Postpartum Sisters-in-Law Open Up: Body Image, Worst Dates EVER & V-day Gift Ideas

What this episode is about

The discussion focuses on postpartum body image challenges faced by new mothers, sharing personal struggles and humorous anecdotes about relationships and gift ideas. The conversation balances serious reflections on self-esteem with lighthearted exchanges about worst date experiences and preferences for quirky Valentine's Day gifts.

Key takeaways

• Embracing post-baby body chaos is real; remember, it took nine months to create, so give it time.
• High heart rates aren't just fitness badges; they can reveal unique physiological quirks—like being a 'cute bunny'!
• Homemade gifts are the antidote to consumerism; a quilted bowl cover might just be the next hot Etsy trend.
• Who needs a luxury vacation? A car wash subscription turns mundane errands into the ultimate self-care experience.
• Comedic relief can turn public embarrassment into shared laughter; even discussing diarrhea can lead to bonding moments!

Who speaks in this episode?

• Abby Howard (Host) · 51 min speaking
• Addy (Guest) · 34 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 10:00: Super Bowl, X Games, Abby Howard
2. 10:00 – 20:00: Miracle Made
3. 30:00 – 40:00: Cheesecake Factory
4. 40:00 – 50:00: Abby Howard
5. 1:00:00 – 1:10:00: NBA, NHL
6. 1:10:00 – 1:20:00: Croatia, Italy, Oregon Coast, Porttoarda
7. 1:20:00 – 1:25:26: My Husband's Wife, Daisy Jones & The Six, The Perfect Marriage

Notable quotes from "Postpartum Sisters-in-Law Open Up: Body Image, Worst Dates EVER & V-day Gift Ideas"

• Welcome back to Always Here. We're your hosts Abby Howard.

  about Abby Howard · at 0:42

• Yeah, we have we've actually we hosted last year because Caleb's two favorite teams are the Chiefs and the Eagles. And your team I don't even know who's in the Super.

  about Super Bowl · at 5:41

• We need to be investing in our sleep and that is where Miracle Made comes into play. Miracle Made sheets are crafted with NASA inspired silver infused fabric that helps regulate your body temperature.

  about Miracle Made · at 16:49

• Like Cheesecake Factory. Gosh, if we want to be fancy.

  about Cheesecake Factory · at 35:35

• The Oregon coast is really beautiful and I wish we had more time there. cuz they have got national parks and the beaches are so beautiful and I feel like it feels just so unique within America.

  about Oregon Coast · at 1:15:47

• I was going to say Italy. Caleb and I on our honeymoon. We went to We did a couple different spots in Europe and obviously the Maui Coast was the most gorgeous place ever. And it's so.

  about Italy · at 1:16:47

• Abby, have you ever finished Daisy Jones in the six?

  about Daisy Jones & The Six · at 1:22:30

• Said a couple times, we have a book club now. we already have members, so that's very exciting. Our book this month is My Husband's Wife and we're just going to read it in the month of February by Alice Feni. There's.

  about My Husband's Wife · at 1:23:17

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Abby Howard — Person · Host / Co-host · 2 mentions · first at 0:47
  Named as a host of the podcast and is a primary speaker throughout, sharing personal stories (postpartum body image, date stories) and leading segments (ads, recommendations).
• Elon Musk — Person · Referenced public figure (passing mention) · 1 mention
  Only appears as a brief cultural reference; not tied to the episode’s main themes (postpartum body image, relationships, date ideas).

Books & papers

• My Husband's Wife — Book · Primary recommendation · 1 mention · first at 1:23:21
  Selected as the book club's read for the month.
• Daisy Jones & The Six — Book · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at 1:22:30
  Mentioned in the context of book discussions and potential movie adaptations.
• The Perfect Marriage — Book · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at 1:22:39
  Mentioned in the context of book discussions and potential movie adaptations.
  Okay. The first thing that came to my head was the perfect marriage.

Companies & orgs

• Cheesecake Factory — Company · Referenced work · 3 mentions · first at 35:35
  Mentioned as a preferred dining option over fine dining.

Places & events

• Oregon Coast — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 1:15:47
  Described as a beautiful and unique travel destination.
• Italy — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 1:16:47
  Described as a memorable travel destination from a honeymoon.
• Croatia — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 1:17:29
  Mentioned as a surprising and enjoyable travel destination.
  Insane. I want to go back. We haven't done like a ton of international travel together, but I was going to say Croatia because I was surprised by like how much fun we had in…
• Super Bowl — Event · Setting · 2 mentions · first at 5:26
  Mentioned in the context of hosting a party.
• X Games — Event · Referenced work · 2 mentions · first at 7:01
  Mentioned in the context of sports interests and potential trips.
  Maybe that would like make him want to be into the X Games and you guys could take X Games trips.
• NBA — Event · Referenced work · 2 mentions · first at 1:08:07
  Mentioned in the context of sports discussions and potential date ideas.
  My last one, and maybe we can check go on this one together. An NBA or NHL ticket. And then get them a jersey or a hat or something fun to wear to the game. And if their favorite team is out of state, plan a trip. Ooh, fun.
• NHL — Event · Referenced work · 2 mentions · first at 1:08:07
  Mentioned in the context of sports discussions and potential date ideas.
  My last one, and maybe we can check go on this one together. An NBA or NHL ticket. And then get them a jersey or a hat or something fun to wear to the game. And if their favorite team is out of state, plan a trip. Ooh, fun.
• Porttoarda — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 1:18:21
  Mentioned as a travel destination in Mexico.
  We've gone to Porttoarda, which is further. A lot further. Yeah.

Sponsors

• Miracle Made — Product · Sponsor · 1 mention · first at 16:51
  Promoted as high-quality sheets with temperature-regulating technology, featured in an ad read.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 I've just been really struggling with body image. Saying it out loud, I'm like, I feel so dumb. I just had a baby four months ago. I remember feeling like scared to put on like totally don't fit still.

0:08 Let's go shopping Sunday. Really sexy, too. A car wash subscription. Honestly, I want that.

0:16 And they have their unlimited free vacuums and their unlimited air tire pressure pumper uppers.

0:20 Yes. Sign him up. I took Matt to a comedy show. The one that Matt got called up for was like being stuck in Blockbuster with diarrhea. Oh my gosh.

0:29 And the whole thing has like fart sounds going on. And it honestly I feel like my brain is protecting me from this.

0:42 Welcome back to Always Here. We're your hosts Abby Howard. Abby Howard. We got it. Yeah, we got it. Welcome back sister.

0:55 Thanks. Glad to be here. Glad to be here. I keep coughing. It's because I did a cardio workout and every time I do cardio, I can't stop coughing the rest of the day.

1:04 Why? I have bad lungs. Bad lungs. I didn't know that. Yeah. No, if I run, I'll cough the rest of the day.

1:11 Really? I thought it was just like a heart rate thing. Like your you got a heart of a rabbit.

1:15 Yeah, I do. What's your heart rate at right now? Over 100. You're kidding. You're kidding.

1:21 Not kidding. That's insane. 105. What's your resting? My average is 66. That's your average resting heart rate?

1:29 Yeah. Oh my gosh. I think that's pretty good. I think that's good. I think mine's like 48.

1:33 Okay, runner girl. I mean, quit bragging. Gosh. No, I'm not bragging. That's just No, I'm just kidding. I Googled it one time and I was like, why is my heart rate so high? And then they're like, it's usually related to obesity. Okay, perfect.

1:46 No problem. Okay, wait. A normal resting heart rate is between 60 to 100s. So, though highly trained athletes may have closer to 40. Let's not like fluff my me up.

1:57 Aby's an athlete. I'm going to put on my name tag for the rest of my life. I do have a theory that uh that short girls do have higher heart rates and it's literally just because my other friends that are short or shorter than me also have high heart rates

2:11 cuz the blood's just flying through your body cuz like my doctor's like maybe you're just like a little bunny. And I was like that doesn't sound medical. I think she's trying to make me feel better.

2:19 Oh, I kind of like that though. They did they did say they could refer me to a cardiologist. Oh, you're like, "Well,

2:25 the the concerning point is if you feel faint when your heart rate gets up or it can't recover quickly, which that's never been a problem."

2:31 Sure, I feel fine. Yeah, you're good. Just hacking a lot. Just scoffing constantly. Well, I wanted to um give you your Christmas gift.

2:38 Woo! February second. Thank you. Not me last time being like, "You never gave me that gift." I know. Sold her out.

2:45 I did put it in the first bag that was on top. So, it says baby love. Beautiful. I'm just impressed that you wrapped it, Abby.

2:51 Yeah. I honestly thought about it twice. So, the backstory on this is that it's customade.

2:56 It's just like a little cute thing, but it's from Kilbad's family friend, Carly. She started a quilting business. You can open it. Okay. Sorry, I'm giving the gift away and you haven't even looked at it. This is so cute. She made that. And I thought it'd be cute to put your books in and your journals, your Kindle,

3:17 your studies. And then inside is the original gift that I wanted to get you. They are covers for your sourdough bowls.

3:24 I almost put this on my head. I thought it was shower cap. You're kidding. So you don't have to use shower caps anymore.

3:29 This is so cute. And I thought it looked small. Remember when I said I think I got the wrong size. It does fit over a KitchenAid bowl.

3:37 Does it? Yes. It stretches. I tested it on mine. So when you're rising your bread, you don't have to do that.

3:41 These are adorable. This is such a good gift, Abby. You're like, it's nothing much. I like love this so much. She did a really good job. So she, if you guys can't see it, she quilted it and it has a little star and it's in the always here colors and then she hand embroidered always here.

3:55 I love And then the inside she did blue which was really thoughtful. Yeah, that is so sweet. I actually have like a just a cheap one from Amazon of these. This is like it's very useful. So this is perfect. And now this will fit a lot more too.

4:09 Yeah, it's it's a good size. I didn't tell her specifically what size. I said just

4:12 No, it's a perfect size. A pouch. a large pouch. I like this so much. Both these very useful, very thoughtful,

4:20 very personalized. If anyone is in the um well, I should tell Carly this, but like on Etsy, I was trying to find cute customized bowl covers for bread rising and I couldn't find anything that was customized or even remotely attractive looking.

4:34 So that's I reached out to Carly when I saw she was making stuff. So that there's a gap in the market, ladies, if you're looking for a little side hustle.

4:41 Yeah. And honestly, I love using like something that sticks rather than a towel

4:46 cuz it just fits so nicely. And I also think it keeps it more contained. This is per Thank you so much. I love this. I like really really love this.

4:54 Oh, good. Merry Christmas. Hey, really quick. It would mean so much to us. Hey, how about a little Valentine's Day gift to us right now and give us five stars. Write a review if you feel so inclined. We really, really appreciate it. Subscribe to our show, share it, like it, do all the things. And we'll just give you a couple seconds to do that.

5:14 Thank you. You're the best. I knew you were I knew you were going to do it that time.

