Date night

2005, To my budding "chef" may this book inspire you to bring the flavors of Mexico into our kitchen. I love you! Rach
He has made many delicious dishes out of this book since he received it. It is one of his favorites, and it never seems to disappoint.
The food was fabulous! All the recipes were from Rick Bayless' cookbook, Mexico one plate at a time.

Menu

Pure and simple shaken margarita the classic. Very good, but VERY strong!! I nurse mine over the course of the evening. I personally like Grand Marnier in mine. I had Brian mix sugar and salt together and put it on the rim of my glass. Yum!
Red chile enchiladas, street-style
Flan

The meal was simple, but delicious.

One of you was kind enough to say that we sound more like a newly dating couple rather than a couple that has been married for quite some time, and asked me to share our "secret".

A number of years ago I attended seminary and was studying Marriage and Family Ministry. I still remember one of my professors saying that one of the best gifts you can give your children is a strong marriage. A few months ago we were all hanging out as a family and Ian said to us "you two are in love"! This of course made my heart soar. I thought well, at least we are doing something right. I also thought, I really need to document our family life for our children. I really want them to know and remember how much we love each other. That being said, I do not think that our marriage is perfect, amazing, or the standard that one should compare their marriage to. God has made us all unique individuals, and thus our marriages are all unique. What works for one couple may not for another. We're just your average guy and girl that meet and fell in love at 18, and our striving for excellence in our marriage. In our society today being married for any considerable length of time is awe inspiring, and it is something to be proud of. For us though, it is not enough. We want our marriage to be excellent, we want to put our best forward and to be madly in love with each other. I think of my "pseudo" grandparents. Grandma and Grandpa Radeck. They probably have been married close to 70 years. Grandpa is 92 and Grandma is in her late eighties. I remember a couple of Thanksgivings ago, they were sitting on the sofa. I'm not talking just sitting next to each other, but they were sitting right next to each other, and her hand was in his. How wonderful is that! This is what we want. If God grants us that many years together...I want my hand to be in his at 92.
I will try to share in my date night posts "our secrets". For this first one, I asked mr.amazing, what's our secret? Well, this is a family friendly blog, so I'm not going to even go there, but I bet you can figure it out ( what is ALWAYS on their minds). Yep, you guessed it. Unbelievable, he makes me laugh! It did get me thinking about touch though and how important it is to us as humans. From the time that we are born, we crave to be held and loved. We love to sit on Mom or Dad's lap and cuddle, ride on Dad's shoulders, and have our hair brushed. This desire to be "touched" doesn't go away as we get older. Our longing to feel loved, safe, and secure is still there, just like when we were children. Even though I like to think that we are intentional in our marriage, I don't think we intentionally think about touch. Well, I take that back. I'm sure we were intentional in the beginning, but now it is just natural and has become a habit. Here are a few of our "secrets". Whenever he leaves in the morning, we stop whatever we are doing and he gives me a sweet kiss and we say I love you and wish each other a good day. When he arrives, I get another sweet kiss, and a I love you, and maybe even a hug. Actually we do this whenever we part if someone is off to Target or to put gas in the car, we still cling to this ritual. I tend to always be cold so he always offers me his arm when we are at church or if we are just watching a movie at home. I love holding his hand, swinging it back and forth as we walk. It makes me feel young. So what can I say...pinch him, squeeze him, hug him, love him. How about that for a "secret"?

xoxoxo
Rach