Day 338: Sleeping Jamin

I did ask permission before taking a picture of my sleeping husband. (= Jamin's work schedule has been so unpredictable that he's not always home sleeping anymore. It's been a little hard on me as I get bigger and it becomes harder for me to do things around the house. Tonight he was home for dinner and we even enjoyed a cheap movie together while my mom watched Zaria. We saw "Iron Man," which I really enjoyed. Robert Downey Jr. was one of my favorite actors in the early 90's, and then I hadn't seen him for a long time (I think he was just in movies that I didn't see or even hear of) until recently I saw him in "Good Night and Good Luck."

Day 331: Buffet date night

We decided to have a date night tonight and went out to a Chinese buffet. I don't think I'll get my money's worth at buffets soon since I'm getting full fast with the lack of space. It was nice to get out just the two of us, at any rate.

Day 292: Jamin's esophagus and Red Wing

We went to the doctor's office today to check out Jamin's esophagus. He did have some scarring from the broccoli incident last Sunday, but he also has ridges in his esophagus, which may make swallowing in general a little more difficult for him. It may also be an indication of eosinophilic esophagitis. I'm lucky to have taken some medical transcription training to be able to translate what the doctor said.

Jamin was a little woozy after the endoscopy procedure, but we drove to La Crosse and stopped in Red Wing on our way at a fun hotel restaurant. It got very windy towards the end of our meal and threatened to blow our table over, but we left before a short storm went through. Our server, a Ukrainian named Igor took this picture of us below. Zaria was enjoying grandma's house for the weekend by this point.

Day 164: My walking Valentine

Zaria is walking on her own now, but still prefers having things to hold on to. I tried to find her the most Valentinesey outfit for today that I could, but Jamin and I did go out without her this evening. We didn't have small group tonight in lieu of Valentine's day dating opportunities.

So Jamin and I went to a movie at the cheap theater and talked about it over coffee at Barnes and Noble. We saw "The Golden Compass," which was fun and fantastic, though we didn't think it compared to Lewis' Narnia series, at least not in plot. I had gotten an e-mail warning about how evil The Golden Compass was because of the author wanting to make it into an anti-Christian allegory or anti-Narnia competitor. I also read an article by a Christian who thought it wasn't so anti-Christian after all, despite the author's intentions. So it ended up being good fodder for conversation and we had a nice Valentine's day.

Day 159: Date night for John and Jen

Aren't they cute? John and Jen let us sneak in to their schedule for a game of Catan before they went out to the "Couples by Candlelight" date night event at North Heights. I had cookies to drop off anyway, so we let the girls play for a little while as we played and ate a few of the extra cookies. This date was a cool answer to prayer-- they were really wanting to go but short on funds, and somebody called Jen and asked if she wanted tickets the next day. Wow, God is so cool.

Day 43: Date night

Between our heads you might note the scooter in the parking lot. Then there's the gray, gray sky. Yup, you guessed it. It rained on our way home. But we had a nice date night, sitting in what used to be the non-smoking section of this local Italian place.

Day 8: Still sick but living it up

Jamin stayed home sick with me, but by late afternoon, my mom picked up Zaria and we were feeling a little better, so we went for a date night on the scooter. We put on helmets before we went, don't worry. We went and saw a movie at the cheap theater nearby and then went to Culvers for a light meal. I had soup since I wasn't quite 100%.

It was so nice to have a chance and excuse to use the scooter! It's been such a bane to me that it's barely been used. When we first got it, it barely worked, but now it's running really well. So of course we're trying to sell it now. It really is cute and it's fun to ride. Also fun to have an excuse to wear leather. What is it about black leather that I like so much? I bought the Harley jacket from a good friend of ours that worked at a Harley shop near Portland, so it has some wonderful memories attached to it. I used to like to tell people I wanted to be a Harley Grandma someday because I like the idea of being a feisty, unpredictable old lady. Still not too old yet, since this is just my 29th year.