Barnes and Noble Date

On Friday evening Kim took me and out to dinner at Anthony's Hearthfire.  We had a $20 gift certificate which made the bill easier to handle. This was only the 2nd or 3rd time we have eaten in the dining room.  Hearthfire has an amazing happy hour in the bar, which we normally enjoy.  Dinner was great, with a wonderful sunny view of the bay.  After dinner Kim told me to drive toward Meridian.  We normally keep most of the dates a secret until they happen.  The suspense is more fun.
We ended up at Barnes and Noble for our after dinner adventure.  My grandpa gave us both giftcards for Christmas which we still needed to use up.  The bookstore is a super fun date spot, you can spend hours browsing around at subjects you could only dream about.  Kim had a fun idea of picking out our favorite childhood books (Under 5 years old) and read them to each other.  I haven't thought about Corduroy for years!  For the most part we knew the books that each other picked out, but Kim had a couple I didn't remember. I'm sure Kim read more than I did as a kid.  Harry the Dirty Dog is pretty darn funny.
After reading our favorite kid books to each other we went and found a bible and read a bit more of Romans.  We actually ended up purchasing the bible, it was a really nice brown leather ESV.  We ended up with a wooden chessboard (an upgrade from the plastic chessboard from our dollarstore date), the Bible, and a cook book for a gift.  We spent about an hour and a half wandering around Barnes and Noble and spending time together. This is a fun potentially zero cost date.  You can learn a lot about a persons likes from the books they pick out.  I'm normally in the food/cookbook section or the DIY/home remodel section.  Kim spends more time looking for good novels, also the financial and cookbook sections.
Overall, A+ for a creative date idea.  My only regret is for not purchasing a chess for dummies book.

Roller Derby Date

In Bellingham we have a very active roller derby league called the Roller Betties.  This league consists of 4 female only roller derby teams.  The teams have bouts about once a month at the Sportsplex indoor arena.  The derby sets up on the soccer field and brings in the floor for each bout. Kim took us to the bout for a our date this week.  The Sportsplex filled up with players and fans, ready for the action.  I had zero idea of what to expect.  The only education I've had on roller derby was from Whip It the movie. I don't think I learned much about the strategy of the game from this movie.
I will try my best to explain the game to you.  The players outfit themselves with flashy, outrageous, somewhat aggressive attire as to scare or intimidate the opponent.  There is one lead "Jammer" that wears a star helmet, and another skater with a striped helmet who leads the strategy of the block.  The lead jammers goal is to break lose from the pack and then lap the group over and over.  All the other skaters act as defensive blocks and also run screens to allow the lead jammer to pass.  The lead jammer is the first jammer to break lose, when the other teams jammer breaks lose they can also score points as they pass players, but they don't have all the benefits of being first. The lead jammer has control of when to stop the Jam. The strategy of the jammer is to know when to stop the jam as to optimized her points and minimize the other teams points.  It kinda reminds me of Football. The majority of the team stays together in a line ready to block and limit movement, while the jammer (mix between quarterback and running back) races around the track avoiding being blocked.
What a fun time to get loud and watch some highly physical contact sport.  One thing I really appreciated was when a player would get hurt.  They would turn off the music and everyone got quiet until the player got up, and then they would cheer them off the floor.  Roller Derby has a great sense of family and comradery.  The teams are competing, but it appears as they all understand that they are in this sport together and at the end of the bout it is all about staying safe and having fun.
Kim took me to grab burritos during the game, and afterwards we headed home to sit on the couch and continue our reading through Romans.  I really enjoyed my first roller derby experience.

