Retreat Report

We left Thursday morning at 3am for Omaha, we stopped for breakfast around 6am, and then lunch when we got closer to Omaha. We arrived at the hotel around 1pm, and were able to check in. We kinda just hung out in the hotel room. Since the other girls were arriving by plane, I knew it was going to be later before some of them arrived. There was one retreater there around 3:30p, so we met up at 4p. We visited for awhile, and then we decided to stitch in the lobby waiting for the other members to arrive. The third retreater arrived about 6pm, and shortly after she arrived we went for supper.
When we were finishing with dinner, the fifth retreater joined us! And then not too much later the final retreater joined us! They sure had the stories about the airports! We talked for quite awhile, and we all returned to our rooms about 10p... didnt take long for me to hit the pillow!

Saturday morning, along with my mom we all went for breakfast at Perkins that was down the street. After that we then went over to the Henry Doorly Zoo, we were there for about 5 hrs. WHAT a zoo! It was big, and hot! We were heading over to a LNS (where I got some Wisper Thread) when I heard a pop, not thinking much of it.. come to find out we had a flat tire! So here we are changing the tire in a parking lot in Omaha... just us woman! WOOHOO! We then stopped for lunch.. it was so refreshing to eat some veggies! After we finished lunch, we stopped a Firestone to have them patch the tire... and we were on our merry way! We went to Hobby Lobby, and come to find out it was the largest store in the country! Wow what a store!. We all made a major dent in the clearance rack! Got some GREAT deals for almost a few dimes and nickels! While in Omaha, I spent my $$ from the Survivor game - I bought a table lamp for my stitching (since the other one was soooo hot when you sat under it when it was super hot outside). I love it! Still getting use to the different color of the light - its a daylight bulb. I did get a frame for Pinetop Lodge (will post a picture shortly). Since two of the girls had never been to a H.L. and we needed to go and pick up the tire before Firestone closed, we just left them there and returned awhile later to get them! They had a blast! We put on 35 miles driving around Omaha on Friday.

Friday evening we had some pizza and showed our finishes off. I presented the quilt to the lady I made the cross stitch quilt for. You can see the video of the presentation here It was alot of fun to present the quilt... and it was hard to give it away, but Im so glad that she enjoyed the quilt.
We were given goodies, and we won prizes during the evening.. it was so much fun!
I got back to my hotel room about 1:30am, posted some pictures to the groups home page... Brian and I even went outside at 2am he was soooo happy, I hated to see him different, and we were enjoying the evening air. We got back to our hotel room, layed down, and falling asleep when the phone rang at 3am to tell us the news, of Brian's sister's death. That was the hardest thing I had to do in my life, tell Brian that his sister had passed away. The whole thought of the trip for him was to get away, hoping that when we returned back home, she would be better. God knew that taking her.. it was making things better. She had her second round of Lupus, and was to have an appointment today to find out the future of her condition. DH is still in shock. But the family is really supportive to each other, so that is helping. We debated staying and leaving, but we decided to leave.

We said our goodbyes about 11am, and were on the road heading home. We made it to Wisconsin from Omaha on Saturday evening (back to my parents, and then was home by 10am Sunday morning). And another reason we came home early is cause my Dad was not feeling well.

Back to the retreat - OMG did I have a WONDERFUL time! As I told the girls I was a bit nervous meeting everyone one at first, but in no time I felt so comfortable! I really loved being around everyone! Even my parents and DH enjoyed the company of everyone! I know that we were a small group, but man oh man the prizes we walked away with! It was so much fun to bring goodies back!

I just felt bad that I had to leave so early, but when Brian's mom said she "wanted him home".... we had to go.

These are some of the goodies I came home with from the retreat.. well not the fob on the scissors, that was from a SS exchange (sorry Michelle - I had to remove the tassle on the end)

As we all have said... cant wait for next years retreat!!!!