I did it.  I booked myself a weekend in October for a stay at my favorite scrapbook retreat.  I’m so excited!

The last time I went there was two years ago, a couple months before Aria’s birth.  So it’s been a while.  It will be so nice to see Christine again.  She is the one who hosts this retreat, in her home.  This is her business.  She has a big, beautiful home in Apple Valley.  It is set up like a Bed & Breakfast.  It’s soooo comfortable!  And the scrapbook room….it’s huge.  There are seats for 14 people.  There are tools and supplies and computers to work with. Christine comes around while we scrap and brings us water or coffee or tea or soda…whatever we’d like. She cooks 3 meals a day for us, and we all gather at this huge dining room table for each meal, where she sits at the head of the table and says grace with us before every meal. 

Christine is wonderful.  You can’t help but to feel very well taken care of when you stay with her.  I’ve missed it so much!  I used to go twice a year with the same group of friends.  We’ve been going since 1999. We always had the best time!  When the econmy got bad, however, many of those friends had to cut back on expenses and our scrapbook weekends ended.  So the group no longer goes…and like I said, it’s been about two years now since I’ve been there.  In October my friends Kristy and Katherine are coming with me.  But that’s it from our original group. We are joining another group.  The other women there will be strangers.  But that’s okay.  I make friends easily.   It will be nice to meet new people.

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On Aria’s birthday I took her to get her two-year portraits done.  She was a bit shy and didn’t cooperate until I held her on my lap.  Ugh, I wasn’t thinking I’d be in the picture, but hey…sometimes you gotta do whatever it takes to get those smiles, right?