10 Things I Love About Lee

It is the morning of my husband's 46th birthday. I've now officially known him for half of his life. We've been married for most of that time - 20 years. I'm seriously blown away by how fast it all goes and how much more I love him each year.

In honor of Lee's birthday I want to share ten things that I love about this man of mine. So here goes!

1. He knows how to roll with the punches.

I'm sure he was just as shocked as I was to end up in the ER on our honeymoon, but there we were anyway. Him sick as a dog, me too young to be worried in the waiting room. Turns out he was just having an allergic reaction to the aspirin I'd been pumping him full of to help with his fever he'd started running. I could hear him laughing with the doctor, though, and knew everything would be fine, and it was.

That's just how he is. He makes the best of a bad situation and has a terrific laugh no matter what's going on.

2. He gets the coffee ready every night.

Seriously, I can't tel l you how happy this makes me, especially when I'm the one who gets up at 5:30 to let the darn cat in so that Lee can sleep in one day a week. I wake up, push the start button, and the coffee is ready! Life is good.

[caption id="attachment_434" align="alignnone" width="300"] Every day. Best. Man. Ever.[/caption]

3. He encourages me to pursue my passions.

No one encourages me like Lee. My writing has always been just as important to him as it is to me. He always reads my stuff and always says it's my 'best ever'.

When we started having babies and I became obsessed with natural birth and breastfeeding he was completely on board, even when I was scary.

What's important to me is important to Lee and that means a lot.

4. He gets me to lighten up.

I can be a little heavy, a little overly focused on the morose. It's just part of who I am. It's hard to be fixated on the sad side of life when you've got a partner who still thinks farting and then saying, "I stepped on a frog." is funny.

Sometimes it's completely maddening that Lee refuses to take life seriously but usually it's just funny. Most of the time he's not even trying to make me laugh but he's such a goof I can't help it. Like the time he had a colonoscopy and he came out and was saying the funniest stuff after the procedure. Stuff like, "How did we get here?" and "What time is it?" over and over in a confused child-like voice. The nurse and I were in tears.

And that's just when he's drugged. He's even funnier with nothing in his system.

 

5. He's taught me more about Jesus than anyone I know.

Lee gets excited about lots of things, but nothing more than the bible. I love asking him questions because he knows so much about scripture but also because he truly enjoys teaching others. Lee has taught me so much about the person of Christ and what a relationship with Him can look like.

Being married to Lee has also driven me to me knees in prayer and that's helped me get to know Jesus all the better, too. So thanks for those annoying times, too, Lee. :)

6. He's an awesome father.

From the moment he was handed our first child he's been a great dad. In fact he didn't think the nurses brought Kiley back to us quickly enough after they took her for a bath so he went to get her and wouldn't leave the nurses station til they handed her over. That' s my man. One of my favorite times is eaves dropping on a conversation between him and the kids when they don't know I'm listening - so much laughing and goofiness, but also listening to what he has to say about things.

Lee had a challenging relationship with his dad and has put serious effort into having a different kind of exchange with his own children. I'm so impressed with the fact that our kids will talk to him about just about anything and that they go to sleep every night knowing how loved they are by him. That's a big deal.

7. He's never gotten into a car wreck.

I may or may not be guilty of squeezing the door handle while Lee is driving, or saying things like, "This is a minvan not a sports car." when he takes turns at 45 miles an hour. However, I must say that he's never, ever in all years of being together had a wreck.

So, there's that.

8. He will give me whatever I want.

This is a power that I must not abuse, but really I have learned that my happiness is his goal in life. I didn't know that for a long time. Early in our marriage. the part where you make lots of mistakes, not because you want to but because it's inevitable, I had the wrong notion that his happiness was his goal.

Then one day we communicated with each other and cleared all of that up. I was shocked by his motivation. Turns out that he's not a mind reader and needed to know exactly what I want/need in order to make me happy.

Who knew?

9. He is the trivia master.

Seriously. Ask him anything trivia related. I am not good at trivia and don't always care about trivia but over the years I have come to truly appreciate his knowledge.

I wish with all my heart that I could share some of the trivia he has imparted to me but I can't. I can't remember any of it. Oh! Except that JJ Abram's production company is Bad Robot. That's it. Sorry, Lee.

10. He loves me unconditionally.

No matter what I'm going through, what craziness has taken hold of me, what new diet I'm sticking our family on, he loves me. Even if I can't get out of my yoga pants, or have a giant zit on the end of my nose, this guy of mine loves me. He loves me when I accidentally send all of his clothes to Goodwill (but really, who stores their summer clothes in trash bags?) or mess up his iTunes. He has loved me through a lot and will always love me, no matter what. That feels pretty good to know.

So, happy birthday, my love! May you always know that you are loved beyond words even though I am inept at conveying that. You are my bright spot, Lee Shepherd.

[caption id="attachment_440" align="alignnone" width="225"] Last summer in Diagon Alley. He even got me to ride a roller coaster![/caption]