Our Anniversary Week

 

 

Arnold and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary this past Tuesday. We have actually been celebrating for over a week though. I have been a stay-at-home-Mom for 7 years now, but this past Christmas I worked a seasonal job at Target. I used some of the money I made to buy Arnold a new guitar. I made it his bday/anniversary gift since both are in January. He knew I was going to surprise him with something, but he wasn't really sure what. He has started a duo with a friend of his, and they practice now, hoping to play out in the future. His friend mentioned that he would probably like a 12-string acoustic, and so that is what I got! Thank goodness for his friend helping me out, or I wouldn't have known what to get. Anyway, Arnold loved the gift.. he stayed up really late that night playing it. I was so excited to be able to get him something with money I actually earned myself, it felt more special to me :)

 

Since our anniversary fell on a weekday this year, we decided to go out of town this past Friday and have a day to celebrate. We dropped the kids off at school that morning together, then headed out on the road around 7:45am. We decided to go to Charlotte for the day. I had been wanting to go to Ikea forever, so we thought we'd do that and some other things in the area. We ended up getting there a little earlier than it opened, so we went to a few other stores first. When we went in at 10am, we were so overwhelmed. We didn't even know where to go at first! We headed upstairs which is actually a showroom.. they have rooms set up to give you layout and decorating ideas. When we got through with that, we went downstairs to the Marketplace, and that is where the real fun was. All the things for your home you could ever imagine buying. I would have liked to get a LOT more, but we were on a budget for that trip. We did end up finding a pretty rug for our bedroom though, and a new set of kitchen dishes, so I was happy. Before we left we stopped by the cafe and got some cinnamon buns. Everyone had told me to try them out, and they were YUMMY!

 

After Ikea, Arnold said he wanted to go to the Guitar center. He thought it was only fair since we had spent all that time looking at home stuff ;) He dropped me off across the street where there were lots of shops, so I could look while he was gone. Probably a bad idea.. you know how it is letting a woman loose to shop ;) I found a LOT of good stuff. A new pillow for the living room, a new shirt for me (with an OWL! ;) some Christmas ornaments on deep discount that I picked up for next year, and some other things. Eventually I was out of hands to hold my stuff, so I tried to call Arnold to come pick me back up.. but he wouldn't answer. So dummy me thought I would try to cross the road to get to him. But there was a hill with a lot of bushes and pine needles, and I started sliding down.. so I decided that wasn't a good idea. I found a sidewalk and walked down to the stoplight, but the traffic looked pretty bad. So I stood at the corner with all my bags, looking like an idiot, I'm sure. Eventually I got ahold of Arnold and he came to pick me up. He fussed at me for trying to cross a busy road.. I knew he would!!

 

After all that we went over to Concord Mills Mall. We grabbed a quick lunch in the food court, then did more shopping. Mostly for the kids this time. Have to hit the Gymboree and Carter's outlets and all that good stuff ;) We went to the Disney Store and they were having an awesome sale, so we picked up some presents for the kids when we got back in town (yes they are spoiled!  you don't have to tell me!) In between shopping we stopped by a stand and got some treats-- chocolate dippin dots for me, and a peach milkshake for Arnold. We stopped by the movies to see if there was anything we wanted to watch, but nothing really caught our eye, so we kept on walking. We did so much walking that day that I ended up with blisters on my foot (bad walking shoes) and we ended up stopping by a store to get me flip flops.. it was instant relief! I sat on a bench to rest while Arnold went into the outdoor store to look at guns.. he is obsessed lately.. he wants us to get one for the house. ANYWAY, eventually we were just so tired and sore that we decided to leave the mall.

 

We went to an early dinner at Applebee's, that was right down the road. We wanted to take some pics of us so Arnold propped my camera up on a thing a little ways over from us, but it ended up getting blurry pics and it was sort of embarassing, ha. Thankfully we had a really nice waiter who took more pictures for us.. that was a lot easier ;) After dinner we still had a little time to kill before we had to drive home, so we went to a few more stores. We stopped by Hallmark to look at the ornaments and Arnold ended up buying me a new Willow Tree (I collect them) The new 2014 one :) Then we drove home to get the kids. We love to turn up the radio and sing real loudly when we are alone in the car.. I know we are major dorks but who cares.. we had fun ;) The kids were happy to see us.. but I think they were mostly excited to see what surprises we had brought them back ;)

 

 

On our actual Anniversary the other day, I was SICK! Great timing huh? Strep and a respiratory infection. I was in bed for 2 days straight. Thankfully Arnold took great care of me. We did get our our wedding album and look through the photos, so that was sweet :) Happy 8 years honey, I hope we have many, many more!! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The big box got delivered to our house. Someone was excited! ;)

Checking it out

A new 12-string! Yay!

On our trip to Charlotte! Ikea was huge! 

Headed out to the car with our new rug and dishes

At dinner that night. We were holding up fingers to show 8 years ;)

Beautiful roses Arnold surprised me with this week

The willow tree he bought me when we were in Charlotte

This is what Sheldon and I were doing on my actual anniversary... resting! Sheldon actually got fixed this week too, so he was lounging around trying to get better also ;)