Date Night Archives – Jamieson Diaries

March Goals: Accomplished?

April 3, 2016 Leave a Comment

Hello everyone, and happy (third day of) April!

I’m sure most of you noticed it’s been well over two weeks since I have posted any content. I decided to take a last-minute break from blogging during the remainder of March due to life being pretty crazy busy. Between birthdays (happy belated blog shout out birthday to my awesome sister, Taylor!), Easter, Spring, friends visiting etc. March was a pretty crazy month. I did some serious deep Spring cleaning around the house while my husband was gone for a few days traveling for work. Even he came back home and almost didn’t recognize the house himself. Ha!

Easter sort of snuck up on me this year and I wasn’t even a little prepared for it. I wanted to make Jordyn’s Easter basket myself, but like I said before, I was completely unprepared and ended up buying her one. It came with a basketball (which she loves) and some cute head bands, so it could be worse. Our awesome friends, the Jones’, were in town this Easter, and we threw together some last-minute Easter activities for the kids and an Easter dinner for a group of our friends.

For the month of March I almost completed all of my monthly goals. I fell short by ONE goal, my cooking Periscope broadcast, but it went hand in hand with me taking a break from blogging for a bit. I will try to do two Periscope broadcasts for the month of April to make up for the missed broadcast last month, though. However, all of my other goals were completed and I’ll share them below :-):

Date Night:

Our babysitter was pretty busy between school and work in the month of March which means we had a family date night instead of just a date night with the hubby and I. We went one of our favorite restaurants in town, Bert & Ernie’s, and had a great time eating yummy food. Jordyn is always added entertainment when we are out and about haha.

New Recipe:

I saw this delicious meal floating around Facebook and decided to give it a try while we had friends in town. It was SO good. The only downside was the Facebook video had no instructions or measurements besides the ingredients listed on the video. So thankfully it turned out so good!

DIY Project/Jordyn Activity:

Jordyn and I did another “joint project” for the month of March. During my Spring cleaning of the house I noticed the upstairs bathroom had too much empty space on the wall. I went to Michaels the following day and Jordyn and I bought some canvases (they were a BOGO free sale too!) and created these masterpieces. Mine is on the left, Jordyn’s on the right, and in case you’re wondering: yes, Jordyn’s looks better LOL.

Twitter Chat:

As usual, I participated in the #blkcreatives Twitter chat in March, regarding multiple streams of income. Although I could not personally contribute to the conversation, I still followed along with the chat, because I’m sure it’ll be useful to me one day in the future. It never hurts to learn more before jumping into things.

Natural Hair Style:

I did bantu knots for my natural hair style in March and they did NOT turn out the way I wanted them to which is why it was put into the ponytail on the right haha. A for effort, right? I’m not sure what happened, but hopefully my April natural hair style turns out a lot better.

Nail Color:

For March I chose my only darker green color for the theme of St. Patty’s Day. I love the sparkle of this emerald-green color. The color is called “Here Today…Aragon Tomorrow Suede” by OPI.

New Book:

I finally jumped on the John Grisham bandwagon (20 years later) and LOVED this book. Talk about changing your life and perspective of everyday life for people who are fighting different battles than ours. I highly recommend this book be read by any and everyone because we as a society so easily judge those in different circumstances than ours.

Workout Reward:

I actually worked out 21 days of the 31 days in March and felt so accomplished. I’m also only 22 seconds away from my half mile goal time. Seeing results always motivates me to keep going. I believe it’s also safe to say after three consistent months of working out, 20 days plus per month, working out has officially become a habit. Yay!

The goals I don’t have pictures of for March are my husband love/Kris appreciation gift and my random act of kindness. For my kind gesture for my husband I bought him some new hookah flavors. He loves his hookah and figured I would get him a gift he wouldn’t expect me to buy for him. Needless to say: he loved it.

For my random act of kindness, while at Dairy Queen one night getting my Oreo and Heath blizzard (it is amazing) I paid for the meal of the car behind me. I hope whoever was in the car enjoyed their ice cream/meal and pay it forward to someone else out there.

I hope all of your small and large goals you aimed to accomplish for the month of March were accomplished. Sometimes it’s hard to stay on track and work towards our goals but we just have to remind ourselves why we do it in the first place. I will be back next month to update you on my prayerfully 100% accomplished goals for the month of April.

