My weekend away

Actually, it was more than a weekend! Thanks to the kindness of my parents (the ticket), Darin's mom (the child care), my sisters (the lodging), and my husband and kids (for letting me go) I just spent 5 days in Oregon with my mom and sisters. It was wonderful. I hadn't seen my sister, Laurie, for almost 2 years! I flew out on Tuesday, and was greeted at the airport by Kristi and her boys. She took me home and I went right to bed. Wednesday we had a lazy morning, then took Laurie out for lunch. After bringing her home, I tried to take a nap. I used to have no problem with the 3 hour time difference, but my 30 year old body isn't really such a fan.

Thursday I took Kristi's car and drove myself to my old house on Hrubetz Road. I "met" the new pastor's wife through her blog and was so happy that she agreed to meet me, a virtual stranger. If you read this Amy, thank you again for welcoming me into your home and letting me reminisce about my childhood. I hadn't been in that house for over 15 years. It looked a lot the same, only smaller. I used to think we had the biggest living room ever, but that isn't the case. The bedrooms that seemed so roomy had also shrunk a bit. I even got to look through a recent church directory. Now that was fun. I haven't seen most of those people since I was in middle school and it was fun to look at the different families and think back to the time we spent at Sunnyslope. My mom came in Thursday afternoon and we had dinner at the Molan's Thursday night with her. Then I stayed up too late watching Survivor, The Office and Parks and Rec. I am so very thankful we do not have a DVR as I would be an addict for sure.

Friday morning the 4 of us headed to Portland. We did some shopping, ate at the Cheesecake Factory (avocado egg rolls, mmmmmmmmm), then checked into our hotel. My crazy mom and sisters headed out to another mall, but I stayed behind and took a nap. That night, we headed to the Coliseum to see Beth Moore. It was awesome! If you ever have a chance to see her live, do it! The worship was amazing. There were over 7,000 women there for the event (and a few brave men). We learned that our main objective in life, summed up in 6 words, is "Ego crucified. Christ formed in me." The main obstacle to obtaining this is "My life. My way. That's it." Her whole message was from the book of Galatians, and it was powerful. I couldn't even begin to do it justice, so I won't even try.

Saturday morning we headed back to the Coliseum. Again, it was a fabulous time. It is really strange because there is just something about Beth Moore. You feel like you really know her, like she's your friend. It is so funny listening to people talk about her, because we all talk about her like she's our pal. She really is super funny and engaging. So again, if you get a chance, go hear her, or do one of her Bible studies. I also have a new favorite song that you should go listen to here.

After the conference ended, we had some time to kill. My plane didn't leave til 8:30 that night. So we headed back to the Cheesecake Factory and ordered the exact same meal that we had the day before, minus the two pieces of cheesecake. Don't worry, we went to Starbucks a couple hours later and had our cheesecake there instead. After hanging out at Barnes and Noble we went to IKEA where we wandered aimlessly for an hour or so. Then we went to a frozen yogurt place and ate again. Around 6:30 they dropped me off at the airport. I am so thankful I was able to spend such an amazing weekend with my three favorite women. I know they were as blessed as I was by what we experienced.

After a long night of flying and layovers, I made it back to Michigan around 9 a.m. Tyson and Jori were SO stinking cute at the airport. I can't even count how many times Tyson said "I missed you" and "Did you miss me?". Jori kept saying "Mommy, you're home now". I love those little babes so much. I really did miss them while I was gone. They have been such a joy since I've been home. I am surprised the honeymoon period has lasted into the 3rd day!