Now that I'm rested up from the Women's Retreat I think I can write something without falling asleep.. Friday was cold ~ rainy and windy.. Holly and I got up to the lodge at Camp Hitaga at 1:00.. We had a heavy portable piano to unload from her van and we just prayed for God to give us strength to carry it into the building.. Over the hill above us we could see Curt Baily coming with his truck.. I have known Curt since he was a young boy. He is now the maintanance man for this camp. He is now nearing the age of almost 50.. He came over to see if everything was O.K. and we told him he was an answer to prayer.. So he helped us carry this heavy piano into the lodge.. We were jumping for joy~!.. Curt was glad he could be there to help us.. He left to put mulch on the walking trails around the camp.. Holly and I got the rest of the things unloaded and into the building. By 4:30 we had everything in place and ready for the girls to arrive at 5:30. I had a huge fire going in the fireplace and was warming up the building ... there is no other heat source in this lodge.. Needless to say, we could see our breath it was so cold.. We told everyone to wear warm clothing and bring blankets.. I then went over to the building where we would be sleeping and got the fire going in the wood burner that was there. Curt had lots of wood for us to use in both places.. Yeah~! we were going to need it..~! The ladies arrived and settled in by 6p.m. and we started our evening with prayer and then singing praise songs.. IT was wonderful... We had supper with candlelight and it was just wonderful.. We then settled down to listening to a Christian Comedian ~ Tim Hawkins.. Oh my goodness was he ever funny... We laughed so hard,,it was a good thing I had gone to the bathroom before I sat down to watch this ...He was relentless in his skit and all we could do was wipe our eyes, blow our noses and kick back and laugh somemore.. This DVD was called "Sanitized"... So if you need something funny to show a group of guys or gals just get this one ,you won't be disappointed Saturday morning we woke up to snow blowing ...I thought it was really pretty. It snowed from morning until noon and we got about an inch of snow. IT was magical sitting in the lodge eating our breadfast and watching the snow slowly come down. We had a DVD with Beth Moore. She talked about 'From Ashes to Beauty"... She is such a great speaker and we were all blessed by her spiritual insight on what God does is our lives.. We had our lunch and then watched somemore of Beth.. After Beth we wrote some things that we wanted to give over to God and put on his alter.. We had a cool vessel that we burned all our thoughts that we had written on paper and took it outside ~(after it was cool) . We let the wind blow it into the valley that overlooked a river. Holly and I had bought these cool silver round boxes that had butterflies on the top, inside we had bought each girl a silver butterfly necklace, we put these inside the silver boxes.. It was so cool. We gave each girl a silver box and the girls were so excited when they opened their boxes and saw the necklaces.. .The true meaning of "From Ashes to Beauty" was implemented and it was a great feeling. I felt the Holy Spirit upon us cleansing us and filling us with his presense.. IT was fantastic~! A God Moment~! We cleaned up the building and the girls got all their stuff they had brought with them loaded up in their cars. The piano was put back into Holly's van and everything else we had brought . The girls said they could hardly wait to see what was in store for them for next year.. When I got home I put all my stuff away and took a nap... a long one.. I was so tired.. I was so happy and blessed by another Women's Retreat being a success.. Even thou the weather was cold, rainy and snowy it was still a wonderful week-end and we all lived.. ha ha.. Today it's another cloudy day and it's chilly ~ but that's O.K. I know that warmer weather is upon us and I will be busy.. I'm going to wash the Benny Mobile today as it got very dirty driving on the back roads of Iowa to get to Camp Hitaga. It needs a good cleaning inside and outside.. I love to drive a clean vehicle.. Trust me it will feel good to me when I get it back to clean again. I can hardly wait until tonight.. "Amazing Race" is on ... I really like this program and enjoy every season. I'm rooting for the cowboys..~!~ Have a Tiggeriffic Day~!~! Ta Ta For Now From Iowa~!~!~!