First things first: The Fashion page has been updated! I tried to address all of your fashion-related questions from my New York trip, including nail polish colors and some of my friends’ accessories. Possibly the longest Fashion page post ever!
Dating Anniversary
Last night I took the night off from blogging to be a lazy bum and soak up quality time with Ryan. I missed that guy!
Today is actually a special day in our relationship… It’s our dating anniversary!
We went on our first date on February 1, 2004, so today marks eight years together.
Past anniversary posts:
Even though we’re married now, we cannot seem to let go of our dating anniversary. Unfortunately this will be the first year we will not be returning to the scene of our first date. Since we’re no longer living in Orlando, driving 1.5 hours just to eat dinner at The Cheesecake Factory didn’t seem logical to either of us because, let’s face it, The Cheesecake Factory isn’t that good.
I actually got food poisoning after eating there on one of our anniversaries and spent the night puking. Never again will I order the miso salmon!
We’ll probably just do a nice dinner at home since I’m over eating out at the moment after this weekend’s NYC trip, but I do have some lovey-dovey ideas up my sleeve.
Workout
Today’s workout was tough! It wasn’t hard because I did anything out of the ordinary or particularly difficult, but my body seems to lose strength even after few days away from the gym… or, you know, a few days of eating and drinking whatever my heart desired. I was feeling quite lethargic!
I began with 20 minutes on the elliptical before completing the following upper body workout:
Burn baby, burn!
Breakfast
This morning I took a little extra time in the kitchen to make a yummy breakfast.
I brought 1 1/2 cups 2 percent milk to a low boil on the stovetop before adding 1/4 cup of steel cut oats and letting them simmer for about 20 minutes.
I then added about 1.5 tablespoons of peanut butter and a dash of pumpkin pie spice to the mix before topping the oats with fresh raspberries and chopped mixed nuts.
Served with a cup of Godiva caramel pecan bark coffee and more mixed nuts.
It was quite the nutty breakfast!
Book Club Link Up
Later today we’ll be discussing The Night Circus, the book selected for January’s book club! So far I have links to book review blog posts from the following people to include in this afternoon’s post: Cheryl, Leah, Julie and Caitlin. If I am missing your post, please email me ASAP so I may include it in the roundup!
Question of the Morning
- If you’re married, do you still celebrate your dating anniversary? If you’re not married, do you think you would celebrate both your wedding anniversary and dating anniversary?
We celebrate both because, as Ryan says, “I’m not losing eight years just because we got married!”
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Happy Anniversary! I really need to try steel cut oats, those look awesome!
that red dress is SO cute… is it anywhere to be found on the fashion page? if not, where is it from??!
yes! here are the details: https://www.pbfingers.com/2011/11/19/dinner-at-bella-brava/
Ditto – love the red dress! Please tell me that is a recent picture and I can run out and buy one still!
thank you! here are the details from the fashion page back in november: https://www.pbfingers.com/2011/11/19/dinner-at-bella-brava/
I love that you celebrate your dating anniversary! Dating is an important time, in addition to the engagement and wedding. My boyfriend suggested we celebrate our “loveversary” – the first time he said I love you. Such a romantic!
aw, too cute!
My boyfriend and I have our 1 year dating anniversary on the 10th! I’m pretty sure we’ll celebrate it even after we’re married. We love any excuse to celebrate each other.
Way to get back to the gym! Have you ever tried steel cut overnight oats?! You still get the nuttiness without all the wait in the morning!
no! i need to!
We definitely celebrate our dating anniversary (we just celebrated eight years on Jan 23rd!). I personally care more about our dating anniversary than our wedding anniversary, because we had been together 6.5 years by the time we got married… I don’t think those years should be ignored just because it wasn’t “official.”
Congrats to you and Ryan! 🙂
I think we’ll still celebrate our dating anniversary. It’s still a special day. 🙂
Our dating anniversary will fall on a Saturday next year. We’re hoping to make that our wedding date, so they’d be the same!
More anniversaries, more presents, more lovey-dovey moments, more reasons to appreciate each other…I’d celebrate them all!
happy date-aversary! Paul and I have been married for 11 years this April. We don’t celebrate our dating anniversary lol….we met, started dating, fell in love, got engaged and married all in less than a year. So we never had our first dating anniversary…we were already married lol!
