Fall Leadership Retreat

David and I just got back from a phenomenal weekend. Our business team pulled a large group of us together for a leadership where not only did we hear from some of the people moving on in business, but we also heard from a hilarious, entertaining, yet very effective marriage and family minister, Joe McGee. We got to do a couple of other really cool things this past weekend too, so I'll just start from the top. First of all, as you probably know by now, I love to "get away", whatever it is we are doing. So it was just nice to have a couple of nights in a nice hotel room away from home and spend time together, but it was also nice to be there with our friends and business partners and spend time with them. The first night before everything got kicked off, we went to a dessert reception just for the leaders. There's me and Kelly catching up. (Notice my new hair cut and color - my fall look for this year :) Then we had some awesome teaching that night and even got to bed relatively early. The next day was jam packed. We had a morning session, then a bunch of us went to the mall for lunch and to stretch our legs. Then it was back to the room for a quick nap before the evening session. However, I also took advantage of the time to visit the room of one of my friends, Karen, who just had her 1st baby 2 weeks ago. Here's me with little Faith Victoria (doesn't she just look like she could be mine :) She was soo cute and very expressive for only 2 weeks old. By expressive I don't mean crying or fussing - she didn't do that at all - but she smiled and squirmed a lot. That was very cool to get to see her - an added bonus.

The evening session was incredible. The marriage/family minister spoke and had us all in stitches while trying to write notes fast enough to keep up with his "speed-talking". If you have never heard Joe McGee speak, you should definitely check him out. He is excellent. You can click here to see his site - http://www.joemcgeeministries.com/. And here he is talking to us.

Once the evening session was over a group of us went out to a local restaurant for some late night pizza and discussion of the weekend so far. We did get a late night that night, but it was defintely worth it. Plus we got to sleep in a little and got up for a big buffet breakfast before the church service.

< - Random side note - Tonia and I definitely have good taste in jewelry and color schemes - here we are as almost twins : ) - >

The service was awesome. It started out with praise and worship playing over the sound system, but accompanied by a rather famous violinist. (unfortunately I didn't get any pictures because of the lighting) She was absolutely amazing!!! Her music was so moving that at times I could hardly sing. It just made me cry. If you are into violin music, or even if you aren't, you should check out her site. http://www.lorijeansmith.com/. I had to get one of her cd's before we left. Wow! It's good.

Anyway, Joe McGee spoke again Sunday morning and was excellent again. But one of the coolest parts is that we got to have a special luncheon again with just the leaders and Joe McGee and his wife. After we had all eaten our fill of the delicious food, we had an extra hour with him that the rest of the people in the conference room didn't get. That was a another added blessing.

Here are some of us having fun at the luncheon and Joe McGee talking to us there.

We finished up the weekend at about 3 o'clock, and then came home for another nap. Then that evening, we had a couple of guys over and talked and watched the movie, The Ultimate Gift. Now, if you haven't seen that, it is defintely a "must see" (after you read the book, of course).

All in all, we had an awesome weekend.