Day 365: A Date

For my last act of love, I took you on a date while our kids were in AWANAS. We went to a Chinese restaurant in town called Red Pepper. Again, we had our youngest, but that was cake compared to having all three. We had excellent service from a very kind server and the food was great. I ordered the lemon chicken and I have no clue what you ordered, though I’m thinking it was something Chinese.

I’m glad I got to spend some quality time with you for my last act of 365 Acts of Love. May it be one in a lifetime of acts of love.

Day 359: UCSB Soccer Game

We attended our first UCSB soccer game for my 359^th act of love. They played UCLA and it was amazing! Although the game ended in a tie, that didn’t stop us from having fun. We cheered a lot, got our picture with the Gaucho, and enjoyed being together. We took the kids as well and they had loved the experience.

Day 358: Woodie’s Bar-B-Q

Our kids started attending AWANAS, which makes me happy. For one thing, they’re learning the Bible. For another thing, we get to drop them off every Thursday and have a date, with our youngest as a ride-along. Taking care of a single kid is soooooo easy compared to three!

For this AWANA date, I took you to Woodies BBQ in Goleta, a place we’ve been itching to go to. I ordered a burger, like I always do, and you ordered a chicken sandwich. We were so excited. However, we weren’t too impressed with the food. [Don’t judge the restaurant by us. We know lots of people who love it.] Even still, we had a blast!

Day 352: Redbox

Long, long ago (9/14, I believe) on a Friday night, you sent me out to Redbox to get whatever movie I wanted. I was super excited. When I got there, I noticed that Redbox had a movie you’d been wanting to see—What to Expect When You’re Expecting. Obviously, I wasn’t excited about that one. But, in the interest of putting your interests above mine, I rented that movie for you. Man, were you excited! And man, did that make me glad. But, in the interest of stating the obvious, I did not like the movie–the book was much better. In fact, I was bored to tears and zoned out for much of it. I’m sure you do something similar whenever I get a movie that has gangsters or fictional creatures or spaceships.

Day 351: An Attempt at Loving Others

There’s a 90-year-old lady who comes to our church, who’s friendly and caring, and who lives alone in a retirement community. She has some family in the area, but I don’t think they visit her often. I thought that it would be good, given her situation, to have her over to our house for dinner on Thursday as one of my/our acts of love for those in our community. I had been in contact with her about coming over, so Thursday was our planned time. But I couldn’t get ahold of her that day and I didn’t know where exactly she lived. So the dinner didn’t work out.

Instead, when we dropped our kids off at a church function later in the evening, I took you out to Flavor of India, a local restaurant that you’d been begging me to take you to. The food was outstanding and we both had an excellent time. Our server was super cool. He told us about India, including its culture and religion, and about the exotic land of Detroit, where his sister lives and is expecting a baby.

I’m super excited to go back there during lunch when they have their buffet. Although I enjoyed the food, it would be nice to have a bigger selection so we could sample all the different flavors of India.

Day 346: Family Movie Night

For this act of love, I planned a family movie night for us. I can’t remember what we saw, but I’m sure it was something with a pink or purple cover. We had popcorn, we turned off the lights (our oldest likes to do this because it reminds her of the drive in theater), and we snuggled together on the couch under a blanket.

Day 338: Roasting Marshmallows (under Compulsion)

I sort of mucked up this act of love. I planned on roasting marshmallows with you in the backyard over the grill after the girls went to bed. But, we didn’t have charcoal and I didn’t want to buy any. (Money was tight that week. Surprised?) We did have marshmallows, though. We always have them on hand. Always. (Just like chocolate chips). I’m not a fan of them, but you and the girls are. Anyhow, I thought we could roast them over our gas burners on the stovetop instead.

When the girls were finally in bed, we were both exhausted and simply needed to put our feet up or go to bed. But I wanted to get my act of love done.

“Would you like to roast marshmallows with me in the kitchen?” I asked.

“No, I’m too tired.”

“Will you just do it, though? I need to do an act of love today and this is all I’ve got.”

“Okay.”

As an act of duty, really, we both dragged ourselves to the kitchen and each roasted a marshmallow.

“Do you want mine? I’m not really in the mood for a marshmallow,” you said.

“No, I’m not really a fan of them. I was going to ask you if you wanted mine . . . Okay, just give me yours. I’ll eat them both. We shouldn’t waste them.”

I started eating my marshmallow and my eyes lit up. “I love marshmallows!” I exclaimed. You laughed. I quickly finished mine and started on yours. “Why have I been depriving myself of these? They’re delicious!”

Day 262: Anniversary Date #2

For our second anniversary date, I took you on a 1-hour sunset cruise near Stearn’s Wharf in Santa Barbara. This was the act that I intended for day 250, but had to put it off until now. I’m glad I got to use it for our anniversary.

We had an absolutely wonderful time and are anxious to do it again. The evening was calm and cool and the sunset over Santa Barbara was beautiful. Not only that, I really enjoyed you snuggling up to me as we took it all in. Here‘s a video and here are some pictures:

Day 261: Anniversary Date #1

This year, a combination of two factors limited the way in which we could celebrate our anniversary. First, we didn’t have much extra cash. When some people say that, they’re trying to explain why they went on a ten-day rather than a two-week cruise. When I say it, I mean that I didn’t know whether I could afford a plastic ring from a vending machine. Second, we have our ten-month old, which means that we we couldn’t be away for very long. So I had to get creative. In the end, I managed to plan three inexpensive dates for us.

For our first date, we visited the observatory at Westmont College. On the way there, we went to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Montecito. I half expected to see Oprah or Steve Martin when we walked in. But to our surprise, not a single person was in the shop, let alone Lady O. The shop was closed. Still, the barista was nice enough to make us coffee anyway. We drank our coffees outside, enjoying the evening glow of downtown Montecito.

Those Christmas-tree lights in the background did their part to make up  Montecito’s “evening glow.”

After we finished our coffee, we went to the observatory. We were able to see Saturn through the telescope, which was really cool. But it looked fake. It reminded me of the glow-in-the-dark sticker of Saturn that I had on my ceiling when I was a kid.

Just outside the observatory, there was a deck from which we could see over Montecito. When we were done looking at the stars and planets, we stood on the deck enjoying the view and the quietness of the evening. Then, you said, “This is all I need.” “What?” I replied, “an observatory?!” Then I said, pretending to be you: “All I need is a dog, a farmhouse, and an observatory and I’ll be happy.” You hit me and laughed, then said, “I don’t need anything! Just a dog, a farmhouse, an observatory, and this paddle ball! That’s all I need! . . . Actually, I meant that I only need a quiet and peaceful place to live, like this.”

We both really enjoyed this date. At this stage in our lives, we feel special any time we have a few hours alone and out of the house. Happy anniversary!

Day 255: A Date

Over the weekend, we went to Cambria for a family reunion. I took you on a date to Main Street Grill while we were there.

It was nice to revisit the town where we spent our first year of marriage and the burger place that we’ve eaten at more times than I’d like to know. Doing things like that helps us reconnect.