In no particular order.
1. He is the handsomest man on Earth.
2. He has dimples in both cheeks.
3. Even though he still looks 19, he doesn’t mind going around with a wife who looks 35.
4. He once told me I looked like a supermodel, right after I’d cut all my hair off.
5. He said, before we were married, that if I would always cook, he would always do the dishes.
6. He hates doing dishes, but does them anyway.
7. He makes beautiful babies.
8. He plays with his beautiful babies.
9. Frog lips.
10. He cooks for me when I just can’t handle it anymore.
11. He hates to cook, but does it anyway.
12. He gives the best back massages on the planet.
13. He tells me I’m cute.
14. He has one eyebrow, but once had the middle part plucked while we were dating, because some girl told him girls like guys with two eyebrows.
15. He goes running because I tell him to.
16. He hates running, but does it anyway.
17. He likes mysteries.
18. He reads to me when I want him to.
19. He’s getting a PhD because he thought I would want him to, because lots of people in my family have one.
20. He says he will quit playing WoW cold turkey, if I ask him to.
21. He likes my cooking.
22. A lot.
23. He swears under his breath. (I didn’t even know this until a few weeks ago.)
24. He likes making out.
25. In front of the kids.
26. He’s really, really smart.
27. He’s colorblind.
28. So he asks me if his clothes match.
29. He reads to the kids every day.
30. He loves chocolate more than I do.
31. He looked for a job that would allow him to have more time at home.
32. He doesn’t think I’m silly.
33. Or if he does, he doesn’t tell me.
34. He loves spicy food.
35. He married me for my brain.
36. He likes to take us camping.
37. He has changed about a billion and a half diapers.
38. He has washed puked-on clothes and sheets.
39. He stays up late to talk to me.
40. He kissed me before he ever even held my hand.
41. He plays nice when we play racquetball.
42. When he hasn’t shaved for a few days, he looks 21.
43. He built a snow slide with Calvin in the back yard.
44. He mows Grandpa’s lawn with a push-mower, because I don’t want to have a gas mower.
45. He doesn’t want any pets.
46. He wants to go to Paris, with me.
47. He wants to take me to Russia.
48. He doesn’t want to go to the Philippines, but would go if I asked him to.
49. He laughs at my jokes.
50. He makes the kids wait, so he can talk to me for a while every day.
51. He is a hard worker.
52. He keeps talking about when we will have a maid.
53. He yells at me if I complain about my body.
54. And reassures me he likes it just fine.
55. He bought me ruby earrings last Valentine’s Day, because he knows I am opposed to the atrocities surrounding the diamond trade.
56. He doesn’t wear cologne.
57. He helps my grandpa and his wife with their computer problems.
58. He took a ballroom dancing class so he could dance with me.
59. The first time we went dancing, before we were even dating, he wore tennis shoes, even though I told him not to, because he didn’t want to look silly.
60. When he goes on trips, he calls me every day, sometimes lots of times.
61. He said, about his first time eating sushi, “This is like a religious experience.”
62. He doesn’t want a motorcycle.
63. He fixed Calvin’s Superman video game.
64. When we got married, he thought a menstrual period lasted “like an hour or something.”
65. He said he would give me $10,000 for every kid I made.
66. He said 3 is enough.
67. He built a sandbox in the backyard.
68. He is my soul-mate.
69. He sometimes takes Calvin to work with him, even though he can’t get anything done with him there.
70. He bought the Golden Eagle Pass.
71. He likes me.
72. He sympathizes when I complain.
73. He says his favorite movie is “The Fugitive,” but the one he quotes from the most is “Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?”
74. He has the most beautiful green eyes.
75. He once called the women’s organization in our church “the sisters’ quorum.”
76. He wants to be a Christlike parent.
77. He makes cracks all the time about how other guys can’t keep their eyes off me.
78. He likes holding my hand.
79. He likes teaching Calvin math.
80. He knew what I was when he picked me up.
81. He liked it that I did the initial pursuing, but he still did the proposing.
82. He comes home to me every day.
83. I trust him.
84. He runs after the kids when we go to family parties, so I can talk to everyone.
85. He gives me nights, weekends, and holidays off.
86. He can identify lots of spices by taste that he’d never even heard of before we were married.
87. He questions my sources whenever I come up with some new social or environmental cause to be passionate about.
88. He makes telephone calls for me because I have phone-phobia.
89. He thinks phone-phobia is silly, but he does it anyway.
90. He likes my relatives.
91. He tells me he loves me.
92. He doesn’t think I’m the big baby that I am.
93. He gave me a love-note for a wedding present.
94. He gets teary-eyed during the sad parts of books and movies.
95. He still goes to church, even though we never learn anything there because we’re too busy trying to keep our kids from driving everyone else crazy.
96. He agrees with me a lot.
97. When he doesn’t agree with me, he tells me so.
98. He drives because I don’t like to.
99. I can’t live without him.
100. I don’t want to live without him.
101. He rubs my feet when they hurt or when they’re cold.
102. He doesn’t care if I shave my legs.
103. When he has a cold or allergies, he asks me if I want him to sleep on the couch.
104. He washes the plastic bags.
Was I supposed to stop?
The past 6 years have been the best of my life. Happy Anniversary, my love.
February 17, 2007 at 2:05 pm
I think you could consider him a keeper, although #1 is a blatant lie. Maybe he’s the 2nd.
February 17, 2007 at 4:34 pm
I can feel the love. Thanks for making me smile.
February 21, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Tears came to my eyes as I finished! Derek is lucky to have you as his wife. You see the good in him just as he sees the good in you.
February 11, 2008 at 10:52 am
i love your love and wish that and more for everyone. keep the candle burning, you two are a true inspiration
May 28, 2008 at 7:29 pm
i hope you life happy forever just as i hope for me and my derek
February 11, 2010 at 10:30 pm
im not sentimental but this made me cry…..my derek and i are getting back together after 10 years and these are all of the reasons why!!!
March 13, 2010 at 10:11 am
Top notch article but complicated to understand since I’m from Norway 😉
March 31, 2010 at 11:53 am
that made me cry happy tears and inspired me. i am so happy for you!
March 31, 2010 at 1:23 pm
Thanks Rochelle! I think it’s been a couple of years since I wrote that, but it’s pretty much the same. I got lucky, and that’s all there is to it. I wish everyone could be so lucky.
February 9, 2011 at 8:58 pm
I am marrying my Derek in 16 days! I hope we will be as happy as you and your Derek are!!
July 2, 2011 at 9:11 am
Beautiful!! Not many people can relate, because Love is so hard to find..
Love is all those things from the silliest to the most sacred..
October 31, 2011 at 7:47 pm
me and my derek are in love and he is not the best looking man but he is my world point blank