Denver - #99

I feel the need to warn you that this is another serious one.  Every now and then I am capable of being serious…well, for awhile anyhow.  In case you hadn't figured it out, this is also #99 on my 101 in 1001 list.

I spent the first 17 years of my life in a town of about 20,000 people in Nebraska.  I then moved to the huge city of Phoenix where I encountered many new people, ideas, and grew more than I thought possible.  The move was scary and shortly before I left my small town in Nebraska I had second thoughts.  Luckily I had some much needed pushing.  Leaving my friends, my family, the town I was actually able to navigate through, and all of the little things I had become accustomed to was very difficult, more so than I had anticipated.  Of course I adjusted and now I have all of these things in AZ.  Although we’re not quite ready for kids, now is the time when we’re planning our future.  Apparently when we weren’t looking we became adults.  I really think that I should have gotten a card in the mail or at the very least an email to inform me that I’m officially supposed to be an adult.  An instruction booklet and a crystal ball would have come in handy as well. 

Part of the planning of our future includes picking a place we see ourselves raising kids and continuing to build our life together.  We spent our four-day weekend in Denver doing just this.  We’ve been back and forth about moving for the past couple years.  The plan was always to decide what we were doing by May 2011.  That was years away and then suddenly it wasn’t so far anymore.  We talked about moving back to Nebraska, going to Kansas or Colorado or staying in Arizona.  After driving our families and friends crazy for awhile we finally narrowed our choices down to Arizona or Colorado.  With less than a year (closer to half a year), we’re getting down to the wire.  Each place has something special to offer and the choice is so hard.  Arizona is where we’ve started our life together.  We have our wonderful friends, Mr. C’s family, jobs, we know the area, and we have established ourselves in terms of doctors, salons (ok that one’s just me!).  Arizona means no scooping snow ever, no ice, and none of the hassle and insecurity of moving.  However, Colorado has quite a few pros too.  Colorado would be a great place to raise kids.  Schools are better, we’d actually have seasons, we’d be in the same city as some of my family, close enough to Nebraska to drive for holidays and not too far from AZ too see Mr. C’s family and our friends.  Colorado would mean a completely different lifestyle for us.  There’s so much to do and did I mention that they have all 4 seasons?  All FOUR!!!  I almost forgot there were four since I’ve only seen 2 the past few years.  

We stayed with my aunt and uncle this weekend and they and my cousins gave us some great tours including the different areas of town, malls, downtown, and the Red Rocks amphitheatre.  We also got to meet up with another of my aunts I don’t get to see very often.  The weekend was basically an attempt to get a better feel for the city and see if it’s a fit for us.  I think the best part of the weekend was actually my aunt’s cooking and just hanging out with everyone. 

Although the weekend was wonderful, I’m just plain terrified now because it seems so REAL!  I’ve had a couple failed adventures over the past few years and like most people, I’m not a fan of failing.  Mr. C is excited to move but he’s pretty laid back and sometimes I feel like I’m running the show and that makes it even worse if I make a bad decision when it’s something like this that involves both of us. 

There’s so much to consider – jobs, home prices, our future with kids, our families, and our willingness to start over again.  I’ll keep you updated but in the meantime, if you happen to stumble across a crystal ball please send it our way!

#67 Ballet

With work and school and all the other little things I’ve been squeezing into my free time, I haven’t been working on my 101 in 1001 list much, however attending a ballet other than the nutcracker was one of my items and I’m excited to say that it’s been accomplished!  This is not to say that we won’t be going to another one again soon but at least I can feel like I’m making progress on that list!

Friday night Mr. C took me to the ballet.  Well, I asked him to take me but nevertheless, he took me!  Last year we went to our first ballet together and I loved it.  He fought falling asleep due to the lullaby type music and the fact that the lights were off, but told me he enjoyed the parts he was lucid for.  I do have to admit that I dozed a little during the Nutcracker last year due to the extreme sleep deprivation that always occurs around Christmas time but I caught 90% of it!  Even with the falling asleep, I was very excited that we made it.  Mr. C is pretty willing to go anywhere that’s really important to me and for that I am greatly appreciative.  With our crazy schedules lately it was great to have date night be something out of the ordinary.

