He got home to find a tag attached to amazing His/Her wine glasses (…that wonderful Lisa M. made-click HERE to find out how she made them) and some yummy Martinelli sparkling cider drink. This part of our date was about eating. Before Joseph and I had kids, he used to help in the kitchen all the time. We have some wonderful memories in the kitchen together. We also LOVE the restaurant PF Changs, so I decided to bring PF Changs home! Tag #1: Joseph is ALWAYS commenting on how much he enjoys my cooking. It’s very nice not to have a picky man that has NEVER complained about the food I cook for him. He is the best TASTE-TESTER ever! (Get the poem now? I know, a bit cheesy, but it was fun!) For the first time, in who knows how long, Joseph and I cooked side by side. It was so special to me. I designed the menu to reflect what we would have ordered at PF Changs, plus a dessert I know Joseph absolutely loves. We had sweet n’ sour chicken, Chinese fried noodles, steamed veggies, and for dessert Joseph made some spiced pears with whip cream. We laughed and joked all through dinner.
It was then time for tag #2: When Joseph and I were first dating we had a long distance relationship. The very first time I came to visit him he sent me back home on the plane with a ‘goody’ bag full of snacks, treats, and cute notes. I always felt like that was one thing that started making our friendship real strong. He wrote me some cute letters where he expressed his feelings for me. It was cute and I LOVED it! I wanted to do something similar for him. I gave him a ‘goody’ box full of snacks and items useful for his work, and also a card listing off my feelings of our last 6 years together. I used the cute box Wendy made. To find out how to make your own box click HERE. I put his favorite treats, snacks, gum, pencils, and pens, etc. All things he could take with him and use on a daily basis.
Along with the box, this is the part of the night we did our activity. I had to change my plans because dinner took so long (which was NOT a bad thing!) Instead we played a few games inside and had some friendly competition. We had a blast with a QUIET house and just being BEST-FRIENDS. It was perfect. These activities led into tag #3: Receiver you ask? Let me explain…As I have said in previous dates that I have planned, my husband LOVES for me to do mini manicures and pedicures on him. I wrapped up my manicure set with this tag attached to it, and his face lit up! This was the part of the date that I got to pamper him. For the next hour he read a book, we chatted, and I fixed his nails. He LOVED it and that made me LOVE it too! After his pampering was over, I then gave him tag #4: Now, I know what you are all thinking when you read this, BUT this is a G-rated post! I had tag #4 attached to LOVE journals that I made for him along with LOVE notes that cute Kristen made (click HERE to find out how), and some massage oil (baby oil works great!) so we could give each other back rubs. We both LOVE back rubs and I think it’s a great thing to trade off doing for each other. Along with back rubs I made him what I call “Love Journals“. Joseph and I went to a fun couples retreat this summer in Provo, Utah where a relationship counselor talked about doing these journals. The idea is to write 3 nice things about your spouse every night or a nice memory/thing they did for you. You can’t repeat anything more than once a week and at the end of the week you get to exchange the journals and read what the other has written. Corie did a similar book for her spouse. To see Corie’s go HERE. I wanted to spice my journals up a bit. I got some regular composition books at the Dollar Store. There are 2 different sizes of notebooks that they have: small and large (look at 1st picture below). I chose to do the small ones for my gift for Joseph, but I made the large size for my sister and her husband when they got married last month. I then found 2 cute pieces of scrapbook paper at Michael’s as well as some stickers that had cute marriage words on them. I picked out one piece to be the dominant paper showing and then overlapped the other so that only one inch of it was showing (see middle picture). I then taped those together (see picture on the right). I taped the paper over the front and the back covers of the composition books.
My last step was to decorate the journals with the stickers that I found. I must say that I think they turned out really cute and Joseph really enjoyed them. He also was very excited about the “Love Notes” notepad. We used to leave cute notes for each other all the time and he was excited to do that again. Next came tag #5: Along with my Love Journals and Love Notes, I really have been wanting our relationship to grow. I want us to KNOW each other on different levels. What better way on becoming better partners, then to read a book together (Joseph and I both LOVE to read), especially a book that is about love! I gave him the book “The 5 Love Languages” by Gary Chapman. Joseph was very responsive to this. He was excited for us to read it and apply the information that we learn. We both can’t wait to start! Next came tag #6: One of my most favorite things to do is to cuddle, and one of Joseph’s is to watch a movie! But during a movie, Joseph LOVES to cuddle too! I think I could stay in his arms all day, every day. He just melts me! Anyway, I gave Joseph an assignment to pick up a Redbox movie on the way home. I told him it didn’t matter what the movie was as long as he enjoyed it! We ended the night with HIS pick of movie, wait for it girls…Twilight! We have never read any of the books or watched either movie. Joseph and I have talked about it a few times and he surprised me with it! The whole night was amazing fun AND it was on a budget! I think we grew closer than we have been in a while. All I can say is that I’ll LOVE my husband FOREVER and can’t wait to see what the next 6 years bring!
