Atlanta Womens Retreat 2010

Well Jan 9th at 3:45 am I jumped out of bed threw on my clothes and drug pat from bed and nursed Nelson one last time and hit the road to the airport! My flight was leaving at 5:50 am. In the approaching weeks I wasn't looking forward to flying.
But as the day approached God and I had a chat and I began to feel comfortable with the idea of flying and I knew I would feel a PEACE while flying and if I didn't then there was a good reason for it and I wouldn't get on that plane.
So I was starting to get excited for my little adventure! my solo adventure. I love being and doing things by myself so I knew at least my travel days would be fun!

 (heading to the airport. feeling pretty awake but looking pretty tired. didn't sleep very much. too excited to sleep)

Well I landed in Toronto and at 815 am I finally had to give up on getting my luggage and beg the customs lady to let me cut in the line because my flight was leaving in 10 min. She finally let me threw and they rushed me threw security, well as rushed as you can be stripping down and emptying all your things into a bin. I then reassembled myself and with my belly and a very full blatter and a heavy bag took off running to my gate which by the way was approx a 7 min walk and with the actual speed i was able to run i didn't get there much faster than 7 min. On my way to my gate a guy that worked there asked if I was the one the plane was waiting for and I replied yes and he says well you better hurry up! hahahahaha oh that was almost funny for a second but being on the verge of tears from pure frustration of having no luggage and having to pee and knowing i wouldn't be able to until I landed in Atlanta ( I don't leave my seat on the plane) and having lungs that felt like they were on fire , I responded with a very deflated trying not to be rude " well I am pregnant and havent had time to use the wash room so Iam getting there as fast as I can and then I shot him my best the death glare ( all the while hoping I didn't burst into to very angry hot crying mess)hahah no it wasn't a death glare maybe only half of one." He almost felt bad for saying what he did and quickly mumbled something into his walkie talkie as I (at this point) waddled by him . He then yelled after me "don't worry I told them you will be there soon"
Well shortly after I made it onto the plane and declared to the on lookers that it wasn't my fault , they lost my luggage . No one seemed to be to concerned with my late arrival which was nice but also annoying because all along the way everyone made it seems so dramatic and if I didn't flat out sprint to the plane they were leaving without me.
So I sank into my seat and dropped my 100 pound bag I was lugging around and reached up and blasted the air onto my exhausted sweaty chunky body and slowly began to relax. I was pleasantly surprised to find this plane had individual TVs and before watching a movie I listened to Nora Jones during the take off on xm radio and then switched to losing myself in a movie until i felt my ears popping which meant we were starting our descent!
Second PEACEFUL flight of the day. God is good to me because without our agreement I wouldn't have enjoyed my day at all!
I looked out the window and saw these mountains. so amazing to be flying over them. freaky for a split second until I get myself in check but amazing! WOW

So I arrive in Atlanta and Faith (my driver) meets me and we chat it up while waiting to file a report for my missing luggage. We then hit the mall and grab a bite because Iam starving from not eating anything all morning . I did that because I didn't want to feel sick because of having to go to the bathroom and not being able to on the plane so I chose to starve.

So I had a very expensive salad and panini press sandwich which was Delicious. We then carried on to find a Bare minerals store which is the make-up i use that i cant buy in Canada. So I get a new eye shadow/blush with the color name of sexy kitten .oh yea at least there will be something sexy on me for the next 4 months!

Iam jonesing for a coffee because not only had i not eaten i chose not to drink anything either all morning so I was so dry and my head was pounding in withdrawal from my regular morning coffee. So after checking a few maternity stores and deciding to not bother buying any clothes and just hoping my luggage showed up the next we hit target to get shampoo and a Starbucks coffee and i spotted a cheap grey maternity sweater and snatched that up too.

So within 15 min my head ache had subsided and we were heading to the apartments so I could settle in and grab a nap!

I opted to stay in the apartments that they provided instead of getting a hotel room. my decision was 2 fold, first was why not save 300 plus $'s and Iam here to learn and meet women and create relationships that will potentially be helpful and encouraging so I decided to step out of my comfort zone which is to prefer to be by myself and said lets do it.

