TUM - Week 7 - Husbands

This week's theme (Claire) was one that I really enjoyed...So often with TUM, I have noticed that a particular theme has really got me thinking and noticing things that I would not ordinarily notice...this week, made me stop and think about my life partner, and to realise how amazing he is and that although I don't always say it or show it, I know that I am one very lucky girl....but more about that later...
First up - the most intriguing photo of the week - This is Mark - or rather his hands..



Mark is my brother-in-law, so I have known him for as long as I have known Mike - a looooooong time......He is the "brother" that had the good sense to marry my favourite sister in law - See Pam, I can admit to that now that I don't have other sister in laws anymore...

Mark is tender and caring, and if ever I was in a pickle and Mike was not around to help out, I knew that Mark would somehow make a plan to help - no matter what - in the past four years, it has been a bit more difficulte cos they are so frigging far away, but I know that he would do his best to help in spirit....Pam - we did good, we did really good.  Looking forward to your post to find out the story behind the photo this week.

I have known Claire for most of my life (well, since school days, but I can not remember a time that I did not know her, so that makes it feel like she has been around my whole life)...

Her husband is Lance

What can I say about Lance...Lance is Lance - with his love of skiet 'n donder movies and his wonderful sense of humour and his habit of staying on a topic of discussion long after the conversation has moved through another four topics, and let us not forget that he is an eternal optimist and will do anything for anybody - even a total stranger...Claire, you have a wonderful man in Lance,...he is one in a million.

I love Mariette's photograph of Trev,...

Knowing that Trev is not keen on being in photos, Mariette very cleverly devised a plan to portray who he is without actually taking a full photograph of him - Well done Mariette.
Trev is probably Mike's best friend - even now, eleven years after Trev and Mariette left SA for the UK.  Mike and Trev clicked from the very first time they met and have that wonderful ability to pick up where they left off - no matter what the time in between has been..I think that of the four TUM ladies, Mariette and I are the most similair and of our husbands Mike and Trev are the most similair. 

Shew, ok, so now I have already done a whole blog post on everyone else's life partner and left my own till last.... You are just going to have to carry on reading, I am afraid, because I have left the best for last...

Mike and I have been married for 21 years, (16th Feb), and we lived together for about two years before that and knew each other about four years before that - I was just seventeen when I met him...
I know that we fell in love too quickly and it took some time for us to actually get past how much we loved each other and to actually start liking each other and becoming friends...this made for  a very intense relationship.  Now I love him more then I ever did before and he is one of my best friends, I still get heart flutter when I hear his voice and my pulse quickens when I see him...
There are so many things that I love about him, but I think at the top of the list (not necessarily in order) are, that he can make me laugh, that he knows exactly how to handle me when I am out of sorts and he understands me better then I understand myself and he accepts me totally just the way I am, faults and all...Of course, I love the fact that he is the father of my children, and I love seeing bits of him in them, I love watching the interaction betwen father and children, which is constantly shifting and changing slightly...

Mike sent this clip to me for our wedding anniversary last week

...This and a beautiful e-mail message and lovely big bunch of flowers....Do you see why I say I am a very lucky girl...

Next week our theme is CHILDREN....always interesting and fun...
See you next week.