I spend most of my time at home in the kitchen. Making breakfast, packing lunches, fixing dinner, fetching snacks, hiding with a box of Thin Mints in the pantry … so you may think I’m a little off my rocker when I suggest an escape that involves, ahem, cooking in a kitchen. But that’s just what I’m going to do. Dierbergs has a wide variety of cooking classes that anyone will enjoy. There are theme nights such as Couples Cook, Girl’s Night Out, Mushroom Mania, and Seafood Sensations. The Couples Cook class coming up in April at the Bogey Hills Dierbergs is the Paris Bistro dinner. French …

A couple of times a year, a friend of mine begins chatting me up about joining her for a weekend scrapbooking event. I’ve never gotten into the scrapbooking craze. I tried, but the pages I created never turned out as nice as the templates and lately I just haven’t had the time or energy. Still, I would watch longingly as she and a few of our neighbors packed into her minivan and left their families behind for three whole days, off to scrapbook with First Class Scraps. First Class Scraps was started by Mary Jo Long and Maureen Hart, two friends who loved to get together to work on their family…

I look forward to the third Thursday of every month. I know that’s when I’m going to be able to get out for a few hours and cut loose with my neighbors and friends. We laugh, eat, and yes, drink while we roll the dice. We play Bunco. When I moved in four years ago, I was invited to play with the women in my neighborhood. I didn’t even know what Bunco was when I first moved to Missouri. That first game was a blur of introductions and instructions. I met and learned a little about most of my neighbors in one night.   Bunco is a great way to have a night out that’s not too far from home. Our …

I was so excited when my husband and I made (and kept) our reservations for Charlie Gitto’s. I wanted so badly to say it was romantic and intimate and how it was just what we needed to reconnect with one another. Thank goodness for Dewey’s Pizza last week, because it just didn’t happen at Charlie Gitto’s. Seated behind the hostess stand and beside a high-top table in the bar area full of already drunk patrons at 6 p.m., our conversation was constantly interrupted by a blast of cold air from the front door and the loud guffawing of our intoxicated neighbors. I was thinking about all of this …

The kids were at school, the laundry was started, and last night’s dishes had been unloaded from the dishwasher. The man with the wind-swept hair and bulging muscles rounded the corner into the kitchen and swept me into his arms. He dipped me, passionately brought his lips to mine, and whispered, “Let me take you away from all of this.” Okay, maybe it didn’t happen exactly like that. The husband did find a time in his busy work schedule to pencil me in for a lunch date. He’s in full-blown make-up mode after a Valentine’s Day that included sick kids, broken dinner plans, and Russell Stover …

I needed a break. Three trips to the pediatrician within a two-week span, too many snow days, and a few teacher’s planning days thrown in for good measure and I was about to lose my mind. The wild look in my eyes as I explained my fragile state to my husband MJ was convincing enough. He suggested I call the Spa at Winghaven. I wouldn’t call myself a prude, but the thought of getting undressed and letting a stranger rub me down is enough to crank my anxiety up to another level. The soft, new-age nature sounds did little to put me at ease. Instead, my mind wandered: had I ever heard an electric…

The screaming didn’t stop for the entire 15 minutes I was in the Fed Ex store. It’s not that I didn’t feel for the young father who was going to get his copies regardless of the wailing toddler on his hip, but I was on my own. My children were, thankfully, in school after numerous snow days and I needed my kid-free time. I wondered where the mother was. Was she at work or enjoying a childless afternoon, too? No doubt if she wanted to relax, she would do it at a place like The Powder Room. From the outside it resembles a cottage from a fairy tale. Once you walk up the stone path, through the …

Welcome to the Great Escape. Each week, we’ll tell you about one great idea to give you a much deserved break, and make your life a little easier, maybe a whole lot easier. *** Before MJ and I got married, the pastor sat us down to talk about what we should expect from one another. He said we should be each other’s biggest cheerleaders, to always put one another first, and to always keep in mind that MJ was like a microwave and I was like a crockpot—while all I was going to have to do was push a few of MJ’s buttons, MJ was going to have to wait a while for me to warm up. A man sees romance …