The Circus!

He Flies Through the Air with the Greatest of Ease:

This has by far been my favorite date! My sister and brother-in-law were getting ready to have Judson- who is now here and PERFECT! I am obsessed! So, Jonathon and I decided to take Jaylee out for a night of fun-which anything is fun when you are with Jaylee-who is also PERFECT! We first had to ask the parents for permission to take Jaylee to the CIRCUS! Of course they agreed and Jonathon and I prepared- by sleeping and figuring out the best ways to spoil this little girl! We picked Jaylee up on Saturday afternoon and went to get French Fries and coke- or should I say ketchup and coke! Jaylee ate more of the ketchup than the French fries-which is challenging in a car! Then off we were to Springfield. We got to the circus and first saw clowns- which Jaylee surprisingly kind-of liked… After waiting in a long line, we made it in and got awesome seats on the second row! The circus is bringing in the “big bucks!” There were donkeys and elephants to ride, snakes to take pictures with for 10 dollars- eww, and Dora balloons…seriously, Dora was at the circus? Smart marketing- because we ended up with one at the end of the night! We bought popcorn, coke (again-sorry Mary), and cotton candy. Jaylee loved the popcorn and coke, but the cotton candy she wasn't quite sure about. She began to pet it as opposed to eating it! The circus started and she loved most of it-some of the acts got long and were a little too old for her. She really wanted to see the Elephants. I made the mistake of saying they were outside eating to distract her, but then she wanted to go outside and watch them eatJ At intermission, Jaylee wanted to see the elephants- but "not ride them KiKi", but she did want to ride the donkey… She was all brave until she actually sat on the donkey, then the arms wrapped around my neck and we walked around in a circle like that for probably 30 seconds, but it seemed like 30 minutes! It was about 9pm (at intermission) and she was getting tired and so were Uncle Juan and Aunt KiKi, so we changed her into her jammies and headed back home! The ride home was interesting! We sang “He’s got the Whole World in His Hands” singing a verse for  everyone from the dogs to family to trees and houses-yes trees and houses, Jaylee! Then for about 20 minutes she agonized over her sharp toenail that she would “just have Daddy clip that little thing off” and the lent in between her toes. It was so fun! I couldn't quit smiling watching her! She got her Dora balloon that will never deflate and makes a horrible squeaking sound! And if you ask, her favorite part was the Elephants- even though all we did was watch them walk around in a circleJ I can’t wait to take her back next year and many years to come- she may even let Baby Judson come too- as long as she is in charge! What a delight, a night with my wonderful husband, spoiling my beautiful niece, Jaylee! Did I mention she is perfect along with my other 9 nieces and nephews- yes that is 10 total- talk about an expensive Christmas!

The Great Cookie Hunt

The Great Cookie Hunt:

To our Faithful Few readers out there, we are still “dating” just haven’t had time to write about it! Anyone that knows me knows that I have a sweet tooth for chocolate, caramel, and peanut butter and many more things. On this date, Jonathon and I decided to make a cookie that was unique to us! So instead of going out to find an amazing cookie- we made our own at home. As many of you all know when Jon and I started dating we were living along I-70 about 5 hours apart: Jon in Indianapolis and I in Columbia. Our cookie theme was about our dating journey along I-70. The base is peanut butter- which we both LOVE. In the middle to represent I-70 is caramel, then on either side were white chocolate and milk chocolate chips to! Jon loves white chocolate and well I prefer the milk chocolate! To say the least they were not very cute, but amazing to eat, and fun to make! I think I ate more than he did:)

Since this is a "dating blog" and most of our dating we were getting well acquainted with I-70, I thought we should make a cookie that represented our time dating from 2005-2007 before we got married!! I loved the cookies ( so did my hips)...and I love my husband more than I ever thought I could when driving along I-70 to see him!   

