Date Night

On December 23rd, the husband came home from being on the road for 22 days.

In his absence, I missed him. You might be thinking, "uh, yeah," but it's been no secret that we haven't been getting along (as in talk of divorce) for well over a year....maybe closer to 2....so when I cried that he left, it honestly surprised me. It surprised me again when I'd catch myself thinking 'man I wish Brent was here.' Being out on the road and all by his lonesome, he did some searching of his own. We talked via cell phones continuously being 110% open & honest & vowed to change things not only with each other but also within ourselves in order to make things work for US (I mean, 11, almost 12 year together is a lot of time to just throw in the rubbish bin). Which leads me back to the title of this post.

Our date night was scheduled for December 26th. He wanted to surprise me in some of the things we'd be doing but I wanted to help in the planning of our night as well so we decided we'd mesh our ideas together to plan it....the last time we went out was over a year ago and it felt very rushed and that's what we didn't want this time. We both wanted to go outside of what we usually do when we get the chance to go out alone (dinner, movie then home) so we had started to throw ideas out there. Play pool (his idea), get tattoos (my idea) which he vetoed rather quickly, much quicker than I vetoed the pool....hmmmmm.....

So thanks very much to my SIL & her boyfriend (yes you read that correctly, lol), they drove an hour from their house to mine to watch all four of the kids and the animals so Brent & I could go enjoy our night out together.

It started around 3:30 PM and I think we made it home by 1 AM.

Here's the play-by-play:

As I was getting dressed Brent came in and asked me what earrings I was going to wear. I told him the white gold ones he had gotten me for Christmas. He asked me what was I going to wear in my second holes and I told him I had misplaced those studs. He whipped out of his pocket a box and opened it. Inside were tiny diamonds set in white gold. "Will these work?!" He asked. "No, not all," I told him shaking my head before exclaiming, "Um, YES!!" He made sure he told me they were real diamonds and I had better not "misplace" these. "Yes dear."

When we left the house we headed to C-View & took my sweet Grand her Christmas present of a DVD player w/some DVDs, which she loved and I loved that she loved it! Then we headed to Wal-Mart (what?! They have nice jewelry!!) to take my wedding set in that Brent had gotten me for Christmas. It needed to be sized down to a 4 if possible. (My previous 2000 $ engagement ring was stolen once upon a time but I won't name names of who we think, are 99.9% positive, did it). Then our date began!

His plan was to take me to Olive Garden for a late lunch but by the time we left Grands and got to Fort Walton Beach, it was already almost 5PM. So we drove to the different theatres to check times, Brent's idea. He knew I've been literally dying (it really was causing me physical pain) to see 'New Moon' so he wanted to take me to see it. (AHHHHHHH). After doing that we drove to The Island to see what we wanted to do.....scope out places to eat as well....and check the theatres out in Destin. (NOTE TO SELF: get smart phones like Neva & Jeff's). After we knew all the showings of New Moon and drove from basically one end of Destin to the other, we decided we were hungry and found a place called 'McGuire's Irish Pub' (my new fave place). He left the dinner selection to me but pleaded no more Red Lobster (my old fave place to eat). The place was fantastic, although I think our waitress, bless her, needed to retire. The food was delish, my drink was fab and Brent was proud that I went outside my comfort bubble for dinner :)

We left dinner full, happy and excited about what will we do next?! We had more time than what we had expected between dinner and the movie so we drove the strip heading back towards The Island. B needed to stop & grab some meds. from the gas station as he had a headache coming on and it was on the way to do this that he revealed his plan that couldn't happen because the weather had gotten windy and much colder than was expected.

Pushed back in the 3rd row of the truck was a duffle bag with throw, 2 travel mugs and one travel container with which to fill with hot chocolate and sip as we sat on the beach at night listening to the waves come in. How romantic is that?!

Thank you Mother Nature for ruining that!!

As we pulled out of the gas station, B asked me if I wanted to go get my nose pierced. I've been wanting it redone FOREVER seeing how I was 17 when I first had it done and the 'rents refused to allow it but being that I'm so stubborn I waited until they compromised with me on something else to take it out....and I've wanted it redone ever since. Anyway- I said I was game, then said no I had a full stomach, might puke, we should wait until the end of the night then said yeah go ahead then said No, I'll have to wait for summer to come b/c I sub first thing back from Winter Break and I'd have to take it out. So instead of that we went into the 'Body Exchange,' an adult store. TOTALLY OUTSIDE OF MY COMFORT BUBBLE, but I had promised I'd go in despite my utter embarrassment.

OH. MY. GOD. There was a section on the second floor that I felt seriously in fear of my life. Seriously. There was one of those dog masks things and whips and chains and horse looking bits and omg in this glass case there were....tools....like the kind you only see at your OB/GYNs office or in an OR. HOLY SHIT- people actually use those things...FOR PLEASURE?! Sick buggers....When I walked out of that little room, looking behind my shoulder the whole time, I was sooooo ready to go. COMPLETELY UNCOMFORTABLE. Although Brent keeps making jokes about how my jaw dropped when I saw that dog mask thing. Yeah, that'll be chasing me in my nightmares. *Shudders*

From there we headed back to FWB where I was finally able to see 'New Moon.' (Que 'Hallelujah' music). Isn't Edward just the most romantic book character bought to life EVER?! (Can you tell I'm totally Team Edward....ok so I'm Team Jacob when he takes his shirt off but that's it! *Snicker*) While watching I realized that even though I love Bella, Kristen Stewart's acting is starting to remind me of Neve Campbell's and I am so not a fan of her inability to act...you know how it seems that she gasps before, between and after every word?! Seeing that I haven't read the books yet (that's a different post) I couldn't believe how it ended! Thankfully I wasn't the only person that blurted out "WHAT?!" when the credits popped up.

We left the movie talking about it; what we liked, our favorite parts, what we think will happen (I'm so lucky that B is a fan- not the way I am of course- but he does like the movies) and we headed to the bowling alley (my idea)! I like bowling, he likes bowling, we hadn't been since I was pregnant with McKinnley, now 10, so we couldn't go wrong with this.

We bowled 3 games; laughed, kissed, hugged, joked around. *SIGH* It reminded me so much of when we were 19 and it felt so good.

After bowling, we decided that we should head home. It was now after midnight and we knew that Neva & Jeff still had an hour ride back to their house.

We had a perfect night. One where we were able to enjoy each other's company and focus only on each other. An uninterrupted night of just the two of us and it was lovely. I can't wait until the next one!! Hopefully we won't have to wait so long before it can happen again!!

Thanks babe for the fab night! I ♥ You!!!