6 years later.....

It's been a week since our anniversary, but I wanted to tell you all what we did! I am sure you have waiting on pins and needles to find out ;) We are on a really tight budget and I didn't want to spend money at a restaurant, so the mission was on to figure out what to do. After talking with my mom, we decided that when I dropped the kids off with her, she would take them and Eric and I would eat a home cooked meal, on the back patio (and yes, I was still wearing flip flops....fancy ones, but still flip flops, it's been that warm still). Eric didn't know what I had planned and he didn't ask, which drove me crazy! I can't keep a secret (when it's a fun surprise. Friends, still tell me your secrets, okay:).

 

I scoured Pinterest for recipes that are different from our chicken in the crock pot and came across this:

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/recipe_slideshows/romantic_dinners_for_two#leaderboardad

My first thought? We are so not romantic. And romantic is in the title. I know that sounds like a bad thing, but I'm cool with it. I am not such a fancy lady and being all fancy and romantic, makes me uncomfortable and then I burp a lot. True story.

Anyway, I found this recipe, showed mom and decided to give it the old college try. That afternoon, I left the house for awhile and on my errands, I was supposed to pick up some spray paint for our new Dave Ramsey car (post coming soon). Eric was less than thrilled with my mini escape sans kids that lasted for a few hours. Apparently, he needed the paint. Oops. So I had to exit quickly leaving my mom to make the dinner. Let me just interrupt myself real quick. Yes, my mom is awesome. Not only was she taking our kids overnight, but she made us dinner and the left her own house so we could have a quiet dinner. Yep...she's the bees knees (what does that even mean). Thanks mom.

When I got home, we all quickly got ready, I packed the kids for their sleepover and we hurried back out the door. On the way, I spilled the beans about our evening. I think he was excited. We arrived at my moms, the kids ran inside and quickly noticed the sweet table set up outside on the patio. It was so pretty. Candlelight and a leaf garland that was used on our arch in Mexico. The kids and Nana boogied on out and we sat down to enjoy a lovely, kid free dinner. I'd like to say that it was lovely to sit together and have a relaxing dinner, but the truth is, we were so hungry and the food was so amazing, we ate quickly and were full in about 10 minutes. I had to loosen my belt-seriously, classy lady in da house!

When dinner was finished and we could breathe again and my belt was appropriately buckled, we headed to our local theatre. My friend from high school, Heather, was playing the lead in the production, Phantom of the Opera: A Pain in the Mask. I was so excited. I had bought tickets about a month before and hadn't told Eric. I was pleasantly surprised about how excited he was! The Gaslight Theatre is awesome! The shows are always fantastic and if you sit near the front, the actors will most likely interact with you. As Eric and I were discussing this very thing, he very innocently asked, "Where are we sittin?" And I replied, with "duck face" lips and all, "Row 1, table A." Haha, we were in the very front row!

 

This is Heather....gorgeous!

A couple shots from the play! So funny!

 

Heather and the rest of the cast, were amazing! And in true form, they did interact with us. The best was after the Phantom show; they did a Vegas Show spoof and Heather came out dressed as Cher. As she was singing, "If I Could Turn Back Time", totally nailing the Cher look, she got down on her knee, grabbed Eric's hand a proceeded to serenade him. So fun!

If you live in Tucson, you have to see this show. I think it's only for a couple more weeks so hurry! Plus, Heather is in a group called The Manhattan Dolls (she lives in New York normally, yep, livin large) and they are singing at the Gaslight on November 5.

Here are the The Manhattan Dolls singing at a U of A game!!

After the show, I was able to give my old drum major friend a hug and the memories were flowing. We had a good time together! Thanks for an awesome show Heather! You're absolutely amazing!

 

Yep...that's us. 1995 baby. We were drum majors....meaning we lead the marching band, we did not play the drums. Serious business.

 

After the show, we really wanted to go dancing. Unfortunately, the place that we have been going to forever, closed a couple of months ago. We loved the Cactus Moon, it was big and the dance floor was big, there were places to walk, but it's gone. I still am so sad. So we ultimately decided to go to the Maverick. A country bar that I swore up and down I would never go to. It was packed, but we we still able to dance a little. When the overwhelming smell of feet was too much to handle, we called it a night.

Clearly, we love to dance.

All in all, good times. Different, but good. And I jighly recommend the recipe. My mouth is filling up with saliva as I type this and it's 7:30 in the morning. I could have steak for breakfast...just sayin'.

Do you do any frugal things on dates? What do you do on your anniversary?

 

Oh,I almost forgot, if you don't follow me on Facebook, then you don't know! I will be making some awesome changes to the blog in the next couple weeks (seriously, like pee in my pants excited). Change number one....no more A New Normal. Now, I'm simply Nicole Mikkelson (said with a hair flip, in a raspy voice). So, if you want to see the changes before they happen here, join me on facebook. All the cool kids are doing it.

 

 

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