Week 19 (movie) My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Last weekend our city had their annual Greek Festival. So our family went and ate gyros! We only caught a few minutes of the dancing. I am hoping that next year we can get there before the end of the dancing.

After the kids were in bed Jadae and I watched "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"! It is a little older movie but still fun. I love how much her family cares for each other and supports each other.
Toula, who was the main character is a 30 year old who is single and working in her father's restaurant. Her father's wish for her was to marry a Greek boy, have Greek babies, and feed everyone. Her father was constantly telling her that she is "looking old".

Toula falls for a non-Greek guy, much to her father's dismay. Her father eventually comes around and there is a big wedding, in which Toula does not have much control over because all of her numerous cousins and Aunts are trying to be helpful and ordering and picking things out for it.

52 Date Nights in 52 Weeks

Getting out of a rut- The post that explains why I started this journey

1.   Week One- (movie) The Bucket List

2.   Week Two- (game) Post Cards from North America
3.   Week Three- Art Night!
4.   Week four- Deal or No Deal

5.   Week 5- Game Night (Chrononauts)
6.   Week 6- Wii Game (Super Mario Maker)
7.   Week 7- (movie) Tourist
8.   Cruise!
9.   Week 9- (Game) Star Fluxx
10  .Week 10- (movie) Nim's Island
11.  Week 11 (game) Forbidden Desert
12. Week 12 (art night) Picasso Playdoh
13. Week 13- Puzzle and Pillow Talk Conversations
14,  Week 14 - (game) Scattergories Categories
15, Week 15- (movie) Private Ryan
16. Week 16- Wii Game Night
17. Week 17- a really fun game
18. Week 18- (art night) Fractured Faces

Week 17 Game

So somehow my post about a game that Jadae and I played while in Cincinnati got deleted! So here is a brief overview of what we played for week 17.

My brothers introduced us to this game. It is made my Steel Crates and is called, "Keep talking and nobody explodes". It costs $15 and only one person has to download it.

The expert downloads a manual from online that tells him how to deuse the device. The Defuser verbally tells the expert what the device looks like. I suggest that the expert gets familiar with the manual as the defuser only has 5 minutes to disarm it. Each device has several components, once one section of it is successfully defused there is a little light that will turn green.  You do have a few strikes, so if you accidentally cut the wrong wire it is okay! Some of the components are buttons being hit in a certain order, a certain wire being cut, hitting a button at the exact right time, etc. 

We played numerous times taking turns being the deuser and the expert. A few times we exploded but we had a lot of fun!

52 Date Nights in 52 Weeks

Getting out of a rut- The post that explains why I started this journey

1.   Week One- (movie) The Bucket List

2.   Week Two- (game) Post Cards from North America
3.   Week Three- Art Night!
4.   Week four- Deal or No Deal

5.   Week 5- Game Night (Chrononauts)
6.   Week 6- Wii Game (Super Mario Maker)
7.   Week 7- (movie) Tourist
8.   Cruise!
9.   Week 9- (Game) Star Fluxx
10  .Week 10- (movie) Nim's Island
11.  Week 11 (game) Forbidden Desert
12. Week 12 (art night) Picasso Playdoh
13. Week 13- Puzzle and Pillow Talk Conversations
14,  Week 14 - (game) Scattergories Categories
15, Week 15- (movie) Private Ryan
16. Week 16- Wii Game Night

Our son's NF journey

Josiah has Neurofibromatosis (NF-1). (Here is a brief overview of what NF is) Last week we took him to Cincinnati Children's Hospital to see his specialist, Dr. Hopkins. Dr. Hopkins wanted to be proactive and ordered an MRI with orbits to look for optic gliomas. Which 1 in about 20 kids with NF-1 develops. Most of the time by the time the child is showing signs or symptoms of one their vision is already affected and the loss vision cannot be restored. So the thought is to get regular MRI's done to look for the first signs of one so if there is one there it can be monitored and treated before any vision loss has occurred.

Because we live a good 3 hours away from Cincinnati we had his MRI done on Thursday and spent the night at the Ronald McDonald house that night. We saw his specialist on Friday. Josiah had to be sedated to get his MRI done due to him only being 2 year old. He would not be able to lay still enough for the images to be taken. So the rest of the day he was pretty wobbly and could not get his bearings. Which frustrated him to no end!

