STATS
Cost: $0
Location: Within walking distance of our house.
I apologize to my fan for not being more attentive to my blog. I'm new at this blog and life got crazy and I shirked my dating goal and my blogging resposibility. Please forgive me.
We were long overdue for a date (as my fan often has reminded me.) I asked my husband if we could go on a date that evening and all I got was a half hearted shrug. Obviously, that response was not the one I'd hoped for. A short time later I asked again, same response. Now I was getting a little peaved. Honestly, I wasn't feeling up to hitting the town either, but I had my blog fan to think of and I was feeling disconnected from Andy. No wife wants to receive a disinterested shrug in response to a date invite.
Well, my body language was easy for him to read so he told the kids that after they went to bed we would head out on a date. Now, I have a confession to make. My first idea for a date was the movies. I know, don't lecture...not creative. I was tired and uninspired. Lucky for my fan, The Lion King in 3D was all that was playing. No thanks. So we've already eaten dinner, what to do, what to do?
Well, I did have a plan for a creative inexpensive date. Are you ready for this? I loaded up a backpack with a bottle of wine, 2 wine glasses, some dice and a few other necessary items. My husband thought we would go somewhere and have a drink. Eh... Not lovin that idea. Then he came up with a brilliant idea. I say brilliant, because it was the one I'd already come up with.
So, backpack and flashlight in hand we headed out the door. We walked through our backyard, out the gate, through the space behind our house. We call it green space in Colstrip. Behind that is nothing but pasture land and mine property. Out in the back of the green space sits our little 1970's camper. We climbed in, lit some candles, uncorked the wine. Ta Da! Free Date!
The rest of the night was filled with dice rolling, wine drinking and....oh you can figure it out. When the campers a rocking don't come a knockin'. Heehee. Well, needless to say, I no longer felt disconnected from my husband.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Boredom Breeds Adventure
STATS (Remember I get to go over budget on special occasions!)
Date: Dinner and a Movie
Dinner $35
Six Pack Lemonade: $6.99
Movie Tickets: $15
Large Popcorn and 2 Large Sodas: $8.50
Movie: Without going into too much detail, Friday, my anniversary, kind of sucked. We rushed to Billings in our loud truck without AC, ran around town in a whirlwind and rushed back to Colstrip in an even hotter non airconditioned truck by 4:00. My daughter had turned into a horrible monster the day before and the monster returned in full force Friday evening. Not a pleasant day. Luckily, we weren't celebrating until Saturday.
When Alexa woke up she came in and apologized and gave me a big hug. The monster was gone. We had a very good conversation. That afternoon we went golfing as a family. Everyone had a blast. We are all terrible golfers and we spent more time looking for our balls than hitting them, but it was fun! My favorite part was when my son, Spencer, found a small frog/toad and he showed it to me. I was holding it when Alexa was putting from the very edge of the green. Her ball went all the way into the hole! I was so excited I threw my hands in the air and screamed. "Mom, the toad!" She exclaimed. "What?" I asked confused. She reminded me I had been holding the toad and it had gone flying when I whooped my excitement. Oops.
We went home got cleaned up and ran out the door after throwing a box of mac-n-cheese at our kids. I love having older kids. Freedom!!!!! (Thanks Ginger for coming over and playing cards with the kids to keep them company.) We left early knowing there was construction on the way. While we sat waiting indefinitely for the pilot car I looked around. Not a car was to be seen, not a construction worker, no one. It seemed as if we were alone on the planet. I had no idea how long we would be stuck there alone on a deserted road waiting for a pilot car that seemed as if it would never come. I made an inappropriate suggestion to Andy about how we could pass the time. He was seriously considering it when the pilot car appeared on the horizon. Oh well...
So we actually made it to Forsyth in good time. We had decided on Chinese food after the recommendation from several different people. It turned out to be buffet which was great because we were starving. The food was good, but not exciting. The meal was quick since we did buffet. We were back in the car when we realized it was a little after 6:00 and the movie was at 9:15. Hmmmmm
Time to get creative. Pressure is on. I mean this whole blog is about being creative on a date and here we were. "What do you want to do?" "I don't know what do you want to do?" You know how it goes. Andy came up with the idea of going to the river to skip rocks. Could be fun right, and free. Did I mention I was wearing a skirt and little wedge sandals. The one time in my life I'm not wearing flat shoes, literally. Oh well. So we now had the adventure of locating the river. It's gotta be around here somewhere right? Thank goodness for Andy because I have no sense of direction.
