Posts Tagged ‘romance’

Day 216 and Counting… Restoring the Tornado’s Date

Posted: April 6, 2013 in Love and Marriage
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Sunday, March 13, 2011

My wife used to cook at Big Cedar Lodge, a world-class resort near Branson, Missouri.  I often used to sit behind the Worman Steak house, one of their top eateries, waiting for her to finish her shift at night.  Last night, we had reservations there.

Earlier in the day, we spent some time at Branson landing, a favorite hangout of ours.  It’s an outdoor mall right on the shore of Lake Taneycomo, and we’ve always enjoyed the atmosphere.  It just seems like people are usually happy there.

On a day when we were restoring the night of the tornado, and the damaging years that followed, being in a place where people are happy seemed incredibly appropriate.  We spent a few hours on the landing, then headed south toward Big Cedar.

I had not only made a reservation for a specific table, but had let them know who we were and why we were going there on that specific night.  I wasn’t necessarily expecting extra special treatment, since their service is always impeccable, but I figured it couldn’t hurt.

We had an amazing dinner, and did seem to receive some extra attention from the staff.  As we watched the sun set over the lake, we also received two complimentary Champagne flutes with the Big Cedar logo and the year inscribed on them.

We had our picture taken on the balcony outside as another keepsake before heading home.  It was a beautiful night, and just what we needed.

That’s the point of the restoration tour.  It’s not just an idea, but it’s taking specific actions to replace the old, bad memories with new, positive ones.  Instead of seeing March 12 as a traumatic day that altered our lives for the worse, we can remember March 12 as a night of celebration and beauty.

Day 213 and Counting… Looking Forward To Spring Break

Posted: April 1, 2013 in Love and Marriage
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Really glad Spring break is next week!  This school year has been exhausting!

Last year,  Ceecee and I went to a resort in Branson over Spring break with Taylor and one of his friends.  It was fun, but not the way it should have been.  It was almost immediately after we got back home that our marriage fell apart and we split up.

That being the case, Spring break isn’t officially on the docket for restoration, but we certainly plan on enjoying our time off work this year a LOT more than we did last year!  Now our hearts are one, so our thoughts and desires will be on spending a lot of fun and romantic time together.  We will also be getting ready to move into our new loft, so it will be busy and we won’t be taking a trip away anywhere.

Day 198 and Counting… If I Could Bottle This Up…

Posted: March 19, 2013 in Love and Marriage
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

We haven’t done one of Old Chicago’s mini-tours on the World Beer Tour since the Halloween mini-tour last year, but tonight we’re going out to start the St. Patrick’s Day mini-tour.  They have a lot of Irish beers that sound good, and they’re having a kickoff party with free corned beef and cabbage tonight, so you can’t beat that.

To make it a full date night, we’re going to the movies first to see Gnomeo and Juliet.  It seems silly and it might be stupid, but it looks funny.  My wife loves kids stuff and she’s really just a kid at heart.  

Since we’ve been back together, that has really been something I’ve grown to love and appreciate about her.  She can be silly and have fun, and she still has that childlike wonder about her.  She’s very much a woman, don’t get me wrong.  I love that about her, as well.  It’s just that the fun and the laughter have returned to our relationship and it’s like we have the best of everything right now.  We have the fun and excitement of dating, along with the love and security of marriage.  

If I could bottle this and sell it, I’d be a very rich man, indeed.

Day 193 and Counting… Sushi Date Night

Posted: March 11, 2013 in Love and Marriage
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Friday, February 18. 2011

Had a fun date night last night.  There’s a Japanese steakhouse with a sushi bar not far from where we live called Nakato.  My wife has been there before, but I haven’t.  She took our son there once and really liked it.

For me, sushi has been somewhat of an acquired taste.  At first, I didn’t like it at all.  Over time, I’ve tasted a lot of different varieties and have come to enjoy some of them.

We planned on me ordering an entrée and Ceecee ordering sushi and working it that way, but we ended up just going to the sushi bar instead.  I was up for the adventure and figured it might be fun.

We got a bottle of Riesling and just ordered a whole bunch of different things.  I’m not sure what they all were, but I liked most of them, and I especially liked this spicy sauce that they served in little bowls that you could dip your sushi in.  We had a lot of fun.

