one month

I can't believe that one month ago today I was getting ready to marry T.J. It feels like time has absolutely flown by. For me this month has been a whirlwind of wedding presents, thank you notes, lots of Netflix, and settling in to our home and a new routine. For T.J. it's been a month of overnight shifts spent away from our home in Seattle. Since he has been in Seattle the whole time for work, our transition from long distance couple to married life has looked a little different seeing as my husband hasn't really been around. I get to see him each week on Monday (his only off day) but I can assure you that seeing him once a week is a million times better than seeing him maybe only once a month, which was our previous record. 

On Sundays I load up my car with clean laundry, and some real food with substance (this week it was homemade fancy mac and cheese, a chopped salad, and Krispy Kreme donuts) to sustain him for another week away and I drive into the city to meet him. I try to time my arrival with his wake up from his post night shift snooze. He still has to work Sunday night and when he gets home in the early Monday AM he pretty much goes right to sleep until 4PM or so.  But Monday nights are our jam, our date night, our only time in the week to be together. 

Yesterday we had a fun night out and I declared it a perfect one month anniversary celebration. First we headed to Golden Gardens Park which has an awesome dog park (someplace I hope to bring a future pet) and a big sandy beach. We noticed that most beaches out in the Washington area are pebble beaches so this was a good one to file away for summer time. There were picnic tables, fire pits and a long coastline for walking. We were surprised by how many people were actually there on a cool windy January evening. Had this been a Sourh Carolina shore we probably would have had it all to ourselves. But it seems people in the Pacific Northwest tend to view any day that's not rainy, no matter how dark and cloudy, as the perfect beach weather, gotta take what you can get. Guess we now fall in to that category. 

After our exercise for the week, we headed into downtown Ballard, a neighborhood of Seattle. And if I had to live in Seattle I think I'd want to live here. It has a homey small town feel and tons of cute shops and restaurants. 

We went to Kings Hardware for a drink first and I'd definitely go back there if only because they have a skee-ball machine! Then we headed to Bitterroot for bbq. We've gone a month without so much as a bbq potato chip so when we saw pulled pork on their menu we couldn't resist. We both got meat and two sides  (they don't know about meat 'n' threes out here) and then we shared everything. Pulled pork, half rack of ribs, cheesy grits, cole slaw, brussel sprouts and corn bread. That should satisfy our southern cravings for a bit. 

To top off the evening we had to get dessert at Hot Cakes. I had come here once with friends and was eager for T.J. to try it. They specialize in decadent molten chocolate hot cakes but also have a slew of other yummy treats. Last time I got delicious creme brûlée with pomegranate so this time we decided to go with their signature dessert, the Dark Decadence hot cake made with rich Theo chocolate, burnt caramel, with toffee nibs and vanilla ice cream. Oh, and we couldn't resist a vanilla bean milkshake as well. The cake is delivered to your table hot and perfect and your first spoonful reveals the ooey gooey insides. It's definitely rich and I was glad we shared. And while I could have used just a plain old glass of milk on the side, the vanilla milkshake was thick and refreshing just the same. They also have "boozy milkshakes" which I might just have to try next time. 

Feeling full and satisfied with our tour of Ballard we headed home and called it a night. It was a fun last weekend in Seattle for us. I am loving being T.J.'s wife. It's really just so much fun to be with him, in the same state and time zone, to get to go on dates with my husband. He returns to the base hospital on Friday and I can't wait for us to be under the same roof and in our own house together for more than just one night at a time.