In Response to the Last Post . . .

My husband decided that I needed a break . . . from stress, from puke, from dogs, from teaching school and checking school, and cleaning the house, and all the things. We don't take breaks very often. But he was willing to give up his Ebay spending budget until the fall to cover an overnight away. He did the planning but let me pick the hotel (because I am very picky about hotels). Here's how our day went . . .

Buck was super excited to get moving and pulled all the suitcases we needed out of the garage, which of course stressed out the dogs--which made me excited to get moving :) We packed more outfit changes than seemed reasonable for a quick getaway, but we ended up each only arriving home with one extra pair of underwear--you can never be too prepared, always take extra, lol!

Our first stop was the foot and hand spa. My last manicure was right before Caelan was born, and my last pedicure was with Buck in CA before we got married . . . it has been a minute! The chairs had a back massager built in; the brushes and other things they used to pedicure our feet were VERY tickly. I clearly have much more sensitive feet than I did 20 years ago. I feel grateful I didn't accidently kick the pedicure person in the face :) They also did a sugar scrub and rubbed hot stones on our legs. Personally, I could have gone for less leg work and more foot massage. I decided Buck's skills far surpass the trained professional's . . . and they are free! 

The lady doing his pedicure thought it was hilarious that there was pink nail polish on Buck's side of the shared table. She joked about him putting that on his toes or his nails. I just grabbed the first color that looked reasonable and happened to set it down on his side. The person painting my nails asked if I was sure that was the color I wanted, because it was basically clear. I seriously did not care at all, who sees anyone's feet in the winter? Mine are under layers of socks, slippers, and a blanket over all that. *Basically clear* pink is peachy keen for me.

While I wandered to the front in my stylish foam slippers to bask my toes under the rays of blue light, Buck went into manicure mode. He stopped biting his nails and they'd grown out really nicely. He wasn't sure how to clip them properly, so he ordered himself a manicure. We both think the professional cut them too short, but probably was going off of where his nail beds normally are. It will take a while for the skin to get used to longer nails. That was probably more info than anyone needed to know. 

After our mani-pedi, we grabbed some super healthy smoothies (because we were in *self-care* mode; that's a mode now!). Then, as if inside a fairy tale, with our smoothies in hand, we rounded the corner and entered into a real-life bookstore! Like, with books in it! It smelled so papery . . . ahhh. 

I haven't read a book, at all (other than a daily devotional and the Bible) since flag football season. I think my brain burned out on Thomas a Kempis, Martin Luther, and C.S. Lewis in his most-thinkiest of writings. After browsing for quite a long time, I picked out three potential winners (Buck took pictures of all the ones I picked up and pondered but put back . . . just in case we need to make future purchases :) It was so much fun to walk out of a real bookstore, carrying a bag of real books! Kind of like when we were in Maine last summer, actually.

Another item on our day away, was going out to eat at a super fancy restaurant that we had a gift card from Christmas for--the place we planned to go when our Valentine's Day plans got skadooshed by big bosses. But, when Buck called this time for reservations, the only available table was at 8:45 PM! We eat late around here, but not THAT late :) So, because we've been watching The Amazing Race, and they've been in Greece eating delicious-looking Greek food for the past couple of episodes, Buck found a Greek restaurant where we could get an afternoon snack. It was sooooo yummy!

Next, it was time to take our luggage and ourselves to the hotel. I picked one with wooden floors, because hotel carpet is ew. We were not really sure where it was located but followed the Google to get to the college area of town. When we ascended the elevator to the "tower room" I'd booked--we were astonished at the view! Well, more so the access to the view . . . the entire wall was made of windows! It was like what we hope the European Viking Riverboat Cruise (that we someday hope to take :) will be like. We could see the baseball stadium, the events center, and the top of the pedestrian bridge. It was pretty neat!

Buck insisted that I sit on the little reading couch in our hotel room and read. He ordered me up a second blanket. He turned on the TV. And I had to remember *how* to read. Meaning, not skim for critical information or content, but to actually let my brain rest on the words and engage with the story. I can't remember the last time I read for fun--but it came back pretty quickly! 

I ended up finishing two books in two days . . . that hasn't happened in forever! My MIL will want to know what they were, so the first is called The Bookwanderers (a story of 11-year-old British children who discover they can get into their favorite storybooks and become friends with the characters--but only in their own copy of the book; should they ever pick up a different edition, the characters would never know they'd met. Their friends in this book were Anne of Green Gables and Alice from Wonderland, Sherlock Holmes also made an appearance :) The other is a book called Shady Hollow, which is not for kids, but the entire cast is woodland creatures who behave like humans and are trying to solve a murder mystery in their sleepy little neck of the woods. The third one, which I haven't started yet, is based on true events, but fictional, called The Paris Library . . . I think it is about French librarians saving books during WWII when they were afraid of German invasion and the destruction of irreplaceable culture and history? We'll see!

After reading for about three hours (what?!), Buck and I started getting fancy for our dinner date. We arrived a bit early, but soon found the way to our table. The staff was all dressed in black slacks and shirts, wearing vests and ties. We ordered $55 steaks and then all the individually priced salads and sides that these types of establishments don't include in the price (that was a surprise the very first time we dined at an upscale steak house years and years ago; generally there is some free bread ;) Our salads were delicious; mine had hot bacon dressing, which could have gone either way, but ended up not being spicy, but actually hot in a steaming little metal pitcher. Spinach salad is usually too cold for my teeth, so that heated it right up :)

We were plumb stuffed before we wanted to be, but Brennen appreciated the $100 worth of leftovers the next day :)

After returning to the hotel room, where I could not wait to get back to my book, we attempted an evening lights selfie by our big windows, but alas, we still are not great at selfie taking, lol! We did have the foresight to order a cheesecake dessert "to go," because eventually our stomachs would make room. It was fun eating dessert late at night in a new place with a pretty view. Buck did a great job of helping me unplug from all the stress and enjoy some responsibility free time. He's pretty fun to spend time with :)

The next morning, we grabbed chai, coffee, and breakfast at Starbucks on our way to church. My mom and nephew joined us in our row; we got to check in with our Crew and heard about their fun night visiting their grandma and cousin. Church was good, the kids got a group of friends together and went for a walk (because it was an unseasonably nice day), Buck went to a new Bible study, and I read my new books. Super relaxing, we should do this more often!