From Inmates to Playdates

Posts Tagged ‘girlfriends’

I spent the weekend with 22 fabulous women at Women of Faith in Columbus, Ohio.

Well, 12,000 women if you count the ones I did not know.

We laughed.

We cried.

We ate.

We laughed.

And we peed.

This year’s theme is Over The Top, so you can just about figure that I fit in real well there. Seeing as how I live most of my life over the top, and all.

There is discrepancy regarding how many years we’ve been making this trip. Some say six. And some say seven. I stink at math, so I didn’t even attempt to figure it out. All but one of those years was in Columbus. One year we visited Pittsburgh, but the shopping possibilities were limited, so Columbus and all of its shopping opportunities became our annual destination.

Out of those six or seven years, this was MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE conference. I thought it might be fun to share What I Learned at Women of Faith.

Never heard of this guy,

Andy Andrews,

but if you ever have the chance, you should run, not walk, to hear him because he is a delightfully energetic, engaging speaker and I enjoyed (watching and) listening to him. He was a cameraman’s nightmare because he worked the room. But I liked that. I liked that he came down from the platform and actually talked with us instead of at us. Not to mention he has two young sons, same as me.

Here, Sandi Patty, Marilyn Meburg, and Luci Swindoll are no doubt discussing which one of them will be approaching me about a possible speaking deal with Women Of Faith. I am, after all Over the top.

Sandi Patty performed a stirring rendition of “We Shall Behold Him” and I was in awe. She has an amazing set of pipes.

It gave me chills.

Two of my gal pals took their daughters along because they love Mandisa. My friend’s daughter, Lexi enjoyed her short meeting with Mandisa.

Oh, and if you’ve never heard Mandisa perfrom Shackles live, you need to. But you should have your dancin’ shoes on. And a sweat towel.

That’s all I’m sayin.

And speaking of live performers, this cat was awesome.

If I had any sense at all, I would have taken a picture of the drummer because his guns?

Impressive.

And I’m not one of those types who are easily turned on by guns. And if you’re reading that sentence thinking about a rifle or a pistol, you should moverightalong and not even worry about it.

Oh, and Steven Curtis Chapman, If by some chance you end up here at From Inmates To Playdates, can I just say I was in awe of your wife, Marybeth. She was awesome and brave and humble. I will continue to pray for your family.

Here are just a few of the things I learned this weekend thanks to Patsy Clarimont, Marybeth Chapman, Anita Renfroe, Sandi Patty, Marilyn Meburg, Mandisa, Lisa Welchel, Nicole Johnson, Andy Andrews, and Richard Stearns.

- God is good even when life is not.

- A hook can only grab and pull and push,but a hand can hold and help. May God give us the grace to put down our hooks and use our hands.

- We should stop talking about anger management and start talking about anger resolution.

- Forgiveness is a decision, not an emotion.

- Know that people are taking notes on you.

- We gals can rise up mightedly when it comes to our people.

- What if this [insert situation here]  is for good?

- Refuse to think unclean, unkind, unpure thoughts and replace them with everything that is good, clean and pure. Otherwise, the enemy will come in and tap dance in that space.

- Minimize your word count. Chances are you don’t need to say all of that anyway. Go on a word diet.

Hello, are you talking to me?

-Grief is a journey, not an address.

Oh, I love that!

- God is under no obligation to tell us what He is doing.

- For me to tell everything that is on my mind is foolishness.

- I’ve always wanted to be a speaker, I just don’t have a lot to say.

Um, Andy Andrews, yessir, you have a lot to say. And I love the way you said it!

- The amount of stuff that comes out of my mouth amazes me.

Whoa.

- I went to school to be a vet. Well that or a taxidermist. Either way I’d be able to tell them they’ll get their dog back.

Bahahaha.

- I’m ADD. I used to be ADHD but the “H” was too much trouble.

- Watch the complaining, the exaggeration, and the complaining. They will suck the vitality out of you.

And my absolute favorite line (possibly of all time) courtesy of this gal, Anita Renfroe whom I met last year,

- You just don’t have a hissy fit. A hissy fit must have a verb involved. Some action. A hissy fit must be thrown or pitched.

Thank you, Anita for that wonderful tidbit.

A tidbit I am sure never to forget.

What about you?

Did you learn something this week?

If you’re linking up, please be sure to link to your actual WILTW post and not just the home page on your blog. If you need to find out how to do that, you can go here.

