Spending time together (aka against all odds)

Yesterday Ann and I planned on heading to a movie and dinner with close friends. We were lucky enough to have Ann's mom in town so we could go out without the baby...making the movie possible. We picked a movie (Pursuit of Happiness, which, btw, was pretty good and Ann and I give it a thumbs up), bought tickets on Fandango and had everything all lined up for a nice, easy, relaxing evening out together with Kirk and Christine.

When we were getting ready, we realized that Sammy had a birthday party at the same time. We rushed to get him ready while we were also getting ready (and getting Ann's mom ready to handle the two little ones while we were out). It all of a sudden went from a relaxing evening together to a very stressful and hectic one. To make matters worse, Sammy needed a ride home from the party which conflicted with the movie. Neither Ann nor I wanted to ask anybody and that caused a lot more stress between the two of us (meaning I became a little passive-aggressive, the Stout family specialty).

We rushed and made it to the party with Sammy at 4:10 (10 min late). Luckily, I was able to cajole the parent of the birthday boy into taking Sammy home (I hated doing it, I hate imposing, and believe me, when you are the parent having a party, the last thing you want to do is shuttle the kids around after the party). We made it to the movie just as the previews were ending and enjoyed the movie and the rest of the evening. While we were a little off with our friends, we ended up really enjoying each other and the company of Kirk and Christine and appreciate their understanding.

Lessons learned: sometimes you can plan out everything just right and then things, not within your control mess it all up. Relax. Next time I'll just be a little less uptight about the whole thing and realize that "it is what it is" (one of my favorite sayings lately). Both Ann and I almost ruined the evening by getting uptight about the whole mess. Finally, it's important to make time for these things, time together as a couple and time with close friends, even in the face of hectic schedules.