Friends of ours who live in KY were actually at Cincinnati Children's on Friday with their oldest for an appt (different type) and we were able to meet up with them! It had been a good 4 years since we last got to see them. We were only able to catch up for about 20 minutes before we had to get to our appt. But it was really nice to see them again.

Dr, Hopkins did find something on the MRI. Smiles has an optic glioma on his right optic nerve. The thickening is not bad right now. So in 3 months we have to go back and get a repeat MRI to see if there has been any changes. We also have to get an eye examination done to check for vision loss, pupil responses, etc.  If there is any changes then Dr. Hopkins will refer us to an Oncologist so they can start Chemo. (they do not want to do surgery unless it is a last resort. If surgery is done then the surgeon would have to remove the optic nerve which would result in blindness in that eye)

If there are no changes then we will go back every 3 to 6 months for MRI's to continue to monitor the tumor.

I am thankful that it was caught so early. This is not the path I would have chosen for us but I need to put my trust in God. We are 3 hours from a hospital that has a research clinic for NF. Which is fabulous and such a blessing. Josiah has not shown any symptoms of the tumor right now which is promising.

 "Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us" Psalm 62:8

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."John 14:27

Week 18- (art night) Fractured Faces

Jadae and I got a bit behind in our date nights so this week we tried to play catch up. I found a fun art project inspired by Picasso again. 

Instead of each making our own we worked on this together making one final project. First we made a Picasso face. Because we were at the Ronald McDonald house for the night (Smiles had 2 appointments on different days at Cincinnati Children's Hospital for his Neurofibromatosis) we were inspired to make a doctor looking person.  Wee used markers to color it. 

Then I used a book (I forgot to pack a ruler!) to make lines to divide the picture into several sections. I used the lines as a guide to cut out the sections. 

One a second (should be much larger than the one we used) piece of paper we made a bunch of different doodles for the background.

After that was done we placed the sections on the collage of designs and slip and slide them to make a fractured look. 

Here is our completed project (if I were to do this again I would make sure that the face was on a much smaller face and that the collage of designs were more colorful and detailed.

52 Date Nights in 52 Weeks

Getting out of a rut- The post that explains why I started this journey

1.   Week One- (movie) The Bucket List

2.   Week Two- (game) Post Cards from North America
3.   Week Three- Art Night!
4.   Week four- Deal or No Deal

5.   Week 5- Game Night (Chrononauts)
6.   Week 6- Wii Game (Super Mario Maker)
7.   Week 7- (movie) Tourist
8.   Cruise!
9.   Week 9- (Game) Star Fluxx
10  .Week 10- (movie) Nim's Island
11.  Week 11 (game) Forbidden Desert
12. Week 12 (art night) Picasso Playdoh
13. Week 13- Puzzle and Pillow Talk Conversations
14,  Week 14 - (game) Scattergories Categories
15, Week 15- (movie) Private Ryan
16. Week 16- Wii Game Night
17. Week 17- a really fun game

Week 16- Wii Night

We really like Super Mario Marker. So this month for the Wii Game Night we played it again. We both do not often have much time to kill on video games. I still scream. Jadae is still better than I am at the games. It is fun to not know what the level looks like that we will be playing next. Growing up you begin to memorize the levels and all the secrets. With this game each level is new and a surprise. Some levels have secrets, others do not.



52 Date Nights in 52 Weeks

Getting out of a rut- The post that explains why I started this journey

1.   Week One- (movie) The Bucket List

2.   Week Two- (game) Post Cards from North America
3.   Week Three- Art Night!
4.   Week four- Deal or No Deal

5.   Week 5- Game Night (Chrononauts)
6.   Week 6- Wii Game (Super Mario Maker)
7.   Week 7- (movie) Tourist
8.   Cruise!
9.   Week 9- (Game) Star Fluxx
10  .Week 10- (movie) Nim's Island
11.  Week 11 (game) Forbidden Desert
12. Week 12 (art night) Picasso Playdoh
13. Week 13- Puzzle and Pillow Talk Conversations
14,  Week 14 - (game) Scattergories Categories
15, Week 15- (movie) Private Ryan

Week 15 (movie) Saving Private Ryan

For date night this week we watched "Saving Private Ryan". I had not seen this movie in a good decade or so. I forgot how gruesome the first 20 or so minutes it was. So the first part I had to keep turning my head away. While typically that stuff does not bother me so much, right now, being pregnant it does!

