Quickie...is it possible?

I'm trying to see if I can actually get a post plunked out in under 15 minutes. I struggle with wanting to devote time to this online journal, and taking care of things on the homefront. If only my mind was quicker and I didn't rewrite things 300 times before posting, with about a thousand edits in-between, I'd be able to spend less time keeping up with this!
Anyway, today is short day at school, and I'm busily ironing fabric to get ready for sewing before the girls all get home. I spent about 3 hours cutting out 66 ties and 66 straps yesterday, and I've figured it will take me just over an hour to iron all the straps. Forgive me for all the logistics, but I need to figure out how much time it takes me to do the ties so I can price them well enough to make more than minimum wage off them! Time is money, right?
Thanks to Heather for advice on the business end, Tara for the good ideas and encouragement, and Jen (my hero!) for being my official photographer & ad-maker! I hope to get the initial batch of ties done this weekend so I can get this ball rolling. I have a tentative date of March 15th for my Grand Opening, so mark your calendars--all 4 of you who read this!

Ok, so that was my 15 minute test-run, with no edits or rewrites. Yikes. I'll work on it.

Dating Packets

So here's the great dating idea I told you about. Shauna posted this on Project 52: Date Nights that she puts together date packets at the beginning of the year, with pre-purchased tickets, gift cards, etc. that way everything is all ready to go and there are no excuses like, "We can't afford to," or "It's too late to get tickets." I think it's a perfect thing to do right now as we eagerly await our tax return. Why not set aside a little bit of money to fund our dates for the whole year? It's like an insurance policy on your marriage, or like tithing--pay it first, right? We're already getting our packets ready, and since we love the idea of them being a surprise for each other, we're each taking a whole month. Doesn't this sound fantastic? I can't wait to see what Mike has planned for the rest of the month.

Oh, did you hear my news in the previous post? Ties. Lots of them.

Jumping In

So, I'm doing it. I finally decided to stop thinking about it all the time and just do it.

I think I may be crazy.

I found my way to Hobby Lobby this afternoon and purchased 1 yard each of eight fabulous fabrics, and began cutting out ties. Yup. I'm officially going into business! I've had a lot of people asking about the ties I've made for Dixon--Where can I get one? How do I make them? Will you make me one?--so I'm opening up an Etsy shop and will get it up and running as soon as I get the ties sewn and photos taken. I'm nervous because part of me wants people to flock to my site because they think my ties are amazingly adorable and they absolutely HAVE to have one or three. (Okay, so maybe MOST of me wants that.) But I'm also thinking that I'm a little cuckoo because, really, when will I have time to sew all these ties? I think I see a productive date night in the future....

So here's to new adventures! I'll keep you posted as to when the site's up and running, and where it's at. Wish me luck!

Date 1 of 52--Dinner & Dancing (kinda)

It's Monday, and since I'm a prisoner to the Mortuary phone all day, I thought I might update everyone on our first of 52 date nights. We decided to use some gift cards we'd gotten two Christmases ago (I know. For shame!) so our "hot" date started out with dinner at the Olive Garden--along with 1500 of our closest friends. Good thing we decided to go early because getting there at 5:00 assured us only a 30 minute wait, as opposed to the hour+ wait for the hundreds showing up after 5:30. I'd forgotten how crazy restaurants in Utah get on holiday weekends. Obviously it's been a while since we've been out!
Dinner was heavenly. Not that the food was spectacular--though the scallops did melt in my mouth! It's just that anytime I don't have to cook it or clean it up is simply divine in my book. We ordered appetizers and frou-frou drinks which ended up giving my tongue cankers, but they were yummy nonetheless. The best part was that we didn't hurry ourselves through any of it; just a slow, leisurely dining experience that was certainly unusual for me, but very, very enjoyable.

After dinner we headed over to the dance. Yeah, we're too old and boring (and let's face it, terrible dancers) for dance club stuff, so we had to settle for the Stake Valentine's Day Dance. Did I mention that part of Mike's calling as a High Councilor is to be over stake activities, so he had to be there to welcome everyone and call on someone for a prayer? Three guesses as to who he called on...anyone? Anyone? Now I'm thinking that we better clarify the rules of dating to include that functions he's in charge of don't count as dates, bringing treats to said function, or certainly calling on his wife to pray nullifies it, too.

