Totally Exhausted but what a great weekend

Sorry guys this is going to be a huge post - lots of piccies to share of our great weekend.

We had our annual scrapbooking retreat last weekend and it was doubly special for me cause Sal and Barb flew up for it, and I also got to scrap with a great bunch of girls whose friendships I truely appreciate.

Sal and Barb arrived around 9.30pm on Thursday night - wasn't hard to spot them at the airport as Barb was brightly dressed (should have thought to take the camera) Couldn't beleive how lightly Sal travels - her luggage weighed 11kgs, whilst Barb's weighed 27kgs - I guess that is the beauty of digi scrapbooking. By the time we got home, had some hot soup, finished icing some slices for the weekend and caught up on a good yatter it was 1am and I had to get up and go to work the following morning. Friday it rained all day - the girls stayed home and just chatted and got to know each other (also know they got to check out a few episodes of "One Tree Hill" ( the latest craze by one teenager in this house) When I got home at 3pm, they thought I had popped in to have lunch with them - they had totally missed it - can you beleive it. We took off about 4.30pm - a very slow trip to the coast as it rained the whole way (in fact it rained the whole weekend - great staying indoors weather and scrapbooking weather)

We settled in - had dinner and then drove up to the Hall to unload all our gear and start scrapbooking. We had a relatively early night and closed up about 12.30pm and headed off to bed. Saturday morning saw us sleep in a little as it was pouring rain, very overcast and generally just good sleeping in weather. Breakfast was at 8am and by 9am we were all back scrapbooking in the hall where we pretty much stayed all day.

Saturday night we had a "P" night - that meant that everything we had for dinner started with P. Roast pork, pumpkin, potatoes, potates (sweet), peas, punch, peach cobbler and pavlova for desert. We all dressed as characters beginning with "P" - it was great to see everyone get into the swing of things and dress up and we had lots of photos and lots of laughs. Saturday night saw everyone staying up a lot later - I think Sal and I took off for bed at about 1.45am and we certainly weren't the last to leave. Had to include these photos of the girls who I used to work with - I miss working with them. They are a great bunch of woman and I still love to spend time with them - the fact that they have a warpped sense of humor and we share a common interest in scrapbooking is also great. Also included a photo of my current boss in the library - love working with you Kaylene - also an added bonus that we have similar interests too.

Have to pay a special mention to the cooks - Friends of ours from church who gave up their weekend to come and cook fabulous meals for us. We are so blessed - they took special care of us all weekend - it was the little details, beautifully set tables, fresh flowers on the table - just little touches but so thoughtful - just lovely ladies who made our weekend so special. Sue ( another one of the girls who scrapbooked with us) brought along her cricut, and sizzix machine and spent ages showing everyone how to use it - she also helped Amy, our young kitchen hand put a little mini album together - such a special lady who gave up a lot of her own scrapbooking time.

On Sunday afternoon on our way home, we dropped into Yeppoon to show Barb the wonderful shop we discovered when we had our girls road trip a couple of months ago - Yeppoon is rather special to Barb as this is were she grew up and spent all the younger years of her life. This shop is rather special - it has amazing knick knacks, it's PINK (Barb's favourite colour) and it is very reasonably priced.

We got home to Rocky to find my sister and neice who had been in for the weekend staying with Steve and Chloe - lots of introductions, lots more chatting, and seeing we were all pretty exhausted, ended up going to the Brunswick for dinner. They have amazing meals at amazing prices - my sister, neice and Sal all ordered a crumbed steak, meal and we were gobsmacked - the steak was so HUGE it covered the whole plate - the girls were so suitabley impressed that they took a photo of it (wished I would have had my camera with me) - hopefully Sal will share.

We came home to more episodes of "One Tree Hill" and a makeover from Chloe.

I was so sad this morning - I have been looking forward to catching up with these guys for months - and suddenly the weekend was over, I had to go back to work and they were heading out to the airport to fly home and see their men and families - Got to thank John and Mark heaps for giving up a weekend with their girls - it was really special having them here. Nothing like a girls weekend.

Amidst all that I even managed to get 8 of my layouts completed (still have a few more sitting here started) plus make a little mini album that a couple of us will be teaching at our woman's retreat in August.

My first layout is a direct scraplift of a very young talented scrapbooker - Bonnie Kellner - love the way she uses paint and free hand drawing. I had the perfect photo for this layout. The second layout is about Chloe's new phone - she was so pleased the CDMA Network was going as she wanted a new phone that she could have 1cent text messages - previously her friends would all text her but it cost her 25c every time she responded - it was a big deal for her to get 1 cent text messaging. The third layout was a birthday layout - the little squares sewn together was also scraplifted - just can't remember who I scraplifted it off. The fourth layout was inspired by a layout on Kim Archer scrapbooked by Janelle Wind. Just loved the sewing between the two pieces of patterned paper. The fifth layout is about a special group of girls who have become wonderful friends. The sixth layout is my valentine's day layout for 2008 - my wonderful husband - our love is the forever kind of love. Seventh layout was also inspired by a layout I saw on an online gallery about their music playlist. As music is such a big thing to Chloe and she always has her i-pod wrapped around her neck, I thought it would be great to scraplift a list of some of her most popular music - will be great to look back on in 30-40 years. The last layout is photos from the High Tea we all went to back in April.

Also want to say a big thank you to Ann and Lesley also (my partners in crime who did so much work in also organising the weekend - I love spending time with you girls - I love the way we enjoy working together and enjoying each others company.

Sorry for the huge post but I really want to document this for the future, so if you managed to get through it you are quite amazing.

Thought I would keep with tradition and leave you with a quote again.

If youre in a situation that you will laugh about later - you may as well laugh now.

Author Unknown