I had planned on us eating french food while we ate. But right now most food does not seem appealing to me and I totally forgot! So we only watched the movie.

For those who have not seen it or maybe it has been awhile I will give a brief summary of the movie. It takes place right after D-Day (WW2). During combat 3 out of 4 brother were KIA. One of the ladies typing up the telegrams realizes that a mom will be receiving all three telegrams on the same day. When General George Marshall is alerted to this and that there is still a fourth brother missing in action he makes a decision that the last brother, Private James Ryan will be found and brought home. A company being lead my Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) and six other men is formed and their new mission is to find this missing brother. The rest of the movie is about how these men are trying to find Private Ryan.

This group of soldiers who do not know Private Ryan or even anything about him. Miller evens says at one point, "This Ryan guy better be worth it".  These seven men are risking their lives for the good of one man, for his freedom. 

Christ also did this for us. He died for each of us. Each of us were worth it to Him. We were lost in our sin but Jesus came and rescued us. He sacrificed His life for us! So we can be reunited with God. 

"6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation."

Romans 5:6-9

This story also made me think of the parable in the Bible about the sheep in Luke 15. A shepherd has 100 sheep, he knows where 99 of them are but one is lost. The shepherd goes and searches for just one sheep. This one sheep is so valuable to him, even though he has 99 others. We are so valuable to Jesus.



3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Luke 15:3-7

52 Date Nights in 52 Weeks

Getting out of a rut- The post that explains why I started this journey

1.   Week One- (movie) The Bucket List

2.   Week Two- (game) Post Cards from North America
3.   Week Three- Art Night!
4.   Week four- Deal or No Deal

5.   Week 5- Game Night (Chrononauts)
6.   Week 6- Wii Game (Super Mario Maker)
7.   Week 7- (movie) Tourist
8.   Cruise!
9.   Week 9- (Game) Star Fluxx
10  .Week 10- (movie) Nim's Island
11.  Week 11 (game) Forbidden Desert
12. Week 12 (art night) Picasso Playdoh
13. Week 13- Puzzle and Pillow Talk Conversations
14,  Week 14 - (game) Scattergories Categories

Week 14 (game night) Scattergories Categories

 Another game night! (I grew up in a game playing family- so I really enjoy playing games) I played Scattergories. So when I was researching games Scattergories Categories caught my eye.  I only had so much money budgeted for my 52 stay-at-home date nights. So I crossed it off my list as there were other games that I wanted to buy instead. I ended up finding this game practically brand new at the through the used Amazon section for a couple of bucks! Yay!

For those who are familiar with Scattergories it is similar but has a different twist that I really liked. Instead of sticking with one letter to answer all of the topics (S- Street Names, Girl Names, Type of Clothing) you get one category but have different letters to use. (MARRIAGE M-minister, A-aisle R- Rice, R- Ring,etc.). The first one to 25 points wins. It is a good game for 2 people, but more would make it harder as if you have the same response on the same line it does not count. 

After the 4th round, Jadae and I both ended up with 25 points! So we played one more, which he ended up with my points than I did. It was fun and a shorter game. We could have played more rounds but we both were tired. I enjoyed not having to think of so many different topics using the same letter. It was great just having one topic at a time. Jadae and I had lots of laughs over some of our responses. And some of then definitely were stretching it.

One downside to this is the timer. Because it was sand type someone would have to keep looking up to check to see if time was up. But you can easily use your phone to set a timer or just have a set amount of rounds to go through and the one with the most points wins!

52 Date Nights in 52 Weeks

Getting out of a rut- The post that explains why I started this journey

1.   Week One- (movie) The Bucket List

2.   Week Two- (game) Post Cards from North America
3.   Week Three- Art Night!
4.   Week four- Deal or No Deal

5.   Week 5- Game Night (Chrononauts)
6.   Week 6- Wii Game (Super Mario Maker)
7.   Week 7- (movie) Tourist
8.   Cruise!
9.   Week 9- (Game) Star Fluxx
10  .Week 10- (movie) Nim's Island
11.  Week 11 (game) Forbidden Desert
12. Week 12 (art night) Picasso Playdoh
13. Week 13- Puzzle and Pillow Talk Conversations

Week 13- Puzzle and Pillow Talk Conversations

     For our stay-at-home date night this week we put a puzzle together. I found this Sat Wars puzzle at the Dollar General Store. It actually contains two 100 piece puzzles. All of my sons and my husband is huge fans of Star Wars so I know this puzzle will be loved. I was not sure how many pieces I should buy. It has been a long time since I put together something more than a board puzzle or a small 24-piece young child's puzzle. It took us less than an hour to do one of the puzzles. We decided to save the other one for another time.

