My Friday...and it's a long one

Jonah woke up at 5:20 but thankfully went back to his bed (instead of climbing in ours...)

After I took him back upstairs, I sat in the living room for a minute or two while he went back to sleep. While I was waiting, I grabbed the laptop. (I know it's weird. It's what I do.)

I checked a few emails and looked to see if any of my night-owl friends had posted anything while I was sleeping. When I opened my browser my eyes immediately saw "Top 100 Guitar Songs Of All Time." Did I click it? What do you think?

I flew over to Rolling Stone's website and started reading through the list. My first thought was something mean and angry regarding their pick for number one. My second thought was "I must blog this."

So I opened up blogger and spend a few minutes pasting in Rolling Stone's top 30 picks. (Post forthcoming.)

After awhile I looked up and realized it was nearing 6am, so I went back to bed. Finley woke up about an hour later, but Kristen was kind enough to let me sleep. I woke up about 8 and took over. Krist laid back down for a bit. I got breakfast for the kids, cuddled with them on the couch, picked up the kitchen a bit...nothing major.

Once Kristen gets back up, Jonah and I head upstairs for a Transformer battle. He's been really into his Bionicle toys lately, but I think watching Optimus and his boys last night reminded the kid that he has dozens of Transformers in his room. We go upstairs and battle for awhile. Originally, Mudflap tried to ambush Hot Rod. Hot Rod couldn't stay in the fight and called in Optimus. Before Optimus got there, another Autobot named Landmine showed up and try to settle things down, but Mudflap knocked him down and stomped him until he was dead. But have no fear - Optimus showed up, went into "Super Mode" and destroyed the bad guy in just a few seconds.

Jonah and I came downstairs and he found some other brand of toys he wanted to play with. I headed back to the treadmill and ran a few miles. I'm really enjoying the running these days. And the treadmill really helps me maintain my pace. I plan on marking off some running paths around the house here over the next few months to mix it up a little.

After the treadmill, I grabbed a shower and started getting ready for our date!

Friday was our Tenth Anniversary. For ten years, Kristen Carnley has filled my life with laughter and joy and purpose. She taught me how to be a better follower of Jesus, she's given me two amazing kids (who seemed to get all their good traits from her,) and she makes our home my favorite place to be.

Because we try to keep a pretty consistent routine for the kids at night, we try to do our dates earlier in the day. Kristen's mom got out of school at 1 and came home to take care of the kids.

We packed their bathing suits and headed over to mom-in-law's ("Sugar's") house. She had the kiddie pool pulled out for them and they could not wait to jump in! We got them settled and then headed to eat. The original plan had been to see a matinee and then grab an early dinner before picking up the kids. However, we were so hungry that we skipped the movie. Plus, there was nothing that we wanted to see. (Where are those summer blockbusters when you need them?) So, we chose "late lunch" over "early dinner."

As many of you know, restaurant options are not that great. I figured we'd do Olive Garden or maybe even head to Nacogdoches to eat. Imagine my surprise when Kristen tells me she wants salmon from Logan's! So we go to Logan's. (That was fine with me. Any place that keeps bringing warm yeast rolls to your table is a five-star in my book.)

Thanks to the generosity of my parents, I had a crisp, clean $100 bill in my wallet and we wanted to spend it! We decided that we'd live a little and instead of rushing out and buying each other a gift, we'd go out and buy our own. That might sound weird, but we thought it was really fun.

So, after lunch, we run by Target to pick up some stuff and I then I head over to Game Stop. Yes. I bought a video game with my money. I'm a nerd. But it was really cheap and it left me lots of cash leftover.

We hop back in the car and Kristen is driving.

"What do you want to do now?" I ask.

What happened next managed to fill up about four hours. However, to avoid "stealing thunder," I will simply direct you HERE to find out what happened. (Don't worry...I'll eventually fill you all in my experience when I'm able.)

After that, which you can read on Kristen's blog, we finally headed back to pick up the kids from "Sugar's." When we got there, they were tan, tired and ready to see Mom and Dad after a full afternoon of playing outside in the pool.

We gathered them up, packed up their gear and headed home. Finley fell asleep in the car (actually right at her normal bedtime!) Jonah lounged on the couch for about half-an-hour and then went to bed.

It was a great day. (And my new game is awesome.)