Date night!

A few weeks ago my brother and his girlfriend asked what we were doing for Valentine's Day.  Not much, of course.  We thought back and we haven't gone "out" for Valentine's Day since we had kids.  Don't get my wrong, Lawrence has done some incredibly romantic things in the past few years.  Remember, a few years ago, he blogged?  It's just not usually worth the trouble and the expense to go out and be romantic.  


Anyway, Matt and Heather offered to watch the kids and encouraged us to go out, so we did.  And we started getting kind of excited about the idea, making reservations and all, you know, like a couple.  It was fun.  We recently paid off our truck and I got promoted to Controller at work, so why not go out and spurge a little to reward, celebrate, and love ourselves.


THANKS MATT AND HEATHER!!  Or as Bryson says, "Header", or as Addie says, "Heth-oe"


I found myself giddy all week looking forward to being taken out on a proper date.  I even bought a new dress.  

Lily wants me to say that the photo is courtesy of Lily, so you can all be properly impressed

I took the day off of work to go to the dermatologist (first time ever, thank you ShanRae for encourage me to make sure I'm healthy!) in the morning, and to attend Lily's Valentine's Day party and help out at school.  It was awesome to help the kids decorate their cupcakes and pass out Valentines.  My favorite part was listening to each of them shout out "Thank You, Lily", "Thank You, Kaden", "Thank You, Claire", "Thank You, George" as they pulled each one out of their penguin shaped mailboxes.  So sweet, so loving, so full of gratitude, just like Valentine's Day should be when you are 7.

Lily lost her 4th tooth just after the party was over, with (ahem) a little help from me.  It was dangling by a thread (see above-front tooth protruding) and she was making her teacher and I shudder with every smile and wiggle.  Plus she really wanted to loose it at school.  Because at school you get a treasure box, and you get to invite a friend to the office to go get said treasure box, and all around you definitely get your 15 minutes of fame.  

Anyway, another good day.  Another good blog.  My blahs from this time last year feel truly lifted, and I want to write about our life again.  It doesn't mean things are busy and overwhelming, they are, but as I'm sure you can tell by the tone in my words, I can fight through it again.  The changes I'm making to my diet, to my decisions, to my time management, to my priorities, they are all helping in making this a more joy filled life.  Who could ask for more than that?  


The tooth fairy left a Littlest Pet Shop and a Valentine Cookie Cutter, in lieu of cash.  I got Lawrence a brownie pan that is all corners that he has been wanting along with some itunes cash.  Lawrence got me a wine decanter, something I declared I wanted since using a friend's for NYE but never would have bought on my own.  And then of course a date night.  Filled with conversation and laughing and thoughtfulness.  And getting in bed by 10.  


I know Valentine's is all commercialized and there are  haters, boy are there haters.  I remember my single days of jealousy and bitterness.  Wanting a rose or a frosted cookie to be delivered or a Vermont teddy bear.  Wanting my name to be called over the intercom.  Now, I don't really care about it.  We always get books for the kids.  We always get a million pieces of precious homemade riff raff from them.  There is always a good meal provided by my amazing man.  And those heart shaped cutters always come into use one way or another.  My home is filled with love, but it's okay with me that there is a commercialized holiday in the middle of the week that gives us an extra excuse and an extra reminder to document it, express it, and some extra encouragement to get out on a date and show it.