While we worked on the puzzle I took the opportunity to have us answer some questions that I got from The Dating Diva's website. They are Conversation starters that they affectionately named "Pillow Talk". There are over 50 questions. Some of the ones we got during our date was "Would you want to go back in the past or in the future?", "What does your dream car look like?", etc. Those are some of the ones we had that night. There are a lot of really good ones that we never got to such as, "What was something that you worried about today?", "What was the most frustrating part of day?", and "What are you most excited about tomorrow"  You can download the questions from the link above for free. I highly recommend it! They are a great way to talk about your day, concerns, worries, etc. with your spouse or loved ones. The Dating Diva's recommend just doing a few every night with your spouse when you go to bed (hence the name "pillow Talk" to reconnect.

Here is our completed puzzle!

52 Date Nights in 52 Weeks

Getting out of a rut- The post that explains why I started this journey

1.   Week One- (movie) The Bucket List

2.   Week Two- (game) Post Cards from North America
3.   Week Three- Art Night!
4.   Week four- Deal or No Deal

5.   Week 5- Game Night (Chrononauts)
6.   Week 6- Wii Game (Super Mario Maker)
7.   Week 7- (movie) Tourist
8.   Cruise!
9.   Week 9- (Game) Star Fluxx
10  .Week 10- (movie) Nim's Island
11.  Week 11 (game) Forbidden Desert
12. Week 12 (art night) Picasso Playdoh

Week 12 - (Art night) Picasso Playdoh

It was time for another art stay-at-home date night. I intended for us to have an art night earlier in the month but I was not sure about what art project Jadae and I should do until recently. We played with play-doh! Jadae's sister and her children had spent the night so we invited his sister to join us.

Jadae's face

Jadae's alligator

The "assignment" was to make Picasso faces. Jadae was not a huge fan of it and after he made one face he switched gears and just made animals and other such things. His sister made a face or two then just played. I really enjoyed making the faces! Working with play-doh is surprisingly relaxing. I am not a big fan of the smell though!

Sara's face

Sara's Rose

For whatever reason half the children (we had 6 here!) was not tired and eventually wandered out of the bedroom to see what us adults were up to. They were quite confused as to why us adults were playing with play-doh when all the kids were in bed. 

52 Date Nights in 52 Weeks
Getting out of a rut- The post that explains why I started this journey

1.   Week One- (movie) The Bucket List

2.   Week Two- (game) Post Cards from North America
3.   Week Three- Art Night!
4.   Week four- Deal or No Deal

5.   Week 5- Game Night (Chrononauts)
6.   Week 6- Wii Game (Super Mario Maker)
7.   Week 7- (movie) Tourist
8.   Cruise!
9.   Week 9- (Game) Star Fluxx
10  .Week 10- (movie) Nim's Island
11.  Week 11 (game) Forbidden Desert

Week 11 (game) Forbidden Desert

I invited my sister to join us for our stay-at-home date night this time. We decided to play a game and with having an extra brain we figured we would be able to understand the instructions better. Jadae opened up "Forbidden Desert". It is a co-operative game, where you work together to win. About half-way through the game we really started to discuss what our next moves should be before we took our turn instead of just taking our turn independently. Once we started to do that we started to win! You really have to work together or you all will lose and die. I really like the concept of these kinds of games. You are not just looking at your own best interests or what would benefit you but everyone around you.

(this post contains an affiliate link)

I have not played any of the co-op games yet but I have heard high praises about them. The premise of "Forbidden Desert"" is your team's helicopter has crushed in the desert, which happens to be an ancient city that is buried under sand. This city has pieces to an solar-powered flying machine that are buried under the sand. 

