Anti-Fun-Rut

Do you ever feel like you've sorta fallen into a comfortable rut? Not an unsatisfied rut, but just sort of happily doing the same thing, whether it be with your job, or friends, or dating... Well Micah and I fell into a fun-rut. We started getting really good at going to movies whenever we had a date night because we would so frequently miss the big blockbuster release because of our darling babe. So our date night routine became dinner with friends or family, then a movie. Or a movie and ice cream. These dates were still fun, but it was a fun-rut. I absolutely loooove movies so I still really enjoy those kind of dates. But I want to do things a little differently in 2014. 

I want to go on more dates, take more pictures together, and do things that aren't movies! When Micah and I were dating we did some seriously fun, random, and adventurous date nights, as I'm sure many people did. I want to bring back some of that spark of newness and really not lose ourselves in parenthood. I've never been more in love with Micah than I am now & the moment we first became parents and he held Olive for the first time was absolutely magical. I'll never forget that. He's the best husband and father I could ever ask for and dream up and I don't want to forget our lives together before baby. 

So, to do that I didn't want to set an impossible goal for ourselves or rule out movie nights all together. 

My anti-fun-rut idea is to do something different, one weekend a month, and dedicate it solely to doing something new, that Micah and I have never done before.  They don't have to be crazy expensive, but they do have to be different ideas than we've never done before. Also, I decided to put my phone away and treat these dates as first dates again. Really be together in the moment. Maybe snap some pictures but not be checking my emails or Facebook feed. 

One of my favorite things about Micah is his ability to have fun. To genuinely leap into whatever date or trip or activity we're into and to just make the most dull thing exciting. When we were dating we went to Color Me Mine & painted a few porcelain things and it was sooooo fun! I love just sitting and talking with him, he's the best.  :)  I don't want to ever be at a point where we stop having fun & it's my hope that doing these little dates will inject a little frivolity and spontaneity into our days. 

Alright cheese-fest over, I'll post all of our anti-fun-rut dates as we do them. 

xoxo

Mandi

Dates and Updates

Ah January was so busy! It started out boring & blah but definitely picked up.

So where to start.... This may be a long post...

First I got a job! I'm working from home for a really cool company called Nebo. They do flashlights and tools (sounds incredibly random, I know) and are all women! The company is owned by three men who are all strong Christian guys who really value the home and working moms. So it's been really nice when Olive has had a more demanding day, they are very understanding of that. :) if you're curious, go check out their products www.nebotools.net

Micah loves me working there -- free flashlights for him! Such a manly thing right? 

So I started with Nebo in the beginning of January, and honestly I really love the job! It is really hard though, to have to do along with taking care of Olive & clean the house, attempt at cooking... 

Shortly after starting with Nebo, Micah and I went to St. George with Sheridan and Brian and his kids. It was so much fun! Got to spend the weekend with some of my favorite people. :-)

Some pics from the weekend. 

nothing hotter than my hubs rocking the baby bjorn. grrr ;)

Then the following weekend was Sheridan's birthday ... She kinda stole a few weeks that month haha! So Brian arranged a fun little surprise birthday party with some of her closer friends. We went to the Dodo for dinner (super yunmmm) then to LaserQuest for laser tag! Pretty sure we were the oldest people there by like 10 years, no joke. But it was so much fun, I haven't been since I was in high school (ya know like 7 years ago.. I'm so old).  ;)

I got 5th place! I'm midnight shadow of course. ;) or midnitshdo apparently. Woo! And yes, in the zombie apocalypse my skills are for hire. ;)

And they found out it was Sheridan's birthday so they fired her with toilet paper! Incredibly random but Sheridan was a good sport with it. 

Then the last weekend in January Micah and I had the great opportunity to speak in church. Kill me. Ugh. I haven't spoken in sacrament since I was in high school, which as we've covered, was sooo long ago. ;) 

As a last minute procrastination, we went to the U of U gymnastics final with my bro & sis in law Ben & Ali & their girls. 

Livi met Swoop, the U mascot. 

We were on the front row (and on tv a bunch apparently) so we really had an amazing view of them. 

Craaaaazy eye!

Way fun, it's been so long since we've done anything with them, so it was nice to hang out & catch up a little. 

Then the following morning we spoke in church, I tried not to vomit & luckily didn't spew chunks all over the podium. Huzzah! Now hopefully I'm done speaking for a few more years. :)

xoxo

Mandi