Dear John, What a week - It feels a little like a train that I can't get off of right now. Great Lent has begun, Lydia was sick this morning, I am stressing over this test and you have sermon to give on Saturday morning. Can life get anymore complicated? I am sure that it can. So through all of my tears over my children, you not being home, and fears about my Stats class - you still listened to me - even when I was not rational about everything. Thank you for your time, I am very grateful that you gave me a little of it. I was able to get through all of Chapter 3 and will be moving onto making a study guide for Chapter 4. I hope that you have a good rest of the day and evening. I will see you tonight. Drive safely.

-Alex

Good Morning/Afternoon

Dear John,
I didn't really get to say good morning or good afternoon to you today. I was soooooo tired when I came home. I feel like I only saw you for five minutes and you were off to class (btw I hope it is an interesting class for you). Five minutes does not seem like enough. I miss you already.

Work was steady and I managed to stay awake. The best thing that happened to me - a patient grabbed my hand, (after a tearful episode) looked me in the eye, squeezed my hand and said thank you. My job couldn't have gotten any better than at that moment. It is in those seemingly insignificant moments that I realize that being a nurse (at least for me) is a calling and not just a job.

Hope you day has gone well. Love you.

-A

New Cake

Ok - so I couldn't stop myself - I had to make another cake. Thank you John for bringing home the icing. Now, little did I know - John decorated the cake while I was eating dinner. A photo for posterity.

-A

Cake

Dear John
I thought about what you said - about overreacting - more specifically about the chocolate cake incident. I realized that I am not going to always say/write positive things to you or about you. That would not be an honest picture of our relationship. I still love and I still think the world of you - even when you forget things.

Now about the cake - you have to understand one thing. A woman and chocolate cake have a solid relationship that comes close to that of a husband and wife. The only difference is there is no arguing and if I get angry I just eat the cake. So last night - when you turned the oven on and melted the plastic wrap to the cake (so that I couldn't eat it) I was upset and disappointed. I know I overreacted about it but looking back on it, it is funny and after all isn't being able to laugh at ourselves part of our relationship? I hope that you have a good day and I pray that you got to work safely.

Love, A



P.S. Never start the self cleaning cycle on the oven until you have cleaned off the boiled over icing on the bottom of the oven. Lets just say the front door is open and the fan in on and its 32 degrees outside. At least the smoke alarm did not go off.

Moments of Happiness

Dear John, I wanted to thank you for changing the way I thought about my day. You asked our daughter, who was crying about how horrible her day was, "how many moments of happiness did you have today?" This one statement remains with me. It is powerful when you really think about it. You changed a negative to a positive. Thank you.

-A

Dear John

Ok, this is not what you would consider a typical blog or, for that matter, a typical Dear John letter. The letters of this blog are for my husband. My companion/friend/advocate/instigator/love of my life since Fall of 1992. He recently said to me "we don't write anymore." I hadn't thought about this in years. When we first knew each other we would write letters to each other - about our day or about a professor we couldn't stand at college. So I guess I will try this again - writing letters to my dear John.