5:18 Share the love. We're feeling it. Share the love. And now we can go back to the episode. My hope is I'm getting to give that to you. I'm just kidding. Also, we're hosting a Super Bowl party this weekend.

5:28 Oh yeah. We planned it last night. So today's Wednesday, the party's on Sunday. And I think it's going to be fun. I'm low key.

5:37 That's all plenty of time. There's plenty of time. Yeah, that'll be fun. Yeah, we have we've actually we hosted last year because Caleb's two favorite teams are the Chiefs and the Eagles. And your team

5:47 I don't even know who's in the Super Bowl. I I know the first team. It's the Patriots. But who's the other team, Addie?

5:52 The Seahawks. Seahawks. I didn't have to look that up. Just so everyone knows, I'm going to root for I'm a big football girl.

5:57 I root for the Seahawks. I hear about the lifts. I am excited for the Seahawks as well.

6:01 I have no other reason. I don't even know where they come from. Yeah. Seattle. Seattle. Patriots, where do they come from?

6:08 New England. Did I do that? I'm honestly impressed you do that. I don't I I honestly New England's always eluded me. It's in America.

6:19 Next next episode I'm going to quiz you guys on NFL teams and we're I actually would be really good at the Caleb quizzes me sometimes and I could even tell you some of the announcers names.

6:29 Oh yeah, I'm not. He really quizzes me. Well, I know Joe Bug because from St. Louis.

6:33 Oh yeah. Um trying to think of the other guy's name. Scott Van Pel SVP people don't like what's his name another one of them

6:42 there's there's a lot of controversial ones might be Joe Buck yeah I we should I feel like that's one fun thing as a girl it's like get into football

6:49 or like a sport yes you know what I mean maybe it's for girls who their spouses like

6:54 like sports Matt would be like why you getting into sport you like live sports if you got into the X games Abby Matt was thrilled He's not even really into it though. He's into participating in these things. Like he does not

7:12 he's not a fan of the like sports necessarily. Maybe that would like make him want to be into the X Games and you guys could take X Games trips.

7:21 What is X Games? Is it skateboarding? Yeah. And biking. He would like that. He would like that.

7:26 Or like the Winter Olympics are coming up. Just start studying of all these snowboarders. You should do a video of that where you'd quit like look at of all the big snowboarders and then turn it on and you're like, "Whoa, Matt, look at this guy's trick." And then

7:40 he would be very very thrown off. What? I wish I was like that kind of cool wife who like knew this stuff, but you

7:46 know. No, maybe maybe in another life. That's Anyway, that's my hope. I'm excited to host a party.

7:51 That'll be fun. I'm excited to come. Yeah. Last year you were supposed to come, but you got sick.

7:56 Really? Or the boys were sick. Yeah. That honestly kills me when that happens. I know. I was bummed, too.

8:02 I was there last year. You guys came. Yeah. And I already told her I'm not going to be there this year. I'm not flaking. I have told her I'm not coming.

8:09 I respect You guys have a busy schedule this week. We do have a busy schedule. Yeah.

8:14 I'm maxed out on Blake's activities. Yeah. And he loves football, so he wants to be focused.

8:18 Yeah. I was telling uh my mom, I said, basically, I'll be hosting the party and Caleb will be on the couch just watching the game.

8:24 Yeah. I'm like, unless there's like a label by that says Blake, this is where he can sit.

8:28 Yeah. Yeah. No one interrupt him. Exactly. Antisocial. Yeah. What about you? What's your hope this week?

8:34 Uh, honestly, my hope is I just love my life. What? I don't know. I've just been thinking about this a lot. I'm like, wow. I just

8:45 I just enjoy the things that are happening. Like, I just I have I feel like Okay, so we intentionally made February like jam-packed. I feel like I always love having plans. I feel like we know that. I talk about that all the time.

8:57 But like February is like absolutely jam-packed and that like I like love that makes me feel so happy and some could say I'm distracting myself.

9:08 I love that tactic. Thank you personally. Thank you. And so I have like I have so much to look forward to. I think that's part of it. And also just like the weather is beautiful. Like I truly like enjoy my kids. Actually, this is something I've been thinking about a lot. I think it's really important.

9:24 This is such a side tangent, but I think about it a lot. I tell like our kid, my kids a lot because I I first of all, I totally mean this, but I think it's really important that my kids know that I like enjoy being their mom so much and I like enjoy being a mom in general so much. I want them to know that. I think grow growing up, I always knew my mom like loved being a mom and that does something, I think, for kids. Like you just feel like just your presence around your parents is just like it's so pleasing to them. And I feel like that's really important. So all the time I'm like, I love being your mom. And then now they mirror back. They're like, I love being your kid. Oh, they're sweet.

9:59 And so I just like I don't know. When I was driving the other day, I was like, gosh, things are so good. And so,

10:06 yes, I say this because when I hear other people like say that they like love their life, I that's obviously so dramatic, like a weird way of saying it, but like they're happy with their life circumstances or like they're having a good time, like that makes me look at my own life like in a posture of gratitude and thankfulness and it doesn't make me like, oh, I wish I had their life.

10:27 Sure. So, sometimes I'm like, oh, I don't want to say that. I'm just like so happy with how things are going be but um

10:34 but that's not how it works cuz it feels boastful but it's like I feel like in like most people then reflect on their own life in a positive way more so

10:41 also I think like you guys are going through a hard season. You've been going through a hard season and so it's like to see the positive side of it too where it's like you can go through hard things and still feel

10:50 happy and joy and like grateful is I think important for people to see. Yeah, I think that's great.

10:56 Thank you. I love that. I love that. Yeah. I don't know. I started telling CJ like two weeks ago or a couple weeks ago. I've always been very like affectionate towards CJ and tell him all the time like I love you with all my heart. I love you, you know. But I started telling him recently, I just love hanging out with you. I love hanging out with you so much, CJ. And the immediate

11:14 like the you can see in his posture, he he just like feels so comforted by that.

11:20 So now I've been saying it more often. But you saying that I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I just started telling CJ how much I love just spending time with him." I think it's really important

11:28 because they also don't necessarily understand like, okay, why is mom like emptying out the dishwasher? Why is she, you know, doing all these things? And it's like I want them to know that like the times that I am like I have to do these things, but the times I enjoy the most are like with you.

11:43 Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Fun. For hards, what was is yours light or heavy? I actually didn't have one.

11:50 That's great. I was going to play that card cuz I was like I've had a lot of heavy. So, we're just going to lighten it up. I actually really don't have one.

11:58 Okay, good. Well, we're just running on the I love your life. Okay. Yeah. Should I skip my hard then?

12:02 No. I love my life, too. No. I mean, it's not really I think it's relatable. Okay.

12:08 Addy and I were talking about this today. Just like I feel like I'm at the four, five, four and a half months postpartum. I've just been really struggling with body image.

12:16 And I hate to say that because even saying it out loud, I'm like I feel so dumb saying that because I just had a baby four months ago. But I think in my head too, and I feel like I kind of talked this about this with my schedule and feeling overwhelmed. You get to a point where you start to feel good and like feel normal again. And then it's like, oh, then I should then I feel like I've arrived or I'm back to my normal or whatever, but then I put my clothes on and they don't fit still. And it's just every time I remember feeling this a little bit after CJ, like scared to put on

12:45 my clothes totally because I'm like I don't want to put them on in fear of feeling like the reminder that they don't fit still. Um, which I have like a small section of my closet that is for like this postpartum season and my pregnancy season. And to be honest, I'm so sick of those clothes.

13:01 Yeah, I like hate them right now. I'm like, these pants again. Let's go shopping.

13:06 But then I don't want to buy new stuff because at the same time, your body changes so much when you're buy.

13:11 I know. Just buy the stuff. Let's go shopping. Sunday. Okay. Put on the calendar.

13:20 Let's go shopping. No, seriously. Yeah, I do think that helps. I think you sharing that is honestly probably speaking to so many women listening to this because

13:29 there's this not to over talk on your thing, but like there's like this narrative that is very it's not even a narrative. This is just true. Like it is amazing what our bodies do

13:39 and the changes that come with it. It's like we still you can hold both. Like I'm so grateful that like my body grew and stretched and all these different things and there's evidence of that reflected in my postpartum body. But then you can also be like, "Okay, I kind of miss like

13:56 my closet. I got to miss my clothes. I kind of miss like, you know, looking this certain way in this swimsuit or things like how they were." You can have both. You can have gratitude for your kid and what your body did and also be like,

14:08 "Well, here we are. Here we are." like you're allowed to have both. And I remember I think everyone feels that way feels and like I also will say I feel like

14:19 each kid that like you can't hold yourself to the same standard as your first kid.

14:25 Totally. Because you're entering into a different your body is doing a whole different thing kind of. I mean it's the same thing but if you know now having two pregnancies like it's different things happen differently. And so I think this the sentiment I hear is usually like with each kid it gets a little bit harder and like that's just part of it. And so it's like being honest with that also gives you freedom. Like it's like yeah like this is a struggle and it gives other women freedom. So that I'm I'm glad you shared that.

14:55 Yeah. Thanks. And I feel like I see online all the time it's just like people are like

14:59 don't complain about or don't be hard on yourself but sometimes you just are hard on yourself and

15:03 sometimes you are. Then I feel bad that I'm being hard on myself and I'm like dang. But then I'm like, okay, don't be hard on yourself.

15:08 Yeah. I told I told Abby before because I saw on her sheet that she was going to talk about it. I'm like, h finally someone else who also is insecure about their postpartum body. I mean, everyone is, but everyone's like, don't you worked so hard. I'm like, but I want I want it back. Like, I want to get back in shape. And it's hard sometimes. And I was telling her when we were just on vacation, I put my swimsuit on. I was like I wanted to post something and be like, "Okay, postpartum ladies, if you're putting your swimsuit on for the first time, I see you. It's hard." But I'm like, "Also, I don't see you. I don't notice. I don't look at other women and be like, "Oh, that she's postpartum or she looks I see her stretch marks." Like, I don't see you in that way. And so, I was like trying to like, okay, no one sees me. No one sees me. It's just me.

15:48 You're okay. Well, it's even crazy hearing you guys both share that because I think you guys look amazing. Like, I really do. And I know I could say that a million times and it's not going to necessarily metabolize into like your own identity, but I think you guys look amazing. So, I'm surprised to hear that, but I'm also like

16:08 it makes sense. I've been there, too. And like, you know, I know I always want to share it, too, cuz then it's like, am I being am I just being vain? Am I just being self, you know, are these thoughts like not good thoughts to have, which they aren't to be like to be picky about those things. And that's why I also wanted to talk about it or like voice it out loud because sometimes when I say them out loud then I'm like this is silly and not something that I should be it's not of important like it's not

16:36 of big importance. It's just a body. Let's go shopping. I mean do you ever wake up sweaty?

16:40 Sure do because I definitely know you do. You know I be sweating up in that bed. The temperature in your bedroom can make or break your sleep.

