Welp, we’re on the homestretch…stretch of relentless 90+-degree days, that is. I don’t need to expound upon how I feel about this. But do you know what? After feeling so dog sick with various ailments throughout my third trimester, I will gladly take my life as an overheated, swollen Beluga! At least now I’m functional and Haddie and I have been on some fun, final adventures together before Junior’s arrival.
I have also been given a new survival mechanism to get through my final month of pregnancy and those brutal first months with a newborn: a vacation! And I have Hunky Hubby to thank for it. Even though I poke fun and tease him a lot, he’s definitely top-notch in the romance/thoughtfulness department. One of his most recent transactions in the Bank of Looooove was booking a B&B for Mother’s Day. A couple of weeks ago, he surprised me with a week-long cruise in February. Without children. He says it’s for our anniversary. I say it’s A Will to Live.
He found this GREAT site, www.skyauction.com, which auctions off vacations at unbelievable prices. The only problem was after he bid on and won a cruise to Mexico and Belize (destinations we already visited on a cruise last year), we found a more optimal cruise to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Antigua and the Bahamas. I decided that a trip to the latter destinations would give me even more motivation to live than Mexico, so I made it my personal mission to stalk the poor folks at Skyauction. They got either a loving daily phone call or email for two weeks until they finally relented and credited our account (“JUST MAKE THE WOMAN STOP CALLING US, PLEASE!”) Now all that was left was to bid on and win the trip we really wanted.
When it comes to online auctions, Jamie is The Man. I don’t think he’s ever lost an auction on eBay and has it down to an exact science when to swoop in and yank the rug from underneath all the other bidders. The only problem was he would be in a meeting when our auction expired, leaving My Will to Live entirely up to me.
The night prior to the big auction, he sat me down and wrote out everything I needed, at the exact moment I needed to do it. Anticipation swelled within me as I felt the pressure. I had stalked for two weeks and it would all come down to those final moments. Would I crack? Would I blow the whole thing?
I needed some reassurance. At the end of his Auction Essay, I reminded Jamie, “You remember those days when you used to write me sweet love notes?” I figured that surely a note saying how much he loved and cared for me would help subside some of the pressure. “Of course I do,” he reassuringly said, and proceeded to etch something for me on paper.
Touched, I looked down and read his message of loooove:
“You better win!”
Gee. Just what I was looking for. At least he could have been grammatically correct about the whole thing.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 