Saturday Classes: Week Four and Five

Okay, so I am playing a bit of catch up here and have fallen behind on blogging about how I keep busy while my husband is attending his Saturday classes.  So I have combined week four and five in one post.

Week Four:

I had every intention of waking up early getting out of bed and getting some things done around the house.  You know how that goes.  I was even up by 8:30 a.m., thanks to my mother who called. Mom:  "Oh I thought you would have been awake already." Me:  "No, I decided to sleep in today."  Mom:  "Oops!"  Am I in high school again, where my mom is always trying to get me up on the weekends?  In her defense, I am usually up and moving by this time.  I digress.

Like I said, I did have every intention of making it a productive Saturday.  However, after laying in bed playing a game on my phone, I felt sleep calling my name.  So back to sleep I went.  I actually did not end up waking up until around 1:30 p.m.  Wow, I have not done that in awhile!

After waking up and trying to rush around and get ready, which included shaving my legs.  Yes, I just mentioned this, keep reading. It was time to leave for my massage (do you see now why I had to shave my legs?)  So off I went to some electrolysis /permanent makeup place, that does massages as well.  I was a little skeptical but who can resist a deal for a 90 minute hot stone massage for $49.00, typically a $120.00 value there.  Certainly not me!  In fact I had never had a hot stone massage so I was eager to try it out.  People supposedly either love it or hate it.

I arrive for my appointment and the massage therapist was waiting downstairs for me.  It is in a small office building so apparently the doors are locked on the weekends.  Kind of odd but onward we went. I go in to this small little suite and there is another woman in there with her husband, filling out a bunch of forms.  I finish with my forms and she said "You must be able to see better then me."  I respond with, "I think my forms were shorter than yours, I am here to get a massage."  Turns out she was there to have permanent makeup tattooed on her face.  Who does that?  It kind of, no it really CREEPS me out.

Okay, forms are filled out and it is time for my massage. Turns out it is a dude that is going to be doing my massage, now there is nothing wrong with men massage therapists but as a woman I am much more comfortable with a woman doing my massage.  It is just how I feel but I sucked it up and put my big girl panties on, who really cares about the gender of the masseuse as long as it is relaxing and enjoyable.

Ohhhh sweet relaxation....or not.  The massage starts and the therapist starts talking some, I don't mind a little talk but he starts talking A LOT.  He starts talking about how he does not really like giving hot stone massages, how he is a therapist and has his own business as well.  Then he starts talking about dating and how he always has to ask how they feel about him giving massages to women, are they jealous type?  Okay, this is a little weird.  He goes on to talk about how he wants to make sure that they know that it is an intimate thing, don't think this is the word he was looking for, he then changes it and how they have to be comfortable with what he does.  Makes sense but, dude I am laying here half naked on your table, could you not use the word intimate, it weirds me out a bit.  Apparently he brings this up during speed dating.  Now, he did not talk the whole time and I did get to enjoy some silence.  He actually did a pretty good job and was able to get a lot of the kinks out of my upper back, they were bad!

As far as a hot stone massage goes, it felt fine but it is not something that I would pay more for.  In the future I will just stick to my standard massages.  Also, I will probably not go back there again, he did a good job but they are farther away from where I live and their prices are higher, plus I like my regular massage therapist better.  I did tell my mom that when she schedules hers she should use him, she had been there before with another deal and had some one she did not enjoy.  I had purchased this one for her so she needs to use it and I think she will enjoy his massage more, just not the talking portion.

Once the massage was done I met up with a friend, her husband and two little girls for dinner at O'Charley's.  We had a great time, the little ones always make me laugh.  Heck, so does she and her husband.

So, that concludes week four.

Week Five:

So we arrive at week five, which was this past Saturday.  We are over 1/2 way there!  I woke up at about 7:30 a.m. and started to call my husband.  I hear his phone ringing.  Oh crap, did he leave his phone at home?  Nope, apparently his tire had gone flat, so he decided to skip class for the day.  Remember he has a two hour drive, so by the time he would have gotten it taken care of and on the road, it just would not have been worth it.

Yay!  I get to spend the day with the Husband.  Hmmm....how can I fit him in to my Saturday plans?  I know...I will convince him to take me out to breakfast to get some pancakes.  Success!  He agrees to take me out to breakfast.

Next on my schedule for the day is a deep conditioning treatment and haircut.  Yep, you've got it, I bought another deal.  This one was off of LivingSocial.  $24.00 for a conditioning treatment and haircut.  Can't beat that price!