Today at 4:00 pm, I will board a bus with 20 girlfriends and we will head to Columbus, Ohio for a Women Of Faith conference.

This is our sixth or seventh year attending. It is something I look forward to every year.

Here’s a quick list of 13 things I’ll be doing this weekend.

1. Laughing- Oh my word internets, there will be lots of laughing. Lots and lots of laughing. And maybe peeing down one’s leg. (It wouldn’t be the first time!) Did I mention I love to laugh? Oh, and Anita Renfroe will be there, so yes ma’am, you can bet we’ll be doing more than our share of laughing.

2. Eating – Usually at the top of our list. Where are we eating next and do they take reservations? Not to mention the mounds of snacks we’ll share late at night in our hotel rooms.

3. Singing – Last year, three of the girls gave a vocal performance (in the hotel room, mind you) of Harper Valley PTA singing into their hairbrushes. Within minutes the front desk called and asked us to keep the noise to a minimum. I answered the phone and pretended to be half asleep, claiming, “I’ll see if I can find out where the noise is coming from.” We spent the rest of the evening whispering. And giggling like high school girls wondering which room ratted us out.

4. Listening – We’ll spend a great deal of the conference listening to the singers, and the speakers. We’ll hear testimonies, scripture, stories, and experiences. We’ll be encouraged. And ministered to. We’ll hear about Christ’s grace and mercy and how he wants only the very best for us. We’ll also be reminded that no matter how bad things may seem, we are never alone and we are not as goofy as we think. Columbus, Ohio has a great line-up and I’m looking forward to hearing from Anita Renfroe, Nicole Johnson, Marilyn Meberg, Patsy Clairmont, Lisa Welchel, and Sandi Patty.

5. Sleeping - I remember the first time I went on a Women Of Faith trip, I was most looking forward to an entire night of sleep. Would you believe we were up well past 1am and recevieved a wake-up call at 6am. And because I decided to drink about 94 ounces of Dr. Pepper that night, I had to pee twice. Needless to say, we won’t be doing nearly as much sleeping as I’d like.

6. Hosting games on the bus – Remember this post where I shared the bus trip game ideas with you? I’ll be hosting those great games and handing out prizes on the bus.

7. Playing Words With Friends – Oh yes. I will not leave my Words With Friends folks hangin’ I’ll be checking in from time to time on my opponents and hopefully playing some Triple Letter, Triple Word words in between all the laughing, and eating, and dancing.

8. Dancing – With a line-up like Mandisa, Sandi Patty, and Steven Curtis Chapman, you can bet we’ll be dancin’. And singin’. And movin’ to the groovin’ and just when it hit me somebody turned around and shouted… oh, never mind.

9. Calling Home – As much as I look forward to spending the weekend with the girls, I will miss my fellas. Terribly. And I will call home frequently just to hear their sweet voices.

10. Waiting – 26 women. 4 to a hotel room. Hair product and apparatuses galore. Restaurants. Bathrooms. Shopping lines.

You name it, we’ll be waiting for it.

11. Singing - Ah, yes, we have some aspiring praise leaders in our group, and some gals who love to let loose in an arena with 10,000 other women when there is little to no chance of them being heard. And of course, those pajama clad gals singing their rendition of Harper Valley PTA into their hairbrushes well past midnight. Ahem!

12. Laughing – What? I’ve mentioned laughing already. Well, we’ll be doing lots of it. For sure.

13. Charging my beloved iPhone – Wow. This is a biggie. I’ve plotted out in my head that my iPhone will have to be charged every 50 or so miles if it hopes to hold up to the rigorous weekend. I’ve got my home charger and my car charger packed and I hope like heck that church bus has a working ‘cigarette’ plug-in hole. In fact, I’m counting on it. Otherwise, I’ll be asking for a table near an outlet at every restaurant. Crossing my fingers that my iPhone battery can keep up.

Like I said.

Girls gone wild.

Wild and crazy.

And crazy is what I’ll be if my iPhone battery gives out.

Tomorrow, I will be headed to Columbus, Ohio with 25 of my closest gal pals for a Women of Faith conference. It will be our seventh trip in as many years.

It’s something I look forward to every year because it means the only bottom I’ll be wiping for 48 hours is my own. The only mouth I’ll be feeding is my own. Don’t get me wrong, I love my sweet boys. I love all three of them, but I love girl-time, too! I’m thankful that I have a hubby that can take care of business when I’m not at home.

