I'm Back!

I'm back and I'm tired. This morning was really hard to get up and go to work. The thought of calling in sick was really tempting but I would kind of feel convicted if I did and wasn't sick. Plus I already took friday off last week.

My weekend was like nothing I've ever been to. It wasn't a regular type of retreat where you have free time or a couple of speakers. This was a lock-in at a church and every minute was planned for you. I don't know how much I can disclose because they like to keep things under wraps so that people who are going to go sometime don't go with any expectations. But I can elaborate a little. If you do a walk to Emmaus you'll probably forget what I said, or you could google it anyways.

All weekend you are showered with love from people. People are praying over every minute of the whole 72 hours you're there. They are praying and preparing a whole year in advance for this one particular weekend. There are 15 talks dealing with the basics of Christianity. There are many surprises from the leaders and people who are behind the scenes. You have to be sponsored by someone who has gone through it and they are praying for and blessing you in different ways all weekend. It can be an emotional weekend. The men go the weekend before because they are and should be the head of the home and spiritual leader. The men are even blessing their wives during the weekend through some of their own surprises. It is just a weekend where you can reconnect with the amount of love God gives us and the free grace that is ours to accept. He uses many people to show the love of God all weekend. It was pretty cool. Everyone walks away with different feelings of how they were touched during the weekend. This group of women was not a teary group as others have been. I think the men cried more than this group of women. I had my moments, but they were brief and few. I didn't really want to cry all that much and didn't, which when it comes to spiritual things or church, there are usually tears.

But the best surprise of the weekend was when I got home. I have the best husband. He showered me with love this weekend. He prayed for me and thought up ways to bless and impress me. Here's the scene: Jason and I are dropped off at home by our sponsors. We drop my stuff in the living room and I'm told not to move. He blind folds me and says he's been working on a project. I'm laughing now and thinking about all the things he could have done, like paint the laundry room and move the freezer in. Practical things like that. He leads me into our bedroom and drops the blind fold and I was pleasantly surprised. I had been grumbling about our furniture not matching. He painted our mismatched dresser and nesting tables black, which we had talked about. He had found some wedding pictures and put them in black and red frames and hung 2 of them up, which he painted. He even went to Walmart and bought a J & A and painted them red with black sides and hung them up. He was so impressed with my scrapbook supplies when he made his own photo mats using my "cool tools". I had 3 red roses on the dresser. His theme and inspiration was us and our wedding colors. My HGTV watching seems to be rubbing off. All this for $30! He even made a shelf to hold my baskets of scrapbook supplies that really cleans up my area. I was pleasantly surprised and cried at the shock of it all. I truly am loved!

Short Week, Long Post

Like all my Canadian friends, they had their new designated "Long weekend". We also did for President's day and I had Tuesday off because of a teacher work day. But, with all that time, where did the weekend go?

This weekend, Jason was at a mens "lock-in" at a local church. It was called Walk to Emmaus and he had an awesome time and is so excited that I get to go this weekend. So tomorrow evening he drops me off and I'm there till Sunday 6pm, so my work week is wednesday and thursday this week. It's kind of a secretive deal but many great things happen during this weekend. He met a lot of men from here and surrounding areas and made some great connections. He said he was emotionally and physically drained. I guess they have a lot of speakers and group time and stuff like that, but the toughest thing was trying to sleep with other men who snore. I guess there was a lot of sawing wood in his room that he had to move to another room. Ear plugs didn't even work. A lot of laughs and tears where had by all. That's all I can say about it.

While he was there, I went out with a friend who sponsored us and we saw the movie Juno. Quite different from the movies I would have picked. The jury is still out if I liked it. It was different. The opening scene left us both questioning what we went to. Saturday I was by myself and vegged but cleaned. Sunday I went to church and out for pizza at a friend's parents. Went home and waited for Jason. At 6pm, someone that went to pick up her husband phoned and asked if I wanted to join the group for supper. So we met everyone and their sponsors that went to the mens retreat. They had a great time were sharing a lot of the jokes and laughs they had. They said the Holy Spirit was very heavy there all weekend.

