Seth will turn fourteen next month.  He still has the face of a baby, but sometimes I think he has the mind of a sixty-five year old retiree.

He’s started the count down to his birthday and informed me yesterday of  how many more days until we celebrate.  I decided I should probably ask him what he wants for his big day.  I was totally expecting him to list off; Phone with texting, video games, books, comics and a host of other electronic gadgetry.  So, you can imagine how surprised I was when, in all seriousness, he said, “I want a twin bag collection system for the mower.”

Yes, my friends…this is what my soon to be fourteen year-old son wants for his birthday.

Why?

“I’m serious Mom, that’s all I want.  I wanted one all last summer, our neighbor has one and his lawn looks so nice after he’s done mowing.  I’m tired of raking up all the grass after I mow in the back.  I want the yard to look nice.”

So, you’re only desire for a gift is a twin bag collection system for the mower?

“Yes, I’m totally serious.”

Nothing else?

“No.”

The next day he did say, “Well, if you can’t get me the twin bag collection system then I’ll take a phone….with unlimited texting.  Or a camera.  Or a laptop.”

Good thing he doesn’t ask for anything BIG or EXPENSIVE!!!

And just to end this so you know he’s a fairly normal kid, he just called me and said, “Mom, I need a black and white cookie for my book report.  Sorry, I forgot.  I need it here in twenty minutes.  Okay, thanks.”

1. We live twenty minutes from school.

2. I don’t know where to find a black and white cookie…this is Kansas, not New York!

3. I want to kill him.

This is a photo of Clay, Me, Clay’s brother and Clay’s sister.  This was the first night we were together at Clay’s mother’s apartment, the first time I had met any of them.  We were obviously having a great time.  I remember laughing a lot that weekend.

Okay, now let’s talk about the obvious…

1. Bangs.  Everyone had bangs!!!  Clay with his dripping into his left eye and mine tightly curled above my eyebrows.

2. Acid Wash.  Dear Jesus, why did we all love it so?

3. I can only describe my hair as….transparent.  No, I did not bleach it, that is what color it was.  Freaky, I know.

4. Click on the photo to read How We Met- Part 10, Crazy is Normal

If you need to start at the beginning of the whole Clay and April story, then get comfortable and start here.

The one thing that was so different about Clay from all the other guys I dated was that he made me laugh.  Uncontrollable belly laughing.  I’d never met a guy so goofy, so comfortable making fun of me and himself and just so gosh darn HAPPY!  His faces, his sound affects, his impersonations, the one-liners, the sarcasm and best of all, the stories.  Everyday when he comes home from work I’ll ask if he’s got a good story for me or he’ll excitedly call me during his lunch break and say, “Hey, I gotta tell ya story.”  I love his stories.

I love his old stories the best,  some of them I’ve heard four- bazillion times, but occasionally he’ll tell me one I’ve never heard and that’s when I think, wow, I’m still getting to know him after all these years.

I know that what I have with Clay is extraordinary.  I don’t take it for granted.  I’m always touched when I get a comment about how wonderful our marriage is from a reader that has never met us and for that reason, I thought some of you might get a kick out of some facts about us.

1. When I first met Clay I thought he was really weird.  Weird looking, weird dresser…just plain weird.

2. It didn’t take me long to be friends with Clay, because he made me laugh.  I still thought he was weird.

3. I thought Clay would really like my sister.

4. I realized I was in love with Clay while watching him change a tire on the shoulder of  Interstate-35.

5. I met Clay when I was 18 years old, during my freshman year in college.

6. I once said to a high school girlfriend, “I think I’m going to marry a guy from Missouri.”  for no particular reason, other than I didn’t want to marry a guy from my home town in Kansas.

7. Clay is from Missouri.

8. We never went on a first date.  He never asked me out on a date, we just…were.

9. I gave back my engagement ring to him two months before our wedding because he was irritating the crap out of me.  Then I hid outside his open window to hear his reaction to the note I wrote him.  It wasn’t pretty.

10. I got my ring back the same night.  My point was made.  He got a job the next day.

11. We shared one car for the first five years of our marriage.

12. We make fun of each other more than any other people I know.

13. We rarely hurt each others feelings.

14. Clay wouldn’t talk about getting married or engaged when we were dating because he thought it would ruin the moment.

15. I almost broke up with him because he wouldn’t talk about our future.  He begged for me to be patient.

16. He had already bought my engagement ring when I was throwing the fit about him not talking about our future.

17. He has since realized it would have been better for him to talk about our future.  He’s lucky I’m so patient.

18. One time I pointed out a beautiful antique wedding set with a round diamond in a square setting to him in hopes that he would know what kind of ring I would like.  I also stated very clearly that I did NOT like a marquee setting.

19. He bought me the most contemporary ring with an oval diamond in a marquee setting.  I still wear that ring, because he picked it out for me and he likes it.

20. A few years ago I asked him for a little necklace for my birthday, something small that I could wear all the time.

21. He picked out a strange scrolly thing with a bunch of diamonds.  I was so embarrassed to wear it I hid it under my sweater.  But, this time he knew I didn’t like it.

22. I returned the hideous necklace and bought the one I liked.  I wear it all the time and he constantly says, “Wow, I really like that necklace I got for you.”

23.  I have begged him not to ever buy me jewelry again….ever.  He’s graciously agreed.

24. He also can’t buy me clothes or really anything for the house.

25. I do still own the first Christmas present he bought for me, it’s a men’s Calvin Klein bath robe and I really do like it.

26. I really do like him too.