Day 189 and Counting… Too Much Love For One (Valentine’s) Day

Posted: March 8, 2013 in Love and Marriage
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Monday, February 14, 2011

Today is the actual Valentine’s Day, but we already celebrated and made this the most epic, multi-day Valentine’s Day ever.  This is the restoration tour and anything else just wouldn’t have been in keeping with the celebratory nature of our whole relationship right now, anyway.  

The play was wonderful yesterday.  The dinner was pretty amazing as well, if I’m allowed to brag on myself.  Oh yeah, it’s my blog, so I can do whatever I want on here!

We have an urban grocery store called the Bistro Market downtown near our loft and they have a good seafood counter, so I got everything there.  I also picked out a good white wine and served her in courses.  My favorite were the steamed snow crab legs, but all of it was very good and my wife LOVES seafood.  

Today, we had to work (darn Monday) and I had flowers and a box of chocolates delivered to her, but that was just the formality.  The weekend was our day – wait, two days – to revel in the joy we’ve found.

Day 188 and Counting… Valentine’s Day, So Far, So Great!

Posted: March 7, 2013 in Love and Marriage
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Sunday, February 13, 2011

So, last night and this morning went even better than I could have predicted, and we haven’t even gotten to our actual Valentine’s Day celebration yet!  

I told Ceecee after dinner that I had gotten the ebook about relaxation massages and that I wanted to give her one.  I did everything just like it said.  I warmed up towels, warmed up the massage oil, lit candles, and put on a cd of relaxation music.  I told her to just lie down and I would take care of everything.

Later, after she went to sleep, I spread the confetti all over the loft and placed the piece of paper with the “Official Notice” on the floor as though it had been slid under the door from the outside.  I knew she would find it in the morning and she did.  The idea was that she would get up, find the confetti everywhere and feel happy.  Then, she would pick up the notice and get scared that it was something bad, but quickly realize what it REALLY  was.  

That was exactly how it happened, and she loved it, but she playfully gave me a hard time for scaring her.  It really did look like a court paper at first glance.  

Later this afternoon, we are walking over to the theater to see Beauty and the Beast, and then I’m cooking at home tonight.

Day 186 and Counting…Planning an Amazing Valentine’s Day!

Posted: March 6, 2013 in Love and Marriage
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Friday, February 11, 2011

It’s been extremely slow at Macy’s.  Part of it is the weather.  Part of it is the time of year.  Part of it is that I work the evening shift and most of the furniture sales happen during the day shift.

That’s ok.  I’ve been using the time to get ready for Valentine’s Day.  

While it’s slow, I’ve been searching websites for creative Valentine’s Day ideas and I’ve found some great stuff.  I don’t want to do the usual card, flowers and go out to dinner this year.  I want to do something in keeping with the changes in our lives and our marriage.

I want to show my love to my wife in a deeply personal way, that touches her soul.  I don’t want to just do the obligatory, “It’s Valentine’s Day, so I have to try to impress her with what I buy,” I want to give her a gift of myself.  I want to make a memory this year.

One site I found is www.theromantic.com.  This is Michael Webb’s website, and I found him through Mort Fertel.  He has all kinds of great romantic ideas, not only for Valentine’s Day, but for any day of the year.  He also has a number of ebooks for sale, and I bought and downloaded some.  

One of them tells specifically how to give a full body relaxation massage.  One of them is a collection of romantic coupons that can be “redeemed” throughout the upcoming year.  I sweet talked a lady in the jewelry department of of one of the little metal watch boxes that say, “you and me” with hearts on the sides of them.  You’re supposed to get one when you buy a certain kind of watch, but I got one to put the coupons in.  

I printed them off on some red, pink, and white sheets of paper and cut them out.  I took the leftover parts of the paper and made some confetti out of it.  The best part, though, is the idea I found of serving her with an “official notice.”  

On a heavier stock piece of paper, I typed “Official Notice” in large, bold print at the top.  I then tried to make it look like a legal summons by stating, “in the matter of the marriage of…” and starting each paragraph with “whereas.”  Each of those paragraphs was actually a declaration of one of the many reasons why I love her.  

Valentine’s Day is on a Monday this year, so we’re going to mainly celebrate it on Sunday, instead.  We don’t like to fight the crowded restaurants and we love to cook, and Ceecee has asked me to make her a seafood dinner this year.  We are also going to a theater production of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” on sunday afternoon at our local University.  It’s my wife’s favorite Disney movie, so the timing is perfect!

