Being the Wife in "Wife hat"

This past weekend, Derek and I attended a Strong Bonds marriage retreat hosted by the Army Chaplains here in Missouri. We didn't really know what to expect, but it turned out to be a really great experience. We were treated to two nights at the Four Seasons lodge in Osage Beach, most meals, and we came home with some great reading material! But more than all of that, it was just really, really, REALLY nice to have a full 2 1/2 days to focus on just being a wife!! And being a better wife at that. :)

It started out with an enjoyable three hour road trip through deadbeat rural Missouri. We seriously should have taken pictures of the sites we witnessed. A town called Tightwad, which included a closed down and vacant Tightwad Bank.

Sessions started on Friday night, resumed on Saturday morning and afternoon. Saturday evening was left open for a date night and we finished up on Sunday morning. There was a combination of speakers, panels, videos, and exercises. I laughed, I cried... and I only dozed off for like three minutes in the afternoon session on Saturday.

I think the biggest thing Derek and I both brought home from this weekend was a rekindled friendship. It sounds so simplistic, but it's true. With kids, jobs, school, etc. we were focusing more on co-parenting, maintaining the house, doing finances, blah blah blah.... But we laughed more together this weekend than we have in a long time. It was good.

When I named my blog, I purposefully wanted "wife hat" to be in front of "mom hat" because I know that my marriage should take priority, however, it's not always easy to make that happen. This weekend was a good reminder that I should be making more of an effort to always fulfilling my "wife hat" and letting other things fall behind it.

I will end with saying that I wish the Chaplains would have spent a little time addressing how not-good-husband-like it is to jump out from behind a corner to scare your wife after watching a creepy movie. Also, that good husbands with competitive (read: poor loser) wives should learn to lose at mini golf to minimize the case of the grumpies that follows.

Oh, but he did buy me a new Coach purse. And it was cute to see him excited that we got it on sale at the outlet mall. So, all is forgiven and he's still totally my BFF. :)