sisters chat: About date nights

 Esther:  What is your favorite kind of date with your man?

                Eating out? a movie? show? walking? hiking? ect...

 Lizzi:  Well, I love just doing simple things like walks, coffee dates, or sitting at a pretty park with books and talking or all of the above!

 Maude:  I think my favorite date would have to be going to a festival (I LOVE those) or a local football game or something like that.  Something that is different than the regular routine but easy.

 Maude:  Or perhaps checking out a small little town in the area that we've never been to before.  Just parking the car and walking around, checking out the different shops, parks and restaurants.

 Lizzi:  Yeah!

 Esther:  I think my favorite is going to dinner and a show downtown.  Usually we pick a restaurant downtown and then just walk to the show.  But I love parks and coffee shop dates too!

 Lizzi:  ooh... I love shows! that IS fun! Can I just have everything be my favorite?

 Maude:  I think dates with my husband are just pretty nice all around!!

 Esther:  What do your dates "usually" entail? It could be a movie at home, a walk with the kids in the stroller or a game night?  Do you go out regularly?   We usually get one "date" a week (perk to having family close by which I know neither of you do :( …  )

 Maude:  Walking with kids in the stroller used to be a date - but not anymore!!  They are walking beside us, showing us rocks they've found, etc.  We barely have time to talk at all.

 Esther:  We often go to coffee shops for these dates and just talk or play a game.  I know, it must be hard once you have talkers!

 Maude:  Having a date once a week?!  That would be lovely!  It would be nice to be close to family

 Lizzi:  Yeah, we tend to try and get time together in the evening after the kids are in bed. Yeah, we are looking forward to having mom here in a couple weeks!! Haha!  We'll definitely squeeze a few dates in!  We have had friends watch them a few times, but it's hard to do that too often.  We also like to have coffee together during the weekend nap times.  We try to make it like a date...

 Maude:  Our dates usually are at home after the kids go to bed.  Once (or sometimes twice) a week we put away all of our work (unless I am under a writing deadline) and we talk, read a book, or watch a movie.  Sometimes we get out the fancy cheeses.  It is nice.

Esther:  Maude, after visiting you all now one of our favorite treats in now having fancy cheese on occasion too, so fun!

Maude:  My husband only counts dates as when we actually get out of the house though.  That is rare but thankfully we have found a couple at church to do babysitting exchanges with.  We've not done it much but once a month is the goal.  I think our average (with this couple included) is one date every 3 months.

An expensive habit but the only one we have so we figure it is okay...

Esther:  it's yummy too

Maude:  Exactly.

Esther:  There is a couple in our CG who don't have any family and rarely get dates I am watching their little ones next Fri so they can get out just the two of them. It really does make it difficult to do when family is not around.

Maude:  That is nice of you Esther.  It really is hard without family.

Esther:  Do you have a special memory surrounded by a date? Something fun or funny? Or that really meant a lot? (maybe this should exclude getting engaged 'cause it kind of figures that that would be special!)

Lizzi:  It will mean so much to them, I'm sure!

Maude:  And right now I have doctor's appointments each month so I am using one of our possibilities for that and don't want to over burden that family so my options for babysitting for dates right now is less.

Maude:  And right now I have doctor's appointments each month so I am using one of our possibilities for that and don't want to over burden that family so my options for babysitting for dates right now is less.

Lizzi:  It will be even less when you are even closer to your due date!!  It gets down to once a week, right?

Maude:  Yes, stinky!!

Maude:  The year Milton turned one (I weaned him for the occasion) my husband planned a ski trip for us.  It was our 7 year anniversary.  We love skiing and I hadn't been able to the year before because I was pregnant. The memorable part was the conditions were HORRIBLE for skiing!  The mountain was a sheet of ice and there was thick fog the entire time we were there.  It was dangerous and just not any fun.  The nice thing was that there was hardly anyone else there so we had the run of the resort.  And that is where he replaced my original wedding ring with one I liked much better.

Maude:  We had some wonderful walks in the fog and magical alone time.  It was very special - all the more so that instead of skiing we just spent time together.

Esther:  Well, when I was super pregnant for little man I had this hankering for a milkshake... quite the hankering. The hankering happened well, around 1:30am.  We decided to go to Steak n' Shake and get me a milkshake. I mean, after our little boy was born when would we be able to do something like that again? Not for a long time! So, we got dressed and drove the 10 minutes by the time we got ready, over there, and ordered it was after 2am and Steak n' Shake has half priced milkshakes from 2-4 (am or pm). We even got a good deal! It was so much fun. We stayed there for over an hour.

Maude:  That is sweet, Esther.

Lizzi:  We have a skiing date story, too! A few years ago (before I was pregnant the first time) we spent the day at the slopes and it had been years since I had done any skiing. And I think that Daniel had only snowboarded before (which is another story in itself) and se we spent half the day on the bunny hill (which in fairness was actually larger than the slopes I was used to) and had to spend time getting used to the skis. It was a good relationship stretching experience.   But we also had a LOT of fun once we got used to it... until he got injured!  We enjoyed riding the lift together and gliding down... But he twisted his knee pretty bad and so that kind of put a damper on it.

Maude:  I have another one actually, am I allowed sharing two?

Lizzi:  I'd love to go again. It is so exhilarating to get out there and to get to enjoy it with your favorite person.

Maude:  Skiing is wonderful

Esther:  These are great! (Well aside from your man getting hurt) of course you can share another one!

Maude:  When we had been married only  a year or two I decided to give my husband a truly sacrificial gift - I decided to go white water rafting with him.  I am terribly afraid of water so as far as I was concerned this was on par with donating my heart to him in a transplant.

Maude:  We would camp beside the river the night before then raft all the next day.  Well to start with my husband forgot the tent poles...  We realized this around 11 pm when we arrived and were trying to get set up in the dark.  Thankfully the rafting people had one we could borrow. One of those that is huge and OLD and can sleep 25-30 people.  Didn't really need to cuddle up that night!!  But it was fun (since they had a tent for us to use!).

Esther:  Ooh Maude that is so funny! Ya'll have the darnedest time

Maude:  The rafting part was very SCARY though!!!

Maude:  You are NOT supposed to hold onto the raft with your legs in case it gets overturned and you could drown but I was holding on so tight with my legs that I was sore for 3 days.

Esther:  I think I would do the same thing.

Maude:  Then as we were going down a part that was a level 5, then level 4, then a level5 right in a row and the old grandma got thrown into the water!

Lizzi:  oh dear!

Esther:  Oh no!

Maude:  Everyone else in the boat (the family members) stood up trying to help her and our guide cursed.  Because we all needed to work together get the boat turned before hitting the last level 5 or we would capsize.

Lizzi:  Scary!

Esther:  Crazy!

Maude:  They were too worried about grandma going through the rapids outside of the boat. Understandable, I guess... But by the grace of GOD my husband, the guide and I got the boat positioned correctly and made it through without turning over.  We were the only boat in the group not to turn over.  Thankfully!  I probably would have panicked and drown had I been thrown into the water.  It turned out all right but next time I want to sacrifice for my husband like that please remind me to just donate my heart!!  I nearly swallowed it anyway.

Lizzi:  Haha!

Esther:  haha! I'll remind you Maude!

Maude:  Thanks.  I mean it white water rafting is terrifying!