I really like The Cheesecake Factory, especially their Thai Chicken. It's really good! Two times now, JR and I have tried to go there on a date, and twice the wait has been truly outrageous. Actually, to be fair, the first time we went, we had just eaten a bunch of bad popcorn at the movies and it made me feel really sick. By the time we'd given our name to the lady at the CF, I was really starting to feel awful and we left. This past Friday evening, we tried again. We dropped the kids off with mom and dad around 7 and were hoping to have a nice evening at a nice restaurant by ourselves. We got there and the wait was 90 minutes. HA! Screw that. Meanwhile, my nephew called me to tell me he was driving down route 42 and thought he may stop by since we live off that road. I informed him that route 42 is nowhere near my house. Silly boy. So, anyway we bought mom a piece of turtle cheesecake and we decided to head to the Commons to eat at the food court and do some shopping. I texted Joey to tell him we were headed there and he called and said he had just arrived there with his new gf, Breanna. My friend Beth had texted me, too, that she was hanging out at her mom's house in B'Creek, so I texted her to meet us at the Commons for dinner. It was a pretty nice time. All of us met up there and had various dinners and JR and I interviewed the new gf. She seems really nice and she can carry a conversation. I was really leery of meeting her because I really adored the previous gf. She's a sweetie. Fortunately they're staying friends. After dinner, the kids headed out to a movie and JR, Beth, and I went shopping. We bought a bunch of stuff for the girls at one of those girly shops. Then we all went over to Best Buy and JR picked up a new hard drive and I played some GH on a huge ass flat screen. I want one now. While JR and I were out, Mom and her sister took my girls out shopping and bought them some clothes, new shoes for Roo, Hello Kitty sunglasses and lip gloss, and a bunch of hair stuff. :)

Saturday was pretty sucky for Valentine's Day. It was the 1yr anniv. of JR's mom's death and both of us were in pretty shitty moods. We went and bought flowers and took them to the grave. Then we drove out to see my two younger stepsons so JR could give them their inheritance checks. We met John's new girlfriend, she seems pretty nice. JR says I say that about everyone so for all I know she may torture cats in her spare time. The girls got thrown around and chased by their brothers for a while and then we headed home. JR made pork ribs and sauerkraut for dinner and gave me a heart-shaped pillow that says "i love you" on it with a bunch of hearts all over it. He had told me we weren't celebrating so I didn't have anything to give him. I was on my way to Beerman's to buy new perfume, so I stopped and got him a movie and a picture frame and insert to put a picture of his mom in. It has a poem about remembering someone after their death and a slot for the picture. I know it's not romantic, but we don't have any framed pics of her, so I thought it'd be nice. He liked it.

Sunday was pretty lame. Neither JR nor I felt very good but the sun was shining so we made the kids get dressed and we went out for a while. We weren't out long when I started feeling really light-headed so we stopped and bought some steaks and came back home, cooked them, and just vegged out the rest of the night.

Tomorrow is a bank holiday so I'm off work. Roo is thrilled. She counts the days til I'm off work now. Josie would be off school but they have to use it as a make-up day due to all the time off they've had. I never did tell her that it was supposed to be a day off. It would only make her sad.

Anyway, here's a couple pics from the weekend...my mil's grave with the flowers we put down, and my kids with the new shirts and sunglasses, and hair bands my mom bought them.