Let me count the ways...

When I got back home from a huge day of solo-traveling from Chicago, 

 This is what I came home to...

 

The last bouquet from our rose bushes. 

Whit picked them all and brought the inside just for me!

I missed Whit on the trip. Not just because of all the things he does for me when he travels with me - and he does do a LOT, so much so that I even started keeping a list of things I noticed that he doe for me (some things I never even noticed before). Here it is:

1. Pack the suitcases really well
2. Carry the suitcases
3. Lifts me onto the plane - I mean, I noticed he did this, but didn't notice how much easier it was when he did do it.
4. Provides me with unlimited cuddling while we fly. Cuddling up with th wall, even with 5-7 blankets and two pillows was so amazingly uncomfortable.
5. Carry me off the plane.
6. Knows where to go in the airport. I had to ask 4 people where the 2C door was.
7. Put me in cars. I was strapped down with 4 cables in the taxi. It'd have been so much easier to get a regular cab with Whit.
8. Talk to the hotel people and check us in.
9. Open hotel doors. They're heavy and awkward.
10. Pushes me on hotel carpet.
11. Unpacks stuff in the hotel room while I freshened up and reapplied makeup 
12. Put me on the bed
13. Moved furniture (and heaven and earth) to find an outlet to plus in my heater
14. Sets all my bed stuff up like water and pills ad bucket and stuff
15. Made me feel safe
16. Tucked me in
17. He explains jokes to me
18. Rubs my shoulders when I'm cold
19. Finishes my food
20. Cuts my food so I don't have to stab huge chunks of broccoli and eat them bite by bite off the fork
21. He worries about packing and getting places
22. Gets my purse for me when I need it
23. Gets stuff out of the purse for me when I need it
24. Worries about losing the hotel key card so I don't have to.
25. Hands me the centerpiece candle when I am cold
26. Squeezes the lemon on my salmon
27. Puts toothpaste on m toothbrush
28. Packs up
29. Zips zippers
30. Helps me straighten my clothes (the maid helped me. Her name was Sonya)
31. Turns the tv on and knows how to work the remote control
32. Puts pillows under my knees
33. Takes the airplane tag off my wheelchair - I had it on through the whole conference.
34. Helps me wet my hair with shower nozzle
35. Let's me snuggle up against his back when he sleeps even when he is hot
36. Checks the drawers for stuff we left behind
37. Carries the bags
38. Gets me food from the buffet line
39. Never puts ice in my drinks because he knows I don't really like it.
40. Gets me drinks
41. Gets me silverware
42. Holds my business cards and gets me them when I need them
43. Clips my name tag on me.
44. Pushes the elevator buttons.

 And still, after spending a weekend away from me, and when he should be relaxing and not working so hard for ME, he picks me flowers.  

I know it's cheesy (maybe super cheese-cheesy) but it makes me think of one of my favorite poems I studied when I was an English minor in college:

 

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)