We had planned a nice dinner but by the time I got home from work it ended up being a little later than planned and we didn’t have time for our first choice.  We ended up eating a quick dinner at Pei Wei which was still pretty delicious.  Every time we go downtown I’m reminded of why realistically living in the city would not be for me.  I had a period of time that I was convinced I should move to Chicago.  I looked at lofts online and dreamed about living in the heart of the city.  I told Mr. C that we should move and he told me he was cool with that.  I think he knew that it was just another one of my ideas that would fall through soon (which it basically did).  While I still think this would be amazing in some ways, I also know how frustrated I would be with traffic, not having much space, and the noise.  I still love being in the city atmosphere though and even though Phoenix isn’t like many other cities, I do enjoy going downtown from time to time. 

After shelling out $12 for parking we went to will-call to get the tickets.  Of course our name was spelled wrong so we made our way through a couple of lines before actually finding our tickets.  We had to wait awhile before taking our seats so we enjoyed some people watching.  Mr. C is pretty quiet in his people watching but I tend to narrate my every thought.  There was this couple we spotted in the parking lot and they were just plain WEIRD.  The guy was super tall, well built, and had on a suit.  He was pretty good looking but something about him was just strange.  The girl was crazy short, round, and had on a shirt that looked like she had robbed several sequin stores to make.  They walked arm in arm and at first I thought the guy was gay and the girl was just very attached to her gay friend, however I soon learned that was not the case when she placed her hand in a certain spot.  Mr. C enjoyed a delightful ten minutes or so of my narration about this strange couple.  There was actually another couple a few feet away from us also trying to get the scoop on them.  Here’s an excerpt for you of my delightful narration skills.  

Me: OMG that’s that couple again.

Me: So what do you think their story is?

Me: They’re together right? Like together-together?

Mr. C: Yes, I think so

Me: Are you sure because it’s just plain weird.  What’s up with the arm thingie?
Mr. C: I don’t know (mumbled).

Me: Are you sure they’re together?  OMG she just grabbed his butt.  I think that’s affirmative.

Me: Do you think they’re married?

Me: Can you see a ring?
Me: Look for a ring!

Me: Ooooo, he has a ring.

Me: Oh my gosh, she has a ring.  Wow, they’re totally married. 

Me: Do you see it, do you see the ring?  WOW!

Me: Isn’t this crazy?

Mr. C: Uh-huh.

Me: Ok he’s drinking a tiny cup of espresso.  That’s totally weird, right?

This was about the time where we could take our seats.

We had fairly good seats which was great because we barely bought the tickets on Thursday.   The guy in front of me was super tall which worried me for awhile because I couldn’t see a thing.  Luckily the seats next to us were empty so I ended up being able to see perfectly.  The ballet was A Midsummer’s Night Dream.  I read the synopsis before the ballet began but it seemed like everyone was in love with someone else and it got a little confusing at times.  Even though I was confused at times it was still wonderful.  It amazes me to watch the dancers glide on the stage.  The ease with which they jump makes it look like at times they are on a trampoline.  Every movement was perfectly timed.  I can barely remember the actions to dumb dances like the Macarena so it always impresses me when I think about all the practice that went into each movement in order to make everything look so effortless and put together.  There were a bunch of little girls, maybe 8 years old or so that appeared throughout and I was amazed at how good they were for such a young age.  My niece is a dancer and a pretty good one at that so I thought of her during the performance as I saw all those dancers twirling around.

The night was great and I’m so glad we made it to a different performance.  Next month is the Nutcracker which I’m very excited about!  We found out about half-price tickets an hour before the show so we’re planning to make it to the February ballet now as well.  I'm making progress on the list!

Coconut...not the food

A few years ago while buying fish from Petsmart, I told my then fiancé that I thought people who paid to have professional pictures of their dogs and Santa were just plain crazy.  This was before we got our dog Coconut.  Now I’m not saying that I’m going to run out and have pics of Santa and my dog but I get it now. 