If my calculations are correct (and chances are they arent’ because hello? It involves math! And we all know how I suck at math!) I’ve been in charge of doing the games for our Women Of Faith Extravaganzas since that first year seven years ago. It is a task coming up with fresh material each year.

One year, I handed out index cards and each gal had to put one odd fact about themselves on it. As I read the facts, we had to guess who’s weird fact it was.

Another year, I passed around those little individual fun-size packs of M&Ms to each person. As each gal, opened their pack, they gave this information…

Red = tell 1 fact about your childhood per red candy

Green = tell 1 fact about one of your hobbies

Blue = tell 1 fact about one of your job

Yellow = tell 1 fact about your dreams and aspirations

Brown = tell 1 fact about your last vacation

Orange = tell random fact

This year, I’ve written a cute little game that we will play on the bus. I’ll purchase some sort of gift and wrap it neatly. Then, I’ll read this little poem.

Pass The Gift

Send this gift back two seats, lets see who the gift will meet.

 Now find the gal with the least amount of hair, pass the gift to her if you dare.

 Shift the gift three seats toward the front, then we’ll continue on with the hunt.

Now to the closest mommy who has a girl, and then onto someone who wears curls.

 What is the gift, it’s out of sight, pass the gift to your right.

Onto the next, lets not stop yet, give it to the gal with the most pets.

And then twice to the right, but don’t yet boast, lets pass it to the girl who packed the most.

Let’s shuffle it again, this time to the left, too bad nothing rhymes with that.

But we’re not stopping now, no how, no way, lets pass it on to the girl who arrived first at the bus today.

Do you have an April birthday, the gift is yours for a bit, now pass it to the gal who beside you sits.

 Now don’t get cross and please don’t fight, just pass the gift to your right.

 Take this gift with this next clue, give it to the lady closest with eyes of blue.

 We’re not done, we’re having a ball, give it to someone you sometimes call.

 This is easy and loads of fun, give it to someone who has a son.

 First to the left and then back twice, we’re almost done won’t that be nice?

 Give the gift to someone tall. Get in gear and get on the ball.

 Who will hold the gift now, lets see who it will bring, how bout the lady with the most rings.

 What a game, isn’t this clever, give it to someone wearing a sweater.

 We’re almost there, just a couple more. Pass it to the person closest to the door.

 Send the gift packing, on with your life, send it now to the oldest wife.

And speaking of wives, where is the youngest, pass it to her, even if she has a fungus.

Okay that’s gross, but sure is funny, give it to the first gal who can wave some money.

 Now pass it over, don’t hold the gift tight, pass the gift up twice and then to the right.

 Now back to the left and then backwards twice, we’re almost there won’t that be nice.

 The most buttons we’re looking for now, pass the gift to her, as she takes a bow.

 The bow was just for fun though, the gift is on its way, now give it to the last person to arrive at the bus today.

 Now toward the front the gift should go twice, we’re almost done, won’t that be nice.

 Now Up twice, and back once, this game could go on for months.

 We should stop now don’t you agree, the gift is yours whomever you may be.

Whomever ends up with the gift, gets to keep it!

A weekend with the girls WORKS FOR ME! Head over to Kristen’s place to see what works for other people

As always, I have learned a lot of stuff this week. However, instead of compiling another list about the stuff, I thought it might be fun to actually show you pictures of the stuff. Basically I learned that if you don’t have a lot of success in decorating, you should call in some reinforcement.

So, if you want to save yourself from reading 800 and some odd words, you can scroll down to the pictures and skip the mindless commentary. Otherwise, you may want to grab a coke and pull up a chair. As is usually always the case around here at FITP, Inc., this could get lengthy.

Remember when I wrote that McDaddy and I have been remodeling our basement, turning a second kitchen into a playroom? And then remember when I showed you the bright red and yellow wall with the wall words as a teaser? Well, I wasn’t trying to be all secretive about the rooms, its just that I didn’t want to show you the rooms until the walls were decorated.

And because I have never been much of a decorator, I was afraid to attempt it on my own. Sadly, my know-hows do not match up with my want-tos.

Don’t get me wrong. I love to shop. And I love to buy stuff. But when the time comes to actually decorate with the stuff that I’ve bought, the OCD monster rears its ugly head and then I become concerned with having everything symmetrical instead of actually taking a stab at the decorating. In other words, it’s hard for me to think outside of my OCD decorating box.

