Get Carried Away

March 2011

Yesterday, as I was sleeping off an icky-sicky-yucky-no-good-very-bad-day, I kind of woke up as my husband was in the middle of a phone call. It was that moment where you're awake but your eyes are still closed, where what you're hearing may be reality or it may very well be the tail end of a dream.

Mr. Braunalicious was talking to a family friend about their gracious invitation to have us over for dinner, and the conversation turned to her compliments of one of the recent entries on this blog. He laughed and said, "Yes, she is a good writer but sometimes she makes me look like an idiot."

Wow. Well, in all fairness, sometimes I do recount some of his less stellar moments in the name of entertaining blog fodder. But, I rationalized, I do the same for myself. I hate to admit it took sleep-snooping for me to be introspective enough to realize that there is a possibility that I may have hurt his feelings.

Fittingly enough, this week is his birthday. The perfect day to recount all of his fabulousness in excruciating detail. And there is a lot of fabulousness.  He'd be embarrassed if I shared some of my favorite things- not because they're inappropriate, but because I think there are nice things that men do for women that they would never admit in public, lest they loose some hard earned street cred.

Simply, Nick is a good man.   He is absolutely embodies some of the most wonderful qualities in mankind- things I want to be, and can only learn from him.  He approaches everything in life as my teammate, and is the first to defend the people he cares for. He loves his family fiercely.  He cares deeply about his work, his faith, and the teens that he ministers to.  He is the most incredible dad.  He is a smart, funny, kind man with a beautiful heart and a gentle soul.

What I realized in writing this list is that I often focus why I love him on the things he does for me.  I have no doubt that there will be an endless supply of incredible things, big and small, that I will continue to appreciate.  But this challenged me to look at Nick for Nick.  It took me back to when we were first dating, and what I loved about him totally seperate from myself. 

And I fell in love with him all over again.

To my best friend, someone I am privileged to love and spend my life getting to know better and better, Happy Birthday.

And I hope I've totally and completely embarassed you enough for you to stop reading this blog for a little while, so I can go back to sharing more endearing things, like the today when you... okay.  Next time.