I wanted a puppy SOOOO bad but we decided to wait until after we got married.  Around that time, my co-worker’s mother-in-law had some puppies to find homes for.  I wanted a little white dog and although I didn’t get a white one, I did get a little one.  One of my friends had a dog named Kiwi and I joked about naming ours Coconut.  Somehow that name grew on me and just stuck so we had her named before we even met her.  I counted down the days until we could pick her up.  The day finally arrived when we went to pick out our puppy.  We had decided on a girl but not much after that.  We arrived and I picked up our Coconut and never put her down.   The thought of putting her down and picking out a different one was just terrible.  Poor Mr. C had to put his puppy back but he doesn’t have major attachment issues like I do.

During the drive home we seriously contemplated going back for one more.  We had only wanted one but she looked so scared that I worried she’d be lonely.  We decided that one was it, although we had our doubts throughout the first week.  She did great during the day but the nighttime was a different story.  We put her in a kennel next to our bed until we could potty train her.  She began crying and although we tried everything, we couldn’t calm her down.  I felt terrible because I imagined she was scared and lonely.  Eventually sometime in the night Mr. C took her to the closet and slept on the floor with her.  I woke up to find him curled up on the floor and her laying on him.  It was pretty cute.

Over the nights, things got much better and eventually it was like Coconut had always been around.  I looked forward to seeing her after work.  One weekend I was slightly depressed however because she wouldn’t stop growing.  Of course I got over that and I’m pretty happy with her size now.

We had two dogs as I was growing up but neither one was a puppy so this was all new to me.  Apparently dogs lose their teeth?  We went through potty training pretty well and she progressed from sleeping in a kennel to a bed and now she has about 5 beds throughout the house.  I happen to think we did a great job training her.  While she isn’t perfect, she’s great for us. 

Coconut has always been an easy going dog and when we got her I would pick her up and carry her around the house.  She’s always been a snuggler which I love.  She seems to think she’s a cat and loves laying on the back of our sectional.  She walks over people when they’re on her couch and she loves sleeping in the guest bed when we’re not around.  If you refuse to play with her she’ll pick up her toy and lightly throw it at you to get your attention. She’s pretty smart although she’s scared of everything and not the most observant thing.  I do know this next part sounds crazy but she loves clothes.  I bought her a sweater one year for when we went to Nebraska in the winter and she LOVED it.  Her tail starts wagging when she sees doggie clothes.  I know there are people who think I’m nuts but whatever, you don’t get it yet. 

Coconut has become part of our family and I can’t imagine life without her.  We’re hoping our puppy parenting abilities mean that we’ll make good parents someday.  I never had my doubts about Mr. C anyhow.  For now though we’re loving our little 3 member family.

Halloween and the Scary Scarecrow

Halloween has never been one of my favorite holidays because it’s scary and I HATE being scared.  Over the past few years I have begun to enjoy the day more though.  I think part of this is because we hand out candy and I get to see all the cute little kiddies in their costumes.  Another reason is that we’ve begun our own traditions, one of which is pumpkin carving.  Also, I’ve gotten into the decorating more.  The last reason is that I get to see my dog dressed up in a super cute costume.   I wasn’t always someone who imagined dressing her dog up for Halloween.  In the writing of this post, I went off on a huge Coconut (our dog, not the food) tangent so you’ll get that next time and maybe it will help explain how I've become one of "those people".  Anyhow, the only part of that you need to know now is that we dress her up for Halloween and she’s super cute and loves it normally.  She loved her ladybug costume we got the first year but she’s way too big for that now so we bought her a new scarecrow costume.  She wasn’t the biggest fan of the hat this year though and actually removed it!  Here she is in her Halloween dress.  I had to buy the dress incase the costume didn't work out....

