My Loving Husband Surprises Me Again!

My husband surprised me this morning with a new shirt.  The first I saw it was when we went on our early morning walk together with our dog.  This one really made me feel good!

Isn't he sweet?


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17th Anniversary of the Day We Met

ordered from 1800Flowers.com

My husband and I first met at a Pizza Hut on November 16, 1996 and hit it off right away.   Since that day we always have fond memories of it.  Monday, Gerard sent me flowers and candy at work which was a fun surprise.  Look at the cute doggie arrangement!  It has colored flowers behind the dogs too in a cute little basket.

He's learned from many years of experience that it's best to send me stuff on Monday so I can enjoy the flowers at work all week long and not have to carry them home on the bus for the weekend.  It's so sweet of him.  I know it's not practical, but romance is nice too sometimes.  He is definitely the romantic one in our relationship and I love him for that!  Receiving this at work made my day and was a pleasant surprise. 

The card he included was nice to, saying "The day I met you, my life changed for the better. You're the all time sweet, always remember how special you are." --Your loving husband, Gerard

His surprise gifts was one of the things I loved about him before we were married and I am very glad he still surprises me now and then even after 16 years of marriage.  I am so glad God brought us together!

What about you? Have you surprised your mate lately?

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What a Wonderful Sweetest Day!

http://www.crackerbarrel.com/

Our day started off by Gerard choosing Cracker Barrel for breakfast which was absolutely delicious! We both got the apple French Toast breakfast. He won the football pool between us so he got to choose, and he couldn't have made a better choice in my opinion. It is my favorite restaurant.

Here is a collage of the gifts we gave each other, including a card and nightshirt from the pets!

Our Sweetest Day Gifts (collage made using www.picmonkey.com)

I felt overdressed for a Saturday.

You can't tell how attractive that cat top is by this picture, but it will give you an idea.  The cat in the middle of it is watching the sparkly butterfly up in the corner.  There is subtle music notes in the background and it fits perfectly!  I gave Gerard the Mrs. Fields cookies which are big and yummy.  After all, he is a cookie monster and can never get enough cookies!  I thought that was all until I started getting ready for bed when Gerard called the cats, who didn't come, and gave me the last gift which was from all our pets.  It is a cute nightshirt with a howling kitty on the front which says, "The sound of Mewsic."  Manny comes in every morning to let us know it is time for his breakfast.  Below is a picture of the whole cat that is on it:
 

It's so cute, it made me giggle!

Hope you has a wonderful sweetest day too!  I know a lot of people do not celebrate this, but I think it's nice to do a little something special to remind your mate that you are still important to them.  I think primarily it's more for the guys to give something to their sweethearts, but I like to give my hubby a little something too!

Oh, even Abby and the cats got a special treat!

Abby carried it with her the rest of the day,

This is worth getting up for!

We used this for our Bozo's Pet Pride link up.  We have great pets who give me gifts!

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7 Friday Fragments (sports, marriage, photography, news)

Friday Fragments is hosted my Half-Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. Here we go:

U.S. Open

Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images

1. When watching the end of the final matches in the U.S. Open, I learned that the women and men champions (Serena Williams and Andy Murray) got $1.9 million dollars! Not bad pay for a few hours work, heh? But, these were both close matches with an extremely high level of play. I am happy for both of them--I like Serena Williams and it was Andy Murray's first U.S. open win so I say, "good for him." His match took just under 5 hours! Who says you don't have to be in good shape to play tennis? You sure do to play at the pro level!

Cleveland Browns

2. 
   

   

   Spunky curled up in the Brown Chair

   From a Browns tweet, I learned the the Browns was the only team to open the season with a rookie Quarterback, Running Back and Wide Receiver. I guess I should be happy they actually had the lead for part of the game and only lost it in the last few minutes . . . yet again. I wouldn't have felt so bad if they weren't so close to winning it. Our defense played well, putting the Eagles in a lot of 3 and long situations, getting four interceptions and even scoring our only TD. Offensively, we couldn't get it in the end zone--same old, same old.

