Married to Mark

This coming Sunday, Mark and I will celebrate our seventeenth wedding anniversary. In honor of this momentous occasion, I thought about writing a column about marriage. In this article, I thought I would share with you all the grand and glorious wisdom I have obtained, regarding the male of the species.

But there is just one little problem. I am still trying to figure out the male of the species. After seventeen years of living up-close-and-personal with a real, live, red-blooded American male, I’m more confused than ever.

So instead, I have decided to tell you what I have learned specifically about Mark. My beloved.

So, without further ado, and in no particular order, here is what I have learned about Mark Foster Brumbaugh, in the past seventeen years:

1. He brings me flowers for no special reason.

2. He is very meticulous about his lawn. I have seen him spend hours on his knees, pulling up weeds from the roots, to make sure they don’t grow back.

3. He is hilarious! One of the first things that attracted me to him was his sense of humor. He is still making me laugh.

4. When he stood in front of nearly 400 people and pledged all his earthly goods to me, that didn’t include his hairbrush.

5. He is the best preacher I have ever heard. Really, he is! If you don’t already have a church home, you should come and hear him this Sunday morning at 10: a.m. Central Cities Church meets in the Extreme Youth building in downtown Copperas Cove, just up the sidewalk from the Cove Leader Press!

6. He is one handsome man. This is a really nice trait for the ladies in his congregation. On the off chance he preaches a boring sermon (which never happens!) we can just tune him out and look at his broad shoulders.

7. He is a great dad.

8. I am, under no circumstances, to sell the weight set that has been taking up space and gathering dust in the garage for years. If I do happen to accidentally sell it in a garage sale, he will go the following weekend to another garage sale and purchase another weight set to take up space and gather dust in the garage.

9. In my dreams, one week-long hunting trip to Kansas for him equals one week-long shopping trip to New York City for me. In reality, it equals a day at the spa. I’ll take it!

10. He talks in his sleep. It can be quite entertaining. Once, he awoke me in the middle of the night to tell me a “poor hungry mountain lion” was in our bedroom. I was nearly scared to death, until I figured out he was sleep-talking. Moments after I finally drifted back to sleep, he woke me up again – to tell me the lion was gone.

11. He is the grill king. He makes the best bar-b-cued ribs I have ever tasted.

12. He loves chocolate chip cookies.

13. He likes the smell of distant skunk. I’m still trying to analyze that one.

14. He will only drink coffee out of a Styrofoam cup, at a restaurant. He will not drink it at anyone’s home.

15. He likes a little tea with his tall glass of iced sugar.

16. His favorite movies are “Cool Hand Luke” and “A Christmas Story.”

17. He is getting better with age. I think I’ll keep him a while longer.

Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart!

Genesis 2:18 “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone.’”