Ladies Retreat 2008

Okay, It's only been two days but I'm already getting "hate" mail about not getting the pictures up here already :-) I've been recuperating and as you're about to see...this long post took me all day to do since I have to share the computer with the kids!

Our Ladies Retreat was wonderful. We headed out Friday morning around 11am. Here is our group shot. (I'm bottom right)

Our trip up to Red Top was a good one. I rode with Dawn in her mom's van. Sarah and Ms. Phyllis (Dawn's mom) and Andrea rode with us. This is the main lodge where we checked in that afternoon. It was sprinkling the rest of the evening and cold but it was still beautiful!!
The building in the back is our rooms. Sarah and I were on the second floor looking out over this meadow.
This is one of the buildings that was on the way down to the lake.
The other side of that same building.
This is where we had our first little devo. Friday afternoon before dinner. It was so pretty. Natalie and Ms. Renee lead the singing for us throughout the weekend. During the first session, they brought out these bags for all of us. Each was hand-made by our own Heather Britton!! It was so "Oprah-style" the way the all came out and presented them to everybody!! It was like we were on the Favorite Things show :-)Ms. Gloria Doty was our guest speaker. She was our preacher's wife at Corder Rd. Church of Christ when I was growing up there. They left in 2000 and moved closer to their family. It was so good to get to see her again and show her pictures of my babies :-) She did a great job with her lessons. Our theme was Encouragement.One of our first activities was this puzzle. We each had a piece and had to write our name and what kinds of things we were going to bring to the retreat....I wrote: smiles, hugs, laughter, encouraging words, etc.... Andrea helped cut out all those pieces and she was putting them all together too.
Here are all the blogging buddies that went: Me, Andrea, Sarah, and DawnI stole these pictures from Dawn's post... This was lunch on Saturday After lunch we headed off the Cartersville for our free time! We hit the downtown area to do some shopping.
I thought this sign was too cute!! "If the broom fits ride it!"We so had to get a picture in front of this store!! Just walking around
Roomies!!
Goofing off in front of the restaurant. Crystal, Dawn, Rosemary, Sarah, and Andrea Sarah, Crystal, Johanna, DawnMore fall decor around the town. Johanna, Sarah, and Crystal Me, Rosemary, Dawn, and Andrea with her lil' pumpkin! (she's due in April!)
This was the restaurant we ate at that evening. It was the one we were goofing off at!! Comparing each other's pictures.On the way back to the lodge I got some pictures of Lake Altoona Kelly met up with us for dinner and came back for the night session. She used to live in W.R. but recently moved up near Atl. It was so good to see her!! (We missed you Susan!) Here she is with Sarah. This was another activity we did. We each brought an encouragement picture and placed it on this board. We described what it meant to us...there were lots of tears during this one. Then we played a game where we had to find the owner of these lost shoes :-) Once found...find out unique things about each other. Angela Lineberger gave a great presentation about when she gave birth to her quintuplets back in 1995. One of her boys was stillborn, but she has raised four healthy boys and told us about how Ms. Gloria was there every Monday night to help her out bathing them and giving her and Kerry whatever they needed. She also has an older son and I know she appreciated all the time Gloria devoted to her family. These were the ladies that coordinated our wonderful weekend. Dawn, Sylvia, and Jocelyn. They did a great job and put so much of their time into all the little details.
Here is our group shot as we were getting ready to head to the Woodstock Church of Christ that Sunday morning. It was super cold that morning :-)
And I just have to show you my great find from a little antique store in Cartersville!! I have been wanting one of these bell jars for weeks. I've been seeing them on blogs and in magazines and love, love them. I saw one at Cracker Barrel but they wanted over $40 for it I've seen little ones for over $20....but I bumped into this big one for only $24 and I was sold!! It even came with the black base :-)Here it is all decked out on top of my entertainment center!!