Levi's Birtheve Date Night

On Levi's birtheve (aka the night before his 31st birthday), we did a little celebrating at Red Table, a new restaurant in Huntington Beach. Levi and I were really excited when we heard that my friend Taylor's mom was opening a new restaurant nearby! Long Beach is in desperate need of new, good restaurants.

Red Table is awesome. It has a really eclectic style with both its food and its décor (btw, the women's restroom has a mirror that is oh so flattering... don't you LOVE those??).

(LOVED this chandelier cluster. By the way, the lighting was very romantic, so our pictures are a bit soft-focused and dark.)

All the staff was super friendly. Taylor was there when we walked in. She showed us to our table, made a few recommendations, and brought us some wine. Hospitable? Yes!

(my dinner game face)

We started with soup - tomato bisque for me and clam chowder for Levi.

I miss my soup. It was so delicious.

Then we had our main courses - pan roasted chicken for me and braised beef short ribs for Levi.

Now, I loved the chicken and the short ribs, but my very favorite part of our entrées was Levi's roasted carrots in that yummy sauce and the mashed potatoes... I'm such a side lover. If I could, I would order roasted carrots and mashed potatoes everywhere I go. I'm pretty sure Red Table had the best roasted carrots I've ever had. I want some right now, please.

After dinner, we moved on to our dessert courses... yes, that's right. I said courses, plural. There were too many good options on the menu, so we decided that we needed to try several - the Red Table cupcake (which literally comes out in a cup), the broken banana cream pie, and two chocolate truffles - espresso and chili.

We both agreed that our favorite was the chili truffle. Our server told us that they use a little bit of ghost chili pepper in the chili powder that tops the truffle. Have you heard of that stuff? It's craaaaaazy. Super duper hot. They only used a teensy bit on the truffle though, and it gave it just the right amount of slow burn. Chili and chocolate is such a delicious combination. If you're local, go try Red Table!!! And tell Taylor I say hello!

After dinner, we stopped by Peet's for some tea and took a walk.

(Levi's blogger pose)

It was a superb birtheve.

OHHHHH!

How is this boy's existence fair to all the other babies in the world??! He's just the cutest thing I've ever ever seen. And I'm not being biased one teensy bit.

Wolfie's lots of fun to be obsessed with.

(all photos stolen from my brother and sister-in-law)

More snippets of conversation. Because I love them.

Found this gem that Levi had written down and saved in his phone:

While trying to figure out why the bakery wouldn't sell her the last piece of wildberry cake:

Jasmine: They probably wanted to eat it themselves, huh?

Levi: It was a dream. I'm sure they didn't have any motivation.

Hahahahahah! WHY AM I SO FUNNY?!

In Bed.

This is what my life has looked like for the last week:

I caught that super nasty cold that's going around. I don't want to point any fingers, but it was his fault. That little monster.

The worst part of this malady has been the night coughing. Ugh, pure torture. I CANNOT STOP coughing as soon as bedtime rolls around. I describe them as "powdery coughs." It's like I inhaled a powdery substance, and it keeps puffing around in my chest, tickling my throat, making me choke.

A couple nights ago, at 2:00 in the morning, the coughing was so bad that Levi and I started desperately searching for new remedies online (I had already tried every NyQuil type medication, two different kinds of cough syrup, cough drops, tea, hot water with honey and lemon, hot showers, cold walks outside, everything). One website recommended putting Vick's VapoRub on the soles of your feet and sleeping with thick socks on. Another site recommended dark chocolate. So, at 2:30 in the morning, Levi went to CVS to purchase Vick's and the darkest chocolate he could find.

As I waited, hacking my brains out and seriously gasping for air, I started noticing a fuzzy little aura in my vision. I was getting a migraine. Seriously, body? A migraine? Now??! I had already taken two Benadryl to try to knock myself out, so I was deliriously tired. And my stomach ached from all the coughing. I was dreading the nausea and brain-splitting headache this migraine would bring. The hole in my vision kept getting worse, and the coughing would NOT stop, so I hobbled to the kitchen with my eyes closed and decided that I would eat until Levi got back. Eating seemed to be the only thing that kept me from coughing. I sat in the living room in my robe with my eyes closed, forcing myself to eat gingerbread cookies (I hated adding more sugar to the mix, but they were the only thing we had in the house). Then I decided to make myself some hot honey water with lime squeezed into it... all with my eyes closed. It was seriously comical.

When Levi got back at 3:00, he rubbed the Vick's on my feet and put my socks on for me. I crawled back into bed and shoved some 86% dark chocolate in my mouth (sooooo bitter), forcing myself to choke it down (coughing is a great appetite suppressant). We started laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole thing - me blinded by a migraine preparing drinks in the kitchen with my eyes closed, Levi frantically running to the pharmacy in the middle of the night, then driving to 7-Eleven for lemons shouting at the employee in the parking lot on a smoke break, "DO YOU HAVE ANY LEMONS? I NEED LEMONS!" Everyone needs a little frantic midnight drama in their lives to spice things up every now and again.

So what have I learned from this cold?

1. The Vick's on the feet thing does actually work. However, I prefer it on my chest.

2. Coconut oil is the best thing in the world for a nose rubbed raw by Kleenex... even the lotion kind beats my nose up. I've been dragging a little bowl of coconut oil around the house with me, rubbing it on every time I blow my nose.

3. A bed littered with used Kleenex, cough drop wrappers, nose spray, and dark chocolate wrappers is super sexy... not. The sight does make me laugh though.

4. My husband is the best nurse in all the land.

5. Chocolate is good for everything.

Saturday Night

On Saturday night, we walked to Peet's for some tea, scones, and Yahtzee.

We're totally fine with being an old married couple already.

I like to sit and watch things happen.

Are you watching Revenge and Once Upon a Time?

If so, are you as hooked as I am??!

If not, you really should be. You'll thank me later.

I'm obsessed.

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