I like having 8 + years of marriage under my belt. It simplifies things in our family life, sometimes. Thetallone can certainly still surprise me, though, like last week when he brought me home some tulips, for no reason. It was nice. Very nice. Not a usual occurrence for us, either. He knows me & I know him. He has been my best friend for longer than we have been together as a couple. He encourages me with my life, with not being “just” a mom, with everything! I do my best to support him & raise his children in the way that we agree upon. I’m totally lousy with housework, though, but he hasn’t tried to upgrade me yet. I love his sense of humor. Geez. Now this is starting to sound like a love letter! What I really wanted to talk about it how simple it is to get things done in our lives when he & I work as a team. But, I realized that I really don’t tell him how much I appreciate him often enough. That is why this entry started to become a love letter to thetallone. My example of how we get things done is this, I am lousy with housework (as I mentioned. Though, I am trying to improve), and so I so I told the thetallone that he could move the laundry basket near the washer & dryer & that I would take that as a “gentle reminder” to get the things done that he needed me to get done. So, a couple of days ago, thetallone moved the vacuum cleaner into the middle of the living room to remind me that the living room was in some serious need of T.L.C. That kind of reminder is not loud, it’s simple & it works! Took us a few years to figure out a non-nagging way to let each other know what we need. Every year we keep working @ our love, @ our communication, and we become a better working, closer family.