I'm Back and Refreshed!

I had a wonderful weekend! I kicked it off by heading to Gainesville Friday night and meeting Shane, Lindsay and Riley for dinner at Beef O'Brady's. Then they graciously let me use their guestroom so I could crash for the night. Riley and I are buds. It's like she knows I'm going to be her mother-in-law and is just bonding early with me. I guess we'll just have to leave those details up to Tommy and Riley. And it was great to visit with the Knipples. I'm certainly ready for them to come back to Tallahassee- no more Gators for them!

After walking around an adorable farmer's market type thing on Saturday morning with Lindsay and Riley, I slowly made my way into Orlando. I couldn't check into my room until 4, so I planned on being out by the pool by at least 2 and then heading up at 4. Getting to the hotel should have only taken about 2 hours. But somehow I stretched it into a 5 hour ordeal. First I went to First Baptist Orlando during the Ligoneer conference so I could pick up some books for Dean. The place is massive! Then I headed toward my hotel but wanted to stop and get a bathing suit because I had forgotten mine (a crucial element to laying out by the pool). So I figured the best place would be one of the many outlet malls in Orlando. Unfortunately I forgot that big cities have big traffic and Orlando has traffic lights that are red for an eternity. It took me at least 15 minutes to go less than a mile down the street. By the time I finally made it to the outlet mall parking lot, I pulled a U-Turn and decided to go somewhere else. I tried the Ross and TJMaxx down the street but found nothing. I went to the exit where my hotel was, realized that there was another outlet mall at the same exit and tried to find it, but no luck. Seriously, you could see it from the interstate, but once I got off, it was nowhere to be found!

Then I saw the Hyatt and turned down the street that appeared to lead right to it. Appeared. I wound up in Downtown Disney (where there was massive amounts of traffic, yet again). I finally found my hotel, ran in and asked where I could get a cheap bathing suit. The concierge chuckled a bit as he gave me directions to Walmart. Another 20 minutes away. By this time it was already 2:00 and my time at the pool was quickly slipping away. But after trying on what felt like a million bathing suits at Walmart, I finally found a tankini that worked for me. I really wanted to get away from the tankini, but I didn't like my other options... maybe it's the flourescent lights (I like to think so), but every other bathing suit looked absolutely awful. So tankini it is. Poke fun all you want (Bennett).

Okay after rereading this, I promise not to give a play by play of everything else I did there.

My friend's bridal shower was so much fun, I would not have missed it for the world. We haven't seen each other in about a year and a half and so there were tears when I walked in. It was wonderful! And she got so many nice things I decided that I need to start a club for already married people who just want to re-register for new stuff every 5 years or so. It wouldn't be weird because everyone in the club does it. Anyone in with me?

This morning I was able to get up at the amazing hotel, work out a bit, explore the grounds and the pool area, and head out. I got back home and the first thing Tommy said to me was "Hi Mommy! What did you bring me?" Thankfully, I had stopped by McDonald's on the way home and gotten a Happy Meal to give him the toy. So he felt special and I didn't feel too bad for not getting him anything from Orlando.

Church tonight was awesome. The music was great, the crowd was great, and Dean gave a great sermon on the will of God. He fielded some "You Pick" questions before the sermon too, and I thought he answered them really well. He really is an amazing pastor. I love the fact that even if Dean and I weren't married, I would still go to The Well and absolutely love my pastor. In a different way, of course.