Sweet Sister's Sweet Retreat

One day I got a call from Peggy saying, "It must be time for another Sister's Retreat". My mind immediately agrees and I think, "Where should we go?" There are so many warm, wonderful places to visit in February or March. I imagine us in St. George or Las Vegas or Phoenix or on a beach or just about anywhere other than Idaho.
She then suggests we meet here at my house.???? This isn't what I was thinking at all. My house is in Idaho and it's cold and besides, my house isn't clean enough for company. I tell her it wouldn't be much fun here!

I'm imagining what's going to have to happen to get this place put together for company. There's bedding to wash, beds to make, bathrooms to scrub, vacumning to do, furniture to move.... After all, we just had family home for Christmas, not to mention, Tessha moving out (sort of), Gracie coming home from her mission and sorting through her things and then taking some of them and moving on to Provo, Alisha home for a month and ..... It goes on and on. Add to that, I usually only get a couple of weekends a month to do anything besides school and pharmacy, so when would I have time to clean up and moved everything in order to have more company?

I'm sure they'd rather go somewhere else and have more fun than coming here.
She says, she doesn't think so. She says, she's already talked with Margie and Penny and after all, they could come here and rip down old, ugly wallpaper, paint walls and redecorate. You can't do that in a condo somewhere. I have to admit I liked the idea of new paint in place of "ugly wallpaper so it really did sound wonderful.

My family has been after me for, let's see now, we've lived here for 11 years. Yap, that's it, about 11 years, to get rid of the "ugly wallpaper" in our kitchen dinning and living room. Our dog, (when we had a dog about 11 years ago) had ripped part of the wallpaper off by the back doors and it'd been like that ever since. It was always something that I'd do some day. In fact, maybe two years ago Tessha and I went paint shopping and came home with several paint samples. We looked through them over and over and when we'd settled on a few of them she put them on the dinning room wall for me to "comtemplate on". They stayed there no matter how many meals we sat at the table looking at them. In time, I came to like a couple colors more than the others and would comment on them, but that's as far as it went. I sort of, kind of knew what colors I liked best. Good enough???

Well, I had told Peggy about this situation as we joked on the phone one afternoon and she blew it all out of proportion. She talked with Margie and Penny and they decided it would become a Sister's Retreat Project. Can you imagine? Giving up time together by the pool for painting my kitchen?

That's just what they had in mind and after a sweet "wouldn't you really rather do something else" talk with Margie, it was decided. We would spend our next Sister's Retreat here at my house. They would bring supplies and I would wash sheets. How fun is that?

It was a blast!!!!

I can't remember laughing so much (maybe back in college- maybe not even then).

Penny wasn't feeling well so she didn't get to come but Peggy and Margie showed up in our drive late Friday night. I had just gotten home from the pharmacy and there they were, paint brushes and all.

Saturday morning (I won't say "early") after breakfast of waffles, eggs and bacon, (kind of traditional Sister Retreat style) we set out for the stores. We needed paint and other things before we could really "get into it". We spent time visiting, laughing, buying paints and comtemplating our tasks and then decided we should drive to Rigby and see Shelly.

Shelly has recently relocated to another home in Rigby and we are now allowed(encouraged) to visit her - all thanks to Dave and Dodie!! So, while we were together we thought a visit with her would be fun.

We drove up and stopped by my classroom before picking up Shelly. We took her over to Dodie's and the five of us had a wonderful visit together. Eventually, we had to take Shelly home and we headed back this way. After all, we had lots of work to do.

I hadn't hardly turned around after getting home before Peggy and Marige were hard at work stripping off the wallpaper. I wish I had more pictures but it's hard to stop and take pictures when so much excitment is taking place.

Down came the "ugly wallpaper" and out came the paint. One wall painted and dry and, "Oh no, the paint isn't the color that we picked out." In fact, it's really not want we wanted at all. Oh no, it's late Saturday night. Oh no!

I go to bed and think on it. I can be happy with it. It's not the color I really liked but I can be happy with it. In the morning I say, "it's ok" but my sweet sisters so "No,it's not." "It's not what you wanted. We'll take it back." By this time we realize that as much as we wanted to go to church together, in order to get the kitchen back to working conditions, we would have to work morning, noon and night. After all, we had "an ox in the mier" and we needed to get it out.

In reality, they knew they had to leave Monday afternoon and it wasn't going to be done if we didn't get to it. They didn't want to leave me "half baked", so to speak. So..... with the love of my sisters we went back to Lowe's and explained about the paint. I have to say, I love Lowe's. They have been wonderful through many a project and again they came to the rescue. It took some time but they got the color I wanted and home again we went.

This time it was perfect! I love it! Can I say that again? I love it!! We painted and painted, trimmed and painted.


It took us most of the day but it looked good. Peggy cleaned the blinds throughly. Thanks to Jenni's suggestions of a paint edger we felt good about the edges before we went to bed for the night. I have to say, Margie was amazng! If I had a question, she had an answer. She knew what I didn't know and better yet, she even knew how to do it. And, "do it" she did! What a woman!! Both of them were my moral support in every way.

Monday morning we made another run to Lowe's and got new blinds, and outlet plates to replace the old ones. They even stayed to the very last minute before leaving me. They hung the blinds and switched out the outlet plates. They were by the side the whole time and I loved the support and great suggestions!!! It really would have never happened without their help.

We finished the kitchen, decided to leave the dinning room wall the way it is for now and then they'll come back later this summer and we'll do the living room. Now I'm SOOO excited for another Sister's Retreat in Idaho. I can't wait. Now, I look at my kitchen and smile!!! (even sort of giggle inside!)


I look at my living room and dream! It really will happen because I have sisters who like to "retreat". Aren't I just about the luckiest lady around. Actually, I am just really, really blessed!!

I have to add an afterward event here.

Peggy's birthday is Tuesday, March 6th and last week I sent her a card I'd been keeping for her. She and Mark had just returned from a wonderful vacation in Cabo with Kelly and Julia. She had the time of her life and told me all about how wonderful it was there.

I had this card that had a picture of a beach umbrella in the sand by a beach chair on the cover. Inside, it says, "Go to your Happy Place." So, I added, "Can I come, too? Happy Birthday!"

After she got it in the mail, she replied with an email and this is what she had to say....

"Yes! I can see it now!
We are strolling down the beach together.
We see the exact spot we're headed to lay out our towels, that is before building our dream castle.
In time, after loads of giggling with Margie, Penny, and Shelly, we race to the warm water to catch a few waves.
We feel so light, so happy, (so skinny in our bikinis; like that part - hehehe)
as we take a long rest in the sun with our eyes closed to hear the ocean roar!

OKAY! SO how's THAT for a HAPPY PLACE!

How about:
Margie, you and I giggling and laughing in your kitchen while tearing down wallpaper, prepping, and painting!!!!

I loved that HAPPY PLACE!

or eating at the Trellis Cafe before golf-carting the gardens

or shopping together in St. George and finding matching blouses

or eating raspberries shakes at Bear Lake

or...

or attending a concert together at the Thanksgiving Point Waterfalls gardens with our daughters

or attending the Shakespearean Festival together in Cedar City

or, or, or,

It's so easy, so delightful to go to happy places with you, Sandy-- even while just everyday praying for you, for us, for all those we love!

Thanks for the amazing birthday card SIS!
Love you!
Peggy"


Right on, Sister!! Happy Places and Sister's Sweet Retreats Forever!!!
Love you all!!