August 1 was our 14th wedding anniversary. Hubby was able to take the day off from work, and it was lovely!
Monday night, he brought me two potted miniature rose bushes. They look beautiful on the dining room table – I can see them from where I sit now.
That morning, the children woke us with breakfast in bed, complete with fresh brewed coffee.
Later, we dropped the children at my parents house over the hill, where they could spend the evening playing with my 4 youngest sibs (ages 8-13). Big families certainly have their advantages.
Hubby and I (with the baby in tow) hotfooted it out of there. We started with a drink at a coffee shop. Mine was cold, his was hot. As usual, his was better. One of these days I’ll learn to order whatever he does.
Then we headed for our favorite date locale: a book store. We started out at Half-Price Books, where we found a copy of St. Augustine’s City of God. I hang my head in shame to admit that we didn’t already own a copy. We also picked up 4 Calvin & Hobbes books for the children – just $1 apiece. These are very nearly consumables at our house.
Then we split an ice cream from the shop next door, which had marble slabs and claimed to serve the best ice cream in the county. It was good, but we weren’t convinced.
Next we moved on to Border’s Books. Here we browsed with little intention of buying. This is where you add books to your wish list and go home to shop online. But a little heavy hinting on Hubby’s part as he oh-so-conveniently excused himself to the men’s room made it easy for me to buy him a gift: a clearance copy of The Complete Mustang, in memory of last year’s anniversary when he surprised me by renting an ’05 Mustang convertible for an entire week!
For dinner, we shared a gi-normous burrito from a local chain.
For dessert, we sampled the wares at another marble-slab ice cream shop. We had Chocolate Swiss with fresh walnuts folded in. mmmm. Better – quite impressive, in fact, but still not the best in the county.
We made the traditional obligatory trip to WalMart. What is a trip to town without WalMart? I nursed the baby in the parking lot while we discussed books and ice cream.
On our way out of town, we hurried to the third marble slab ice cream chain shop – the best. I ordered a large french vanilla to split, but in my haste I made a grave error. Pecan pralines stirred into buttery rich, ultra creamy, not too sweet french vanilla ice cream are a bad idea. We ended up spitting them out like so many watermelon seeds. Now I’ll have to go back and try again without the pralines. tsk, tsk.
Tonight, the girls are cooking for us again. At their own request, Hubby and I will have a special candlelit dinner for two. The children have already eaten grilled cheese sandwiches and cheetohs, and the dishes are done. When Hubby gets home (any minute!) we will enjoy a kid-cooked dinner of Bacon Chicken, fresh sliced tomatos, pumpernickel toast and mixed veggies sauteed in bacon drippings with a touch of onion and garlic.
I could really get into this anniversary thing.