Bloggers Retreat and more

The 2008 Bloggers Retreat in Branson was quite the success despite several setbacks in attendance. Sylvia had food poisoning, Linda had another sickness (not sure of the exact details), and I'm not sure why Mary A, Tella, and a few others were unable to come. We missed you all, but still had a wonderful time. I was extra careful so I wouldn't get to worn out. Even did very little shopping in order not to push myself to hard. (But that didn't stop me from getting some great deals!)

I took Elijah with me - I wasn't really sure how that would go over and was frankly, nervous. But he was great and all the "aunts" loved him. He is such a good baby and only had one really bad crying spell due to gas on his tummy. He spent a good part of Thursday night in his Pack-n-Play. I think he was just worn plum out! Everyone was so willing to help with baths, diapers, everything... Thanks to all my helpers!

On our way to the retreat, Mom and I stopped in Crane and showed Elijah to my grandparents. Elijah is their 30th grandchild - that's including grands and great-grands. Grandmother got such a kick out of holding him, burping him, and just really enjoyed getting to know my little man. Before we left, I was able to be in my first "Generation" picture... that was pretty special to me. I plan to print this picture for Grandmother.

Earlier I mentioned great deals; I hit Childrens Place and was able to get $90 in clothes for $30.18 and that includes tax. I was pretty excited. Now I just hope Elijah will be able to wear them. I bought all 3-6 months and they're all winter clothes. I don't know what I was thinking because his 0-3 months still swallow him. I got him the cutest little brown corduroy slouch hat. It's a little big now, but I think it will be so cute on him in a month or so.

I love dressing my little man up - it's kinda of like playing with a real, live, baby doll! "Aunt" Jenny and "Aunt" Linda gave Elijah several new outfits while we were at the retreat- including the tiniest little jeans. He's already worn them twice. I think he looks adorable in them. Of course, I think he looks adorable in anything (or nothing at all!) ;-) The 2nd outfit is from Aunt Grace. He's so stylish! ;-)

I didn't get a lot of pictures of the retreat. I kind of had my hands full. The link to my web album is in the title. I hope you enjoy them... and I hope everyone else posts their pictures so I can "borrow" them.

We discussed the payment arrangements in quite a bit of detail this year. As far as I know, everyone present agreed we should make the retreat a set fee of $60. You can either pay it in $5 increments to Leta each month or if you prefer to pay the full amount closer to next year's retreat, that's fine. I personally plan to pay the $5 each month. All the money will go into a "pot". The money collected should cover the house expense and at least one nice meal out - hopefully two. We had talked about doing this last year but didn't because some didn't agree with the plan. However, this year, we were all a bit nervous that no one was going to show up and the few that did would be stuck paying for the $850 house. If we do it this way, then come retreat time next year, we'll know exactly how many have committed to coming. If we only have 10 people committed, we'll find a different house or condo to accomodate the monies collected. If 25 people have committed, we'll know we need a big house and can plan accordingly. I hope all the others that were there and helped with this plan will also blog any details I've left out.

To all my 360 friends... feel free to comment. You don't have to have a Blogger ID to leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you. I'm so tired of 360 not letting me post the things I want to post so I decided to blog here and post my link on 360... I hope you don't mind.