First Night Apart

This weekend was a big weekend from Mckenna, Mommy and Dada. Mckenna spent her first night away from home without us!!

Ronnie and I got tickets to the UA basketball game on Saturday from one of my co-workers (THANKS MELANIE!) so we asked my parents to watch Mckenna for the day. They took us up on the request and offered one better...to take her OVERNIGHT, so we didn't have to hurry home from the game. We, of course, took them up on it.

Saturday morning after Mckenna's first nap, Nana and Papi came and picked her up. As soon as they left, Ronnie and I hit the road for Tucson. It felt strange. It was weird to be in the car together, without Mckenna. It was strange leaving for the day and not worrying about nap time, toddler-friendly activities, or getting home for bath and bedtime. It was weird, but really nice. Mckenna LOVES her Nana and Papi and is more than comfortable with them and being at their house. So I didn't worry about her one bit, which helped make the day even more enjoyable.

Mckenna, Nana and Papi went on an adventure to a stone store (AKA an errand that Nana and Papi needed to run, but they dressed it up as a fun activity), stopped for lunch at McDonalds for Mckenna to have her first happy meal, and went home just in time for her nap. After her nap, they snuggled up and watched a movie, had dinner, and then it was bath and bedtime. Mckenna slept like a champ and when she woke up they watched toy story (and by they I mean Nana and Papi...Mckenna had the attention span of a gnat, so she played, but Nana and Papi realized they LOVE Pixar Movies. HA!) Then it was they had breakfast, went to church, took a nap, had lunch, and then I went and picked her up. I knew she was totally fine when I got there and I was chopped liver because she was too excited about helping Nana with a chore she was doing! Success!

Meanwhile, Ronnie and I hopped in the car, drove to Tucson, grabbed a slice of pizza (which was awesome), enjoyed the game, grabbed Chinese food, and headed home. Unfortunately, the Chinese food MAYBE wasn't the freshest because I spent some of the night on the bathroom floor. Strangely enough I never actually puked, just had a gnarly upset stomach. So I didn't quite get the refreshing night sleep I was anticipating. But thankfully, this morning I woke up feeling awesome, so Ronnie and I organized our third car garage, and then I headed up to get Mckenna while Ronnie finished up the organizing. Success!!

Thankfully the whole experience was incredibly positive for all parties involved!

Here are some pictures (and a video) so you can get a taste of the weekend:

Mckenna trying her "overnight bag" on for size. She's pretty excited about it!

Us on our way to Tucson, we look pretty excited!

Mckenna sizing up her Happy Meal

Washing down the grease with Nana's help.

 Heading into Nana and Papi's carrying her very full overnight bag! She looks SO old!!

Ronnie EXCITED about seeing his Cats play!

We look a little tired...we're not used to all this fun!

The garage in progress. We put together those shelves...so before we started, ALL those boxes and bins were all over the floor. If you think it looks bad here, you would have puked if you saw it before!

                          

...And just to prove we've still got it...and by "it" I mean no shame!

An Open Apology To The Service Industry

[This blog is an open letter of apology to all of the servers out there who get stuck with us when my wife and I go to a wine bar.]

Dear server,

Ronnie and Mandi here, aka "the couple of coffee drinkers that your manager warned you about".

You see, we don't drink. But, we love the ambiance of a wine bar for our date nights. We also love that you usually have comfy couches or chairs for us to sit in. We'll probably order coffee and I can rarely only have one cup. Yeah, we'll take a look at the menu to humor you, but we're not planning on getting anything because we already ate. That is of course not counting a dessert that may catch my wife's eye, so you should spend your time selling us on the Chocolate Lava cake and not the Grilled Ribeye Steak.

I love the size of your coffee cups by the way.

We promise that we'll be super nice to you as neither one of us could do your job and as always, I'll do my best to get a laugh from you. (That last part can come in handy if you're having a tough night.) We also promise that we'll try and not overstay our welcome. But with that said, we don't get out much, so we'll take advantage of every free minute that we have. There is something different about connecting with your spouse when you know there is a 0% chance of being interrupted by an 11-month-old. I love my life more than I could ever imagine, but I can't help but get a bit nostalgic about what used to be.

There used to be a time when we never had dinner before 6pm. Now, there's rarely a time that we have dinner after 6pm. There used to be a time when we would frequent your establishment after midnight without a care in the world. Now, I'm at least two hours into my sleep cycle by then and I have many cares, namely, the little tike that will start crying in 5 to 6 hours. We actually had our "first date" at a wine bar, and our third, but now, those dates usually happen at our house while playing a couple rounds of Skip-bo. There used to be that time, but that time is no more, yet, I have no real desire to get back to that time. If we can just get a little nibble of that time once a month or so, I think we'll be more than satisfied.