We had Mr. C’s mom and Topanga over for dinner which was delicious if I do say so myself.  I made this Santa Fe Soup and had pretty little bowls of fixins for toppings.  I also made mini pigs in a blanket out of crescent rolls and little smokies.  We LOVE those.  I honestly think I could eat those for a month and still not be tired of them.  Topanga showed me how to make salsa in like 10 minutes.  Yes, that is possible.  So we had salsa and chips too.  And for desert I made a yummy apple pie.  The only problem was that we all pigged out on candy later so we weren’t really in the mood for pie.  When I say we all pigged out, I mean that some of us did more than others but I’m putting us all in the pigging out category to make myself feel better.  Either way, not the best night to fix a lot of food.  

Since all four of us were there to hand out candy I figured it would be easier to just sit outside.  Plus, it’s such a pain to keep going to the door and trying to do something in between.  We lit our pumpkins outside, pulled up some chairs, carried our huge buckets of candy out, and enjoyed the weather.  I happen to think we were a pretty awesome house because not only did we have good candy but we also had a dog dressed as a scarecrow.  I honestly don’t know what could top that.  I’m thinking…  Nope, nada.  Nothing tops that.

We had some super cute kids.  My favorite was a little boy dressed as a dinosaur.  His parents were pulling him in a wagon and after he got his candy he climbed back in the wagon and on they went.  We had some kids as cats, a carebear, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and I honestly don’t remember much of the rest of the costumes.  We took turns handing out candy which worked pretty well.  Last year I had a minor freak-out because Mr. C was giving away handfuls of candy and we had a TON of kids so I was worried about running out.  This year he didn’t hand out anything until a group of kids pulled up WITHOUT COSTUMES on their bikes.  They opened their backpacks.  Yes, their BACKPACKS and said “trick-or-treat”.  Ok, so I get that they wanted to get in on the candy action.  That’s cool but seriously put on a mask or something!  One kid had made a sort of mask out of his IPOD headphones.  At least that kid took some initiative.  I think he’ll go far in life.  Anyhow, Mr. C gives these kids all big, heaping, man handfuls of candy.  I had another little freak-out this  year because he was giving handfuls to kids who didn’t even bother dressing up but luckily that was short-lived.  We had candy to go around, although SOMEONE seemed rather possessive of the bowl!  I’m just joking, we had tons, and we all got to eat tons.  It was like a candy buffet!  We had two of those green bowls heaping with candy.  HEAPING!

Coconut loved being outside and a lot of kids (and parents) seemed to love her.  There was one kid who was definitely in his teens and scared of her.  Obviously he was scared of dogs in general because as you can see, Coconut was not really very scary.

I hope you all had a wonderful and fun Halloween too, even if you didn’t have a cute little scarecrow puppy!

The Great Pumpkin Adventure

I’m not sure if I simply find things to write about or if things happen specifically so I can write about them. I think this wonderful story is an example of the latter.

Because I’m anticipating that one day my blog will make me famous and the papparatzi will be all over me, I’m careful to not divulge the actual names of my friends (plus it’s just fun thinking up code names!). I think that’s why anyhow….it could be that they don’t want to publically be associated with me and have somehow caused me to believe that this is my idea… hmmm, that’s one to think about. Anyhow, I digress. My friend has been involved in posts before but I just referred to her as “that girl” or “my friend”. I’ve decided that it’s now time for a proper code name. This morning we were talking about the TV show “Boy Meets World” and how awesome it was and how Topanga was simply the coolest name ever, so from now on “that girl” will be known as Topanga for blogging purposes. Whew, that was long!

Mr, C, Topanga, and I made plans to carve pumpkins on Friday night. I had 2 pumpkins I got with our bountiful basket but we needed one for Topanga. Before carving we had planned to buy candy for Halloween so Topanga and I set out to find a pumpkin and candy. The candy was very easy to find and we bought a lot. When I say a lot I mean A LOT! I didn’t take pictures of the candy alone but I do have one I’ll put in my next post that will give you an idea of the insane amount of chocolate we had. I think it was at least 10 bags…..

