A Romantic Staycation

Well in my neck of the woods, I just returned from a "Romantic Staycation"!

Well you have heard a lot lately about "stay cations" and "family stay cations". However have you ever considered a "Romantic Stay cation"? Well this is what me and my hubby did this year. It was FAB! Every year my parents who live out of state take our girls for a week, to get to spend some quantity and quality time with them. Usually that leaves me at home, foot loose and fancy free, while Brent works, since he saves his vacation time for the family vacation. Well this year Princess #1 got braces, and yes our health insurance/dental insurance pays nothing (did you get that-Nothing! for them). So sob! This year we are having to indulge doing fun things around our town with the kids. So what ever was my husband going to do with his vacation time?.....(insert dramatic dun,dun, dah!!!! music here.) You guessed it, a "Romantic Stay cation"

Well you might ask yourself, what is a Romantic Stay cation. Well honestly it may look a little different for each couple out there depending on the ages of their kids, and what the couples interest are. For us, we set several ground rules approaching this week:

1. Not to be rushed! Also not to have every moment scheduled up! (our kids are at the age where they have their own schedules so our current life is pretty hectic shuffling kids to practices etc...)

2. We had to eat at restaurants that we had not tried for about 80-90% of our dining out experiences. We did not eat out every meal, and we did try to mix it up a little: one day we might eat breakfast out, but dined in for dinner. etc.. ( I learned at the German Restaurant that I do not care for sweet cabbage! yuck!)

3. We choose to sleep in (I LOVED THIS!!! The oldest princess is doing cross country this summer and I have to get up at 6:15 -AM!!! 5 days a week-sob!)

4. We choose to see several movies that were out, without having to pay for child care!! (and since hubby was off, we were able to catch matinee prices, as well as the early bird discount some days for the first movie showing.) Really I felt like a princess! Go ahead, ask what I think about a movie! I am in the know now, because I saw almost every first run movie out there that I wanted to see!

5. I did take a vacation from my diet this week. I did not restrict my food or beverages. (I did stick to diet soda when I wanted a pop). I did not weigh myself but once, and I did not enter my calories in the Lose it app. I also did not go to the gym, from July 5Th on. (Ugh! Missing the gym was the very hardest thing about this!) ( I believe that I have gained 3 pounds but this time was so worth it! I will get back on the diet horse on Monday!) I know, I know, I know if you are a diet purist, you might think I have lost my mind. However, I have not. I have been on a diet since Jan 7th. That is 6 months, with just a splurge meal, here or there calories always counted. I really needed this 6 days off, before I take my diet to the next level to help me loose the next 44 pounds. So no excuses, just a rational decision to take a vacation off for 6 days. I felt confident that I could do this at this time, because I have developed the tools and the strength to get back on the diet wagon on Monday.

6. We did connect with some other couples twice during the 6 day period. However we did limit this to only 2 times. (one night we went to 80's pub downtown, when it was free token night. They had all these old, 80's arcade video games to play! So much fun! I even got to put my initials on the high screen for centipede!-Only took 41 years to accomplish that goal!

&. We scheduled one day at home, except for church. I had a selection of books to read, and my hubby had a game for his PS3 to play. Downtime! Ah!! We slept in that day, lounged around.

We had so much fun! I felt like a newlywed again. It was amazing to get a chance to connect and talk without being interrupted by a child. We could pick a movie based on our interest, not on the entire families interest. It was exciting to re discover the uniqueness of one another as husband and wife, and not father and mother. We really did about everything we would have on a vacation: dined out, shopping, movies. However we did not have to pay for a hotel room, or a rental car. Nor did we have to loose time traveling to a different location. (Does this mean I would never want to travel anywhere - of course not! However if money is tight, this might be a great alternative!)

Do you have a library elf?

What is going on in my neck of the woods, is the Library summer program! My kids look forward to participating in this program each year. Our local library does not only encourage reading through awarding a coupon book, and gold medal for visiting and reading a certain number of books. It also offers some fun freebie classes for entertainment for the kids. We went to the Bixby Library last week and watched a magic show. The kids thought it was so much fun. We also went to the Glenpool library to watch a show put on by some clowns it was very entertaining.

I never understand why more people do not take advantage of all the free things offered by the public library. Ours offer free loans on books, magazine, Cd's,DVDs, play aways,e-books, I admit there have been times where I have accumulated some fines by the library. I recently found this adorable pin being sold on etsy by Baymoonstudios

However there is a fairly new site that helps keeps all those fines down. Especially for mom's of multiple children who also enjoy the library as much as she does! This site is called the library elf

This is an AMAZING website that offers you the ability to sign up your library card, and all your dependents library cards and they will email, and text you notice before any items are due (I set mine up to text me 3 days before items are due), then I set my account up to text and email me ever day that there is something overdue. (our library charges $1.00 a day for overdue DVDs with no cap- AH! That could really add up fast if I forgot that one of the little princess's checked out 3 movies one week.) If your library is a subscriber this service is provided free of charge. If it is not the basic service of one library card is free, for additional library card monitoring there is a $12.00 charge for the year. Still how much money could this service save you? Fortunately for me, my library is a subscriber - Yeah! Tulsa County Library system- thank you!!!

What's happening in my neck of the woods.. sometimes a girl has to liv a little

What is happening in my neck of the woods. I am joining the ladies over at Real Housewives of Oklahoma for a linky party today. Well, In my neck of the woods, if you find yourself free with an afternoon to go shopping head over to the Jenk, Ok. There on main street is the cutest little boutique -with literally everything you would Love to have, and nothing you really need. (Does that not just scream your name!) This cute store is called "Liv a Little Boutique" it is located 201 E Main st in Jenks, Ok. There phone number is: 918 629-9495.

The store carries several one of kind item. You can get several items necklaces, dresses, and bags custom ordered. This is a fun store that carries all type of jewelry, books, candles, and gift items galore. It carries OU, OSU, TU, and cute Jenks merchandise. Young, and younger girls would enjoy this store. It is one of my daughters and mine favorite way to kill an hour, and leave with some cute bling! The store also provides complimentary cute gift wrap for those last minute gift items that you pick up. (can you say "Life saver!)