Marriage Retreat 2009

A few weekends ago (march 13-15) John and I went with our church to Brainerd MN for a weekend away with our spouses. We really had the best time!!! Just so you know...I did an awful job of taking pictures this weekend...sorry mom (the one person that actually reads my blog). :)

Justin & Beka picked us up around 1pm to drive north several hours to Cragun's resort. Once there we settled into our room (with a wood fireplace..YES!), we freshened up before the first session.

The main speaker of the weekend was Dr. George Kenworthy. George is an amazing speaker that has a passion for marriages. His 4 page resume includes being a preaching pastor for 30 years (his church became known as the "church that saves marriages"), writing books & traveling around the world (literally) teaching church staff how to counsel couples. He deals with the worst of the worst marriages...those he refers to as "dead" and almost every time incorporate an affair of some sort. He's helped save so many christian marriages that are "100% over." He and his wife currently live in the twin cities area when they aren't out of the country. He said he's one of the only evangelical counselors in the are that actually pray when with couples...imagine that?!?. George's secret is that he steps back to allow God to work his magic. It's not him saving marriages. He asks the creator of the universe to help give each couple solutions and answers to their circumstances & there is no doubt it's our living God that does all the work. He brought so much life & knowledge to the scriptures and messages throughout the weekend that I won't even try to explain them since I'll do them no justice. He restored a lot of marriages that weekend simply by giving them something they had lost a long time ago...hope.

Justin & John at breakfast one morning...this pic. just cracks me up for some reason.

the view from our room...the lake was still frozen.

Saturday we had two sessions in the morning and by lunch time we had the rest of the day and night free. After an awesome nap (with the fireplace going of course) and a tournament of Rook we got ready for our date. Our only homework was to write our spouse a love letter. John and I are not the type to ever do anything like that without being told to in a setting like this, but we loved it. It was special. We picked a little restaurant on the lake. It was hilarious since we rode with Beka and Justin to arrive at the restaurant together and then split off into two separate tables. Later back at the resort we met friends at the pool and played a version of ultimate frisbee in the pool (guys vs girls) which was prob. not the best idea for a marriage retreat. I think we all walked away with bruises, but all our frustration melted away in the huge hot tub.

we almost took this carriage ride, but choose to nap instead. :)

Sunday we wrapped it up with sessions in the morning and grabbed a bite to eat with the Koen's and VanDalen's at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Overall we're glad we went & we really did learn a lot. I asked Dr. Kenworthy if he had ever trained any churches in the TN area and he said he just got back from Sevier Heights in Knoxville. He said they have a full staff ready to help council couples with the techniques George lives by and with prayer.

John and I want to continue to be involved in marriage retreats & take the time to focus on our marriage making it a top priority even early on. We didn't arrive with issues to work out or at whits end with each other, but we still walked away with a deeper understanding and commitment to each other & I don't care who you are, that's some good stuff! :) Yes it takes time and money to go to events like this, but can you really put a price on increasing your closeness with your spouse? I highly encourage anyone who can to go & learn something knew about each other while strengthening what's already there.

Feel feel to ask me about what Dr. Kenworthy spoke on or what we learned if you want to know. If you don't want to on here, email me or catch me on facebook.

I'm a hoarder

"Hoarder: a person who accumulates things and hides them away for future use "

Ok...I don't actually don't have an issue of not throwing things away & it doesn't prevent me from a normal functioning life, but I do have a tendency to not use something that I really really like. It can be anything from pretty handmade paper to special perfume. A perfect example of this is my tendency to not wear new clothes when I first get them...I've even been known to go a year or so before I'll wear a shirt, dress etc. that I really like! I want to "save" these things for the "perfect" occasion, event or project in the future. I even went through a phase where I wouldn't burn a candle if it was my favorite b/c I didn't want it to be gone. Ridiculous! You don't enjoy things if you hoard them away forever!

This is exactly what I did when John's Christmas gift to me...um...cough...cough...2 Christmas' ago. He gave me an amazing day at the spa in town. It included a facial, pedicure, manicure, 1 hr. massage & something about styling my hair. I want the world to know that I finally took that beautiful day this Saturday. It was so blissful! I can't take full credit because John actually made the appointment and forced me to use my certificate. :)


Still in my tendency to hoard, I didn't use the whole credit amount. oops! Wouldn't you "trade" a wash and style for another manicure or pedicure down the road!?