Enter my gal pals, Amy and Susan.

Amy and Susan are good friends with a good friend of mine, so by proxy they are my friends too, right?

Right.

After pulling just about every single hair out of my head trying to decide where I should put what, I broke down and called Susan to askbeg her and Amy to come over and work their magic on my walls. You see my good friend has some great walls in her home. And every time I’m there, I find myself saying, “I wouldn’t even think to put that there.” And each time, my friend replies, “I tell you its Amy and Susan. They also have great decorating ideas”. So, after a few minutes of listening to my whine, she agreed and we settled on a date. Last Thursday, they showed up on my doorstep and folks, these gals meant business. I had all of my wall stuff on display and I mentioned that the clock was purchased specifically for the wall directly over the entertainment center.

They looked each other in the eye and then at me and frankly replied, “It won’t look good there.”

Wellalrightythen.

The girls immediately went to work, nailing, pounding, measuring, and leveling.

Yes, I said leveling.

Like I said these girls meant business.

Me? My idea of decorating is ordering a bunch of gold-trimmed Home Interior stuff, eyeballing where on the wall I want the pictures and the sconces to hang all while using my other hand to poke small holes in the wall. Then, I pound the nails in like a maniac doing my best to drive the nail straight into the wall without smashing my beloved thumb.

First, can I just say that Home Interior is so yesterday. I was totally committed to pulling the stuff from the walls and dropping it off at the Goodwill. That is until Susan mentioned the words, rod and iron and paint. She snatched up those sconces and promised to bring them back once she got them painted and said that I would be surprised at how good they will look. Again, I would never think to do that.

Words cannot express how thankful I am that these gals took three hours out of their life to come over to set up my new rec room. Now, how ’bout I stop babbling and get to the pictures. I have a lot of before and afters, so I hope you’ll bear with me.

This is the way our basement looked the day after we moved into our house.

Here are the two pathetic walls before…

Pay no mind to the horrible flash photography. As if the Home Interior groupings aren’t enough.

I know. I know. I told you it was bad.

Three hours (and a recliner eviction later) here is my newly remodeled, redecorated rec room. One of the newly painted rod iron sconces will go beside the picture over the entertainment center. The other sconce will go somewhere else.

And just for the record, McDaddy hates this furniture. I purchased it while he was deployed knowing that eventually it would look awesome in this room. The new carpet and new furniture lightened the room up beautifully. (Hey, McDaddy, I told you so!) Like they say, if Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.

But the best part?

The best part is that the walls in this rec room look fabulous.

Have a look.

That’s the clock that I purchased to go over the entertainment center. (Again, pay no mind that this picture is just slightly out of focus. I was hyped up on excitement and Dr. Pepper when I took it!) Susan suggested I paint the shelf black, but as of this writing, it has not been done.

And take a look at my absolute favorite wall….

It would never have dawned on me to hang my beloved Longaberger baskets on the wall. But I had them and they needed to be used.

Oh, and see this curio cabinet?

I was ready to get rid of it, too.

But Susan suggested we paint it, mentioning the words totally, different, cabinet. So, stay tuned for that little trick. The plan is to paint it barn red or farm red. I can’t remember.

So, that’s what I learned this week. How ’bout you?

This post has been linked to The Inspired Room.

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If you’re joining the What I Learned This Week Carnival, please remember to link to your actual What I Learned This Week post and not the home page on your blog.

Thanks to Jo-Lynne with entrusting me with the party this week.

Busy day today.

Worked consignment sale.

Bought great clothes.

For our boys.

Drive home uneventful.

Thankful for that.

McDaddy went skiing.

Took Stevie too!

Girlfriends came over.

For decorating party.

Basement looks better.

Pictures coming shortly.

Before and After.

Suggested I paint.

A curio cabinet.

Shelves and frames.

Pull it together.

Totally different look.

Thrilled with result.

It is late.

I am tired.

That is all.

Each week I try to come up with something creative and intriguing for Thursday Thirteen and each week I wonder if I’m hitting the mark. While I have a whole list of Thursday Thirteen ideas to choose from, the fact is, I’m not in the mood for any of them. It’s been a difficult day and my nerves are shot, so I’ll keep this short and sweet.

