Reconnect: Marriage Retreat

Friday night we had dinner with some special friends the Busby's and the Merrill's. This was the first time any of us had eaten at Jorge's in Clearwater. The food was amazing and Mike is already talking about the next time! To start off we ordered the Ginger and Soy Calamari. Then Mike ordered shrimp and scallop scampi with crabcake. The chef is from Costa Rica, so Mike knew the rice and beans as a side would be do die for and he was right! I ordered the Panko crusted crab cake, mashed potatoes and broccoli. (If you order off the early bird, you get dessert too.) I got a slice of NY style cheesecake with raspberry sauce. It was delicious! I can't wait to take my parents there when they come for a visit. The retreat was held at the Belleview Biltmore Resort and Spa in Clearwater, FL. Since we live less than 10 miles away, we decided to sleep in our own bed at home and attend the sessions. The Resort is closing in May for renovations, so we enjoyed walking around looking at all the historical pictures are articles. My friend Rebecca and I walked around outside. The weather was beautiful and after walking around I can see why they are going to update the Resort. (While walking around, Rebecca heard a crack from a piece of wood and I cracked a tile around the indoor pool. Shhhh!)



The Retreat was a great get away! The speakers Ken and Jinner Rudolph were open and transparent about their marriage and how much work LOVE takes. I enjoyed how he used God's Word to encourage me in my marriage. On Friday night we had an assignemnt. We had to find out what our spouse would like for us to do for them. I was shocked at Mike's response. He wants me to turn off the alarm some mornings, so he doesn't have to. I'm going to try real hard at this, but I don't know if I'll be able to do it fast enough. He always turns off the alarm before I even hear it. I told him he is going to have to let "play" for a bit longer so I can hear it and then turn it off. (I'll keep you posted on how well this goes. He might change his mind and pick something else that he would like for me to do.) I thought the assignement was fun and the Rudolph's encouraged us to ask each other that question every month or so. Try it, you might be surprised at your spouses response, like I was. We had three sessions and the last session Ken took a vote on what subject he wanted us (the audience) to hear. Our choices were: the broken-hearted OR sex. What do you think won? Remember this was a marriage retreat! :-)