As many of you may know, my birthday is February 7. If you do the math properly you will realize that my birthday just so happens to fall EXACTLY one week ahead of Valentine's Day. Lucky for me, my sweet sweet husband realized this and has deemed that week, you guessed it, the "Week of Love."
This entails one sweet letter outlining the day's activities, every day of the week. YAY!!! Best birthday EVER. Best Valentine's Day EVER. Best in-betweener week EVER.
Day 1, Feb 7
One of our favorite things to do, like many people, is just sit back and watch a movie. However, the trick is to find a movie we're both excited about. Iron Man happens to be just that movie. We both enjoy it quite a lot. Thus, Ammon got me Iron Man and when we were both home from school and work we enjoyed a nice action-packed night of Iron Man.
Day 2, Feb 8
Russian Day!! In an effort to bring me a greater understanding of the two years Ammon spent in Russia, we devoted Tuesday night to all things Russian. Once Ammon came home, he made me a delicious Russian treat called "bleeni." Sorta crepe like, but oober delicious. And apparently Russians put sour cream on everything so you eat bleeni like this: place bleeni on plate, spread sour cream on said bleeni, sprinkle sugar on sour cream, roll up bleeni, eat bleeni. Sounds disgusting. Tastes delicious.
We then watched a Russian tale on "The Storyteller" - a show produced by Jim Henson (the Muppet guy).
Lastly we started reading Ammon's mission journal together - super wonderful, super sweet.
Day 3, Feb 9
Drive-in movie. Homemade style. In Laramie. In winter. Sounds potentially silly - is actually completely wonderful.
Upon my arrival home from class (mind you this is a class that gets out at 8 p.m.) I was given a letter, allowed to read it, and we promptly turned around and went back outside.
We drove the truck (the dating vehicle) to a nearby park, took out the laptop, and piled under some blankets in an effort to get warm. What movie did we watch you ask?? Well, none other than movie gift #2: Iron Man 2!!! YAY!!!
But wait, there's more. Ammon had prepared hot chocolate and brought mugs. Given the very frigid temperature, the hot chocolate was drinking temperature within seconds.
Oh, but wait. There is STILL more. I recently had mentioned how good S'mores sound. So what does Ammon pull out of his bag of tricks? A candle, matches, graham crackers, chocolate, and mallows. Mmmmmm.
Like I said - it was cold. We made it through the first twenty minutes, couldn't feel our toes, and watched the rest of the movie at home. In the warmth.
Day 4, Feb 10
It was a long day. Ammon had plans, but I shall never know what they were. That evening we watched the last movie in the Bourne trilogy and fell asleep. Way nice, but a little deviated from the plan.
Day 5, Feb 11
UW Idol - the finals. Oh yes, there is great talent to be seen in Wyoming - you'd be surprised. Of course there is also plenty of non-talent. But by the time you get to finals, everyone is fairly good.
It's a free show and a lot of fun. AND the girl we wanted to win - DID! How often does that happen??
And it inspired a little singing of our own on the way home...
Day 6, Feb 12
ITALIAN NIGHT!! Oh yes. Now, I have never been to Italy. In fact, I don't know a whole heck of a lot about Italy. But I can't help myself - it's the place of my fairytales. I've always wanted to go and hope that someday we will. That was even our wedding theme. Anywho...Ammon being the good husband that he is, knows this about me and made Saturday night, Italian night.
"A little birdie" told Ammon that Italians play a lawn game that is somewhat similar to bowling. (Bocce ball...I think that's how it's spelled...) So we went bowling! (What makes this even better is that bowling a 200 is on my life's to-do list - given my final score of 58, it's a good thing I'm not shooting for a perfect 300, huh?)
Ammon is a MUCH better bowler than I am...
We then went to a FANTASTIC Italian restaraunt in downtown Laramie called Luciano's. The eye doctor that Ammon works for owns the place and was able to give lots of good suggestions so our dinner was exceptional.
Lastly, we went to Hastings - a store where you can buy, sell, and rent all kinds of media. Ammon told me the objective was to find a movie that had something, anything to do with Italy/Italian. I failed. However, he pulled through and we came home with The Italian Job. Awesome.
Day 7, Feb 13
Was Sunday. So we spent a nice relaxing day together and played some games that night.
Day 8, Feb 14
This is the biggie. What did I find lovingly placed in the middle of Ammon's chemistry book?
A VACATION!! To DISNEYLAND (and other awesome, but not Disney-awesome places).
Well kind of.
It was a description of this great deal where we get tickets to Disneyland, Universal Studios, San Diego Zoo, and Sea World for an AMAZING price. So we're going to do a bit of saving and by the end of the year go to the happiest place on earth. YAY!!!!
And that concludes the week of love. What did I do for Ammon you may ask? I gave him a heart attack. In his truck. 14 coupons for various things. And I made him breakfast - pink, heart-shaped pancakes with peaches. I know, totally lame after a week of activities and a trip to Disneyland. But he caught me off guard with these things! And I'm new at this! And 14 coupons is kind of like TWO "weeks of love", right?? hmmm....
To make this week even better though, I have the most amazing family in the world.
Mom and Dad came up the weekend before my birthday and spent a couple days with us - spoiling us.
AND my fabulous Baysinger family sent me a sweet (literally) package in the mail. Best candy ever. Best card ever. Best CD ever.
So basically the moral of this story is - I win. :)
