Awesomest Husband Ever!!!!

Ok, so I don't know what I did to deserve a husband who is constantly trying to be aware of my needs and meet them, but God has been good to me in this area of my life abundantly above and beyond what I deserve! I mean seriously!

So I've been a little out of sorts for pretty much the whole month of October because I've been sick with bronchitis (twice! still taking preventative medication to keep from a third relapse!), and Savannah has been sick the entire month as well. So between my own body telling me I've had enough and Savannah crying ALL the time because she doesn't feel good, my amazing husband got the picture that I needed a break.

So what does he do? He gives me one! And says I can take a friend! What? Out of the blue, he arranged everything...childcare, cost, spa treatments, meals, everything! All I had to do was get a friend and show up for my weekend of nothing...I LOVED IT!!! Every single minute of unplanned nothingness, and my friend Bekah loved it too. So here is the story of my retreat...

Halloween night, Bekah and I drove in late to the middle of nowhere, Whitesburg, GA, smack dab in the middle of Newnan and Carolton, only thirty minutes from home, but you feel miles away from everything. We get there late, and I get the first glimpse of how spooked my friend Bekah can get. I mean, when we pulling into the entrance to the Banning Mills Bed & Breakfast lodge at around 9:00pm Halloween night, it did look like a cruel joke with our first impression being an abandoned guard house. Bekah was like,"What? Are you sure our husbands aren't going to jump out of nowhere and scare us?" Yes, the guard house and long unlit drive to the lodge was creepy, but no cruel joke, just a large, cozy room at a newly renovated lodge-like setting. Loving it already!

We stayed up late that night talking into the wee hours (you know that was like 11:00pm mom-time.) We slept in late the next morning...again, 9:00am. Yes, on mom-time that IS sleeping in! Ate a hearty breakfast cooked by someone else...it was good mind you, but the fact that someone else cooked it, is all that really mattered=) Hiked around and got our bearings until lunch time. Ate a delicious lunch, delicious mainly because someone else cooked it. (I think you should be feeling the pattern by now=) Then Bekah went back to the room for some catching up on reading while I enjoyed the massage and facial my husband had so lovingly scheduled for me. Yes!! He did it! He rocks...what can I say. All other women have a right to be jealous=) J/K...kinda...anyway...

I was done by 2:30 when Bekah and I decided to hit the hiking trails and go explore all these old Civil War ruins that were on the property. We hiked for a long while enjoying the beautiful fall weather and scenery, and all the waterscapes. For those of you who read April's blog, this is a better picture of what you might see in the south this time of the year. The leaves are stunning! And we found several leaves that were so unbelievably large we had to take pictures with them!

So, at the end of this so called trail we were hiking...being very adventurous...we came to the old abandoned paper mill we had set out in search for. Of course, it was on the other side of the river, and of course, we had to find our way over to it, disregarding "No Trespassing" signs. Now mind you, this was Bekah's idea to get to the abandoned paper mill, and I was thinking, "Awesome! She's as foolhardy and curious as I am!" Only to find out once we got there, that she was petrified the place was going to fall in around us if we walked around, not to mention she was a little spooked. Granted, the place was eerily silent and peaceful with only the sound of the wind rustling through the broken-paned windows. Moss, yellow Caution tape, and weathered blue tarp swung creepily in the breeze. I was loving every moment of suspense and would have gladly lived a little farther over the edge exploring the place, but Bekah really was concerned the place would fall down around our ears, so we took several pictures from a doorway just inside the building, trying to capture that perfect photogenic moment. All the while, Bekah was hoping to spot some orbs in her camera...ha-ha! I love her! My "orb" photo is posted below on her behalf, but the spots on my lens might offer an explanation, but who can really know?

So the hike was adventurous and exhilarating and exhausting, and completely unplanned and unscheduled! Ah, to live life by the seat of your pants again! If you don't have kids, don't take it for granted! So dinner was a must after this, and we ate to our hearts and content, but stomach's demise at the Red Robin in Newnan. Drooled a little over Mark Wahlberg in the movie Shooter for our bedtime snack, and went to sleep dreaming of husbands with large arm muscles. (Of course, we would both argue this is not a dream, but a reality...shout out to the hubbies=) And so ends, my two night, one day escape from the stresses of sickness and 24-hour mothering. (I came home to a child with a stomach virus, but such is life, right?) Regardless, I am eternally grateful to my amazing husband for loving me enough to send me away, all details taken care of! I love you Joey Durham....more than I could write! (And obviously, that's A LOT!)