To my husband: 10 Reasons I Adore You

This April, my husband and I will be married for 15 years. It seems like yesterday when I met him at our mutual friends house as a "set-up". I still remember how nervous I was that evening and how I kept thinking "say something, you dumbass, he's going to think you're a mute" and worrying that if I did, I'd say something that would totally turn him off. When I was brushing the snow off my car before leaving and he came up to me and asked if I'd like to have dinner some night, I was so nervous I was worried I'd throw up my dinner if I said something.

Now, in honor of the upcoming Valentine's Day, I list the top 10 reasons I love my husband...

1) When my tires are low on air, you snag my keys and go put air in my tires because you know I have tirephobia..the irrational fear that my tire is going to explode if I try to put air in it myself.

2) When there's snow on the ground, you always grab my hand as we walk through it because you know I'm a klutz and I'll fall if left to my own devices.

3) You know I don't balance the "household" checkbook that I am responsible for so you secretly check the account balance and issue dire warnings when I'm dangerously low and close to overdrafting...again.

4) When I do overdraft, you don't yell at me. I can live with the eye-roll.

5) You laugh at all my stupid jokes especially when I pretend to have vast amounts of sports knowledge. I don't, you do. I'm impressed by all those stats you can rattle off; who went to college where, who won what SuperBowl when. You'd think that after living with you for 15 years, I'd at least acquire a smidgen of sports knowledge, if only by osmosis. It's apparently never going to happen and you don't care, you love me anyway.

6) You think I'm beautiful even when I'm wearing my ugliest pair of sweatpants, a ripped t-shirt and my hair is standing up on my head like Jimmy Neutron. I know I'm not as thin as we were when we met; there's some saggin' in the wagon and the girls have lost their "perk". You've never said one negative word and you still tell me I'm beautiful.

7) In keeping with #6, it doesn't bother you that I have the world's shittiest teeth that require monthly dental visits and vast amounts of our money. You understand and you always find a way to make sure my mouth gets taken care of.

8) You have a job that I couldn't do. I could never work outside in the cold all day. I was built for comfort, not speed. Even when it's freezing outside, you still get up at 1:30am and go to work. You never call off sick. You never stay home because you don't get paid. When I ask you to stay home and say "If you love me, you'll stay home" your answer is "I do love you, that's why I go to work".

9) You treat your stepsons just like they're your own. You may not be their biological father, but you are their dad. When they need money, it's you they call. Why, because they know you are soft and want the best for them, even if that means you take the birthday money you got from my mother and send it to your stepson. It's never a sacrifice with you because it's just "what dads do".

10) Because you think I'm smart and you're my biggest fan. Whenever I want to do something, you always defer to me and do your best to make sure it happens. Those times when I doubt myself, all I have to do is talk to you. You hate it when I'm sad, it bothers you when you can't make my world cupcakes and rainbows. Thank you for making sure I never fall into a black hole of despair; sometimes I un-sad myself just for you, so you won't have to work so hard to make me happy. Thank you for that.

Every day I'm thankful that you came into my life, just when I needed you the most. You are generous, kind, smart, funny, responsible, handsome, and you have more heart than anyone I ever met; I'm glad your heart is mine.