Date night and a little relationship advice

My husband and I had a great date night on Saturday. We ate at one of our favorite restaurants and then checked out a Halloween store that had set up shop a few doors down. Nothing too impressive there. So we headed out again. This time, we went to the mall.

I haven't been to the mall since I got my phone for free from the Sprint kiosk, so it's been a year at least. Things have definitely changed in that year. There were old stores gone and new ones in their place. There were a few stores that have been there since the mall opened years ago. I think it was close to 25 years at least. I wasn't quite a teenager when it first opened its doors.

We found a store that we both absolutely love and plan on going back to when we get the chance. It's called Teavana, and it is, as might be evident from its name, a tea store.

We're not talking ground up herbs in little packets here. We're talking loose leaf tea made with interesting ingredients. There was green tea, black and white teas, interesting teas made from little balls that bloomed into a flower in the hot water (we didn't actually see one of those in action but we saw the balls), and purely herbal teas made up of fruits and other herbs. Also chai teas, which happen to be my favorite.

Himself and I don't often agree on stores. He's got his favorite and I have mine. So to find a place the both of us could enjoy (and plan on going back to), is an amazingly fun thing to do. We spent a good half hour at least talking teas and getting a chance to smell a bunch of awesome stuff. We aren't tea snobs, but this place made us both interested in becoming some.

Himself and I go out together often, but we don't have a real date night more than once a month. We've always got some business we're taking care of when we go out, whether it's the grocery store or the vape store. Or dropping something off in the mail. There's usually something going on that leads to us being together.

But sometimes we want to be together for being together's sake. Yes, Saturday started with me needing to go to Shopko Optometry to get my glasses fixed, but then we headed out for our actual date. Going out on our date actually relaxed me, and for the first time in ages I was actually able to forget the issues going on in our lives and just enjoy my time with him.

Special nights together are an important, but often overlooked, part of every relationship. If you continue on in the same tracks and patterns it becomes stale and dull. So every now and then something needs to happen to change the pattern.

It doesn't have to be a "going out to eat and catching a movie" date. I know how bloody expensive movie theaters are. Instead, you can pop some popcorn and watch a movie you have on DVD or through Netflix. You can read a book to each other. You can even just massage each other's backs and talk about random things. Anything where you are together and just enjoying each other's company.

Remember to shake things up once in a while. Do something unusual for you and your partner. Just let go and hang out with each other. Relax a little. Do something fun. It'll help you in putting things into perspective.