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17:14 You have the sand colored. Yeah, I did get the sand. I'm partial to white sheets.

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17:56 go shopping. Problem solved. Or we can just go to the kitchen and make tangulu and

18:02 more. It's healthy. Segue. Um, we're talking people are commenting about that that they think it's funny. So, I guess I don't know how to segue that we're trying to like segue. We can go shopping or we can go eat some desserts.

18:21 Okay, so my latest obsession has been making tongulu, which is a traditional Chinese snack. I think it's actually traditionally eaten also more around this time of year because it's like the new year, the Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year.

18:37 Oh, it's one of their desserts. I think I don't know if it's specifically tied to the New Year, but I think it is because at Disneyland it's like a stand like around their Chinese New Year.

18:46 Oh, that's fun. Um, it's candied fruit and traditionally they use strawberries, clementines, and oranges. We got a little crazy with it the other night and I think they do other things too, but uh we got a little we took some liberties.

19:01 We did. We We were like, "What can we tongulu in this house?" It's so fun. Okay. So, you literally just melt sugar in water and then dip your fruit in it.

19:08 I'm sorry. I called you out for that the other night and you just melt. Do you hear it, too?

19:13 I didn't hear it. Did you hear melt? I say melt. And I know that it's wrong. You actually say that

19:19 when I'm talking fast. Yes. Okay. But you know it's melt. Sorry. Melt. Melt. I almost feel like I would have to say it slower in a deeper tone to say it right.

19:28 Melt. I melt. Melted. I'm melt. It is deeply connected to Chinese New Year as a symbol of joy, family reunion, and good luck.

19:36 I could say I felt all those things eating it. It was very It was amazing. And so I I actually was like going back and forth at Disneyland. I was like, "This is ridiculous." Cuz it's $10 for three strawberries. But I was like, "Oh, it's kind of fun vacation." And um plus I don't love like overly sweet desserts. Uh the funny thing is it's very sweet. It's extreme. I was almost like, "Wow,

20:02 you need water." And I love overly sweet. It's not rich, but it's very sweet. And so, it's just you just dip uh your fruit in sugar and water, dip it in ice, and it makes this like perfect thin crunchy shell, and then you bite into it and it's like juicy fruit on the inside. It's so good.

20:19 Really good. And I was like, Abby, we you're going to love this. We got to try this. And it was like 10 p.m. Our kids are like running a muck. Still awake. Still awake. We're just in the We're just in the kitchen dipping dipping things. Don't get tired. Like literally don't get tired. Especially when they're playing with their cousin. They're just kind of like

20:35 They just keeping up. Yeah, totally. And so we were h we were revving up as well. We stuck broccoli in there. We stuck nerds clusters in there.

20:44 Nerd clusters are probably good. It was so good. The broccoli so gross. Gross. I was about to say if you're about to say it was good,

20:52 I yacked it up. Yeah, we both spit it out. You should cook the broccoli if you're going to do it, but even then, don't do it.

20:57 Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Blackberries. They were good. They originally were from Hawthorne berries is what they where they originated from. And now it's mostly with strawberries, tangerines, kiwis, and apricots.

21:10 Kiwis would be so good. Oh, that would be good. I've never had a fresh apricot.

21:13 I've never heard of a hawthorne berry. What about a pineapple? Oh, it's too heavy. That would have been good.

21:18 Oh, you can't do it. I don't think it would work. Anything that is wet, it doesn't stick to it. We should have tangula a bread. Tangula that bread.

21:27 No, I saw Mickey Giovani tongulu a croissant. A cinnamon roll. It's logistically difficult, but we can make it happen.

21:38 We should do a whole YouTube video of us just trying. We keep talking about it. Literally, no, they exist. Cuz I was I was going down that rabbit hole.

21:45 Let's start the Let's enter the rabbit hole. I always say phrases wrong and I just say them with so much confidence. Uh

21:54 oh. I've been saying that tongulu wrong for ever since you mentioned it. No, I'm talking about phrases. Like I don't know. I still to this day don't know if it's whole bowl of wax or ball of wax.

22:04 How can you use the saying in a sentence? You've never heard of it? I don't think so.

22:09 I ball of wax. Hannah, have you heard of this? What? What? Ball of yarn. Can you hear?

22:15 You're like the whole ball of wax or bowl of wax. I've never heard that. Okay. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents growing up. Okay. I know a lot of phrases that I should know. Oh, I say who shot John?

22:25 That one is unique. I've never heard that before. Yeah. I mean, I feel like my grandpa

22:29 Even when you're saying it fast, I'm like, "Slow, wait, slow down. Who shot John?"

22:32 That's some Who shot John? When someone is saying something that they're just like,

22:35 "That's a lie. It's a lie." Or they're like very overexaggerating it or they're making up a story. I always use it for Blake because I feel like Blake is always saying some who shot my brother. But he's a little brother, you know, so you're not really

22:50 It's nice. I'm like, you don't know that. That's a huge. Are you just Is it kind of similar to like hoopla? Like that's a hoopla.

22:56 Yeah. Similar. Well, hoopla makes me feel like excitement. Okay. Yeah. The whole ball of wax.

23:02 Ball of wax. Yeah. And it's mean is the entire amount. Everything. The whole thing.

23:06 Yeah. H. It's like put it all in there. the whole food and cooking utensils. Oh, I forgot again.

23:13 It's never going to stick. It's never going to stick. No. Or people were saying you said Jiminy Cricket.

23:18 Oh, yeah. Cricket. They're saying that comes from people saying like to not say the Lord's name in vain is where that the J and the C.

23:26 Well, that's what G's comes from, right? Probably. But they say Christmas is what some people are saying.

23:32 I say that, too. So, just mix it in. There's some C word. Love that. See, I just say weird things. Caleb's always like, "I don't like when like Christians replace cuss words with fake cuss words." Like

23:43 frick. I'll say frick too much. Feels like a separate word. I know. I'm like He's like, "That just sounds so cheesy. Just don't say anything at all."

23:50 I I sometimes say f sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes. Like E FF. What's the cuss word that you say in your head, but won't say out loud. I say the sword a lot.

23:59 S word in my head a lot. That's the one that comes out when you stub your toe. Yeah.

24:03 Something's about to happen. It's the impulse one. It is. And when something impulsive happens and I don't say it out loud and my I'm like good job Abby.

24:11 That's the one that thinks it's okay to say and I'm like it's not still okay. It's actually like when he's driving that's when he like thinks it's okay. I'm like no still not. My dad gave me permission when I turned 14 that I could say the dword and now I'm like that's a bad one.

24:27 We shouldn't be saying that. Such an adult one. Yeah. I was like, I'm not going to say it. But

24:34 on your birthday, like when you turn 14 or maybe it was 15, I don't know. But when I turned 18,

24:39 my mom still hates when I say pissed. I say that all the time. She hates it. And she's like, I cannot believe that your friends say this, too. Yeah. Was that Does that used to be a bad word?

24:48 I think people think it's a bad word. I don't see it. I mean, when you're a kid, you're not allowed to say it. So, I feel like it just like when you get older, they're like still.

24:55 Cuz I would say it all the time. And then our mother-in-law, I asked her one time, I was like, "Is that a bad word?" and she goes, "I would think it is."

25:01 Oh, I don't think it's a cuss word. I I think a lot of people think that and I never thought that until like I need to work on it. I'll change it to peeved.

25:07 Peaveeved. I feel like owed. What are the other options? I feel like saying I'm ticked pissed off sounds worse than saying I took a piss.

25:17 Like saying it that way. Oh, that sounds worse. I think saying I took That sounds worse.

25:22 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Like a male obviously saying that. I prefer wow.

25:26 I can't even say it. I I say whiz. Okay, next segment is what are the cuss words that we say that aren't cuss words.

25:34 That's crazy. Wow, you guys. Wow. We have a great episode, you guys. We spend a lot of time with children.

25:43 We wanted to do because last week was the Gallentine's episode. This one we wanted to make for the the love bugs. The lovers for the lovers. The lovers of the of the We're talking about your hubbies, your boyfriends,

25:58 fiances. Fiances. Yes, that's pretty much it. That's pretty much it. Do you know when we tell the kids that we're going to go on a date, Griffin will be like, "I'm taking Auggie on a date."

26:10 Like, they get like competitive with us about. And I'm like, "Do it." Good. Show them.

26:16 Treat each other. Treat yourself. I thought it'd be funny if we started with our worst date stories.

26:23 That's funny. Uhhuh. I like this. I guess we thought it'd be funny, not me. We thought it'd be funny if we started with our worst.

26:28 Your stories are with Caleb, right? Yes. Okay. Yeah. I don't have any recollection of dates really other than with Matt. So,

26:35 yeah. I feel like my other boyfriends were in high school, so it wasn't anything like I didn't really go on dates until I started dating Caleb

26:42 because I also couldn't drive. So, my mom's not going to drop me off on a date. Wait. Oh, yeah. We would just hang out at each other's homes.

26:49 Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, they're all with Caleb. Wait, when was your first boyfriend?

26:55 Well, like the first one that counts. I had a lot of boyfriends in middle school.

26:59 Oh, okay. Yeah, that were like two weeks or whatever. But my first I would say sophomore year of high school. Okay.

27:04 Was when I first started dating. I only had maybe three or four. They like called my boyfriend.

27:10 I'm just already anticipating this as a parent now. Like going into this, I'm like, I don't need to worry about that yet.

27:16 Yeah. We needed to cross that bridge when we get there. We were gonna think about that later.

27:20 Um, yeah. Okay. Worst dates. You share one first. Okay. This one's just kind of silly. We were in college. Kill and I were in college. It was Valentine's Day. So, very fitting for a Valentine's episode. And we were, you know, we're broke college kids. We didn't have a lot of money. And we were planning about what we wanted to do for our date. And I saw a flyer that our restaurant in town was doing. It said $50 for a three course meal. And I was like, that's a great price. It's like we can spend $50 and go get three course dinner. So we make the reservation, we get dressed, look nice.

27:52 Wait, a flyer? Yeah, it was like some pamphlet. Remember this was the dark ages. This was 2015.

27:59 Wait, at school you saw a pamphlet or just Yeah, I saw like a like a advertisement.

28:02 Cute. Okay. The internet wasn't what it is now. And um so yeah, we show up to the restaurant and

28:10 You never heard of the restaurant? I had heard of it, but I've never eaten there before. But it was like in the town, so we could walk there from our Yeah. from our apartments, which was really fun.

28:18 So, we got all dressed up, went the waiters wait to Married. No, this was in college.

28:23 Oh, yeah. You said college. Yeah, I wasn't I'm not like you, lady. I didn't get married till after college. So, we sit down and we look at the menu and it's $50 per person. And Kayla and I look at each other.

28:37 Oh, yeah. I would have assumed that as well actually. We didn't assume that. We assumed $50 total.

