Love is......

I have been thinking alot lately about what love is.

Because of Valentine's Day everyone seems to have

love on their minds this month.

But I've been thinking beyond

moonlight and roses,

candle light dinners and

boxes of chocolate.

What is love lived out in

the daily trenches of a life?

Here are my thoughts and experiences of real love....

Love is flipping the clothes from the washer to the dryer
before you go to work every morning.

Love is letting me sit in the coziest corner of the couch
and letting me have most of the pillows.

Love is hanging and re-hanging a picture
on the wall of our new home and
being patient while I make up my mind.

Love is having picnics with me on spring days
when I know you don't really care for picnics.




Love is telling me I'm the most beautiful girl in the world
when I'm nine months pregnant
and we are sitting on a beach full of tanned,
creatively altered models, millionaires and movie stars in Malibu.

Love is bringing home just the right amount of chocolate
when you know I'm having a bad day.

Love is letting me have a red couch
when you want a brown one.

Love is watching football

with our sons

and jumping up and down and high fiving

after every good play.

Love is letting me keep the window cracked at night
to let the cool air in,
when I know that you hate getting into an icy cold bed.

Love is coaching our kids sports teams.

Love is holding the umbrella over me
when I know you are getting soaked.

Love is living a life of integrity
so that I can be secure in your faithfulness
to me and our family.

Love is getting up in the middle of the night to check out
a noise that only I heard.

Love is dropping everything anytime to come to my rescue.

Love is kicking butt at work so that you can provide
for our family well enough to allow me to
stay home with our babies.

Love is valuing a scrubbed bathtub, a mopped floor
or a carefully planned meal
and making me feel like I accomplished big things.

Love is showing mercy to our kids when
they really deserve wrath.

Love is filling up the gas tank for me
so I don't have to.

Love is enjoying a brunette

when I know you really love blondes.

Love is always choosing your family over your career.

Love is calling me a few times during the day

everyday

just to check on me and tell me that you love me.

Love is lunch dates on a regular Tuesday for no special reason.

Love is kissing me in public when I know

that's not your thing.

Love is honoring our daughter's decision to

remain pure until marriage

by replacing the cheap purity ring she bought for herself

with a real diamond ring.

Love is playing round after round

of a wii game with our son

just because he really wants to.

Love is letting me go out with the girls

and acting interested in the recap when I get home.

Love is watching chick flicks

and holding my hand during the

sappy parts.

Love is letting me hold the popcorn at the movie theater.

Love is driving slow in the rain or snow when you know I'm scared.

Love is making a special trip to pick up

tissues with lotion in them, orange juice,

cough drops and other comforts

when you know I'm feeling sick.

Love is forgiving me when I hurt you.

Love is jumping through hoops and

cutting through paperwork to fly home early from a long deployment

so that I could go be with my mom

when she needed me.

Love is meeting in the airport for 30 minutes that afternoon

as you were coming home from a five month deployment

and I was flying out

and assuring me that this was the perfect homecoming

and that our kids would be well cared for

while I was comforting my mom.

Love is not only opening our home to my grandmother

for an extended visit,

but sitting with her for hours on the back deck

listening to her stories and making her feel so special.

Love is coming with me to volunteer in our daughter's

classroom on your day off.

Love is making me feel gorgeous

when I'm tanned and toned,

when I'm having a bad hair and skin day,

when I've got last nights make-up on and tangled hair,

when I'm all dolled up for a night out,

when my jeans are too tight,

when my face is swollen beyond recognition,

when my hands are in dish water,

when I'm holding our newborn,

when I'm feeling less than confident,

or when I'm on top of the world.

Love is going through the Build-a-Bear routine,

including kissing the little heart and making a wish,

when we made a special bear for our little girl.

Love is taking care of me

and the kids and the house

when my doctor's orders had me elevating my ankle

for 8 weeks.

Love is having tea parties with a little girl

when I was still healing.

Love is putting so much energy into me

and my needs during my recovery

when all of the attention should have been on

you and your commissioning ceremony.

Love is choosing restaurants that you know I like.

Love is writing me love letters from the Persian Gulf,

from under the sea,

from across America,

and from secret places that I will never know about.

Love is not only buying that expensive bracelet,

but not making me feel horrible for losing it

11 months later

and still trusting me enough to

buy me more shiney bobbles.

Love is still being visibly in awe during intimate moments

even after 19 years.

Love is giving me the center brownie.

Love is letting me sleep in

when I know you are tired too.

Love is picking up a java chip from starbucks

for me, even when it's out of your way.

Love is laughing and saying,

"I love you sooooo much!" when I'm absent minded

or do something quirky.

Love is loving my friends and family

and being kind to them.

Love is spending time with our kids

and making them feel like the blessings they are.

Love is telling me that I'm a good mom

when I collapse in tears over

my feelings of inadequacy.

Love is not saying anything on those days

when you come home from work

and I'm still in my PJ's.

Love is taking me in your arms and telling me I'm beautiful

on those PJ all day days.

Love is ordering a dessert to share that you know I love

but that you don't particularly like.

Love is telling me how much you love

watching my ponytail swing back and forth

when I'm on the eliptical and you are

riding the excercise bike behind me.

Love is making me feel like I'm gorgeous

in a room full of chiseled,

athletic bodies at the gym.

Love is scooping up one of our daughters

and dancing around the living room with her.

Love is a thousand little things that you do

for me and our family everyday.

Love is my indescribably beautiful life

with you!