Reading



Aug. 30, 1997 I became a wife!

3. From reading Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggrichs, I learned that when a wife feels unloved, she becomes disrespectful, when a husband feels disrespected, he responds in an unloving way.  Click the link for a funny post about how we put into practice what we learned and got off the "crazy cycle."

Photo Tip

4. Here's a photography tip I found at the Aums on how to get kids to smile for the camera: Let them say “peepee” instead of “cheese.”

Calories

5. 
   
   McDonalds is going to start posting the calories of their food.  I really don't want to know how many calories are in those shakes I like!

Sports Illustrated

6. There is a monthly hour Sports Illustrated TV show that Gerard discovered recently and says is very good. It was on last night on NBC Sports Network and 8 p.m. E.T.  You can opt out of getting the Swim Suit issue of Sports Illustrated--it really is a good magazine with interesting articles and lots of action shots.  Early Dementia for Retired NFL Players is an example of one of the good articles!

Sky

7. 
   On my way to the bus stop one day last week (I think Tuesday), the clouds were so unusual that I took a picture. There was light blue sky with some fluffy grey clouds with orange highlights! I don't remember ever seeing clouds like that. Unfortunately, my camera couldn't capture the light colors very well but this is the best I could get.

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He Said, She Said: Love and Respect in Action

We have already put into practice what we learned.

When I heard our church was offering a "Love and Respect" class for couples at church on Wednesday nights based on the book, Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs (the link will take you to my book review of this), I thought this would be a good chance for Gerard and me to go through it together and get recharged and possibly it would open more communication between us. I got the book from the library and downloaded it to my Kindle as well and started reading it to see what the class would be about.

When I mentioned the possibility of taking this class to my "Mr. Wonderful," his initial reaction was "I'm not going to that" and became "Mr. Growly Bear." Well, fine, I really didn't want to go alone so if he didn't want to go with me, then I wouldn't go either (hoping he would change his mind). I almost fell over when later out of the blue he said he would go with me the first night just to see how it was if I wanted to go. Of course, I took him up on that hoping he would enjoy the class and want to keep going.

We went together the first week along with 5 other couples and one wife who attended without her husband. It consisted of watching the author of the book speak on a DVD and then the leader of the class asked some questions for discussion to try to get some interaction.  The main points being, (1) men and women see things differently, neither is wrong, just different and (2) A woman's deepest need in a marriage is to feel loved by her husband and the husband's deepest need in marriage is to be respected by his wife.

This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church.  However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.  (Ephesians 5:32-33)

I was surprised to see the DVD was exactly what I had read in the book. I enjoyed the class and in the car asked "Mr. Wonderful"  who turned into Growly bear what he thought. 

Growly Bear:  I didn't think the guy on the DVD was all that funny.  It was what I expected it would be: a bunch of people sitting around for an hour watching a DVD.  I didn't get anything out of it

This got my gander up, as the book would say, I felt unloved by his statement and responded disrespectfully saying in my not so sweet tone:

"Mrs. Wonderful": Wow, you really don't care about trying to improve our marriage, because that's what is sounds like to me.

"Growly Bear":  If it means that much to you, I'll go BUT I'm not going to say anything and won't do the homework. (which was just putting one of the concepts presented into practice during the week)

I realized, we were on the "Crazy Cycle" and got off by keeping my mouth shut to give us both time to think. I thought . . . I don't want him to go out of obligation, I don't want this class to be a issue between us which defeats the whole purpose of the class, I really need to respect his wishes and let him make his own decision. I know he feels bad about leaving Abby alone all day and all evening too and doesn't like being rushed after a long day at work. I really need to let this go.

When we got home, Abby, our sweet dog was anxiously waiting for us and I felt sorry for her too. Then it came to me. A solution!

Mrs. Wonderful: You really don't want to go because you don't want to leave Abby alone all evening too, right?

Mr. Wonderful: Right.

