tribute

"In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."

-Pride and Prejudice

My darling Zachary will celebrate his 30th birthday tomorrow. I'll be the first to admit - Zach is nearly perfect. He's an amazing teacher and an intensely dedicated husband and papa. We are his life and it shows. He chooses to be happy every day. He's a much better person than I am. I feel lucky every day that he picked me over all the other sorry saps that were fighting for his attention. He was then, and still is now, quite the catch. Here are a few of the things that particularly warm my heart towards him:

One of the first things he said to me was a bold faced lie. I find this hilarious.

He has excellent taste in music. Truly.

He reads stories and the scriptures with our boys every night (whether they sit and listen or run around the room like idiots).

Favorite thing I've overheard him say to one of his friends: "This is gonna sound weird, but check out my crotch!" (he was showing him how I figured out how to patch his jeans).

He thinks I can make almost anything either in the kitchen or at my sewing machine.

He knows which songs make me especially happy. And he plays them for me while I cook.

The first thing he does on Saturday mornings is blast Beast Of Burden by The Rolling Stones through the house. I don't know why. But it seems to start things off right. He's been doing this for years.

He loves NPR. And has a total man crush on Ira Glass.

He had me teach him how to read music and learned to play one hymn so that any gospel class he attends will not go without a willing piano player.

He's hot. :)

Sometimes I catch him dancing. All by himself. Especially to Dancing In The Moonlight or Don't Stop Believing.

I think it would surprise people how much he loves plays. One of the biggest things he misses about living in Cedar City is The Shakespearean Festival.

He stretches every morning. He can do the splits.

He oozes confidence. After we were married he told me that on our first date, when I told him I had a missionary I was "waiting" for, he thought to himself, "That's just because you don't know me yet." Never under estimate confidence. It's very attractive.

Also on our first date he informed me that his car's radio was broken. Then he asked if I knew the soundtrack to The Moulin Rouge. Then we sang it together.

We still sing it together.

Happy birthday handsome. Thanks for marrying me. And thanks for the super cute babies. And thanks for turning on Ben Folds when you came home from work today. :)