Couples Retreat

Okay, so Mike and I won't be doing anything like an Eden style Couples Retreat any time soon, but Friday night we did discover something! You may remember a couple of weeks back, I blogged about transitions. Since then, Mike and I have continued on that post-deployment readjustment roller coaster. The implication here is not meant to be negative, in fact, we've had some great times together! We've lovingly held hands as we walked to tuck in the little ones...we've kissed softly before saying goodnight...we've done all that sweet, mushy stuff. What I'm leaving out here is the fact that all of these "sweet" moments have all been leftovers. Turns out, we have a lot of kids, a lot of appointments and a lot of errands and at the end of the day all the time we have for one another is whatever happens to be leftover from that particular day. I was reminded again of why I do so love my husband Friday night after I received a text message in SC. Here's how it started:

Mike: How about no basketball tomorrow? Will you join me for dinner and a movie?

Ashley: Your place or mine? : p

**You should know that we rarely and I do mean rarely go outside of the house for dates.

Mike: I would like to take you out for a romantic dinner and a movie.

Ashley: I would love to!

Mike: Great...Kathryn's coming over to babysit.

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I was so thrilled that he had been the one to organize a date night! As I'm sure in most homes, usually I'm the one who does all the prearranging. So it meant so much to me that he had obviously thought this through AND made it happen! We had a wonderful evening just being together! What we realized is there is no price-tag to be put on the importance of having each other's undivided attention. Goodness, it sounds almost painfully simple. We, like many families, are so busy that we forget what's really important and what brought us together in the first place...EACH OTHER!!! So while we may not be visiting Eden with Vince Vaughn and crew and I'm sure there will be many more "leftover" nights, we will be scheduling our own couples time outside of the house regularly from now on!!!