Happy Birthday to My Guy!

This is a re-post from a few years ago. My Dear Heart left this world for his heavenly home this past Tuesday. We can't hold on to the ones we love, but we can certainly enjoy and love them while we have them. Every day is a gift! Love and embrace it!

I think I'll keep him!

Brace yourself! I'm about to do some very serious bragging. 

So just 'whar in the world do you suppose a girl in Texas might meet her guy? No Whar But Texas!!! Honest Injun! Although the two never met, it was to my Mom's dismay, and to my Dear Heart's embarrassment sometimes, that we met in a dancehall! I'm just glad we were both there at the same time!!! No Whar But Texas was a country western establishment where you could just go have some fun two-steppin! It was my first time there and I was going to learn how to two-step. He was there just chilling! He took me around the dance floor that night and then breakfast after. To our amazement, we discovered we lived within about a mile of each other and had probably even passed each other in the same Safeway grocery store. 

I had no idea when we met what a roller coaster of a ride and adventure we would have because he is sometimes a bit of a wild and crazy guy! Often it has been somewhat of a circus! Oh well. I am the cautious, he is the risk-taker in our home! I'm sure you can see from these photos that he has a twinkle in his eye.

From the very beginning of our meeting, he was the kind of guy who pursued and wanted to spend every spare minute together. He also wanted me and his kids to mesh, and we did! They came with us on our second date, and I remember thinking this has to be a nice guy - he loves his kids so much. I was right. My guy has a dear and sweet heart and is a generous man.

After we were married, I found that he was an energetic and industrious worker with many talents who always has to have some kind of project going. From building a beautiful deck that was a little overwhelming in the beginning to a beautiful work we enjoyed for years.

He worked hard on building a windmill to conserve energy. He also likes conserving his own energy so he rigged up his lawnmower with a rope to a stake so the self-propelled lawnmower would mow the yard while he did the edging and weed eating. Clever, huh? People driving by always slowed down to do a double take. This year he was very into aquaponics and hydroponics. Suffice it to say, it's always something.

I also found that his gift-giving leaned more to the practical side rather than the sentimental, although I have to say that the fact of his caring is quite sentimental. My first birthday gift from him was no - not flowers, candy, clothes or jewelry. It was an automatic garage door opener, of all things! He was concerned for me having to walk from my car outside to the house. For the past 18 years, my birthday gift each year is a housekeeper every other week! What better and more practical and usable gift could you ask for? Not only does this gift help me, but it has blessed our housekeeper tremendously (who also happens to be one of my closest and dearest of friends.)

On the other hand, there were some crazy, quirky little things that made me wonder! One evening (before the deck and hot tub) I arrived home from work to his "surprise" for me! He had hooked up a hose to the hot water tank to fill up our ski boat parked in the back yard with hot water for a "hot tub!" HA! So we were the weird family sitting in our boat full of hot water in our back yard! 

He's a man's man! Very proud of serving thirteen years in the National Guard as a Lieutenant, graduated from Officer's Candidate School Airborne. Although he graduated with a degree in Economics, his choice of career was to follow in the footsteps of his Dad and become a firefighter. Now his son is also a firefighter, being  the third generation of captains from our family with the Dallas Fire Department.

This guy loves flying and it was his dream to learn to fly, so he took lessons and got his pilot's license! He said that when he flies, it brings tears to his eyes. Although I was his passenger (hostage) on those little Cessnas several times, it was not my dream to fly! So what did he do? He put together a gyrocopter because he researched and believed it to be the safest way to fly and was convinced I would love it someday when we had a two-seater gyro! NOT! (Flying brought tears to my eyes!!! Haha!)

This is a gyrocopter!

What do you think?

He actually crashed in one of these and wore long-sleeve shirts for a couple of days to hide his arm from me! The scar is still there.

Sports we enjoyed together were snow skiing and our ski boat. When we moved out near the lake, he bought an amphibious ATV so we could ride around the lake AND ACROSS the lake! And, of course, my first trip out with him, we got stuck in the mud and had to walk home through creepy, swampy lake area filled with chiggers, critters, and snakes.

Next on his list was a motorcycle which I had to learn to ride! And, after that, a Harley with a side car. Are you getting the picture here that he wanted me to go along? I'm really sorry that most of the things my Dear Heart wanted to include me in were just a little scary to me. 

Our most fun adventures together have been to travel. You mention a trip and he is always ready to go. We have been fortunate to have traveled twice to Israel, several countries in Europe, Greece, Turkey, Canada, Hawaii, Alaska, Mexico and almost every state in the U.S. His excitement on a trip is HYPER for the first three or four days before he is able to settle down. When we were in Paris, he would arise at 5 every morning to take the metro all around the city to see the sights on his own before returning to our hotel to join the tour. We took the helicopter tour in Hawaii and rode bicycles down Waimea Canyon. Everywhere we traveled there was an adventure and a story to tell later.

He is a forgiving man. I have made lots of boo-boos in my lifetime with him, and one that stands out is when I put regular gas in his diesel VW. That was an expensive repair, but when I called him crying about it, his remark was simply, "Don't worry about it! As far as I'm concerned, you can do no wrong in my book!" 

He is tender-hearted and a guy who will watch shows with me like Call the Midwife or Downton Abbey and cry like a baby. He is also the guy who stands at the back door of the church to help the Moms and Dads get their little ones inside. He sees to getting the paraplegic in a wheelchair down to the sanctuary at church. He helps with dishes and laundry. And he is the one who took care of his Mom as she suffered for many years, and his brother in his last months. Sometimes he will make a trip upstairs to where I'm reading or doing something and make me stop to listen to the words of a song and tell me with tears in his eyes that is how he feels about me. His verbal expressions of love and thankfulness for me are frequent throughout the day.

Of course there are those times when he is not so perfect? Oh yeah! He can push my buttons sometimes.

But I count myself blessed!

We have been retired for the past four years now, and it has been a big adjustment for him because he loved the camaraderie of the fellowship with other firefighters (and I think being Captain - I have to remind him sometimes he is not the captain here!) Being a guy who loved planes, it was his good fortune to be assigned to aircraft fire and rescue at the airport.

We have weathered a lot of storms together over the past 32 years, but I am thankful that the Lord has brought us through them all and made us stronger in our faith and our relationship.

Okay! 'Nuff said.