28:44 Oh wow. Right. That's just tell you like what we spent on meals was usually $12 a person. We were like, "Wow, 50 bucks is a nice thing." Um, so we kind of look at each other. We start panicking and realize that we can't afford this dinner. We're seated at the table. We've gotten waters brought to us and Caleb is like, "We can't stay. We can't pay for this." And it was the only It was the only menu. Like you couldn't order other things.

29:06 Okay. Yeah. Right. Um, so Gail was just looking down at his shoes and I look at the waitress and I go, "Excuse me. Um, we can't afford this."

29:17 I go, they're like, "It's our special." Yeah. I go, "We're going to have to leave." So, we had to get up and leave.

29:21 That's very honest of you. I probably would have just fled the scene. I think Caleb wanted to. For some reason, I felt like we had to tell the waitress because she had already come over and I was like, "She can't just disappear."

29:31 And we were both very embarrassed about that. Yeah. It kind of scarred us for a little bit.

29:35 That was a bad date. And then the what you doing? Do you remember? I think we just went to Chipotle or something really inexpensive and it kind of just put a bummer on the rest of the night because we were so we were a little embarrassed.

29:45 Like all dressed up. Yeah, we read this wrong. We read that wrong. Yeah. Dang it.

29:50 That was a bad date. No. Good for you though for being honest. I mean staying like you're like we can't afford this. I probably would have stayed and paid for it even though we couldn't afford it.

30:01 I just Well, I mean Caleb was going to pay for it and he didn't have the money so what were we going to do? put it on my dad's credit card. Sorry, Dad. We wanted to do something fun. Yeah, we just went in a nice night. A That's sweet though.

30:15 Yeah. Um my story is kind of similar, but it happened a little bit more recently.

30:21 Yeah. We happened upon due to unusual circumstances, a restaurant had been picked for us and we had never been to this restaurant, but we knew it was like a little bit like fancier, elevated, but what we did know is that it was like actually like fine dining, like Michelin star food,

30:44 right? Um, so I'm like, I like food, right? I like I like food. That'll be great. This will be fun. I like good food. Yeah,

30:51 this will be fun. Awardw winning food. They're like, "Well, do you want to sit at this table outside next to this fireplace?" And we're like, "Beautiful, gorgeous." Like, "Yeah, we'll sit there." And then the waiter comes or the server comes to our table and um he was like, "Okay, so at this table we only offer our five course option." And then he just like looks at us and we're like, "We'll take that one. That one please.

31:16 That one we will do." I don't know why that table or like maybe it was the night and I misremember it but I'm pretty sure he was like here outside we do this. Oh wow.

31:25 And I was like all right okay sign us up. And then we start getting these plates out. First of all it's like an hour between every course.

31:34 Wait, why? I don't know. An hour. I I will tell you it was really spaced out and I'm telling you the food I realized I was like I don't like fine dining. I like big portions of relative like flavorful but like

31:50 relatively normal foods in the grand scheme of things. I didn't like we were eating duck

31:55 bone marrow other stuff that was scary eggs of some sort. No, the bone marrow you literally had to scrape it out.

32:02 There's something I do not like a fancy egg. Oh, like a duck egg. Freaky. There was so many weird things and we are we had a one-year-old

32:13 at this point and we were like we got to it has been we're on course three and it had been 3 hours.

32:18 Oh my god. And so we're like surely it's about to wrap up and the reason we thought it was going to wrap first of all we're like eating things and I I pride myself on like I'm not very picky.

32:30 Yeah. I felt the need to like spit it out and but I felt washed. We were the only people out here. I felt like literally it was spooky. I felt being like we were being watched. I started spitting things in the fireplace. I was like I have to get rid of the evidence

32:45 and so there was like a lot of pressure. They kept coming and they were like they wanted to talk about the food. They wanted to be like

32:50 oh kind of educate. They want Yeah. They wanted to educate a lot. They wanted to see us try it. They wanted to like

32:55 and I was it was just so much pressure. And then Matt and I were like we have to leave. like it's so and so eventually

33:03 we're like about to we're like and then he's like now it's time for your tour of the kitchen and we were like what and so they take us to the back and we like do this tour of the kitchen and it's like ratatouille I mean everyone's like got their own thing going on

33:17 and I was like lift up your hat and I was like it was like very like impressive kitchen and then we sit back down they bring out sorbets which is apparently like a like fine dining experience. You do sorbets and between as a palette cleanser sometimes between other courses. I thought this was the dessert,

33:36 right? Of course. In my head, I'm like, we're done wrapping it up with dessert with sorbet. They bring out another savory dish.

33:44 And I was like, so I was like, Matt, we have to tell them that's the last thing I want to do. That is the last thing I want to do. But I was like,

33:50 we have to get our kid. It is night time now. Their babysitter was not planning on being there that long. I was like, hey, I'm so sorry. like we have a little one. We did not plan accordingly. Can we wrap this up? They were like very offended. I was like, can whatever last course thing, can we just maybe box it up? They were very offended because it's like a whole experience, you know, thing.

34:13 And I was like, I'm sorry. You can't hold people hostage if they have to leave.

34:18 I know. I was like, but we really need to leave. And so then the best part is we got the bill.

34:24 Oh. $600. Oh my god. No alcohol. Oh, no alcohol. What we didn't realize was that every time we got water, which we were drinking a lot of water cuz I was like,

34:38 every bottle of every water they were filling from a glass like fancy water, we paid like 10 bucks per thing of water.

34:47 What? They never told you. Never told us anything. We didn't ever see a menu, you guys. They're like, "This is our option. This is our option." And we didn't get any alcohol. of $600.

34:58 Oh my. And I remember like Matt like opening he was like Oh. And we were mortified cuz we were also starving.

35:06 Yeah. We were so hungry. We went to In-N-Out and then picked up Griffin and we were just like

35:13 oh my gosh. Neither one of us planned it. And so neither one of we both felt free to be like what was that? And so I learned I am not as classy as I would have thought before. I'm not classy. No, I I like I was like I like chili.

35:29 Sure. I like chilies. I like take me to Chili's any day over that. Wow. Like Cheesecake Factory. Gosh, if we want to be fancy. If we want to be fancy, let's do Cheesecake Factory. Let's not do

35:43 Michelin Star. Anyway, so I just I just know now where I rank dining experience.

35:50 I was literally spitting into the fire. I was like, that's insane. $600. Can you I'm

35:56 I didn't know that existed. I did not know that existed. Oh, I I literally can't imagine. I'm like, what would I eat for $600?

36:04 Nothing. Not one thing. Yeah. I can't think of anything that like that's worth it.

36:08 There's plenty of delicious things for for 20 15 15 even 10 probably. Probably.

36:15 No, I just know now that I'm not I'm not that classy. Well, you know what? You ex You tried it.

36:21 We tried it. And it was so funny cuz we actually knew other people that had eaten there and we were like, "What did you think about?" And they were like, "It was so bad." And I was like, "I'm glad we're

36:32 they agreed." Yeah. Okay. Funny. So funny. Um I love that for people that love that. And I also do think very highly of them if they enjoy that.

36:39 Yeah. Well, also it's impressive the chefs can do that, but Yes. Yeah. If that's not what you're planning on and you're not planning to spend that time and money, you need to be mentally prepared for an experience like that.

36:49 Maybe the people that do this often like they know what they're doing. like people people there like I was like everyone's a regular and a part of this club that we are not a part of.

36:57 It is I think it is a different world. It was a different world kind of like the wine world is very like you can't just like dip your toes in.

37:04 Oh that's how I feel about exactly how I feel about wine. I'm like you enjoy that that's awesome and classy.

37:10 I'm going to pretend to like it. But people are in like clubs and know all about it you know and it's like wow

37:15 you're on another level. Hats off to you. Yes. Good on you sir. Good on you. Okay, speaking of Cheesecake Factory, that's where my second bad date's at.

37:25 Stop. Don't say this. No, it wasn't because of the food. Okay, I'm blasting. So, when we lived in Kansas City, we lived on an an area called an area called the Plaza, which is a really nice like shopping district. They have some nice restaurants,

37:37 great cheesecake factory, great cheesecake factory. And Caleb and I one night when we lived there, we could walk to it. And so, we're like, let's just go on a date night. Let's just go have fun. Go on a little get a good dinner. and some cake. So, we walk in, it's winter time to set the scene. So, football season is over. Or you know what? I set the scene and I don't remember now. I think we might have been in football season. Anyway, we walk to our table and immediately Caleb just becomes a statue. I'm like, what is wrong with you? Do they both do this?

38:06 Like, Caleb gets so stiff in his body and immediately I can tell in his face like his mind is just running a mile a minute. I'm like, what is wrong, Caleb? Like, why' you just get so weird? He is sitting back toback with Tyreek Hill. Oh,

38:20 if you know who that is. He's like he was at the time the best player on the Chiefs and Kilba immediate immediately started just going on his phone like is this really T kill? Is that really him? He was on a date with a lady. So I was like can you just chill because you're not going to talk to him at dinner.

38:36 I love that he went to Cheesecake Factory. Yeah, I know. He took her on a date to Cheesecake Factory.

38:41 He's so rich and he took a lady to Cheesecake Factory. Hey, it's fine dining. fine dining and the whole dinner we sat there. We were we must have just been sat right after them because we were there the exact amount of time and the entire time that we were sitting there. Caleb did.

38:57 Did they get cheesecake? Um I couldn't tell cuz we're in booths. So back to Caleb could tell me.

39:02 He probably remembers everything. Caleb didn't speak a word to me that entire dinner. I I literally was It was a silent dinner.

39:10 He was just listening. He was he was listening and he was just like I knew in his head he was thinking what could I say to Ty kill. Oh, how is this going to play out? I don't want to be weird. I don't want to be a fan. What can I say? What can I do? But I want to like say something. So I'm looking at him and I'm just frustrated. I'm like kill this is the worst date of all time. Romantic. Yeah. Literally want to like connect and now you're literally a brick wall.

39:32 As we pay the bill, they're also paying the bill. They get up. We also get up to leave. We start walking out at the same time. We're all on We're on an upstairs level. We start going down the stairs at the same pace. I'm like, "Hell, just say something. This is your opportunity." I'm kind of like hitting him like just say, "Hey, like good luck in your game or great season. Just say anything." Tyreek opens the door for us as we leave. Okay. We start walking out together. Caleb's like, he keeps stuttering over his words and he's saying nothing. And then Ty starts to walk the other way. We are We need to walk the opposite direction. Caleb starts to follow me. Oh, Caleb, we're not going to follow him to his car. And I grabbed Keller, said, "You missed your shot, buddy. You missed your shot." And Caleb did not speak the rest of the night. It was the worst day ever.

40:19 I was like, "You're so starruck." And you did nothing about it. And I'm mad at you for that. He did nothing about it.

40:24 He opened the door for us. Like, you could have said, "Thank you so much." Like,

40:29 the door. Big fan. Oh my god. So goofy. That's funny. That is just classic. So, Tyreek Kell ruined your date.

