Happy Birthday to my Dear Husband!!

Today is Dee's 52nd birthday. I love this man more than I can express and I thought I'd share with you 52 interesting facts about him...just kidding!! I could think of millions but I don't have that much time!!! So...here are ten things you may or may not know about him.

1. His name is Deward (dew-word) Warren Loose. Deward is the name of his maternal grandfather, Deward Holden (Pa). Pa's mother found the name in a Welsh romance novel. If you say it with an English accent it sounds romantic! Pa's nickname was "Dee" so when MY Dee was born they became "Big Dee" & "Little Dee". Warren is Dee's fraternal grandfather, Warren Arthur Robert Loose II. Dee's dad is W.A.R. the third...I guess there will never be a W.A.R. Loose IV! Nope.

2. Dee grew up in northern California. He has lots of fun memories of Lodi, Stockton, Jackson, and San Jose. He likes to tell about riding his bike to Primary in the afternoon along the ditch banks, climbing in the black walnut trees, and arriving at Primary with black hands and dirty pants! He went fishing a lot. Once he caught a huge catfish and saved it in the bathtub to show his mother when she got home! He was old enough during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the early 60's to feel the need to dig a "fallout shelter" in his back yard with a buddy. They covered it with lumber and plywood taken from a construction site! Of course they had to return it and fill in the hole when they were discovered. The Loose's would just have to suffer radiation poisoning!

3. Pa used to take him fishing in the surf at Dillon's Beach. This is in the area (Bodega Bay) where the Hitchcock movie "The Birds" was filmed. Pa & Ma had a beach house there and Dee and his sister Colleen spent lots of time with them. He has fun memories of going clam digging with them, watching the clams spit water up through the sand, and Ma's amazing clam chowder!

He still loves to go fishing to this day.

4. Dee's father was a football coach. Dee spent fun times being a ball boy for his father's teams. When Bob coached San Jose State, they beat Stanford! He also got to be on the field at the Pasadena Bowl (in the Rose Bowl) when S.J.U. played Memphis. That was exciting! When Bob coached at Texas Christian University Dee worked with the Stadium crew to earn money for his mission. He painted every stadium step alternating purple and white...what a chore!!

5. Dee learned to work hard as a boy. At age 17 he put the entire yard in at their new home in Fort Worth because his Dad was starting a new season at T.C.U. He planted trees too! He mildly complains that Bob bought an old fashioned rotary push mower for Dee to use in mowing the lawn! "It's good for you!" he'd say.

6. When Dee was 17 he had a pre-melanoma mole removed from his back. His mother saw it (the size of a pin head) and felt very strongly about having it removed. Dee protested, as any boy would, but it saved his life. He has a scar about 7 inches long and half an inch wide in the middle of his back where they removed the surrounding tissues.

7. Dee loves the Lord and serves wherever called. He served in the Utah Salt Lake City Mission when it was a brand new mission. He has been a bishop twice and is now on the stake high council. But his favorite all-time calling was as a nursery worker in our ward in Orem. Toys and treats...that's all it takes!

8. Dee loves the sport of swimming...duh! He swam with the Santa Clara Swim Club as a teen. Backstroke was his specialty. He began coaching when we were newlyweds at Mesa Aquatics in AZ. He continued in Orem, UT as we finished our degrees at BYU. He now has swimmers who are parents and he is coaching their children! He coached in Tacoma, WA for 8 years before we came back to Utah. He has taken swimmers to U. S. Nationals and to Olympic Trials. He strives for excellence in his coaching and his swimmers LOVE him! (Even though he inflicts great pain upon them!)

9. Dee is the greatest father! He loves his children dearly and has always tried to teach them to work and to be their very best. He prays fervently for them and loves to play with them too. They are very patient with him as he learns to do new things on the computer and play our Wii! Our older daughters at one time had the privilege of having him be their Dad, swim coach, high school teacher, and Bishop all at the same time!!! Sarah once laughed..."I can't get away from him!" I love to listen as they sit around the dinner table and laugh over the memories they have together.

10. Dee is my love, my one and only, my heart, my everything!!! Mushy? Too bad!! It is SO TRUE!! He loves me unconditionally and with all of his heart. He treats me like the most wonderful thing in his life and tells me a dozen times a day how beautiful I am (I know, I know, but I let him think so!). He is always leaving me little love notes, poems he has written, sending me Email, and now he has mastered the Text Message! I cherish every one of them.



Happy Birthday My Dear! You have made me so happy and I look forward to the rest of Forever with you!