The board of the game is made up of tiles. The tiles are constantly being moved around due to sand storms. Once one digs up all the sand and excavates the tile it gets flipped over to the city side. In order to win you have to find all the pieces of the flying machine and everyone has to get to the landing dock. You find the flying pieces by clearing the sand and flipping over the cards, hoping that they will revel where the pieces are buried. One you have collected all 4 pieces and everyone gets to the landing dock your team wins!

There are a total of 6 different characters. Each character has a special power that helps with the game. Some of the characters include an Archaeologist can remove two sand tiles at a time, while everyone else can only do one. The other characters are climber, explorer, meteorologist, navigator, and water carrier.

All the players are racing against time. After each turn you have to draw from the sand deck. There are several different cards in this deck. Most often a sand storm happens, which buries the tiles more in sand. The sun can beat down and deplete your water supply- which means you can die of thirst, or the severity sand storm can pick up so badly that you cannot get off the island and you end up being buried alive!

It wasn't until half-way through the game when we realized that we were making it more difficult on ourselves. During your turn you are allowed up to 4 actions. We originally thought that it meant you had to play the actions each only once per turn and you had to play in a certain order. The actions can actually be played in any order or more than once. But you are only allowed 4 actions per turn. The actions are very easy to understand and perform. The player can perform any combination of the following actions:

1) move to another tile (you just can't move diagonally
2) removing sand (from your own tile or one adjacent to your tile)
3) if there is no sand on the tile you are on you can excavate it by flipping it from it's desert side to the city side. The city side has several different actions; gears (which are very helpful and can be played at any time), water!, or a clue to where a piece of the flying machine is
4) Pick up a part- if the tile is not under sand and you have both clues to a part of the flying machine, and are on the matching tile you can pick up a part
This game also plays really well with only 2 players! 

52 Date Nights in 52 Weeks
Getting out of a rut- The post that explains why I started this journey

1.  Week One- (movie) The Bucket List

2.  Week Two- (game) Post Cards from North America
3.  Week Three- Art Night!
4.  Week four- Deal or No Deal

5.  Week 5- Game Night (Chrononauts)
6.  Week 6- Wii Game (Super Mario Maker)
7.  Week 7- (movie) Tourist
8.  Cruise!
9.  Week 9- (Game) Star Fluxx
10.Week 10- (movie) Nim's Island

Week 10- (movie) Nim's Island

Our movie of the month was "Nim's Island". Neither Jadae nor I have seen it. I picked this movie after Jadae said he was not interested in seeing "Castaway". I wanted a movie about people who are deserted on an island in spirits of our recent cruise.

"Nim's Island" is a cute movie about a 11 year old girl and her father that live on deserted island in the South Pacific. Nim's father, who is a microbiologist, goes out to sea for what was suppose to be only couple of days while Nim stays on the island to help care for the sea turtles that were hatching. While her father is gone Nim's favorite actor writes to Nim and her father to get help with the newest adventure book that is being written. The author, Alex Rover, ends up coming to the island to help Nim as she had gotten hurt and she could not get a hold of her father who had been gone longer than anticipated. Nim also wanted Alex's help because Nim believed that pirates were coming to invade her island after looking through her telescope and seeing a ship, "Buccaneer Landing". I am not going to share what happens, I will let you find out by watching it yourself.




After the move Jadae and I discussed what we would bring with us if we (our family included) were stuck on a deserted island. I decided that shelter and methods to hunt for food would already be taken care of.


Jadae
1. Bible 
2. Solar Power capability
3. Water/shock proof kindle full of his favorite Bible resources and books
4. Art Supplies
5. I-Pod or something to listen to music with Satellite radio/phone capabilities

My List
1. Bible and Journal
2. Our collection of board games
3. Laptop with unlimited Wi-Fi to FaceTime people from home and to watch YouTube instructional       videos
4. Our library :)
5. Medical and Hygiene Supplies

52 Date Nights in 52 Weeks
Getting out of a rut- The post that explains why I started this journey

1. Week One- (movie) The Bucket List

2. Week Two- (game) Post Cards from North America
3. Week Three- Art Night!
4. Week four- Deal or No Deal

5. Week 5- Game Night (Chrononauts)
6. Week 6- Wii Game (Super Mario Maker)
7. Week 7- (movie) Tourist
8. Cruise!
9. Week 9 - (game) Star Fluxx