The Date Inspired by the Letter I

We are home safe and sound from our annual birthday getaway, and I can't wait to tell you all about it! But meanwhile, we have another date to report in on...remember our alphabetical dates? We're up the letter I!

I'm not sure what possessed me to think last week was a good week to sneak in an alphabetical date, with everything else we had going on, but it actually did work out really nicely!

So, here was our date inspired by the letter I!

This is what happens when you're trying to get 100 things in the picture, and it's windy, and you're on a major highway. Possibly my worst picture of all time, but oh well. Here you go!

We started our date at Indiana Wesleyan, since that's where we were for my speaking engagement last week. Convenient that it starts with an I, right?

It was so windy that day, but it was lovely and warm, and we took a stroll down memory lane by walking through campus, like we used to when we lived over there!

We paused in the rotunda where all the busts for the Society of World Changers are housed, and Ryan did a photo opp with Bill and Gloria.

(I won't lie. The busts still creep me out.)

He decided to imagine what it would be like to be the next inductee.

We couldn't leave campus without visiting our beloved chapel.

We went inside and sat for a bit, remembering all the days of yore when we spent much prayer time there!

Then...we went on our annual pilgrimage to...

IVANHOE'S!!!

 Oh yes. It's that time of year again.

Strawberry shortcake covered in ice cream!

So huge. So not good for you. But so delicious, and at once a year? I'll eat the whole thing, thankyouverymuch.

That was our I date! Much fun!!

Wedding #2!

You guys!!!

Thank you so much for all the birthday love yesterday! It was such a lovely day, and I can't wait to tell you about it!

But before I tell you about my birthday, I have to tell you about our Saturday! Ryan worked, and I spent the whole day cleaning and cooking and preparing for Mommapalooza 4.0. (Don't take that in a complaining tone; I loved doing it!)

But that afternoon, we got all gussied up (as they say) and went to our second wedding in as many weeks! I told you last month about my friend Brittany (whose family has taken me in as an additional family member) and her bridal shower, where I served as speaker and photographer. Well, the wedding was Saturday! And it was lovely.

The wedding was at a country club, so that meant we had to pull out better than our Sunday best!

We had a gorgeous day for a drive, which was good, since we had a little over an hour on the road!

I ran into one of my former students at the wedding (from my Financial Aid days) as soon as I arrived. We stared at each other for a minute, trying to figure out who we were. We finally got it! I don't often see people from those days, so that was fun!

Because I've forgotten how to look at a camera:

Brittany was a beautiful bride, and I sneaked a few pictures, while trying not to be "that" guest.

Really enjoyed the ceremony, and then the reception was fun, too!

Brittany shared that they chose to get married in May because her parents had gotten married in May, and so had her aunt and uncle, and so had her grandparents! They honored her grandparents by sharing a special dance with them. (Also, I first typed "daince," which may pay tribute to the fact that an Andy Griffith marathon played in our house all day today.)

And speaking of her grandparents, I stole these two pictures from them. Seems I got asked to dance (or daince) too!

Thanks, Sandee! :)

When we left the reception, we headed in search of some coffee and then went to pick up our Phoebe girl, who spent the night with us. When we made that stop, I GOT FLOWERS!! These were part of my birthday gift from Ryan!

Fun evening!! And we got home before the shoes started killing my feet! BONUS!!!!

Birthdays, Gifts, and Goodwill

Have I mentioned Sunday's my birthday?

What? Only daily? Oh! Okay. Well then I won't tell you again.

(That Sunday is my birthday, I mean.)

A couple of years ago, my parents started a tradition of taking Ryan and me out for dinner in between our birthdays. A big birthday palooza for all. This year, we decided to go to Cracker Barrel, and Mom said we could order whatevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvver we wanted. (That's a joke from my childhood. On regular days, the goal was to eat frugally. On birthdays, you could get whatevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvver you wanted.)

 Sorry about my hair and our halos. I promise my hair looks better earlier in the day. It seems to fade fast by evening.

Anyway. We got delicious dinners, and our waitress, who was amazing by the way, brought us birthday desserts!!

After we left, we headed to the Goodwill to look for some boots for Ryan, and LOOK WHAT WE FOUND ACROSS THE STREET? IT IS ALMOST READY!!!

Best. Birthday. Gift. Ever.

We were looking for boots to wear in his sister's wedding, and we found them, but he also found this and wanted to wear it. (Possibly with the flamingo suit. You remember the flamingo suit.)

Before we came home, we went to Kohl's, and apparently I took too long trying on dresses. Found these on my phone when I came out of the dressing room.

