GOOD NEWS!!!! WE ARE NOT GONNA GET DIVORCED!!

Ok, so maybe we were not even talking or thinking about getting divorced but just to be on the safe side we took a little trip. Over the Valentine's weekend we got to go on the couple's retreat in Branson Mo. with our church. We had 2 days of hard hitting, down home, straight from the Bible preachin on marriage and communication. IT WAS AWESOME!! First of all the preaching was excellent. The messages we heard were-Submitting to God in the Home by Brother Jerry Pile-Except the Lord Build the House by Brother Larry Brown-Communication and Conflict by Brother Jeff Copes-Why Absolom died with Brother Larry Brown- and Working together in the Church with Brother Gary Williams. I could not even begin to explain how powerful the messages were. We all got some wonderful information that can and will make every marriage stronger , the family stronger and in turn the church stronger. I found out a ton of things that Monty should be doing that he does not and some things he should not be doing that he does. By far the hardest lesson I have to learn is that IT IS NOT MY PLACE TO POINT THOSE THINGS OUT TO HIM!! I admit, that is a tough one for me. Naturally if I see something wrong or know something someone else doesn't, it just makes sense that if I tell them they will know it and correct it and everything will be all good, right!?! Well God did not make husbands to accept that type of logic and my pointing these things out always seems to make things worse. Now Monty and I have Biblical tools to use in order to help us understand each other and I tell ya, a week later, they are still workin.
Now the preachin was AWESOME and we learned tons about how God intended things to be and I would not have wanted to miss a second of the time we got to spend learning from the Word of God but I do have to admit that we had TONS of fun with the other couples from our church outside of the preachin. We had 5 couples ride together on the church bus and we played cards and LAUGHED so much.

This is at the restaurant that we had dinner in on Friday. You sit in the seat, put your quarter in and the lights flash all around your head until it measures your Passion Level so on a Couple's weekend you know we had to try it out!! Oh yeah, did I mention that the seat VIBRATES VIOLENTLY throughout the entire process??!! Well Mrs. Aldrich did not know that either and since she was the first one to try it, she was in for a big surprise. It was sooooo funny to see the expression on her face as she giggled with surprise waiting on her results, which by the way ended up to be "the teaser".

Next was our sweet little preacher's wife, Mrs. Lowrie. At least she was prepared for the vibrating chair and was able to contain herself a little more than her mother. I was the last to try it out and did not get a picture of myself. It was determined that the chair was in perfect working order by then when to the surprise of no one that really knows me the chair revealed that I was "UNCONTROLLABLE!"

The sweetest couple that got to go with us-Jayson and Deborah(well Deborah is totally sweet anyway! Jayson is just a complete goofball!) Sometimes I feel bad for people like Deborah and Monty because they are so sweet and quiet and somehow they ended up with people like Jayson and me. Jayson has yet to(and I doubt ever will) let anyone forget that I am uncontrollable but I shudder to think of what may have come up had he got on that chair!? I can not remember a time that I have laughed as much in one day as we did on that bus and it was in a large part thanks to Jayson! He makes great shadow puppets too!

Robert and Annette did not ride the bus with us. They drove themselves and made a whole weekend out of it.

Then there was Brother and Mrs Aldrich. He is the preacher that started our church 26 years ago. When he retired last year our church called his son-in-law, Brother Lowrie, to be our new preacher. In case anyone has not heard(because she let EVERYONE know), Mrs. Aldrich gets skipped more than anyone else in the game phase 10 boohoohoohoo. She was skipped 10 times(8 by Jayson) in one game and we did not even get to finish the game because it got too dark.

We also had the Bradley's on the bus and David and Sharon drove themselves but my pictures of them came out really dark when I down loaded them, and of course we got to see our good friends Brother and Mrs. Ken doll who, even though they don't go to our church anymore, I still let her sit by me during the preaching just because I love her!!

I also just learned that MY preacher-Brother Lowrie(who's photo also came out very dark)-was the one with the vision. He started the couples retreat 10 years ago with 18 couples and this year there were almost 200. I am so glad he followed God's leadership and started something as beneficial as this for the Christian couples in our area. I can't wait to go next year!!