The weekends already over?

OMG! I am so exhausted and dreading going back to work! Pretty sad when you need an extra day to recover from a girls Scrapping retreat. If I go to bed at 2 am or later I normally don't wake up before 8 am especially on a weekend! The weekend was awesome since it was my 1st retreat. The massage made me sore but it was worth it to relax and have a little ME time.... I even came back with some energy to clean the kitchen and bathroom before we ran out to look for a dining room table and bed for us, then it was off to Gattiland to meet my brothers, their kiddos, 2 of my cousins and their kiddos that are in town due to IKE, then to my brothers house to give the kiddos more time to play. We don't get together nearly enough so it was good... So yes, I should be in bed but I'm not ready for the weekend to end.

For some reason this weekend I did a lot of thinking, don't know how I managed it between all the scrapping I did. Yes, I'm still a novice and only did 11 or 12 pages in comparison to the scrappin factory aka Courtney & Shaunna but what the heck, I relaxed, had lots of laughs and met some wonderful women. Let me start by saying the cabin http://lakeshorelodgewhitney.com/ we stayed in was very reminiscent of the log cabin John and I have dreamed about for retirement. And what a cool idea to cater to weekend scrapping retreats. We did the quick math in the car on the way home and the couple must be doing very well just having guests over the weekend.

Over the course of the weekend I thought about the following things:
1) The scrapping lodge led me to think about what I would do if as I asked Lori on the way home, "Money was not an issue". Which led to my recurring thought that I need to find a job that I really love... Working at D*** is great for the pocket book as long as I have a job but with all the speculation and such about jobs going away it has a lot of people concerned, and rightly so... I have really been thinking about going back to school to become a nurse because not only is there a huge need right now, but when was the last time that nurses were laid off, and besides that it has been my dream to work in the healthcare industry (I started UT Pre-Med).
2) After the picture of our group was posted on the wall with all the other scrappers that had come before us.... I looked at myself and said OMG I need to get back to my healthier living habits This was a class I took this spring/ summer, and I lost about 15 lbs during that time. I have found at least 7 or 8 of them as of the last weigh in and that was pre-scrapping retreat weekend aka cakeball heaven http://www.cakebybridges.com/index.php/cakeballs . Yum, I know I consumed a chocolate one, a yellow one, a peanut butter one, a pineapple one and a red velvet one all in one 3 day weekend. Boy was I busy, not to mention the make your own sundae bar and all the other food. So needless to say, I didn't like the picture at all and am vowing to ditch those unwanted lbs... So you ladies need to hold me to that.

I know this has been a very long blog for such a tired lady so I am retiring for the night and hopefully I will remember all the other things I thought about.... Oh yeah one other one is coming to me so I might as well talk or write about it, whatever!

3) This well rested mommy?? that and a long scrapping weekend don't really make sense given the lack of sleep but, this relaxed mommy realized there are 2 or 3 other things I want to work on. I guess I made my own list similar to a Bucketlist of things I want to try to do so I am going to document them for posterity and so I can really go back and track them. So here's the other 3 things and I will have to go into more detail in a later blog because I'm beyond sleepy.
4) Become a better swimmer- so that I can start training for my first triathalon. I have contemplated it over the past few years with several friends and my sister in law but have been too insecure about my swimming skills so here we go it's documented and I told my pregnant sister in law that once she's "Done"... we need to get to some training and do the Danskin. She's done it a few times already and so has my friend Shannon and besides it will help me achieve list item #2.
5) I know this is cheesey or how ever you spell it... but I really do want to strive to be a better mother, wife, sister/ daughter, friend.... After all the interactions this weekend and all the super sweet pics of everyone with their friends and families I realized that we sometimes get so busy worrying about all the day to day stuff that we really don't "count our blessings" nearly enough. So I was teary eyed a few times thinking about all the wonderful people in my life and how I never quite have the time to call them when I mean to or do something for/ with them that I know I should... I vow to take the time to do the little things that mean so much to those I love and quit worrrying about the little things that don't. Maybe all the scrapping I did this weekend has gone to my head or just the pure peace of mind, not having to worry about what everyone was doing at all times, that I really had some time to think about me and my life.
6) Ok, this is the last one I promise. As we were scrapping this weekend I vowed to do something I have been meaning to do for a very long time.... Take a photography class! I'm a scrapper mostly because I want to document my kiddos childhood in a memorable way. So I'm no scrapping diva like most of the gals I spent the weekend with but as I sat there looking through the pics, thinking about how sweet Syd looked with her long hair and pigtails 4 long years ago or how cute and silly Jake was as a baby 3 years ago and the fact that his "baby time" flew by so quickly and how soon it will be before I have teenagers like Shaunna... sorry I know this is a super long sentence.... but none the less I remembered the events or the feelings of love I feel for my kiddos and know that when they look back on these books that I so lovingly created for them, and hopefully I will eventually get caught up on their books and not be 4 to5 years behind that they will know and realize how much I love them... Anyway, back to the photography class. As I was trying to make my pages this weekend I hated most of the pics, and yes I know I can use photoshop them, even though I don't know how, but I think having better pics to scrap and taking more pics will make for better scrapping pages... thus my need to take a photography class.

In closing, I just want to say, this was a fun filled, productive weekend that I must continue to take part in... as long as I'm invited back! So thank you to Shaunna and Courtney for inviting me to that 1st scrapping nite and for continuing to invite me and toShelley B for organizing it : ). Nitey nite to all and may you survive your Monday back at work!

Mel