Monday we slept late because Jason was just zonked from everything. But we did get up and decided we needed to go to Billings and spend some of our Christmas gift cards. We went to Big R for some jeans, The Outback Steak house for an awesome, calorie rich dinner and Linen 'n' Things for a splurge. I walked in because Jason was on the phone and found some bedding that I thought we'd both like and it was a great deal. Bed in a bag for $79.99! It's red, brown and cream. It doesn't quite go with the grey/mauve walls we have but that will change sometime.


This week has flown by and I love the 2 day work week I'm having. Tonight I get dropped off to meet a lot of other women and to connect with God.

Happy Belated Valentines Day

I was meaning to post something yesterday but didn't get around to it.
I hope everyone had a good Valentine's day with their loved ones. I worked at school and saw so many girls with flowers, it was unreal. I don't remember at GVC if many people got flowers on Valentine's day delivered to school, except if you had a serious boyfriend I guess. At the end of the day there was a long list read out of people needing to come and pick up their flowers. Dozens of roses, single roses, arrangements. Here's a funny story that I witnessed. I passed a 9th grade girl standing outside the room I went to, talking to her friend. Her boyfriend and her exchanged gifts. She gave him this big bag of something and she got this small bag of small carnations. She turned to her friend and asked what they were. Carnations. "Well, they're not roses!" My mouth dropped open at the comment. How ungrateful! Then she said he was getting her a box of chocolates too. My face would have been a deep red if a boy had ever brought me flowers in school. I just had to laugh at her.

So for my valentine's, I didn't know if Jason was going to do anything. We don't go all out in excess but we do like the excuse to go out for a nice meal. But I was presently surprised to see a rose in the window when I came home and there was a card with a heartfelt penned inscription that brought tears to my eyes. Jason relayed this story to me about what he say at the local drug store. He and another man were looking at cards. 4 other men came around and crowded around them to also look for at cards. One of them said, "How come you don't see women in here?""Women have this done weeks in advance." "I had to come over here because every other place was sold out." One man grabs a random valentine card and goes to the counter. The lady behind the till says, "Kind of waited till the last minute.""Last minute? This is early. You guys are open till six."

We had made plans the day before with friends to go out for mexican before they dropped Jason off at his weekend mens retreat in town. We were lucky we found a table when we did because it was packed. So they dropped me off and I had a night to myself in front of the tube and a bed to myself. This weekend is kind of a breather for me. I love Jason but sometimes I just need some me time at home to do whatever I want. So tonight, I'm going for supper and a movie with a friend who's husband is helping at the mens retreat for the weekend.

I hope everyone felt loved yesterday and remembered what life is really about! And to my friend Faith, I hope Ron knocked your socks off since you were looking so forward to your one day a year of love.

Super Bowl Weekend has come and gone, this was the latest excitement we've had. We had our pastor and some friends over for the big game. By a few friends I mean 6 others and our little living room/dining room was full. Not to mention the table was loaded with the non-nutritious football food. I think fun was has by all except by maybe the two other wives there who are not football fanatics. Myself, I can watch a game and get the gist of what they're doing. At least this gave was a close one and it took till the last 2 minutes for the underdogs to win it.

We've since started going back to our home church of Victory Fellowship and have been welcomed back with open arms. Last July we left to fill the worship position at New Life church in Powell, but after a few weeks we felt it just wasn't working out and I really missed Victory. Of course now with Victory being in Cody and living in Powell, this does mean a 25 min commute 6 days a week since I still work in Cody. For things in the evening I just stay in town, so it's not too bad. Tuesday the church is planning a valentine's banquet at a restaurant and I've been recruited to help with the decorating, so I've been scouring the internet for tasteful ideas. No cardboard cutouts or tacky decorations for me but we'll see how it goes.

Our next couple of weekends are already booked for both of us. The weekend of the 16th, Jason is on a weekend retreat to a church in town that is kind of a grown-up lock-down called Walk to Amaeus (sorry about spelling) It's a secretive kind of deal where a lot of details aren't given out but it's supposed to strengthen your walk with the Lord. They take away cell phones, watches, entertainment etc. so it's just you and God and a bunch of other people. They do all the men the first weekend and the ladies are the next weekend, so I'll be going to that one. That same weekend as mine, Jason hopes to go to Rapid City with some guys to go to a men's Conference hosted by a friend of ours. So they will have a mens weekend doing manly things like skeet shooting, mountain biking, ( I know, at the end of February it doesn't make a lot of sense but that's guys for ya) and other things. Hopefully he can go.