Valentines Day

Our first Valentine's Day in Vienna was one of the best ever!!! Although, at the start of the day I had my doubts. Silly girl, don't you know your hubby always comes through!?! So, here's the breakdown for the day. The morning started off as usual, waking up and getting Abby ready for kindergarten, eating breakfast, taking a shower, nothing grand. Due to a crazy German class schedule this month, I have been taking Abby to school. That is exactly what I was planning on doing this particular morning as well. So, as we are about to walk out the front door, Jake comes out of our bedroom saying he is going to drive us to the bus stop and drop us off. What? This throws a wrench in my day. I had planned to take Abby to school and then drive to a store I have been wanting to visit and do some research on entry way furnishings. Well, now that was blown. We hadn't previously discussed the day's events, but I definitely made my plans. FYI, in case you didn't know, I don't like it very much when my plans get all messed up. I got over it and said it was fine if he dropped us off, thinking, "Well, I guess Ill just have to go down to Karlsplatz and have a Starbucks instead." So, Jake dropped us off at the bus stop and said to call him when I dropped Abby off. Arrrggghhhh, here he goes again, messing my plans up!!!! Then suddenly, it occurs to me he may be up to something. So, naturally, I cheerfully say, "Ok." Kisses and Abby and I head to the bus stop. I think I see the bus coming and we have to make a run for it. If you haven't done it before, picking up a 33 pound 4 year old and making a run for the bus isn't fun. Turns out, it wasn't even our bus.
We'll skip the uneventful bus ride and jump ahead to calling Jake. I make the call and he he asks me to meet him at the u-bahn stop close by one of the shopping centers. He says it will be a little bit so I can just hang out at the mall. Darn, just walk around the mall, well, if I have to. Turns out I'm glad I did. I found Abby a super cute hat, scarf and gloves in the clearance bin for less than 10 euros. You can see it in the pic below. Back to the big day. We finally meet at the u-bahn and jump on. We head downtown to have breakfast at a favorite cafe. They make a mean omelet and have a picture perfect table in the front window. We make the hike down there, only to find out they are "machen urlaub" aka on vacation. Who takes vacation in February. Apparently, restaurant owners in Vienna. Plan B. This is Vienna and there is always another cafe around the corner. We head around the corner and low and behold another cafe. We sit down and enjoy of very nice fruestuck (breakfast). Then Jake leads me down to fav little shop to pick out a Valentine's present. You can see that in the pic below, too. We have just a little time before we have to pick up Abby, so Jake takes me into Starbucks. We grab a cup of coffee and set off to pick up the pipsqueak.
So, I'm thinking, "What a great day. Good breakfast, shopping and coffee to boot." We get Abby and start to head home, or so I think. Nope, my awesome man has other plans. He made arrangements with Brian and Alisha to keep her for the afternoon. Abby is jazzed about the prospect because she gets to play with Sharkdog. After we drop Abby off, we do indeed head home. Jake had rented 2 movies for our "Valentine's Theater Matinee" He also had a very pretty rose plant for me. Once again, see pic below. So, we watched movies ate popcorn and just relaxed on the couch. Around dinner time, Jake told me to get my shoes on we were going to go get something to eat. He took me to one of our fav places that is close by our house. They serve great traditional Austrian food. We stuffed ourselves and enjoyed another cup of coffee and then went back home to watch the second movie. Around 8 he went to pick Abby up. It was a perfect day, despite the initial bad attitude and early dining setbacks. Thanks, Hon, you're the best!!!!

A Night Out

Jake and I had an actual date last night. A full date, can you believe it? Bart and Tamika had offered to keep Abby overnight for us awhile back and so we finally took them up on it. We dropped her off right after Jake got out of school and then we hit the town. We went down to Mariahilfestrasse to grab a bite to eat. We just wanted something quick and small so we had McDonalds. I know, I know a night out and we got to McD's, well it was still early and we had other great plans. After our super, yummy snack we went to Starbucks. Again, I know we live in the birthplace of the modern coffeehouse and we go to the lame, American imitation. Well, Starbucks is totally smoke free and just happens to make a great Carmel Macciato. So, there. When you visit us, we'll be happy to take you somewhere authentic, until then I'll have my coffee sans lung cancer as much as possible. Anyway, back the date. After we finished our coffee we had a little time before the movie started so we just walked around and talked and looked in a few shops. After our window shopping we went to see "National Treasure: Book of Secrets." Jake had been waiting to see this movie for a couple of months and I'd say it was pretty good. A bit unrealistic, but good. After the movie and a huge tub-o-popcorn we headed to one of our favorite restraunts. It's near Stephandom and we love it. Its called Ribs. Yep, that's it, Ribs. Now, mind you we live in Austria and not in Memphis, but these are really good ribs. We pigged out throughly and then decided it was late, like 7:30 and headed home. A note about the time, is it just me or does having kids totally change your life? We really feel like we are livin' large if we are out past 6:00 pm. I remember when.....(sigh).
So, this morning we slept in till 8:30. Once again, kids sure change things. We went and had a Wiener fruestuck (breakfast) and then went to pick up Abby. Well, actually Jake picked her up and I went to meet Alisha to go to a fabric shop. All in all, a great date. I can't wait to do it again, hopefully in the next 6 months :)