Date Night With My Husband

Last week I told you about my date night without my husband. Thank you for your comments, it really was a special night for  Nico and I.  Last, night was special too because I had a chance to have a date night with my husband, Juan.

When Juan and I met and started dating we already had kids–Olivia was 5,  Erica was 3, Nico was almost 3. Between our jobs, the kids and our custody arrangements, Juan and I didn’t have the typical courtship. We dated on our “kid free” weekends and sometimes, because we worked together, were able to have lunch together during our workday.  We dated for 2 years before we got married, and once we got married,  our date nights and lunches became pretty infrequent.  Add the new baby in the mix, and  let’s just say we were pretty much settled into a routine where date nights meant getting the kids to bed, renting a movie, opening a bottle of wine, and falling asleep in front of the TV.

BUT lately, things have begun to change.  For the better.  Except of course, if you are a high school girl with her own social life.  You see, Olivia is now 15, and in my book, that is Babysitting Age.  Add to that fact,that Diego is now 6, and the other kids are pretty self-sufficient, and that means that I can leave the kids for a few hours occasionally and go out for a date with my husband.  This works out pretty well for us, except when it infringes on Olivia’s “plans,” then it doesn’t work out as well for her. Oh well….A happy husband and wife, makes a happy family life. Or something like that. Still, we try to be careful not to “burden” the kids too much with self-sufficiency, and responsibility. Ha! (Anyway, I digress, and that’s a whole other blog post.)

So last night, Juan and I enjoyed our date night and went to The Yard House where we sat at the bar, just like grown-ups, we had a drink,  and went to a movie. When we came home we said good night to Nico, kissed a sleeping Diego, and relieved Olivia from her Facebook childcare responsibilities. Then we tried to watch a recorded episode of Mad Men. That is, until I fell asleep in front of the TV.

Juan and I enjoying some adult beverages during an adult night out.

Discovering Mas y Mas

Yesterday I told you that I attended the Discovering Mas blogging conference over the weekend.  Because of this conference I have decided to overcome my resistance to Twitter and will begin”tweeting.”   Another thing I took away from this conference was this:

The sponsors for this conference gave all of the attendees some really great stuff. I had a lot of fun going through my bag of “swag.”  It was filled with beauty and health products, food items, and all kinds of great stuff. Thank you Proctor and Gamble, Que Rica Vida and Avocados from Mexico!

But I wasn’t the only one to get something out of the conference. My husband Juan got something out of it too. As I’ve said before, Juan is a gadget guy, and he absolutely loves his Iphone.  During the conference I texted him that I thought I would need a smart phone to help me Tweet and stay on top of my blog.  He texted me back:

“Do you want me to give you my Iphone and I’ll get the new Iphone 4?”

Hmm. ….I don’t really love the Iphone because I can’t seem to get my fat fingers to work the touch key pad. Still, there are features I like on his Iphone that I don’t have on my current phone. Juan has wanted the new Iphone since it launched, and has tried justifying the expense of upgrading to a new phone . This was just what he needed. So, it turns out that Discovering Mas has really worked out well for Juan. Maybe it should have been called Discovering Mas y Mas.  (Discovering More and More).

 Here’s what I got out of  the conference: 

1. Valuable information
2. New relationships with fellow Latina bloggers
3. A whole lot of great stuff in the swag bag. 

Here’s what Juan got out of me attending the conference:

1. The Iphone 4
2. And two of his favorite picks from my swag bag:

This blogging thing is paying off!