10 Years

I start this post happy, reminiscing the past 10 years. Brent and I just celebrated our 10 year anniversary. Yes, I said, 10 YEARS! I can't believe we've made it this far without injuring each other! Some days it feels like we've been married a short time, and other days it feels like forever! We have been through a lot over the past 10 years. We've both lost grandparents. We've watched people we care about fight terminal diseases. We moved to a city where we didn't know a sole, after living apart for nearly a year while Brent started his new job down here. We've had 4 different homes, one of which was a pepto-bismal pink duplex. It was supposed to be temporary, but we ended up living there for a year, until we found the house we are currently in. I can honestly say, we have some great memories in that pepto-bismal pink duplex. (minus the drug dealings going on in the house behind us. ha! Just kidding, well maybe not....) We've been through 3 hurricanes and many tropical storms. During one of the hurricanes, Brent left lobster tails in our freezer when we were without power for 10 days. The stench was so bad, we had to throw the whole refrigerator out. It's still a debate as to who's fault that one was, but I stand my ground, it was HIS! We lost sweet Savannah to cancer, and watched over crazy Jackson as he coped with her death. Jackson was a wedding present from me to Brent by the way. Both Jackson and Savannah have given us some really great and funny memories. But of course the best memory of the past 10 years, was the birth of our joy in life, Luke and Ashley. There is no better gift in the world than our children. We both feel really blessed.

To celebrate our 10 year anniversary, we took a mini vacation to Cumberland Island. It started out as a Griswold vacation. On our way to the island, we heard there was no TV, no phone, no Internet. We thought, "oh great! we're in trouble!" I quickly had envisions of sitting in a room staring at each other. When we got to the dock to take the ferry over to the island, it was POURING down rain. They had to delay our trip until the lightning passed. All we could do was laugh. TYPICAL....

Our 10 year anniversary trip: Lots of rain, no TV, no Internet, no phones... This is turning out just fabulous!

But it turned out to be just what we needed. We talked a lot and laughed a ton. If anyone needs a relaxing stress free place to go, The Greyfield Inn on Cumberland Island is it.


It is absolutely breathtaking there. The trees are so gorgeous, HUGE Oak trees covered in Moss.
Can you imagine this being your driveway????

And the beach.... It is unreal. Just getting to the beach is amazing. You have to ride bikes or walk down a tree covered path, climb over the sand dunes, then walk onto the beach. Both Brent and I couldn't get over how flat the beach is! We've been to many different beaches over the past 10 years, and this one is by far the flattest and widest we have ever seen.






The island is so calm and peaceful. Brent and I spent a lot of time just sitting on the front porch of the house sipping sweet tea or drinking afternoon cocktails.

We did a lot of this.
And this.
And ate a lot of this. (the food was really good by the way. All southern cooking)

When we first got to The Greyfield Inn, we didn't know what to expect (after all, it is a B&B). So very different from the type of place we typically choose. We usually go to a luxury resort. So, when we read this, you can imagine the laughs we got out of it.
(Wouldn't it stink if your family heirloom was a septic tank?! hehe...)

There are no bartenders there. You just help yourself to a drink. And after a few, this became very humorous to us as well. We tried to squeeze "Chit" into our conversation as often as possible.(OK, guess you had to be there... but it was really REALLY funny.)

The island is covered with wild horses. They are so beautiful. This year they counted 121 horses on the island. I am SO MAD AT MYSELF for not bringing my camera with me when we first went to the beach. 2 wild horses walked right up to us as we were walking along the shoreline and continued to walk next to us. They were probably only 4 feet away. Such an amazing experience. I tried to get Brent to jump on one of their backs, but he said no. So boring!! Here's a picture of one of the colts. Isn't he cute?


On the day of our anniversary, we took a tour of the island in the back of a pick up truck. We only got smacked in the face from low hanging branches about a half dozen times, but it was well worth it. We got to see lots of wildlife. From crabs on the beach to turtle tracks from the loggerheads coming ashore to nest. We toured the tiny chapel where JFK Jr. got married. I remember when he got married and seeing pictures of them walking down the steps and thought it was so beautiful. It really was, this picture doesn't do it justice.

Late that afternoon, it started raining again. So we, of course, sat in our usual spot on the swing, listened to the rain and had a glass of wine. Another man who was staying at Greyfield, brought his guitar and was playing softly in the background. He actually came over and sang us a song for our anniversary. I can't remember what the lyrics were, the only line that I remember was, "you don't look a day older". I'll take that! Seems kind of cheesy, but it was actually very sweet.


After that, we went downstairs for dinner in the dining room. We originally planned on sitting at a private table since it was our anniversary, but we decided that we truly enjoyed the company of the others staying in the Inn. It was probably the biggest surprise of all about the trip. We realized we enjoyed being at a Bed and Breakfast. We learned a lot about the people who were staying there, and where they were from and it was really interesting.

But the biggest thing I realized on this trip was how much I miss spending time alone with just Brent. I miss laughing really hard with him. Our lives have become so busy lately with him traveling and me taking care of the twins. Yet, I feel at peace knowing that it is OK, our relationship is better and stronger than it was 10 years ago. We have been through so much together, and I couldn't be happier to know that I am sharing this life journey with him. He truly is an amazing man. What a great feeling it is, to know we have been married 10 years and still have a great time together.

OK, enough of me being sappy. We are more of the "sarcastic, make fun of you" kind of couple, so I will end this post with that. However, I can't tell you what happened because Brent told me he'd kill me (maybe if you hound him, he'll let me tell you the story). I'm sure you won't understand this next picture, but Brent will. This is probably when I laughed THE hardest, and still do thinking about it.

This is what happened when Brent tried to be nice and drink hot tea with me in the morning. (guess he didn't know the gardener just watered plants washed the front steps.)bwahahahahaha! Sorry, Brent, I HAD to put this in here. (but at least I didn't tell what happened. )


I am thankful for my awesome husband. The past 10 years have been lots of fun to say the least. I love you, Brent!