Mrs. Wonderful: I get that you hate leaving Abby alone all day long, you're tired after work and don't like classes like I do anyhow. I like interaction and discussion but get that you aren't big on that so... how about if you just read the book since the DVD was exactly what was in the book? You don't need to go to the class and I'll just go to have the interaction.

Mr. Wonderful: You sure? That would work for me. I'll read the book, but I don't want to go to the class.

Mrs. Wonderful: Great! I'm okay with that. That's fine (and I really meant it. It's not the class that's important, it's getting the insight into how to make our marriage better.)

After starting to read Love and Respect, Mr. Wonderful reported that he got much more from reading the book than watching the DVD. He's a bookworm and he can read it in short spurts at his convenience this way. I'll get the workbook and attend the classes, then we'll discuss points from it with each other during the week. Yay for us--we are back on the "Energizing Cycle"!  This book is enlightening and makes us more aware of how we can meet each others needs and understand our spouse more.  We recommend it!

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6 Things We Learned This 7th Week of 2012 (scrub, technology, marriage, death)

Friday Fragments is hosted my Half-Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. We like to share what we've learned each week.

1. Cereal

   
   Gerard's new favorite cereal is KRAVE. He found a coupon for it so decided to give it a try because it sounded good. It's little squares of crisp multi-grain outside with real chocolate inside. He loves it and eats it for supper and also snacks on it dry right out of the box.  There's a double chocolate kind too.

2. Scrub

   We just buy hand lotion, but at my Women of Wonder (W.O.W.) meeting I learned that some people actually make what is called a "scrub" to put on rough skin to soften it. At the meeting, we mixed some brown sugar and oil and some chocolate together to make a concoction for a scrub. This was foreign to me, but I wasn't the only one. Do you make scrubs?

3. QR Codes

   I never heard of a QR code until I read Cracking The Code over at Half-Past Kissin' Time last Saturday. There is a site where you can make one. Apparently it's some kind of app for the smartphone which takes you to a website. Go read the post to learn more about it.

4. Bedroom Closet

   My husband told me he'd like the bedroom closet for his stuff. I thought that was a reasonable request because at the time I had my wardrobe and shared the closet too. I moved my coats and jackets that I had in the computer room closet to the front entry way closet and then the dresses, blazers and sweaters I had in my bedroom closet to the computer room closet. No problem.

5. Two Deaths

   It's always sad to learn of famous people dying that we like and feel as though we know. This past week Whitney Houston died and it was all over the news and Twitter and blogs, but I saw this video posted by one of my friends on Facebook and want to share it because it expresses my feelings to a degree about how we show partiality to the famous. All life is valuable. My first thought after "How sad" when someone dies is "I wonder if they knew Jesus." 



6. Energy Saver

   I learned that DirectTV now has an energy saver setting for the cable box that after four hours of inactivity, the cable box shuts off. To turn it back on, all I need to do is press that "info" button and the show comes right on. Someone needs to tell the customer service reps and the technicians there about this. When I called they acted like something was wrong with my box and told me to run a system test. Duh!

 (50 cents per legitimate comment goes to Caroline's Kids Pet Rescue for February in honor of cat appreciation month!)

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Happy Valentine's Day--Show You Care

For years neither of us had a sweetheart to share Valentine's Day with so when we finally found each other, Valentine's Day was a pretty big deal for us.  Gerard had lots of gifts planned for me and really nice cards.  I tried to find a good cards for him too but always felt it was more about the guy getting candy or something for the woman than it was about the woman getting something for her man.

Now, 15 years later, we still enjoy celebrating our love on Valentine's Day.  I'll bring out our hearts that sing "I Got You Babe," we'll buy a special treat of some sort and maybe go out to eat, spending the day together.  We still exchange cards and Gerard will buy me something.  This year though, we didn't take off work.  We got a cherry pie and Gerard has a gift for me and we exchanged cards.

bedroom closet with Gerard's clothes

My "gift" to Gerard is to let him have the bedroom closet.  One of the great things about our house is all the closet space we have.  Originally, we both shared the bedroom closet but most of Gerard's clothes were hung in the upstairs closets and basement closets.  He recently mentioned that he would like to have the bedroom closet which I thought was a reasonable request.  I had some blazers, dresses, and sweaters in it and all he had was some shirts.

