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!

Lessons Learned

Hey Everybody!

     Well, we haven't even had our first date yet and I (Jon) have already learned some very important lessons.  I have to make a confession first of all.  Right after our first blog I got really excited and started looking through our book to find the perfect first date.  I thought to myself, I have to do a really exciting one so our blog readers will enjoy hearing about it.  So after finding the most exciting dates I could find (most of which involved travel and lots of time) I tried to find one that would work with our schedule.  Kate gets off work at noon on Friday and I have to take her to the airport by 2:00pm on Saturday to take a trip with her family.  Thus, none of the extremely exciting dates would fit into that small amount of time.  That's when I got bummed out thinking, no one is going to care about our boring date.  Then, I came to my senses! I'm an idiot! (Amen!-Kate) This whole adventure we are taking is not about a blog, or the entertainment of others, its about spending much needed quality time with my beautiful wife!  The blog can only be a way to reflect on and share what we are doing and it can never be the focal point of the journey, or I will miss out on what this whole thing is about.
     In this process I also learned another very important lesson.  These dates are more about making time for one another rather then the actual dates themselves.  Most of the dates in the book, aren't super exciting, don't cost lots of money, don't take much time, and that is the whole point!!!  Most married couples (including us) don't go on many dates because their responsibilities take all of their time.  These dates are a way for us to make time for each other.  They don't have to be exotic trips or high dollar extravaganzas, they just need to be time together, away from responsibilities, and truthfully shouldn't the health of our marriages be a higher responsibility then our secular responsibilities? Yes!!!!  Well, tomorrow we go on our first date, it won't be movie worthy drama and excitement for all of you, but I can't think of anything better then simply spending time with my beautiful wife!

          Make sure to answer the poll question and follow us -------->

Today our journey begins...

Well, we opened presents this morning and Kate bought me this awesome book.

If you read our "about us" section you will see what our plans are.  We decided today that our first date will be December 31st 2010, our two year anniversary!  Not sure which date we will do yet, but we will decide in the next couple of days.  I originally thought that it would be fun to put them all in a hat and just draw at random, however, there are some dates that cost money and take planning that would not be possible to do on a whim.  Thus, we are just going to pick as we go.  These are the rules that we have decided upon together.

1. We must complete all 52 dates by December 31, 2012.
2. While some dates leave some interpretation up to us, we must keep the integrity of the dates like they are written in the book.
3. Dates must be completed on separate days.
4. After each date we must blog about our experience.

We are both really excited about this adventure and can't wait to share our fun and laughter with you!

    Make sure you click "Follow" so you can keep up with our posts!