Date Night

Last night Jeremy & I were supposed to have cell group (cell groups are the name of our church's care/small groups). We ended up cancelling because the wife of the other couple (there are only us two couples at the moment) was sick. My body is trying to fight the same "sore throat, achy, swollen gland..." thing that I've already had twice. Between me trying to fight against getting sick and our friend being sick we thought we'd better cancel.

I decided to take advantage of the fact that we had a babysitter booked and made plans for Jeremy and I to go out for dinner. It's been so long since we've been on a date. We usually try to go once a month (more if time & money allow), but between someone being sick for the past couple months, extra meetings (we have some church stuff going on and I'm on the board), being away for spring break..., I don't think we have been on a date since Valentine's Day! We were long overdue!

I don't know about you, but for Jeremy & I, we notice that we start to squabble more and have less patience and understanding for each other when we haven't had a date for awhile. We seemed to be getting to that point again, so despite the fact that I am fighting getting sick AGAIN, we decided to go for it! And I'm so glad we did.

We received a $100 gift card awhile back (it pays to go listen to a "schpeel" every now & then!). So after confirming the sitter, I called Jeremy to make sure he'd be home on time and got supper made for the kids (gotta love mac & cheese!). When Jeremy knew we were going on a date, he brought home a sleek, blue, convertible Mustang for us to drive for our date - one of the perks of having your husband as a manager of a car & truck rental business!

We went to the KEG - a wonderful (expensive) steakhouse that fortunately, is in our city (it saves money on having to pay the babysitter for travel time). With the gift card, we were able to have a free dinner! I'm all for free dinners! We didn't take our camera with us so I don't have any pictures to share, but we enjoyed our appetizers, fabulous steak dinners and drinks. I don't like alcohol so I always ask for a mixture of fruit juices with a bit of Sprite / 7-Up. It's cheaper and I love the flavors!

When we got to the restaurant I wasn't all that hungry (I was starving 2 hours before so I had a little something to eat and wasn't quite hungry yet) so we took our time. We ordered our drinks and appetizers. After enjoying those, we ordered our entrees. By the time our food arrived I was ready to eat! It was a perfect way to linger and enjoy ourselves, not feeling rushed or stuffed and we were able to have a relaxed conversation. It is always nice to get away from the kids and have a conversation where you can finish your sentances and thoughts!

We got were able to get home at a decent time but knew that the kids would be sleeping. I always figure what's the point in going out in the evening if you only have to come home and put the kids to bed!

All in all, we had a great time! Life feels good again!

Worth Watching

I'm so tired and I can't nap. I still have two kids awake - one of which is a big mischief maker. My solution - I'm blogging! I tried reading my Bible a bit earlier but felt myself dozing off so that won't work right now either.

On Friday I blogged about my gift to Jeremy for Valentine's Day. We just finished the first of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "The Fellowship of the Ring". I am thoroughly enjoying it so far. The movie ended and I was surprised! I thought the whole journey finished in the first movie. If you haven't seen the movies yet, I highly recommend them (it seems weird to be saying that when I have refused to see them for so long). They tell a story of deep friendship and courage. And I was pleasantly surprised that, at least so far, the scary guys aren't that gruesome looking. They are pretty icky but not unbearable. I'm looking forward to the next movie, "The Two Towers". Maybe we'll start it tonight. I've learned my lesson though; we have to stop the movie early enough in the evening so that we can watch something lighter on TV before going to bed. That way I can have a good sleep.

Gift of the Heart

Well, as I stated in my Valentine's Day post, I was working on a gift for Jeremy but couldn't say anything at the time in case he read the blog! This year I decided to make the gift rather than go out and buy something, making it more meaningful. At first, everything I tried to create would not cooperate. Once I finally figured out the gift, we were too busy with church meetings for me to give it to him! I have finally given Jeremy his gift so now I can reveal it.