Remember last week when I mentioned that me and my van had some sort of disagreement on the big honkin’ hill?

Well.

While driving home today (at a high rate of speed on the interstate mind you) the van and its gas pedal decided it might be fun to play a trick on this ole’ gal and it got hung up somewhere between 68-70 mph.

Shut Up.

I’ll give you a minute to re-read that sentence to make sure you read it correctly.

Yes. You. Did.

Two words for you.

Scared. Todeath.

The cruise control was set at 70 mph and I had just hung up with McDaddy who was headed home from his second home Pennsylvania where he was been working 3-4 days each week for the better part of 2010 when I tapped the brake to disengage the cruise and change lanes.

Only the cruise did not disengage and the van did not slow down even though my foot was attempting the shove the brake through the floor board.

Within seconds I became keenly aware of every vehicle around me. I assessed how much room I had to get stopped, how close the vehicle behind me was and the fact that ten seconds or so later the van was still not slowing down.

Quickly I ran through my short list of options, which included, throwing it into park, throwing it into neutral, and freaking out. I can tell you that freaking out seemed like the easiest option. Which is exactly what I did shortly after getting into the emergency lane and throwing the gear shift into neutral.

The conversation with McDaddy on my beloved iPhone went something like this.

ME (WITH HEART RACING): Hey, the brakes on the van went out and I’m sitting on the side of the interstate in the emergency lane.

MCDADDY: Did the brakes go all the way to the floor? Is the cruise control still on? Is the van in park? Did the idiot lights come on? Can you drive it at all?

ME: Um, I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know and I don’t want to at all because ITS NOT SAFE AND I MIGHT DIE!

MCDADDY: We’ll its obviously time to trade that thing in on a Jeep.

ME: Um, okay. As long as it runs.

MCDADDY: Keep your foot on the brake and start it up.

The engine ran as if it were still going 70 mph.

MCDADDDY: Keep your foot on the brake and push the gas pedal.

The engine returned to normal and I watched the tachometer (or whatever its called) decrease from 3 to 1.\

It is worth mentioning that a situation such as this would not have been a challenge for McDaddy. He possesses the wherewithall to take charge of emergency situations and make quick decisions. I, on the other hand, require a list, a sharpie, a calendar, and at least a 24-hour notice.

This was seriously one of the scaredest (yes, its a word!) events in my life and no, before you ask, I do not drive a Toyota.

I am happy to report that the van is now tucked safely away in the garage and as is always the case in a situation like this, the thing ran perfectly normal for McDaddy as he brought the hunk of junk thing home.

So, with that being said, I do hope you’ll excuse the fact that I am walking down Random Road tonight.

1. One of my favorite iPhone APPS is Words With Friends. It’s a Scrabble type game and if you are a member of the iCult, er, I mean iClub, you can do a search for JulieWV and we can get a game started. Oh, and if you’re looking for about 72 points, play the word Jeep on the triple letter, triple word spaces. YeeHaw!

2. My heart is heavy for my BFF, Becky and her family, who lost their aunt earlier in the week. Death is so stinkin’ tough. Cancer, you suck!

3. While I really love watching American Idol, I do not have a clear favorite this season. I like Big Mike and I think Crystal Bowersox rocked it out tonight!

4. My McDaddy is the original McDaddy. 

Just sayin.

5. While she would not have been my first choice based on her lack of musical experience, Ellen is doing a pretty good job as Judge #4 on Idol.

6. And speaking of crazy words, I learned a new one today – encopresis.

I’ll give you a second to look that up. Never heard of it before but saw it on the Facebook and did what I do when I’m on the hunt for something. *coughgooglecough*

7. Apolo Ohno will be on Jay Leno tonight. I will have to DVR it because sadly I’ve spent one too many late nights in front of the TiVo watching my boyfriend Apolo Ohno go for the gold, which he looks good in by the way.

Well, he does!

8. Some girlfriends are coming over tonight to decorate my newly remodeled basement walls. I have purchased some really great stuff but have no idea how to make it all work and pull it all together. So, weather permitting, I might have some pictures to show you very soon! (Hi, Susan!)

9. At this very minute, McDaddy is sitting on the couch with his laptop looking at used cars on the internet because that’s what he does at the first hint of a car situation. He’s found a copper colored Mazda 6 that is a six-speed. Oh, and it is a front wheel drive that will “do just as good as your van if not better on the big, honkin’ hill!”

