I don’t have all the answers. Hell, one couple in our little town just celebrated their 70th anniversary and even they say they don’t have all the answers. But after almost 14 years together, I know this - My husband can’t read my mind.

In our 13 1/2 years together, I will say this - we have had more good times than bad.  Even the ‘just ok’ times have been pretty darn good for me.  Sure, the big gestures are nice, the extravagant family vacations are wonderful, and the kids love to reminisce, but the little things are pretty cool too.

The way Roy smells when he crawls into bed at night.  The way he rolls over at night and seeks me out even while asleep.  Joe playing squinkies (if you don’t know what they are, where have you been?!) with Dean.  Corey taking Addi out for Chinese food.  Hayden slamming into the house, cheeks red from the chill in the air.

Roy spending the day (yes, the entire day…) washing his car, while I read silly blurbs to him from my women’s magazines.  Or finding a movie the whole family digs and sitting around the family room with them watching it.

BUT, Roy won’t know how much these little things mean to me, unless I tell him.  It isn’t that he’s clueless… far from it.  It isn’t that he’s dumb… he’s one of the most intelligent men I know.  It’s that after being together for this long and having five boys, I finally realized men just don’t see things the way we do.

There were times in the past when this made me CRAZY!  Roy and I would get into a fight, or my mom would hurt me, and I would go to Roy fussing and venting.  He would do one of two things. Tell me how to ‘fix’ the problem (UMM… excuse me!  Are you implying you’re smarter than I am?  I didn’t ask you to fix anything!). Or he would stare at me and say as little as possible (HELLO!  McFly, anyone in there?). Both approaches DROVE ME NUTS.

And yet, if I have EVER sat Roy down and said, “Look, I really need you to do this, this and this for me.  It would mean a lot, and I need you,” he has NEVER let me down.  Sure sometimes, we can’t do this, this and this.  Sometimes he doesn’t do it the exact way I pictured, but he has always tried, and he tries for me.

Men can’t read our minds, and that doesn’t make them bad or wrong… it just makes them different.