So now you're caught up on our birthday celebrations! Until Sunday. My birthday. ;)

The Date Inspired by the Letter H

I promised to tell you the end of Ryan's birthday celebration, and happily I can report that this date doubled as the date inspired by the letter H!

After he got off work, and after he opened his gift, we went out for hamburgers for dinner! Originally I thought maybe on this date, we would go to some drive-in hamburger/hot dog place, but since it was his birthday, I decided to go a different route. We headed out to Five Guys, which we've only been to once before and loved.

Ryan loves the peanuts you can snack on while you wait for your food! (And I didn't love the bad lighting AGAIN.)

I do love that you can choose your burger as a smaller size or a bigger size, so there was something for both of us. And they don't charge extra for ANY topping, so we loaded up with all the toppings!

(We got the Cajun fries and shared them. Oh my goodness. Good stuff!)

After dinner, we went to Starbucks so Ryan could get his free birthday treat.

And then we went to Highland Park. (If you're not local, that's just the city park in this fine town. It's a nice park! Had some of my senior pictures taken there, actually.)

It was a perfect night, weather-wise. We just strolled through the park, enjoying the sights. (And sounds of ball games.)

Funny story. Our selfie stick died a few weeks ago, so part of Ryan's birthday gift was a new one. We hadn't used it yet, but we brought it with us for when we took our chalkboard picture for this date. We could NOT get it to stay connected to his phone, and this beauty was captured while we messed with it. It's probably one of the more accurate pictures of the night.

(Great. We're turning into 85 year olds before our time.)

Finally got it!

Then we walked to another part of the park, and I had no idea Ryan was taking more pictures while we went.

He cracks me up!

We visited Old Ben, a stuffed steer.

We wanted to sit on some swings, but the ones we found on the non-occupied playground were also swings for toddlers - so we couldn't fit in them. I found a most lovely bench by the water, and we sat down, only to realize that thingiemadoo in front of us was for wastewater. Eyeroll.

Seriously! Who puts a scenic sitting area by that kind of an aroma????

So we gave up and moved. Found a little area that was unoccupied and just sat for a while to finish our coffee and talk.

Turned out to be a pretty fun date night, and our most favorite part was just being TOGETHER. We had spent so many of the previous nights apart while Ryan helped people with projects, we were just glad to be alone together!

You can see all the alphabetical dates (so far) here!

The Shafferland Shuffle

Happy last day of April!! It's been a cold and rainy weekend here, so I'm looking forward to these April showers bringing along some May flowers!!

* Last Sunday, we went to lunch with the Shaffer side of the family to celebrate the April birthdays: Ryan and his brother, Nick. We ate at Chili's and it was most delicious!

* Monday was Ryan's actual birthday (I'll finish telling you about our celebration tomorrow) and he had parties all day long! His work people brought treats for him and we had a date that evening. It was a fun day!

* Tuesday was hair day for this girl. Long overdue upgrade to the old color, and I'm pretty sure I pulled in radio waves with all this foil! After we both got home that evening, we had salad for dinner, but it was one of those nights when a salad didn't cut it. Dessert needed. We tried to get a Frosty, but the line was insane, so we splurged on Blizzards!!!! YUM!!!

* Wednesday evening was a kiddo-watching night for me, which was fun, and then Ryan and I hurried to the end of a viewing for the grandmother of some of our friends. On the way home, it got super crazy stormy in a hurry, and here are my thoughts on being out in that! We were fortunate - no hail damage. Some people got extensive damage! WE were also fortunate to get this gorgeous rainbow!!

 * Thursday was a busy work day, and when I went to get the mail, I found this blanket featuring Ryan's face. LOL!!! (It was something a friend of ours ordered - a photo collage - and she wanted a picture of us included. It's odd to see yourself on a blanket!) We had NO food in the house, so Subway made our dinner, and then it was an office-working night. All my favorite things in one space: Ryan and books!

* Friday I narrowly escaped setting off our fire alarm while cooking chicken at lunch. The whole house was thick with haze, but the alarm never went off. WHEW! In the land of new things we have tried this month, we went on a double-date mani-pedi with our friends on Friday night. Yes. You read that right. Oh my. Ryan's first pedi. He wasn't sure what to think of it, but he was a great sport! I got pretty coral fingernails, and we had fun with our friends.

* And then there was yesterday. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH yesterday. Ryan was gone from early, early morning until evening at an all day continuing education course with one of his co-workers. In his absence, I began a 3 day detox cleanse that very well may kill me. No meat. No dessert. No coffee. Pray for us both.