twas a good night

Well, our 8th anniversary has come and gone.  And we survived yet another year together.

DH came home from work last night and handed me a card.  He said that’s all he could come up with.  So I gave him the card I bought for him.  He read it and said it was better than the one he got for me.  lol

When he called to say he was heading home I got ready and dressed (I was dressed but I got changed into something else), got the kids ready to go.  I guess I must have looked ok because when I came down the stairs my oldest son was lounging on the couch ‘laxing’  as he calls it, and he jumps up and says "Mommy let me take a look at you!" .  He came running over to me and kept going "Mommy, wow, you look pretty.  You look so pretty Momma".  What else could I do but give that child a great big ‘ol hug and a smooch!  lol  He just couldn’t get over it and kept telling me how pretty my "dress" was (I had a longer shirt on which is different than what I normally wear).  So it was very nice to hear him say.  Plus when DH got home he’s eyes bugged a little bit and he said I looked really nice too. 

So we headed out.  The plan was to go to the mall and go to Barnes & Noble.  You see, Alton Brown from the Food Network show Good Eats was there for a book signing.  And DH loves that show, we watch it often.  So when we heard he was coming to our little town for a book signing it was pretty exciting.  the signing was to start at 7 p.m.  We got there before 7 and the lines were unbelieveable.  lol  They literally snaked back and forth about 4 times throughout the mall and into the book store.  It was quite a sight to see.  So we bought the book because they didn’t have a ton of them left.  And we decided to go and grab some dinner and come back.

In the meantime he took me to Outback Steakhouse for dinner.  We remember why we don’t go there very often when we got the bill.  lol  But it was a special occasion so it’s ok I guess.

When we were done we headed back to the mall to brave the lines.  We had come up with a plan that we would all stay there for a while.  If the kids got  restless than DH would take them home and I would stay in line and wait.  And then when I got closer to getting the book signed I could call DH and he would come back and meet up with me again and then we could go home together.  So we get there and stake out our spot in line.  It was shorter than it was when we first were there but i twas still snaked back and forth quite  a bit.  For a while we were the last ones in line but little by little others trickled in and stood behind us.  The Starbucks guy kept coming back often asking if anyone needed anything from the cafe.  It was amusing.

We stood there for quite some time.d  It would go quickly at times and we would move up in line nicely and then it would get slow again.  We ran into like 3 people in line that he knew.  One guy he works with now, one lady he used to work with, and then the office manager for the company he currently works for.  She came over and told us that at about 6:50 Alton Brown had came through the line and anyone with small children or whatever he signed their books special so they didn’t have to wait in line.  Go figure, just a few minutes before we got there he had done this the first time and we missed it.  That’s just how our luck goes.  lol

So we continued to stand in line and wait.  It wasn’t to bad.  Watching the people was pretty amusing.  The mall was closing down for the night so it was quiet in there.  Well, except for the rumble of people talking about getting their books signed anyway.  lol  We must have stood there for about an hour or so.  The kids were doing great.  Way better than I would have expected and way better than other kids that were waiting in line with their parents.  I was very proud of them.

Then sometime after 9 we heard the B&N people come through and announce that anyone with small children, school age children, children in strollers could come with them.  So we followed them and we got put into a special line that was made up of just those individuals.  Everyone else in line looked on in envy as we stood there in our short little line.  lol  And Alton came through and signed the books again of those with small children because he said it was getting to late for small children to be up.  I thought that was really nice of him to take out the time to do that.  We were like the last family that he signed books for in that line.  He had originally missed us when he made his first pass through the special line, although I don’t know how with our big old double stroller with the two kids in it.  lol  But when he thought he was done and was heading back to his signing table one of his people that travels with him spotted us and asked if we had our book signed yet.  Since we didn’t he told us to follow him and we caught back up with Alton in a different part of the store and he signed our book, I got my picture taken with him.  It was pretty cool.   We were out of there a short time after 9:30 last night.  After we loaded the kids up then DH decided to go back in with the camera and take a few more pictures of Alton Brown.

Overall it was a good night.  Maybe not the way most people would choose to spend their anniversary but it wasn’t bad.  It was actually one fo the best ones we’ve spent together because we did something we both wanted to do, something we both enjoyed, and it was a good day because no one argued with anyone else. 

After the kids went to bed DH and I had a chance to spend some quiet time just together, talking, remembering.  A very nice end to a decent night. 

Today his anniversary present finally arrived.  It was supposed to be here yesterday but it came a little late.  It’s ok because he really liked it so it’s all good.  lol  So that’s another one for the books I guess.  Now today is the beginning of a brand new year together heading towards forever.