Women's Fall Retreat

Our church has a ladies retreat every year--sometimes it's in the fall and sometimes it's in the spring. This year and last it was in the fall. The weather was BEAUTIFUL this year! The sun shone the whole weekend and the temps were in the 70's during the day and 40-50's at night. Angela and I ran this morning and it was PERFECT! =) All the trees are finally changing colors. The topic this year was how to overcome your fears. It was a topic I could relate to because I worry about EVERYTHING! I learned some practical ways to overcome it (#1 being spending time in God's Word so that I push out the negative thoughts with the encouraging and positive words from God and #2 was PRAYER, PRAYER, and more PRAYER--did I mention PRAYER??) as well as some GREAT advice and thought-provoking facts. Melinda was our speaker and she was EXCELLENT! =) We had DELICIOUS food all weekend and I probably gained about 10 lbs. because it was very hard to eat small amounts. I got to spend time with some great friends and also my mentor, Marsha! =) I am so grateful for Dave who is so willing to let me go to weekends like this because they are so encouraging and really push me forward in the right direction. I will say though, that 2 weekends away from Dave was a bit much. Fortunately I will be home again for at least a month and a half!

For some reason, I really love this picture!

Afternoon walk on Saturday

This was funny because we found the same berries on our walk that we found last year at our retreat in ARKANSAS on our walk!

Candice in 2007

Candice in 2006

Our annual bonfire...this one was HUGE! (and it was just made out of many small sticks and limbs we found in the woods...

Candice and I after the bonfire

The beautiful scenery along the run Angela and I took this morning...the leaves are finally beginning to change colors.

The ROOMMATES: Candice, me, Angela, and Jessica (who is 6 months pregnant with a little boy...)

Kelly joined us while Jessica took the picture.

Jessica was our song leader and she was AWESOME! She has a very powerful voice that God uses to touch people all the time at church! =)

Melinda was our speaker...very convicting and encouraging!

Here we are blowing away our "fears" symbolically.

Angela and I with Tracy

Marsha (my awesome mentor), me, Angela, and Mrs. Opal (who is a HOOT!) =)