Happy Anniversary - the Living Social way

    

Remember this song from the Flintstones? Well, some of you young'uns may not, I'll be 40 this year, so of course I remember it! It's a catchy tune and is the perfect opening for me to outline how you can have an awesome anniversary weekend using the deal of the day site, Living Social. 

                                                                                                                                                                                               

Man, can't believe it's been a year already! MonkeyMan and I got married last year, April 28.

Knew I wouldn't make it through this post without posting a wedding pic.

Ok, on to what you came to find out about how to save some mula, change, cheddar, paper, ok, money on an anniversary weekend or simply a weekend getaway for you and the hubs (geez, what's with all these urban dictionary words I'm using). 

MonkeyMan found this deal a few months prior to our anniversary. We knew we wanted to stay kinda close to home, so that helped narrow things down a bit. That's important because, as parents, we have to manage our time carefully. Trips should be planned out, except for those last minute road trips. If you work outside the home, have you scheduled the time off from work? Once that's established, plan out the trip details with your spouse. Determine how far you want to travel. Will you be traveling on a day when the kids are in school? Who's gonna pick them up? When you guys return after a blissful weekend,   have you allowed enough time to prepare for the next day if you are heading back to work? 

Alright, so you've figured all of that out and ready to hit the road. For this trip, Helen is only 1 hour away. Remember all that planning I just told you about? Well, add in travel time during rush hour traffic. We hit the road at 5 pm, which is a huge NO NO in Atlanta. Neither of us had work on this particular Friday but were exhausted from the work week that we neglected small details that would have a huge impact. It nearly took us 3 hours to get to our destination, check in closed at 8 pm. Most places will have some type of system that allows you to check in after hours. Be sure to contact the hotel/resort if you are running late. 

This was our hangout for the weekend! This cabin is nestled deep into the woods, the driveway was so steep. Total seclusion, total peace, total serenity, total anniversary weekend. 

Before booking, does your spot have amenities that make the trip worthwhile? This spot had a hot tub, a  balcony that led from the bedroom, bbq grill and an awesome living room area with bar and fireplace. We had more space than we knew what to do with. And nature added it's own twist, it rained most of the time we were there, made it more romantic. 

Saturday the rain stopped long enough for us to venture out and see the sites. 

Helen is this quaint little town in the northern Georgia mountains. According to Wikipedia, the town adopted a Bavarian look, all of the buildings there are replicas of an Alpine village.

With every deal of the day site, there is fine print. Be sure to read it. Most of the getaway deals have black out dates (dates when the deal cannot be used). The fine print will also list any additional fees, like resort fees or taxes. Read this, if you aren't clear contact the vendor directly for clarification. Don't show up and be surprised when there's a balance due and you know you already paid through Living Social. 

It proved to be an awesome weekend. It's a great feeling when you make no plans, other than the trip, and get to lounge around with your best friend. 

Need a spot for your anniversary? Or just looking to get away, check out any of the deal of the day sites and get to booking!

Between the Mr. & Mrs.

Dove chocolates not only provide velvety pick-me-up words of wisdom, but can remind you of your honey love. Read this one today (you can see a bit of chocolate smudges on it) and it made me think about the date my husband and I had on Saturday.

Me and my Monkeyman had a Saturday to ourselves. We both work hard all week, his work is a bit more involved than mine and has longer hours. Weekends are truly about us reconnecting. Sometimes this does involve the kids. However, this past Saturday the boy and girl were spending the night with their dad.

Monkeyman works 2nd shift, so working different shifts requires that we become creative in keeping the flame burning. Ladies, I cannot stress how important it is to date your husband. I don't care how long ya'll (that's the Ga peach comin' out of me) been together. Regular dates keep things interesting. And when I say "date", I am not talking anything elaborate. A date could be in your living room, blanket spread out, snacks, movie from the Redbox. There. Simple. Yes, I know you're tired. I know lil Johnny is demanding to watch yet another episode of "Yo Gabba Gabba" or whatever they're into these days. Think about it. Lil Johnny will be gone one day. Guess who's left? Now, I'm not saying that you should neglect your kids but in the same breath I am saying you shouldn't neglect your husband.

Kids flourish when they see mom and dad enjoying each other. It helps shape their future relationships. Trust me, growing up, my parents never showed each other affection. That's something I struggled with for years, the desire to be affectionate towards others was always inside of me, I just could not carry out the action. Not sure if it was fear of rejection or what. Part of the reshaping process after my divorce involved me working with a psychologist to get to the root of some of the issues I had previously experienced. Took a lot of work but I knew that if I wanted to met the man for me, I would need to pluck up any weeds from my past, including my childhood. See, I was working on becoming Mrs. Right instead of just looking for Mr. Right. Again, work (an action word) was/is required. A lot of healing took place during that work, which opened my heart up to receiving my man, my main man. With that said, I still have to work on continuing to be Mrs. Right.


**Ok stepping down from soapbox.

Ahem, so Saturday in the ATL (well, we live on the outskirts of the ATL but anyway...) was beautiful! We took to the waters...well, the closet to water we could get on short notice. Sweetwater Creek. Look close enough and you  can see lil buds on the treess...ahhhh, I smell spring. And I could see it too, our car had a light dusting of pollen on it when we returned to it.

**Stepping back on soapbox. Just thought about something. Check out this site: /http://www.the-generous-wife.com/
I have it off to the side over there as one of the sites/blogs I love. Stumbled upon it while playing on my Google Nexus. Just some simple things that we, yes, I said we, forget. While I am at it, let me mention this cool class MonkeyMan and I participated in last year at our church. The class was based on the book "Love and Respect" by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs. If you're ready to get real, read this book. Talks about how men have been called to love their wives, while women are called to respect their husbands (Ephesians 5:33). The two words, love and respect, are interchangeable because they mean the same thing, depending upon who is carrying out the action, the husband or the wife.


Alright, alright, alriiiiight. Back to the Saturday date. We rented a canoe, it was like $10/hour. Had no idea what we we're doing but we did it together. That is part of strengthening our roots together.

Ok, so the wind was blowin' a bit! Nevertheless, I was still posing for the camera. Was so much fun. One minute, he would row, then I would row, then we would row together. Isn't that like a marriage? Some days, you might not be on your A game, then he picks up the slack. Other days, he may need you to pull some extra weight. Plenty of other days, you pick it all up together. Remember, your a Gladiator, pick up that shield!


After "our row row row your boat" hour, we sat, talked and laughed. Packed it up and went on to our next adventure for the day. Didn't take much to make our Saturday enjoyable. Sometimes, it's the simple things in life. Simple things like a Dove's chocolate that could bring up a memory, making love even more sweeter.