Happy Sunday everyone and I pray you have a great upcoming week!

Brie <3

[04.03.16]

January Goals Accomplished!

January 31, 2016 Leave a Comment

At the beginning of the year I shared a post outlining 12 goals I am striving to accomplish every month of 2016. Click here to read the post if you haven’t already. As of earlier today, I have accomplished all 12 of my goals for the month of January with one day to spare! Yeah, go me! I will share a picture of each goal for the month of January below.

Date Night:

While my Mother in law was in town the husband and I went on a few date nights this month so that was a lot of fun. Here is a picture of us at a stop light on our way to see the Hateful Eight for a day time date. 🙂

New Recipe:

I follow the Tasty page on Facebook and decided to make the shepherds pie stuffed baked potatoes for my new recipe to try for dinner. It was an instant hit and I’ve made it twice this month for dinner!

DIY Project:

I actually almost forgot to do my DIY for this month, but thankfully earlier today I was bored and decided to do one anyway. How about that timing? I re-purposed an old t-shirt I never wear into a workout shirt.

Twitter Chat:

Thanks to a good friend who is a social media strategist I learned about the “My Creative Connection” monthly twitter chat. Not only did I love the Q&A but I learned so much from the first chat to help better my blog and brand. They do this #BlkCreatives chat on the second Monday of every month. It’s safe to say they have a loyal monthly chat customer now. 🙂

Natural Hair Style:

This month I did a nice and easy, wash n’ go, natural hair style but it looked great! It has been my favorite wash n’ go result thus far. Talk about a selfie worthy hair style. 😉

Periscope Cooking Broadcast:

I did my first ever Periscope broadcast (@BrienneJamieson) for cooking. The first meal I shared on Periscope was my yummy Potato Corn & Bacon Chowder. I know it’s yummy because my family loves it and I have gotten some excellent reviews from fellow followers and readers who have tried it out. Thanks again to those of you who watched and tried the recipe!

Nail Color:

I have a drawer filled with nail polishes I haven’t worn in over a yea,r or ever, for that matter. I decided to try one of the colors I have never worn before. It’s called Russian Navy by OPI and I loooove it! I had to show it off with my lovely workout gloves while at the gym haha.

New Book:

The book I read this month was The Pact by Jodi Picoult. I love Jodi as an author so it shouldn’t come as a surprise how much I enjoyed this book, but I was still impressed and emotionally drawn in. If you are looking for a tragic yet relatable book to read I highly recommend this one.

Jordyn Activity:

Although Jordyn and I play and have fun all day everyday, I made it a point to do something each month that we’ve never done before. This month we built our first “fort” and we both had a great time eating snacks and watching TV/movies. It was the perfect cold and snowy day to do so too. 🙂

Workout Reward:

I made a commitment of having to workout at least 20 days of each month in order to reach my post baby body goals AND buy myself a reward of $25 or less to keep me motivated. As of Friday night I hit my goal which gives me two off days before starting again on Monday for the month of February. I was happy to achieve this goal!

The last two goals of the month were performing a random act of kindness and doing something nice for my husband. I didn’t take pictures of either of these “acts” because 1) I didn’t even remember to do so at the time and 2) some things don’t have to be shared through pictures. However, I will share what I did for each. While out running errands, and buying dinner for the family, I randomly decided to stop and buy some pizzas for the cops who guard the gate on base. It put smiles on their faces which made me super happy. For my husband, while out running those same errands, he had accidentally broken one of his PS4 controllers earlier that day. I bought him a card that very sweetly said “I love you” in mushy card ways and I put a Game Stop gift card in it. It made him smile and tell me how much he appreciates me so I think he loved it. Making people smile always makes me smile and that’s what it’s all about.

What goals did you set for yourself in the month of January? Did you accomplish them? If so, congratulations and I hope you have a great February as well. If not, what can you do to make sure you adjust and execute for the month of February? Feel free to share below.

Have a great Saturday evening and rest of your weekend everyone!