Front closet with Karen's coats

Moved from Bedroom closet to computer room closet

Being the good wife that I am, I cheerfully moved my things around so he could have the bedroom closet.  Our front closet in the vestibule was pretty much empty so I moved my coats and jackets from the computer room closet to that one.  This made room for my dresses and blazers to be hung in the computer room closet which is right next to our bedroom and wallah!  My wonderful husband can have the bedroom closet with one exception:  my robes are still in there which he said was okay.

This is what a good marriage is all about--being kind to each other and listening and meeting the other's needs.  The gifts are all well and good and who doesn't like presents now and then, but the ever day love we share is what love is all about.  Happy Valentine's Day, honey!  LOVE YOU!  Which speaks of love louder to you--actions or gifts?

(50 cents per legitimate comment goes to Caroline's Kids Pet Rescue for February in honor of cat appreciation month!) Share this:

My Wonderful Husband Comes Through

I know it's in here.

Today is the anniversary of the day we met!  Gerard and I met at Pizza Hut 15 years ago from today and he's still willing to do anything for me including hunting through the garbage!  Saturday, when I bought some more of the Joint Mobility food for $17 at the vet for our dog, Abby, they gave me a manufacturers rebate coupon.  The catch was that after you cut three of the proof of purchase circles from the bags and included the receipts, they would send me a check for the price of a bag.  I just finished the bag that week and had already thrown in away.  The vet was very nice and gave me the previous receipt as well so that if I could find the bag, I could use it as bag 1.

Found it!

When I got home, I went into the garage to hunt down that bag.  In the can over the rest of the garbage was a big pile of stuff Gerard had just pulled out of our yard.  I did notice another bag tied up but didn't even look in it.  My wonderful husband, the "Super Duper Honey Bear" offered to get it out when I told him about the rebate deal.  He said he knew where it was and apparently didn't mind digging through it even though the cat poop was mixed in there.  I really didn't hold out much hope but thought it was very sweet of him to make the effort.

About 15 minutes later, he came back with the circle I needed!  Isn't he wonderful?  Has your husband done anything sweet or wonderful for you lately?  I am so glad we found each other through Great Expectations!  It certainly was worth the money!

Related posts You may find interesting:
How Gerard and I Found Each Other Through Great Expectations
Our Anniversary of the Day We Met (11/16/08)

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What Five (or Six ) Words Describe You?

Over at Matty's blog, Molly from The Brambles did a guest post about legacy that made me wonder what six words my husband would use to describe me.  (I would describe myself as practical, caring, giving, organized, conscientious.) When I asked him, these are the ones he said:

dedicated - organized - energetic - fun-loving - spiritual

I think he did a great job describing me!  I would certainly agree with all these but would add generous to make it six.

The six words I would use to describe Gerard are:

hard-working - loving - organized - dependable - bookworm - sensitive

What five or six words would describe you?  Ask your spouse and let us know in the comments.  Would you use those words to describe yourself?

I Don't Love You Anymore--Bang!

In Saturday's PLAIN DEALER, I read Man, 86, Charged With Shooting Wife. This made me feel so sad! They were married for 66 years but argued that day. The wife, age 83, told him she no longer loved him so he shot her in the face when she was lying in bed. (No wonder she didn't love him anymore if that's how he treated her!) Then he called 911 for an ambulance and said he was going to kill himself too. The cops arrested him and the wife died about 15 hours later at the hospital.