I suppose if we were together for MANY years like you guys it would make more sense as we would have more of them. How awesome!
We aren’t married but we are heading towards our 5th year of dating anniversary and we celebrate every year with a really nice dinner. Last year I was sick so we ate take-in but this year I think we will have to make up for that!
Aww happy dating anniversary! I think it’s so wonderful that you guys have been together eight years…that’s no small accomplishment!
ahhhh I love hearing about dating anniversaries!! It’s so cute that you guys met at the gym, and still to this day you’re always at the gym together~:D
And yes, I’m sure my fiance and I will celebrate it too! We’ve always been like that, and he’s even more conscientious about keeping those kinds of memories and dates than I am sometimes. So I know I’ll never have to nag about that hehhee
And you look gorgeous in that bright red?orange? dress! Uh-oh…am I colorblind now?
I think its awesome you celebrate your dating anniversary!! I think my husband and I definitely WOULD but neither of us can remember our first actual “date” So it looks like our wedding anniversary is all we got 🙂
My husband and I do something special on our dating anniversary, too. We just celebrated 8 years in January. We were together for 7 years before getting married, so the dating anniversary still seems important to us. 🙂
Happy 8 years! I only celebrated my past dating anniversaries if I remembered the date of the first date, which I usually did not. I think it’s a cute tradition that you might as well keep doing!
We haven’t yet (been married a year) but I remember when it is. it’s definitely been a while-about 8 years now! crazy! congrats to you guys!
We would totally celebrate our dating anniversary… if either of us knew it. I know it was Jan. 2005 when we went from being friends (which we had been since 2001 maybe?) to more than that… but the lines are blurry as to when “friends hooking up” turned into “boyfriend/girlfriend officially”. Plus when we were just friends fooling around, we both fooled around with other people (haha!) so I don’t think those weeks can count! So, we’ll be married one year in June and we’ll finally be able to start celebrating anniversaries after 7 1/2 years together! yaaay!
I’m not married yet, engaged, but I would celebrate both. Currently Andrew and I celebrate the day we met and the day I asked him “so are we boyfrien and girlfriend or what?” haha. Having a significant other is so fun!
Happy dating anniversary !! Can u tell me where u got or what brand the dress is in the first pic?! I am just assuming it’s a dress 🙂 thanks!
it’s actually a top! it’s french connection.
Congrats! My man and I just celebrated our 8 year anniversary a couple weeks ago, too!
We don’t celebrate our dating annivesary. My Husband said one anniversary is enough – I tend to agree. We don’t really do anything for our wedding anniversary, we just aren’t celebratory people I guess.
I’m married and we celebrate BOTH for sure!!
This month (2 years ago) we got engaged–so I LOVE February! <3
Awesome upper body workout–love it!
Our dating anniversary and wedding anniversary are just 4 days apart, so they get rolled in together.
So funny because me and my hubby’s dating anniversary is Feb 4th! We’ll have been together for 6 years! EEK!
Question – how do you get your workouts as a photo like that on your blog? Do you create it in a table and screen shot it?
yep!! you got it!
My hubby (Ryan too!) and I celebrate whenever we get the chance! Our dating anniversary, or wedding anniversary, or our “Let’s celebrate because we still like each other” anniversary 🙂 I say …. celebrate whenever you can … life is too short not to be grateful for all the lil moments 🙂 Happy February Julie 🙂
i love this!!
Oh yeah … and Happy Dating Anniversary!
We kind of still celebrate our dating anniversary. We happened to get engaged 1 day BEFORE our two year dating anniversary, so now we kind of roll them into 1!
me & my hubby still celebrate our dating anniversary too! We’ll be married for 3 years this summer and just had our 9 year dating anniversary in october! i thought we were the only ones that did that! and we actually make sure to tell each other happy anniversary each 19th of the month which is our dating anniversary not our wedding …. haha sounds so silly!
Congrats! Definitely keep the dating anniversary because that’s when you started – 8 years is a long time for a 26 year old!
I actually don’t have any type of anniversary with my bf. We kinda said “guess we’re dating” when we were 15 and never really had a specific date…hahaha. But if we go out on dates or celebrate something, it involves a bottle of wine and steak! I would def celebrate my wedding anniversary.
