Date Night?

One of my "intentional to-do's" of 2010 was to be intentional about my marriage. Gracious -that's a hard one. Not because my marriage is hard, but because the "intentional" part takes a lot of planning and this year has been a doozy so far. Sick girls, sick grandma (my mom), visitors, birthday's, ear infections, little girl who sometimes just won't take a bottle, and sheer exhaustion.... it's like I blinked and suddenly it's April. I think we've had 1 date night this year (I have to say Nicole's feeding has played a huge role in this). So I haven't done a great job with the intentional part. Actually, I have to say I have worked on it... but something always seems to happen to put a big wrinkle in my plans. It seems like everyttime I have some great idea - some "crisis" comes up and it never seems to work out like I planned. So.... when my dear neighbor Mandy called and offered to watch the girls (Thanks Mandy!), I was so excited to plan a surprise day for Tom! So we were set on Friday for a surprise outing (Tom didn't even know about it). I had to tell him so that he could get out of work on time... and then 30 minutes later I had to break it to him that Megan had a temp and it was a no-go. :^(

Well - the sickness continues over here. In the middle of the night (4am) - you know, when I was already up with Nicole - I could hear Megan making little noises in her room. So I went in there and she was burning up. Sure enough, she had a temp of 102.5. Ugh. After some Motrin, this morning she slept in till 9:15 - and although she had a bit of a temp still, she was in a great mood. The day went on and her energy came back (but not her appetite- she's barely eaten in 2 days). Her fever broke and we even played outside a little bit. We had to go out after she told Tom, "Daddy, it's a beautiful day to be outside - but we aren't outside." Once again Mandy said - let's try it again.....

So during naptime we got all "date ready" and spiffed up.
Bottle ready for Nicole -check.
Diaper bag packed - check.
Megan's stuff ready - check.

And then.... once again nap time was over and Megan walked up to me. I picked her up and my date night plans were dashed - she was burning up. sure enough - 102. Ugh! so once again, call Mandy to cancel the plans. Bummer.

But... in steps Natalie. Natalie offered to stay home with sick Megan (who was super super super clingy). Not sick Nicole went to Mandy's house. Divide and conquer! And we still got our date night! It's amazing how much energy it takes to actually get a date night. Totally worth it, but wow.

Thank you to Natalie and Mandy who looked after our sweet pumpkins so that we could go out and invest in US.