We got to the retreat and saw my friend, Kathy who shared the other 1/2 of her sub with us, so supper was covered (at least until late night snack time). That night the main speaker was Lisa Welchel, "Blair" from the Facts of Life. I enjoyed listening to her. Afterwards, we got to meet her and have her sign books for us. Then we got our picture taken with her.
Afterwards, we went to our hotel (I use that term loosely). OK, I think any hotel might just seem a little bit more spooky at 10:30 pm when it's located behind a Mexican restaurant and there are only 2 other people staying there. At least Charity set up some high tech security. 
Then we headed off to Meijer for some snacks. We went through the Wendy's drive through to get a burger. The woman there asked us if we had heard the tornado sirens. Huh? Uh no. How long ago? About two minutes she tells us. It wasn't even raining or windy. Charity worried and I prayed and we went back to the motel to check out the weather on our computers (free Wifi was the one thing this motel had going for it, that and it was only $40 a night and that included the tax). We chatted with our husbands online and decided we were not in any danger.On Saturday morning, we headed down to the "hotel" lobby to check out the free continental breakfast. I think there was one piece of toast, 3 danishes and a muffin. That was it. Thankfully we had some donuts left over from the night before and on the way to the retreat, Charity ran through the drive thru at Starbucks.
We made it into the building just as the retreat was starting and ended up sitting in the back section with a couple of other people. After a half hour or so, we saw my friend Kathy who was heading out to the bathroom. She told us they had seats for us up front, so when she came back in we followed her up there. I guess maybe we were maybe 6 rows from the front. Pretty close. The next speaker was really good. Her name was Linda Isaiah. She had just lost her mother two weeks ago, and her message was very good. She was definitely "real" and said things how they were. The rest of the speakers paled in comparison to her, but weren't bad. For lunch we went to Panera with Kathy and her friend. Then back for the rest of the retreat until around 3 pm.
After we browsed the vendors (I bought a cookbook from one of the speakers), we headed over to the arcade. We had so much fun playing games (Deal or No Deal).
I think our favorite was the candy crane. We won a bunch of tickets (which I ended up losing the receipt to). Then we headed over to a pottery place in the resort. We picked out mugs to paint and spent the next 3 hours painting and talking. Not just chit chat, but really deep conversation about our beliefs and things we had heard at the retreat.
After that we went out to eat at Fazzolis, carb o rama baby! We spent more time there gabbing about girl stuff (things that can't be mentioned on a family friendly blog). Ha ha. We went back to the motel and played on our computers and watched TV. I fell asleep before the movie ended, but I think that was 2 am.
On Sunday, we slept in and then went to check out. We went to Target and then to Borders. We spent lots of time browsing books. Then we went out for lunch at The Weenee Hut. Charity wanted Panera again, but I wanted to try something new. And, I'm all about classy joints.
After lunch we went to Panera for dessert and coffee/chai. We did mad libs that I got at Borders and enjoyed the last fleeting moments of our time away.
It was a great weekend. I love my sister in law. The end.
(More pictures to come!)
Charity had the all you could drink special and she took advantage of it! More pictures of our day and deals coming soon (by the way "soon" for me means anytime in the next 2 days).