The Secret to Happiness...Turn 40. Stay Married To Me.

Today, we celebrate my beloveds 40th birthday. Not a small milestone. Not a let's go to pizza for event. And the day after Christmas makes it very very very easy on me to get it all done. But I did. Not without a few compromises of my soul and a couple of promises to God that I will totally make it up to HIm this week. But it got done, Mike is happy and that's all I cared about. We had yet another combined Meeker/Oliver/Santos event. It was not what I'm sure Mike envisioned when throwing down 40 but it was nice for a lot of reasons.

First, this is just the prelude to his actual celebration. We go on our cruise on the 15th for his actual birthday. We'll be gone about 10 days and are sailing to an unknown location that is a big surprise. He was so excited to get the "ship" for his birthday. Today, he got additional clues. A pirate lunch box, a CD of pirate songs and gold chocolate coins along with some binoculars. He knows he's going, he knows it's where they have had pirates in the past. That's all. I'm so happy he'll be surprised. His party consisted of crime scene tape on the outside of the house, a ciopinno feast for a king for dinner, presents and a video that chronicled all that was cool in 1970. It was a fun night but the real present and fun starts on the cruise. I gave a toast for his birthday and I realized that I have loved Mike for over half of our lives. I love this man more than I could ever do justice on a blog about. He is my (fill in the blank) and that pretty much sums it up. I am not me without our partnership. The person he thinks I am is exactly who I want to become. He makes me laugh. We argue big. We still fight big (although not as big as when we first got married and never ever in an unhealthy way in front of the kids) and we play and love even bigger. I would say our marriage has been 3% hell, 5% hard, 80% happy, contented, affirmations of why you picked each other, and 12% this is the best day of my life I love this person so much it hurts I can never lose them or I would die I am so happy I can't believe my life turned out this way I can't believe the love I get to have is this kind of huge sort of swamp you and take your breath away love I am so lucky. I think those are pretty good percentages. I feel so very lucky. And today is one of those days in that 12%.

So at 40...Mike can still run faster than most people I know. Sometimes I'll be walking into the mall, restaurant, movie theatre etc. and he's forgotten something in the car. He runs back to get it. I'll hear running right behind me coming closer and I know to stop and steady myself because without asking he's going to jump over my head. And I feel the lightest pressure of my shoulders and he goes flying over my head and lands on two feet like it was no big deal. He can still run really fast. He is not jaded or cynical. He still loves life, loves people, loves his job, loves this country, believes there are tons more good people in the world than bad and believes that you can't judge a person by what they look like or who they hang around with our their economic or religious affiliation. He loves my family and has accepted them into his heart. He is the type of Dad who plays hard, loves hard, tells his kids why he thinks they are so awesome every day and why he would want to be their friend even if he wasn't their dad. He still wants to put them to bed, read them a story and snuggle for a sec even if he's had them all day. He never tires of his kids or being with them. He is a friend to the end, always on my side, always backs me up, even when I'm wrong. Then, in private he'll tell me "Aim, you need to rethink this situation because you are wrong." I can tell him anything, even stuff that we need to change about us. I will never ever leave him. I will never want to leave him. If I had a million dollars to bet, I would bet the same would be true about him. I don't believe he will ever leave me and I don't believe he'd ever want to leave us. We are each other's person. And our family dynamic is so overwhelming in it's feelings of belonging, trust, love and forever that I think we will end up together for as long as the Lord allows us to continue this fantastic journey together. This man, this man/boy who is 40 today stole my heart 21 years ago.. And I'm all the better for it. Thank you my favorite friend, for just being by my side, growing old but refusing to act it and making me giggle, roll my eyes and just be for the past 21 years. I'll love you forever.