Grateful Heart – This Guy

Today I am feeling grateful for things I often take for granted.  The first two years we were married Keith lived in Austin and only came home on Wednesday night and the weekends.  Honestly, I sometimes think it was this transition that made our marriage stronger.  Once we upgraded to a new house he began making the daily commute to work and as I drove over to Austin last Thursday to meet him for a few date nights I realized I really take for granted the sacrifice he makes.  Driving to Austin is a pretty easy drive every once in awhile but I cannot imagine doing this every single day for  12 years!

I am not an easy woman to love for sure.  I am stubborn and really like my way and very often I think my way is the only way.  When I ask for something I mean right now and patience is not very often my strongest quality (like maybe it’s not even a quality I possess).  Keith is so laid back and I’m pretty sure most of the time he has tuned out the rambling but he definitely keeps me in check and will let me know when I have crossed a line.  The biggest plus for our marriage is I am 100% sure we are both committed to stay.  At dinner I actually asked Keith what is the one thing that has made him want to stay and he said “you’re my kind of crazy baby”.

I am usually in control of all the date planning, so I did ask Keith to take charge of planing our anniversary date this year.  I was excited to find out he made reservations at Eddie V’s.  The one thing that is always interesting in Austin is you can dine at a nice restaurant and dress up but there will always, always also be someone in the restaurant in flip flops!

My favorite part of our discussion came from me telling him I still carry around the two notes he has given me in the past on our anniversary. Since he leaves so early in the morning there have been two years when he left me a handwritten note and I tucked them away in my wallet because they are that special.  On Thursday I actually pulled them out to read and I had to laugh because essentially they say the exact same thing and I never realized it.  When I told him about it he said “I meant it”. This guy loves me and he makes me laugh at how simple he is.  What did the notes say?

We have come a long way from “has anyone ever told you that you are finer than frog hair” for sure! If that leaves you dying to know more about our dating relationship you can read more here.

The restaurant served us a blackberry cobbler still steaming from the oven to end our meal and it was so good.

Today I am feeling so grateful that God saw fit to send this man into my path.  Things have not always been rosy and there have definitely been some times in our marriage when we have taken each other for granted long enough to cause some real friction.  It’s easy to start comparing a marriage to everyone else’s but the truth is unless you live at that house day in and day out you really just don’t know if it is as perfect as it seems on the outside.

My biggest tip is to find a way to stay connected every single day.  For us I think living apart our first two years caused us to communicate more on the phone and through text.  The one thing I can almost always count on is receiving a text message from Keith around lunch asking me about my day.  If I make it to 5 and that message hasn’t come I instantly call him and we are able to talk for a bit before I grab the kids and the crazy begins.  I think just knowing that we are on each other’s minds even when it is busy and life is crazy is enough to get us to the next day and the next.

The second would be to add God as the center.  This was definitely harder for the two of us. Although we both grew up going to church, neither of us have a super strong spiritual background.  We started attending church together around the 7th year we were married and I know there are so many days I give a little extra grace because of it. Knowing God more fully has shown me how to be the wife I really need to be and learning to honor and respect Keith every single day was something I struggled with before.

Even with these things this man can drive me straight out of my mind!  I am the oldest child and he is the baby and those two things in itself should tell you how daily life can be sometimes.  We are also both Libras and love for life to be in balance so thank goodness I’m a little more high strung and he’s a lot more laid back as we balance each other out pretty perfectly.

Here’s to many more years of fancy dinners and kisses goodnight!