The joke was on me...

Hahahahaha....sob. Because I never had 3 hours or any kind of time to myself this weekend! I won't go into the boring details, but I spent most of Saturday taking the kids to the park (they needed it, being cooped up for days), trying to get L to nap and then helping my MIL choose puzzles to buy for the kids online (which she ended up buying off our credit cards on amazon...money I did NOT plan to spend, and instead of just giving me the cash like a normal person she now says she's going to buy them something else...something they don't need and that will clutter up the house) and trying to score some free wood for G's project (some was posted on our buynothing group and I set up a meeting & went to check it out...it was rotting). Sunday after the gym I spent 30 minutes hunting for my kindle, 30 minutes trying to find a key to open the kids' bedroom door that they somehow locked themselves OUT of (at least they weren't inside, but they were still weirdly upset and crying about it) and more time than I want to think about getting L to nap and then 1.5 hours of him napping ON me (may have honestly been the best part of the day, I tried to sleep, then read blogs on my phone). The rest of Sunday we had a visitor (G's cousin's husband came over, and he was super awesome and played legos with the boys for HOURS on end) and I helped my MIL cook and did my own kitchen chores. I didn't even get to leave for 30 minutes to go get my eyebrows done, which is good because I saved the $ but bad because whoa they look awful.

We did have our date night Saturday and it was really really fun but not the least bit frugal. I did take in all your ideas and have started looking into options for future frugal dates, but couldn't find anything for this one. I remembered that I had actually purchased a livingsocial deal to a hipster bowling alley so we decided to go there (sunk cost!) and get dinner nearby. Its in a part of the city we never go to, which looks & feels really different from the rest of the city...we felt like we were in a different town altogether! We just went to an area where I saw a bunch of restaurants and wandered around, deciding where to go, which is quite fun! We eventually settled on a byo sushi place, and found the wine store to buy some sake. The food was not the best, but there was a nice breeze and we sat outside, so dinner was quite pleasant. We went to the bowling alley and bowled two games. It was really fun, even though I am a terrible bowler. (just...really really awful, though I was improving somewhat by the end)---they had a DJ playing great music (part of my problem is that I kept dancing instead of perfecting my "form") and a fun atmosphere. We had beer. We then walked a mile before we got a car home and I crashed immediately (we were out for 5 hours, the advantage to FREE babysitting!). I'm done overusing the word "fun" now.

What I didn't get into on my post Friday (which apparently really hit a nerve! Such a great discussion, and I will return to it, you guys had some fantastic thoughts) was that part of the reason I really wanted to get out of the house was that having my MIL around is stressful for me. It just goes better if we have limited contact. Having the whole weekend with no plans and just me and her and the kids rattling around the house made me super anxious. It ended up OK, except on Sunday when G got into a stupid fight with her over nothing (he snapped at her, she flipped, there was lots of yelling & crying and then even after he apologized and they made up, she wanted to rehash it with me!) Its that kind of sh&t I wanted to avoid, and also just my general annoyance at her...ways (I just don't get her, or any decisions she makes). I was drained by Sunday night and went straight upstairs after the kids went to bed with my glass of wine and my ipad to watch Gilmore Girls until way too late at night.

So that was my weekend. I hope yours was better!