Love.

I am so grateful for love.  I love love.  Love is my favorite.  It's taken me a few years of marriage to really come closer to an understanding of what love really is.  I'm a verbal person....and I LOVE praise.  Praise is also my favorite.  I like my husband to say nice things to me, and he does, sometimes.  Matt is not a super verbal person and lets face it...he may not notice when I've taken hours to look nice for him.  At first this really bothered me.  HELLO HUSBAND, I just blow dried my HAIR! Don't you want to say something??!  However, the first time he told me how cute I looked and I happened to be wearing a hooded sweatshirt and jeans and I had my hair in a messy pony tail I realized something...  he doesn't care if I blow dry my hair.  He still finds me attractive when I've taken zero time to get ready for the day.  He loves me in my bathrobe (but maybe not in my bathrobe at 4 in the afternoon...haha).  You wanna know another thing that's my favorite?  Lists.  Here's how I know my hubby loves me:
-Matt always does the morning shift with the kids if he's not flying or deployed.  Yes, the boot stomping through the house MAY make me get a little crazy at times, but that's not the point.  The point is Matt knows how much I cherish my precious sleep hours and he has never complained about getting Hallie and Chase up, dressed, fed, teeth brushed, hair combed, lunch packed and out the door to school.  He even learned how to do a ponytail in Hallie's hair so she doesn't have to wake me up to do it.  Love.
-When the laundry has begun to creep up the stairs out the basement and is overflowing in the bathroom hamper he just gathers it, sorts it, and starts it without a word.  He doesn't make me feel like a crappy wife because the laundry is my most hated chore.  (ok, well he did once....but there was a chocolate bar and huge apology that followed)  He just jumps in to help.
-He never leaves in the morning without waking me up to kiss me goodbye.
-He always calls me during the day to check in.  I'm pretty sure he misses me while he's at work.  :)
-Clothes shopping, grocery shopping, farmers market shopping, errand running, he's there.  He loves to just be together, doesn't matter the task at hand.  Luckily, I really love to be together too.
-He is always up for ditching school work to come cozy on the couch with me for some Law and Order.
-He's just as excited as I am to watch the Hunger Games movie next month.
-He will always jump to my defense when sees I've been hurt.  Now this doesn't happen very often, but the few times in our marriage that my feelings have been hurt by someone he jumps into protective husband mode and is ready to take them on fists flying.  It feels good to always have someone on your side.
-He always thanks me for the dinner I've made.  Even if it's something as simple as grilled cheese sandwiches.  He gathers the dishes and starts loading the dishwasher when dinner is over.
-He works his booty off to support our family.  I was thinking the other day about how glad I am that the responsibility of supporting our family is not mine.  It's such a huge job.  Matt makes it look easy though and never complains.  He is always trying to better himself, increase his knowledge, and do everything necessary not only to support us....but to have saftey nets in place to provide for us if he ever lost his job.  He understands that the livelihood of our family relies solely on him and he takes that seriously.  He recently decided to get not one masters degree, but two.  When he told me I was a little sad...because he only had 1 class left to finish the first masters.  However he explained to me that he wants to be as valuable as possible in the civilian world in case the military cuts down even further and he loses his job.  He doesn't do things half way (I've been guilty of that at times) and I really admire him for that.
-He is so kind to my family and friends.  He treats them like they are his family and friends and is always totally supportive of my relationships with them. 

    Now this list is not here to give the perception that I have a perfect husband.  I don't.  If I did he'd probably be pretty miserable because I'm far from being the perfect wife.  It's here because this is what I've learned about love over the past (almost) 8 years....actions speak louder than words.  I love praise and nice words and those ARE important.  More important though are things we do for eachother to SHOW love. 
   
  I think back to when we got engaged and we told eachother we "loved" eachother.  At the time we did (as much as we were capable of understading love).  Love now means something so much different than it did 9 years ago.

Love is riding on the handle bars of his bike to school because you're too poor to buy a car.
Love is holding my hair while I puke from morning sickeness.
Love is bringing children into this world through blood, sweat and tears.
Love is listening to eachother.
Love is waking up in the middle of the night from a bad dream and snuggling into his arm.
Love is him holding you for days after you lose a baby.  Wiping your tears and crying right along with you.
Love is doing what the Lord wants you to do....together.
Love is having faith in him and supporting him in his aspirations, and him supporting you in yours.
Love is him driving home from work for lunch, just because he wants to be with you.
Love is apologizing, and accepting his apology.
Love is being kind to eachother.
Love is wanting to be a better person not just for yourself, but for your spouse.
Love is him bringing you medicine and lunch when you're sick in bed.
Love is him getting up in the middle of the night to strip the sheets because a kid wet the bed and you just can't wake up to deal with it.
Love is him making me a blog book once a year because it makes him so happy that I take the time to document our lives, and because he knows how much I love getting that book.
Love is thinking about someone else before yourself.

Love is all of the little things.  The actions.  The self sacrificing actions.  It's doing the things that don't necessarily benefit you in anyway....but you do it anyways because you love to see your spouse so happy and you have their best welfare in mind.  I have been blessed with a husband that I love more everyday and every year we are together, and thank the Lord everyday for him in my life. 

Love you Matt.....Happy Valentines Day! Now lets go makeout.