My husband.

Pook.

I tried to write something that would sum up the last five years, but you know me - I just kept making the keyboard soggy. On the day we married, I knew I was lucky to have you..you can see it in the pictures of that day. (Luckily you can't see I was so excited I woke up many hours earlier than I should have, and called Grandma to chat because she was enough time zones away that it wasn't too early for her)

Today, I understand even more how lucky I am. You are my strong shoulder, my firm grasp, my best friend and the one who makes me laugh until milk comes out of my nose. You're the knight who comes riding in with my bra on your head to make me laugh as you shower me with caffeine, roses, dinner you picked up on the way home and the promise of a roudy game of scrabble or monkey sex (my choice) after the kids go to sleep. The stinker who once asked me if I wanted to play fairy princess, then handed me a new toilet brush and said "here's your wand!" You told me I wasn't broken at a time when I felt that's all I was. Even now, when I feel cracked, you just hand me some super glue and remind me to call the counselor.

Nobody knows all the trouble I've seen, except for you, and you love me anyway. You spoil me whether I feel like I deserve it or not, and you tell me I do. You do crazy things like telling me we can go shopping for my birthday and don't complain when it takes hours and our daughter introduces you to every toilet in sight (and many you have to search to find). I didn't hear a single complaint about the shopping trip where you had to buy stool softeners, deluxe super ultra absorbant pads, tucks and zoloft after our son was born. Not saying I'd feel super sorry for you, given my condition at the time, but still...you didn't blink an eye, you just did it.

I know we're done having children, and we're so incredibly lucky to have the two we've got, but seeing you with them makes me understand why some people have several. When I watched you teach our nephew to ride his bike, many years ago when we had only been together about 6 months, I instantly pictured you with our own blonde kiddo. At that moment I knew our story would ultimately be one about a family, though I could not have pictured the details of when or how.

It's been a rough year, and we've been through so much since last anniversary and this one. I think it speaks to our strength that we've gotten through it, we're doing okay. You still cop a feel or hump my leg as you pass me in the kitchen and I still look at you and think....



Happy Anniversary. I look forward to so many more.

Love,
Me