Wesley and I were in Valle Crucis for the weekend at an Episcopal young adult retreat we have been active with for many years now. Vocare, as it is called, has been the source of many great friendships for us. It was wonderful to be around those friends, both old and new, this weekend. I was feeling pretty crummy and mostly just observed the activities and napped, but to get away and to be surrounded by fun and loving people was very therapeutic to this tired momma.

Wesley was the music leader for the weekend and did a wonderful job inspiring the group to lift our voices in celebration. I fell in love with a guitar player and it's always a joy to see that glow he gets when he plays and sings those familiar worship songs.

It was interesting to gauge the reactions of the people at the retreat to my pregnancy. The older people in the group (25-30) were very interested in how the pregnancy affected me, how big the baby is right now, and other things that made me feel like pregnancy was more than just an abstract thing to them, even though none of them had children yet. The younger people in the group (20-25) were much more concerned with nursery colors, baby showers, and how they know someone who is pregnant. This is not to say that there is a right or wrong reaction to pregnancy, but that I found it curious that there seemed to be a definite distinction in reactions that occurred around 25 years old.

The road home from the retreat was a long, winding mountain road- and not in a figurative sense. I didn't redecorate the car, but felt pretty icky the whole way home and crawled into bed as soon as I could see it. I slept for probably 14-15 hours last night. Well, minus the bit of time around midnight where we hung out in the basement because Asheville's public warning system rang out for about 30 minutes. Wesley ended up calling the police station to see what was going on after the Doppler showed that all the storms had passed. They didn't know why the sirens were going off or who set them off. It was a good thing in a way to have a 'drill' because we learned what the sirens sound like when you are asleep (cars on a highway) and that Wesley would get blown away in a tornado because he would be too busy hunting down his camera equipment and shoes to get down to the basement in time.