Well, it was supposed to be an uninterrupted night of sleep but my sis and I are both used to kind of flat pillows so the fluffy spa pillows made it a little hard to sleep. It was nice to wake up and not have to make breakfast for anyone though! We reported to the welcoming portion of the retreat and started making new friends. I have to say that this particular activity was really hard for me. I HATE meeting new people!!! I never know what to say. I am shy and hate to be the first one to say hello to someone. When I found out I had to leave my sister's side and go mingle I panicked a little but she said, "You'll be fine. It's good for you!" and we parted ways. We were supposed to eat breakfast at a table where we didn't know anybody. We dished up our breakfast from the
(Allyson, April, Saren, Ummm....can't remember her name-retreat attendee, Shawni, and Linda)
Our classes started after breakfast and I started to feel more comfortable. I tell you each of those classes was exactly what I needed! I'll go into more of what I learned in my next post but being there among those women was so inspiring. Linda Eyre, who I have practically worshiped for years, spoke to us first. She was followed by her equally impressive daughter Saren and Saren's amazing friend April. They are the ones who started Power of Moms. Allyson followed them and had us all laughing till' our sides hurt while uplifting us at the same time. That night we had dinner discussions at different tables and I sat in on one that discussed getting the whole family to help with household chores (you bet I'll be sharing what I learned!). I ate the most delicious portabello stuffed ravioli with a macadamia nut pesto sauce...DIVINE! It was followed by chocolate mousse...DELISH! Too bad all of the spa food wasn't like that! Afterwards we played games on the lawn like a bunch of teenagers which was a lot of fun!
Then Amber and I vegged in our room and watched a movie, an entire movie with NO interruptions, all the way through and got better sleep without the pillows.
The next day we opted out of the 7am hike (if there's no little bodies waking us up we were sleepin' in!) and got smoothies at The Orange Peel before heading to our first class on Family Systems presented by Linda, Saren and Shawni. Only THE perfect family to present that particular discussion! I have to admit that along with a case of "Linda worhip" I also have a case of "Shawni worship" so it was so fun to meet her after having read her blog daily for so long! Let me tell you she is just as tall and beautiful in real life as she is in pics and she is so stinkin' sweet!
(I gotta say-Standing next to beautiful, tall Shawni tends to make one feel a bit short and frumpy!)
Next came a panel discussion on Picking Your Priorities and then lunch and a break. The retreat ended with a class from April, Queen of Organization, on her new Mind Organization for Moms system. Wow! You really do have to check it out! If you are like me and suffer from a severe case of "Mommy Brain" than this is exactly what you need...Brilliant! Then we took lots of pictures, said our good-byes and the retreat was over.
(I stole this pic from Shawni's blog...shhhh!)
Amber and I went out to Red Lobster (Divine after all that.....interesting?....spa food) with one of her friends that lives close by the spa then met back up with our AZ friends in the hot tub for one last night of relaxation. Even better we added one more friend, Launi (I hope I spelled her name right!), Lynae's friend and neighbor in AZ. She is so cute! After the hot tub we all piled into their room and gorged on junk food and YouTube videos.
We reminisced and laughed till' we couldn't breathe and I seem to recall Lynae falling behind the bed at one point?...although she'll deny it if you ever bring it up!
The next morning we checked out and met the girls at Village Inn for breakfast happily trading spa food for strawberry cream crepes and greasy bacon...YUM! We parted ways with our AZ besties and made the long trip home belting out the tunes and stopping to say good-bye to my "woolen love" back at the petting zoo.
What awaited me when I got home were welcome signs on the door and love notes written in my absence, a delicious dinner timed just right for my arrival, and hugs and kisses galore! Ahhh...The best part about being "Mom"!
Now if I could just feel like this...
while doing dishes and laundry...we'd all be a whole lot happier around here!