I think this is horrible! How can someone be married for 66 years and then just shoot their spouse? I think having a gun in the house just makes it so easy to kill in the heat of an argument. If they didn't have a gun in their house, this would not have happened. Guns make me so nervous. Even when it's a security guard or policeman that is wearing it. Just on the bus Friday, there was a security guard with a gun that I noticed when he was getting off the bus. I am glad neither Gerard nor I have a gun and we never will!  At least I know my husband won't shoot me!

When I was a teen, we even moved when my mom saw our neighbor cleaning his rifle in his driveway. You can read all about it at my Writer's Workshop post for this week over at "My Funny Dad, Harry" blog: A Memorable Neighbor Who Scared Us Away.

What are your thoughts on this?

Check out Saturday Samplings for best posts of the week and link up yours!

How We Make Each Other CRAZY! (Writer's Workshop)

Karen's table in den

There are a few things we do that make each other CRAZY:

Karen says: 

1)         My "clutter" drives him crazy!  It's really not THAT bad as you can see from these pictures.  He likes tables and dressers cleared off but I like things handy so leave stuff out, books, knickknacks, pictures.  He usually has a book rack and at least the Peanuts calendar on his desk but this morning when I went to take a picture of it, he had it all cleared.  (He's always moving his stuff around.)

2)         If I have things a bit crooked, it makes him crazy.  Gerard is a neat freak and thought it was funny how he always straightens the remote controls if I put them down slightly crooked.  

Karen's desk

3)         When I get up early on the weekend it makes Gerard crazy.  Gerard gets up at 4:30 a.m. M-F to walk Abby before work so he likes to sleep in on the weekend; however, I still get up at 5 a.m. or earlier on the weekends too.  I have to take my pills at 5 a.m. every day and then as long as I'm up, will usually go on the computer.  Once Abby (our dog) goes back in the bedroom after breakfast, I do shut the door for him.  This makes him crazy!

Gerard's desk

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I Felt Validated On My Wedding Day (Writer’s Workshop)

I met Karen through Great Expectations, a service to find a marriage partner—not just a dating service. I was a member for a long time with no prospects until one day when I had a date with Karen and knew I had someone special. We met November 16 at Pizza Hut.

I was ecstatic and anxious to tell my family who thought I would never find anybody. They were not thrilled when I told them, not even happy for me. The reason why not? Simple, she was not Catholic. I grew up Catholic: grade school, high school, all the sacraments, even an altar boy for a long time! In March, when Karen invited me to go with her to a singles retreat for a weekend, the first thing my sister said to me was “You’re going to miss Sunday Mass!” and on and on it went. I fought many battles and I take my faith seriously.

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What Did You Compromise When You Married? (Writer's Workshop)

I basically covered this in a post I did on our wedding anniversary in 2008 so am cheating a bit by using it today for this prompt from Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop. Here is the link to 13 Changes In Our Life Since Marriage. I hope you like it.

For more about us, you can click that "About Us" tab at the top where I list other posts about our courtship, relationship and marriage if you are interested to learning more. According to Kathy at the Junk Drawer, she said we have "one of the happiest marriages in the blogosphere!" in response to this comment I left on her "Confusing Terms Of Endearment" Post:

I usually call my husband “Honey Bunny.” He calls me “Silly Goose” and Mrs. Wonderful (to which I respond “because I’m married to Mr. Wonderful). I sometimes call him “Honey Bear” too. He especially likes when I call him “Super Duper Honey Bear.

I don't know about that, but it made me feel good!

Did I Really Want To Change My Life Forever (Writer's Workshop)

(Photograph taken by Mike Solomon)
Deciding to marry Gerard was a bit scary because I liked my single life. I was already in my 40s when I met Gerard and I only knew him for six months before we got engaged. I said "yes" to his proposal of marriage even though I knew my life would be changed forever. (You can read "13 Changes In Our Life Since Marriage" to see how both our lives changed.)

For both Gerard and me, marriage is a sacred union that is for a lifetime with no guarantees. I knew Gerard thought I was "the one for him" right off but I wasn't so sure. After much analyzing, I did know I loved him and that I could be a good helpmate for him. I thought of how I would feel if he wasn't in my life and I didn't want to go there. I also knew I didn't want to spend my whole life alone like four of my aunts did.

