A Year of Dates: February

I've posted a lot about all the wonderful things JSM does for me: the cards, the gifts, the gestures. I'm sure you are all wondering what in the world I do for HIM! As a matter of fact, I had given JSM a Christmas gift of "A Year of Dates". It really consisted of a basket with envelopes for each month of the year and inside each envelope was a pre-paid, partially-funded, or free "date" for us to go on that month. The idea is that it will get us doing things that we've forgotten about, put off, or otherwise, just haven't had time for and get to automatically spend some quality time together every month. You'd think that with no children we'd have plenty of one-on-one time to relax and recharge just the two of us.....WRONG! We don't even get a day together every week. I work every Saturday and every other Sunday and coupled with JSM's hockey games every Sunday we barely see each other. So, our dates provide more than just an evening out - they represent precious time we get to spend together.

January's date that we still have to go on.....

Our "Year of Dates" got off to a bad start. In January, I had planned for us to go to McMenamin's for dinner and ice skating at Mountainview Ice Arena or Lloyd Center. JSM has been begging to go to McMenamin's on the Columbia pretty much since we moved here and we have yet to go together. This would have been the perfect way to kick off the year, but we were both sick for 2 weeks in January and we never got around to our "date". That's sad, but we'll make it up! So, on to round 2....

February, as I've mentioned before, is our anniversary month and JSM is always really good about making plans for us to mark the special day. This year, he's been stressed about a lot of things so I decided to take the pressure off him and make plans for us. He loves a good foot massage (and usually they come from me!) Turns out I just happened to have an unused spa gift certificate lying around....wink, wink. So, off we went to the Rejuvenation Day Spa in Portland for a professional, hour-long foot massage. JSM was in heaven! 

Relaxing before the foot massage.....

Getting our feet done.....this is what he gets for letting me "ride in his side car" for 6 years and counting! I love him!

Somehow, things never really go as planned. And as you can see above we had a late lunch planned at Bamboo Sushi. Well, as you can tell by the photo my foot massage morphed into a pedicure and I walked out with painted feet and a pair of paper flip flops (Who always tries to be prepared, but somehow never really is? Me, of course!) And the flip flops barely withstood a quick trip into Williams-Sonoma before the left one broke leaving me with no shoes to go out to eat. We drove around NW Portland looking for flip flops trying Fred Meyer,Walgreens, and the Dollar Store before heading home to the Prairie for soup instead. So, no sushi for us, but a memorable afternoon (and anniversary) it was! JSM LOVED the date, but was disappointed, as I was, to miss out on Bamboo Sushi, Portland's only sustainable sushi restaurant which I hear is wonderful. Year of Dates vs McNally Family: 2 dates planned, a 1/2 date actually completed! But, we have lots to look forward to and extra dates in the months ahead. That means mandatory, built-in time for just the two of us!