Sunday, August 5, 2007

Marriage

I got tagged for a meme from Sarah. Since my husband is gone right now visiting his very sick mother in Utah, I miss him, so this will be an easy assignment. It is just 8-10 facts about your marriage. Here goes:

1. We have so many, many things in common. We both love to walk/run and go for long walks every morning. We even get up at 5:30 in the morning, just to walk together. That time is so wonderful for discussions, jokes, and review of our life apart.
2. We are totally in love with each other. I always wanted someone who was madly in love with me and I have that. But the neat thing is: I am madly in love with him, too.
3. We have been married for 25 years...as of November of this year. It hasn't been easy. We have had our rough times. But it has been worth every minute of it. I can't imagine my life without him. We have blended into two people who compliment each other with our strengths and weaknesses.
4. He helps me grow into a better person. He challenges me. He won't let me just take the easy road. He is always there questioning my thinking and my view points. I love that because I DO have lots of viewpoints!!!
5. He is my biggest supporter and cheerleader. He is ready to listen to bad days and good days. He will listen to things I have written or stories that kids have written. I am sure he has other things to do, but he is always ready to listen to me. (Even though he calls me Chatty Cathy).
6. We both love to help coach people with interview skills. We do this mostly within the area of pageantry. We are judges for both the Miss America preliminary pageants and Miss Indiana State Fair preliminary pageants. The funny thing is, we usually agree on how to help these people become better. I guess that is why we work so well together.
7. We love working with our golden retriever, Murphy. We both take him to do his Visiting Dog work at Nursing Homes and Hospitals. Most people do it alone with their dog, but Murphy has two parents who love him. So, we both go.
8. We have raised four very different, very wonderful children. Three of our children work for the state: firefighter, teacher and police officer. Our youngest is a server at a local well-known restaurant and he is awesome.
9. We have six adorable grandchildren: two girls who will be in kindergarten this year, and four boys. Our oldest just turned 12! YIKES...almost a teenager.
10. Even though we both have different religions, those beliefs are very important to both of us. We have always agreed to disagree on some issues but the issue of God being the center of our lives is important to both of us. We know this is a hard spot but we feel we handle it well.

Thanks, Sarah, for making me sit down and think about this. I challenge ALL married people out there to try it.

4 comments:

Sarah Amick said...

So nice to know this side of Kathy. I know the driven professional, sounds like it drives that great marriage too. Thanks for playing, I too would recommend this for married folks!
See ya soon?

Kathy Douglas said...

You bet. I'm with you again. When can we start????

Sarah Amick said...

I have two names: Stephanie Harvey and Anne Gouvdis. They wrote Reading Comprehension:Strategies that work. Jen read this book this summer while I read Growing Readers. Anne Gouvdis taught with Kathy Collins and she taught the upper grades while Kathy taught first grades.
Is the middle school in question reading Mosaic?
I wonder if you get in touch with the Reading and Writing Project that Lucy Caulkins started if they could recommend something.
Sorry if I intruded in Ruth's question/response...

Ruth Ayres said...

Kathy --
I feel so lucky to know about your blog & get to see inside your life. You are such a beautiful person. Thanks (again) for sharing so openly.
You Rock!
Ruth

ps -- sarah, don't apologize -- i can't imagine you ever "intruding" on me -- i learn so much & am growing because you guys let me be part of your community. now i need to see what kind of question/response i need to be responding too! :)ha!