Girls Weekend to GA

My friend Mardi is a single mom of two children. She has been renting a house that was just sold recently so she found out right before Christmas that she was going to have to move. At the same time, her car broke down. Instead of getting down and letting things get to her she decided to just give it to God and she continued to remain upbeat about everything.

God, as always, provided for her needs. For the first time in many, many years things had worked out for her and she was able to purchase a brand new vehicle. This is such a blessing for her because as a single mom she has dealt with one run-down vehicle after another and she never knows who to call when her car breaks down. Now she doesn't have to worry about that anymore.

She was also able to find a very affordable, much larger home in the area she needed. The house had not been taken care of by the previous renters and they were heavy smokers so the walls and ceilings desperately needed paint. Mardi asked the rental agency if they would reimburse her for all the paint if she did all the labor and they agreed...and she could paint whatever colors she wanted. We spent the week before she moved in painting her whole house...beginning with a bottom coat of an oil-based paint that was sprayed on every wall and ceiling in the house to cover up the smoke-stains (this was generously done by a wonderful man from a sister church who works construction during the daytime and then did this two nights so we didn't have to!)

The Friday before Mardi was to begin painting and preparing to move in to her new house she called me...in a panic and crying on the phone. She had just been laid off from her job (due to the economy) effective immediately. She would be getting two weeks pay. I suggested she look at the positives - she is now going to be getting paid to paint her house and move for the next two weeks. Before she got laid off she was trying to figure out how she was going to fit it all in! She has money in savings so she has a little cushion and she can file for unemployment while she is looking for another job...she had her well-deserved pity party for about a day and then she realized how much work she had to do and for the next two weeks there was no time to think about any of that anymore.

Now we have her all moved in and somewhat unpacked. We needed to get away! We were both exhausted! We decided a Girl's Road Trip was in order. I called my daughter Tina and asked her if her husband Bryant was going to be out of town this past weekend (with his job) and when she said yes, I told her we were coming to see her.
Tina is preparing our cakes - we made petit fours. They were so yummy! We pigged out the whole weekend - I probably gained 20 lbs!!
Mardi is practically drooling over the small cakes....have to beat her off of them! LOLBailee was so excited to see us. When I made up our bed she jumped up in it; she loves my pillows and always takes them off the bed.
Her hair had been in ponytails all day - that's why it looks like that on the sides. Saturday morning we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. It was cold that morning.Say "cheese" - silly girl! Making funny faces!
Mardi and Tina at breakfast
We had a great weekend away...Mardi needed it, I needed it...now my sweet friend comes back to reality and the hunt for a job.