(Even if the treats turn out to be as scrumptious as my Double Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes with Raspberry Frosting did.)

We'd heard stories that the VDay dance had been a pretty big bomb in years past, so we had pretty low expectations going in. We were quite surprised to see that not only were we not the only ones in our ward there, but that there were close to 100 people gettin' their grove thang on! Despite the major flashbacks to youth Stake Dances, we laughed and danced, and laughed for the better part of two hours. It was a relief to not be the worst dancers on the floor, and it was worth the ringing in the ears that lasted through the next day. I think we'll try to avoid such late night excursions from now on, though, because every one of the kids were crank-y all the next day from being up so late waiting for us.

I don't expect that all of dates 2-52 will be the same kind of fun or exciting as this first one was, especially since we'll be spending half of them here at home, but I do hope that the spark we rediscovered Friday night will keep flickering as we make the time for each other every week. I got a great idea from another blogger about planning our dates that I want to share later on this week. At least for us, it will go a long way in making sure we stick to our weekly date nights.

One down, 51 to go!

Our V-day

Valentine's Day has never been my favorite holiday. I mean, I'm not totally against it, but I've never thought of myself as one of those high maintenance girly-girls who needs flowers and chocolates to feel validated. (That's not to say I wouldn't be secretly giddy to receive such validation.)
Today, I decided to throw away all my prejudices against this sappy day, and dive in head-first. I dyed my pancake batter a lovely shade of Valentine pink and did my best to fashion hearts out of the batter on the griddle. (The secret is in the "V.") We spread the most delicious chocolate peanut butter (yep, you read that right) on them before dousing them with warm syrup, and the girls were in pink valentine heaven! If only I could've lived in that moment all day, but alas, Mike was gone to meetings and I had to make up for the time spent making pink pancakes as I rushed to ready everyone for church all by myself. It's usually not a pretty picture. The spirit of the day was redeemed after church when I set up this little scavenger hunt for the girlies.

Do you believe in magic wishes?
Head to the place that cleans your dishes.

Next is the place where fingers fly
Up and down keys, so don’t be shy.

Look through the mess, if you dare
The next clue’s waiting at the bottom of the stair.

Now I know that you're no fool,
This is where your drinks keep cool.

Are you having fun with all these clues?
Look in the place that Mom keeps her shoes.

Maybe you have super powers
The next clue will be where Dad takes his showers.

Piles of these that Mom has to fold,
Like to be washed here, or so I’m told.

This is a place to rest your head.
Look right inside the smallest bed.

Congratulations! You’ve found the last one.
Now run to the place where we have FHE Fun!

I left Hershey's Hugs & Kisses with each clue, then left one of those giant Kisses at the end. Their squeals were priceless. I can't say that it ranked any higher in the holiday category than before, but the girls sure had a blast, and I actually got a nap today, so I guess it was pretty successful.

Dating Again

I got asked out for Valentine's Day. Yeah, I was surprised, too. Dinner and dancing on a Friday night. Don't know how well these legs will work out on the dance floor (Mike already makes fun of my white girl overbite...) but how fun to get all gussied up and go out SANS children!

I stumbled onto this quote that was unattached to an author:

"The value of a relationship is equal to the time invested in it."

I'm ashamed to admit that we have not been investing time in our marriage. Don't get me wrong, I still love the guy--heck, I even still LIKE him!--but our relationship as a couple has been put on the back burner, as we deal with kids, jobs, finances, church responsibilities, and life in general. (Which has been especially burdensome as of late.) So, to help put us back on track, we decided to start dating again. Or maybe just start dating, period. We never really went on 'dates,' when we first started courting (do people still use that word?), we just spent all our time together. I think it will be fun to see what we can come up with. Since we're on-call every other weekend, half our dates have to be stay-homers. But we've decided to split them up, so we'll each have to plan 13 'in-house' dates and 13 'going out' dates. We're going to switch babysitting with another couple we know so that they can go out, too. Can you imagine paying a babysitter for 5 kids every week????

So, we're dating again after all these years. If you have any ideas, pass them along! (Just remember we'ez po', so don't go suggesting a dinner date to LaCaille [fancy-schmancy restaurant in SLC] or heli-skiing. Just ain't gonna happen, friends.)