Date night

After reading a really cool blog that Shelbie showed me, I decided to try date night. I wanted it to be fun and different and I wanted to make it special. How long has it been since you made a date special, since you thought about it all day and planned it in advance? How long since you did more than eat out or watch a movie? Well, for us it has been a LONG while. So, Monday night I asked Carl when he would be home the next day and would he like to have dinner with me (i kept the actual date a secret). I spent all day going to stores, making an invitation, fixing our printer since it was out of ink, setting up dinner, setting up the table and decorations, and getting the food ready.

I had such high plans. I thought I would make chinese food from scratch (because i make REALLY good fried rice). I looked up how Panda Express makes the noodles and went grocery shopping. I bought what I didn't have (which wasn't much but still took over an hour to buy it all) and came home...... only to realize that by the time I had finished decorating i had 60 minutes to make ALL of dinner, including the rice (which takes 90 min to cook and then I would have to let it cool and cook it again). I was freaking out. I just didn't have enough time!

I decided to just buy the rice and noodles from Panda Express and come home to make the rest. When I got home, I made a pre-packaged miso soup that I found at Walmart and started cooking the veggies. I made stir fried veggies and it was so good!

Carl got home right after the veggies were finished cooking. I plated the food and turned on our "Chinese" movie...... Kung Fu Panda. It was SO fun. Here are the pics from the date we had:

I found these at the dollar store and put them up, I thought they gave the room a more Chinese feel, if only they were red and gold like the rest of the decorations.... oh well, design on a budget. I also hung streamers around the room, but didn't take a pic... sorry :(

Here is the table and our movie playing in the background. I found this table cloth at walmart and it was the perfect color for our date... a bit red, a bit gold

A close up of the table and dinner... that is a little bottle of sparkling apple cider I got at the dollar store :), some wasabi for Carl (which is that green stuff on the white platter), and a little take out box with some fortune cookies inside. I also got the zen garden at the dollar store, the place mats, the plates, and some of the candles.

Carl enjoying dinner and acting like the praying mantis from the movie :)

Sitting down at the table.

All in all, we had a GREAT time! We ate good food, watched a good movie, laughed, and had a yummy apple crisp for dessert (and that WAS homemade :) ) We also decided to make date night a weekly thing. I think it will be nice to start dating each other again. It gets too easy to get into a routine and forget to make your spouse feel important. I haven't done that much planning and setting up for a date since we were in high school (i know... shame on me, but I bet it has been awhile for you too). I really enjoyed thinking about Carl and our date all day. It was a nice way to show Carl he is important enough for me to do something special for.

Mail

Yesterday, we received this in the mail! Carl's mom sent us a super nice Halloween basket.

It has so much cool stuff in it! There are plates and napkins, window clings, cookies cutters, Halloween sprinkles, a super cute halloween dress for Jez, and of course a little candy. THANKS MOM!!!!!

I figured since mom was so nice to send it to us, I would take pics and post them here. My doggie is so cute!!!!!! She just looks so sassy in her dress

Here is one where you can see what her dress looks like:)

She just loves it, and so do I!!!!

winning weekend

This last weekend my mom, Rodney, and Nate came to visit. They came to go to the balloon fiesta but we never actually made it there :) We mostly hung out and my family played wii golf. It was really fun to watch my mom and Rodney play golf on the wii. They are just so funny.... I think my mom now wants a wii for Christmas so they can play video games... mostly just the golf and bowling, i guess:).

We did go to Albuquerque on Saturday and while driving, my mom suggested we all go to the hard rock casino. I don't think any of us really cared either way, but my mom offered to give us all $50 to have fun with so we all went. Everyone split up, except Carl and I who went and played the quarter slots. It was so fun! The last time we did this was when I was 21 and Carl was only 20 so he didn't get to play.... this time was better because we got to sit by each other, talk and having a good time while we BOTH played.

Well, we went to a little room and played some more and ended up winning (I took pics with my phone but I guess I didn't click 'save' before I clicked off the camera so it wasn't on there).Carl won more than I did, but we both came out with more money then my mom gave us (and she didn't even want any of the money back, so we got to keep it all!!). It turns out that Carl, Nate, and I all won money and my mom and Rod just lost the $50 they played.... it is sad but true. I think that is just how it goes because the same thing that happened in Vegas for my 21st birthday, the kids won and my mom and Rod didn't. It was so fun and all-in-all a great way to spend an hour while we waited to eat dinner (and my mom and Rod were not upset, just glad that we all had fun and that we won some money).

It was a good weekend and I look forward to seeing them again for Jessica's baby shower in a few weeks :)