Sweet Treats at Home

After work on Friday, Kim planned a fun evening at home.  We have at a very busy last couple of weeks traveling to Seattle each weekend, so it felt really good to stay home and relax together.  With Crossfit and a general want to be healthy, we tend to watch what we eat. We try our best to stay away from dairy, gluten, and processed sugars.  This doesn't mean that the cravings for sugar go away! We figured better if those sugars are ones found naturally, right?  Kim planned an evening around healthy ice creams!  She had 3 ice cream recipes picked out for us to try.  Two were banana based ice creams, and one used coconut cream.  We started with the coconut cream because it took the longest to make. Still a pretty easy recipe, but it calls for more freezer time.  After you mix it all together you freeze it and mix it a couple times over a few hours until the consistency is good.  We also added a scoop of the protein powder I use to give it some flavor and substance.  The next two recipes were very similar to each other. They used frozen bananas that you blended.  The texture is awesome!  Also the bananas are sweet like ice cream. We made one with bananas, coconut milk, almonds, chocolate powder, homemade vanilla extract, and coconut flakes. Almond joy deliciousness!  We made another with banana, vanilla, and frozen blueberries!  This one was awesome.  It tasted like a blueberry sherbet ice cream.  This and the almond joy were my favorites.  The first one is good but not worth the extra work. The banana ones are ready to eat right after you make them.  We now have a go-to healthy sweet fix when we need one.  Now I have left out an important detail of this date.  Kim outlined the date and added one twist, we had to be completely n*%^d the entire time.  Yup that's right mom and dad we were running around the house n*%^d making ice cream.  I just want to stay that some good old fashion n*d@^y is great in a married relationship.  Just make sure your kids are gone and you have some good blinds on those windows.  Who knew making ice cream could be so fun.

Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory

This last Saturday we saw Willy Wonka and his chocolate factory.  Just kidding, but we did go to a chocolate factory for the full tour! We were in Seattle for a good friends big 4-0 birthday so Kim decided to make a whole day out of it.  Our first stop, Theo's Chocolate in the Fremont area of Seattle.  We parked nearby on the street at a 2 hour only parking space (This information is important for later in the story).  Theo's was really neat, they lead us through a 1 hour tour of the factory with lots of tasting!  One thing that really surprised me was to learn that the cocoa beans are surrounded with a fruit.  This fruit, similar to mango or guava, was all that was eaten, discarding the bean for many decades.  At some point they learned that they could ferment the bean with the fruit still on it making the bean easier to access and it made the flavors better.  Theo's is a bean to bar chocolate factory which means they source their own cocoa beans and take it all the way to the finished product. Overall, we had a really fun time.
What a great date. Tours and events in groups would be perfect for first dates! No matter how long you have been together I hope you realize how important it is to date, and be intentional.  After our tour we wandered around the Fremont area, and saw the troll.  We got a pint of beer at Fremont brewery and got an awesome burrito at a local cafe.  When we got back to our car, we noticed that the kind folks at the City of Seattle decided that I had been parked longer than 2 hours and to give me a $44 ticket.  $44, are you kidding me!? We sped out of there and headed to a near-by park.  Volunteer Park has a water tower that has a great view of downtown and the Space Needle. At the top of the tower we sat down and read through the first chapter of Romans.  This was a great day of fun and relaxation.

Cost: $20 2 tickets to Theo's
         $12 2 Pints at Fremont Brewery
         $6  Shared burrito at Solstice Cafe
         $44 Parking ticket

The Dollar Date

Kim had a fun idea for our 8th date that cost us very little money.  After Crossfit on Friday we headed over to the dollar store.  Kim had figured out the cost, plus tax, of 5 items at the Dollar Tree.  She had separated this money into two envelopes, one for me and one for her. Kim's idea was we would purchase our activities for our date, and go back home for a relaxing evening at home. We had a good time wandering around the store looking at all the items $1.00 can buy.

We ended up with a chess board, a foam finger rockets, seed planters, a 500 piece puzzle, a book of Sudoku, large army men, a blow up hammer, a crystal forming tree chemistry project, a metal puzzle game, and play-doh. Really a bunch of junk, but super fun for an evening at home.  We started the puzzle when we got home, and finished it a couple of days later.  Those of you with kids at home will like what we did with the finger rockets and army men. We set up the army men on the table and then shot them off with the rockets! That was a good time.  We played another couple games of chess, Kim is getting better.  The crystal forming tree is pretty dumb, but after 48 hours we did have some colored crystal formed of the paper tree. Kim solved the metal puzzle by just pulling really hard, which I think is cheating.  Oh, and I hit Kim with the blow-up hammer a lot, because what else do you do with it,  We didn't get to all of our items that evening, but it was fun idea for a lazy night at home.

