40...it's just another number for Shari

The number 40 takes on a special significance here in Chicagoland today as we celebrate Shari's 40th birthday. Yep, 12 July is her birthday and we welcome her to the 40's (kiss your vision goodbye as well as your knees, sister). This is a great day. Even Mother Nature seems to be aware of it - she brought in the day with a rousing thunder and lightning storm that got me out of bed at 5AM to make sure the stupid sump pump was doing its thing, which is was - had it not, the lovely Shari's birthday would have gone south in no time flat.

I am really pleased that Shari's sister Jill is here. About a month ago, Jill and I called each other with the same idea - flying her in to celebrate Shari's big 4-0. Thanks to an excess of Mileage Plus miles on the Old Gray Mare, United, it made getting Jill up here easy. She was able to leave her kids too and have a bit of getaway herself. (Thanks, Wes, for taking one for the team, bro!) Surprising Shari was awesome and could not have worked out better. It's a whole other post in itself, but suffice to say it worked beautifully. I'm so grateful for the relationship (thanks to my mother-in-law Julie for doing an amazing job creating that bond!) that Shari and Jill have and I'm thrilled that we're seeing the same develop with Sarah and Courtney.

Shari has been with me for half her life now. By world's standards, we were really young when we got married (but those of you entrenched in our Mormon culture know it wasn't so odd) and we've grown up together. Well, most would argue correctly that Shari has raised me to what I am today, which is an arrested adolescent who can function in the adult world. My own parents remind me continually how lucky I am to have married her. And they're right. I am beyond lucky. She is amazing and I am honored every day that she still puts up with me.

I love this picture of her, even though she doesn't. We took this a couple of years ago at the top of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong. This is one of the things I love about her - she'll go anywhere with me, not knowing what I'm dragging her into and we've always managed to have great times.


I've been tremendously blessed in my life but nothing compares to the blessing of this woman. I really do marvel that she said "yes" so many years ago to me. Twenty years ago, I knew the minute that I saw this stunningly beautiful 20 year old young woman that I would marry her. She was not of the same persuasion, but persistence/stalking paid off and here we are twenty years later, celebrating her 40th. It's all good, it really is.

Now this day does deserve an 80s throwback video, as that music really is the soundtrack of our early life together and like most people from that generation, we're still stuck on it. So I thought about this, and many of you who know the lovely Shari know that her hearing challenge can make song lyrics a bit of a gamble. One of her classics is "Ocean Blue" by ABC. Honey, this one is for you. I give you "O Shamu":

Happy birthday, I love you forever.