I forgot to share this picture from yesterday. Apparently, the airline tickets couldn’t fit my entire middle name (Gayle), so they just used the first three letters:
After Tia dropped us off, we checked in.
The majority of our classes and all of our devotionals were held in the upstairs room at a dinosaur museum. It seems like a crazy place to have a retreat, but it ended up being the perfect size to fit our group.
I didn’t get many pictures of the first day because we were so busy! We were each given a notebook to take notes in, and I used up nearly half of it in 3 days!
Here’s a picture of it:
They made the picture of Christ removable so we could take it home and frame it if we wanted to. Genius!
We sat in the upstairs room of dinosaur museum and SOAKED up the words from the speakers:
Mrs. Barbara herself!
We broke for lunch. Mom and I took a short walk into the gardens below the motel. We were surprised to find that we were the ONLY ones in the garden.
We ate our delicious lunch in a large gazebo and listened to the waterfalls behind us.
The first day, I learned something completely eye-opening. A beautiful woman named Cynthia said something along the lines of “don’t talk about yourself constantly. People aren’t interested.”
How long have you been reading my blog? Okay, so you KNOW all I talk about is myself. And it’s interesting to me! I just happen to have the audacity to think everyone thinks it’s interesting.
But they don’t.
Cuz it’s not.
Using this vital information (which you think would be obvious, but apparently not [to me]), I stopped talking about myself, and I started asking probing questions to others.
Given the title of my blog, you know how much I love stories. I will never, ever tire of Netflix because it’s full of stories! Old stories, new stories, true stories, blue stories! I love to hear about people and their personal stories. On the shuttle ride back to the airport from Thanksgiving Point, I asked our driver, Eric, where he met his wife. His reply?
“We actually met at BYU. Then we got married.”
What?
BLAH! I jeered his naked report and asked for more.
“Well what do you want to know?” He asked, defensively, “I could tell you more, but we’d have to drive to Idaho and back!”
Well, if I had time and money I’d take that trip!
After getting my hair and make up done at the salon, I sat on the floor next to my hand bag and struck up a conversation with a woman sitting next to me. I expected to exchange light pleasantries and unexpectedly found myself riveted to the mall floor, letting one woman change my life through her story of how she came to adopt two adults into her family… of how she gave birth to 14 children… of how her youngest son had skipped two grades and was on his way to Julliard at 17.
The entire week went like this! Think of how much I’ve missed out on because I didn’t have the smarts to shut my face!
But I digress…
On the first day, mom and I were introduced to two lovely ladies:
Ethel and Mary Jane. Yes, that’s a creeper picture. Yes, it’s not the last.
They had a cute black car that they drove to and from the museum to the motel and they were sweet enough to give us a ride.
We fell in love with them. Angels, angels, angels.
They had to leave early on account of Ethel having issues with her leg, but I’m glad to have known them. Very, very glad.
That’s all I have time for today. The fun really started the next day, but as I’ve been sitting here typing away, my house has been glaring at me. It’s been neglected.
We went camping this weekend, remember? We happened to come home from the camping trip with a big carton of water balloons. We also happened to pick up about 5 gallons of muck on our car.
Tonight also happens to be Family Home Evening.
I’m thinking we put the water balloon, the car, and Family Home Evening Together. One big water fight later, we should have a clean car and a bonded family.
Right?
Either way, I’m totally doing it.