40:40 Tyreek Kell ruined our date. That is so funny. And I learned that Kale gets really shy.

40:49 That happened to Blake once. We were in the airport line in Greece and we he saw like a golfer that he likes and he like that did YouTube and stuff and they're right next to us and he wouldn't say anything. So, I went up and I I said, "My husband's a really big fan. Could he get a picture with you?"

41:03 Oh, yeah. That Thank you, Addy. Took one for the team. stood up for I was like you're just going to go back home and tell all your friends that you met him and that you saw him and you didn't say anything.

41:12 My dad did the same thing. Matt would always say something I feel like. But um my dad saw like a famous like wrestler

41:18 in the airport one time and he was like that's so that's so and so. I was like go say hi.

41:24 Love it. He's like no he's like an old school wrestler. Like okay maybe just let him.

41:29 I remember that. He might bite you. My dad just couldn't stop thinking about it though.

41:33 Yes. That's funny. Yeah. Um, okay. My second bad date story was also somewhat recently. Still feels fresh at times. Um, I planned this one. This one's on me. And I took Matt to a comedy show cuz I was like, "Oh, this is like so different from normal." Um, walk in.

41:54 I love this story. Um, really small venue. It all from the get-go. I was like, "This is an intimate experience,

42:01 right? Cool." um not cool is that they hand everyone a name as we're walking in. Like a card a card with a name on it.

42:11 And I'm And mine is something about like Oh, I was it something goblin? It was something goblin. It was ass goblin. No, it wasn't.

42:20 No. Gosh. No. Wait. Oh, it's it's off my Wait, that was a tattoo someone had in high school. I'm sorry.

42:31 Sorry. Why did high school have a way further from high school had that on his on his butt? E

42:40 in high school. Okay. Sorry. It was something goblin. Something goblin. Now I can't think of it right now.

42:47 It's going to really bother me. I'll have to ask Matt. Mine was something goblin. And Matt said shy fry b- word.

42:57 I was like, what is this? Well, my word. And that then I'm like, these are references that I don't get, right? Therefore, comedy is probably not going to land and I'm going to feel awkward.

43:07 Okay, so everyone's sitting down and they're like, okay, so look closely at your name because people in the audience, you get to participate tonight. No

43:15 in the show. Biggest fear. And right in my head, I'm like, gosh, I really hope I cuz at this point I'm I'm very pregnant with Auggie.

43:25 I'm wearing a dress that looks like a first grade teacher. Like I don't look like someone that is like down for crude jokes.

43:34 Right. Right. Right. And I could already kind of get the atmosphere. Like kind of get the vibe that I was like maybe not going to be

43:41 clean. It wasn't your crowd. It wasn't my crowd. How many people were there? Uh I'm going to say less than less than 50 for sure.

43:47 Oh my gosh. Okay. Intimate. Wow. And but there were a lot more seats, right? But we're all like close to the front. they like had everyone move down. And so I off the top of my head I'm like Matt's going to get called on stage cuz that is just literally how he is. Like he is going to that's just going to happen.

44:06 Sure enough he's called on stage. I'm like sorry. I love you. I'm so sorry. So he goes on stage and this whole thing is like a comedy show but there's also like a video game aspect. And if there's anything I don't know anything about is probably video games. And the the one that Matt got called up for was something about having like being stuck in Blockbuster with diarrhea.

44:32 Oh my gosh. And he had to get out. And the whole thing has like fart sounds going on and

44:38 dragged it out. I don't like honestly I feel like my brain is protecting me from this moment cuz I was like what's going on?

44:45 Why is he on stage? And yeah, it just like lasted a while and I was like, "Please do not." Cuz at this point, my ratio, my odds of getting called on stage are so high,

44:59 really high. I did not get called. That's good. Matt was on stage for a decent amount during doing something humiliating

45:06 and I was like, "Well, you know, we tried something new. We went to be a date." The whole venue smelled like cigarettes and like people were drinking a lot and which is all fine but it was just not what I had pictured

45:20 and it was very I didn't understand like I was so like I'm so sorry that I am not your crowd and I am here like I I'm here and I shouldn't be basically the whole time I was like it's just I'm not the right audience for this and respect what you do cuz I'm sure there's like a lot of like technical aspects to these like they were literally coding video games for this show.

45:41 Wow. But um just went over my head. Totally. And it was so just it was so funny how out of our element we were and it was all my fault. I was like

45:51 and Matt's such a good sport. But afterwards we're like what do you think? Did you have a lot of fun and it was just really really funny.

46:01 Oh my gosh. Cuz also people knew that we were going to this and they're like how was it? I was like oh you know

46:07 a little silly. It was a little different. It was different. Yes, they do. But that's funny. That's great. I love that. I love hearing bad date stories.

46:18 I know. They're We all got them. We all got them. I thought, well, I'm going to stop saying I thought because

46:27 we thought we thought our podcast um we thought we could share our worst dates and then also give some good maybe last minute date ideas. Yes. Yes.

46:36 Considering tomorrow is Valentine's Day. How do you do Valentine's Day like in your marriage?

46:40 We've always celebrated on the 15th because I don't know. We just always It's cheaper to do that.

46:46 So we we always call it Howard's Day. And we would go on a date to a restaurant and kill me flowers that are like a little dead and candy that's on sale. And it's just been special.

46:55 That's sweet. It's just been really special. We do Valentine's Day not necessarily always on the day, but we take turns every year planning the date. Oh, that's fun.

47:05 Yeah. And so I like that idea. Yeah, it's fun because I don't know. I think it's good to both do it like but so we've had some like really funny ones especially like early on like

47:18 low budget like fun date nights at home that are like really special like we still talk about to this day like all the time. So yeah, that's just how we we take turns.

47:27 I like that. I I should pitch that to Caleb and see if he'd be down for that because it is it's you know I like treat treating Caleb and planning things for him. So it's kind of fun to switch off

47:37 and then also when you feel like a little personal responsibility for doing it I feel like you do a little bit more rather than it's like we're both going on a date like I don't know it makes it like a little bit more like intentional.

47:46 Totally. Yeah, I like that. I thought we I'm sorry. We thought it's fine. Just a tick. I think at this point we could do last minute date ideas and then last minute gift ideas.

47:57 I love it. Do you want to go with your first date? Yes. So this one's actually inspired by Matt because he already planned it and we're doing it this weekend and I was going to invite you ladies. Um so he planned he texted me the other day. He's like oh um in the email don't look at this top email. And then later on that day he was like, "Okay, I just have to tell you because we do need to find child care, but um we are I planned a ballroom dance class lesson with you."

48:22 And then now it has since evolved to like he has now booked a private one and so all of our friends and like their spouses can come.

48:32 And so I was like that would be really fun. We've never shockingly enough we've never done a partner dance class together.

48:37 Yeah, that's really I think it'd be really fun. And I think for certain husbands would be totally outside their comfort zone. Blake, I think Blake would never come.

48:45 Yeah, we have something else going on, but that's fine cuz he would never come.

48:50 Um, but I kind of think that's like the point of it. I think it's fun to like do things that are first of all memorable because you It's memorable because you don't do it often. And then it's also like obviously connecting and

49:00 it's not serious. So it's like fun and touch and Yeah. So it'll be fun. Yeah. Romantic, out of your comfort zone. It's an activity. I feel like guys really like activities.

49:11 Yeah. Face to face. Uhhuh. Yeah. There's no That's the opposite of what they like. Don't they like Don't they say guys like side to side?

49:17 I think you're right. I love the line dancing. You could do that like literally any dance class. And also it's good because you're probably going to be supporting a local business too doing that. And it's really like it's a good way to just actually talk, look each other in the eye and touch. What does Arthur Brooks say? You have to look in the eye, make eye contact and physical touch. It bonds you.

49:38 I always send Caleb any Arthur Brooks clips where he talks about eye contact because I'm like I think we both just run through the day and sometimes I'm like what do you look like today? I looked in your eyes once. No, it's easy to do.

49:49 I did a ballroom dance class with my dad once. Not once. We took classes cuz he was going to surprise my mom at prom, like our prom cuz they were chaperoning and dance with her like so I did them with him so he could learn the steps.

50:01 That is so sweet. That's so sweet. Oh my gosh, that's a great idea. But I wouldn't have to ballroom. We could do tango. We could do chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa spicy.

50:10 We could do anything. I think that'd be fun. That'd be really fun. That's a really good idea.

50:14 Yeah. My first. Also, all of those are are ballroom. Okay. Yeah. Maybe your class will just be a mix of all of it. Or do you know what do shimmies in there? What

50:22 is it? A walt. What kind of class is it? Do you know? What do you mean? Like those are all types of ballroom.

50:27 I get you now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, what do you mean? Do you know what is Yeah. What? What? What type of dance?

50:32 A waltz is a type of I don't think it's going to be a waltz. Waltz. Is that a three three? One, two, three.

50:37 I think so. Yeah. Yeah. No, I don't know. I feel like that would be a difficult one to start with.

50:41 Probably a little salsa. I really think you guys are just doing this. You could try to get on Dancing with the Stars. I think I said that last time. You mentioned bomb dancing. I mentioned this already.

50:50 Um I think so. She did say that. I don't know when, but Wait, did I talk about this on the podcast? Did I come up with

50:55 You just kind of mentioned that you guys were going TO DO IT. OH, YEAH. YEAH, but these are the details.

51:00 She details. It's okay. It's a date idea. That sounds fun. You can't beg your Sorry to all our audio listeners. Abby is smacking her head on the mic.

51:12 You will for sure. Okay. Okay. My first date is ice skating. I was just thinking what's something easy, breezy, last minute.

51:21 Like in St. Louis, there's a really beautiful outdoor ice ring called Steinbergs and it's so romantic. It's, you know, chilly, cold, you can get hot chocolate. You hold hands. If you're a bad skater like me, your husband basically holds you up the whole time. So, lots of touch. Lots of touch. And it's just, you know, you can talk while you skate.

51:40 It's just like I think it's something it's good to be outside a little bit. You get fresh air.

51:44 Mhm. Just a little something different than going to a restaurant, you know. That's fun.

51:48 So, yeah. If your town has something cute like that, ice skating. Some Bass Pro Shops have it. I don't know if the ones out here do, but

51:54 they have ice skating or not. Mhm. And the parking lot. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh,

51:59 and it's like And they have like little fires. It's like really cute. Cute. Do you think that's still a thing right now in February? Actually, now that I think about it,

52:05 ice skating. I feel like a lot of America is actually frozen right now. Yeah. You know what? You're right about that.

52:12 This category was art. And you got to know your husband for these because I have dragged Matt to a couple art ones. Surprisingly enough,

52:20 he doesn't love them. He's happy that I'm having fun, but he does not love them. But I have one that I think most men would like more. for when we did like uh sip and paint. I think there's a lot this there's probably one in your area. There's a lot This is like kind of a popular thing now. I like it because it's like it's creative, but it's structured. Like they have they walk you through how to do it. You're going to get a decent painting.