It has been so long since I have had my hair done.  The last time was before we moved.  Now if you know me, then you know that I have SUPER thick hair and that it grows out and not down.  My hair was badly in need of a cut, it was quite embarrassing.  So the Husband dropped me off at the hair place while he went off to explore.  Ahhh...so much better!  My hair felt lighter and looked great!  Props to the hairstylist and the salon   I have scheduled an appointment to return the end of December for another trim and for highlights. You have won my business for now.  See deal sites can help you attract customers!  Keep the deals coming people.

After that I looked at the Husband and informed him I was hungry and I knew just where I wanted to go. Destination: On The Border.  Boy, do I love their chips and salsa.

After lunch it was time for the Husband to get his hair cut.  He had sprouted wings and looked like he was about ready to fly away.  Yes, I believe that there was some squawking involved. Okay, maybe it was me doing the squawking.

The Husband goes to this place called Sports Clips.  They have TVs that they can watch, in front of each station while they are getting their hair done.  Sports of course but none the less a neat concept.  Then I learned something about the Husband, not only does he get his haircut while he is there but he also upgrades to get his hair washed, with the steam towel over his face and finishes off with a short neck massage.  No wonder his haircut bills have been more expensive!  His secret has been discovered.

So that was Saturday number five, only this one included the Husband.

Awesome Weekend

This weekend was awesome!  I really had a great weekend!  Lately I have been feeling stressed with work, things that I need to get done and just life in general.  I am not sure why I have been feeling this way but this weekend I enjoyed myself and tried to relax.

It was a busy and fulfilling weekend.  I will break it down for you.

Friday - My parents and I bought a DealChicken for $23.00 per person to go and see the Fever (Indiana's WNBA team) play at Conseco Field house in their third game of the playoffs against the Lynx.  The deal included tickets, a hot dog, Pepsi and a t-shirt.  Not a bad deal!  The Husband is not really a basketball fan and since he had an all day class the next day, which was a 2 1/2 hr. drive away, he decided not to join us.  So off my parents and I went on Friday night to attend the game.  And what an awesome game it was.  The Fever slaughtered the Lynx!  Our seats were fantastic!  I really enjoyed going to the game.  If you have never been to a Fever game or a WNBA game, I suggest you go.  These ladies are really good and I think I enjoy watching them more then I do the men!  Since I knew the game would end late I had already decided that I would stay at my parents house that night.  After the game we headed home to their house and then watched and episode of Law and Order: SVU.

Saturday:  Since the Husband had class on Saturday and my mom was off of work we had decided to have a mother/daughter day.  Originally we had thought about going to one of the covered bridge festivals but since the weather was crummy and we knew that it would be super busy on Saturday we decided to forgo that plan.  Instead we went to a small craft fair (it was not that great) and then headed to my place to work on some things.  Yes, I am still unpacking some boxes!  We got a couple of misc. boxes unpacked and some stuff put away.  We actually had a very productive day and I felt so much better about getting some things done.

Sunday:  Originally I was going to babysit for some friend's two little girls but they ended up not needing me to watch them.  So I ended up making spaghetti with my husband for lunch and watching a bit of tv with him. I was going to do some more housework but since he was working on some homework I actually ended up falling asleep and taking a nap.  It was nice to be able to relax and do that!  When I woke up he was still working on homework so I decided to leave him in peace and head over to my friend's house (where I was originally going to babysit) and hand out with her and Ladybug (her three year old daughter).  Ladybug is so adorable and entertaining.  We planted rocks, yes I typed rocks, drew on the driveway with chalk and blew bubbles.  After that I met the Husband at my parents house and we went with my parents to dinner at Apezza, we had purchased a Groupon. The food was excellent there, no complaints.  It is somewhere that we would go back to.  Then it was back to my parents house.  The Husband headed home and I stayed to watch the fourth fever game with my parents.  Hoping that they would win.  It was a close game, I think my blood pressure spiked but the ladies did not disappoint and it was a win!  They won the playoffs.  Then it was back home.

So I am glad that I am feeling very relaxed, even though it was a busy weekend!  Of course I am sure you noticed there were some deals in there.  You know how I love my deal sites!

Watch for a post soon about our Cincinnati trip from a couple of weekends ago.  I am falling a bit behind on my blog posts. :-)

Hope that everyone else had a wonderful weekend!

The Night The Lights Went Out...

So a couple of weeks ago the Husband decided that he wanted to get away for a night.  He didn't want to go far, he just wanted a night away.