Brie <3

[01.30.16]

All Posts, Dear Diary, DIY, Frugal Ideas

5 Creative Date Night Ideas

August 9, 2015 Comments : 2

Grow up in the surrounding Chicagoland suburbs, one thing I didn’t realize until I left, is how many activities and attractions I had around me to keep me busy all year-long. Once summertime rolls around you can add the plentiful music festivals and other outdoor activities to the mix. However, my husband and I are currently based in Montana, and although Montana in general has really exciting and fun cities/towns, we unfortunately don’t live in one of those fun towns. I know, it sucks, but what living in this town has taught me is how to be creative and think outside of the box.

My husband and I have only been married for two years, and we hadn’t been on a date that wasn’t dinner and a movie, for quite some time. I don’t know about you, but as much as I love a good meal and movie, I want to do something else for ~~once~~, ~~or twice~~, all the time. I believe repetition is good to a certain extent, I wouldn’t categorize date night with the person you’re going to spend the rest of your life with in the “good” section of repetition though.

When you don’t have a variety of established places to go for date night, you have to become creative and bring your own versions of the perfect date nights to life. These five creative date night ideas, are some popular date night ideas I recreated so couples in any location, are able to participate, and shake things up a bit. After all, who doesn’t love out of the box ideas that can be done in your own home or surrounding area? Exactly!

I know, I know, this isn’t a new date night idea by any means. However, why not take cooking together to the next level and create a couples cooking show? How can you recreate a cooking show? Get out the webcam and/or what ever device you use for making videos, and create a “fake” couples cooking show while making dinner. Pretend you have a loyal audience who enjoy watching you two bicker back and forth about how to cut certain vegetables, and/or share a few cute memories about prior dates you two have been on. If you’re a shy person, it can be a video you two save to watch on a day when you need a good laugh. If you aren’t so shy and/or willing to put yourself out there, share the video with your social network family. Let everyone get a good laugh as well as a few “awww’s” in there while you two enjoy watching the reactions and replays of the night.

*If you would like to take it a step further: name your “cooking show episode” and make it bi-weekly or monthly entertainment for yourselves and loved ones.*

I’m sure you’re thinking the usual buy something sexy and wear it for your significant other, but…that’s not quite the purpose of this date night idea. Most places, even smaller towns, have some type of store “adult store” nearby. (For example: Adam & Eve, Spencers, etc.) You will take a trip to your local adult store and each buy something for the other person. You will have the item gift wrapped at the store and present it to your significant other. You can both go into the store at the same time and buy your items at different registers, or one person can sit in the car while the other shops. Either way the anticipation itself is enough to keep you anxious and smiling from ear to ear thinking about being able to see the gifts. And clearly this usual leads to a happy ending for both of you…who wouldn’t enjoy this date night?!

*If you don’t have access to these stores where you live, you can order the items online earlier in the week and present them on the evening of your date night.*

How does one make game night romantic? By lighting a few candles and watching the sunset while you play, that’s how. This one is pretty simple, but makes such a huge difference. Instead of playing games inside in the house, why not take your UNO or LIFE games outdoors? If there is a favorite park or location in your town, take a blanket, some candles, some wine (drink responsibly) and set up a romantic game night. Make sure you get there in enough time to have everything set up so you can enjoy the beautiful sunset as you play. This even works if you have a backyard and want to do your romantic game night without having to leave the house. Either way, it’s hard to beat nature’s beauty and fun with your significant other.

*For those who live in climates where it is cold most of the year (like where we live) you can set this up to do in the car. Find a nice place to park the car and where you can see the sunset. If you have an SUV set up your romance in the trunk area (fake candles of course). If you have a car lean the seats all the way back so you two can face each other in your seats to play your game(s). I would suggest only card games if you don’t have a larger area for a board game.*

Is there a movies genre or series you both enjoy watching? For my husband and I, we LOVE the Harry Potter series. (Who doesn’t?) For our first wedding anniversary we actually watching movies one through six before we decided to give our eyes a break and go to bed LOL. It super simple and really takes no effort, but it’s one people tend to forget about. If you want to make it a little more fun, go to your nearest store, buy your favorite movie theater candy, some microwaveable popcorn, and drinks. Remember you’re going to be home so you can even buy alcoholic drinks to watch with your movie ;-). If you have tons of blankets and comforters, set up a comfy theater area on the living room floor while you watch. Movie the couch(es) if you have to make more room. Just make sure you watch and enjoy!

