Monday, November 16, 2009

Honeymoon Heartache

If you all haven't been over to Brittany's blog Living in the Moment, you really should. She's been such a wonderful friend to get to know & I just love her stories. I usually feel as if I'm going to spit milk out of my nose (like I did when I was 5) when I read her posts. I give you Brittany Ann!

I am so honored that Mrs. Potts asked me to post a little something on her blog while she’s off celebrating her anniversary.

Happy Anniversary, Mr. and Mrs. Potts!

And here goes nothing…
***
I was supposed to blog about my favorite memory from my honeymoon.

I was supposed to give you a little PG-anecdote from the week I spent with my husband after my wedding, which took place a little over a year ago.

I was supposed to deliver a guest post that Mrs. Potts wouldn’t be embarrassed to post on her blog.

And I tried. I really did.

But the problem is, I just couldn’t pin it down.

My honeymoon was, honestly, my favorite part about my wedding. I loved it all so much.

My husband and I vacationed for a week in a tiny resort on a tiny island in the not-so-tiny Florida Keys. It was the off-season, so we basically had the resort, the island and several fine-dining establishments all to ourselves.

We road bikes through the islands; we had private dinners; we took long, romantic soaks in our own hot tub; we chartered a boat and took a private tour of the historic district of one of the Keys; and we lounged on the beach all by our lonesome, romantic selves.

It was the perfect honeymoon.

Perfect.

That is, until the last night.

All that vacationing and, well, honeymooning, had tuckered us right out.

We were quite tired, so we decided to stay in for the night.

Dressed in swimsuits and lounge wear, we ate dinner at the resort’s bar and grill, then lounged in the hot tub with some mojitos. We tucked in early, watching a Law & Order marathon. We dozed off soon after.

Or, rather, I dozed off soon after. Till about 1 a.m.

When I was awakened by my husband whimpering and pacing our honeymoon suite.

You’d have thought his dog died, the way he was whining.

Except his dog was fine.

No one, in fact, had died.

The reality? The reason for the whimpering? My husband had heart burn.

Bad heart burn, apparently.

He was crying, people. Literally, he was crying.

Walking up and down and around the room like he was shot in the arm and slowly bleeding out.

Now, I love my husband, and he is a strong, strong man in many ways.

But he is rendered completely and totally helpless when he gets sick. Literally, he turns into a whiny little girl. I’ve actually seen him get a head cold and act as if he’s bleeding out from the ebola virus.

He does not have a high tolerance for pain.

Heck, he doesn’t have a high tolerance for discomfort.

So, needless to say, in my tired, 1 a.m. state, I wasn’t amused by his heart-burn whining.

I became even less amused, however, when he spotted that I was awake.

Because now he had an audience. The whining escalated; the complaining grew. At one point, he actually told me he thought he might be having a heart attack and felt like he was going to die.

I remained unsympathetic.

I’d lived through the man’s heart burn before, pre-wedding. He always, always got heartburn.

He always, always got heart burn when he ate fatty foods.

And he always, always, always got heart burn when he ate fatty foods fast.

Which he’d done that very night. He’d inhaled a bleu-cheese steak burger and a plate of French fries in five minutes flat.

After I told him not to order it.

After I told him to slow down.

After I told him he was going to give himself heartburn.

My husband had officially reached his first “I told you so” married moment. I was not amused in the slightest.

So, I did what any normal newly married bride would in this situation; I glared at him, covered my head with my pillow and ignored his babyish antics, hoping and praying I could go back to sleep.

For about 45 minutes.

Until his whines escalated to wails.

And until he begged me to walk across the resort and get him a bottle of Sprite because “that was all it would take to him feel better.”

I sat up in bed; I glared some more.

He begged, pleaded.

I scowled and slowly began to rise.

He then had the audacity to tell me to hurry up because he “was dying over here!”

I swear, I almost killed him right then and there.

But instead, I rummaged through my suitcase, pulled out a pair of jeans and hoodie, threw them over my pink and black lacy negligee, and headed out the suite’s back door.

I can only imagine what a sight I was: wearing a pair of jeans, a half-zipped hoodie and a honeymoon teddy, traipsing across the windy beach at 2 a.m.

I flew into the lobby, mad as all get out, only to find the person manning the front desk sound asleep.

I am not exaggerating when I say it took me 15 minutes and several full-body shakes to wake him up, plus another five minutes for him to come out of what turned out to be a sleepy, drunken stupor, just so that he could charge our room for the bottle of Sprite I was taking from the front desk cooler.

I then began my own version of The Walk of Shame back to our suite.

