The past week of no-school has been filled with afternoons out at the park, chalk-drawing on the patio, trips to the library, catching up on laundry and house-cleaning, lots of reading, and some occasional scrapping. The end of my classes signaled the start of Doug's....so the computer is now his in the evenings after he gets home from jiu jitsu. Although this has cut back a little on my scrap time, it's given me more time to read. In the past week I've read three of Nicholas Sparks' books - Night in Rodanthe, The Choice, and The Rescue. All of them were really good - each with a different storyline with the common underlying theme - true love outweighs everything else.
Reading the books made me realize just how much Doug's and my relationship has developed in the 5+ years we've been married. While I would say the overall development of our relationship has been good and positive, I have to admit we've lost a little of the romance. I joked with Doug that I'm living vicariously through the novels, but it made me think about the little things I used to do that I've slowly stopped over the years...leaving notes in his car, surprising him at work with a home-cooked lunch, opening his car door from the inside after he's opened mine, sneaking smooches at a red light...things that didn't seem like much at the time so I took them for granted. I understand that life gets hectic and chaotic and stressful at times, but that doesn't mean we have to lose the romance. I still get butterflies in my stomach when I look at Doug - but I rarely express how I feel. Without wanting to get too sappy or...whatever...I'm just putting it out there that I have realized I need to not get so caught up with all the "big things" in our marriage and be better at expressing how much I appreciate all the little things....the things that matter. We both keep saying that we need to get away...and we've actually managed to have 2 dates together in the past week (one night out, courtesy of Doug's sister Bethany [thanks again, Millie!] and the other night courtesy of the IKEA play center [the girls are finally tall enough and potty-trained]). Both of us had a lot of fun during our "dinners alone," but it further made me realize just how little time the two of us have taken for ourselves.
So, on that note...we've decided to head out to California for an impromptu vacay. We'll be taking the girls, so even though it won't be a break with just the two of us it will be a nice break from our normal, daily routine of school, work, jiu jitsu, and the Arizona heat. The trip is actually the result of Doug being told he would forfeit 40 hours of vacation time if he doesn't use it by the end of the month....seeing as how there are only a few days left, he decided there was no sense in letting it go to waste!! I'm really looking forward to this, even if spontaneity is not my usual style - but it does mean I should be off packing and not typing away on the computer. Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know what we'll be up to for the next couple of weeks...if you need to get in touch with us, we'll have our cells phones handy!!
Hope to return with lots of fun pictures and a nice, golden tan...
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