So he planned a last minute get away for a Saturday night and decided that we would go to Merrillville, IN. Since we are still disgusted with Holiday Inn (see a previous post) we decided to use our points to stay at the Residence Inn, which had great reviews and was recently renovated at the beginning of this year. Of course his selection of the area and hotel had nothing to do with the fact that Portillo's is across the street.

So we took off on Saturday morning for our nice relaxing and romantic weekend.

We stopped in Lafayette on the way up.  First stop was Rural King, which we do not have near us anymore, since we have moved and this is the place that they sell the jeans at, that the Husband wears to work.  Lucky for us, it was buy two pairs, get one free.  We had to dig for his sizes to find the 2nd and then the 3rd pair but alas we were successful.  Our second stop was at Four Guns, a gun shop.  I had purchased a Deal Chicken for my husband to use there, on accessories, ect.  Honestly, I was kind of disappointed in the store, they did not have a lot of inventory.  So it is not somewhere you want to make a special trip to but he was able to use his coupon.  Third and final stop was at Game Stop, are you getting the picture yet that the Husband is spoiled?  Notice none of these stops were for me?  You would think that HE was an only child and not the other way around, where I am the only child.  I digress, so he had a couple of old games to trade in and you got more money towards a game for the weekend, plus he had received a coupon for his birthday.  I kept telling him that this was not an authorized purchase (smiling as I type this).  He said it was his birthday.  Dude your birthday was like three weeks ago! Anyways, he purchased a game and we were on our way.  Final destination, Merrillville, IN.

So we had arrived and upon check-in there were flowers waiting for me.  Isn't the Husband so sweet, maybe I should take back the spoiled comment.  Nah!  We went up to the room to relax for awhile.  Which by the way the room was super nice!  Upgrades/renovations they made were wonderful.

So around 4:30 p.m. we were getting ready to head over to Portillio's to grab some food to bring back to the room, then we thought that we might go for a swim and if it cooled off maybe miniature golfing.  THAT IS WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT.  A big storm and I mean big rolled through and we lost power, in fact much of Merrillville and Northern Indiana were without power.

Of course this happens to us.  We plan a night away and the power goes out!  It is always an adventure with us.  However, I was optimistic, maybe the power would be back on shortly, no reason to worry.  So we went downstairs to hang out, talk to some other guests and the hotel staff.  We finally decided to see if we could go and eat dinner somewhere, as we suspected that Portillo's had lost power as well.  We spoke with the manager and asked if we decided to leave would our points be refunded.  He said no problem, just let us know.

So off we went. We drove over to Portillio's and of course they were the only place without power right there.  Go figure!  One of the employees was outside though and told us that the Portillio's in Crestwood, IL had power and it was only about 45 min. away.  We thought why not?  Let's drive on over to Illinois.  $1.50 later we were over the border and had located Portillios, we enjoyed our dinner and then decided to head to Hammond, IN to Cabella's, again for the Husband, since he, nor I had been there before.  It was a neat store but I think Bass Pro is better.

Back at the hotel, the power was still off, it was around 10:00 p.m.  The manager called us over and told us that we could stay the night and he would refund our points.  I thought that was super nice of him since the storm was not his fault.  We will stay there again for sure!!!

The next morning the power had come back on.  We checked out and headed to Michigan City, to the outlets there.  I sure do love it there.  I like Edinburgh as well, in Columbus, IN.  I kind of like the Coach store better in Edinburgh but overall I like Michigan City better.  We will not discuss how much was spent there and do not fret ladies, of course I treated myself to a new Coach purse!  Now who is the spoiled one? Let's just say we were both happy with our purchases for the day.  The weather was also nice, so it was a great day to walk around.

It was time to leave.  Goodbye outlets, until next time.  We were headed back home and of course we had to stop in Merrillville on our way back home to eat at Portillo's again!  On our way back there, in Hobart, IN I made the mistake of pointing out a candy factory.  The Husband made a quick u-turn.  Was that legal?  And pulled in to the lot.  I had no idea that place was even there.  In case you are interested the name of it is Albanese and they have a HUGE candy store.  I made the mistake of walking away from the Husband when I was looking for some candy for my parents and he had a handful of chocolate candy, ect.  when I found him.  As we were checking out, I heard a mother telling her son only two items.  Next time I am going to tell this to the Husband.  <Sigh>

So it may not have been the romantic night we originally planned on but it was still romantic and it was an adventure, that is for sure!  It is one of those stories we will be telling in our old age, about the night the lights went out...So we are planning a new adventure somewhere else, to use our hotel points at.  Keep watching for that adventure and hopefully the lights will not go out!