Date Night without the baby

Last night, Jim and I went on our first date night, just the two of us without Jadon. I missed my little guy, but it was great to have some one-on-one time with the hubby without getting distracted by the little guy's cute antics or appeals for attention. We dropped Jadon off with the sitter, went to Claim Jumpers for dinner (thanks to a very generous gift card from a family in our church), talked ministry and movie scripts and plans for summer over a yummy meal and of course a mud pie for dessert, then stopped by Ross on the way home to get Jim a new shirt (his idea! He never asks to go shopping, so I jumped at this one!), stopped by Target to return 2 pairs of shoes that Jadon's feet grew out of before he ever got the chance to wear them, and then I even got some grocery shopping done while Jim picked Jadon up. It was a great, productive, but relaxing evening. I don't think I'm quite ready to do it every week yet (We can still do at-home date nights with Jadon doing his thing around us...I just love being around him so much, and I feel bad that as it is we drop him off at childcare three nights a week already for church), but I think I am finally ready for a once-a-month routine...

Thanks Jim for making this happen. I love you!

Date Night on the Cheap

Thursday night is date night, but what with trying to pinch pennies and eek out the chapters for our sequel novel, I must say, we've been more utilitarian than romantic the past few weeks. So yesterday, I set out to achieve both!

Complete with Italian mandolins playing in the background, I set up our spare room upstairs as a little candle lit bistro.

The menu consisted of a healthy salad and a yummy parmesan-garlic-alfredo-chicken pizza (on sale for $5 at Albertsons!) and a bottle of Martinelli's sparkling cider. Oh, and cookies for dessert.

After our fine dining affair, we settled in and each knocked out nearly a chapter. Whala! Cheap and time-efficient.

Of course, this wonderful plan was nearly foiled by traffic. Our lovely neighborhood, which we enjoy so much, is connected to the rest of the world by only one--very popular--thoroughfare, Highway 76. Jim called me 30 minutes after he was supposed to be home to say that traffic was backed up a mile away and apparently "they" closed the highway 2 cross streets before ours. So he turned with the rest of traffic down N. Santa Fe, waited for another 20 minutes to go about a quarter of a mile, and then found out that the 76 was closed all the way down to the major cross street past ours. So basically we were stranded--no getting in or out. Finally, he decided to park his Jeep in a random neighborhood and run home about 2 miles through Guajome Park. Of course, he'd had several meetings that day and had worn his dressier shoes. Oh yeah, and he had to lug around his big lap top bag. But none of that deterred him. He finally made it home, an hour and a half late, and the pizza still tasted fine even after being reheated.

Yea for date night! :o)