I handed my whimpering husband the Sprite, but before I could even finish the sentence, “Sip it slowly,” the big galump had chugged the whole thing in one gulp.

And then promptly threw up. (Like I knew he would.)

We barely got him to the bathroom in time.

Romantic, no?

The next morning, we left.

In my husband’s defense, he did apologize. Profusely.

I also apologized (although not as profusely because I still maintain, if he’d just listened to me, we wouldn’t have been in this whole mess, and I wouldn’t have had to go traipsing through the Keys in a negligee at 2 a.m.)

Still, the story has, eventually, become funny.

In fact, when we talk about our honeymoon and how much we love it, my husband always tells this story. (I’ve tried to point out that this story doesn’t exactly sell the merits of our honeymoon to anyone, but my man’s never been one to shy away from the odd, misunderstanding looks of friends, family, or perfect strangers.)

Still, our honeymoon, complete with this one awful night, has really become synonymous for our marriage.

There are times we don’t listen to each other; there are times we don’t understand each other; there are times we are downright annoyed with the each other.

But we always, always love each other.

We always, always laugh about it in the end.

And we always, always come back to the place of remembering the good times; the positive, big picture, even when there are little bits of bad floating throughout.

Because if we had to do it all over again, we would, negligee night-walk and all.

- Brittany

Friday, November 13, 2009

Fabulous Friday

Happy Friday Everyone! It's here - another edition of Fabulous Friday! A highlight of all things fabulous that I've stumbled across over the course of this week (in no particular order, of course!) or even fond memories I have stored in my brain.

Last Friday Mr. Potts had flowers delivered to me at work for our anniversary. He totally surprised me and I was so excited to open what he had sent. He sent bright pink tulips. Tulips are my favorite flower and I once told him that while anyone could send roses that tulips were special & unexpected. Of course I had to take pictures. The last one is just stunning to me - I shot down into the tulips with the flash on.

I'm not in vacation mode yet since today is going to be so busy with work, but I am starting to dream just a little about our cruise.

We're leaving tomorrow morning to fly to Miami. We'll be flying down first class (at least there are some perks to being gone all the time!). While there for the night, we'll stay at the Courtyard Miami Beach. I can't wait to use this.

I know that you'll miss me terribly (ha!) but have no fear, I have lined up some wonderful guest bloggers to fill in while I'm gone. They've all sent me their posts & I'm lining up the days as we speak. There will even be a giveaway! I KNOW! How awesome!!

So to prepare you for all this awesomeness while I'm gone, I thought I'd showcase the ladies who will be contributing to your entertainment next week. I asked them if they'd share some of their vacation memories with you all in the spirit of Mr. Potts and I going on vacation for our anniversary.

Amber from Life As We Know it will be looking for a little advice.
Whitney from That Girl & her Pug will be sharing some favorite memories.
Julie from Wearing Mascara will be sharing some memories from an inspirational trip she took.
Brittany from Living in the Moment will have you rolling with a little "Honeymoon Heartache".
Brittany from Molly Lou Gifts will also be telling you about her honeymoon.
b.e.g. from Brown Eyed Girl will be recounting her favorite vacation with Dimples.

Be sure to come meet each of these ladies next week & share the love with them.

I'm also going to sweeten the giveaway with an extra goodie of my own!

All this fabulous-ness in one post. I can't wait for you to enjoy next week's posts!

Happy Friday, ya'll!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Ready to go home

I've been in Maine all this week and am so ready to go home. While it has been a good trip, I'm just ready to be home.

It could be that we're leaving on Saturday morning for our cruise.

It could be that my hotel pillows weren't quite right.

It could be meeting with new teammates & feeling that they don't view me as their equal when I have so much more experience than they do in our field, but don't have a "title".

It could be that I have some guest bloggers lined up for you next week while Mr. Potts and I are enjoying some sun.

Perhaps it is because I miss Hayden & Pepe Cat.

Perhaps it is just that I miss Mr. Potts and desperately want a hug from him.

Either/Or - I'm ready to get on that plane this afternoon and go home.

When you're away from home, what is it that makes you miss home the most? People, pets, pillows?

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Our First Break-up

As Mr. Potts and I were coming up on our anniversary, we experienced a break-up. Not our own (obviously) but still one that was disappointing to us.

A couple friend of ours who had begun dating just after we did went through a few rough patches and we found out they decided they weren't going to stay together. It is sad because we like them both - both individually & as a couple. They were the couple that we did a lot with.

She owns a townhome in our neighborhood & he was always over, so we'd usually catch up with them & have wine on each other's decks or go to a local restaurant for a quick bite.