First for a little background. As I began brainstorming, I remembered about the first Valentine's gift Jeremy gave me when we were dating. He had secretly made my gift. He took a block of wood, cut it down to size, chiseled out the shape of a heart, melted red candle wax into the heart and wrote some sentiments on it. The part that made the gift extra special is that the wax he melted was left over from the candles he had lit when he asked me to court him. (That is a story all on it's own - perhaps I'll share it one day).

When I remembered about this special Valentine's gift I thought it would be fun to "give" it to Jeremy as a reminder of all the Valentine's days we have had over the past twelve years, but more importanly how much deeper our love is for each other.

I sheepishly gave the gift to Jeremy, hoping he wouldn't think it was a silly idea. He was so surprised! He had completely forgotten about it! We had fun taking a walk down memory lane. It was a simple gift, didn't cost me anything, but was very meaningful.

Then I told Jeremy about the other part of his gift (another gift of my heart). Jeremy loves "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy by J. R.R. Tolkien. I have never watched the movies. I am not a SciFi kind of person ("What's the point in watching SciFi movies? They aren't reality...these things would never happen!"), so Jeremy has always watched them on his own. I've felt bad about this in the past but simply had no desire to watch the movies. Well, people change! I told Jeremy I would watch all three (extended versions) of "The Lord of the Rings". We began watching "The Fellowship of the Ring" this week. Wouldn't you know it, but I'm enjoying it! We are only half way through it (just watching a bit in the evenings) and my imagination is wondering what's going to happen next!

My "gifts from the heart" for my sweetie!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

Jeremy's days off got switched around a bit for this week so he was off yesterday. He took advantage of that and took Rebecca out for lunch - just her and Daddy! When he first asked her if she would like to go out for lunch just the two of them, she said, "No! I want to go with just Mommy!" Are you kidding me?! You're with me every day, all day, you don't see Daddy at all during the days and you still want to hang out with me?! Aaaaggghhh! (Don't worry - I didn't say that to her - it was just loud and clear in my thoughts!). One thing I'm learning about my daughter is that she is a lot like me - doesn't like change. So, when I look at her answer from that perspective, I can understand why she said "No!".

After a little convincing from Daddy, she began getting excited about their special date! She got to choose where they would go. She immediately chose the restaurant - they give the kids a little box of Smarties at the end! What kid wouldn't like that?!

First thing in the morning, Becca had her long, pretty purple dress on. She was ready to go by 7:30 in the morning! I put her hair into ponytails and off she went with Daddy for their lunch date. I still had "my little guy" for the day so I wasn't completely free.

Here are some pictures Jeremy and Becca took while on their date!

Jeremy took this of Becca

Becca took this of Jeremy

Daddy & Becca enjoying their special date together!

Meanwhile, Daniel was at school exchanging Valentine cards, enjoying a "Friendship Fruit Salad" with his class, Pizza Day for lunch and choir after school. Jeremy and Becca picked him up after choir. They went shopping and bought me this pretty necklace! Shortly after, our babysitter came and Jeremy and I headed out for the evening. We had a wonderful dinner. Here is a picture our waitress took of us.After we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant with our leftovers in tow, we had about 1 1/2hrs until we were to meet some friends for coffee. What do you do when you have time to kill but are too full to do anything active? Shop, of course! Jeremy went in one direction and I went to Reitman's (my favorite clothing store!). I wasn't going to buy anything unless it fit perfectly, needed it, loved it and was on sale. I happened to find a light grey, super soft sweater. I'm always looking for warm cozy tops. I did restrain myself somewhat and put another top back. Anyway, after that quick shopping and meeting up with each other for a little browsing / dreaming at Linens 'n Things, we went to meet our friends for coffee. We had a great time visiting with them and ended up staying until the coffee shop closed! We were both tired when we got home but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves during the evening.

Today I am working on Jeremy's gift and will give it to him tonight. I can't give any clues in case he reads this but I might just write about it tomorrow.

I hope you had an enjoyable Valentine's Day whether you spent it with your sweetie, your kids, friends or by yourself.