Check on the candy, now we just needed a pumpkin. You’d think that finding a pumpkin would be easy, however let me assure you that it isn’t. We started with Wal-Mart location #1 and had no luck. Same story at Wal-Mart location #2. I told her to stop at Sprouts but because of my directionally challangedness, I may have messed up the directions and caused us to drive right by. It was going to take some work to go back so we figured we’d just try the stores by my house. Unfortunately Frys and Safeway were also sold out of pumpkins although they both had huge display areas where the pumpkins had been. It’s like they were rubbing their lack of pumpkins in our face, as if to say that everyone else had one! Our hope was quickly fading but we decided to try Wal-Mart location #3. No such luck there either. We had hit 5 stores and still had no pumpkin.

Luckily Mr. C called Sprouts and was told that amazingly they did have pumpkins. We hopped back in the car and headed over. As we were driving, I realized that the night was a perfect blogging story. I then proceeded to explain to Topanga that they had to have pumpkins at Sprouts because otherwise my story would suck. Who wants to read that we went to 6 stores and at the end of the night were empty handed? No one, that’s who! I explained that we were going to drive to Sprouts and when we arrived, a big, beautiful pumpkin would be waiting. I must have some special powers or something because when we arrived there was a HUGE pumpkin. It was actually a $50 pumpkin so she didn’t get that one but she did find another big (although not as big), beautiful pumpkin of her own! We were super excited, as you can probably see in the picture. We were excited enough to stop in the parking lot long enough to look like idiots so we could take this picture.

Pumpkin carving always SOUNDS fun. Then I get to the part where I have to stick my hand inside the icky pumpkin and it’s not cool anymore. After that it gets back to being fun. Then the carving starts to hurt my hand and I want to give up. But, after getting past that part it’s all good. We watched a movie while we carved and it ended up being pretty fun, even though I had to touch the nasty pumpkin guts. I was even inspired to roast some pumpkin seeds which I had never done before. Roasted pumpkin seeds are AMAZING by the way! In the end, the great pumpkin adventure was SOOOO worth it. Our pumpkins turned out wonderfully. I’m posting a picture of our wonderful creations. Enjoy!

Meat and the Jackpot

I was doing so well with blogging daily and then the flu snuck up on me and ran me over last week.  I never get the flu!  Well, apparently I shouldn't say never since it just happened, but it doesn't happen very often!  As I was laying in bed with chills, achy, dizzy, and not able to do too much, I was very thankful to have Mr. C around to take care of me.  Sometimes (most times) I feel like I hit the jackpot with him.  If I had a checklist of what I wanted in a husband, I would have checked them all off and added some more boxes!  Of course nothing is perfect but I'm pretty grateful for what I have.  So, as I was lying there sick, it got me thinking about a few things….  (this is another one of those times when it seems like I’ve gone off the deep end with my writing but I promise it all ties in together….somehow….even if in a super small way!).

Growing up, I was never really been a fan of meat and tried numerous ways to get out of eating it.  When I was little and my parents made me sit at the table until I ate my meat, I would throw little pieces under the table when we weren’t looking.  This would have been a wonderful partnership for the dog and I except that the dog wasn’t allowed in the kitchen so eventually my mom caught on.   Then I tried hiding the meat in my napkin but that only worked if I did the dishes afterwards so I wouldn’t be discovered.  I hated doing dishes and had to do them frequently for chores so I figured I didn't want to take them on more than I had to, even if it would get me out of eating the nasty meat.  One lucky day I solved my problem, without even trying!  We were staying with my Aunt C. who was serving kabobs for dinner.  Kabobs with STEAK.  I had realized that I tasted less when I swallowed chunks of meat whole instead of chewing them.   On this occasion I did just that, only this time the beef chunk stayed lodged in my throat.  I realized what was happening and froze.  I reached up to feel my throat because it felt HUGE with that chunk sticking out of it.  I must have had a shocked/confused look on my face because something alerted my mother that something was up.  Of course she didn't know what was up and began questioning me, confused as to why I wasn't answering.   Aunt C., on the other hand, knew exactly what was up and sprang into action.  She did the Heimlich Maneuver and I was as good as new.  (Thanks again Aunt C!) This is what finally caused my mother to stop making me eat meat.  Score one for me! 

