I'm so blessed... I truly am blessed with a gem of a husband. There could be no one better for me than Serona and he manages to put up with all my quirks to boot! We are so alike in so many ways that sometimes it is scary - though we certainly have our differences as well. Debate and a love for competition running deep in our veins always keeps our marriage interesting and fun. The whole concept of "they married so they could argue more conveniently" from "A boy and his horse" by CS Lewis does sometimes apply - but we both love a good argument so all is well. But I'm not writing about our differences here, but rather an amazing blessing we have.

We are each other's best friends and I really mean that. We have both gone through stages where we were each other's only real friend and we are always the person that the other most depends on and trusts. Recently we have both been struggling to find "iron to sharpen iron" for ourselves. We have tried our church and it seems each class we take only reaffirms our need for more, I feel like I am perpetually stuck in 101 classes when I need 500 or 600 level classes, at most we can find 200 level - if we work real hard to stretch something into that. We chatted about it and realized that it comes from missing the true exchange of intelligent arguments that occurs in both debate and graduate school. So we've decided to start taking a class on our own together to challenge ourselves (yes papers and all) and we turned to MIT Open Course Ware an online resource of actual MIT courses. We are reviewing them and picking one to work on together on our date nights!

Okay so if you didn't think we were weird enough I am sure I just pushed you over the edge - instead of going to a movie or out for dinner we are going to have a graduate level class each week - just the two of us. I am so glad that I married a reader, a philosopher, a writer and an intellectual. Someone who truly loves to talk about and get involved with politics and his faith. Someone who rises to a challenge and has a lifelong passion for learning and bettering himself and his family. And he is a nice and fun guy to boot! I am so blessed. Thanks Serona for being you and being the best!

Love,
Tenn