Can you say Saturn Sky?

10. This post is at 1,011 words, so much for short and sweet.

11. My nephew, Isaac Cade is 2 years old today (as of this writing on Wednesday). Happy birthday, buddy!

12. The random isn’t flowing as easy I thought it would. Of course American Idol and Words With Friends are battling with the randomness, but still.

13. More snow today, are you kidding me? Enough already!

I hate to end things on such a cold note, but, that’s just the way the random rolls, I suppose.

Care to share something random today?

I am ready to relax and ready to write this week’s Not Me! Monday post while catching up on the last five episodes of The Young And The Restless. Welcome to Not Me! Monday!

To kick this thing off, let me start by saying it was not me who spent the last hour and twenty minutes trying to design Christmas Cards that, after finishing would have been free. It couldn’t have been me because I am a technological genius (who by the way most certainly did not spell genius wrong the first time I typed it!) and there’s no way the fuji picture site could get the best of me.

Nope. No way, not a chance!

It also wasn’t me who spent the weekend with ten or so of my favorite friends jammin’ to Michael O’Brien ( you may recognize Chonda Pierce on his right) who is wonderfully talented by the way

Matthew West and Mandisa…

while laughing my butt off (not literally, mind you!) to Chonda Pierce

and listening to the likes of author Karen Kingsbury,

Stormie Omartian and Angela Thomas. Is that a line-up or what? If that had been me doing all of that, you can bet I would have to tell you what a great time I had whooping it up all weekend.

After the conference that I didn’t attend, there’s no way that I completely forgot about a birthday party that my boys were invited to that evening. It couldn’t have been me because I am an organization freak who typically writes important dates on our house calendar, my purse calendar and in the calendar on my beloved iPhone. 

Seriously, how is that at 10:30 pm, I remembered that I forgot a birthday party that started at 7pm?

Negligence, at its finest.

I guess that means “Mother of the Year” is out of the question.

And speaking of forgetting things, there is no way it was me who forgot to take her camera along to the conference that she didn’t go to because anyone that’s ever been to a ladies conference knows there will be picture opportunities for those who have the patience to fight the crowd. Especially when Matthew West is there!

Sheesh.

It also isn’t me who has put off dusting the bedroom for two weeks because well? Because that would be gross. And irresponsible.

Ahem!

That’s all I haven’t done this week!

What about you?

This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Well, if that title doesn’t grab your attention, I don’t know what will.

I’ll let y’all know how many visitors stop by Inmates via Google for searching for something to do with a wet t-shirt. I suspect there will be plenty. More on the wet t-shirt contest in a bit.

Last week, I mentioned I was attending a ladies retreat. Fifteen women from my church (and one visitor) enjoyed a weekend of food, fun, and fellowship. Oh, and did I mention food?

It is interesting to note that the retreat started at 5:00 pm on Friday and ended at 5:00 pm on Saturday.

Did I mention there was fun, fellowship and FOOD?

Oh internets.

We ate and laughed and ate some more. We talked into the wee hours of the night about fashion, shoes, our kids, the new cherry Dr. Pepper, and Deb’s yummy no-bake cookies.

The theme was “Garden of Friends” and everything was centered around flowers. Our retreat was based on this book by Penny Pierce Rose. Basically, each presenter was assigned a flower and we presented the flower based on its characteristics and related them to friends in our “garden of friends.”

I was assigned the sunflower. I love sunflowers. I have them all over my kitchen. I love sunflowers both for their size and their color. There are three characteristics of a sunflower. They stand strong, they seek the sun (Son), and they sow seed. In my garden of friends, I have several sunflowers. McDaddy is a sunflower.

As each flower was presented, we were to think about the qualities of the flower and write the names of friends in our “garden” that had the same qualities of the flower being presented. After each presentation we placed the post-it notes bearing the names of our friends on the flower that they represented.

As you can see, we have lots of Violet friends. Characteristics of the violet are humble, unselfish, go out of their way for others and often work behind the scenes. McDaddy is also a violet. (He is a great friend to have!) 

We also made these cute candle holders / coaster / whatever you want to use them for things.

We also made a picture frame, but for some reason I didn’t get a picture of those.

Anytime we have a shin-dig, I am in charge of games and entertainment.

I could just sit and read my blog to them, but I’m guessin’ that would get old. So, I try to real hard to come up with some great games and some great prizes.