*If you start to run out of movie ideas to watch, you can even pick a new show to binge watch on Netflix or Hulu. Also, during the holidays try to do themed movies for the particular holiday being celebrated to get you in the spirit.*

One of my bucket list items is to learn how to ball room dance. I particularly would love to learn how to samba and tango. They are such intimate and sexy dance styles. My ultimate bucket list dance item is to samba on a beach in South America to a live band. Ahhh yes. Okay, back to reality, where we live we don’t have options for these dance classes, but thankfully it’s 2015 and we live in the age of technology. You and your significant other pick one dance style (or you can each pick one) and lookup the dance on YouTube. Pick your favorite instructional video and get to learning! Not only do you get to learn something new with your significant other, you’re exercising and having fun doing it.

*Once you’ve gotten a little handle of the dances moves, start learning about the best music to dance to and discover new artists and music together.*

If any of you try out these date night ideas, leave a comment or send me an email about what you loved and didn’t love. I hope you couples enjoy these ideas, and always remember, date night is supposed to be fun!

Fun fact: all pictures used for this post are personal pictures I have taken, except for the “YouTube Dance Lessons photo, which happens to be my husband and I, on our wedding day. 🙂

Brie <3

[08.09.15]

All Posts, Dear Diary, Family Love

Chicago Trip – June 2015

July 19, 2015 Leave a Comment

As I’m sure most of you have noticed, I disappeared from the blogging world within the last month. No need to worry, I took a break to enjoy some much-needed vacation time back home in Illinois with my family and friends. I promise I will try not to take such a long break again, because I’m sure you all missed me as much as I missed you, right? Right!

We decided to take the train home because driving 20+ hours in a car with an almost one year old was asking for trouble, just as taking two, two-hour flights was out of the question. The train takes a LONG 27 hours to get from Montana to Chicago, but it was seriously PERFECT. Jordyn was able to walk around, make friends with the passengers and gaze out of the window in amazement of everything passing by us. As a new Mom of a newly walking/mobile baby, I highly recommend this way of travel if it’s an option for you. My husband and I are very happy we made this decision.

We mainly went back home to celebrate Miss Jordyn’s 1st birthday with family and friends. On her actual 1st birthday, June 18th, 2015, we took her first trip to Medieval Times with family and extended family. The show was great, (although our knight kept losing) the food was yummy, and our waiter was awesome. Jordyn even received a rose directly from our knight during the show. It was adorable, and he was such a gentleman for giving it to her considering all of the other people in there screaming for the rose themselves. We took this awesome picture before we were seated, and Jordyn’s Godfather, Jesiah, bought us the keep sake picture to bring home with us. I’m in the process of finding the perfect frame for it to hang it up in the house. It sums up our family perfectly! LOL.

We were also lucky enough to have been home when the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup Championship game at the United Center, which means, we got to go to the Blackhawks parade! My husband, my sisters and I all went together and it was such a great time. There are few things more electrifying than getting to celebrate a huge win like theirs with your favorite city (the best city) in the entire world. When the buses finally got to our section, I’m sure we all went temporarily deaf from the intense level of screaming we were surrounded by and engaged in. Being downtown Chicago for the parade even brought on some college nostalgia for myself. I spent so much of my college career walking those same downtown city blocks and riding those CTA trains and buses with loved ones. It made me that much more proud to not have just graduated from a college in a city as amazing as Chicago, but more thankful for even the tiniest of memories such as those in this awesome life of mine.

Jordyn’s birthday party was a huge success. It’s always wonderful to see so many faces you usually only get to see once a year or less. She received more blessings, love, and presents we could have ever imagined. When I tell you this is one extremely LOVED little girl, I mean it. Her party took place in one of the popular forest preserves on the north-side, and the weather held up perfectly during the actual hours of the party. It wasn’t too hot, and it didn’t rain until an hour after the party was over. The food was great, the company was even better, and the love from everyone was the best. My Aunt Gloria (who makes the absolute best cakes in the world – just ask the birthday party guests) made Jordyn’s Sesame Street themed cake and it was beyond perfect.

