My CSS Friends

As I said in a post earlier today, I got to visit with some of my great online pals in Chicago a couple weeks ago. This is the third year I've done this and it's always great! My first year I was really nervous about meeting these people. It just seemed so strange. But it's been wonderful getting to know them in real life as well as online. I thought I would share some of the pictures of this wacky group of ladies.

To begin with, this is one of my bestest friends. Karin and I have known each other since 2000 when we worked on the 2000 Census together. Last year I talked her into going with me to the retreat and she was hooked! So we loaded up my van this year and drove the 13 hours to Chicago. We had lots of goofy, zany moments along the way. Her 17 year old daughter came with us and I think she is conviced we are both nuts!

The lady in the middle is our CSS list mom. She is also the lady who puts together this whole weekend for us. Marybeth is an amazing woman of God and she is the perfect person to lead our group. Over the past 6 years I have come to love and respect her very much. The other one is Becky. The two of us have a "thing" going. We kind of like to pick on each other, although I think she starts is most of the time! I just have to defend myself! We sat on opposite sides of the room this year and we were throwing comments across the poor gals in the middle. Becky once threatened to throw a paper piercer at me! Can you believe that???? Check out our shirts........they were a prize from Marybeth..........and they both say "Anything you can scrap I can scrap better." When we saw these we just knew that the two of us had to have them! Seriously.........I think Becky is wonderful! Just don't tell her I said that.

This is Marybeth with the chef for the weekend.........her husband Paul. Their daughter Steffi also cooked lots for us and was constantly bringing us good things to munch on.
This was a challenge over the weekend. It was a 4 Product Challenge. Everybody received the same 4 products and had to make a layout using them. You could only use those 4 products, plus some cardstock. I loved how everybody created totally different layouts using the same products!
These are the gals who attended from our CSS group. There were also come local Chicago scrappers there. These CSS ladies are: Marybeth, Becky, Denise, Kate, Karin, Judy, Heidi, and Julie (in front). This was the best part of the weekend..........getting to know all these great ladies in real life! We are already planning our retreat for next year! I can't wait! It's just too bad that Chicago is sooooooo far away! What a looooong drive! But so worth it!