I am shamelessly stealing the inspiration for this post from my friend Stacey and her Valentine’s Day post, which was so much more romantic than mine.
Today is my husband’s birthday. It also happens to be his sister’s birthday, too, but they are not twins. Think on that one for a minute why don’t you? Kind of like one of those weird riddles from when you were a kid where Billy is the son of a doctor, but not his father’s son or some such nonsense. However, I can only be romantic toward one member of my family at a time, so my sister-in-law will have to settle for a generic Facebook greeting. Sorry Mary.
BUT, for my husband, the father of my children, the one I promised to share my life with some 12 plus years ago, I am offering up all the reasons why I love you AND only you. (I will give all the reasons why I love Ryan Gosling and Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in another post…maybe next Valentine’s Day! ;))
1. Despite my best attempts to be a totally bitchy and whiny and complaining about nothing the night that you proposed to me, you loved me enough to do it anyway. Thank you for that.
2. You wanted our babies desperately to be girls, both of them, and I don’t why, but for me, that just makes me swoon for you.
3. I love that you convinced me to wait to find out what we were having with both of our children, because those two moments shared with you, are hands down the two greatest moments I have had in my lifetime.
4. You love our children with your whole heart, and you aren’t afraid to show them that love, both physically and emotionally.
5. I love that you give them silly nicknames that they both use in regular conversation when they talk about how great you are.
6. I love that you take them places and do things with them that are really fun because when they grow up and look for a husband they will remember to find one who wants to go places with them.
7. I love that you indulge me in watching Survivor and Amazing Race and when you find out that The Bacherlorette is going to feature Emily, you immediately say that you will watch that, too.
8. I love that you when we are watching the above shows you will totally play along and talk about who is cute, both girls and guys!
9. I know that I can count on you 100% for the big stuff, no matter what.
10. I love that you own Royal Tennenbaum style track suits and aren’t afraid to wear them, especially the green one in public, even at the nice mall in town.
11. I love that you own red Adidas tennis shoes and don’t care that I make fun of you for them, because as you like to tell me “French tennis players get paid a lot of money to wear these.”
12. I love that you work hard for our family.
13. I love that you use phrases like “a ha moment” when you get something because I have totally Oprah trained you.
14. You have hilarious Facebook statuses that make me laugh out loud.
15. I love that when I travel with my girlfriends, you always send me pictures of the girls on my phone, because you know it will make me smile.
16. I love that you love driving Emma to school.
17. I think it is totally fantastic to see how much passion you have for cricket, and I appreciate the fact that you don’t expect me to have the same amount of passion for it…or really any passion for it at all.
18. I love that when we are talking about cool things to do with our children, you come up with totally out of the box ideas because as you put it, “Wouldn’t it be cool if they remembered for the rest of their lives that time Dad took us out to breakfast and Mom showed up in a full princess costume to tell us we were going to (name withheld because it is a big giant secret)!” ***
19. I always appreciate the fact that you don’t ever give me a hard time for an unclean house or leftovers for dinner and you still tell me I work hard.
20. I am so glad that you are present, fully and completely with our family when you are at home.
21. You do really awesome things to surprise me, like make me videos of our children just to be nice. This is Where I Belong
***I will be not donning any sort of costume for the big reveal much to the dismay of everyone I have ever met.***
Happy Birthday, Robert!!!
(And Ron also shares his bday with his sister and they aren’t twins, either! Funny!) Very sweet post, Ashley. You are both very lucky to have each other!!
Happy Birthday, Robert!!
I think I knew most of these from conversations with Ashley because she brags about you all the time…but I had no idea you were Oprah trained! Impressive! (I am disappointed that you couldn’t get Ashley to don the princess costume. There is still time, though!)
Happy Birthday to Robert! I especially love the track suits part, and think I need to friend him on Facebook to see these hilarious status messages! This is such a fun post! Love it!
And I am certainly dismayed about no princess costume!
I’m sewing the princess costume right now. It will be AWESOME.
Happy birthday to a guy who is an All-Rounder as a father and a husband! (Like how I worked the cricket term in there? I’m not even sure it makes sense, but what the heck… YAY, Robert!)
VERY IMPRESSIVE!
We wish you a very happy birthday Robert, and you have the greatest wife in the whole world (but you already knew that!)!!!!
now I’m crying!!! thank you honey!
Happy Birthday, Robert!! I also look forward to your FB status updates. It is the reason that Brian made it his New Years resolution to get a FB account. To add to the reasons we love Robert, we love you for the random pictures you tag us in as well as the fun photos you send to our phones, particularly every single car you ever see that has a Steelers logo. And who could forget your love of crepe myrtles. You are their biggest advocate. Hope you have a great day in Rock Thrill today slaving away for that fabulous family of yours! Let me know when you can swing by and I’ll cook up a batch of birthday collards for you to take home to the fam.
Wow! I love this one!! In one article I know why it works so very well for your family and why those sweet girls are so well rounded funny and happy!! The best part is when they are choosing a partner in life their standards are going to be way up there (securing their happiness and the beat goes on!!) I’ve met your Father Robert and know this to be a fact
You’re setting the bar, dude. I want a suit like that.
When I read this last week in a “sneak preview”, I thought it was so funny and so loving, and it is such a wonderful thing to write for your husband!
Wow! If that was not the sweetest thing ever. I must stop reading your columns while doing work at Panera-I cry every time! I thought this one would be safe (after the column about your mom, holy water works) but I was wrong.
If you want your children to remember that their mom was fun and cool too (not just their dad), you totally have to wear the princess dress. No excuses!
Another good article, Ashley. You made him sound fantastic as we all know he is.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROBERT. Hope your day is as great as Ashly’s articles.
Thank you all so much for leaving such great comments! 🙂 Makes his birthday blog even more special! I appreciate it!
Awesome read! Happy Birthday Robert! I think your track suit and red Adidas shoes are cool.
Ashley - Being a princess is totally the way to go…
Happy, happy (belated) birthday, Robert!!
And happy belated birthday to Mary, too.
Poor Mary.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to it.
Princess costume. You Must MUST do this.
And record it.
And send it to The Happiest Place on Earth because then - THEN!! - you would be in one of their commercials on TV.
Oh, and I am totally going to use this idea the next time we go to that place. Because my girls (as would your’s) would totally remember that for.the.rest.of.their.lives.
And your Mom would LOVE that story about you.
xoxoxo
I am thinking long and hard about the princess costume. You people and your comments have really been pressuring me, and I feel like after all I ask of you, maybe I owe you this.
What could I possibly be getting myself into?? 😉
I will promise this, if (and it is still a BIG IF) I do it, I promise to share it with my faithful blog readers! 🙂
Oh! And if y’all ever decide to dress as Glee characters for Halloween? Looks like Sue Sylvester’s, I mean Robert’s, track suit is ready and waiting. (Although he really needs a red one to match his red kicks, for the sake of Sue Sylvester, that is.) 🙂
Teasing aside, you are both blessed to have found each other in this crazy world. Treasure it.
Love both of your comments.
He has a red track suit, by the way! 😉