30 Day Blog Challenge! Your Current Relationship~ Day #`1

 30 Day Blog Challenge - Day #1

I'm back!  Well at least I am going to TRY and return for these 30 days and see if it will kick me back into gear in the blogger-sphere!  I am also doing a 30 day Yoga Challenge on Instagram right now, so why not just go crazy and do this too!   I really WANT to blog, but I just got out of the habit and so I stopped.  Facebook is easier and much faster to add photos and so that kind of became my way of preserving photos.  I know this way is better and so I am hoping this will become something that I can stick with.  It has changed a lot though!  I am going to have to teach myself all the new settings and format. I'm really rusty!  But it will be good for me!  Sooooooo............. here we go!!!

BLOG CHALLENGE DAY 1

~Your Current Relationship~

This should be an easy one to get started on since I have been married now for almost 31 years.  In one month and four days, it will 31 years!  Wow, not sure where the time has gone! But five boys, 2 birds, 2 bunnies, 2 cats, 1 dog, and countless fish (and snakes and lizards) later, we are still chugging away!  We have survived undergrad school, moving away to St. Louis, medical school, building a home, six pregnancies, five sons, six and half years with Dave in the Bishopric, and four more as Bishop, one year of me traveling all over the state to give speeches, two missionaries (so far), endless stays at the Primary Children's Hospital, countless broken bones and stitches, the death of our son Tyson, and I could go on and on!  It's amazing when you think back over your married life span, how much has happened!  

Dave has always been a very persistent person and has achieved whatever it was he set out to do.  Our relationship would never had happened without his persistence.  I am a very determined person and so his persistence (against my determination) is the only way we could have ever gotten together.  But I will spare you the details of our courtship and talk about our current relationship since that is what this challenge specifically is asking for.

We don't have a lot of time to spend together due to the fact that we are both extremely busy in our own endeavors.  But, we manage to find time to go on a date almost every week.  We don't usually do anything really exciting, but just going out to dinner seems to be the best thing so we can just sit down and actually talk.   He has at least one day a week off and so on that day, we are usually able to go to lunch or do some project together.  Our nest is emptying fast and so I am sure in the future our time to spend together will increase.  

Most of our interests are not the same unfortunately. He LOVES to garden and do yard work and I pretty much despise it.  I LOVE to shop and he really does not enjoy that one bit.  But it actually balances itself out in a way.  Someone needs to shop and someone needs to do the yard work right?  We do both love to watch our boys play sports and to attend anything that they are involved in.  We both enjoy vacationing together or just getting away to the cabin for a weekend here and there.  I am not a huge fan of fishing, but I will go fishing so we can spend that time together.  I love to run, and he has tried to do that with me but his knees won't cooperate and so we like to take walks together when we get a chance.  Bottom line is we both will try the others interests so we can spend more time together.

Dave is always thinking of me in one way or another.  He goes out of his way to please me.  Just this past couple of weeks he has left me one of my favorite treats (Old Grist Mill Pumpkin Bars with chocolate chips) in the bathroom several times for when I get out of the shower.  He always writes a note on the styrofoam container to me and even though it seems like such a little thing, it really is a big thing!  

He always leaves me a note under my pillow if he is going to be gone to scout camp or somewhere for the night.  If I am going to be gone, he will leave me a note in my bag.  He has never missed one time doing that in all these years. It really is the little things that make the big differences in a relationship.  He tells me frequently that I look nice and gives me compliments.  We women always lover to hear those kind of things!  He is always there to support me in my races if he can possibly be there.  He gives me the pats on the back I need and is always saying something nice to me either about my running or my talents.  He isn't afraid to help with the house, in fact he cleans the toilets!  And does much of the laundry and meal preparation.  He is a hard worker and never really takes a minute to just chill. It isn't in his nature. He is very talented and there aren't many things he isn't good at. He is very romantic and goes above and beyond just to please me in any way he can.  In fact, sometimes I am almost afraid to say I need something because I know he will stop what he is doing to make sure I get what I need even if it means him changing his plans. All in all, I can say that he truly treats me like the Queen of the Castle.  I have been very blessed to have him as a husband and as a worthy Priesthood holder.  I know deep down that I don't deserve him, but I am sure grateful I have him.
    
It isn't always lala land, that's for sure. We can get at each others throats at times, and we have many things we differ on and don't always agree with each other, but we eventually work things out and are able to see the bigger picture. We have a lot of room for improvement, but hey, what's the next 31 years for right?

I did it!  I completed my first Blog Challenge!!!  Now let's hope I don't forget to do it tomorrow and the next day, and the next day, and the....