52:44 Like not that you're necessarily going to save it and put it up on your wall, but it's fun to just like it's casual. You get to talk and like do something fun.

52:51 Those are really fun. Yeah, it's a really fun thing. And then if you're sipping on wine, it's like a little bit more elevated, too. Um, not that wasn't that didn't land great with Matt.

53:02 He didn't like that. He didn't like it. No, I think I think he also doesn't like being told like what to paint.

53:07 Oh, and also I don't think he cares to paint at all, actually. So, I don't want to put words in his mouth. I think it's just he really doesn't like to paint. He doesn't really crafts. Okay.

53:15 Never liked crafts. But one that is really fun and is a little bit more niche is blown glass. We did this for a date and that I feel like guys, Caleb would be

53:25 That is Caleb's dream date. Caleb would dream. There's places out here that do it.

53:30 I know. He was really jealous that you guys did that. It's really It's a really fun thing to do and I feel like it does. It's a little bit more masculine.

53:38 Um, and it's not easy like to do and it's really kind of fun and cool. And then you get to take like a art piece home. Like we use the glasses that we made there and we also made like a paper weight and a vase. So, it's like things that you're going to use and you just kind of have like a little thing to remember it by. And I also just have so much appreciation now for people that do this. I was like, that was not

54:00 It seems easy. I don't think it seems easy personally. Takes a lot of air pressure.

54:06 Yeah. I'm like, dang, you have glass with everything. Everything's glass. And then you watch how they make it and you're like, they do this for every single cup in my kitchen?

54:14 No, they don't think they blow all of them are not blown glass. Oh, what are they?

54:18 I don't know. I think they just made me form it. Oh, but I'm confused. Is that the only way that you can make glass is by

54:25 No, I don't think so. Oh, but it has a technique. You know, glass is sand, right?

54:31 I feel like I did know that a long time ago and I forgot until you just told me.

54:34 Isn't that crazy? That is crazy. That's crazy. No, I There's got to be an easier way. There's no way that this is all blown glass. I just got to say

54:42 it'll be a million dollars, right? I'm telling you, it's a lot of work. Yeah. But if you can't blow up a balloon, you're not going to be able to blow up some glass. But maybe your husband can.

54:53 Your husband probably could. And it's really fun. And it's cool. And you kind of you get close cuz you have to spin it. And I'm like, I can't do it by myself. And it's like you're spinning it together. It's fun. And it's something that's a little different. You get a little momento to take back with you.

55:06 That's cute. They're either made from pressing a mold into the hot glass or blowing air into the glass.

55:13 Wow. Two methods. Those Amazon glasses I have are molds. I was going to say about the painting. I did that once with Blake for our oney year anniversary. So when he was still into doing different things that

55:25 aren't necessarily but we did it. It was also during co so we did it at home. I don't know if they still do them but you get sent you go pick up all the things and you can do it at home and there's a video that you follow to make the painting. So if you don't want to go out

55:38 that's a good idea. Yeah. Something you can do at home. I like that. This is another at home idea. So, I actually did this for Caleb. I've done it a couple times throughout our dating and marriage. I've done a themed movie night. And I'm not just saying like light on the theme, heavy on the theme. I did a Harry Potter,

55:56 we did a Harry Potter marathon in college and I made Slytherin soup. I like I made all these different foods and dips and a huge spread and I gave everything place cards that were designed and that I wrote in Harry Potter handwriting with different like Harry Potter names. We watched the movie. I decorated the apartment kind of Harry Potter theme. I made his butterbeer. Like just went all out. It was really fun. It was so memorable. Like we still talk about it. Another one that we did was when we watched The Last Dance. It was the NBA documentary about Michael Jordan. My Do you know that my dad has a hyperfixation on that and he has watched it

56:32 a thousand times? It's an amazing time. Maybe a thousand times. Really? Well, maybe your mom just has to be playing.

56:38 I love that. I love that. It's just always on the background. My dad's hyperfixation is The Last Dance. He's like, "Does anyone watch The Last Dance?" We're like, "No,

56:46 no." Fun fact about my father. Not an exaggeration at all. It's not It's not an exaggeration.

56:54 I didn't know that. That's funny. He's sick in that. I mean, it's a great docky series, but we did it where we went to the we went to the store and we each picked out like um concession stand appetizers like mozzarella sticks and pizza and all kinds of things. And we went home and we just played the Space Jam theme. We ate it. Same thing. We watched it. We watched a son's game at home and I got Wetzel's pretzels and we made like a basketball fruit pizza and played

57:19 a basketball. You have to. You have to. So, that's something really fun. If you didn't want to go out to spend money, you went like an at home date night, just go all out and pick a theme. It's I told you I think I said it last time, but the other one I did was a high tea, and that one didn't quite land the same. But

57:38 did Cayla put his pinky up? Yeah. He was such a good sport, but I was like, this is maybe for the ladies.

57:43 Did you make like cucumbers? Well, I was like, we were watching Great British Baking Show at the time, so we were really into British culture,

57:49 so you know, just doing sticking to a theme. That's cute. Yeah, it's so memorable.

57:53 That's fun. You're a good wife. Thank you. It's a lot of work. Yeah. But it's so fun.

57:57 That is fun. It's fun. Um my last one we haven't done, but I have wanted to do and I have actually partially planned this multiple times, so I really need to make it happen. I want to go to just do a classic arcade date.

58:09 Oh, cute. That would be really fun. I feel like and like I just think about Dave and Busters cuz it's more of like a semi adult one. But you could go to any random arcade in a mall. Do they still have those though?

58:18 What are the ones that are really big? The new chain that's going in everywhere.

58:22 Oh, fat cats. No, no, no. It's Oh my gosh, it's going to drive me nuts. Fat Cats would be fun. It has and budget bowling alley in it and an arcade and laser tag.

58:31 Fat Cats. Main event. Main Event. Yeah. Oh, there is a main Yeah. Main. Those are going everywhere. Yeah. And that's a great one.

58:39 There's like a race car track in there. I think that would be fun. Especially if you've been married for like six, seven years. Like just do something fun that you wouldn't necessarily do. Like something silly and like light. It would be really fun.

58:49 That would be really That's a good idea. and a little competition like laser tag. That would be really fun and just silly. One time we also did like in a similar like building to like Fatcast main event. Some of them have these like VR um like experiences and we did this zombie one one time.

59:06 Okay. I did almost throw up. It made me very motion sick. You're literally It's so funny if you take your goggles off because you are just in an empty room. But I was like tiptoeing cuz I thought I was going to like fall off this edge and there's like zombies. I was terrified. But it was like cute and fun that we like it wasn't cute but

59:23 it was fun to do together. Yeah, that would be a good double date option too because like you have teams.

59:29 Yeah, that is fun. But I'm like I just want to do something like cheesy like that you see like in a romantic comedy.

59:34 Yeah, there's a reason it's a tried and true. It's fun. I want to do it. I want to win like a little prize.

59:39 Yeah, you go to this catching your tickets. Fun. I think we'll probably go to Fat Cats. Gosh.

59:45 Okay. Happy Valentine's Day. You took the kids to Fat Cats for Halloween this year.

59:51 I've never heard of this place. Yeah, you surely have. Um, some may be better than others.

59:57 Okay. We talk about it a lot because thank goodness my kids are two and three. We went and there's uh Chase from Paw Patrol. Noah's Marshall. Not that it really matters.

1:00:08 Of course, as the most budget costume I've ever seen in my life. His head's falling off. He's not even wearing shoes. He has socks on. has hands on her.

1:00:17 This is a guy dressed up like this some high school kid and Griffin and all you're like Marshall

1:00:25 Marshall. I was cracking up cuz I was like yes get a picture. Have you seen those videos? Well, you probably haven't of girls dressing up as Spider-Man for their 90th birthday party. I comment like, "Whoa, I didn't know Spider-Man had all of that."

1:00:44 That's funny. I've seen dads like dress up as stuff for their kids birthday party.

1:00:49 You know, it's like curvy, little lady curves, you know, on Spider-Man. That's funny. That's hilarious.

1:00:55 That's a good idea. Arcade. Cute and fun classic. I need to do that. That'd be fun. That's a great one. My last one I actually a girl that we were friends with did this for her husband in Kansas City. She went on Turo and rented a sports car for the day. This is such a good idea. Okay. He had like a dream car. So, if your man is got a dream car, go on Turo. See if you can rent it for the day and just take it for a joy ride.

1:01:16 I rented a Kia Carnival for the day. It was That's a different vibe. You're testing out mom cars. We're testing out sports cars.

1:01:26 Either one. Either one could be fun. I even I think she actually got a photographer to go like pictures with the car.

1:01:33 I think that's fun. I know. Just like a little different creative. He's a car guy.

1:01:37 Yeah, they're a car guy. Go out on town. Go like one time Kale did that for me in college. She borrowed his friend's Mustang. It was like a really cool car and I was like, "Whoa, baby." You know, it's just kind of different.

1:01:48 That's fun. And we went out to dinner and had a good meal and then drove around in the car and it was so fun.

1:01:52 That's cool. Yeah. So, that's my last idea. That's a good idea. Thank you. For the car guys out there.

1:01:58 For the car guys. Okay, let's do let's do some gift ideas. Matt and I both are terrible giftgivers. I have to say that. But we do give

1:02:08 you're a bad gift giver. Specifically timeout with each other. We really don't do much.

1:02:13 Sure. Um, but we do give Valentine's Day gifts. What? Okay. So, a free one. Okay. Oh. Oh. Oh.

1:02:25 Well, never mind. Children. No. No. No. Turn your It's not bad. We do this every Valentine's Day.

1:02:32 Maybe we can cut this. I know what it is. I'm reading it. But No, that's not even the one.

1:02:37 Oh, you changed it. No, this is a free one that I didn't put on here. Okay. But we do do this every year. And I actually thought this year might be a pass, but then Matt brought it up.

1:02:46 What? We do a lingerie photo shoot. Oh. Or not photo shoot. Oh my gosh. Like a runway. Like a runway shoot. Like three. We don't even know. NOT A PHOTO SHOOT.

1:03:02 But like I like he'll Yeah. Oh my gosh. You can try on a little spicy outfit and you know what? They don't need anything honestly. They just want to see you and just a little uh not photo shoot. What's the word I'm looking for? Like a runway like

1:03:16 catwalk a show. Yeah. The last time I did that was at my bachelorette party. Oh, I think Yeah. Yeah, we do it every Valentine's Day.

1:03:24 That's sweet. I'm sorry. A photo shoot. I would have passed away. Like you have to cut that.

1:03:28 I can't say. But we have to keep I can't say photos are never taken. Okay. Okay, Matt and I's camera roll is not safe. We Okay, which is why Matt got us safe.

1:03:38 So, mine's also I am not kidding. We're going to talk about this off. I need I need to know later.

