Ode to my wife...

She does all my laundry.

All of it.

I often have to wrestle my gym bag out of her hands for her own safety. I know I'm not the worst husband in the world, but laundry is just one thing I cannot keep cycling in my head as something that needs attention. I aim to grow in this, but that's about what it amounts to. Ruth keeps cycling in her head the things that get kicked of my head by comic books plots and reptile dreams.


Without Ruth, I wouldn't smell fresh all the time.







She likes vacations.


Little vacations and big ones. When Ruth is at the end of her rope we'll often end up in a bed and breakfast on one of the islands. Her job offers more stress then mine and I try to be sensitive to that. But at the end of the day, she just likes to sleep in a comfortable bed with a great view and then get up and find the best latte in the village. It's a reminder of heaven for her I think. And I'm happy to help remind her. We've had a lot of really great adventures together, and there are only more to come.

Without Ruth, I'd be a boring workaholic.








She likes to talk.



Ruth and I are pretty busy. We work long days during the week that require us to go to bed early. But no matter how tired she is, no matter late it is, we'll talk for hours after the lights have gone out. She clearly has more things to negotiate in her mind through conversation. I understand that and I try to be helpful. She doesn't just want to talk either. She wants advice, she wants opinion, and sometimes as I'm just drifting away on the edge of sleep, her words will wake me, "Tell me a story!" Sometimes she's just not ready for sleep yet.



Without Ruth, I would get a full night's sleep every night.








She won't leave me alone.


For those of you who have read the book of The Five Love Languages, Ruth and I have a joke in our relationship regarding that book. The gist of the book is that everyone has a different language in which they prefer to receive and give love. There's quality time, quantity time, gifts, acts of service, and... I can't remember the last one. The joke is that Ruth refuses to choose between quality and quantity time. She needs both. And because of this, no matter what I do, she's right there beside me. And no matter what she does, she wants me next to her. We do late night runs to the grocery store for milk...together. We ride along for each others weekend errands.

I thought I had her this fall when I told her I was going to the reptile expo in pyuwallup. Nope. She wanted to come. Please don't mistake this for complaining.


Without Ruth, I would be alone, and lonely.










She cooks for me.


All the time. Amazing food! Better then anything I've had a restaurant. (Except that Canadian Pacific Hotel we went to in Whistler on our honeymoon. We both remember every bite of that meal.)


Without Ruth I'd make a lot of sandwiches.









Motivation.

The number one thing she brings to my life is motivation to be the kind of man that God needs me to be.

Happy Birthday Babe!