Dear The One, 34 reasons I love you...

1. You asked me to walk around the lake, and so it all began.
2. You called me back after our first date which consisted of renting a movie and eating Papa John's, and ended with me calling my mom and talking forever because I found out Diana died, and I'm a royal addict.  You must have thought I was a real winner.
3. You went to the West Campus Library and pretended to study while I pretended to study, passed notes, and had fits of laughter with me.  While not much actual studying got done during those hours, it at least made me feel good to think I'd been at the library...
4. You sent me a jillion emails (and I sent you a jillion and two) that first summer apart.  I love reading them.
5. You put up with me obsessing about exams and grades in undergrad.
6. You proposed under the Century Tree then bought me the print to remember it by.
7. You blew off classes many times your last semester to enjoy crawfish boils and Cajun festivals with me.
8. When the preacher who did our premarital counseling asked about the reasons you wanted to marry me, you listed one as "she smells good".
9. You never complained about all the traveling I did the first 3 years we were married and joined me as often as possible.
10. When I said I wanted to quit my job and go to law school, you said I should (and meant it).
11. You took the job in Jersey, which holds some of my best memories from our early years of marriage.
12. You've always been willing and able to move to new places.
13. You put up with countless nights and weekends full of me reading, studying, and stressing over law school.
14. When I got a clerkship out of town for the summer, you said I should go then visited me as often as you could.
15. When I went half crazy studying for and worrying over the bar exam, you believed in me.
16. When I worked too much my first couple of years at the firm, you didn't complain and instead found other ways to fill your time that made me laugh (like ping pong tournaments).
17. You know how fun it is for me to plan vacations then work the plan, and you go all in with me.
18. You love talking about budgets with me.
19. You're constantly thinking about your next meal.
20. You know about all my yesterdays, but haven't let them define all my tomorrows.
21. You always believe in us.
22. As my weight has gone up and down and back up again, you still say I'm beautiful but encourage me to be healthy.
23. You extend grace and loyalty to your family of origin.
24. You genuinely like my family, and they genuinely like you.
25. That your nieces and nephews love you to pieces.
26. That you love your nieces and nephews to pieces.
27. The way you read to Bo when he was still in utero.
28. The way you carried him around like a football his first few months.
29. How you call him "my little nugget" and "my little buddy".
30. The way you charted his every move those first couple of weeks.
31. That you were more than willing to learn to burp, change, bounce, sing, swaddle, and bathe him.
32. The way you make animal sounds when you read to Bo.
33. The look on Bo's face when he sees you.
34. The look on yours when you see him.

 Happy Birthday...