A day for a date...

On Saturday, Jordan's parents took Danya and Benjamin for the day. It was really nice. All we had to do was drop them off at the Prince George in the morning and then pick them up again in the evening. So what does a couple with a few hours do when there are suddenly no kids around them? Hmmm...

We decided to stay away from the house. We both knew that if we stuck around the homefront we'd end up doing menial tasks that will always need doing instead of making the most of our time together as husband and wife. First, we stopped in and grabbed a coffee and hot chocolate from Just Us! on Barrington and then took a walk to the Farmer's Market down on Water Street. We enjoyed walking hand in hand and smiling when we saw kids go by. We knew we didn't have to worry about chasing them around the stalls. We were able to sit and enjoy an Indian lunch and watch the crowds pass by. I was also touched by the friendliness of the people we sat near. At least two offered us their places on the bench. I often miss seeing the kindness of others because I'm so wrapped up in what my kids are doing. We had fun wandering around aimlessly and being a part of the milling humanity.

Walking back to the car, we decided to go to the Spring Garden Library to see if they had a copy of the paper which had a picture of Jordan. We couldn't find it there. I'm glad that his two workplaces thought to give him copies. Now we can photocopy them and put them in a scrapbook. (That kind of thing is important to me even if I don't do it well.) We also got out a bunch of books about home repairs, bike maintenance, and anything else that caught our attention. We've always liked going to the library together. We find out more about each other by what we choose to watch/read and it encourages us to always be bettering ourselves.

After that, we headed out to Bayer's Lake where we went to the pet store for degu food. Boy the puppies were cute. I especially liked the retrievers. We found a nice cage that the degus would like but were unable to find a price for it. We'll have to call them when we figure out whether we're staying here in Halifax of not. If the cost is low, it'd be a good idea to buy them one. They need room to run and hide their food. It turned out that the pet store was charging too much for the degu food, so we went to Bulk Barn to check out their prices and found it for about 2/3 the price. With the money we saved we were able to get them a treat.

We then made our way over to Exhibition Park for the Saltscapes Home Show. Wow! It was packed in there! And we had a good time. We were able to enjoy sampling many snacks and to chat with many people. There were draws all over the building and we made sure to fill out a ballot for each of them. Two caught our attention. One was offering services about yard care. They'd come and help you decide how to look after your yard and what to plant for the best look of your landscape. The other had a canoe or kayak in their draw. Now wouldn't that be nice! They were beautiful crafts, very light and large enough to carry the whole family. Jordan was especially drawn to this display and had a long chat with the staff. I think it got us both thinking about spending more time out in nature this summer. After May 16th we're going to have a lot more time on our hands...so maybe we'll get a chance to go have some fun!

By the time we were done at the show we were getting hungry. So...instead of going out to dinner at a fancy restaurant, we went to Superstore, bought some yummy cheese, some fancy rolls and bread, and a couple of glass bottles of pop - Jordan got grapefruit and I cream soda flavours. We headed back out to our vehicle jumped in the backseat where we could snuggle and had a European-esq meal. We really enjoyed it. There's something about living simply that we both adore and it's nice to get back to that once in a while. There was no one to impress except each other and we loved it.

Just across the street from the Superstore was a Salon/Spa offering massages. As my shoulder had been bothering me enough that I couldn't drive without pain, Jordan insisted that we go in and I have a therapeutic massage. Ahhh! It was so painful. And so needed. I was told that I probably have tendonitis of the bicep muscle. (Probably from breastfeeding for so long and then carrying the kids improperly. I'm not entirely sure what the best way to carry a child should be, but I guess I've got it wrong.) Anyway, I felt really great afterwards and Jordan's now telling me every day to go book another massage so that we can help take away the pain. He cares about me so much. It's a good feeling to know that he cares the way he does.

Our last event of the day before going to pick up the kids was a coffee and hot chocolate at Timothy's on Spring Garden. (Diomio's and Just Us! were closed.) Sitting in the back corner of the coffee shop with Jordan was probably the best part of the day. We had some frank discussion and began working our our own set of Family Values. Jordan grew up with five family values which they all worked to keep as part of their lives. As a couple, we worked with the five values of his family and reworked them to become our own. It was interesting to see how a couple of words could be interpreted and how we sometimes had vastly different opinions on them. In the end, we came up with our own rough draft of beliefs and values. We stuck with five so that it makes it easier to teach them to the kids. In my next blog, I'll write them out and give some explanations for each one.

Finally, we went back to get the kids. They were exhausted and ready to go. Grammy and Grampy were pretty tired too! Benjamin was so happy that when I put him in the carseat I had him laughing really hard. Turns out it was too hard. He gagged and threw up. Oh well, the rest of the day was exceptionally good! Can't complain about getting back to real life. :)