Impromptu Date Night

In an effort to eat healthier and save a little money, I am slowly making the switch from canned beans to dried beans. Of course, this means a little more planning and preparation on my part as dried beans take longer to prepare. I read online that you can cook a huge pot of beans, then divide the beans into bags and freeze them for later use. I liked that idea and decided to give it a try today, which meant the beans needed to be soaked last night. The hardest part of cooking dried beans for me is sorting through the beans and discarding the bad ones. So, last night as I getting the beans ready, I asked Husband to help me sort. As you can see by the picture, he was less than thrilled. In an effort to put a positive spin on a dull and time-consuming task, I said "This can count as our date night!" He was not impressed by my fast thinking, mumbling something derogatory (and probably unpublishable) about date night . I am guessing that my next date night idea - alphabetizing the DVDs - is not going to go over well either!

The Big Three-Oh!

Husband hit the big three-oh a few days ago. I wanted to make his 30th birthday special and when I saw this idea on Pinterest about a daughter filling 60 envelopes with memories from family and friends for her father's 60th birthday, I knew I had struck gold. I made a Facebook group, sent out emails, and basically nagged people to send me their memories. Thankfully, Husband's family and friends came through (despite my multiple "friendly" reminders!) and I was able to fill 30 envelopes with memories and birthday wishes. It was hard keeping this a secret, and at one point I thought Husband was on to me: I can't remember what we were talking about, but one night he made some comment about collecting memories for my birthday. Pretty sure my heart stopped for a second or two as my brain screamed "He knows! He knows!" Turns out, it was just some random comment because Husband had NO IDEA what I was doing. Whew!

All 30 envelopes, bundled and ready for reading

He sure was surprised

No knives here; I thought a letter opener was a better idea

Reading all those letters took awhile 

There was a lot of laughter as he read through the memories 

I love this picture! 

Visitors from New England

Recently our good friends, J and A, came to visit us all the way from New England. They brought along their adorable 1 year old boy, who is now nicknamed Flipper because of the dolphin-like sounds he made all weekend. We had a great time spending the weekend with our friends and we are grateful that they made the 12 hour drive down!  My camera is on the fritz so I don't have many pictures, but I thought I would share these:

Husband and Flipper, just chillin' out!

Of course Husband had to play with Flipper's toys. It was all good though; they are both pros at sharing!

Tickle Monster!

This little guy is definitely used to a camera. He would make this face pretty  much every time I tried to take a picture! And then he would want to look at the picture on the camera. (BTW, that is Husband in the background still playing with the toy!)

"Cheese"

Not really sure what this face is about, but it cracks me up!