My husband has the ability to put everyone at ease. I think I am just the opposite. We make a good pair in that way.

Chris has been known to hold a 30-minute conversation with a complete stranger and, from that point on, the stranger will always be referred to as his "friend". His mom tells me he has always been like that. On one of their first family vacations, six-year-old Chris wandered off to a nearby restaurant. She found him sitting at a table with complete strangers, nibbling the French fries off their plates and talking about the fish he caught.

Chris is a firefighter with the Waterloo Fire Department (yes, we do the whole long-distance thing!). Before he was a smokin' hot fireman, Chris was a brick mason for almost 10 years. A true "car guy" at heart, Chris is talented, to say the least. The most fascinating thing, however, is that he is completely self-taught -- he can watch something being done, file it away in his drawer of capabilities, and then pull it out at the handiest of moments.

Chris is not only friendly and smart, he is supportive of (almost) everything I do and the man will try anything once. Before we started dating, Chris had never even been to Olive Garden! I quickly introduced him to all the gastronomical adventures Waterloo, Iowa (and surrounding cities) had to offer. Then we moved on to the tastes of Des Moines, Minneapolis, and Chicago. Unlike me, Chris has never counted a calorie in his life.