He was just SEVENTEEN, you know what I MEAN...

I should have posted this on Saturday. However, on Saturday, I was stuck on the 4th floor of the UCD Med Center in the middle of a zillion and one tests (more on that later). Saturday was the occasion of my seventeenth anniversary of marriage to Mikey. Normally, I would have posted my best Emily Dickinson style post, waxing romantically about all the reasons I love Mike Meeker. However, this year I'd like to express a more authentic sentiment to my beloved. I'd like to express the reasons I REALLY love him, rather than the frilly fluff I would normally be want to blather on about. I thought a bullet list would be appropriate, because 17 years of marriage and bullets...they just seem to go together don't they?

• Saturday is a perfect example of why I love Mike. I sat in the hospital and he brought my favorite pink roses to my bedside. He brought himself, in a funny mood, cracking old jokes and stories and cheering me up in a subtle way that he knew would work but not be over the top cheesy. He took care of the babes without complaint and made me feel cared for and loved and carried the weight of our responsibilities. He got no card, no present, no dinner out...just gave of himself and his time. This is life married to Mike.
• The only gift I could think to give to Mike is to let him off the hook in regards to coming back to the hospital that night with the girls to visit. They had napped late so it would have taken a lot of effort to dress them, load them, unload them, visit, keep them quiet, load them back in the car, get them home and to bed. Instead, I told him to just enjoy the evening, set the girls up with a movie and take the night off. Instead, he and the girls had a football pizza party. They stuck baseball hats on backward, ordered a pizza, ate it on the couch while watching football. When pizza was done, they got out their nerf football and played four downs each of tackle football in the living room using pillows to break their falls. Mike was so excited when he called that he had taught the girls a shuttle pass that they could do to work together to score a touchdown. He also taught them how to come at him from two different sides so they could take him down easier. Then they rested on the couch and watched the rest of the game. He said he had the best night and that while they were eating the end of the pizza that Katie exclaimed "this is the BEST NIGHT EVER!" Mike and his girls, it's a huge part of why I love him.
• He gets me water in the middle of the night. Always has, always will. It was a promise he made and he totally kept it.
• He manages our money. We would be in jail if it was left to me to manage. I am so thankful he does this because I suck with money.
• He takes out the garbage and never forgets. I realized what a big deal this is when he was in Afghanistan. I forgot all the time.
• He gets the mail. I also hate to do this. The mail carrier rang my doorbell when it got so full she couldn't stuff anymore mail in there when he was gone. He gets it everyday and is excited for me when my People Magazine comes.
• He has the best taste in movies. He loves Braveheart and Shawshank and Top Gun just like all guys do but he also loves Sense and Sensibility and Sleepless in Seattle and he's not afraid to quote lines from the chickiest of chick flicks.
• He likes Broadway musicals and he's not gay. He had never seen a musical live before we got married. At the end of Les Miserables when they sing "...will you join in our crusade?..." he always stands up and shouts "YES I WILL" at the top of his lungs. It's embarrassing but he loves it and I love that about him.
• We fight. We have gotten in big fights where he has fled to sleep in the bathroom tub with blankets because it was the only place he could find that I wouldn't be able to follow. Now however, we will be super mad and he'll say..."we are too old to have this fight. Can we just please go to bed and agree that we are both super mad and finish fighting tomorrow?" I love this about him because the fight is always over once we get a good night's sleep.
• He's not scared of me. Don't tell him this is something I like because officially I miss the days where he used to be scared of me, but secretly I'm glad the score is more even.
• He likes me for me. He knows my good, bad, ugly, fat, bloated, sick, well, glammed up, scummed out sides and he loves all of them.
• He calls me on my crap. He doesn't let me get...well...bitchy. He'll tell me I'm wrong if I hurt someones feelings. He doesn't always take my side.
• And the best thing. He loves the Lord. He wants to do what's right. That doesn't mean he always does what is right, but it eats at him when he doesn't. His core is good and he tries to be a good father, a good husband and serve his patients and co-workers and family and friends. This spreads him too thin to do it all perfectly and I love that he cares and vows to try and do better. He always has something he wants to do better when I am more inclined to just give up and say "good enough". Mike isn't happy with good enough.

So these reasons may not inspire any sonnets and are very un-Shakespeare-esque. But they are my reasons and they are true and real. Our life isn't perfect but I can honestly say I would not change who I chose to spend it with and I think after 17 years that's pretty darn good.