The greatest compliment

Dj and I were talking about marriage the other night while Neil was giving Jill (Dj's girlfriend) some pointers about bowling. Why Neil was giving pointers I'll never know...She kicked him ass. But whatever, lol We were talking about marriages that work, and don't work, and what makes a successful marriage. None of this I have an answer too, I can only offer him what has and hasn't worked for me. He told me that he thought if he and Jill had a marriage as good as Neil and I do that they would be set for life. How when they discuss marriage we always come up as that perfect union. It made me smile. He also gave me some insight as to why it works so well. While Neil is a taker by nature and I'm a giver we both work to give and take for an equal balance. I've never really thought about it until he pointed it out to me. Now that I see that though, I think when we aren't getting along or one is just in a pissy mood maybe I'll be able to look and see why. Or I hope so anyway.

Good friends are hard to find

Neil and I got married young, had kids young....So out of our friends we are one of the few (read two) couples that have kids. I'm always typing about how great my friends are to ME, but do I ever talk about how great they are to Maddie? How they are always willing to pick her up if need be, or how they call/come by if they haven't talked to her in a few days. They're great about picking kid friendly activities, and they are great about playing and listening to her. Today I've been finishing up the remaining details of M's party this weekend, and while I was going over the guest list one last time I realized that every single one of our friends will be there. Not one of them acted as if they had/have better things to do than attend a 3 year old birthday party, and some of them even changed their plans so that they would be in town.

Neil just called me to tell me that he loved me. We say I love you everyday, two and three times a day. When we leave for work, when we go to bed, when one does something nice for the other, or when I want something. But I love it when I answer the phone at work and the first thing I hear is I love you from the man that I love. Imean I was sure that the only thinkgs he thought about while working was his boat, the rodeo he isn't getting to fish in this weekend because of the broken boat, and the rodeo he will be fishing in a few weeks IF the boat is ready. Who knew that he could think of me too.

My daughter's heart is broken. Apparently she was under the impression that she was going to marry Jim, not just be the flower gull (heh) in his wedding. The other day while trying on flower girl dresses she was very upset to learn that I would not be purchasing her the $2800.00 white wedding gown in the window. I think Neil might need to start saving now. SHe aslo managed to escape me in House of Brides with nothing but her little panties on. Hey, nothing screams class like a 2 year old running around in Dora panties.

Death. It is something that Neil and I have had to experience all too often in our life. Mostly suicide, which saddens and confuses me. I mean can we not give the people around us enough love that they not needlessly take their own life. I know it isn't our fault, nor is there anything we could have done different but FUCK I'm tired of having to hear this horrible news over and over again. The first suicide Neil and I went through together was his grandfather in 2001. Then it was Joe about 6 months later. Then James the following year. Then Matt a few months after that...and now Tammy. Not to mention the other people that die in accidents or old age that we've been to. I feel like we funeral hop like most people bar hop. Not really, and I should't say that but sometimes it is true. I have been to three funerals this month and 5 total this year. Most of these are young people that had the rest of their lives to live....although to be fair only two this year have been suicide. Two too many.

My love hate relationship

with short weeks. I love that I have four days off instead of 2, but now all my end of the month stuff and first of the month stuff is crammed together. Arg! Not to mention I've had to take off early the other two days for stuff M is enrolled in. We're going to the lake again this weekend and this time all of our friends are coming with us. Hopefully (remind me Beckers) I'll remember to take my cheapo camera and get some pics! Have a good weekend everyone!