My Sun and Stars

I generally don’t make it a habit to blog about anything too personal. I rarely mention my husband and daughter because, honestly, they get a lot of me and my shenanigans at home and don’t need to be dragged into them in a public forum as well. However I feel compelled to write about my husband, Mike Noble, the man I refer to as my sun and stars. He may not be Khal Drogo,

But everything I have in this life, or ever will have, is because of him. That makes him my sun and stars. Every day with Mike Noble is fun and that is no exaggeration. He is never grumpy, he rarely gets upset, and I’m pretty sure he has never, ever said an unkind word to me or called me any kind of derogatory name. We’ve been married for nearly 16 years, and we have a teenager so that is no easy feat.

Look at that face! That is how he is ALL the time- happy. You’re probably thinking ‘well, you’re such a perfect wife, what does he have to be upset about?’ Which is true, but here’s a sampling of what he’s put up with over the course of our married life. When I decided I wanted to go back to school to be a food scientist, he said ‘go for it’. When a parade of students came tromping through our house throughout my school years, studying, visiting, hanging out or whatever, Mike took it in stride. It wasn’t unusual for him to come home from work to my friends and me talking about chemistry or some other enthralling subject. During my school years he also bore most of the responsibility of getting our daughter to and from school, making all of her lunches and just generally being there at a time when I was often absent.

When I decided I wanted to play tennis regularly, I demanded that he make the time to play with me at least twice a week. He said ‘I’ll do it’. I might mention that he was a collegiate athlete and is a foot taller than me, so we were a little unmatched on the tennis court (A LITTLE!). When I complained about this and demanded that he let me take tennis lessons with the same coach as our daughter, he said ‘fine by me’. When I decided to take up running in addition to tennis, I asked him to run with me to help keep me motivated. I had a few friends join me for my runs here and there, but it was Mike who ran with me consistently (and still does!), even if he is a mile ahead of me on the trail. I can see him up there waiting for me every now and then.

When, in the midst of studying for food science, I decided I was also going to write a book, Mike said ‘bring it on’. He was then present for countless hours of character conversations, plot points, discussions about energy suits, arguments over the technical aspects of the story, and on and on and on. He listened, he gave his opinion at times, but above all, he encouraged me, supported me, and believed 100% that I could do it. There is never an eye roll with him or a ‘what are you going to do now?’ Instead, he says ‘sure, you can do that, I believe in you’. I sincerely mean it when I say I thank my lucky stars for him every single day. He makes life fun and he’s fun too. There is a saying that goes something like ‘behind every great man, there is a great woman’. For me, it has been the man who stands behind me, quietly encouraging me and always saying ‘you can do it, I know you can’. He is my sun and stars.