Three Generation Date

Saturday night, Grandpa, Mom and I took our spouses to Salt Lake City. Dinner at Chili's, where Grandpa ordered a Chicken Ceasar Salad. Joyce must be a good influence on him. Though, he is still trying, without success, to get her to taste his Pepsi.

After dinner was "The Wonderous Gift of Christmas" at the LDS Conference Center. Tabernacle Choir was superb, children's choir so innocent and beautiful, bells - magnificent, orchestra made me cry in the first ten measures, Natalie Cole was fabulous, and David McCullough was a treat. Organ player received a standing ovation - completely stole the show. I loved every musical second of the entire concert, and boy, is that conference center ginormous. Excellent seats, but they made Mom dizzy, and Dad kept telling her that if there was an earthquake, we would die a horrifying death.

Topped the night off by strolling through Temple Square to see the lights; completely in the Christmas Spirit now. Also, will never rely on my camera phone for decent pictures again.

What to do?

Andrew told me tonight that we need to do something amazing for our 10th Anniversary, which is coming up in April. While I would love to take the trip to Italy that I have been dreaming of since I was 16, that particular trip won't be in the cards until our bank account is a little fatter and our kids a little older.

So! We came up with a few ideas...

#1 - re-create a part of our honeymoon and spend a day or two in California, hit Disneyland, like we did back in the day, maybe San Francisco... But I don't know if I could do Disneyland without the kids. I would feel like the most horrible person in the world.

#2 - a cruise. A short, cheap cruise, mind you. But, while that would be nice, I just can't help but feel like I would be paranoid about the water the whole time. I don't swim... And I don't get overly excited about being forced to mingle with strangers. Maybe I have the wrong idea. I think the sunsets and the views would be amazing, but I don't feel like I'm a cruise kind of girl. Plus, that could get spendy with airfare, etc...

#3 - Hop a flight to New York and see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. I've seen it once, but Andrew hasn't yet had the privilege. I've wanted to go to New York for as long as I can remember, (though not as desperately as Italy). How cool would that be? And we'd only have to sucker someone into watching our kids for two days and one night, so, better odds of this becoming reality.

#4 - Anyone seen Yes Man? Jim Carrey? Ever since I saw that movie I have wanted to walk into an airport and catch the next available flight to wherever it might be going and let fate have it's way with me. It has the potential to be a huge bummer, but if you went into it with an attitude of having an unprecedented adventure with the love of your life, it could be flippin' incredible! Hawaii would have to be off limits, along with anything international because that's just too big an undertaking. Seriously though? We're talking surprises and fun around every corner. But what if our destination became Bismark, North Dakota? Yikes!

So, do any of these ideas sound like fun to anyone else? Care to contribute an idea of your own? I'm excited just thinking about it!

The Four Slice Toaster and Other Exorbitancy

About a month and a half ago our toaster stopped heating on the inside coils, so only one side of each slice of bread would get toasted. No matter, I was perfectly capable of toasting one side and then flipping the bread over and toasting it again. Then 2 weeks ago, the other coils went out, so there was to be no toast. We went on as though we had suffered no loss. Ethan grieved on the mornings that he had to eat eggs or cereal instead of his beloved toaster waffles. Last Friday I began to miss the toaster enough to tell Andrew that I would not go another day without one. So after we went to dinner for date night on Saturday, (thanks Joel, for the gift card and Kellie and Matt for babysitting), we went to our friendly, neighborhood Wal-Mart and looked for the cheapest toaster we could possibly find. What's the point in spending a lot, right? All it has to do is heat up the coil things. Nothing fancy. So we found two that were the same price...but one had four holes instead of two. It was a brand I had never heard of, but once again - hot coils- who cares? We got that toaster home and the next morning I had waffles toasting for both Ethan and Drew at the same time. It was phenomenal. I never knew that I had been missing out on one of the greatest luxeries that life had to offer - four slice toasters.
So this got me to wondering what other basic luxeries I had been missing out on.
Paper towels, of course. Why spend money for a disposable towel when I can use a real towel or rag, wash it, and use it again?
New pillows. I wonder what that feels like? The kind that sink down when your head rests on them instead of just emanating that "clunk" sound.
Metal or wooden cooking utinsils. I've had these black plastic ones since I got married, and they work fine for most dishes, but they lack the strength to really mix up a batch of Rice Krispie Treats or anything heavy or sticky, really.
My very own razor. I just steal Andrew's. I'm sure he loves it.
A full length mirror. Oooo... I had one in high school and I remember it being nice to see what I looked like from head to toe. These days I probably don't really want to see my lower half anyway.
But you know, I could still do without the luxery of cooking four waffles at once, and doing without the above listed items is not causing me to shed tears. I have it pretty good, I guess. Here are some luxeries that I never need to have and would absolutely rather do without:
Automatic car doors. If I am ever too lazy or unimaginative to figure out how to open or shut my car doors when my arms are full of children or groceries, it would be a disappointing day.
A maid. I know, I have wished and longed for one in the past. OK, every day. But just now I am deciding that it's plain silly to wish for someone else to clean up after you.
A massage at a spa. If I need anything rubbed, I'm sure my husband would oblige. I do not ever want a stranger massaging parts of my naked body while I lie helpless under a sheet. I know that most of you will say that I don't know what I'm missing until I try it. Ignorance and I get along well.
One of those space pod vacuum cleaners that looks a bit like a frisbee with a brain that roams around your living room while you aren't home. Seriously, how long does it take to run a vacuum over your floor? And good ol' fashioned vacuums aren't creepy in the least.
A chauffeur. Where's the fun in that?
A pedicure. I am sure I need one, but I don't want one.
A colon cleanse. Whatever is up there can stay there. I don't need to know about it.
An electronic organizer. If you are busy enough that all your events do not fit into the little day squares on a regular wall hanging calander, then you probably need to cut back anyway.
You know something though? I woudn't complain if I had a commercial grade snow cone machine.