The day after Jordyn’s birthday party was not only Father’s Day/My husband’s first Father’s Day, but the 14th annual Ricky Byrdsong Race in Evanston, IL. This was the first year since Kris and I have been together that he was in town and able to attend. It has been a tradition in my family since my best friend’s (Kelley) Dad was killed back in 1999 to participate, support, and volunteer at the race. It only gets better each year. The YWCA Evanston/North Shore does a fantastic job each year with everything from the great t-shirt designs to the perfect entertainment. The race starts at 7:30 a.m. on the dot. Considering we all had a late night hanging out downtown Chicago at Dave and Busters the night before, the initial 6 a.m. alarm was a little rough, but everyone had a great time as we always do. I told them they’d enjoy themselves once we made it out there and they did! Kris, Jesiah, Andye, Jordyn, and I even walked the 5K. A.K.A. we walked and Jordyn slept the entire stroller ride.

We decided to do a few new activities while we were home this time around as well. We went to Xtreme Trampoline with my sisters and cousin one evening. We paid for two hours of jumping time because it seemed to be a reasonable amount of time and the pricing wasn’t too bad. However, we jumped for 45 minutes before we were all laid out on the side of the trampolines trying to catch our breath and regain energy to jump again LOL. If you’re ever looking for a great leg and cardio workout, find your nearest indoor trampoline place and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Kris and I even had a date night that was finally out of the box of dinner and/or a movie. Kris has wanted to do indoor skydiving for quite some time, and we so happened to pass the iFly Chicago – Rosemont complex on several occasions driving back and forth to/from my Mom’s house to/from Kris’ Mom’s house. A family friend also recommended it while we were home so we decided to try it out. Kris was surprised when I told him I wanted to do it as well, because when I say I am the least risk taking-est person you will ever meet…I’m NOT exaggerating. I don’t even ride roller-coasters because they scare the crap out of me to give a little perspective on how big of a chicken I am, or as I like to say, I just appreciate my feet touching the ground. Well, let me tell you, I had SO much fun and would recommend for everyone to give it a try at least once!

My second favorite part of going home is the endless options for unbelievably delicious FOOD! I miss having so many of these food places around me 24/7. I’m pretty sure I cried about it at least twice while I was pregnant last year and unable to eat the food I was craving. Whatever – don’t judge me. Anyway, I have way too many food places to name to even begin to give you a glimpse of how much I eat when I am home. However, I do have very specific places I absolutely MUST get while I am home: Giordanos, (it makes me sad how many people will never have great quality pizza in their lifetime) Claires Korner, (because Jamaican food – DUH) Buffalo Joes, (single order and cheddar chips are no where near as good anywhere else) Portillos (Italian beef dipped with hot and sweet peppers, a cheese fry, and strawberry shake – you’re welcome). The other chain food honorable mentions are: Chipotle, Dunkin Donuts, and Potbelly. I was way too excited to devour my food when I received it from any of these locations, but here goes a glimpse for you.

In all the fun and amazing things we did while we were home, my favorite part of going home is always being able to see and spend time with my family. From BBQs at Uncle Tony’s house, playing UNO in my Mom’s dining room, to having brunch after church, these are the memories I will hold onto more than others. I want Jordyn and her future siblings to grow up knowing and loving our family and extended family as much as I do. As I’ve stated in previous blog posts, I come from a very large family. Not only are we large, but we’re a close family as well. Which makes it that much harder to live so far away from them. When I say family, I mean my closest friends as well. Most of my friends have become my family in the last few years and I couldn’t be more thankful to be surrounded by so many awesome people I’m related to by blood and by choice. Many people go through life without either of those options and here I am with more than I can keep up with. I often tell people, I know without a doubt there is a God, because it is not by chance I am living this life. It is not by chance my little family has so many people we can turn to and support us in our times of need. It is not by chance when a new milestone takes place in my life or theirs, we become that much closer to one another. And it wasn’t by chance I was born into the world’s most beautiful, greatest, loving, supportive, strong-willed, and FUN family!

As always you were good to us Illinois. We’ll be back for a brief round two in mid September. Have a happy and blessed Sunday lovely people!

Brie <3

[07.19.15]