Romantic Movie Night

Date Number 42:  Romantic Movie Night

The last date we did was a Movie Night. It fit perfectly with Valentine’s Day and just spending time together.  Our very first Valentine’s Day we were married, Jon and I splurged and bought nice steaks (that we sufficiently ruined by making them on the George Foreman) from Harter House and an 8$ vanilla bean for crème brulee. This is probably my favorite meal.  A well prepared steak enjoyed in my house! We decided that once again we would make our own Valentines Dinner and watch a movie here. Jon made our steaks-(not on the GF grill) he is quite the little chef now!  I prepared the sides and cleaned up the kitchen as he “messed” it up! We finished off the dinner with chocolate covered strawberries and vanilla bean crème brulee.  The dinner was fantastic! It was really delightful to spend time with Jonathon- I could have been eating McDonalds, but I am glad we had the steaksJ Jon then watched a couple of movies- neither of them were very good. I proceeded to do what I always do during a movie- fall asleep! Overall it was a fabulous night- simple and quiet! It is kind of amazing to look back over the past 2 years- a short amount of time, and see how much Jon and I have grown together as a couple! I am so thankful that he will always be my date and my best friend!

Get Literary

Date #3 was unexpectedly a great time.  When I read this one, I'm not going to lie, I wasn't to excited.  After all is said and done however, we both had a great time.  For our third date we choose number 23 in our book;

Get Literary

"Explore your intellectual side.  Even if you're not an avid reader, you might be surprised at the conversations a visit to a bookstore, library, or book fair can spark.  Browse the shelves, and talk about anything that draws your attention."

So off to good ol Barnes & Noble we went.  On the way to the bookstore I created a book scavenger hunt to try and spice up our little book reading extravaganza.  My idea was to make a list of certain things that we both had to find in books and then show each other what we came up with.  This is the scavenger hunt list I came up...

1. One of your favorite childhood books
2. One of your favorite poems
3. A recipe you want to try
4. A fun historical fact
5. One riddle
6. A book about a hobby you want to get into
7. A book you want to buy
8. One really cool coffee table book
9. One piece of marital advice
10. A place you would love to travel

We selected three of them randomly and took off through the store to find our selections.  Once we found our selections we went and sat done and showed each other what we found.  I'm sure at this point you are all thinking "please shoot me" but it was actually really fun.  I won't go into details on all of our books we found, but I will give you the highlights.

The high point for me was finding one of our favorite childhood books. I'm not kidding, my normally non emotional wife starts crying as she was telling me about her book.  It was really sweet.  Here are the books we chose...

Kate's Book

  Jon's Book

I had never seen Kate's book, but it was really good.  The Berenstain Bears were some of my favorite books growing up and moving day was my favorite because I was moving all the time when I was younger.

Kate found some great marital advice, which I'm pretty sure she still hasn't stopped laughing yet.

Very funny Kate... If she was only as good a cook as my mom. One thing we did discover while looking through the marital advice books, was if you you need marital advice, don't go to Barnes & Noble! Crazy people write advice books, I'm not kidding.

Some of the other things we picked were a coffee table book with the front page of the New York Times for the past 60 years or something which was really cool. Kate's poem was Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening and my poem was William Carlos Williams' Red Wheelbarrow.  Kate wants to get into sewing and I bought a book on cooking poultry (I'm newly obsessed with cooking).  The night turned out great! We had great time laughing and giving each other a hard time. 

Leave a comment and tell us some of your favorite childhood books, poems, marital advice, or anything else on our scavenger hunt list! Vote in our new Poll! ----------------->

Date #2

Well, date number 2 is in the books! We had a great time with plenty of stories and laughs. For this date we chose number 7 from our book...

"Visit a Retro Roller Rink"

"Sure, it might conjure up images of junior high, with all the nervousness and sweaty palms that came with the "couples' skate," but good old-fashioned roller skating is not only fun, its a great workout!"

Roller skating was something we had joked about on occasion whenever we would drive by the rinks in Springfield, but probably never would have gone had it not been for the book.  This time, after several of kids from our youth group begged us to let them come on one of our dates, we decided this would be a good date for company.

