Thirty one reasons

1) I love your Barry White voice and how little old ladies melt when you talk.

2) I love that you can bench press me, even if you do workouts named after other women.

3) I love your crooked smile that you give about freely and the twinkle in your eye when you're trying to get something you know you shouldn't have.

4) I love how you can stand up and give a fire-cracker speech about absolutely anything off the cuff.

5) I love your ingenuity and watching you fix just about anything, except maybe the toilet.

6) I love how well you can pack 1000 square feet of my luggage into our car.

7) I love that you don't (usually) complain about my excessive luggage.

8) I love you for that first picnic and that first run in the rain.

9) I love your hair and all the different directions it points at various times of the day.

10) I love the conversations we have in the middle of the night when you are sleepwalking, even when you tell me to go get into the dishwasher.

11) I love you for that time at your apartment right after graduation when you made everything perfect.

12) I love you because you've loved me since before I knew it and still now when sometimes I don't deserve it.

13) I love you because you're so funny, even when you don't mean to be.

14) I love you because you're _always_ happy and that makes me happy.

15) I love how tenderhearted you are and that you've given that trait to our son.

16) I love your height and that somehow you make my giant frame feel dainty.

17) I love your laugh, especially when it's so hard you can't breathe.

18) I love how you chase our son with as much joy as he gets from crawling away from you.

19) I love your sense of direction and your ability to tell which way is North just by looking out the window.

20) I love that you've fought overseas for our country just because you thought it was the right thing to do but gave it up when I asked you to.

21) I love that you know how to kill a man with your hands but that you have the most gentle soul of anyone I've ever known.

22) I love your unparalleled integrity.

23) I love that we have the same music tastes and I adore that I can predict when you're going to belt out to Willy Nelson or Johnny Cash when you start banging on the steering wheel.

24) I love how open you are to trying new things, even if they are green and leafy.

25) I love that you hate to argue and love to make up.

26) I love that our son has you as the example for all that a man is supposed to be.

27) I love how selfless you are no matter how tired or hungry or pained you are.

28) I love your cooking.

29) I love that you are my partner in absolutely everything and that being with you is the only place I really ever want to be.

30) I love how endless your memory is and how much of an asset you are when I need to impress someone.

31) I love you because I always have, beyond my understanding, and always will, beyond this life and the next.

Happy Birthday, dearest.

I love you.