Friday, January 11, 2008

A Date With Ice Cream On Top

...and I'm not talking about the fruit! Brady and I went on a date tonight, which we haven't done in a while.

Now, when I say a while, I mean a few weeks before our vacation. I am one of those girls who likes to be taken out -- and regularly. It doesn't have to be expensive, it just has to happen. After I have a baby, there's a small window where we can't go out for a few months, so we counter this by stocking up at the end of my pregnancies. Once the baby is on a good nighttime schedule, we hit the town. I just love being with my husband in that way. I also enjoy the time to be Me - Kids. Me - Kids still = Me, just another side. I get to walk slower, think more, and EAT SLOWLY! Love it.

Tonight I was a little nervous about going out to dinner, so I persuaded Brady to just take me to a movie instead. I had been at the park all afternoon with friends and we even ate dinner there. We planned ahead and all brought food to share so when we went home it would just be get-ready-for-bed time. Aaaah.

I made some calzones with white/wheat dough, cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, and olives (I'm still trying to use up the giant box of mushrooms I bought from Sam's Club this week, can you tell?). I love making fresh bread and I have a super easy recipe for pizza dough (thanks, April). Now that I have a Kitchen Aid, too, (thanks, Tara) this process is much easier and surprisingly still enjoyable. After years of hand mixing and kneading, my wrists were getting quite sore, but nothing could stop me from my sweet bread (Alisa, I have come a LONG way since our college Great Harvest Honey Whole Wheat experimentations).

The good news is, the calzones were great, especially dipped in my favorite chunky marinara. Even though Brady gripped a bit about the cottage cheese instead of ricotta, he still ate two and seemed satisfied. Maybe I'll try pureeing it next time to get a less chunky texture. The bad news, I think I ate 3. I say "think" because with so many nibbles, who really knows the exact amount.

So, when Brady mentioned dinner AND a movie (which usually means dessert, too) I was a little hesitant. He understood, so we skipped dinner and just went to see National Treasure 2. (If you've seen the first, you've seen the second. I do think the movie is well-made and entertaining, though).

And, no, I did not have movie popcorn. I am one of those people who smuggles food into the theater. I think I'd probably pay the ridiculous prices if they just had what I wanted -- 94% fat free popcorn. Instead, I pre-popped my own bag. I have no shame when it comes to health -- really, I don't.

After the movie, instead of Cold Stone (please refer to prior posts about my love for that stuff), we opted to share a large White Chocolate Mousse/Peanut Butter swirl cup at TCBY. The employee was so nice, even though we came in 15 minutes before close. He let me sample as much as I wanted, answered all my questions, showed me the nutrition information, and even weighed our ice cream on the electric scale. While licking it up, Brady and I spent about 10 minutes in the car looking up gram to ounce conversions on his Blackberry to calculate the exact amount of calories in our treat. Oh, the things you do without kids!

While I am not entirely happy with the day, it could have been much worse. I did not eat ALL the dough or the calzones; I brought my own popcorn to a movie; and, I shared a treat with my husband. What a guy!

Speaking of great guys, mine just got even better -- he agreed to run a 5k race with me in February!! I could not be more excited if I were given a new outfit from Banana (although I'd like to test that theory). Even more, my sister's gonna run it, too! I'm all for this one because she babysits my kids while she trains. Tonight, she ran 2 miles on my treadmill while babysitting during our date. And she wants to make this a regular thing...uh, sure!

Tomorrow, I am completing the unpacking process. Although I tried to resist accepting reality, my Vacation Continuation officially ended today when I cleaned the house. While I didn't get everything done, it was still a strong effort, definitely NOT vacation quality. So, tomorrow I'll unpack the girls' suitcases, put away three baskets of laundry, transfer all of Shelley's clothes to her new room, put away her 12-18 month clothes, bring out her 18-24 month bin, organize their new toys, go to a YMCA open house, drive Kelsey and a friend to another friend's house to go to the circus, stop at the church to grind some wheat, make four loaves of wheat bread for a pot luck, and I'll plan the combined Sharing Time/Singing Time activity for Sunday.

Yeah, vacation's definitely over.

4 comments:

anna said...

you're kidding right? that's ALL you're going to do tomorrow? i mean, really, an AVERAGE mom could accomplish ATLEAST half that!ha ha!

The Price's Wife said...

EW- welcome back to the real world! I hate coming home from vacation... It sends me into a serious funk! I think you did well... it sounds like you enjoyed your night but still made reasonable choices. That's what it's about!

Julie said...

you went on a real date and everything! it's been a while since Trevor and i have done that. but it's nice that you didn't have to pay a babysitter. that gets seriously expensive!

Erin said...

If you have a good whole wheat recipe or dough recipe will you share it with us? I know I could use one. Oh, and you're lucky you can grind wheat at the stake center or wherever you said you go. We don't have that option here. I need to get a wheat grinder, too bad they are so expensive!!! And that is nice to have your sister watch your kids. A friend of mine, we switch off and my Primary counselor owes me as well.