We found a boat ramp. No thanks. So we kept driving. Over the river, down a gravel road, down a hill, onto a road that was more like a 4wheel drive trail. Our Explorer is not 4 wheel drive. Adventure right. We followed the road all the way until the end. What a cool place. The road dead ended at a little wooded area with a small trail. So I tawdled in my pretty but highly unpractical shoes down the trail. Down, as in my husband was slipping in his tennis shoes. I was pretty impressed with myself. At the end of the trail was a little tributary of the river and the remains of a bridge. The remains were all sorts of big posts sticking up. They reminded me of that scene in Karate Kid. You know the one. Andy did balance on the closest ones, but he was above the water about 6 feet and the tops were rounded from weather and age. Before you get any skinny dipping ideas the ground all around the water was mud, lots of mud. Just to let you know I have never skinny dipped, but you never know.
So we went back to the car. What a beautiful little secluded spot. The hour passed quickly. Use your imagination. Did I mention we are very happily married?
Suddenly, we found ourselves very thirsty. We headed back into Forsyth for a drink. A bar? No, we are too cheap to hand over 5 bucks for one beer so we went to the gas station, grabbed a six pack of hard lemonade, and hit the road.
Andy was full of good suggestions. He was looking for the perfect hill to park on and watch the sunset. That's just what we did. We found another totally people free spot ontop of a hill. Not a house, a car, or a person could be seen or heard. We sat in the car as the sky turned pink, drank our lemonade, and played cards. Ahhhh how romantic.
It was finally nearly 9 so we set off for the movie. Bad teacher was well pretty bad. A lot more R than I knew R could be, but the popcorn was buttery and soda was cold and the balcony was comfy. So, even if it wasn't the best movie it was the best 16th anniversary I could have asked for.
Date: Dinner and a Movie
Dinner $35
Six Pack Lemonade: $6.99
Movie Tickets: $15
Large Popcorn and 2 Large Sodas: $8.50
Movie: Without going into too much detail, Friday, my anniversary, kind of sucked. We rushed to Billings in our loud truck without AC, ran around town in a whirlwind and rushed back to Colstrip in an even hotter non airconditioned truck by 4:00. My daughter had turned into a horrible monster the day before and the monster returned in full force Friday evening. Not a pleasant day. Luckily, we weren't celebrating until Saturday.
When Alexa woke up she came in and apologized and gave me a big hug. The monster was gone. We had a very good conversation. That afternoon we went golfing as a family. Everyone had a blast. We are all terrible golfers and we spent more time looking for our balls than hitting them, but it was fun! My favorite part was when my son, Spencer, found a small frog/toad and he showed it to me. I was holding it when Alexa was putting from the very edge of the green. Her ball went all the way into the hole! I was so excited I threw my hands in the air and screamed. "Mom, the toad!" She exclaimed. "What?" I asked confused. She reminded me I had been holding the toad and it had gone flying when I whooped my excitement. Oops.
We went home got cleaned up and ran out the door after throwing a box of mac-n-cheese at our kids. I love having older kids. Freedom!!!!! (Thanks Ginger for coming over and playing cards with the kids to keep them company.) We left early knowing there was construction on the way. While we sat waiting indefinitely for the pilot car I looked around. Not a car was to be seen, not a construction worker, no one. It seemed as if we were alone on the planet. I had no idea how long we would be stuck there alone on a deserted road waiting for a pilot car that seemed as if it would never come. I made an inappropriate suggestion to Andy about how we could pass the time. He was seriously considering it when the pilot car appeared on the horizon. Oh well...
So we actually made it to Forsyth in good time. We had decided on Chinese food after the recommendation from several different people. It turned out to be buffet which was great because we were starving. The food was good, but not exciting. The meal was quick since we did buffet. We were back in the car when we realized it was a little after 6:00 and the movie was at 9:15. Hmmmmm
Time to get creative. Pressure is on. I mean this whole blog is about being creative on a date and here we were. "What do you want to do?" "I don't know what do you want to do?" You know how it goes. Andy came up with the idea of going to the river to skip rocks. Could be fun right, and free. Did I mention I was wearing a skirt and little wedge sandals. The one time in my life I'm not wearing flat shoes, literally. Oh well. So we now had the adventure of locating the river. It's gotta be around here somewhere right? Thank goodness for Andy because I have no sense of direction.
