Happy Birthday M

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you!

I just want you to know I really do realize how much you do for our family. I want you to know I am very happy with the meals you prepare, Yum! and I want you to know that I am so happy that you seem to know how to make our kids happy. There are so may times I realize I should be telling you that you've done a nice job and such but it doesn't always come out. I know what a great teacher you are and you can't hide it when two former students found each other because of your passion for your work. I am also proud that you have gone in yet another direction but of course to help others who are facing a most certain loss. It really looked like a very nice bio you did for your guy and now, I I think you see the value I have been getting for quite a few years myself.

There are so many things I could continue on with and I am happy to have such a varied list of things we do for fun, I love you.

I hope your birthday is nice, and that your shower is warm!

All my love to you

M

Bon-appetite

In week two of our "Biggest Looser" contest, I only barely lost 1 pound after 5 pounds the week prior. It is after all not easy just with diet. Anyway, our fridge is packed with lots of veggies and M is just creatin' lots of yummy salads and my favorite... salsa and baked pita chips which are heaven. Over our anniversary weekend, we went to the chick flick "Julie and Julia", a parallel story of old Julia Child and a woman in N.Y. who needed an outlet from work. The story was nice but the food looked awesome and you could almost smell it. There was a scene before the girlie even started looking at Julia's stuff where she presented her husband with a simple buttery crusty bread with a tomato vegetable concoction on top. Now that's what I'm talkin' bout!!!

Well, my mouth watered as well as M's and now it has been discussed that the single most important dish of the film is now M's quest, boeuf bourguignon. It may take some time to put into action but three things I know for sure are...

1. It sucks to be on a diet even though the pain is worth the desired outcome.
2 I can't wait to be off this diet to pig out on all the stuff I've seen that has made my mouth water for more than two weeks.
3. I am sooo fortunate to have M who so does enjoy the "Art of Cooking"

Funny.... Kinda

So as a five year veteran of marriage, I've made enough blunders to date. This being our 5th anniversary, I was prepared a week early to make sure I was on time. I had small gift idea and checked the Internet to make sure of availability BUT never followed through as I thought I had time. Well as life will allow, I made it to this morning without a gift or card albeit with good intent to do so earlier. I made a deal and took E with me shopping as we needed some staples anyway to go get the gift idea I had a week earlier. The trip was fine but I was a bit distracted by the myriad of pleas to buy this and that and looking a dejected face as she understood that she wouldn't get any of it.

Trip successful on all accounts including the "Pony" ride on Sandy the 1 cent ride a Meijer. I was proud of E as she allowed me to leave a cent behind for some other little girl whose father didn't have one. She had a good feeling as well.

Now home, I dropped E in the lap of M and made a b-line for the office to complete a card I had been working on in my mind. Still a bit stressed over my lateness, I did a miscalculation in the Roman numbering system and added a year to my witty card design. I thought it was quite clever but as I was doing it, I had a sense that something was amiss.

M went for a quick errand so I finished wrapping her gift and set it on the table for her return. She was pleasantly happy with the card and the present (Mommywood, a book by Tori Spelling) and we set out to keep the kids entertained.

About 20 minutes after the giving, she popped her head out the back door to say something like she will pull this card out for reference next year as she had finally found the mistake that I felt was there somewhere. I had thought this out and went over it in my mind well enough to convince myself that the correct Roman numeral for five was VI. Oooooppsss! Anyway, we both chuckled about it and I am sure this will not by any stretch of the imagination be the last time for an unintended error, and that is a good thing because God knows, we / I need to laugh more and who better to laugh with than my Bride of V years.

Love you M