I was the first of the 5 ladies in my apartment to arrive and i quickly picked my room ( the one with 2 not 3 beds) i was choosing to be social but not that social. I closed the door and jumped into bed and was out!

By supper time 2 other ladies Leslie from new Mexico and Anya (beautiful ) from Portland Oregon( who had been to the Rolloff Farm just a few months earlier for the first time haha)  had arrived and after quick hello's decided that we were defiantly going to join the rest of the women for supper and Jason's Deli (which had the best salad bar ever. it was 8$ and i got my moneys worth)

Anya and I sat with a girl from Hawaii and it turned out just a few months earlier Anya and her husband were actually at that girls church while on vacation there.

 Later after we were back from supper, Missy a nurse from Detroit (my roomie) and Sara from Fort Worth Texas showed up and we watched as Atlanta was launched into a state of emergency with a few inches of snow. haha
Our Monday was supposed to start at 8:00 am but when I woke up I found a note that said that we were not getting picked up until 9 am due to the driving conditions. I was starving and the only thing to eat was chips and oreo's so with a fist full of cookies the baby and i climbed back into bed in a very quiet apartment slipped my earphones on and watched a movie until Missy woke up. We then got a text saying our pick up was pushed to 11 am so we layed in our beds chatting it up. We enjoyed each others company and laughed it up until finally we decided it was time for the other girls to get up because we were hungry and the rest of my Starbucks was waiting in the fridge and I wanted it.
Well we found out shortly after that , that we were not going to be able to travel to Jeanne's beautiful house as planned for our retreat and so they were going to be setting things up in one of the apartments and we would be only going there at 1pm . So we raided the kitchen for food and then sat around and chatted laughed and watched in crazy amazement at the ridiculousness of the local people freaking out because of a few inches of snow.
For the next day and a half unfortunately because of the state of emergency due to the ice that had settled over the fallen snow and the lack of salt trucks in Atlanta we were stranded at the apartments and wouldn't be experiencing the luxury that was planned for us at Jeanne;s house and we wouldn't be going on any surprise field trips or experiencing Jeanne's house being transformed into a fancy restaurant where we were served a beautiful meal.
But we had now made friendships within our apartments as well as with the small groups we had be a few times broken up into that we just enjoyed being able to learn awesome things from Jeanne (who was hilarious and very amusing and defiantly easy to listen and absorb knowledge from,) that it almost didn't matter that we were missing out on all of that because we were having a good time anyway.
Although it was pretty tight having 50 plus women crammed into a small apartment it actually wasn't to to bad.

 Day two Jeanne had a ton of necklace/earring sets , all laid out in a near by apartment and sent us all over to pick something we liked.  It was hilarious to see 50 women scramble and try to be civil while trying to get their hands on the one they wanted before some else got it. I am picky with my jewelry and so I wasn't seeing to much that caught my eye so I wasn't going to take anything unless I really thought I would wear it,so i was ready to head back until Anya says hear take mine, which wasn't actually that bad and looked descent with what I was wearing and she grabbed another one she had her eye on. So the above picture is us roomies ( except Missy who I only realized after wasn't in the picture) sporting our new gifts.Leslie is in the back, Anya is beside me and Sara beside her.

 After 2 long enjoyable days of learning , laughing, chatting. EATING very tasty food, I was exhausted along with my roomies at about 11pm we had decided instead of sticking around to chat more and hang out with Jeanne that we would head back to our apartments to try to get some sleep since most of us had early flights.But before we left we had some time to chat and get some pictures with Jeanne.

We both decided that our camera person needed to get a above shot of us because it was more slimming. And it worked it was slimming.

It made m e laugh because any picture she was in after she kept saying take the picture from up higher. One picture she was getting taken with I think it was Sara , Jeanne says" look at her she's like foot wide and Iam like 17 feet wide so come on get a good high angle  for this picture"

She cant defiantly make a crowd laugh!

Awesome, kind hearted, hilarious, beautiful,l smart, knowledgeable, wise, amazing, MENTOR

Jeanne Mayo

Women's Cadre Retreat 2010

Oh and my luggage was waiting for me at the airport in Atlanta when I was checking in to fly home! a few days late but at least they found it. If it wasn't for the weather I would of got it monday night........