thanks be to brenda!!

My very sweet friend, Brenda, gave me a gift of service for Christmas.  I decided to redeem it this weekend and it was a much-needed break away from kids, stress and the world.  This is what my gift entailed:

-26 hours SOLID with my husband

-a catered, romantic, candle-lit dinner for two

-two tickets to the Majestic Cinema

An hour after I dropped the kids off at her house, she showed up at mine! With THIS!

Menu:

-T-Bone steak cooked to perfection

-Smashed Golden Yukon potatoes with Rosemary

Roasted lemon and rosemary asparagus

-A side of salad

-Homemade rolls by Dani (her daughter)

-Strawberry Shortcake for dessert

It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Ryan was very excited for the steak.  I LOVED the smell, the aroma that descended from our plates...oh I love ROSEMARY!

After dinner, she gave us two tickets to here:

So we went and saw this:

(a few parts inappropriate but highly HILARIOUS!! I loved it)

Then we stayed up way too late watching episodes of:

AND this:

The next morning, STILL WITHOUT KIDS...we went to breakfast at my folk's house.  It was a yummy pancake breakfast before going to BOONDOCKS and playing Miniture Golf! I haven't done that in YEARS.

We took it very seriously as it was windy and had to account for swerveage.  And guess who only LOST BY A POINT?? Yeah, me.  I got a HOLE-IN-ONE on the last hole, saving my bacon.  It was fun!

After golf, we went to a little bookshop and browsed.  Then we ate lunch at Ryan's favorite Vietnamese Restaurant and had Cha Gio. 

We've been eating there a few times a year for the last 10 years. It's delicious.  The food is much yummier than this picture.  TRUST me.

We ate in peace and quiet.  On a whim, we decided to hit Overland Park Cinemas cheap theater for another movie:

I was excited to see this as I like Greek mythology.  I haven't read the books. thought that the actor was a cutie but HOLY COW!! I thought that it was more along the lines of a KID'S MOVIE.  Good thing we didn't take Ryanna to it.

I was not impressed by all the swearing, gambling and other things that these "kids" were doing! Disappointing.  Some of the people they cast couldn't even ACT! Pul-LEASE. It could have been so much better.  Dang it.

We killed a few more hours after the show and then picked up the kids.  They all had a blast: Ryanna asked to be adopted, Dawson didn't want to go home with us, Carter keeps asking for "Turtle!" And I'm pretty sure that we are getting a gecko.  (they have 4 very darling ones)!

Thanks again, My Sweet Brenda, for providing the means for us to escape and eat yummy food.  You are the best and I appreciate you.  I will not be forgetting this gift of service!!