anniversary date: take 2

Happy Friday, everyone! What are your plans for the weekend? For the first time in a long time, Brett and I actually have plans of the going-out nature. Last weekend, our lined-up caretakers (hello, Mom and Dad!) were down for the count with the nefarious flu bug that has been hitting our nation hard. In addition, Brett was sick with a lousy cold, and Stella was fighting an upper respiratory virus. I started to get the sniffles, experienced some aches and a sore throat, but thankfully, no more symptoms developed. Needless to say, we canceled our reservation for Oceanaire, and hoped that everyone would be on the mend by this weekend.

We waited until Thursday night to make a reservation to ensure that I would not have become sick by week's end, and that Brett was feeling better and able to taste and smell food again. We couldn't get a good reservation time at Oceanaire (bummer!!!), so we researched other restaurants. (Side note: we hadn't been out in so long that we had really lost touch about what we liked and preferred for our eating-out experience). We decided to go with Ruth's Chris Steakhouse - fancy enough to acknowledge our 8-year milestone of marital peaks and valleys, but not too swanky that we wouldn't feel comfortable and casual enough to enjoy ourselves. Okay, that was my opinion. I like fancy, but not so fancy that your food is the size of a walnut and costs $$$$.

I still don't have shoes for my outfit tonight, but I'll figure something out. I'm dropping off Stella at my parents' home sometime today, and then I'll be scurrying around like a crazy lady to run errands and hopefully fit in some appointments that I always seem to put off until absolutely necessary (brow wax...ouch, ouch, OUCH!) and some work on the ol' paws (for you slow ones, that would be a manicure). ;)

Wow, I really feel giddy about going out. Brett and I realize that we need to hire babysitters more often so that this going out business is not a once-in-a-blue-moon kind of thing. We have also been newly reminded that we need to make our marriage a priority again, going out included. Miss Stella is obviously a huge priority, and is still at a needy stage of life, but we need to keep the marriage strong - not only for ourselves, but for her benefit, too!

Oh, and this is our last weekend to live it up food-wise before we start Whole30 on Monday. More on that later...in TRUTH, I am very excited to start it. I just wasn't ready to start it last year, but I sure am this time around! 

I'll close with some recent pictures of Stella this week. She was feeling better the other day, and I was itching to get out of the house, so we ran errands at Trader Joe's and Costco, and then wound up at one of her favorite stores: Hallmark. She loves this place - the displays, the stuffed animals, the ceiling fans...