Due to our wedding anniversary landing while I was in Houston and us being too cheap to take time off work to go on a date, we waited until Tom had a Saturday shift where he would be off early enough to go out when more than bars are open!
I had plenty of time to find a sitter but Lacey was busy and dang it I didn't want to pay someone...so what happened? Well obviously when you make dumb decisions BAD consequences result.
Tom got off at 6:30pm and I made sure to have Ben as ready as possible when Tom arrived, not wanting to delay a moment of Ben being in his somewhat "manageable stage of the night". Earlier I had made a spontaneous trip to Old Navy to get some much needy clothes with the money I DID have budgeted for a sitter.
SIDE NOTE: I have become a clearance rack shopper. When I was younger clearance racks were way beneath me. Now I've gotten over myself and I'm happy when I can get a brand new shirt without issues for $2.50, I mean you can't find that at a thrift store. I was able to find a pair of MUCH needed jeans and five shirts for 45 bucks. not bad =)
I know I tried on at least 15 different combinations (not exaggerating) from my findings and what I already had and could not feel awesome. I so wanted to look and feel the way I did when we were dating when I knew I looked great and hot for my guy, granted Tom DID think I looked hot that night even if I didn't feel it.
For a good month now I have been craving seafood. GOOD SEAFOOD. The best I've ever had was from a restaurant downtown Portland at a ritzy place (funny enough I had spent a first date there with another boyfriend). It was SUCH great food and there's no way he walked away paying less than $150 for our meals! Gosh it was sooo good. Anyway, that was my first choice but me being me and us being us that wasn't where we went THOUGH if I really wanted to I know Tom would have been fine, I really am the cheaper of the two of us. So we chose to go to our favorite restaurant, Cheesecake Factory with its ridiculously large menu, I mean half the menu would still be too many options but its awesome is it not!? PLUSSSS its our tradition to get crab cakes for our appetizer so that would help with my fish craving.
By the time we got to the VERY popular restaurant ON A SATURDAY night that doesn't take reservations no less...we had a 50 minute wait. It was 7:15pm. That meant normally Ben would be going down in 15 minutes. It meant every minute of reasonable 2 year old was ticking away. It meant we had to find another place to eat and fast! We found a Red Lobster on the TomTom super close by and it took driving up and down the street a few times until we saw a small sign saying the place was being remodeled and wouldn't be reopening for a few months! Then we were like CRAP, now what? Our last choice. A VERY distant 3rd place choice was Portland Seafood Company that's is located on the other side of the mall from Cheesecake Factory. By the time we were seated it was after 8pm, we SHOULD have just stuck with our place in line at C.F.!
There were hardly any customers (our first clue) and the menu was pricey (ugh) but he sat down and pretty much immediately asked for an appetizer asap. Very surprisingly Ben was all over the calamari. He loved it! This from a kid who eats the same 10 items day after day and mostly CRAP. Of course by the time we got our entrees Ben had gotten a piece of calamari in the back of his tongue, gagged, and then barfed all over. The nice waitress brought damp cloths and wipes, etc. Ben was fine after a moment but didn't want to eat anymore, of course, though his belly was now NOT full again. Tom and I ate FAST as Ben was getting restless and we were fighting to keep him quite and from running around. We barely had any dinner conversation as husband and wife. I think I asked, "So what are you most proud of that we've done in the past 3 years?" and "What goals do we want to set for the next year or even next couple months?" I may have ASKED the questions but the interruptions were too many to remember we even had a conversation going at all.
Ben cried/screamed most of the ride home and only stopped for moments when I would contort my body to face him and engage in peek-a-boo. When we got home we still had to try to get some food in his stomach because for several, several, SEVERAL weeks/months he's been getting up numerous times a night needing refills of his sippy (milk) -BECAUSE he WON'T eat enough before bed so he's been getting filled up on milk! AHHHH KNOCK ON WOOD- that refilling has stopped the last 3 nights this week though him getting up and needing help going back to bed has NOT. A GOOD night I only get up twice, a BAD night (like last night) I get up 5+ times.
Overall, I wish I would have listened to my brother Rex's advice earlier that eventful Saturday, "Don't take your kids with you on your anniversary dates. They weren't there when you got married, they shouldn't be there when you celebrate it each year either."
In closing, Tom and I didn't get each other gifts this year. But I did ask for a card! Since I can't have a whole lot of his time so I definitely want his words! So he made me a card in iPhoto and had it sent to me. I don't think he would mind me sharing his words...
My Dearest Love
I don't know what I'd do without you.
All I know is that I'll never let you out of my sight;
for these last three years have been the happiest of my life.
May you forever be by my side, and may you always know how
deeply and passionately I love and adore you darling.
Happy Anniversary My Love.
Ah, what a lovely card from Tom. You guys are such a cute couple. Haha! We took Adeline to a fancy French restaurant. (We had a bogo and I am always too cheap for a babysitter.) She was pretty good but the setting is just so quiet, it felt like her voice was echoing around whenever she spoke and it always takes awhile for the food to come so we'd have to take three or so walks around the restaurant. We went early, around 5:30 pm, so we were done before bedtime meltdown, but it was still embarrassing and there was a romantic looking couple by us and I hoped we weren't ruining their meals and the atmosphere with a loud squirmy child nearby. Eh, live and learn. That's awesome that Ben liked the calamari. Too bad he gagged on it and threw it up.
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