22 years of bliss...

 22 years ago,Tracy and I started the RIDE of a lifetime 
as we drove to Logan, Utah, to be married...

I still remember the drive as if it happened yesterday!
We watched the sun come up on our three hour drive,

we talked about our dreams, and we couldn't stop being excited about the events that were to happen in the next few hours.

(photo on the left is the last photo taken before we got married

photo on the right..."Mr. and Mrs. Tracy Smith") 

I've always loved this saying...

"Choose Thy Love... 

 ...Love Thy Choice"

And this is something that I have reflected on daily because I truly cherish and

 LOVE MY CHOICE!

I'm married to such a hopeless romantic
and I get LOVE notes on a weekly basis.

This year, Tracy made me such a priceless treasure...he printed out an old fashioned looking post card and then spent the next 2 weeks writing love notes and thoughts all over it.
I LOVE this so much...
I can't stop picking it up and reading and cherishing all of the sweet, heartfelt sentiments!  

This is a collection of thoughts I gave to Tracy for his 42nd birthday in 2010...these feelings still ring true today and so I'm preserving them in my journal...

My Dearest, husband, love and best friend...

Happy birthday 2010!   

42 wonderful reasons why I am so head over heels in love with you!!

-- Gorgeous eyes and smile I LOVE your bright blue eyes and your electric smile.

-- LOVE your gap in your front teeth!!  I know you don’t enjoy the gap in your teeth, but I LOVE it!! Your smile makes me melt and get weak in the knees!  I couldn’t imagine a better smile than yours!
-- I love your sense of style in the way you dress. Even if you are mechanicing on the cars or working in the yard you like to be dressed nice. I still remember seeing you for the first time in Pearl of Great Price and how nice you were dressed…striped turtleneck, white V-neck sweater with burgundy and navy banding around the collar, tapered pants and your black penny loafers with the beefy sole.
-- You have the BEST sense of humor! I love that my everyday is filled with laughter because of your awesome personality and sense of humor. I know that you fill many a life with laughter and humor as well.  I just can’t believe that I have YOU to spend my life and every day with. I AM LUCKY!!
-- Love all of your doodling and drawings that you do when you explain things. I love how visual you make everything when you describe or explain something to me. This is such a wonderful strength you have!

-- I LOVE my notebook and all of your sweet love notes you leave me. I get SO excited to walk through the kitchen door each day and I am hopeful that I will see a notebook lying on the counter with notes and thoughts from you!!  They are such treasures to me!
-- Kindness...I love how kind you are to everyone you meet. I don’t think there is a mean bone in your body.
-- Curly hair. I always dreamed of marrying someone with blonde highlighted hair. I know you don’t like when your hair gets long, but I LOVE your curly locks of hair. I get excited thinking of growing old together and having you be a spunky old man with grey curly hair!
-- Facial hair! I love that you are a manly man and that you can grow facial hair. My favorite thing is when you have your “Goatee”.
-- I love that I am married to capable man!! It doesn’t matter what task you have to do, you are always capable of doing whatever comes your way and you always do a wonderful job as well!
-- Make people feel comfortable!  What a blessing it is to be married to a man that makes people feel comfortable. From co-workers, to your scouts, to ward members and family, people LOVE to be around you because you make them feel comfortable with your “put people at ease” personality you have!

-- LOVE that you love to talk and speak what's on your mind. I never have to guess what you are thinking. I am SO lucky as there are many a woman out there that would love to have husbands that would talk to them!
-- I love your zest for life and your desire to be healthy!!  How lucky I am to be married to a husband that takes care of himself physically and strives daily to make conscious choices to be healthy!
-- You love the outdoors!! I am SO grateful that our sons have a dad that has such a great love for the outdoors and I love that you so willing take us to the outdoors to enjoy hikes and nature every chance you get.
-- You are the most incredible LOVER!!  I am completely fulfilled in my sexual life and you know how to make me feel incredibly good!!  What’s amazing is that our sex life just keeps on getting better and better!  It is like an aged wine…it just gets better with age!

