Date Nights

So, Mike and I have officially implemented the "Date Night".  Date Night is officially every Thursday at either 4 PM or 7 PM depending on class schedules.  We are not allowed to use this time to  bum around one of our houses, do homework, group hangouts with roommates, etc.  This time is meant for quality engagement with one another.   Additionally, we switch every week with who is in charge of planning the date night.  All I can say is it about time that we started a date night.  Date night was inspired by my grandparent's "date night" who every Saturday morning for the past 51 years, go and get a bagel together to share and talk and spend time with one another.  I think it's pretty inspiring that they've had such a wonderful marriage through out their fifty one years having raised five kids, twelve grand kids, jobs and being important members of their church.  Plus, with our busy schedules of school, work and extracurricular activities it is nice to have one night no matter what dedicated to spending time with each other and on our relationships.  It is also a useful time to do wedding planning (hello registering!) , do seasonal activities (picking pumpkins) and working on the bucket list.   My hopes it that we stick with this date night, make it a tradition that follows us to St. Louis and then continues onto the years where we have kidlets, big people jobs and dogs.  

Our first date night involved me treating Mike to a Panera dinner and then a M&M cookie.  After dinner we walked down the street to Borders where we skimmed the travel section for books with lots of pictures of places we want to go for our honeymoon.  We then showed each other and pointed out how fabulous the sheep in Ireland were and how picturesque and European- like Quebec City is.  Finally, we looked at the cute cat and dog calendars.  Mike and I are suckers for cute animals, especially Mike.  This is what I love about our date: it was so us, plus it didn't need to be anything special for us to have a great time.  

Katie serving us the cookies she made in her super cute kitchen.  

Our second date night we went and visited Mike's sister (Katie's) new house and to have dinner with her boyfriend, also named Mike.  Her house is beautiful! Mike and I left envious (in a good way) of their adult life in their adult house with their huge yard and cute dogs.  For us, we love spending time doing things like that, especially when it involves family.  Mike made a delicious meal of chicken, green beans and potatoes.  I must admit I admire his impromptu cooking style of adding random spices on a whim. 

Kiss!