Happy Birthday Mr. Lincoln!

For those of you who don't know, this year marks the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth! Since Jon is such a fan of Lincoln, we've been making extra efforts this past week to remember our 16th president. There is a special website set up to the Lincoln Bicentennial, with trivia, news, Lincoln's speeches, and other random stuff. We also found this crazy mosaic of Lincoln done all with pennies (link the picture and you can see the video making of it).

The other thing we did to celebrate Lincoln this year was to have a Lincoln meal with some of Lincoln's favorite foods, Fricaseed Chicken and Mary Todd Lincoln's White Almond Cake. This is actually our second annual Lincoln meal, and we're thinking we'll make it a family tradition.

I love my husband

Last night Jon and I went and played racquetball together for FHE. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am horrific when it comes to any sort of sport, and that includes racquetball. Because I am really bad, I really don't typically like sports all that much and avoid them at nearly all costs. However, one of the only exceptions to that is racquetball. I think it's the peow of the ball against the wall (come on, if you've ever been on a racquetball court you know exactly what I'm talking about!) that gives me a certain thrill. So, yes, I enjoy racquetball even though I am not good at it.
Even though I like playing it, though, I still do not like being bad at it. Therefore, in order to keep enjoying it, I play a modified version of the game that basically consists of throwing out any sort of structure or rules, and just hitting the ball against the wall to the best of my ability (1 bounce, 2 bounces, even 5 bounces on the floor, as long as I hit the back wall it's all the same to me). There are no points, there is no competition, it's purely for the chance to move around and hear the ball hit the back wall as often as I can get it there.
This brings me to my point of why I love my husband so much. Now, most men are not motivated to play sports for the entertainment of knowing that they have gotten their workout in for the day, nor even for the chance to hear some silly sound (though I'm sure they still get a secret thrill out of this also). We all know they play sports for that manly competitive feeling they get. It is just not as entertaining otherwise. Jon is no different -- he'll brag about his exploits on the basketball court just as quickly as the next guy. And I know that playing me at racquetball, with my total rejection of any points or rules, is at times totally and completely boring to him. But what I love is that he plays with me anyway. He plays with me, and he congratulates me on my good hits as if we were really playing for points, and he makes me feel like he's having a good time too. And so, as we played our racquetball game last night -- and laughed together about our bad hits, and congratulated each other for our good ones -- I just couldn't help but smile to myself and think again how much I love my husband!