The good news is, you won't see us that often. The bad news is, when you do see us, our bill will probably be under 10 bucks. But we know you work hard and appreciate all you do for us, even if it's "only" bringing out a couple cups of joe. We both understand how your industry works and we tip accordingly. All we ask is that you keep the coffee flowing and maybe even take a picture if we ask...oh yeah, and ignore the dessert that I bring for myself from home in the plastic sandwich bag. I know, but I told you, we're that couple. (Actually, I'm that guy and it embarrasses my wife a bit.)

Thank you for understanding,
The Sharpes

My Wife Can't Only Be My Best Friend

Mandi and I are best friends. Beyond a shadow of a doubt she is who I turn to with any joys, sorrows, questions or exclamations. I spend the most time with her by far, and we enjoy doing pretty much anything that we can together. We both can't wait to be done with our work day so we can hang out, and some of our favorite parts of each day are our gym time together or our bike rides.

If my best friend wasn't around often, I just don't know what I would do with myself.

Is being married to my best friend one of the greatest things ever? Yes. Is it enough to keep our marriage strong and our love growing? No.

You see, many of us have had best friends over the years. Best friends come and go. You don't raise children with your best friend. You don't sleep in the same bed as your best friend. You don't join bank accounts with your best friend. And you don't make a proclamation and covenant before God, family and friends that your best friend will be your best friend forever and ever no matter what.

So what am I saying? It's not good to be married to your best friend? Of course not! I am however saying that your wife can't only be your best friend.

She must also be my partner, co-parent, lover, spiritual equal, (sometimes) business partner, co-decision maker, (sometimes) co-wage earner, co-house keeper, and the list goes on. If just one of those relationships is strained, it can negatively impact the rest of them. It can also rock the boat of our friendship.

That's why date nights are so important.

That's when I can show my best friend, that she's still my wife.

And date nights don't start the night of. They can start the day of or the week of, or heck, the month of.

I can start to pursue my wife again. I assure you that she has never changed on her enjoyment of being pursued. That's how our wives were wired. There isn't a woman on this planet that doesn't like her husband to try and "win" her each and every day. I am the first to admit, that often times, I forget this.

It's so easy to get caught up in the motions of just being best friends, co-parents, and business partners. That stuff is present everyday and it happens no matter what we do. We're going to hang out, we're going to be mommy and daddy to Mckenna and we're going to go to work.

What doesn't have to happen everyday however unless I choose to bring it into the day is Mandi being my wife, and I her husband. That's a choice. That's a choice I have to make from the minute I put two feet on the ground to the minute I lay my head on that pillow.

Pursuit happens in many different forms. It could be flowers, notes, back-rubs, head scratches, words and even, just shutting my mouth and listening (gasp!!).

I'm certainly not telling you that I'm the king of pursuit or that I have this husband thing down. What I am telling you however is that my wife deserves to be pursued each and every day and the fact that she is also my best friend is just icing on the cake!

How are you going to show your wife today that she is more than your best friend?

**Women, you of course can do the same! How about you? What will you do today to show your hubby that he isn't just _____________ (daddy, friend, worker, yard guy, etc)?**

One Year Anniversary Recap

As some may have noticed, I'm not posting this blog until a little later on Monday - which is just an indication of how fun and busy our anniversary was. It was a great way to top off an even greater year together. I couldn't be more thankful for the man God provided as my life mate and yesterday was just a great celebration of the love we share!

The morning started with breakfast-in-bed made by me. Unfortunately it wasn't a surprise because Saturday night I told Ronnie I was going to get up and run in the morning so he could sleep in (which isn't unusual for us) and he replied, "wake me up, I'll go with you"...."Uhhhh. You have to sleep in." I replied. So he knew breakfast-in-bed was coming, but it was delicious none the less. He had blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs and a cup of coffee. After breakfast we relaxed on the couch and watched a little TV. Then we headed to the 10:30 service at church.

After church, we headed out for Ronnie's planned portion of the day: exploring. We drove out towards the mountains and a lake called Canyon Lake. Here are a few photos of the excursion:

Driving on the open road

Stopped at a look-out to check out the view

Had a little snack siting on the tailgate

Explored some more

Oh yeah...peanut came too

After our 4 hour excursion, we headed home for Ronnie to sneak in a treatment and to shower before dinner. We had dinner at the place where we got married, overlooking the lawn where our ceremony was. It was great food and incredible to sit and remember our ceremony and reception at the very locale where it all happened. After dinner, we headed home to enjoy dessert: a replica of the top layer of our wedding cake! Here are some pictures from dinner and dessert:

Being a goofball during our caprese appetizer

Dinner - YUMMY! We split it, so excuse the plating. That is our bad job!

On the lawn where we got married

You know it's a special occasion when...

CAKE!!!

