At 8:30 this morning you would`ve found me cooking up 3 lbs of chicken thighs and chopping vegetables into meals for my sweet sweet sister in law, as a thank-you and bless-you for being willing to babysit tonight.
I hope she likes her stir fry and butter chicken, cause I am loving this arrangement!
Yes Mr. Winkel is taking the Mrs. out on the town tonight and she is giddy.
Although I have nothing to wear....
We now live close enough to the city to be able to go to a real restaurant and I have already been recommended to try the chili chicken and the chocolate lava cake at a particular place.
Lava Cake makes me giddy....
Actually the thought of eating an entire meal without having to jump up a million times, cut someone else`s food, trick a baby into eating something green, wipe up 3 spilled cups (at least), pick up most of that same baby`s dinner off the floor while comforting a sobbing girl who has once again bitten her lip, cheek, or tongue cause she can`t stop talking long enough to chew....
THAT makes me giddy.
And I opted for dinner instead of a movie, cause I love being able to just sit and have a great conversation with my bestest bestest friend in the whole world, who treats me like a princess...
Did I mention I was giddy....
I`ve been thinking about how long I`ve been dating this man...close to 8 years now (5 and half of which we`ve been married) back when he was still very much a boy and wore running shoes with the one pair of nice dress pants he had.
Yes, my knight in shining armor started off as a poor University student with scruffy hair and a skateboard who sold his Meal Card money to other students in his dorm for real cash, so he could downsize his diet to yogurt, crackers, sausage and instant oatmeal with the occasional banana thrown in.
If you saw my husband in person, this would be shocking to you and you would probably feel that it was not good for a man so thin to have been eating so meagerly.
You would be right.
With his spared cash, this noble heart was saving up not only for an engagement ring, but also the means to take his best girl out for dinner at a local pasta place that offered discounts to students on certain days.
The coupons were printed in our student handbooks and went unused by many students who didn`t know their value the way Kevin did, so he would naturally ask for them from other`s handbooks and they would give them to him.
Most of the time I was asked out for a date in this manner, "Hey Ash, I got a coupon from so and so, want to go to Chianti's on Monday?"
The rest of our dates were spent walking across the high-level bridge in the Edmonton River Valley or climbing the trees on the Legislative Building grounds.
He did all the climbing, I did the sitting next to the fountains, (I think in the primitive monkey brain space all boys have, he thought this was very impressive to his female, to see how well he could climb the trees).
Kev and I as new sweethearts in 2003 (Ages 19 and 18).
In the last 8 years certain things have changed and others haven't:
I now wear that engagement ring under my wedding band every day and every night.
Kevin eats a more balanced diet.
We no longer get great deals at Chiantis and fill up on the free bread
We don't go out as often, and when we do we drive instead of walk.
But...
Kevin still climbs trees
He's still one of the most frugal people I know
And he still makes me feel like the only other person in the world.
Oh yes, I am giddy for date night.