Although many things did change, I'm glad I took the plunge! I love our house, our pets, and our life together. There are little bumps now and then, but we are both committed to each other and that will carry us through. We both compromise on things and each gives in to the other to keep things good between us. Marriage is a work in progress but I think we are doing very well.

Gerard says marrying me was the smartest thing he ever did. I think it is too!

This was a prompt for Mama Kat's Writers Workshop. Find more posts there or pick a prompt and participate yourself. Here are links to the other Writer's Workshop posts I did this week: A Thanksgiving To Remember and Our Dog's Most Destructive Behavior

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Who Holds The Power In Your Relationship?

After being married for 12 years now, we have learned to compromise and work together well I think. This quiz backs that up.

You Both Wear the Pants in Your Relationship

You and your sweetie seem to have stuck the perfect power balance. It's not that you don't disagree - it's just that you've learned how to compromise well. You're both mature enough to know that you can't always get your way... And usually, you're both adult enough to reach an agreement - even if that sometimes means giving in a little.

Who Wears the Pants in Your Relationship?

Where To Live?

When we were first married we lived in Gerard’s house in a small suburb. I remember how impressed I was the first time I went over there before we were married. His yard was very tidy, trimmed nicely and he had beautiful roses. His favorite was the peace rose. He said he used to bring roses to the bank tellers. Inside his house was very neat and clean. Nothing was every out of place and he had a big adorable, floppy, stuffed dog named Patch Dog. He also had a big dog named Fletcher who lived next door and barked a lot.

When we first moved in, we both slept in his single bed. His nephews helped move my double bed over shortly after we returned from our honeymoon. His house was old and the bathroom and bedrooms were all upstairs. This was something I didn’t like. The bus route was not convenient there either so to get to work, I drove to my dad’s and got the bus from his house.

We only lived there a month before moving into a house we both liked and purchased together. I never would have felt that his house was mine and he would never have been able to feel like my place was his. I truly believe this was a very smart move on our part, to buy a house together that we could look on as ours. We’ve made a lot of improvements to it in 12 years, but we still like it and hope we don’t have to move again. This is how our house looked when we first bought it--old drive and sidewalk, tree in front, lilac bush which have both been removed and we put in a new drive and sidewalk shortly after moving in.

Where did you live when you were first married? Are you still there?

(Having my surgery today, please pray all goes well.)

Do You Celebrate Your Proposal Date?

Today is the 12th anniversary of the day Gerard proposed to me on my back porch after we got back from playing tennis. Maybe not the most romantic proposal, but I thought it was cute—he just couldn’t wait any longer! We were 44 and 45 when we got engaged. We had only known each other for six months. Gerard said he knew right off that I was the one for him. I don’t know how he could know so quickly, but he insists he did. He treated me like a queen from the start of our relationship, opening doors for me, sending me surprise gifts, carrying things for me, helping me with my coat, following me around everywhere I went and still does most of these things. Now that our money is combined, I asked him to cut down on the surprise gifts. The rest, he still does.

I must admit I was a bit scared about getting married, After all, my life was good and marriage came with no warranty. There are no guarantees but we both went in with the attitude that marriage is a lifetime commitment so we’ll make it work. It does take work, some sacrifice and some compromise, but we look forward to growing old together and enjoying our retirement years in the future. Right now, we are having a pretty good time too! It seems we were meant for each other.

What about you? When and how did you get engaged? Do you celebrate your proposal date?

Getting Married is A Scary Thing

I was a very happy, fulfilled single into my 40s. An older friend of mine, Luther, told me I wouldn't want to grow old alone. It made me think and realize that he was right.

Marriage though is such a huge step, especially since I was perfectly happy with my life as it was. I didn't date anyone but had many friends, was active at church and participated in bowling leagues, both from work and church. I rented the upstairs from my parents and had a very nice set up. I could eat meals downstairs with them whenever I wanted and only paid $100 rent a month! My dad even took my garbage out for me. I really had it made but knew I had to start seriously looking for a husband if I didn't want to grow old alone.