Don't forget the Polish

Date 6 happened on Friday the 13th. This date was the night before we left for a 7 day Caribbean cruise.  I'm a little late posting this because the sun tanning on our trip interfered with my blogging ability.  Kim decided to take me to 13 nails in Fairhaven for a pedicure.  Oh yes guys, pedicures are actually really nice.  Do you think that women would keep going if they sucked?

There is a good story behind this date.   A couple of months back I was working with a Ninkasi beer rep and we decided to stop into 13 nails because they indeed sell beer and wine.  The Female Ninkasi rep talked me into getting pedicures while we were there.  Sometimes you have to take one for the name of business!  This was my first pedicure and it was awesome.  They rub your feet and take care of all that gross extra skin. After hearing of my positive experience Kim was very excited to go with me.  What a great date right before wearing flip flops for 7 days.  This was a very relaxing date and is a great time to talk with each other.  We talked about all the activities that we looked forward to on the cruise.

After our pedicure experience we heading back home to pack.  This was a great relaxing quick date.  Don't think your date time has to be an all day or evening event.  To close the night off we prayed for our trip and safe travels.

Big Rock Park

Last Saturday, January 31st, Kim planned a great afternoon of getting to know each other better.  We started at our house and headed up the hill on the railroad trail. The weather was perfect, no rain and a little bit of sun. It's always refreshing to take a break from the hectic life schedule and enjoy nature and each other.  Kim had the great idea of asking get-to-know-each-other questions while we walked. We talked about if we ever wanted to move and where to. We talked about our favorite foods, dream neighbors to move to, and many other fun life question.  I forget that there is still a lot I don't know about Kim. After many years together you may think that you know everything there is, but trust me there is a ton more if you ask.
Our walk took us to Big Rock Park on Alabama Hill.  Bellingham folks, have you ever been here?  I had no idea this really awesome sculpture garden was right in our backyard. This is truly a hidden gem of Bellingham.  What a great date idea, because you learn a ton about a person in how they response to art.  Kim and I had fun time trying to figure out the meaning of each one.  We found a great bench in the park where we sat down and prayed together.  On our way back home we explored some of the neighborhoods on Alabama Hill.  Kim and I really enjoy looking at all the cool, and not-so-cool, home designs.  Here is to 48 more dates!

Dinner and a ....

Week two is now in the books, and i'm really excited to see what this year brings.  I'm realizing dating is not easy!  To be truly intentional and to actually have a date planned out takes time and energy.  Like anything else we do, we will only get better at dating as the year goes.  I hope to better understand which events (dates) really makes Kimberley stoked.

Kimberley planned our 2nd date on Friday night.  After a long week at work it was really nice to come home from work and know something is planned.  The excitement of not knowing what we were doing caught me off guard.  It's a rare occurrence in married life to have very many surprises on the dating side of things.  For us it is normally a planned nice dinner out to our favorite restaurant.  So coming home knowing that we had the evening planned but unsure of the events was a forgotten experience for me. When Kim and I were first dating this was a more common feeling, but as we became closer there were less surprises.

When I walked in the door (yes, I went around and rang the doorbell) the lights were dim and there were candles lit around the room. A bit romantic for a second date, but I will give Kim the benefit of the doubt.  Kim had prepared bacon wrapped dates following by an excellent broccoli/cauliflower soup topped with more bacon.  Someone knows the way to my heart.  Kim read a catechism out of a new book that our church is following and we discussed the topic.

After dinner we rushed off to a to make a 7:30 time spot. Kim told me to dress warm, so I bundled on a couple more layers.  It became clear as we began driving that we were heading to the sportsplex ice arena.  Our local junior hockey team The Bellingham Blazers played Wenatchee in a great battle of the puck.  Wenatchee took the lead pretty early on and defeated the Blazers.  I didn't know how intense our hockey fans are.  There were cowbells and fog horns, and the trash talk that was being given to the opponents goalie was pretty darn humorous.   The Bellingham Blazers do have a beer garden!  What a fun date event, and something we wouldn't normally do.  It was a great throw-back to our actual second date which was also a sporting event (minor league baseball).

I was freezing when we got home, but luckily Kim pulled the couch close to the fireplace and we enjoyed the warmth.

Dinner Cost: Approximately $15 for dinner
Sportsplex Hockey: $14

In love,

J.Harper