OK, NOW I can write about the weekend. We were invited to a 'tribe' weekend at a lodge just outside of Leavenworth for a tribe member's surprise birthday. The 'tribe' consists of friends that The Hubs has had for over 20 years. I got lucky when I married The Hubs because he has a wonderful group of friends. Bonus! They're all starting their families, so I got to play with babies and little girls all weekend. Squee!

Here's where we stayed. We (the tribe, consisting of five families and one single guy) had the entire lodge to ourselves. We stayed in "Brook".



I didn't take a lick of work with me (another bonus!), and actually relaxed for a change. Well, to be honest "relaxed" is a relative term for me. I think the only time I truly relax is when I'm under anesthesia. Even when I'm sleeping, I'm working on something.

The first night, we played lots of DVD trivia games. We split into two teams, and I'll have you know that people WANTED me on their team. Especially when it came to things like celebrity news. I'm on top of that, yessiree. Sports? Not so much, but the guys had that stuff covered.

We had a GREAT kitchen, so we cooked all our meals except breakfast on Sunday morning. Cleaning up was so quick with lots of women and THREE sinks!

Saturday, the most of the guys (including The Hubs) and their wives went out snow-mobiling (sp?). My physical therapist threatened me with terrible things to keep me from partaking in that particular activity. I know that she knows how to hurt me, so I stayed in the lodge with the kiddos. I finally finished a book I'd been nursing for about two months. I don't know why I kept reading it once it got to cannibalism and other gruesome things, but the end was worth it. No, I'm not going to tell you the name of the book. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Saturday night, more DVD trivia and then Texas Hold'em poker. Five dollars was the buy-in, which was a good thing because The Hubs and I lost our shorts (not really... nobody wants to see that.) All of the adults played, so there was a big pot (55 dollars!) I don't know who won, because The Hubs and I are old and went to bed at about 11pm.

Sunday was a real treat. We went to a buffet breakfast. Normally I'm not a big fan of buffets, but this was a high-priced buffet and was DE-lishious. Oh my gosh, the Belgium waffles were to die for. There was hardly anything to them; really light and crispy. Every pork product (high end) you could think of, and even salmon. After breakfast, we went for a sleigh ride. There wasn't a lot of snow, so it was noisy and bumpy (and cold, boy was it cold!) The kids loved it though and it was fun to watch them enjoy themselves.

The Hubs and I left a couple of hours after that. Frankly, our charm reservoir was getting empty and we needed a little bit of quiet. We didn't even turn on the radio the whole 2.5 hour trip.

Unfortunately, Einstein was sick when we picked him up from doggy daycare, so I had to immediately take him to the vet. He had some plant debris embedded in his ear (not from doggy day care), and it was infected. Poor little puppy was miserable. He's still afraid to bark two days later because it hurt so much. He's on pain pills and antibiotics now, so he should be feeling better soon.

To make the weekend even better, I've finally resolved something that has plagued me for too long. Resolved probably isn't the right word. Maybe resigned is a better word. Resigned myself that I've done everything I can in a situation I won't be sharing here and I can freely walk away with a clear conscious. I once learned in counseling that sometimes resolution needs to be done all on your own without the cooperation of the other party. I'm glad that the counselor shared that with me, though I never thought I'd be using that advice in my relationship with this person.

I'm looking at this situation as part of my evolution. I believe we come here as imperfect stones. Each rough situation we're in polishes us a little bit more until hopefully we come out of this with very few rough edges. Unless we accept the situation for what it is, learn from it and move on we'll leave this life with many imperfections. I don't think I'll ever be perfect, but I've had quite a few opportunities to be polished and I'm honestly thankful for those opportunities. I'm proud of the person I am and would not be me without the rough stuff along with the good stuff.

Who knew all this could happen in three days? What an awesome life I live, and I'm grateful every day for that.