To my life partner - a thank you card

Dear Deborah,

I awoke this morning and really became bothered by how poor a job I have done at telling you how so greatly enriched my life has been by your decision to make this walk through life with me. I want to correct that situation now.

First let me say, I cannot thank you enough for being who you are and allowing me the thrill of watching you year by year become more loving and supportive to me, to our children and to everyone who is fortunate enough to get to know you.

I wish sometimes you could see yourself through my eyes. You would stop worrying about every grey hair,  every weight change and see that what makes you, you is the beautiful person I see everyday. I truly believe every change our mind and bodies go through is so we are best able to handle what life brings our way.

I have learned in our time together how my expectations from our relationship collides with my own failures to do the very things that would help meet those expectations. Sometimes I know you feel like every responsibility falls on your shoulders. But everything we accomplish or fail is what "we" have done together. As much as loving each other, balancing expectations against personal shortcomings is the glue that binds loving couples. 

I so badly want 100 years of life as your husband. I want to see you at every stage and just marvel at how wonderful you are and how truly lucky I am. 

But if i cannot have 100, I will just enjoy each day with you and watch the kids grow around us knowing that tonight when I go to bed, the woman who chose me, will be there.

I always loved the line in the movie where Jack Nicholson says "You make me want to be a better man". In a relationship,  that line means you understand what it takes to be happy. It does not mean you have all the answers, it simply means you are committed to trying. 

I know for certain I am a better man today because I met you. You made that happen just by being you. Tomorrow and every day thereafter is unpredictable, but what I feel for you will always be there. I love you so very much.

Your Husband

Make a tent card using Word and Excel

I needed to make some tent cards for my wife.  She wanted the cards to contain a number that could be seen from either side of the card (front and back).  There were 60 of them to do.

You can't do this in WORD unless you hard code the number then convert it to Word Art and flip it over.  Me do that 60 times! I don't think so.

So I decided to use the Mail Merge feature in Word and then feed in the table numbers from an Excel file.

All of this was done using Word and Excel 2010.

STEP 1 - Make an Excel file.  I made an Excel file with one column titled TABLE and then filled it the column with the numbers (auto numbering of course).

My numbers began at 29 and then went up from there.

STEP 2 - Open Word.  I opened a blank WORD document then clicked on "Mailings".

Some options will be greyed out until you click do STEP 3

STEP 3 - Point WORD at the EXCEL file. Click on "Select Receipents->Use Existing List" and then select the EXCEL file.

STEP 4 - Insert data field. When you click on the "Insert Merge Field" it will expose the name of the colums in your Excel. In my case there was only one column (entitled TABLE) but you could have more than one if your needs required it. When I select TABLE it drops it into the Word document (not to be confused with the "Table" feature in Word).

STEP 5 - Page Setup. Now set the font size for your fields, Center them if needed and then go to Page Setup and set custom margins on the page so the field prints on the bottom half of the page (card).

STEP 6 - Printing Part 1. Put the card stock in your printer then click the "Finish & Merge" button.

I had to feed my card stock into my printer manually

STEP 7 - Printing Part 2. Turn the printed cards around (and re-order them) and do the same thing over again.

BOOM! Tent cards.