Mini Vacay

This past weekend, Stephen and I drove to Myrtle Beach to see his grandparents, and tell them about Baby T. They have a timeshare there, so it seemed like a great opportunity to see them and hit the beach. And it ended up being an incredibly cheap trip for us, because they insisted on paying for all our meals while we were there (only three meals, but still!) So it only cost us gas, and... now that I think about it, I'm not sure we actually got gas. We were driving my car, and it's only about 240 miles there and back, and since I had filled up before we left, we wouldn't have used a whole tank. Sweet!

We actually got there before them on Saturday, so I was able to get in some research paper time. We were only about 1 1/2 hours ahead of them, but it gave me plenty of time to get some stuff typed up. Once they got there, we caught up and chatted for a while, and by about 5:00 they were ready to eat. I knew this would be a bad situation because I knew I'd need to eat again before bed! But anyway, I had snacks, so I didn't care. We went to a great seafood restaurant within walking distance from the condos. It was a beautiful night to be out walking also. Stephen and I went for a romantic walk on the beach and I picked some shells for Nenah for her collection. We didn't walk quite as far as I would have liked to because it got dark really fast once we got out there. So someone wanted to head back to the room. Not naming any names.

The next morning we went out for breakfast, and the restaurant we went to committed the ultimate sin - I found a hair in my food. Fortunately, it didn't ruin my appetite and I scarfed down my entire meal (of course they brought me a whole new plate out!!) When we got back to the hotel, Stephen and I were talking about going down to the beach but we didn't want to just leave Nenah and Papa either, since we had driven specifically to see them and everything. After about an hour it was pretty obvious that their plans involved TV and not much else. I mean, I'm all for relaxing on vacation but I'm also slightly antsy. So I started the wink, wink, nudge, nudge deal with Stephen, to help him read my mind that I was ready to go for a dip. He got the hint, and as he started to get up off the couch, he stretched, and then froze. His face completely contorted in pain and he was like, "Geez! What did I just do?" At first, I didn't have much sympathy because I figured it was a pulled muscle, and let's face it, we rarely go to the beach, so suck it up, right? Well this was some type of pulled muscle because within seconds he couldn't move, and he finally wobbled into our bedroom and just plopped on the bed and declared that he couldn't move again - that the pain was too bad. So now I have to think of a way to get him healed so I can still hit the beach. So here I come with a heating pad, IcyHot, and aspirin. I massaged that boy with IcyHot until my arms were cramping! Absolutely nothing was helping. Finally he just laid down with the heating pad trying not to move. At this point I told him he may have either pulled a tendon or pinched a nerve, because we should have been able to rub out some of the pain if it was just a pulled muscle.

After an hour or so of watching a golf documentary, and me sighing loudly a couple of times, and looking longingly towards the beach, Stephen told me if I wanted to go down there he'd go down with me. Yippee!! So off we went, and let me tell you, it was kind of weird being in a bikini knowing that I am starting to get poochy in the midsection, but like Stephen said, who am I trying to impress!? But anyway, Stephen just laid down in the sun and I went shell-searching for Nenah once again. After about 30 minutes of that I told Stephen I wanted to do some laps in the pool. So he went to the hot tub and I went to the pool. I ended up doing about 25 minutes of laps and it felt so good! I was so tired after that.

After that we went back up to the room and Nenah and Papa told us they wanted to order a pizza before we left, so we did that, and packed up and everything.

I had to drive home because Stephen was in too much pain. It was fortunate for him that I was there to drive. It was unfortunate for him that I missed a turn somewhere. I guess 501 splits somewhere and I just kept on truckin on the wrong 501. And he was asleep so he had no idea. Hey, I was singing to Point of Grace! Give me a break!! Fortunately, since we used to live in Charleston, I directed myself to Florence, and then I-95, and then we hit Rowland from there and were back on 501. It took exactly 8 minutes longer to get home than it took to get there. So I didn't screw up TOO bad. At least I knew where I was when I got lost.

Monday he went to the doctor and it turns out he pinched a nerve. The pain runs from his neck to his mid-back. He is on muscle relaxants and some other pain pill. It helps a little, but not much, so at night I give him ice rubs which is supposed to help repair the nerve. I'm hoping he heals up soon!! He's just nervous that this is going to cause back problems for him in the future, but I don't think so. I hope not anyway.

So that's the adventures of our mini vacay to Myrtle Beach! It was nice to get away but I can't wait for our next vacation, which will be just the two of us (well, three of us technically) and it will be so nice to get away!!!! Yay!!