-- Patient...I can't believe how many people you deal with at your work and you are always patient with them.  I know that you work with many teachers and co-workers that say and do dumb things, but you are always patient and nice with them!
-- I love your desire for knowledge and learning!  It doesn’t matter what the subject is, you are constantly, learning and gaining knowledge! It is such a blessing to not be married to someone that thinks they know it all! You are never too good to learn from others.
-- Smart!  I sometimes don’t know how you got stuck with me, because I am far from being as smart and intelligent as you are!  I am daily amazed by the intelligent words that come out of your mouth and you know and teach me things that I never knew, but, you knew everything about!
-- Creative! All I can say is WOW to your creativity! You are a dream husband and you are one of the main reasons that I don’t choose to hang out with other girls, because we craft together, decorate the house together and I get all of my JOY from doing all of these FUN things with you!

-- Eloquent speaker!  You exude talent in this area. Anytime you talk you use such big words, but you can relate to anyone on any level and they can understand you!
-- Sincere!  You are always SO sincere. Even when someone bugs you, you can be sincere and give them some kind of genuine compliment!
-- Adventurous!  I love that from the moment I started dating you, you took me on adventurous and unique dates! I will forever always remember our FUN date to the bat cave and our discovery of “Calli-delight” (along with some other FUN moments in the cave as well)

(and in your mess of things in your "Man-cave", you have an 

"I love my wife" sticker amongst all of your things...)

-- Jack of all trades!  I’m sorry to admit it, but I sometimes take you for granted, because in our 20 years of marriage you have been able to figure out and fix anything you touch!
-- You’re my editor...you make me look good! I love that you proof-read all of my posts and catch and fix things so they read and post well on my Blog, because sometimes I use the wrong homonyms. 
-- You are the BEST dad!  I know that being a dad is not always easy, but you are SO wonderful to our sons! Even though they both are unique, you try to bring out the best in both of our sons. I love that you take time for them and you always want to make sure we have FUN in our home each and every day!
-- You have a great body! I love your body and you have the most sexy butt!  You look amazing for being 42 years old. I love everything about your body and WOW you know how to make me feel oh so good!
-- You take care of yourself! I am SO lucky to be married to a man that clips his nails, picks the black heads on his nose, showers, washes his hair and brushes and flosses his teeth daily. You are clean and always smell good and that is a blessing as there are women that have husbands that aren't that meticulously about grooming. You are yummy!!

-- You're mine! I truly have to someday pinch myself to make sure I am in real life!  I am SO lucky that YOU are my hubby!

-- You are SO thoughtful!! I am always finding thoughtful things from my sweetie! I have treasure boxes full of 20 years of thoughtful notes and gifts from you.  I LOVE THEM ALL!!
-- You are a great teacher!  You teach me so many things as well as our kids, but I am really enjoying watching your teaching skills with your scouts. They are learning SO many things because of your great teaching abilities!
-- People feel safe around you!  Your boys in your Scout Troop are so fortunate they have a leader they can feel safe around!  I love that people that are the “underdog” can feel safe because of your kind nature!
-- You have filled my life with FREEDOM!  I love our freedom that we experience in every area of our life! Thanks for giving me butterfly wings!
-- You are a Thinker! I am SO grateful to have a husband that thinks for himself and that doesn’t lock step to everything that everyone says to do. I love our conversations about the Cosmos and Truth and I am SO blessed that you aren’t afraid to question things. I love your honesty as well.
-- You Radiate JOY and Happiness…when I think of these 2 words YOU come to my mind!

-- You mend our clothes and can create masterpieces out of nothing…you truly know how to make a silk purse out of a sows ear!

-- You're my everything...my mechanic, my artist, my carpenter, my tailor, my landscape artist, etc....

-- you are PERFECT for me!! 

Love, Kimmie

Happy anniversary to my sweetheart! 

I hope we ring in at least another 50 together!