All in all it was an incredible day with my incredible hubby!! We had such a great time that I'm already looking forward to next year's anniversary - but I can't wait for all that will come in between!

Rondi + Skip Bo = Date Night

Ronnie and I have decided that we will each plan a date once a month. We made this agreement for several reasons. 1. We're both home bodies that are completely content sitting on the couch all weekend if you let us, and that's just not healthy 2. We thought it would be a nice way to spice things up every now and then by doing something fun (and different) together. 3. It's a good way to show your spouse how much you love them, by planning something special. 4. It's a nice tradition to start. The only rule is that you have to plan it and there are no limits. It can be a date at the house, a night out on the town, anything. A few weeks back, Ronnie posted pictures and a video from his date night; an Ernie Halter show. So I thought it was only fair to tell you/show you my date night.

Saturday morning I asked Ronnie to go on a date with me. He, of course, agreed - one thing I've learned in just the 3 months we've been married, the beauty of marriage is zero fear of rejection when you ask the other person out. The vision for the date: stay at home and relax, while doing something fun and romantic. I had planned a night of Skip Bo (our FAVORITE game to play together), wine, cheese and crackers. It ended up being the PERFECT date, in both of our eyes. I got to sit and chat with my hubby as he kicked my butt in several games of Skip Bo, while he got to attend the date without wearing pants (Ronnie defines pants as "confining" and an "optional item" when in the comfort of his own home). WIN - WIN for all parties involved!

Here are a few pictures from the night...have no fear, I have cleverly taken the photos to be appropriate for your viewing :)

Video of Special Date Night Song

As promised, here's the video from the concert a few nights ago. If you need a refresher on the back story, please click here. Thanks again to Ernie Halter, you made the night quite special.

"Count The Days" for Ronnie and Mandi

Count The Days

Just got back home from a great date night with the wifey. We agreed that since we're such big home bodies we would at least plan a date for each other every month. July was my month so I "planned" to take Mandi to a concert and then reverse happy hour. I say "planned" because it sort of just became my date night as we were already planning on going and because reverse happy hour was Mandi's suggestion. Dangit, I really need to step it up!

Anyway, we went to a show featuring Nameless Prophets, Ernie Halter and Tony Lucca. Our buddy Jay is the lead for the Nameless Prophets so it was definitely nice to go and support him. We were both very excited to see Ernie Halter as well. He actually sang "our engagement" song (which was the song that was stuck in our heads during our engagement and also the song we put our engagement photo slide show to). The highlight of the night was when Ernie dedicated that song to Mandi and I. Our buddy Jay tipped him off to the fact that we dug that song and that it meant a lot to us. He was nice enough to point us out and sing the song, "Count The Days", directly to us. I wanted to put the video up, but for some reason it won't download. I'll make sure to put it up here soon though. For now, you're stuck with just pictures from the event :)

Date Night: Hospital Edition

I have to be honest with you guys, I've been getting a little stir crazy these last few days. As I've said in past blog posts, I actually like hospital stays. Ronnie and I tend to have a lot of fun while he's in. It's a good opportunity to spend time together, with no distractions (minus nurses in and out, doctors rounding, the IV machine beeping, the RTs coming by 4 times/day and the PCTs coming for vitals what feels like every 15 minutes). This hospital stay hasn't been any different in terms of fun. We've done some wedding planning, done WII bowling, spent time with his family, gone for nice walks, listened to Johnjay and Rich podcasts, etc etc. However, this is the first time I've spent a few weeks straight in here. And I have to tell you, it's made me a little nutty. I don't so much think that what matters is being stuck in the hospital, it's being stuck in one place for too long. I just feel like the walls are closing in at times.

Saturday night, I decided that was it. We were getting out of the room. We were going to have a change of scenery. We were going to get some alone time. We were going to have a DATE. I had brought some date-making supplies with me from Phoenix, but hadn't had a chance to use them. Saturday night was the night. It also happened to be exactly one month to the day that we got engaged! While Ronnie was getting his 7PM pound, I ran to to the grocery store to get sparkling cider and to Pei Wei and picked up fried rice with chicken and no broccoli for him and blazing noodles with chicken for me. I then found a secluded table outside of the hospital with a mountain view (and a TON of romantic road noise). I put down a tablecloth, lit some candles and told Ronnie where to meet me.

Ronnie meeting me at the rendezvous point

Ronnie really excited about dinner (and his date)

Getting ready to open our bubbly (sparkling cider)

I thought it was a twist-off...but it wasn't. So we had to use finger nail clippers

Our first kiss...on a date night, while in the hospital, at that table, with Pei Wei, eating on a blue table cloth, in the month of December

We had an awesome few hours away from the hospital routine. I felt totally refreshed. It was one of the best date nights we've ever had. I really recommend other CF couples giving this a shot next time you're in the hospital together. It was exactly what we needed!