A Surprise Date for My Valentine

So I had decided I would surprise my husband for a Valentine's Date on Friday. I had it all strategically planned. I would drop my daughter off with Amber at 4 and be home in time to surprise Aaron when he came home at 5 (the time which he told me he would arrive home). It ended up to be a pretty romantic and lovely time, but things didn't go quite as planned.

First, I fell out of the shower while getting ready. I smacked my head on the toilet (just saying that really kind of grosses me out). The lid was closed, so no contact was made with bacteria-infected water. That slowed things down quite a bit. My head felt like it was going to explode. I had a golf-ball size knot protruding out of my head. Lucky (if one can use that word after being catapulted from a shower) for me, the knot was at the back of my head and covered by my hair. I some how managed to get myself together. Although, the smashing hair-do I was going to have was out of the question.

I wrote a romantic note that I had planned to hang on the door and punched out little red hearts to spread about the house. Everything was ready ...

The time was about 3:45 pm. I'm on my way to drop Audrie off when I get a call from Aaron, whom I am assuming is still in an appointment at this point.

Me: (Nervously) "Uh, hello."
Aaron: "Hey, what's up?"
Me: "Where are you?"
Aaron: Getting off of 55. Almost home.
Me: No, you're not!
Aaron: (Emphatically) Yes, I am!
Me: (panicked, with voice cracking and screeching) Well, you can't go home!!!

Aaron: (shocked) Why not?!

Me: (indignant) Because you just can't. You can't go home.

Aaron: Um ... OK. What am I supposed to do?

Me: I don't know. Go to Borders. I'll be home in 15 minutes or so

Then in a twist of events, I actually passed my husband going the other way. So much for my strategic plans, right?!

After I had dropped Audrie off, I called Aaron when I was 3 minutes from the house and told him he was allowed to come home now! Ha! You can imagine all the things that was going through his mind!

My note and one of the many hearts.

The original plan was to eat on the revitalized area of Washington Ave downtown. Here's a few shots from there.

But as we were walking down the street with snow swirling around us in the freezing cold, Aaron said, "Isn't Edmonds15 down here?" So he looked up the address on his handy-dandy phone. The restaurant in question was about 7 or so blocks away. We were already about 4 blocks away from the car. We were in a quandary. Go back and get the car and drive to the restaurant or walk there since we had already deposited $2 in the parking meter. Ultimately the freezing cold won out, and we went back to get the car.

But it was nice and cozy inside Edmonds15. We sat in the empty seat you see in the picture below.

We went all out!! Ribeye. Seasoned to perfection!! And the most yummy garlic whipped potatoes. Although my husband said that my garlic potatoes are just as good. (Mine are actually seasoned with onion salt. But it made me smile none-the-less.)


Aaron had a strip steak. After a few tastes of each other's steaks, we decided mine was the better of the two steaks.

We immensely enjoyed our evening at Edmonds15. It was very much different than all the other sports-themed restaurants we had been to in the St. Louis area. It was classy and modern, yet comfortable, affordable, and friendly.

We wrapped up the evening by treating ourselves to the taste of Starbucks.

It was our eighth Valentine's Day. Eight wonderful years with the best guy in the world, and I have no pictures of him!?!? That's right! I took one, but trust me it was not flattering. The lighting in the restaurant made it look like he had two black eyes (causing one to believe that maybe it was he who fell from the shower.) He would not approve of me posting such a photo. :0) But trust me, he looked REAL good!!