Mr. Potts is especially close to the guy & I guess I'm more neutral - probably because I've been traveling so much.

So how do we separate our friendship? Do we try to hang out with one at a time? What happens is the buy starts to want to hang out with just Mr. Potts & doesn't want me to come along as much? Can we invite him over for dinner, even though she lives in our neighborhood?

Our annual holiday party is coming up soon. I'm sure they'll be friendly to each other, but what if someone hits on her? Or him??

Why isn't there a self-help book that tells me how to deal with this?

Why do people have to break up & ruin couple friendships??

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

A few favorites

Our honeymoon was a week after the wedding and we flew down to Barbados to stay at The Crane Resort. When we arrived, we were greeted and given Barbadian punch. Yum...punch.

We quickly found a local favorite (Banks Beer) & made it our own.
We enjoyed the pools and the beaches & the drinks.
We woke up to this view every day. Sigh. Take me back!
Dinner in town one night at a restaurant sitting on the water. We were able to watch turtles (big ones) swim right under us. It was amazing!
We found an Irish bar. Fitting since our favorite bar in Charlotte is an Irish place.
I rocked the curly hair. There was no hope.
Happy Tan Mr. Potts
We celebrated our anniversary on Saturday night at Flemmings. Oh so yum!! When I asked him what his favorite memory of our first year together was, he told me it was definitely our honeymoon in Barbados. I couldn't agree more. So, this post is for Mr. Potts and his favorite memory(ies) from our first year.

Monday, November 9, 2009

The post from yesterday. You know, my anniversary post, just a day late.

My post from yesterday experience technical difficulties. So, you're getting the original anniversary post a day late. A day late doesn't take away how much I love Mr. Potts. So some of our favorites. I promise in the next few days to recap some of the past year. But I won't go too overboard.

Mr. Potts began the day by making his Meme laugh. I try to keep that tradition alive with her.
My family arrived. I was so so excited to see them! My handsome brother.
At the alter, side by side. We were ready. The pastor begins to speak & Mr. Potts immediately says "I do!" The pastor laughed & joked that his job was done. :) The whole congregation laughed. Mr. Potts and I giggled.
We were so excited to get married, we could quit laughing & hugging & kissing.
I was so ready to see my mom. She didn't surprise me. She looked beautiful & somehow managed to hold it together. My momma was so happy for me.

One of our favorite images from the day. Love how she caught these.
A few pictures in the beautiful leaves - we couldn't pass them up.

On our trolley for a trolley ride around town before being delivered to our reception site.
It makes him smile to see pictures where I am so obviously in love with him.
We were able to take some pictures at a place we've always enjoyed - notice all the Charlotte signs! The pictures turned out well. What do you think?

One of our Faves! LOVE IT!!
We have so many wonderful pictures that these are only the tip of the iceberg. We had such a wonderful time the cake time was fun. He wasn't sure if he'd get just a swipe on his nose. He didn't.
Oh I DO LOVE ME SOME BUBBLES!!!
My brother. I'm so glad he was able to share this with me as well as with Mr. Potts, My Mom & my sweet niece & nephew.
Two of our very best friends who live in NOLA came to celebrate with us - they told us they wouldn't miss it for the world.
My sweet sweet niece had such a fun time & watned to dance with Uncle Mr. Potts more, but alas, it was time to go home. I got my last hug.
The last hug led to tears. My poor sweet muchkin.

Happy Anniversary Mr. Potts! You've been beside me the whole way. Holding my hands, giving me a gentle push when I've needed it, reminding me of what I find important.

Laughing with me
Holding me when I've cried
Holding you when you've cried

I promise
I promise you me
I wouldn't want to know a life without you

I promise to be the girl in your guy nights if you need one.
I promise to plan fun trips for big & little reasons.
I promise to make sure you always know how much you are loved.

I promise to cook & baby you when you're sick.
I promise to help you stretch your hamstrings.
I promise to pick good books out for you.

I Adore You
I find you incredibly strong
I find you extremely compassionate
I adore you
I love you.

For You Mr. Potts.

Friday, November 6, 2009

A year ago today we were almost married!

Some of my favorite pictures of the munchkins from the wedding day.

Check out the expression of pure joy on my precious niece's face as she drops her petals.

My sweet nephew after the wedding. My mom gave him her cell phone to keep him occupied. Smooches!

We didn't actually get the first bite of cake, my precious niece did!

She wanted to dance. She ran & jumped into my arms (well, really just onto me) causing us both to tumble to the floor. She was so happy that day. Can you see it in her face?

Aren't children so precious?