The first ice-breaker we played involved those a snack pack of M&Ms. Each lady opened their snack pack and had to answer a number of questions based on the color of M&Ms that were in their pack.

Red = tell 1 fact about your childhood per red candy

Green = tell 1 fact about one of your hobbies

Blue = tell 1 fact about one of your job

Yellow = tell 1 fact about your dreams and aspirations

Brown = tell 1 fact about your last vacation

Orange = tell about something you like to do

It was a fun way to learn about each girl and as you can see from my snack pack, there were 18 M&Ms in the pack. It took a sweet forever for fifteen girls to get through 18 or so M&Ms.

After we went back to the “lodge” for the evening, we played a couple more games and then I made a grand announcement.

We were having a wet t-shirt contest.

Instructions – fold a t-shirt and place it in a ziplock bag. Fill the ziplock bag full of water smoothing the air out as you go. Repeat with a different t-shirt in a different ziplock bag. Freeze both ziplock bags. Remove the ziplock bags and announce that you are having a wet t-shirt contest. The first team to thaw their shirt and wear it wins.

First, you can try running warm water over it. 

 Just for fun, you might try cracking the ice on the side-walk.

Next, pull like crazy! 

Finally, wear it!

It was loads of cold fun!

Like I said, there was food, fellowship and lots of fun!

 As always, Thursdays are a lot of fun here at Inmates.

I’ve played along with Beth’s You Capture Carnival every week since it started and I look forward to seeing what our next challenge will be.

I was thrilled with this week’s Fall challenge. Fall is my favorite season. With the exception of the shorter days, I love everything about it. The crisp mornings. The windy evenings. The cooler temps. And, most especially the beautiful browns, reds, yellows and oranges. The landscape was stunning last weekend. I spent Friday and part of Saturday at a  ladies retreat with my closest girlfriends from church. I snapped most of these on our way to and from the dining hall.

 Looks like something had its way with this leaf. It was surrounded by many brown friends, but it stood out to me. 

 The red barn was the dining hall. You can’t see it from here but the porch is lined with white rocking chairs. It was glorious sitting on the porch looking at God’s handiwork.

 This red leaf stood out against the green grass. It smiled thinking he was showing off!

And finally, what would fall be without a pumpkin? (Or in this case a cat?) At Stevie’s fall party, each child had to bring decorations for their pumpkin. I think his cat turned out pretty well. You might notice that just above his right eye there is a knot. Remember this post where I mentioned that he fell on the playground and I got called to the school to freak out do a medical assessment. The bruise is still visable eight days later.

Happy Fall Y’all!

Hop over to I Should Be Folding Laundry for more fall folliage.

It’s been one heck of a week.

Between school consolidation meetings, McDaddy going back to work after successfully reconstituting after the stupid deployment, pre-school starting, fresh grounded faith and an endless list of DVRed material that needed tending  to, I am pooped.

Did I mention that pre-school starts today?

For my almost-four-year-old?

It’s almost more than I can comprehend.

Man, I know it sounds so cliche’ but seriously, where does the time go? Wow. You’d think by now I’d be ready to enjoy some free time, but I’ve learned this week that I’m not as ready as I thought I’d be.

I’ve also learned that when you’re having dinner with the girls at Logans before the fresh grounded faith conference and the group leader gives you a wristband required for admittance, you should probably make for sure that the wristband is on your wrist or at the very least in your purse, or else you might end up leaving it on the table at the restaurant.

Oh, and just in case you are planning a trip to Krispy Kreme doughnuts anytime soon, you should know it is cheaper to purchase a dozen than it is to purchase half-a-dozen. Unfortunately buying more = eating more. Just sayin.

And lastly, when your hubby has a heap, ahem, I mean JEEP that happens to be his hobby, you should be aware that JEEP is actually an acronym for ‘Just empty every pocket”.

And speaking of McDaddy…

He introduced me to a great web-site. It’s great if you’re in search of some great entertainment. It’s called People of Walmart (dot com).

Sweet mercy, I laughed hysterically. There are pages and pages of crazy people. It’s a wonder I got today’s blog post written. Me and the crazy? We are great friends.

Oh, and one more thing.

I’ve learned that after a six-month deployment, 2-3 night away business trips are not that big of a deal.

That’s it.

Head over to Musings Of A Housewife for more What I Learned This Week posts.