One of my main concerns about Gerard was all his credit cards and his credit card debt. He was willing to cut them up and let me handle our money so this worked for me. He was also okay about me not cooking, not having children and coming to my church. He said if we were married, my routine wouldn't have to change. He would do all the housework and yard work since he did it anyway and I could still watch my show when I came home from work every day. Gerard and I were very compatible and so after much prayer, let him know that if he asked me to marry him, I'd say "yes."

related post: Why There Are People who Are Afraid of Marriage

6 Things I Learned in Week 12 of 2009

Great Ideas

I found a whole list of activity suggestions to keep the romance alive for us old married couples--or those in a dating relationship at The Zoo Crew. The blogger there went to a marriage retreat and is sharing things she learned there on her blog. Some of the things listed that we will try include eating at a new restaurant, having breakfast at the part, making a list of places we'd like to go, maybe learn a new activity together, look at our videos or photo albums and a whole lot more. I bookmarked this list so I could find it again. I also printed it out so we can mark the things we want to do! click here to go to the list.

Technology

Remember Topps baseball cards? Now they come in 3-D. The players actually come to life! Check out the video at ScienceJunkies.com. This blog has lots of interesting things.

Cats and Dogs

On the Misadventures of Me blog, I found a story about a guy who hated cats but did a favor for his son and took care of his cat which had kittens. Naturally he became attached to them but had to move from his condo so bought a trailer on a large piece of land and took in more and more cats which now has become Caboodle Ranch, a cat sanctuary. He is asking for donations for a fence to keep out the coyotes. He also has a blog at A Day At The Ranch. (My dad would have liked this guy and I'm sure would have made a donation!)

Companion dogs are used to help children with allergies and seizures and people with bipolar disorder, wounded veterans and people with psychiatric or memory conditions stay stable and safe. I found this out from an article in USA TODAY on March 25, 2009 titled "4 Paws and a tail at your service." Two sites that were given were www.angelservicedogs.com and www.cci.org(Canine Companions for Independence).

Love Language Test

Thanks to Firefly 1824 in the Women Speak Shelfari discussion group, I found the "Love Language Test." I was having a hard time determining my primary language so this test helped. Go to http://www.afo.net/hftw-lovetest.asp to take the short quiz and find out your primary love language. (Be sure to let your spouse know!)

Cold Remedy

At Spicy Bugz this week I found out that drinking hot lemonade (the kind made with real lemons) will help you feel better when you have a cold! Click here to see the entire post and let her know if you ever heard of this before!

The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

The Five Love Languages is a practical book for improving one’s marriage. It points out that different things are more meaningful than others when it comes to expressing love but they are different for different people. Loving acts can fall into the following five basic categories:

• words of affirmation
• quality time
• acts of service
• gifts
• physical touch

Once you determine what your mate’s primary love language is, you can work at keeping them feeling loved more effectively. It’s also good to determine your own primary love language and let your mate know. Several things I plan to implement after reading this book are:

1. Focus on encouraging, complimenting and using kind words every day when speaking to my husband.


2. Have a sharing time each day where we each share three things that happened to us that day and how we feel about them.


3. Make a list of things we want to do together and do at least two per month.


4. Plan a new event with strong memory potential and do it this year.


5. Play “fill your tank” game. Ask spouse three times a week how full his love tank is on range of 0-10 and ask what I can do to fill it up today.

I had a hard time determining my primary love language because really my husband does all these things so I feel very loved. Here is a quiz you can take to help determine which one is most meaningful to you. By answering some concrete questions, for my physical touch was definitely my primary language and three of the others were tie. I was also surprised to find out that Gerard's primary love language is quality time. Guess I'll have to get off the computer earlier in the evenings!

Want to find out what your primary love language is and more importantly, your mate's? Click here to take the quiz.