Eventually I began to be even more grossed out by meat and after reading a book that was probably written by PETA, I decided I was going to officially be a vegetarian.  I announced this to my parents who though I was nuts.  The worst though was when I told my grandfather.  He had earned his living by managing a meat packing plant so the idea that his granddaughter was a vegetarian was just preposterous.  I was probably a vegetarian for about a week, and then for quite awhile I only ate chicken (still calling myself vegetarian though of course).  After a point I began telling people that I was a vegetarian but I did eat chicken…and bacon…and every now and again beef if it was covered in seasonings.  I apologize for my lack of commitment to any REAL vegetations who may be reading this. 

During all of this, my hate for touching meat remained intact, as it still does.  I refused to even touch the packages of chicken in the grocery store for fear that the nasty uncooked germier would attack me...or something like that.  I vividly remember my mother telling me that I better just get used to touching meat because when I got married my husband would expect me to cook dinner for him, including ground beef, steaks, and bacon.  I, being the all-knowing teenager that I was, informed her that my husband would be the one to touch/cut the raw meat and he would be perfectly fine with whatever I cooked him.  I believe this was the part where she began laughing hysterically.  I, however was not laughing.  In the words of Barney Stinson from “How I Met Your Mother”, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!  When I want something I set out to get it, usually succeeding (sometimes then realizing that I didn't really want it in the first place though). 

Well, not only did I find myself a wonderful husband who is willing to touch the raw meat and eat what I cook, but he also takes care of me when I’m sick.   He sat by my side on Sunday (well more of behind me) and held my hair while I checked out the toilet.  He even skipped a workout on Monday to come home and take care of me.  It’s a good thing I found him because I do not do well with vomit at all.  He’s going to be amazing when our kids (don’t hold your breath – we have awhile still) are sick.  Not only did I find a raw meat touching man, but also a vomit cleaning up man!  So, I declare this a CHALLENGE COMPLETED!

No Shoes Needed for this Walk

I try to make most of my posts slightly humorous with the hope of being entertaining so you’ll want to keep coming back and sharing with your friends so that eventually advertisers will be dying to place ads on my site and I’ll become famous and live off of my blog earnings (that’s the long-term plan anyhow, but don’t worry – I’m not holding my breath!). After over 20 posts, I’m writing my first serious post so don’t say I didn’t warn you. Also, the beginning may seem like I’m rambling but I promise that I do have a point…even if it takes awhile to get to it (Mr. C learned this a long time ago)!

Religion has always been a part of my life, a bigger part at times and very small during others. I grew up attending Catholic church and a Catholic school. My grandma was a wonderful role model for me. She devoted time every morning to her prayers and lived her life as a devoted Catholic. My father attended church weekly as well, as he still does. He even attends church in Arizona when he comes to visit. I attended mass weekly during school and then again on Sundays. I also had religion class daily at school and learned lots of “religious info”. While this gave me a great Christian background, I never really FELT what I was learning. I understood it but it never really sank in. I began to get lost in the rules and repetition. At some point I began to lose the real meaning of everything and seemed to just go with the flow.

In middle school I decided I wanted to be confirmed Methodist, in my mother’s church. The songs, sermons, people, and laid-back environment made me feel more at home. While my dad wasn’t thrilled, he did respect my decision and was pretty supportive. For the rest of high school I was very involved in the church, participating in the youth group, volunteering, and even going on a mission trip. I loved being active in the church but there was still something missing.

I moved to Arizona and fell out of my church routine. Mr. C attended regularly in the beginning of our relationship and so sometimes attended with him and his mother, however at a certain point we became lazy and stopped getting up on Sunday mornings. We had our ups and downs of church attendance, attending regularly for awhile and then taking “breaks”. Before our wedding we became more regular and were married by an amazing Pastor of our church. We started attending more regularly again a few months ago and had become pretty consistent.

