My husband never ceases to amaze me: a man who lives for football and acts like the typical male in public can be so incredibly sweet. But, believe me, I'm not complaining.

I've decided that they need to rewrite all of those horrible YW manuals and their naive and completely inaccurate depictions of marriage: "there's really no 'one' in life", "when you get married, everything will be perfect", "only date those that you think you could marry", "there's no such things as 'friends' of the opposite sex." There may not be only "one" you could marry, but there is "one" you'd be most happy with. Marrying does not create perfection. I guess that making sure you have the "one" would be a good idea if you're going to be stuck together eternally. I definitely did not only date guys I would have possibly married. If so that means I would have married a homo or a drug dealer. Both were fantastic guys, but not really those you want to/could have kids with. Having friends of the opposite sex is a flawed statement. I think women have the power in this. I was once told by a guy friend that a guy can never "truly" be friends with an atttractive girl. He's always thought sexually about her at least once. Which is why I hate all those cute little, single girls on my husband's facebook. But, the "rule" is flawed because my best friend is my spouse. When I was teaching, all of my "overly sex-driven" teenaged students had no real concept of love. I asked them, what happens when their looks fade or when they realize that as adults, most often their relationships take place mostly over the phone? If your relationship is based solely on sex, it will definitely lead to very short conversations and a lot of uncomfortable silence. Marriage is about seeing your spouse passed out by the toilet after throwing up and still having the desire to kiss them. It's about watching your millionth episode of Spongbob with 2 little bodies in between and you still manage to grasp eachother's fingers behind the couch. My grandmother used to run to her bedroom to put on lipstick when she heard my grandfather's car pull up and still managed to kiss each other "hello" with 17 little kids running interference. That's marriage. Time to rewrite those manuals.

Starting up....

After reading several blogs and thinking "what is the use?," I decided to start one (without asking Amie) and talk about our lives together. Amie is a real gem; quite the complex person. She can be as sweet as newly wed and as feisty as politician when she feels her (or her family's) rights are being violated. That makes my marriage an incredible experience and I am very happy I ended up with her. I can't thank heavenly father enough times.

So the purpose of this will be to see if Amie writes on the blog (as she is a writer you see...) and hopefully we can get great stories from our family published in the now very conventional way of technology. We are special; just like you and everyone else who has happiness in their lives.