with all my heart and soul....

I love Paul, with all my heart and soul. I just do. I have since I met him, and it has only gotten better, stronger. I am so very thankful for him, and that we still love each other so much.

We are mostly on the same page about things, and when we aren't - we don't butt heads too much because we just know better, I guess. And we don't see it as important to be right, we know that when we humble ourselves it only gets better.

It helps that we are still strongly attracted to each other, too.

Too Much Information, perhaps.

I was reading the obituaries this morning, one of my favorite things to do...and one 85 year old woman who lost her husband all the way back in 1981,( when I was still in tenth grade,) was quoted as saying that she had, "loved her husband with all her heart and soul." It made me sad to think she had spent all those years without him, missing him.

I am thinking that the more I count my blessings, the more difficult it will be to be sad about things.

Yesterday was such a good day I wish I could do a re-do. Margaret was the co-pilot of the shopping trip, and a good one, too. She and I have had our times of difficulty, exasperating each other without meaning to, yet she is such a sweet girl. Strong and opinionated, but very kind. We had a good old time driving down the roads, making up limericks...mine was: As a girl named Margaret once said,
as she tossed her big curly head,
"If you don't like my hair,
You can stick it right there,"
And her mother sent her to bed.
Don't read too much into it...it was off the top of my head.

Well, SHE thought it was funny.

Our dinner last night: I came in with all the groceries after dropping off the food for the soccer weekend at church, and did 15 minutes or so of exercise...after catching up with everyone's day, and warning them not to eat all the M&Ms in the first day and passing out the things I got for them (headbands for Suze, sensitive teeth toothpaste for Mirielle, shorts for Suze, shaving cream for Evelyn...)anyway, I had to make dinner, too...so I cut some fresh chicken breasts up a bit, wrapped each piece in a piece of bacon, sprinkled it with pepper, and put in the oven...then put in a pan of basmati rice with butter, covered in foil...after about an hour, and opening five cans of green beans, dinner! (baking the rice is so much better...it is supposed to be soaked in water for 15 minutes before baking, but blah, I just put it in with twice the water/rice ratio, and it is always good.)

The peanut M&Ms are almost gone already. AND, someone opened the regular ones, too. The chocolate covered raisins are almost gone, too, but I am glad about that. They are now my enemy. I cannot ever be in their presence. ha.

Why, you might ask, do I even buy these things? good question. The thing is, it is all gone so fast, divvying stuff up 13 or 14 ways just makes it gone quickly. So it seems like lots of treats, but it really isn't.

Tonight is the Dreaded Town Board Meeting. I am trying to guilt more older kids into coming with me...so far Sam and Sonja K. are coming. I think it would be ideal if they ALL would come and take up a whole row, just to make a point about who this race track would impact...

I embarrassed Miss Margaret at the store yesterday. She HATES it when people make a big deal about our family. She wants to be just a girl...not a Girl From That Big Family. Well...I'll try to spare the boring details, but at the service desk in BJ's yesterday, I overheard the clerks trying to sell memberships at a much better price than what I paid just two weeks ago, and with two months extra. I asked why I wasn't offered that deal, and was told it was only for new members, not RE-JOINING members, which makes NO sense. Loyal customers should be given deals, right? The manager heard my comment, which I made very nicely, and offered to give me two free months on my membership. When she looked up my account and saw how much I spent there last year , she was shocked...I told her I have 16 kids, 13 still at home, and Oh My Goodness...I was almost embarrassed at how interested she was..she asked lots of questions, and Marg was just standing there dying....but this lady was just innocently interested, and I didn't mind a bit answering her questions (yes, just one washing machine)....poor Marg. She just wants to be Normal. I told her we ARE Normal, just a WHOLE bunch of Normal.

Camille and I might go for a swim today, since my knees are killing me...the running must not be good for them, they ached like two giant toothaches this morning...she is waking up now, so I shall cuddle her...