My mother-in-law is pretty involved in many things, one being the Walk to Emmaus, a Christian retreat (to simplify). She had talked to Mr. C and I about going many times but we never really paid much attention (sorry!). She asked us again a few months ago. I had begun to feel like something in my life needed to change. I loved my family, my friends, and my life in general, but I still knew something was missing. Mr. C and I talked about the Walk and decided it was something we were interested in. I figured at the very least my mother-in-law wouldn’t ask us again! The men went one weekend and the women another so my mom had planned to come stay with me while Mr. C was away because I’m still terrified to sleep in our house (or any house for that matter) alone. It occurred to me that my mom could go on the walk to so I asked her and she excitedly said yes.

We didn’t know much about the walk, other than that it was 72 hours long, was in a church, and was supposed to be great. I’m pretty picky about some things, including my sleeping because I have a lot of issues sleeping and prefer to be in my own space, in my own bed. I also NEVER (I really mean never when I say this) go out without makeup on. When I had abdominal pains that lasted for two days, I refused to go to Urgent Care without first showering and doing my makeup. I ended up having my appendix out that day. So, I also worried that I wouldn’t be able to shower and do my makeup like normal. I know this last part may make me sound vain but I tend to worry over dumb things!

Mr. C attended the Walk while my mother and I were having our fun time in San Diego. He returned telling us that he had a great time, but not saying too much else. He didn’t want to give anything away and I didn’t really know what to ask. I did, however, make sure to get the low down on the showering situation which I was still super stressed about!

The week flew by and it was Thursday night before I knew it. I wasn’t sure what to expect and wasn’t too comforted once I arrived! I felt so out of place and there were only a handful of girls under 30. I was soooo glad my mom was with me (I know, I sound like a little kid!). As I left my husband and mother-in-law I was so nervous. I talked to a couple of women and started feeling better, although still a little unsure about the LONG weekend. One of the leaders gave a little talk that night and said something to the effect of us most likely not wanting to leave Sunday night. In my head I was thinking that I knew I’d want to leave Sunday night!

The weekend was amazing. Here, I’ll even capitalize it – it was AMAZING! I’m not going to detail all of the wonderful talks and experiences of the weekend because first of all I simply don’t have time for that…my blog would be pages long! Secondly, the best part of the weekend was that we lived in the moment, not knowing what was next and not worrying about anything so I wouldn’t want to spoil anything (since of course there are millions of people that read my posts LOL). I LOVED not being responsible for anything (well not much anyhow). The best way to describe the weekend is that it was filled with wonderful surprises, wonderful women who quickly became friends/family, and a chance for me to find what I had been missing. If the weekend had to be put into a box, I don’t think the lid could shut because the amount of love and prayers received that weekend couldn’t be contained. And, the leader had been right…I wanted to get back to my husband and my puppy and my bed, but I really didn’t want to leave. In the end I didn’t really care about my showers, the lack of makeup, or the snoring at night because the experience was bigger than all that (plus I had earplugs). And, I’m so thankful that my mother-in-law wasn’t too pushy but always remained persistent.

I’m so thankful that my mother and my husband went through the same experience at the same time. I never cry – NEVER. My co-workers call me heartless because I didn’t cry when I watched “The Notebook”, or really any movie for that matter (with the exception of Marley and Me where I sobbed). I think I cried 3 or 4 times that weekend, the most exciting one being at the end when I tried to explain what the weekend meant to me. I think I got about 3 sentences out before I started blubbering and making my ugly cry face in front of a rather large group of people. Even worse than crying is crying in front of a group! Of course everyone understood, no one laughed, and I think some were happy to see that I did actually show some emotion (the rest of the weekend’s crying was fairly low key and I spent the majority of the time simply smiling – I’m good at hiding things!).

Going from a retreat to reality was hard because talking about things is always easier than doing them. However, today I feel like a new woman, with a new mission. I have my priorities in order and at the top of my list is my faith, my family, and my friends (including those who I have yet to meet). I know I have a lot to work on but I feel like this past weekend was a great start/reminder. I don’t know what’s in store for me but I know that God will point me in the right direction. I recently discovered this song and love it so I’m posting a link to it. Enjoy!