Happy Anniversary?

Tomorrow marks 3 years that Jason and I have been married. I have spent most of the marriage being spoiled and surprised by my husband, so this time around I thought I would take a crack at being the thoughtful one. This is how well that went:

A couple of weeks ago I decided it would be ideal to surprise my husband with a night out at the same bed and breakfast that we spent our wedding night in. The perks about this bed and breakfast: the suite (we did not have the suite for our wedding night) has a jacuzzi, sauna, king sized bed and a fireplace. How can you go wrong? I called the in-laws to see if they could come up for the Friday after our anniversary - this Friday. They say yes with enthusiasm because they are AWESOME and love Hunter to pieces. I feel slightly like a bad Mom for being super pumped to spend a night out without potential night-time wake-ups or 6am feeding. So I call the B&B with my plans all laid out.

they're booked.

That sort of stopped me in my tracks. Dang it. My plans never seem to work out. So I go online and look for other options (the criteria: king bed, jacuzzi, reasonable price and local). There are no places anywhere in Northern Virginia that fit the bill without being a super-lame hotel or uber-expensive. Then suddenly it dawns on me, there is a little tiny event called Inauguration that is occuring next Tuesday which has all of the hotels from here to Timbuktu booked. So- my online search for the perfect hotel was futile. No room in the inns. So I go back to the in-laws, ask them if this past Friday would work for them- they check their calendars and again are enthusiastic and pleased to help. I call B&B and book the suite for Friday. Plan on!

Jason doesn't have a clue.

I plan and devise all week- knowing I will have Friday to prepare and pack without Jason's knowledge- so excited am I. Friday morning I take advantage of Hunter's long morning nap and shave my legs so I feel all special and nice. A new Mom in the winter- well - my legs hadn't felt that smooth in a while.

Friday afternoon- this is when the story starts. Jason has planned on getting some donated furniture from a church member's work place and bringing it to the church. The church member is so kind to donate a truck rental (as in U-Haul) for the job, and Jason recruits some friends and his brothers who are in town to help. Chaos and disaster follow. "Some furniture" turns into a warehouse supply and "some friends" turns in to jumbled schedules and limited time when all was said and done. Jason and company didn't start moving furniture unti 4pm and I kept getting enlisted to do random tasks to help (can you come pick up the truck with me? can you order a pizza for the guys so they can eat? can you tell me how many pieces of furniture we're supposed to be getting? Can you answer the phone every 20 minutes to answer my questions?) I was running around with Hunter in my arms- trying desperately to accomplish what I wanted while fielding Jason's calls.

Oh- I almost forgot- we had a staff party to go to that night. I was supposed to wrap the white elephant gifts and make a salad and grab some wrapping paper from somebody's office for them. Jason called me at 6:30 to say he was no where near being done and that I should go to the party alone. Little did he realize that I had planned on him being with me and that I certainly did not want to be driving 40 minutes to a party when his parents would be arriving to take Hunter and let us go either to dinner or the party or the B&B. So I made the salad and got the wrapping paper and sent it along with someone nearby who was going to the party while calling the host and apologizing for our absence.

I ended up eating pepperoni pizza by myself.

Jason and his brother Mikey finished the job (yea for Mikey's help), he came home and scarfed down some pizza and then I noticed it:

Jason had broken out into hives. Head to toe. Hives with white welt-like things. Hives.

So Jason took a shower, scrubbed himself down and took two Benadryl. Hives gone. About an hour later his parents arrived and Jason was (to my delight)- completely surprised. We finally made it out the door to the B&B which is just down the street. The room was wonderful and we immediately filled up the jacuzzi- although we didn't read the instructions- so the water started getting cold and we shut it off- but it was full enough for the jets! I had remembered only a few things- but bubbles was one of them. The bubbles were so ridiculous that we had to spend a couple minutes stamping them down so we could see each other!

So things that went right: it was a surprise, it was so so nice, the jacuzzi was lovely, the sauna was fun, the company was great.

Things that went funny: I didn't have any food so we ran to Safeway (romantic!), I grabbed two decks of cards for double solitaire and one deck was missing a card (but the B&B ppl had a deck), I spilled my wine on a chair (woops), and last but not least:

Jason's benadryl kicked in. 11pm- snoring husband. I would complain except about 10 minutes later I could barely keep my eyes open.

So we paid for the bed and breakfast night primarily and successfully to get a full night's sleep. It was the typical new parent's night out. Jason and I woke up around 8:30 (I think both of us had been tossing and turning for a little bit) and we had a fabulous breakfast. We tried the jacuzzi once again (this time following instructions) and ended up talking about work and the damn furniture fiasco. But we also talked about our marriage and how much we love each other and what amazing things have happened in just 3 years.

So- Happy Anniversary to us- hived, sleep deprived and happy.