So this post is to say THANK YOU to my amazing husband. It was very relaxing & I enjoyed every second there! Well....almost every second...my masseuse actually bruised my lower back getting out the knots. If they are that bad...let them be. :)

Missing Teddy

Last night I watched our friend's little girl, Sophie. Isn't she a doll!?

Everything went well. I took her for a walk (in her stroller) with both dogs. They did surprisingly well walking on either side of the stroller. I did laugh to myself thinking about what people must have been thinking.....a 12 year old with a baby no less AND having to walk the families dogs (since being 12 I must still live at home). haha

I had grabbed a blanket for her just in case the wind was worse than I imagined (it was in the 60's) and when I did she noticed "Teddy" in her diaper bag. Teddy is her one and only security blanket that she has slept with since birth. She tucked him away in her arm when I put her in the stroller so I didn't think too much about it. Fast forward to after the walk.....I'm taking her out of the stroller and don't see Teddy, but her blanket is more bawled up beside her than on her at this point so I figure he must be in there.....nope! I look all over the stroller....still not there. I'm freaking out! This is the one and only thing that gets her to sleep at night...it's the "golden ticket" to stop any sudden outburst when she is upset.....and I've just lost it! How could I not notice it fall when I'm behind the stroller and have a dog on both sides of it! Surely between 6 eyes noting could possibly come out of the stroller without notice!!!

I was hoping that John would get home from work before Jeremy (both work at Thrivent) so he could watch Sophie while I re-traced my steps, but as luck would have it, they both walked through the door at the very same time. Jeremy thought I was playing a joke on him at first & the panic went across his face when he realized I was not. We all (dogs and Sophie included) retraced every step I took on the hunt for Teddy....no luck. Some snot-nosed kid must have picked him up! There is a camo winter glove that has been in the same spot by the park for 4 weeks now & it's still there, but 1 hour later someone has already taken Teddy! Jeremy called his wife at work and said, "we have a situation." I think it would have been better if Sophie would have had a busted lip.

I'm going to re-trace my steps again today...hoping some mom told her child, "put that back where you found it!" I know you're thinking, "buy another one" b/c I thought the same thing, but Jeremy sadly informed me that they've already tried 5-6 other Teddy's to get her off this one, but she wants the real McCoy. I wish you all could all realize how terribly awful I truly feel....it's not fun.

I just pray Sophie slept ok last night and didn't cry for Teddy, keeping them up, but those are just hopes and prayers.....the reality is I'm prob. not so lucky. I will now always be referred to as "the friend that lost Teddy".....that is if I'll be called "friend" at all. All I can say at this point is it was great having the Hunze's as friends...I'll miss that bunch!

San Francisco, Monday & Tuesday

Monday was the final day in the booth! We ended up seeing around 900 doctors & feel we can count this trip successful. I took a few pictures of the gang at breakfast so I'll always remember the beautiful room we ate in every morning. I won't mind recalling the food either...delightful!

The highlight at the end of each show (for Erica & I) is the opportunity to "trade" products with other exhibitors. Lucky for us Brian and John M. don't mind handling the booth for the last two hours while we run around like chickens with our heads cut off! Thankfully it's so slow the two of them can handle it alone.

Erica & I stretching before the trading begins

I've got the goods

the aftermath!

Erica lives to bug Brian!

this is the North side of the exhibit hall from the 2nd floor....there was a South side too....huge!our booth!

After work we decided to go casual and grab an In-N-Out burger by the wharf. Apparently they are a famous chain on the west coast & I agree that they are great. We walked around for a little while, grabbed taffy & souvenirs for Brian's kids & experienced the best cab ride of my life! Our cab driver literally went 40mph down Lombard street....ran a stop sign at the end so we would hit our heads on the roof of the cab & went 7 blocks in 2.5seconds. I LOVED IT! Brian was ok until the running of the stop sign took place! :) I salute him for living up to my expectations of what a cab driver should be. Feel free to listen to this (#2) anytime to get a good understanding of what was going through my mind.

yummy burgers!

going down Lombard!

scared in the cab!

with the man himself

Tuesday was just our travel day home. Erica & I ended up driving back from Minneapolis since we were pretty sure our flight to Rochester would be delayed due to the weather. It ended up being a good choice and we got home two hours earlier than if we would have waited. We traveled from 6:30am until 4pm & were exhausted!