The Good With the Bad

Just got back from date night with Andrew and am feeling much rejuvenated. We went to dinner at one of our staple restaurants in Salt Lake, Charlie Chows Dragon Grill. That was the bad, disappointing part of the evening. 10 years ago it was a great place to eat. My uncle, David, and I would frequent it for lunch quite often while we worked together at McLeodUSA; we were both in love with their Imperial Chicken. Ah, so yummy! And the chocolate dipped fortune cookies were a slick finish. Last time I was at Charlie Chow's, I thought the Imperial Chicken tasted a little different, so this time I ventured away from my staple dish and tried a nice, safe sweet and sour chicken. I have to tell you that I may have enjoyed it more if I hadn't seen our waiter wipe his nose with his hand just before he picked up our plates from the serving bar. Andrew went with his favorite, the Dragon Grill, which, for anyone who's been to Mongolian Grill in the Portland area, is pretty much the same deal. So when Andrew's snot-handed plate was delivered, I decided his food smelled excellent and forked a piece of chicken for myself. Or maybe it was beef. Heck, for all I know it was cat or camel, because something was definitely wrong with that meat. So aside from the bad food and the unsanitary waiter, (who also couldn't drag himself away from his cell phone or the t.v. at the bar long enough to notice when our food was ready in the kitchen), the place had an odd smell. Like bathroom mixed with cruddy old building that's desperately trying to qualify as "historic" to avoid a date with a wrecking ball. So, after we got a doggy bag, because our kids will eat anything, Charlie Chow's joined Old Country Buffet, Applebees, Biaggi's and a few others on the list of places we never need to eat again. I'm kind of still in mourning over the whole thing. But on to the next part of the date!
After dinner we went to The Joseph Smith Memorial Building to see "Jospeh Smith; Prophet of the Restoration", go figure! The movie has been out for years, and my dear husband has never gotten to see it. So, in we went and were met by a sweet, elderly missionary who informed us that the film was not being shown tonight due to technical difficulties. I had a slight "well, crap" moment because I've been trying to get Andrew to see this movie for ages. But then the dear missionary told us that the film was being shown in the North Visitor's Center. So we speed walked over there to catch it in time and I'm glad we did. I was such a good reminder of everything that is important, and here's the kicker; it made me miss my kids. Yep, that's right, I missed them. Now I'm home and I'm over it, but it was nice while it lasted. And another perk was that Andrew has a cold and was sniffing through a good part of the film, so everyone around us must have thought that my big, tough husband was crying. (Sigh...so sweet!)
Now that we're home, (and Andrew's gas is reminding me over and over again how wonderful dinner was), I just have to say that we need to get out more often. I can't even find a hint of the me that was wishing for death on the kitchen floor just yesterday. (See previous post...well, one of them from yesterday. I don't know how to do that cool link renamed thing.)


Good-bye, Old Friend