Day 184 and Counting…Snow, Snow, And More Snow!

Posted: March 5, 2013 in Love and Marriage
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

We’ve lived in the Missouri Ozarks for about five and a half years now, and we’ve never had a winter with as much snow as this one.  We thought when we moved here from Western Kansas that we would be moving to a place with nicer and less extreme weather.  Yeah.

A tornado destroys our house in March of ‘06.  An ice storm leaves us without power or running water for 23 days in January of ‘07.  Now, in the winter of the restoration tour, we’re having blizzards and snowstorms every other week, it seems.  

The difference is, those other storms were a bad thing for us and our marriage.  They interrupted and changed our lives in negative ways and I especially didn’t handle them well.  Where they seemed to be a curse to us, these snowstorms have been a blessing.  

Yes, we are home yet again experiencing ANOTHER snow day!  

These days have not been filled with the hassle of shoveling driveways and walks, dealing with the lack of electricity, or wondering where we are going to live or what we are going to do.  Instead, they’ve been joyous days of bonus time to spend together, cooking, playing, trying new things, and nurturing our ever growing trust and intimacy.

Day 180 and Counting… 20 Hours Later….

Posted: March 1, 2013 in Love and Marriage
Tags: , , , , , , ,
0

Saturday, February 5, 2011

What was supposed to be about an 11 hour drive turned into 20.  Yes, that’s right, 20 hours in the car, most of it driving on ice.  After our slide off and back on the road in Oklahoma, we started getting a little bit silly.  At a place we stopped for gas and something to eat, I commented that it looked like a set for a redneck comedy.  Later, Ceecee noted that “I Spy” isn’t much fun on a dark highway.  

The real sign that we had been driving too long with too much stress though, was when we started making up acrostic poems based on friends and family members’ names.  We were posting them on Facebook and other people started adding their own, even using our names as subject material.  I suppose it was around midnight by then, and we had left our house at about 8:00 that morning.  

As we headed south through Texas, an ice storm began to develop that was making the highway so slick, semi trucks couldn’t get up some of the hills.  It got to the point that we could only go about 30 miles an hour and then they closed down the highway and made everyone exit.  Thank goodness for GPS and a front wheel drive car that handled things just fine.  We finally got to our hotel and into our room at 4:00 AM yesterday morning.

We had to get up just a few hours later to go see Taylor.  Some of the roads were still closed and we had to go around some detours and eventually broke the law by driving around some cones and just taking one of the roads that no one was supposed to be on.  By that time, the sun was shining and it was no longer icy, so we figured we’d take our chances.  

We got to take Taylor out for Chinese food after watching him inhale his cupcakes in the car.  We spent part of the day with him, but turned him over to his Dad pretty early so we could go back to our room and try to catch up on some much needed sleep.  We’ve actually got a really cool room here for three nights, so we did the tourist thing today and we’ll be making the drive home tomorrow.

Day 177 and Counting…TV? None For Us, Thank You

Posted: February 27, 2013 in Love and Marriage
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

I realize that this is unthinkable to most Americans, but Ceecee and I don’t watch TV.  At all.  We’re just not interested and there’s so much to actually do that it just seems like a total waste of time to sit in front of the TV or let the television schedule dictate our lives.

The only thing we watch is some sports or the weather channel when there’s storm danger or warnings.  Our daughter told us about the show, The Big Bang Theory.  We weren’t interested, but she insisted that it was good and we would like it and offered to bring us the first few seasons on DVD.  We’ve watched a lot of episodes yesterday and today and it is really funny.

We also got out and watched our wedding video this evening.  Cheesy, I know, but I wanted to.  It was crazy how young we looked.  Everyone always thinks the bride is the most beautiful in their weddings, but I have never seen anyone more beautiful than Ceecee at our wedding.  I’ll never forget the way she took my breath away when I saw her at the back of the church that day.

The great thing is, she still does.  There are times when I’m around her and I can hardly breathe.

On another note, we’re supposed to be going to San Antonio tomorrow to see Taylor graduate from basic military training, but the roads are still snow and ice packed and travel isn’t really advised right now.  We’ve already reserved a room and i can’t imagine not being there, so we’re praying about it and tentatively still planning to head out in the morning.

Older Entries
Newer Entries