Date Night!!!

Wow! It seems like months, well it probably has been, but Travis and I finally had a date night last night. Amanda has quit her job to focus on some more important things in this season of her life (college started this past Thursday) so it seems that we have a babysitter again. I typically don't like going out on Sunday nights because Travis has to work the next day and Chloe has school, we've never been able to get out of the house before 8 o'clock because we were waiting on Amanda to get home from work and I felt stressed the whole time to get back. But since today is Labor Day, we had nothing to worry about. Of course, we also didn't know what we were going to do. There's not really that much to do on a Sunday night around here. When I was in college people that weren't from Lakeland would complain about there being nothing to do there and I was always very defensive about that. There was plenty to do in Lakeland and if you tired of doing things there, it was a short drive to the beach or Kissimmee or Orlando, etc. In Franklin they roll up the streets at 9 or earlier. We were going to go to a movie but there is absolutely nothing worth seeing and then we were going to go to play Grand Old Golf in Nashville- we haven't played putt-putt in years. But we decided to have dinner first.

When we left our house we were determined to not talk about anything house or kids related- which proved to be impossible since there are some pretty cool flooring to be purchased for the Button casa in the next few days. But I somehow got into a really, really chatty mood and talked at Travis for an hour or so while he listened and nodded graciously. It reminded me of our talks in the midi-lab at SEU before we were dating. I would talk incessantly (often telling the same story 4 or 5 times) and he would listen and laugh at the appropriate moments and somehow we fell in love...funny. We would have talked longer but I went to the ladies room and he went to get a drink and they cleared our table so I felt guilty about sitting at it again. We took a drive and decided to go to Starbuck's in downtown Franklin. We got there at 9:20 and they were closed! Closed! I was a little bummed. All of the main roads leading to the town square had been closed for the weekend and I didn't know why but when we got out of the car we heard live jazz music. I love jazz. Well, I love the jazz that's mostly horn driven, that has a melody and such. I appreciate the more modern very dissonant jazz but it's not too long before I start to feel stressed. Anyway, we started walking around and found out that this weekend was the annual jazz festival and it was $5 to get in. That's really cheap but it was already late and I figured it would be ending any time which is what I told Travis. A kind gatekeeper happened to hear me and said "it's really late so you guys can just go in, really, it's no big deal". So we got to go in after all. At that point the bands had changed from jazz to salsa, which I like too. I really should have been born Cuban. The bands name was 'something, something, something, Cuba!". Not "kewba" but "cooba" said really, really fast. There were people dancing in the streets and people in lawn chairs and one mom was dancing with her toddler son. It was so sweet and relaxing. We found a bench to sit on and talked. It ended at 10, much to the disappointment of the audience. But apparently there's a city ordinance that says that all music must stop at 10- bummer.

We headed home surprisingly refreshed and our kiddos met us at the door. They had several incredibly important things to tell us and Halle had to slide down Trav's legs. It's amazing how much they miss you in four hours. All in all we had a great time and I didn't feel even the teensiest bit guilty for having fun without my kids (I tend to have a problem with that). I can hardly wait until next time.

A Pathetic Little Post

Is all that I can come up with right now. I've started two posts in the last week but I just wasn't feelin it, you know? So I've been up since 5am (my back hurts) and I would really like to take a walk since it's only 63 degrees outside. It's supposed to be 90 today though and I know I have to take advantage of it while I can. So here are a few pictures of what's going on around here. I'm trying to squeeze lots of fun and happiness into the days because Chloe starts her new school in 2 weeks and one day. I'm sad now but when she gets that big 3 week break in October, I know I'll be happy about it.

The happy highlights include a super awesome date night at Arrington Vineyards. It's a beautiful place to have a picnic and we had the perfect spot on a grassy hill overlooking the vineyard which was also the perfect spot for watching the sunset. Beautiful chocolates from Schakolad that my sweetie brought home for me last night. A sweet photo of the girls that I took at the park. And a picture of a dragonfly that looks like a bi-wing airplane. I tried to get a closer picture but he was on to me and took off. I've seriously never seen a dragonfly like that before. There is also some gardening going on. Does anybody have a good recipe that involves basil? Because I really have a lot of basil. And I'm crossing my fingers that my sunflowers make it and bloom soon. Several have been snatched from the front yard by something that likes small sunflower plants. One day they're there and the next day they're gone. I shouldn't get so emotionally attached to plants but it really bugs me. Ooh, and I saw a deer in my backyard last week! To be more precise she was a doe- that was bigger than I am. Travis cut down a lot of wild brush that is taking over our backyard but we left it there until we had time to drag it to the curb and she was eating some of it. I picked Chloe up to see her but she must have heard us because by the time I got to Halle so she could see, the doe was gone. She was beautiful. And I didn't get a picture.

And now my time is up, I think I'll take the girls with me on that walk.