Life with 3 little ones is utterly exhausting, in a good way, but my goodness. From 8pm-5am it’s finally about us…okay I guess from 8pm-11pm, because us old fuddy duddies can’t keep our eyes open past then.

One of the main reasons we moved back to Ketchikan wasn’t because of it’s awesome weather, ha, 13 ft of rain a year, please, I think we broke that record last year! It was because of family, more importantly my mom.

When you enter the world of parenthood you have to make the choice to then accept that your life is no longer yours and that “sacrifice” will be the word that pops in your mind when you even dare to think of yourself. If you don’t accept it and try to fight it, you start to act like the child you are attempting to raise.

With that said, throw in cystic fibrosis, and you multiply that by 100, no joke. While most young parents our age schedule big Friday family nights with extended family or game nights with other families with small children, we on the other hand have the same Friday night date, just the 5 of us. No sitting at the table with friends or family and laughing or joking while the kids entertain themselves. No spur of the moment social life.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE, LOVE, L.O.V.E. my family, but if I had to be honest it gets lonely and sometimes reconnecting with Richard is such a challenge. Especially when our talking tends to be centered around the kids and one way or another CF.

So when my mom texted us last Friday to ask for the kids, I said YES!!! I found myself almost giddy, thinking about dinner with JUST Richard, hot food, that didn’t have to be cut up in tiny pieces, flown on a spoon, or better yet thrown on your new shirt! I started to plan my hair, what clothes I would wear, you know, the good clothes you only wear when said children wont be around you and began to salivate over food that wouldn’t be prepared by my worn out brain and hands.

We decided to break away from our usual date location, sorry good old Oceanview, and we made our way to the very place we sat 12.5 yrs ago on our 1st date. Good Fortune!

Hello table #13, hello my best friend, the man who made me run home that night to my mom all flustered and in awe that my heart could have those feelings after one night.

Yes the person sitting across from me no longer wears a 29 inch waist pant, thanks to my skills in the kitchen! Or better yet has more grey hair then my dad, keep it up babe! You will forever make me look young! But I like it! I like seeing how much we have grown up together.

3 hours later, few stolen kisses, okay maybe more then a few, bellies & hearts full we found ourselves driving back to our babies, back to the craziness awaiting us, back to the life God knows we can handle and will make sure we can escape and remember how it all started and see we are truly blessed.