Auntie Versary, 2010 Edition

Oh, poor Ben. Every time he tries to surprise me on a special occasion, I mess it up. Never intentionally. It was our 9th wedding anniversary a month ago, and this year, it was my mom who accidentally ruined the surprise. Maybe four or five days before our official anniversary date (Ben let me at least know that our date was going to be on a Saturday), Mom was over, making those necklaces, and the kids were asking if they could go to her house. She said, "Not tonight, but on Saturday night, I'm going to spend the night here all night long!!!" I gave her a shocked look, and she goes, "Oh, you didn't know??? Oh, I feel so bad! Don't tell Ben!!" So I kept the secret all week long. I'm proud of myself for that.





Our anniversary proper was the Wednesday before our big date. I had told Ben that I wanted him to finish our bedroom closet as my anniversary present, and he delivered:

"Did your man deliver, or did he deliver?" "My man delivered." What movie are those quotes from? Ten points, baby. It's so nice to have a place to hang up clothes. I'm loving it.





I got Ben some dress pants that he had requested. He was so obsessed over his stupid video game that he wouldn't even pause to pose properly, so I threw the pants on his shoulder and shot the dang picture:

Ben jumps quickly from addiction to addiction, so he has left behind his stupid video game at this time. Now he is obsessed over that show, Dexter. He's watching every single episode online. Sheesh.





Ben also got me some mums:

They were gorgeous. And they thrived in their vase for FOUR WEEKS. I kid you not. I have never had cut flowers live that long. I couldn't believe it. They are tenacious suckers. I'm soooo planting those in my garden this year. I'm a fan of tenacious flowers. No rose gardens for me, thanks.





And then he got me the greatest gift of all - two almond truffles and Black Dutch fudge from Sarah's Candy Cottage:

Oh my gosh. I haven't ever bought any truffles from them, because they're like $1.50 for one little chocolate. But these were like a carnival in my mouth!!! And of course, the Black Dutch fudge was amazing, as usual. And yes, I know I look gross in the above picture. But I felt gross. No makeup. On the couch all day. It was one of those days. Wait. Every day is one of those days.





I gave each of the kids a sliver of my fudge. Dylan and Sadie have tried it before, but this was Micah's first time, and he was in hog heaven:

So, for the rest of the evening of our Anniversary Proper, I lay on the couch and we all watched TV. The Money Pit was on, which was so funny.

I love that show soooo much. And then That Darn Cat was on. Love that show, too.

A little story about The Money Pit. I went out for milkshakes with my friends, Pats and Megs. They asked what Ben and I did for our anniversary, so I told them, capping off with the mention of watching The Money Pit.

Pats: What's The Money Pit?

Megs: Yeah. I've never heard of it.

Me: You know, that 80's movie with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long?

Pats: Well, I know who Tom Hanks is...

Megs: I'm still drawing a blank on the movie.

Pats: Who is Shelley Long?

Me: You know, she was the first girlfriend of Sam the Bartender on Cheers??

Megs: I think maybe I've seen five minutes of Cheers once, but I don't remember who Sam the Bartender is.

Me: Her name was Diane! She was really prim and proper, and Sam was kind of free-spirited... One of the best romantic match-ups on TV!!

Pats: What else has Shelley Long been in?

Me: Ummmm.... Troop Beverly Hills! You know, Troop Beverly Hills??

[Blank stares]

I am really old.

And I took a little bit of poetic license with that dialogue, girls. I don't remember who said what. But it's pretty close to our conversation, no?

And, just FYI, I tried curling my hair the other day, and it ended up looking just like Shelly Long's hair in that movie poster. Not cool. I am so hating my hair!!!

Okay. So on to our big anniversary date. Saturday morning came, and Ben said, very nonchalantly, "Hey, let's go to an afternoon movie and dinner for our anniversary, and then call it a night." "Okay," says I, also very nonchalantly. When it was almost time to leave for the movie, I went to grab my toothbrush in the bathroom. Ben had already secretly packed it! Cute man. But he had forgotten my pills. And my contact case and saline and glasses. So I grabbed those things and shoved them into my purse, incognito.

We drop the kids off at Mom's and go to Sherlock Holmes. I am so in love with Robert Downey, Jr. Have been, ever since I saw him in Chaplin. Another movie Pats and Megs probably haven't seen. Because I am old and they are young. I'm dying to see Sherlock Holmes again. It was fantastic.

In the middle of the movie, my cell phone rings. It's a new cell phone, so I couldn't figure out how to turn off the ringer, and I had forgotten to try to figure that out before the movie started. But then I saw it was Mom calling, so I ran out of the theater and answered it. She told me that Sadie had a 103-degree temperature. She said to come get her and take her to the doctor when we were done with our movie.

On our way to Mom's, after the movie, Ben finally divulged to me his plan to whisk me away to some Bed and Breakfast up by Heise. I delivered an award-winning performance of being shocked and excited. Well, I didn't have to fake the excitement part. He was so worried that we would have to cancel our B&B reservation and that we'd lose our money or whatever. I told him to wait until we saw what was really going on with Sadie. I had a suspicion that this might be UTI, part two for Sadie, and that it would be a quick fix.

We took her to a Community Care, they diagnosed her with her second UTI, gave her some antibiotics, and her Tylenol finally started working, lowering her fever. Mom said to bring Sadie back to her house, that they should be good. Ben and I were starving by then, so after the doctor's visit, we took Sadie with us to Cafe Rio. It was such a romantic anniversary dinner. Me... Ben... and our daughter. :)

So we drop Sadie off and head for the hills. The B&B is actually four seperate little cabins, and then there's a main cabin where you eat your breakfast. Ben had arranged with the dude to just go straight to our cabin when we got there. It was a cute little thing. Two beds and a bathroom. And a one-foot-by-one-foot TV that was like 15 feet away from one of the beds. :) It was like 8:30 when we got there, so we were like, let's see what's on TV. They didn't have cable. But they did have a VCR to go with their munchkin TV, and a selection of five VHS movies to choose from. Movies of high calibur. Award winners. Like The Nutty Professor: Meet the Klumps - Unrated version. Things like that. They did have Independence Day there - our best choice of the five - so we watched that. Then, when the movie was over, it was like ten o'clock, and we were like, "Well... hm. I guess we'll go to sleep??" It was funny. I secretly did the contact changing and the pill taking, not wanting to ruin that I had known all along what was going on.

Breakfast the next morning was incredible. Belgian waffles, fresh strawberries, homemade whipped cream, and homemade buttermilk syrup. I've never heard of buttermilk syrup before, but oh my gosh. What a revelation. It was incredible. I need to get a recipe for that.

So. That was our anniversary. It turned out to be pretty great, in spite of everything. Thanks, Ben, for such a great anniversary. Even though you never read my blog, so you won't see this. Thanks, Mom, for baby-sitting. (It ended up being a long, hard night with my kids. Bless her heart.) I know you read my blog sometimes, so maybe you'll see this. :)