June 18th--Happy Anniversary!

Too often in wanting to write a love note to my wife I let my fear of failure get in the way from trying. It's not really that I fear imperfect writing, but that my words wouldn't be sufficient to express how great she really is or do my love for her justice. Then I usually end up lamely lacking any love note at all. So today, June 18th, our anniversary, I've decided to cast my fear aside and try to say a very sincere "thank you" and "love you" at the same time...


Dearest Sara,
I can't imagine life without you. My greatest joy and yet my hardest challenge is to live worthy of you. I love you so much. Thank you for your true love and for believing the best in me. You deserve perfection in a spouse, and yet I'm unable to give it. Thanks for loving me anyway. You'll never know how much you mean to me. And I really mean that.

It's true that I too often resist getting "sentimental" or "romantic". Why do I do that? Is it fear of failure? Fear that I wouldn't measure up to what I wish I could give you? Forgive me. I'll try to have more faith. I'll try to learn to do better.

I also too often take for granted the marvelous spiritual journey that brought us together. That's one more thing that I'll try to include with all the other scriptural mandates to "remember"--because it's certainly one of the most powerful, poignant, and pivotal turning points in my personal "eternity".

You are so easily filled with joy. You genuinely are filled with light. Thank you for sharing in the journey of life with me. You are my everything and I'm blessed to be married to you.

I marvel when I watch you with our girls. You are the perfect mother. Our daughters don't even know how blessed they are. You're daily efforts often go unnoticed by mortals, and mostly me, but I know heaven smiles down on you and it fills me with gratitude and joy.

You're not only incredibly beautiful, but you're brilliant. And I love it when you sing. Your voice is almost sacred to me. I don't talk about it often because I don't want it to change how pure and angelic you sing. But I love it, and I love you!

This thing called life just wouldn't be fulfilling without you. I'm so glad that because of sacred promises and covenants made, we will always be together-forever. I'm so grateful to our Savior who makes that hope a reality.

So much to learn, live, love, and experience together. I can hardly wait to get started on the rest of our forever.

Here's to much fun, faith, and a fulfilling life in the years to come! Happy Anniversary! (The flowers made me think of you.)

My Very First (real) Post-Sara Ann

Alright.  It's time to start blogging.  I've been enjoying the blog experience lately as an observer, with a few comments here and there, but I want a place to call my own.  Nothing spectacular--just random thoughts which tend to revolve mostly around my Mormon faith, family, and politics, along with links to other blogs or articles that I've enjoyed or found worthwhile.  Sara keeps a great blog with family pictures at lakelove.blogspot.com.  I don't expect to match her in ANY way--because she really is too good to be true in EVERY way--so I won't be matching her in terms of blog quality either.  And while I'm mentioning Sara--she deserves all the praise in the world.  She's really too good for me.  I really lucked out that I married her when I did because if I would have waited any longer, there wouldn't have been much hope for me.  She's not only beautiful, but brilliant.  She has so much love and energy always for our daughters--one day they too will know how lucky they are that she's their mom.  And she's SO dedicated at being a wife and mother.  She's also lots of fun, and funny (especially when she talks in her little kid voice).  She's wise beyond her years, she's a great communicator, caregiver, and cook.  I absolutely LOVE her voice--it's angelic.  And there you have it.  I live with an angel.  Her hair always looks fantastic, even when she first wakes up in the morning.  She doesn't need make-up to look like a babe, and the little she does use makes her look like, well, off the charts.  (I was going to say she looks like a model but I actually don't have much experience looking at models and the few I have seen look scary to me.)  Someday, I'll have to write a biography about her because she is SO worth knowing and learning from.   Mostly, she is SO dedicated to her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ--always has been, and it shows in the way she treats people.  The sad thing is--I'm also her hardest critic--so she doesn't often think I think she's as wonderful as she is.  And I don't praise her enough in public or private, so I thought now would be a good start.  I wonder if it's because I don't know where to start, of if I worry that my attempt to do so would be so inadequate.  Maybe, it's because it would come across like she's too good to be true.  If that's the case, then I'm guilty of it and always will be, because she really is too good to be true.  And people who get to know her soon think this too, but if they really get to know her, they stand in amazement (like me) because they learn that she really is that great.  It's makes some people just sick, because they can't believe she's really that sweet.  And sometimes she's not treated very sweet back just for spite--or is it jealously?  I don't know for sure.  What I do know is that I'M married to the person I always dreamed I would marry--and it's worth making last forever.  And I'm glad it's going to be forever, cause I'm going to need a lot more time to learn how to be a better husband to her.