Twenty-four reasons; one for each year

April 2 is our anniversary and it's time for the annual assessment of my relationship to the One That Sleeps Next To Me.

This is the third year of a "love list" for the long-suffering John Phillip.  I challenge myself to come up with the real glue that keeps us together and although the task may seem daunting because according to self-imposed Peggy Rules, I can't repeat myself, it's really not that difficult.

Here, on the eve of the eve of our 24th anniversary, are twenty-four more reasons I love my husband:

Dear John...

1. I love how you water the plants that I love-but-sometimes-neglect even though you don't care about them one bit.  Especially the basil.
2. I love it when you make breakfast on the weekends.  It doesn't happen often but your scrambled eggs are always great.
3. I love when you agree to try a new restaurant despite every cell in your body is screaming NO NO, NEW THINGS ARE BAD.
4. I love when you instinctively realize that my car is on "E" again and fill the gas tank in the dark, rain or snow even though I could have stopped at a service station on the way home.
5. I love how you call to find out exactly when I'm leaving work so you can make my steak rare, just the way I like it.
6. I love how you tell me to tell our kids-who-are-now-adults what to do because you think they only listen to The Boss (not true).
7. I love how you understood immediately how important it was for me to get to South Dakota when my dad was so sick in February.
8. I love how you continue to look for New York-style pizza smack dab in the middle of the country.
9. I love your (sometimes feeble) efforts to make me a low-cal breakfast smoothie to my exact specifications.  
10. I loved watching "Big Love" with you and I'm sorry it's over.
11. I love that you've realized you can get the internet other than from AOL.  
12. I love how, when I'm cooking up a storm, you come to the kitchen and kiss the back of my neck.  Goosebumps!
13. I love seeing you read the Sunday edition of the New York Times.  You enjoy it as much or more than I do.
14. I love the picture of us taken at the Washoe Valley shack more than two decades ago when I was young and thin and pretty and the one we took in January, 2011 in the same place by our kids-who-are-now-adults.
15. I love the choices you make on our Netflix movie account.  Haven't we seen some great movies together?
16. I love the silent battle for bathroom space for your toiletries and mine.  You move stuff to my side, I move it to yours, back and forth, back and forth. 
17. I love that you become a South Dakota State University fan whenever necessary.  Go Big. Go Blue. Go Jacks!
18. I love that you exclaimed "no more pools"  which was recorded on my Flip camera after your bracket was busted (again) and I look forward to how you will explain your NCAA bracket fixation in 2011.
19. I love your devotion to crazy television shows on HBO and Showtime and that you don't expect me to watch "True Blood" or any of that other crazy stuff that I hate.
20. I love that you pack for a two-day trip with a giant suitcase filled with clothes for every possible weather/social event.
21. I love that you carry a switchblade on our walks through the benign Olathe trails, just in case a serial killer accosts us.
22. I love how you wish for grandchildren.  I do too.  (No pressure kids-who-are-now-adults, it will happen when it's meant to happen)
23. I love your devotion to our beloved dog Dottie, now gone for more than a year.  It's time for us to re-dog, honey.
24. I love the rare, rare weekend mornings when we get to sleep in, wake up at the same time, open our eyes simultaneously and smile at each other with the warm familiarity of our years together.  Magic!