I took Monday off work this week so my wife and I could have a date night.  We lined up a sitter (Nana) and began to decide what we wanted to do. There have been plenty of things that my wife and I have wanted to do for a while, so I started looking at those. I was truly surprised at just how many things are closed on Mondays!

We’d been talking about going to the Henry Ford Museum/Greenfield Village in Dearborn for sometime and almost booked a visit. However, when I thought about how my wife would be working Sunday night, I didn’t think the trip would be fun for her on little or no sleep. That will be a trip for another day.

She has been wanting to get a pedicure for a while, so I decided that we might be able to do that together. NOT because I like them, as a matter of fact, I’m not too keen on folks touching my feet. I would do it, however, if my wife wanted to because we’d get time together. I couldn’t get an appointment, so we skipped that.

Saturday night, we talked about getting take out and bringing our mattress out to the living room to watch movies. By Sunday we decided that we’d actually go to one of our favorite restaurants and do some shopping.

I made sure that Sam got to sleep through the day. I took the kids to Nana’s in the early afternoon, ran some errands, and was home by 3pm. When she woke up, we showered and got ready to go. We figured we’d shop first and then eat later.

Not too long ago, one of those cheap plastic legs on our couch cracked. We didn’t know at first because it was in the back. When I went to move the couch to sweep, I saw that the screw from the broken leg was digging into the wood floor. The couch was old anyway and we tossed it to the road. So we went looking for couches.

First of all, can I ask why cheaply made furniture is so doggone expensive? Wow! Sticker shock to say the least! We did find a few couches in our budget, but naturally, those were “No Delivery.” Uh, you are a furniture store! No delivery?! What’s up with that?! I was floored. Needless to say, we didn’t get a couch – yet.

Next we went up to the outlets because there were a few things we needed. I was in dire need of work shoes. I tend to wear them out pretty quick. So we stopped at the New Balance store and I picked up a new pair. My wife found some workout type clothes there and picked them up.

Next we stopped at the Goodwill store there. Sam loves thrift store shopping. I do, too, especially when it comes to books, CDs, or albums. She saw that they had all of these Halloween costumes out and they were like $2-$5 each. She loaded the cart with outfits for Ella and Andrew so they could play dress up. She struck gold there.

There was a cool antique shop close by and we strolled through there. I love going through those places. I am always guaranteed to see (1) casserole dishes that my mom and grandparents had, (2) the various glasses that McDonalds have growing up (Smurfs, Shrek, Bugs Bunny, and the McDonald’s characters), (3) some old toy that I had growing up, and (4) plenty of music and movie stuff.

Finally, it was time for dinner. We always say, “We really need to try such and such place,” but end up going to somewhere familiar. We decided to go to our favorite Mexican place. We always get take out from there and have never actually ate in the restaurant before, so we did. It had been so long since we have had a night together I splurged and got queso dip as well as salsa for our chips!

When we left dinner we were stuffed. We weren’t quite ready to go home yet, so we walked around Walmart. Sam wanted to get some containers and Command hooks for the outfits we bought the kids. As usual, we spent more than we intended to, but it was nice to just casually stroll around without having to yell for the kids to “stop touching that.”

At home, we enjoyed the remainder of the evening together. As a parent, you tend to forget just how much you need to share time together without the kids demanding your attention. To just be able to have conversation with each other was something that was so needed by both of us. We both need to continue to make a conscious effort to have those “mom and dad” dates.