       (Haden, Jon, Evan)

(Kate, Mariah, Cynthia)

After getting our skates on we were ready to hit the hardwood for some fun. Well, lets just say some of us were more prepared for this moment than others.  Kate and Mariah were a little shaky to put it politely, but they were able to get it going by the end of the night due to help from our skating pro Cynthia.  They gave the rest of us plenty of entertainment while giving themselves bruised tail bones.  Evan is really tall... not that you're a bad skater if your tall... but in this case its true.  He was a wee bit awkward out there, but got much better as the night progressed.  Haden and myself were somewhere in the middle of the bruised tail bones and Cynthia.  Haden had a hard time slowing down or stopping and on several occasion plowed through couples and groups of kids.  All in all we had a great night!

Kate is sitting beside me while I am writing this and would like to add the following;

1. Never go skating again :)
2. Wear knee pads on your butt. (this makes no sense. - Jon)
3. Remind your husband to take his back and knee medicine before he goes skating...

Don't let her fool you, she had a blast. Our next date, however, will be a little less active as Kate has a bruised tail bone and sore hip flexors and my knees hurt and my back is out.  Wow, you would think we were eighty-five (like Marty Willadsen) or something. 

Thanks for reading our blog everyone, we really appreciate all of the positive feedback we have gotten from  our friends and family.  We are about to reach 500 views!  If you like reading our blog we encourage you to become a follower.  Make sure to vote in this weeks poll question!



Answer to Poll Question

Thanks for everyone who voted!  The vote was split right down the middle. The answer is, Kate painted the picture with the table and chairs and I painted the Sunset.  Our next date is this weekend and I can't wait!

Our 1st Date

     One down 51 to go!  Our first date was an absolute success.  It was a night of fun and laughter and we were both surprised that such a simple date could be so memorable.  We chose date number 1 out of our book, it just seemed right to start at the beginning.  Date one in our book was...

Create a Masterpiece

"Explore your creative side with a fun, lighthearted art project.  Get out some finger paints and a large piece of paper, and see what you can create together."

     So this is how the night went down, Kate got off work at noon and we went and had lunch at a local restaurant here in town. At this point I (Jon) was filled with anticipation for our upcoming masterpiece and Kate was, well... not.

     Kate and Macy took about an hour nap while I read.  This turned out to be a good thing as there would be no way that she would have ever made it to the new year awake had she not taken a nap.  One of the most fun parts of the date was our trip to Wal-mart to get our supplies.  It was while reflecting on how much fun I had on our trip to Wal-mart that I learned another important lesson.  Why was this trip to Wal-mart so much fun when we take several trips to Walmart and rarely are they fun?  This trip we treated like a date.  We weren't concerned with the worries of life; we just talked, joked, and enjoyed ourselves.  Why can't every trip to the store be like this?  Why do I often decline the invitation to go to the store when Kate asks?  I'm going to make a concerted effort to go with Kate when she goes to get groceries or has to run some errands.  Sure, it's not the way we would choose to spend our time if we had an option, but hey its time! Not only that but it's time that we can make what we want, we can make ordinary daily tasks fun dates. Why not?

     After our Wal-mart trip we had a luxurious dinner, in other words we ordered pizza and put on our sweats! We put in our wedding video while we ate and relived some of the moments from our wedding day.  Then the finger painting began!  We bought two small canvases and some finger paint.  We both created our own pictures.  Kate totally Bob Rossed it, she was putting random blobs of paint on her canvas at one moment and the next moment it was a really awesome picture! She finished her painting about an hour before I finished mine, and made fun of my painting techniques as I mixed paint colors to get the perfect shades, and got the blow dryer out to dry the paint faster.  In the end, neither of us are very good artists but we had a great night and a great date.  Here is our paintings, fill out the new poll question to the right and guess which painting belongs to who. 

Our first date was a success; we had a great night bringing in the new year together. We can't wait for our next date!   Thanks for the comments of encouragement and support on our previous posts we really enjoy all of your feedback!