Our Monday adventure

What is up with me not feeling like blogging? I don't get it. I've been reading other people's blogs and commenting as much as I can. But when it comes to typing out my own post, I just haven't been able to get up the ambition to do it. OK, enough of the contemplation. I have no answers, but I know some of you wanted to know what we ended up doing on Monday.

First of all it was wonderful to have Sunday evening to ourselves. Our small group from church had decided just to get together and watch the football games and eat supper. We always bring Zachariah with us to small group. He's the only kid, so we spend a lot of time keeping him in the room and out of things in our hosts' home. He does pretty good, but it is a bit distracting for us. (We have discussed getting a babysitter for those nights, but it would add up quickly in costs. We're trying to figure it out now, because it was so nice without him.) It was good to be able to relax and be ourselves (without having to be Mom and Dad) for one evening with these new friends of ours. Everyone had so much fun. I haven't laughed that hard in ages. There were stories being told about spouses farting habits, sleeping habits, etc. Then there was a whipped cream eating contest with a couple of the guys. We laughed and laughed and laughed. And of course, there was a football game going on, and it was a pretty good game. (Although I wouldn't have minded seeing Green Bay and Brett Favre going to the Super Bowl instead. I'll still root for the Giants, because I just want someone to beat the Patriots.) When we left one of the couples commented how hilarious Matt and I are. They said we have great laughs and a great sense of humor. That seemed funny to me that they were almost surprised by that. But, truly, Matt and I haven't completely "let loose" around them and really had time to relax and enjoy with them. It was funny to us, though, because that's who we are. We laugh a lot and have a good time lots of times. It was good for us to be able to have that much fun with these new friends. And it was also good for us to be able to take part in conversations and really listen and talk and not be distracted. I think we formed stronger friendships that night.

Monday morning we slept in a bit, then we went out for breakfast. It was nice to relax and eat my own food without sharing half of it with someone else. And I could drink my juice without being ask for "drink drink". Matt and I both enjoyed being able to carry on adult conversation without trying to entertain a toddler and keep him happy. We headed towards Dayton and went to the mall like I planned. As soon as we pulled in Matt saw they had a Dick's Sporting Goods and was excited. We walked around the mall at least 2 times. We didn't buy much, but it was fun looking at things. We did not find anything for me at Frederick's like I was hoping, but I did find a sexy babydoll nightie.

After all the shopping we went to a movie. We didn't see what I wanted, because it wasn't showing again for another hour. (I'd planned to see a movie first, but Matt was distracted by Dick's being at the mall.) But that's OK. We saw "Mad Money" and it was pretty funny. Not quite as good as I thought it might be, but I really like Katie Holmes and Queen Latifah in it. Then we went to dinner after that. There were a few places I had in mind (because I knew Matt really liked them), but I let him decide. We ended up finding more places that we liked, so we went to Fuddruckers. Like Matt said, even a hamburger joint is romantic without a kid. We went into Once Upon a Child which was right by where we were eating. And we found what we went into there for. We got a sturdy hiking backpack carrier for Zachariah. We're going to Gatlinburg for vacation, so we wanted something to use for hiking. We got this backpack used for only $30.00. It is in great condition and is only missing the canopy. Since we wanted it for an older child, that doesn't matter, because he'll wear a hat and sunscreen anyway. And it's really easy to put him in it, and it seems to distribute his weight really well when I tried it on.

We headed home after all that. We had to drive about 3 hours to get from there to my parents' house to get Zachariah. It was pretty late when we got home. But Matt said he loved every minute of the day. He had a great time spending time alone with me, and he especially loved that I planned (or loosely planned rather) the day so he could just enjoy it.

Zachariah did really well with my mom. When they got ready to leave our house on Sunday, he wanted to leave but he started crying when he realized I wasn't going too. So I helped put him in the car and then said bye and blew kisses. My mom said he asked about us when they got to her house and then when he woke up the next morning. She told him that we were on a date, and he was OK with that. He had a lot of fun at Grandma's house. His aunts and great-grandma came to spend time with him too. My mom told me all sorts of fun things they did together. She's excited to keep him overnight again sometime. Woo Hoo!