1:03:48 Okay, mine first one. This is the $1 sign. Really sexy, too. A car wash subscription.

1:03:55 Honestly, I want that. Isn't that a great gift idea? Men are so practical and it's the gift that keeps on giving. Every month you're going to pay your $ 20 to $40

1:04:04 quick car wash. Yes, exactly. And they're going to go get a nice shiny car. They're going to vacuum the inside. They're going to be like, "My wife is the best."

1:04:11 They're going to vacuum and think that every month when they have their unlimited car washes and their unlimited free vacuums and their unlimited air tire pressure pumper uppers.

1:04:20 Yes. Yes. Sign him up. Sign him up. And then you get a clean car out of it. And maybe he'll take your car, too. And it's the gift that literally keeps on giving.

1:04:29 That's a good idea. Thanks. Okay. My actual $1 sign one conversation decks. Oh,

1:04:37 you can get them on Amazon, so it's last minute. Look it up. They have an intimacy deck and like a deck for couples, but um we love these like they and I'm not saying intimacy and like Okay. Well, that's my other second one. Of course,

1:04:50 you could get a sexy deck if you want. The adventure challenge book sexy edition.

1:04:55 That too. Yeah. I'm talking about like a 52 card. Oh [ __ ] just pull one out. Rambly,

1:05:01 you could do that one. Or I'm talking about the conversation ones really because this is

1:05:06 PG 13. Um, they're great. They're really great for date nights for the rest of the year. Like when you're not doing like big planned unique dates, like it's fun to like have one

1:05:18 to like I don't know, spark conversation. A rule we have for date nights is that we try to follow is not to talk about the kids or work. And so sometimes, gosh, we're like,

1:05:29 I know we have a lot to talk about. We need to kind of spark something else because this is all I'm thinking about right now as kids in work. And so this is a good thing to like kind of spark. And you're not going to just like sit there and read those cards the whole night, but it will like spark more fun conversation. Totally.

1:05:42 Or you could do a sexy deck, too. Just do both. Do both with that. Okay. My next gift, this is the $2 sign, is a leather good. I got Caleb a journal. It's like a refillable journal, so he can reuse it. And um obviously it's leather. And I had his initials stamped in it and then his favorite Bible verse on it. And he's used that since I think he's used that for maybe eight years. Oh wow.

1:06:05 And it just gets better looking over time. It's like kind of rugged, masculine. They're not that expensive. And it's something that he's going to use forever. And every time he looks at it, I hope he thinks of me a little bit.

1:06:16 That was top fill. Yeah. And I thought that or a wallet. A wallet is a good one. Do you have that on your list?

1:06:22 Yeah. Okay. The last time I thought this was a funny story. Um, I bought Killable Wallet like 10 years ago when we were in college and I remember I went into Macy's. I never shopped at Macy's and I went in there. I was like, "Okay, I'm getting this wallet." The lady asks me, "Do you want to sign up to get a discount?" I said, "Sure." So, I'm going through the, "Do you got a credit card?" She goes, "What's your social security number?" I go, "Wait, why do you need that for my email address to give me an email like sign up for your email list?"

1:06:47 She goes, "No, you're honey. You're open up a credit card." I go, "Oh, I do not want to do that." So, I caught it myself, but I almost opened up a Macy's credit card.

1:06:54 But a wallet. He still uses it to this day. Oh, that's awesome. Time for probably to get him a new one.

1:06:59 That was actually my $3 sign one. Uh, like a leather wallet. Mhm. I was thinking of like

1:07:06 No, you didn't steal it. That was a good idea. Thanks. Men are hard to shop for.

1:07:10 They really are. My $2 sign was fancy boxers like Tommy John's. Like, they're not going to buy themselves nice under any underwear, but let's be real. They need some new ones.

1:07:21 You know, buy a scale of all his underwear. My mom. My mom. Abby, that's crazy.

1:07:27 No, she's just like, I went to Limon and I got these on sale and she'll just pick up packs of boxers for everybody.

1:07:32 Whoa. For everybody. She has no sons. Right. Exactly. Their son-in-laws and my dad.

1:07:39 Well, that's funny. Yeah. Yeah. So, get your bins some. Yeah. Like Tommy Johns are actually they're very expensive, but they're really nice. And every time Matt is like, I like I really like

1:07:52 these are so much better than other ones. They're really nice. Yeah. Good quality stuff. It's the stuff you only It's all that you reach for when you

1:07:59 Yeah. And it feels like an appropriate Valentine's Day gift. Yeah. Maybe my head's in the gutter always. Gosh.

1:08:06 My last one, and maybe we can we can check go on this one together. An NBA or NHL ticket. And then get them a jersey or a hat or something fun to wear to the game. And if their favorite team is out of state, plan a trip. Ooh, fun.

1:08:18 That's $3 signs, baby. Well, I was going to say you could go to the Suns game for uh $8.

1:08:24 Are they bad this year? Just depending on who they play. So, they traded away all their like

1:08:29 good guys, all their stars. So, it could be a $1 sign. That's But depending on where you're going. Totally.

1:08:34 You get them a jersey then, too. Yeah, that would be way more than the ticket. Totally.

1:08:38 And your nachos would be more than the ticket. Gosh dang. Surely. I mean, um Yeah, they almost he almost took the boys. I think they were playing the Kings.

1:08:44 I don't know. Is that a football that basketball team? Okay, you know that's what you're talking about. Not that popular apparently.

1:08:50 Kings Kings as a team. LA Kings. Wait, that's hockey. Wait, wait. Um, I pride myself on knowing sports and I don't know.

1:08:59 Sacramento Kings. Okay. Basketball is really fun to watch. And I don't even like sports. Live basketball. Even if it's not like NBA.

1:09:08 Oh, it's a circus. Fun to watch, but NBA especially is like Whoa whoa whoa. So fun. That's a good idea.

1:09:14 Pop music. They have every second that the clock stops, they have people out there doing a performance.

1:09:20 Oh yeah, it's a full show. There's no downtime. No, it's really fun. The mascots are also hilarious a lot of the times. The Suns one is hilarious. The ape.

1:09:30 Oh yeah, I guess I They do a good job. Yeah, you can be in the nose and it's so fun.

1:09:40 He gets paid well. Really? Yes, we looked it up. I actually knew someone that was a professional mascot.

1:09:46 This says the sun's gorilla. The sun's gorilla. Is that how it is? Gorilla. Okay. Well, let's talk to the marketing team about a more creative name.

1:09:54 The name the gorilla or go the gorilla. Oh, is his name go. Okay. Maybe. Yeah. Interesting. Interesting. It's great. Well,

1:10:03 that's a really good idea. Yeah. I hope this gave you guys some inspo. Yeah, that's fun. Last minute. Leave your last minute grillies like the Abby's. These are some of your ideas. I forgot to talk about Well, there are two things we forgot to mention at the beginning. One, we're not wearing our sweat sets. So, we're mixing it up, people.

1:10:20 We're mixing it up. We're mixing it up. I really got to get some more pink and red in my wardrobe.

1:10:25 Same. Actually, I was thinking about that. I was going Let's go shopping. Okay. And then also people, I was reading the comments from last episode. They like the Always Homies.

1:10:34 I did see that. Well, there were some other good suggestions. Oh, also my book club book is delayed,

1:10:39 so I haven't started it yet. You need a Kindle. Yeah, people were saying that too. Like they're it's on back order and things like that. And so I'm like they were saying maybe mix in a new release and then like a non like next month do it.

1:10:51 It's also supposed to be free on Audible. Yeah. If you have an Well, if you have an Audible subscription,

1:10:55 you can just call the listeners Abby, too. Oh, hello Aby's. Abby. Oh, Blabbers or the Ablers.

1:11:04 Always Honeys. Oh, that's what it was. The Always Honeys. That's cute. That's really cute. That's cute, too. Okay. Well, between always put on the Instagram always homies or always honeys cuz those are really I feel like one is masculine, one's feminine. That's true. So,

1:11:20 I everyone who commented always homies did the peace sign with it. It has to have that always homies. We asked uh on Friday night I asked Caleb and Matt which one of which Abby was earlier because I did not know what they were going to say, right?

1:11:34 But they said me. Yeah, I think so too. which is does we were talking about this on our call but it I have a theory that all girl households

1:11:44 can be the grossest like because maybe they feel like they someone has to be like a little bit more I shouldn't say grossest but like

1:11:52 no we were we were gross they are m maybe more masculine than you think right then like in a household with boy and girl like you like fall more into the feminine like

1:12:03 Uhhuh. Yeah. You can't have three really really girly girls in a house. It probably we need to have a balance of

1:12:09 No, that was all the all girl families I knew. They kind of sway this way. Totally.

1:12:14 Ask Ask Ask Abby. Hey guys, I love watching your show and listening. Um, I was just curious how you and your husbands like decide who's going to like do the special thing for Valentine's Day each year. Do you have like a process of you do it one year, your husband does another year? Just wondering. Love you guys.

1:12:38 Cute. That's a good question. Yeah, we kind of touched on that. Like we take turns on years.

1:12:44 Um because it is fun to like plan a date, but it's also fun to like be surprised.

1:12:49 Yeah. And I think being clear is also good because then you don't like go into it be like, I thought you were going to do something. I don't think it has to always be the husband planning it right

1:12:59 for the wife or Valentine's Day. Yeah, I agree. Caleb knows that I definitely want flowers. Um, and I'll be sad if he doesn't give me flowers. That's like the one thing that I'm like he'll be have to do. But a lot of times we end up planning the date together.

1:13:10 Okay. Like that restaurant sounds good. Let's do that. It's more of a conversation. But I like the switch off, switch on idea.

1:13:16 Hi Abby and Abby. I love your show. Um, my cute Valentine's Day story is that when I um first started dating my now fiance over seven years ago, we had dinner in like his college apartment and he um made me spaghetti and meatballs and like bought a dessert and then later we were talking about something and I looked up something on his phone and um his top Google search was how to make spaghetti and meatballs fancy which was the cutest, sweetest moment ever. So now we always have spaghetti meatballs for Valentine's Day.

1:13:50 A that's Oh my gosh, it's so sweet. He's like, "What do I need?" The effort is amazing.

1:14:00 Yeah, it's just the effort. It's like it could have been the nastiest spaghetti meatballs of all time, but then seeing that Google search, you're like, "This is the best ever."

1:14:06 For you, babe. That's amazing. And I love that you carried that tradition out to like future Valentine's Day.

1:14:12 Yeah, that's amazing. Hey y'all. I really enjoy listening to y'all's podcast. So, thank you so much. One question I have for you is where is some of the best places you have ever traveled to? Tropical, mountains, abroad in the US. What are your best travel recommendations? Thank you.

1:14:28 I feel like my answer is so different like prekids and postkids. Like, yeah, after kids, it's very different. Like, you're experiencing locations in a very different way.

