Plan was foiled

Soooo...this weekend I went on the ladies retreat at church. 

It.  Was.  Awesome.

Beyond awesome.

I have not laughed that much, cried that much, or been that silly in a very very long time.  Not only did I get to learn some more amazing facets about my Savior and Redeemer, but I got to love on my friends and get to know them even better than I did before.  You know it's been a good time when you have a million new inside jokes, like "profe-sher" and "pork-on-a-stick".  Laser's anyone?

Before I left I made a little video of what my house looked like, how perfectly in order it was, and fully expected to have a disaster when I came home.  I was ready with my camera to document the horror, and I was going to have a post that was simply titled "Before and After" with only those two videos in the body. 

But you know what?  My husband rocks. I came home and it was pretty close to what I had left it.  Sure, there were a couple of toys out, pajamas in the bathroom, and a milk cup on the bedroom window sill (not even going to ask about that one), but it was not nearly what I had prepared myself for.  My only complaint was that Luke pulled books off his shelf and ripped the pages out of Stellaluna.  I'm a little protective of my books, so that one hurt a bit.  Thank you Daddy for working to have it nice when I got home!  (even though it foiled my plan of a funny post)

Now on to the pictures.  My other plan was to get the perfect pose picture, a la Missy at Naptime, with most of the ladies at the retreat (pretty much all of them have known me for years and years), but seeing as this was my first grown up ladies retreat and not a youth group retreat, I didn't realize that no one brings their camera.  So...I only got pictures with my immediate friends and roomates for the weekend to save myself the embarrasment of looking super juvenile. 

Sara and I at Whataburger on our way out to the camp.

Brandy and I in our hats because it was cold!  She got this one for $1 at China.

Sandra and I right before the first session.

Rachel and I before she had to leave, and we are holding a special present.

Erica, before she had to leave with Rachel because her hubs and baby both had gotten really sick.  ;(

It's a good thing Sheri isn't a reader, because she might kill me if she saw I posted this.  She's a trooper though, and went along with me!

Can you tell how cold it was?  I promise that I had a fresh outfit on every day, but it was so stinkin cold that I didn't take of my coat or scarf once.  Not once.  After I got dressed that is.  I didn't shower with them on or anything silly.  Although there is a good chance I might have tried to nap in them on Saturday after we got back from Canton.  Here are my amazing Canton finds!

This one I put in my living room:

And this one I hung in my kitchen.  It's really about 3 1/2 feet tall!

And then to cap it all off, we were singing some songs in small group tonight and all of the sudden Luke busted out dancing to it.  Apparently no one has told him we are Church of Christ and we just don't do that.  *tsk tsk tsk*  His parents need to teach him better than that.