We found a boat ramp. No thanks. So we kept driving. Over the river, down a gravel road, down a hill, onto a road that was more like a 4wheel drive trail. Our Explorer is not 4 wheel drive. Adventure right. We followed the road all the way until the end. What a cool place. The road dead ended at a little wooded area with a small trail. So I tawdled in my pretty but highly unpractical shoes down the trail. Down, as in my husband was slipping in his tennis shoes. I was pretty impressed with myself. At the end of the trail was a little tributary of the river and the remains of a bridge. The remains were all sorts of big posts sticking up. They reminded me of that scene in Karate Kid. You know the one. Andy did balance on the closest ones, but he was above the water about 6 feet and the tops were rounded from weather and age. Before you get any skinny dipping ideas the ground all around the water was mud, lots of mud. Just to let you know I have never skinny dipped, but you never know.
So we went back to the car. What a beautiful little secluded spot. The hour passed quickly. Use your imagination. Did I mention we are very happily married?
Suddenly, we found ourselves very thirsty. We headed back into Forsyth for a drink. A bar? No, we are too cheap to hand over 5 bucks for one beer so we went to the gas station, grabbed a six pack of hard lemonade, and hit the road.
Andy was full of good suggestions. He was looking for the perfect hill to park on and watch the sunset. That's just what we did. We found another totally people free spot ontop of a hill. Not a house, a car, or a person could be seen or heard. We sat in the car as the sky turned pink, drank our lemonade, and played cards. Ahhhh how romantic.
It was finally nearly 9 so we set off for the movie. Bad teacher was well pretty bad. A lot more R than I knew R could be, but the popcorn was buttery and soda was cold and the balcony was comfy. So, even if it wasn't the best movie it was the best 16th anniversary I could have asked for.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Bonus Date!
STATS: Cost: $12
Golf Cart $5
2 small bags of balls and 1 bag of tees $7
(We already had a golf bag and clubs that we picked up earlier this summer for $15 at Goodwill.)
Distance: 2 miles from home
What's a bonus date you ask? Well, it's when you have no plans to go on a date and someone from your church invites you to go to a wedding shower for a couple that you have not had the pleasure of getting to know. The date is at the golf course! Did I mention I've never golfed, Ever! Well, I did go about a month ago to get a free lesson from our local golf pro and eat a free shrimp dinner and $2.50 margaritas, but I was lucky to swing and get the ball off of the ground (and that was before the Margaritas.) So, I was a little trepidatious about golfing.
My husband got home at 6:30 and the wedding shower started at 6:30. I'd been distracted by several phone calls so I had not prepared dinner. I know, I failed to do my wifely duty. So I slapped together some egg salad sandwiches, called it dinner and we drove 2 miles to the golf course. We purchased our balls and tees and rented a cart. I tried negotiating the price to an even $10, but the guy at the pro shop didn't go for it. (Always try and negotiate for a better price, always! Sometimes it even works.)
We went outside and met the bride and groom, ate delicous cake bites that looked like golf balls with little Nike swooshes on them. There was red velvet and key lime cake bites. Yum! There was also bottles of water available for all of us. The bride and groom were presented with their gifts. (I had pitched in $5 the day before for the group gift.) They explained we were playing best ball and I think a scrimmage. I don't really know, because I had no idea what they were talking about. We split up into several groups. My group had Jerry (a golfer thank goodness) Liz and Wayne (a wonderful couple and friends of ours) and my husband and I. We hopped into the golf cart and took off. When I say took off I mean hang on to something because my husband drives a golf cart likes it's a lifted pickup on a 4 wheel drive course. We made our way to our first hole. I looked at the spot where you hit from. I'm sure there's a proper name for it, but oh well. Yikes! There was a whole ditch of weeds between us and the next green. Thankfully, we weren't to the women's tee spot yet. I learned to take my tee with. I lost my first tee, because I thought we would all share. Oops.
So, I did manage to hit the ball into the weeds. Shocker! Liz, was a doing awesome. She was a natural. Don't you hate that! Did I mention I'm extremely competitive. Here was my friend with very little golfing experience and she was hitting the best ball over and over. Grrrr. No really, I was happy for her, mostly. Wayne golfed at my level thank goodness. So, I had some company in my constant failure. But, man, is it sweet when your club hits the ball just right and you hear that sweet sound and then the little white spot disappears into the sky and lands somewhere in the general vacinity that is supposed to be in!