1:14:39 Oh, that's true. I mean, we had a really fun trip to Nashville uh last year. Was that last year

1:14:45 when you stayed there over the summer? Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, Nashville would be a really great place for either pre or post kids. Like it has both there. That was really really fun. And I feel like you could do it fairly inexpensively or you could do like go all out. Like you could go to Broadway and like see all the lights and the shows and all the people or you could also have like go outside to like Franklin and have like a really sweet like brunch experience and it's also just beautiful and nice weather and everyone's very friendly.

1:15:18 So I feel like that was a really fun place to travel that I didn't necessarily I know Nashville's like booming but I didn't necessarily think of it as like a travel destination for some reason.

1:15:27 Yeah. I guess I feel like when we grew up in St. Louis. It was so close that people would go like on the weekends a lot, but I never really went. I've only been once.

1:15:34 Like people here fly to Nashville. Yeah. I think Caleb and I would really enjoy it and go and have a fun trip. I think for I'm going to do one domestic and then do you want to do one international? Sure.

1:15:43 Okay. I loved when we went to Oregon. Oh, that was so cool. The Oregon coast is really beautiful and I wish we had more time there. Um cuz they have got national parks and the beaches are so beautiful and I feel like it feels just so unique within America. Yes.

1:15:59 It's just such a unique landscape. So, specifically the coast. The coast. Yeah. Oh, I want to go back.

1:16:05 Because we flew into Portland and I was like, I don't know much about Portland.

1:16:07 I don't either. And we drove to the night. We didn't even see anything. Yeah. Don't do that. That was actually horrifying. I thought we were going to die.

1:16:14 We like we landed really late and the driver was just I kept watching him. I was trying like this. I could not close my eyes. The fog. You couldn't see feet in front of the car. It was so foggy. Barreling down this road and he was just drinking coffee. It was like 3:00 in the morning. I'm like, "This dude's falling asleep, so I was so scared."

1:16:33 Um, that's a really good one. Yeah. And good food. And it's Oh, the chowder. It's unexpected. It's I feel like for me, like that was a really unexpected one. That was really good. That was really great.

1:16:43 Um, okay. International. You do your international one first. I was going to say Italy. Caleb and I on our honeymoon. We went to We did a couple different spots in Europe and obviously the Maui Coast was the most gorgeous place ever. And it's so walkable. It was not that expensive. It was just amazing. We stayed in a little town called Atroni, which is connected to Amalfi by a tunnel. So, you could walk to the big cities and you could take the little water boats to all the little coastal cities along the Amalfi coast. It was so amazing. We did a cooking class. I mean, there were just so many. We hiked one day. It was a little bit of everything. Beach, mountain, city, allin-one. It was insane. I want to go back. We haven't done like a ton of international travel together, but um I was going to say Croatia because I was surprised by like how much fun we had in Croatia. And obviously anywhere in Europe there is a

1:17:35 ton of history. And so um and I'm not I wouldn't consider myself a history buff, but that is there's something

1:17:41 you're in it. It's good when you travel to like learn about the history of like where you're going. And it's just also so

1:17:49 outside of the norm of what you're used to seeing in America that it is like very interesting and beautiful. But I'm actually going to say Mexico. We love going to Mexico and I feel like you can get a lot of different things there. Also a lot of history, but then also like you can hike, you can go in the ocean, you can have amazing cuisine, and honestly it's fairly inexpensive. And

1:18:10 um yeah, I think it's close. I mean, that's the other thing, too, is I think like it's a 2hour flight.

1:18:17 Oh, wow. To Yeah. To Cabo. What part of Mexico do you go to? We've gone to Porttoarda, which is further. A lot further. Yeah.

1:18:23 Like a lot further, which is Mexico is huge. I was going to say we went to the east side and it was really far actually.

1:18:28 No, from Cabo it's two hours to Cabo. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Wow. Okay. So, that's really nice if it's like you don't want to get go too far from the kids, but you want to do a little I mean, you're literally international travel.

1:18:42 Yay, baby. Hi, Aby's. My name is Ellen and this is my first time calling into a podcast. I'm so excited. But I have a just kind of for funsies question. I know y'all have been talking about books that you love, starting the book club soon. So, my question is, if you could act in one of your favorite books adapted into a movie, what book would it be? And which character would you want to play in the movie? Love you guys. And love the podcast.

1:19:09 I thought of one. Ellen, what a fun question. That is such a fun. Immediately, I thought of one, too.

1:19:13 What? Okay, which one? What? What is this? Spicy. The clip books. No, I'm just kidding. I'm not kidding. But as an adult, probably my favorite book was The Night and Gale. I don't necessarily want to act out that movie. Um, but to be the girl that was The Night and Gale and acted out would be insane.

1:19:38 Yeah. What a fun and hard role. I think they're making a movie of that one, right?

1:19:42 So, you get picked for the part. Dang it. Um, you just made me think when you said Click. I was like, "Oh my gosh, my dream as a kid would have been Nancy Drew." And I loved that movie, but I was also terrified of that movie. When she looked up into or when the guy driving the car looked up into the rearview mirror and had the two different I remember just like gripping my seat, like we're both terrified.

1:20:04 That was such a good movie. I actually did audition for the Click movie. You're kidding.

1:20:08 No, they had like mail in mail in tapes. No, no, no, no. I don't even think I like mailed him my tape, but I spent all day filming my like self tape like movie and I don't think my mom ever sent it cuz

1:20:20 Dang it. That was your chance. That was your chance. But I tried. You did. Um I immediately thought of The Bodyguard by Katherine Center because I remember reading that character and I was like, I feel like I'm her. like she's very like clumsy and like she doesn't take herself very seriously and but she is also kind of awkward like I don't know and so basically it's like she gets hired to be this bodyguard of this like celebrity

1:20:49 and she's not like she's like we're not like the big buff bodyguard men she's like our job is to go like think of everything in advance so it doesn't come to that and so she's like smart and like but anyway her character was just so funny and good

1:21:02 I loved that book. It's actually getting made into a I just looked it up. It's getting made into a movie and they have already casted it. Do you know who Leighton Meester is?

1:21:10 Oh my gosh. Fun. Yeah, she's gonna be the main character. She was in Gossip Girl.

1:21:13 Do I look like her? No. No. And then Jared. Is she short? I feel like a short And then Jared

1:21:21 maybe. Paddle. I don't know who Le is. You wouldn't recognize her if you saw her. She's been in a ton of stuff.

1:21:27 Okay. She is not who I pictured. I pictured like a short You pictured yourself. Picture myself. She also he doesn't look like he's going to be that big of a bodyguard.

1:21:38 Well, he's a celebrity. Oh, you're right. She's the bodyguard. That's not what I pictured in my head.

1:21:43 H um Addy, what would you say? Gosh. Nothing came to mind because I'm like I'm more so if I just think about like books that I want to be adapted into movies is more every single book that I read I'm like ah I want to see this as a movie. Um, the patient's getting made into a movie. I would not want to act in that.

1:22:04 No. No. I fell for an AI um trailer of that movie. I hate that. Fell for an AI.

1:22:13 I fell for an AI Disney like movie like poster. For the men, AI, please. Seriously, don't be save it for the men.

1:22:23 Keep it for the men. Okay. What have I I'm trying to dig through. I'm like I said the night and gale because I just feel like I haven't read that.

1:22:30 Abby, have you ever finished Daisy Jones in the six? I'm going to be honest. You don't like it? I like it, but I'm not like flying through it.

1:22:38 Okay. The first thing that came to my head was the perfect marriage. Okay. No, we would be good at that. She's a lawyer, huh?

1:22:46 She's a lawyer and the murder. She would be good at that. I could see that. Why is that the first one that came out?

1:22:51 What movie could you see me being in? I was going to say maybe Daisy Jones in the six. That would be really fun. Definitely would make sense. Okay, I actually have my answers. It'd be yours truly by Abby MZ. That's my favorite book. I read it. It was so good. She was a doctor. They like love story, but they write each other letter.

1:23:06 Cute. Yeah, that that's a fun question. That's a really fun question. And thanks for calling in.

1:23:11 Call in again. We you got creative questions. Awesome. Well, thanks guys so much for sending in your questions. And like we said a couple times, we have a book club now. Um we already have members, so that's very very exciting. Our book this month is My Husband's Wife and we're just going to read it in the month of February

1:23:28 by Alice Feni. There's by Alice Feny. Surprising that there's more than one of those.

1:23:33 I know. Um, have you guys started yet? No, my hasn't even arrived yet. Finish the book I'm on. It's taking me a hot minute.

1:23:39 Don't worry. Buckle down. I will finish it by the 28th for sure. Hey, and also if there's something in there that you're like, "Oh, well, I can't believe we haven't read it." That's kind of the whole point.

1:23:48 Yeah. Yeah. I want to have fun, too. No one is blind. Um, so yeah, thank you to everyone who wrote in, who's joined the book club, and also thank you to those of you who have engaged with our podcast in really any capacity, but especially those of you that have actually rated us five stars and written reviews. I want to read a review right now. This one says, "Proud to be an Always Homie." I think we got to use that one.

1:24:10 Is that going to stick? I think it might. Thank you, Caleb. Um, I She gave us five stars and she said, "I'm loving Always here. It literally feels like I'm on the couch with you guys. I appreciate the transparency and vulnerability you guys bring to the podcast, making it feel relatable and authentic. Proud to be and always homie.

1:24:27 Thank you. So cute. So, thank you so so much. Um, yeah, if you also feel so inclined to write a review, it would make us very, very happy. Yeah, that username is AGW7000. I wish I knew this person's name, but

1:24:41 um, thank you guys so much. Yes. Okay, if you guys want to leave a voicemail, a question, it could be a cute story, a funny story, a question for us, advice, whatever it may be, you guys can call 6024569690 and leave your questions there. Thank you guys so much for joining.

1:24:58 Comment down below any other date night ideas. You better hurry cuz it's tomorrow.

1:25:03 Tomorrow. So, um, heads up, Amazon Prime your gift. Amazon Prime your gift. A lot of these are on Prime, so just hurry up on that. I think that's it. Remember, we're always here.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Postpartum Sisters-in-Law Open Up: Body Image, Worst Dates EVER & V-day Gift Ideas"?

Abby Howard (Host), Addy (Guest).

What is "Postpartum Sisters-in-Law Open Up: Body Image, Worst Dates EVER & V-day Gift Ideas" about?

The discussion focuses on postpartum body image challenges faced by new mothers, sharing personal struggles and humorous anecdotes about relationships and gift ideas. The conversation balances serious reflections on self-esteem with lighthearted exchanges about worst date experiences and preferences for quirky Valentine's Day gifts.

What is mentioned in this Always Here episode?

15 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Abby Howard, My Husband's Wife, Oregon Coast, Italy, Croatia, Daisy Jones & The Six. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Postpartum Sisters-in-Law Open Up: Body Image, Worst Dates EVER & V-day Gift Ideas"?

The episode runs 1 h 25 min; the transcript is about 18,970 words in 522 timestamped sections.

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