One after another :
“Have you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior?”
“Yes.”
“Have you renounced your old ways in sin?”
“I have.”
“And will you continue to follow him all the days of your life?”
“I will.”
“I now baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Three lives are submerged in the evening waters — Three lives are brought back into the clean air with a gasp — Three lives have ended and lowered into the grave — Three lives have newly begun and are risen with their savior.

The tears are hard to suppress.
I mostly succeed.

That being said, I am “usually” the voice of reason and so I make sure that egos and emotions don’t get too out of control, which usually makes me a little reserved in going all out for her birthday. Plus, I’m just not that good at the flowers and fluffy thoughts kind of thing.

But she is great and I’d like to let her know, so here goes:

24 Reasons I Love My Wife

(this idea is borrowed from Peter in Alaska, but I figure it’s kosher because I had to come up with my own — except for the first one)

1. She makes me a better person.
2. She brings home the bacon.
3. She puts up with me and my computer.
4. She loves Jesus.
5. She encourages me to love Him more.
6. She has creative nicknames for me — like Mitchimus and Mitchacho.
7. She still uses the boring ones — like Hon, and Love.
8. She laughs at all my six jokes (almost every time).
9. She doesn’t like cars.
10. She knows how to win arguments with me.
11. She still thinks that belly flopping me is a sort of punishment for not getting out of bed in the morning.
12. She went and looked at the cats at Hohl’s after I said I didn’t think it was a good idea.
13. She named the girl cat after Jack Sparrow.
14. She is a chocolate snob, a wine snob and a coffee snob.
15. She is pleasantly liberal and pleasantly conservative.
16. She tries to make me cry by writing songs about me.
17. She will make a kick ass mom someday.
18. She makes sure I have a full belly, plenty of coffee and a jar full of cookies while I am up programming late.
19. She is on a mission to make a cake that I like, and has very nearly succeeded already.
20. She seems to think that I own hot pink vinyl pants with polka dots and is always telling me to wear them when I ask her opinion on my attire.
21. She likes the way I misuse words and phrases even though she was an English major.
22. She drops the F-bomb from time to time.
23. She drops the S-bomb fairly often.
24. She has me as her number 1 friend on myspace still, even though I hate myspace and never use my account.