My husband was hit and miss, literally. But, you should see his form. It was beautiful. He got into position, stuck out his butt (really far) wiggled it to the left, to the right, to the left again, swung a couple of practice swings and then hit the ball. The entertainment value was very high when it was Andy's turn to swing.
We are not serious golfers if you figured that out yet, but we do know how to be rediculous and have a good time. We were doing 5 holes. The sun was setting and we were finishing up our fourth hole. By the time we were on our last hole we would hit the ball into the fading twilight and wonder if we would ever find it again. It was really getting dark. By the time we were on the green for our last whole we needed a flashlight. But, we were determined to finish all five holes.
Guess what! When we got back to Mulligans ( the restaurant at the golf course) we found out we won! No joke. Ok, so Liz and Jerry get most of the credit, but I hit a couple of good ones and there was that time I putted from the edge of the green and sunk the ball! Andy was so excited for me he jumped into the air and threw his golf club all the while screaming "Yahooo!"
Great Bonus Date and it's not even my anniversary yet!
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Anniversary Date (The 19th we will have been married 16 years.)
So, here I am faced with my first "creative date" and all I really want is to go to the movies. Going to the movies is a special treat. We've only been to the Forsyth movie theater once, but it was so much better than the ones in Billings. Roxy Theater is small, but the picture and sound quality are amazing and they have the coolest little balcony to sit in. Don't you love sitting in a balcony at a movie theater? I do! After the movie we ended up staying and talking to the owner for almost an hour. She even offered us extra refills...For Free!
Dinner and a movie...so, boring I know, but I checked out what was playing this weekend. Captain America. Not excited about that and neither was Andy. Then we noticed that Bad Teacher was playing with Cameron Diaz. So, dinner and a movie looks like our first "creative date." I know, don't lecture me. It's not creative at all, but doesn't it sound fun?
I promise next week will be better, creative, exciting... well who knows, but it won't be dinner and a movie. Now I just have to find a place in Forsyth for dinner other than Dairy Queen.
Dinner and a movie...so, boring I know, but I checked out what was playing this weekend. Captain America. Not excited about that and neither was Andy. Then we noticed that Bad Teacher was playing with Cameron Diaz. So, dinner and a movie looks like our first "creative date." I know, don't lecture me. It's not creative at all, but doesn't it sound fun?
I promise next week will be better, creative, exciting... well who knows, but it won't be dinner and a movie. Now I just have to find a place in Forsyth for dinner other than Dairy Queen.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Creative Dating in Small Town USA
Everyone says that dating is important in a happy marriage. Most of us know that reality often gets in the way of weekly time set aside for just you and your spouse. What with kids, schedules, jobs, holidays, life and not to mention financial issues we don't often make dating a priority. I read that book the Five Love Languages. Guess what my love language is? Yep, Quality Time. So here's the deal: We moved to a tiny town in Montana. I'm talking 2000 people. I thought it would be fun, entertaining, and challenging to come up with 52 creative dates in this small town. Call it a challenge. I love challenges. So we need rules right.
Rule #1: Must go on a date once a week.
Rule #2: Date cannot cost more than $25 (We'll make exceptions for special events. My anniversary is this Friday.)
Rule #3: Date must take place within 35 miles of smalltown USA. (only movie theater is 30 miles away)
Rule #4: Anything goes!
So, my goal is to entertain and encourage you (my faithful reader) with stories of my dates, failures and successes. I want you to laugh, and gasp, and shake your head, be shocked, disgusted, maybe even cry. Basically any emotional response will do. I commit to writing it all down for your reading pleasure. Maybe I can even get my husbands responses to some of our dates on here. Let me know what you think. Give me suggestions, comments, encouragement.
Rule #1: Must go on a date once a week.
Rule #2: Date cannot cost more than $25 (We'll make exceptions for special events. My anniversary is this Friday.)
Rule #3: Date must take place within 35 miles of smalltown USA. (only movie theater is 30 miles away)
Rule #4: Anything goes!
So, my goal is to entertain and encourage you (my faithful reader) with stories of my dates, failures and successes. I want you to laugh, and gasp, and shake your head, be shocked, disgusted, maybe even cry. Basically any emotional response will do. I commit to writing it all down for your reading pleasure. Maybe I can even get my husbands responses to some of our dates on here. Let me know what you think. Give me suggestions, comments, encouragement.
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