Dave rocks! That's how he rolls...

Here it is...summer again. Honestly, I love summertime. Some of my favorite things about summer are: Having the kids home, staying up late and sleeping in, having no real structure to follow, watermelon, afternoon naps, fishing, and fireflies...etc. If it weren't for 100% humidity, mosquitoes, bickering children and sunburn, summer would be my favorite season. This year, though, something is missing from our usual summer fun. Daddy. David has been working a turnaround (a process where they shut down equipment, do required maintenance, and then re-start the equipment at chemical plants and refineries). This requires him to work constantly at weird times with hardly any time off. For the first month he worked nights only with no days off. It's getting (a little) better now and the end is in sight. I miss having him around. It makes me realize how much he does around here and how his contribution adds so much to the function of our every day lives. And I just miss him.

And so...I'm using this forum to heap praise and props on my husband. David being David, will hate this and it will make him profoundly uncomfortable. Me being me...I will do it anyway and hope he will recognize why I'm doing it and will find it in his heart to forgive me.

For those of you who know him, I'm sure you'll agree that God really outdid Himself when He came up with the idea of creating David. Guys like him are few and far between and I pinch myself often to be sure I'm not dreaming that I have been blessed with him as a husband and partner. David and I are living proof that not only do opposites attract, they work very well together, David is: Patient, pragmatic, easy-going, accomplished, conscientious, highly intelligent, strategic in his thinking, loving, thinks carefully before he speaks, is slow to anger and I've never (really, NEVER) heard him raise his voice in the 16 years that I've known him. Remarkably, he just doesn't have to. I, on the other hand, am a dreamer, am easily excitable, a creative thinker, very social, rarely know what I'm going to say until I've heard myself say it, get occasionally exasperated, have great ideas but lousy follow-through, have been known to raise my voice either in excitement or in anger and generally have the nervous system of a Chihuahua.

From day one, he has been the best friend I have ever known. He knows where I came from...my past failures and mistakes and yet he has always chosen to see the best in me. He has loved and prayed for me through difficult times of fear, pain and heartache. Through personal crises and losses. Through the roller coaster of infertility and the miracle births of our children. He is always there. Steady as a rock. My biggest fan and supporter. In some of my darkest days he has believed in me even when I wasn't sure if I believed in myself. He is nothing short of an amazing human being.

Once, early in our relationship, we were taking a walk near our Condo on Padre Island in Corpus Christi. I was going on and on about all of the great things I could see in our future. We were walking past these big, beautiful waterfront homes and I was excitedly babbling away saying things like: "I think we can have it all. The fairy tale...I love you that much! Our lives are going to be so great...(yadda, yadda...)" We walked along quietly, hand in hand, for a minute or so after that and then he said something to me that I will never forget. He said, "I'll tell you what, Cathy...you build the castle and I'll be the foundation." He says cool things like that.

Here we are many years later having just celebrated our 14th anniversary on May 24th. I feel like we have it all. By 'all' I mean most everything we have been praying and dreaming for. If it never gets any better than it is now...it's still way more than I'd hoped for. God has been so good to us. Notably, we have been really good to each other. That makes a big difference.

Father's Day is coming and I want to send a shout out to David Kingsbury!! If everyone had a dad like David the world would be a happier, more secure, more loving place. As Dads go, I can only think of one better. Our Father in heaven. David is a selfless, loving, fun and dedicated daddy to our kids. Even the dog is ridiculously devoted to him. We are blessed, indeed.

You may think I'm going to give David a big head with all of this gushing praise and attention. I'm not worried about that. He's not one to take on about himself...that's why I do it for him. :0)

Yes, summer is here. This weekend we will go to Galveston and then in August we're off to Maine for a couple of weeks. We all can't wait to have David back and to spend some family time together hiking around the shores of coastal Maine. Maine rocks! So does David. Happy summer, everyone!

Blessings, Cat