Congrats! It’s so cute that you celebrate both still! We got married eleven days before our five year dating anniversary, so I’m not sure if we’ll still celebrate or if we’ll just acknowledge it. For our first date we did a hike and pizza, so I certainly wouldn’t mind repeating that day!
Happy dating anniversary!
My husband & I had our very 1st date @ the Cheesecake Factory in Orlando too! Ours was Nov 3rd 2003. Our drive would be a tad longer than 1.5 hrs to come celebrate… more like 12hrs 🙂 We now live in Nashville, TN.
Fabian and I don’t celebrate our dating anniversary anymore. It was the most annoying date ever. January 9. Right when you’re poor as dirt after the holidays and the new year. We even got to the point that we stopped really celebrating because it was just too much of an expenditure. So we intentionally got married away from all holidays and birthdays. The new anniversary (wedding) – March 2 was born! 🙂
We aren’t married yet, but I think we definitely will celebrate our dating anniversary!
PS How do you perform an assisted pull-up? Thanks!
i use a machine at the gym that supports my knees and takes some of the weight off. makes a big difference!
My guy and i have only been dating seriously for a few months (and I’m not quite sure we ever established an official anniversary date) but I have always celebrated the “day we met” or our “friend-iversary” – which is now at 7 years!
Happy dating anniversary 🙂
My husband and I can’t seem to get rid of our dating anniversary either. I think it would feel weird not to celebrate it. Especially because this year it will be 10 years. Plus it’s New Year’s Eve, so we’re already celebrating anyway.
Yay Julie! Happy anniversary 🙂 Although we’ve been together 4 years and approaching the big wedding date, I love celebrating our anniv and we both said we’d plan to continue celebrating it as well once we’re married. I think it’s important 🙂
Want to hear something psychotic? My boyfriend and I “celebrate” the anniversary of the day we met, as well as legit celebrate two different anniversaries: one for our first date, and one for the day we actually made our relationship “official.” I told him that we should just get engaged and/or married on one of those days so that we’re not celebrating five anniversaries down the road ; )
Today is also my dating anniversary, unfortunately we are unable to celebrate this one together since we are currently in a long distance relationship 🙁 However, we will be spending an extened weekend together right before valentine’s day so double the celebrating 🙂 I’m not married but I would also continue to celebrate a dating anniversary, because I think it’s just as important. I meean without dating there wouldn’t have been a marriage.
aw, that will be so much fun! have a blast!
Our wedding anniversary happens to be just a few days after our dating anniversary (we planned it that way) so we just celebrate all at once 🙂
TODAY is my dating anniversary too…7 years! Woo hoo! Not married, but I think I will want to celebrate both! After 7 years of dating..how can you just let all those dating years go??! Plus any excuse to spend some quality time together 😉
Happy Dating Anniversary!
how fun! congrats!!
Our dating anniversary happened to fall on a Saturday in 2012, so we are getting married on that day 🙂
my husband and I “cheated” and got married on our dating anniversary 🙂
We just celebrated our 5-year dating anniversary last Thursday (it also happened to be our 2-month wedding anniversary)! Happy 8 years to you guys!
We love celebrating our dating anniversary! It is exactly one week before Christmas, and we usually swap one present on that day. This year is our TEN year dating anniversary (holy moly), so I want to plan something extra special. 🙂
Happy (Dating) Anniversary! Y’all are such a cute couple!!
P.S. How do you do your hair that way (the picture of you in the blue dress)? I’ve never been able to figure it out and its beautiful!
thank you! here’s a tutorial: https://www.pbfingers.com/2010/10/16/how-to-curl-your-hair-with-a-straightener-video/
Wow! You have everything already on your page. I love that! Thank You!
Keith and I got engaged on our dating anniversary so we always remember that day! I wish we had gotten married on that day too but neither of us were willing to wait a year to tie the knot…9 months later we have our wedding anniversary!
My husband and I still do our dativersary too! I feel like it’s an extra day to celebrate, plus after being together for 7 years before we got married, I don’t just want to start the year counting over! We celebrated our 8 years last month 🙂 Happy dativersary!