rare date night...

Jeff and I celebrated Valentine's Day a little later this year since we were apart on the actual day (I mentioned that in my last post). We normally don't really do much of anything to celebrate it however this year, Jeff sent this beautiful pot of tulips to me! Aren't they lovely?

I told Jeff that all I wanted was for us to go to the movies to celebrate Valentine's this year so we decided that Wednesday (yesterday) would be a good night to celebrate. I checked the movie schedule and the movie we wanted to see, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, was showing at 7:20pm. Jeff told me Tuesday night that dinner was part of my gift and that he was going to take me to the Bento Box! Oh.my.word. We've only been one other time but it was fantastic! Now, before that visit, I was not a big fan of sushi. Jeff was, but I wasn't real wild about it. The owner of the restaurant, Chef Lee Grossman, completely changed that! He took such good care of us that night and I thoroughly enjoyed myself (and the sushi!). We sat at the bar and watched Lee and the other guys create these beautiful, edible works of art.

So when Jeff said he wanted to take me there, I was stoked! I made a reservation for us at their new place (our first visit was on the last night they were to be operating out of their former location), at the bar again and we had just as good a time this time as we did the first time. Lee took care of us again and we tried some new things. But we loved everything! We had a Rainbow KC Roll, a bowl of calamari, a Sesame Shrimp Roll (something we had the first time) and a special they had going for Valentine's, a Lobster Roll. And for dessert? Oh, yes. We HAD to have dessert! :) We had belgian chocolate fondue with fresh fruit, homeade pound cake and macadamia nut cookies! Yum.ie. :)

I took a few photos of some of our dishes last night --

After dinner, we hopped across the street and went to the movie. It was so, so funny! Us and one other couple shared the whole theater -- it was really cool!

The night was so great. It was wonderful to hang out with my best friend -- eat good food, watch a good show. I love you, babe! Happy (belated) Valentine's Day!

happy (early) valentime's day...

Bless my husband's sweet heart, this is what he calls Valentine's -- Valentime's. And I just think it's the cutest thing...

We are apart this year on Valentine's (which is Saturday for those who've let it "slip up" on them!) but it's really not a big deal. We don't typically make a big fuss over that day in particular except to maybe give a card. However, this year we have some movie tickets that have slowly been burning a hole in my wallet for a while now. I've asked Jeff to take me to the movies some night to "celebrate Valentine's". If he takes me out to eat, bonus points for him! But I'd be fine if we just got into the movie free (which we will because of the tickets) and he bought me "movie food"! :) Do you not LOVE movie food? I didn't ask if you loved the price...only the food, the nature of it all. Junk. Love it. :)

I think he's attached strings somehow to this "date" by saying we have to see Mall Cop with Kevin James. That's fine with me. If he'll take me, we can watch whatever (within reason :). Besides, Kevin James reminds me an awful lot of my own husband so we're good.

I thought I would share this rather romantic video I put together last summer in honor of Valentine's day. We had these photos made in celebration of our 10 year wedding anniversary with Julie Mixon, photographer extraordinaire! She took them at our very own beach, Topsail Island/Surf City, and they turned out fantastically! This video showcases quite a few of them -- I used a program called Sony Vegas Movie Studio to put it together and had a lot of fun with it.

Enjoy!