in it for my benefit.

38. I love that if I drop something in the toilet, he will fish it out and then yell, "There!"

39. I love that when I want to do something and he's not too sure he wants me to do it, he says, "Suuuuuuuuuusan, I dunno about this!" and then lets me do it anyway. (ie buying a ticket to go meet Christopher Plummer next week)

40. I love that he let me pick out our baby names.

41. I love that with all his heart he wishes I could have a cat even though his allergies prevent it.

42. I love his tolerance for pain, like when he rips off his toenail and sticks his foot under boiling hot water to wash it off and then dumps rubbing alcohol on it for good measure and announces it's never felt better. Meanwhile, I'm about ready to faint.

43. I love that he loves to read with me.

44. I love the silly little emails he sends me about 50 times a day--usually one or two words or a sentence, but they always make me laugh.

45. I love what he writes on cards when he has flowers or strawberries delivered to me.

46. I love that he is not going to let a Valentine's Day go by without me getting chocolate covered strawberries.

47. I love that all I have to do is tap his arm three times when I get into bed and he rolls over and lets me do the holding.

48. I love that if he doesn't want me to do the holding and he doesn't want to do the rolling, he says, "I just got comfortable, I'm not doing it!" in his sleepy voice.

49. I love that if there is nothing else to do, he will sit upstairs, cranking his music and singing to beat the band.

50. I love that durning NaNo, he will yell, "one thousand words!" and I will actually go downstairs and write 1000 words.

51. I love when something goes wrong and he yells, "Oh for cryin' out loud".

52. I love his little New England accent.

53. I love when he gets all full of himself and sends out a hot dog email reading something to the effect of, "Excellence in defense of the nation".

54. I love the "Appreciate your 100% cooperation and support" emails in response to me saying, "Yes, I will go to the drug store and get you some more band aids."

55. I love his love of ketchup and tomato sauce, but not tomatoes.

56. I love when he tries to be diplomatic about something. Like the other night, I made a big pot of homemade spaghetti sauce and I suggested we have some on our pizza the other night and he said, "Oh, it was good, hon, but don't we have some Ragu? I mean, your sauce is really good, but I don't know if it will work on pizza." That just cracked me up.

57. I love that he's not hot on ice cream here at home, but he loves eating ice cream at Friendly's, DQ, Maggie Moos, or Carls.

58. I love his love of french fries and mashed potatoes and occasionally baked potatoes, but never potato salad.

59. I love that if I ask, he'll bring me a big glass of ice water, even though he and I both know I won't drink more than a sip of it.

60. I love that if I drink something the wrong way and start choking, he yells, "Jesus, wrong pipe!" and starts laughing if I'm coughing more than 2 minutes, but he tries to hide the fact that he's laughing because he doesn't want me to feel bad.

61. I love that every time I have a bad day at work, he tells me, "Susan, just go in there and quit. We'll make it happen."

62. I love when I am reading a book to him that has a real sad ending and I'm bawling my eyes out just trying to get through each word and he is sitting there laughing, but again, trying not to show it.

63. I love that every Friday night, he places his bet on how he thinks I've done that week for Weight Watchers, and then he waits for me to get home on Saturday and says, "How'd ya do?" the minute I walk in the door.

64. I love when he feels his spot at the table and says, "Jesus, I've made a mess!"

65. I love that we have similar views on religion and politics.

66. I love that he doesn't agree with me 100% of the time, and isn't afraid to say so.

67. I love hearing his watch click shut after he's checked the time.

68. I love that he likes to get everything done right now (!) while I'm such a procrastinator.

69. I love going to concerts with him and singing and dancing with him all night long.

70. I love that he's not afraid to show his emotions.

71. He makes the world a better place for me to live.

72. He's never too busy to take my calls.

73. He will do whatever is in his power to make me feel better if I'm having a bad day.

74. We never go past a Godiva Chocolates without at least getting a little something :-)

75. For some reason, I love the fact that he loves Swedish fish. I don't know why, but I just think it's adorable.

76. I love when he goes grocery shopping with me and he just follows along behind the cart as happy as a clam.

77. I love when we're in the grocery store and he whispers, "I wanna get Susan some flowers."

78. I love his nicknames for everyone, like "Little Anne" and "The Chief".

79. I love when I tell him to smile for a picture and he makes that horrible growling, teeth-baring smile. It cracks me up. And then he whines, "I can't smile on command!" So I say, "Cookies!" and he starts smiling like a champ.

80. I love that we come up with a vacation plan in general like "Let's go to Las Vegas" and then he lets my OCD take over and plan the whole thing down to the millisecond and he follows along happily, proclaiming it to be the best vacation we ever took.

81. I love that he loves the beach as much as I do.

82. I love that he doesn't necessarily want to stay in DC forever either and we can dream of a retirement elsewhere.

83. I love his optimism that I have as good a memory as he does.

84. I love that he reads these blogs and regurgitates them back to me.

85. I love that he thanks my friends for being my friends. Because I really am that hopeless that gratitude must be shown!

86. I love that when I mentioned to him today that I was going to make up this list, he said, "It's about time you posted something about me" and then he gets pissed off when I do post something about him. That just cracks me up double.

Well, ok, I could go on and on, and maybe I'll do some more later :-) But basically, marriage is made up of all the little things that add up to more and more years with Mr. Right. And all these little things and more add up to almost ten years now. Hard to believe, but I can hardly wait to see where the next ten take us.