Carroll Chronicles: January 2015

I hung out with these amazing ladies over the weekend in Atlanta for our first annual Steel Magnolia's Retreat! This is my old Young Women's presidency that I served with when I was the Young Women's President many years ago. We have remained close friends since being released, meeting monthly for a luncheon and hours of talking. It is amazing to me that after all these years and our ward being divided we are still close friends. Through thick and thin and all the trials that life throws at us we are there for each other! Every month when we have gathered for our luncheons we laugh and say that we need to come up with a name for our group other than "Former Young Women Presidency" or "Ex-Young Women's Presidency" and every month we leave not having resolved the issue. A month ago one of our group was diagnosed with breast cancer and we rallied together in support and love. We had an emergency luncheon and wore pink scarves to show our support. As we talked we became very serious about picking out name for our group, one that would show solidarity and tie us together as friends. A suggestion was made to call us "Steel Magnolias" based on the movie, Steel Magnolias and eventually we all came to consensus. We will now and forever be officially known as the S.T.E.E.L. Magnolias, Sassy Team of Extraordinary Exceptional Ladies!

Diane checked us into the Ritz Carlton Friday evening. We were all extremely grateful that she was able to use her husband's hotel points to get us a free hotel for the weekend. Thanks Diane and Scott for your generosity. The hotel was very elegant and we enjoyed being pampered with valet parking (Our attendant, Kareem was awesome!), bell boys, and accommodating service.

We took advantage of the free apple cider in the lobby while we waited for Diane to check in. It was a very windy, chilly evening so the warm drink hit the spot.

We were a little challenged in the elevator.....nobody pressed the button! We just went for a ride and didn't go where we needed to go. Duh ladies! Diane was especially impressed with the power her special room key had to make the elevator go.

This is the view of Atlanta from our hotel window on the 22nd floor.

After an intense adventurous drive in the drizzling rain through the awesome Atlanta traffic we made it to our quaint little french restaurant that Diane and Michelle had picked out for us through hours of research. We enjoyed the quiet atmosphere with yummy french cuisine. Our waiter had the most awesome french accent and made our evening really fun. My favorite part of the meal was the creme brulee...so creamy and sweet. Perfection.

I'm trying to order my french food using the french words....haha....that was a fail!

After dinner we headed back to our hotel and just spent the evening talking, laughing, planning, goal setting, and then some more talking and laughing. I think we headed to bed around 3 in the morning. We woke up and started talking again and munched on our bagel and cream cheese breakfast that we brought from home. Sarah was totally on the ball and brought her scrapbook stuff to work on while we talked.

Jill models her Ritz Carlton robe!

As we prepared for checkout from the hotel we were able to load up on candy at the complimentary candy bar in the lobby. So fun!

We practically got blown away while getting our picture taken in front of the hotel!

Taking a selfie while waiting for the valet to bring us our car.

Jill's "pretend" selfie so she could get a picture of the valet loading up our car.

The next adventure took us to a yuppie feeling Mexican restaurant. It was really good and the atmosphere was very young and trendy. Who knew these places even existed? I need to get out of my Suwanee bubble a little more often.

After eating we walked around the shopping area and looked at the little shops. I guess this area used to be a slaughter house where they slaughtered pigs back in the day. The railroad ran under the side walk a few times while we were there.

We stopped at Jeni's, a gourmet ice cream place. I have the say the ice cream was a little over the top for me. They had the funkiest flavors full of spice and weird ingredients like goat cheese and chili pepper. Too weird for me! I just wanted some basic chocolate and that just didn't exist!

It was so windy and cold!

The last thing on our agenda before heading home to Suwanee was to visit the Jackson Street Bridge for some photos. This bridge goes right over the freeway and gives you a great shot with the Atlanta skyline behind! It took us a while to find it but it was worth the driving adventure. With such a blustery day we all had a hard time controlling our hair but the pictures we took were awesome.

From left to right: Jill Kemp, Michelle Baumgart, me (Sheila Carroll), Diane Wilson, Sarah Pruitt

I am grateful to call these amazing women my friends. We learn from each other and are strengthened and uplifted through our friendship. And just like the magnolia flower...these ladies are strong and resilient and together we can accomplish anything! May the Steel Magnolias continue as a sassy team of exceptional extraordinary ladies for many years to come! And may we always prove through laughter and tears that sometimes flowers are expected to carry weight that may only be supported by pure steel.

Special sparkling juice, Cheese fondue, and Chocolate Fondue added to our New Year's Eve celebration. How fun to be together and celebrate the awesome year that we have all had. We tried a new cheese fondue recipe and we all really liked it. That was the "dinner" part of our party. Then we cleaned out the electric fondue pot and added sweet, creamy chocolate sauce to complete the dessert part of evening. We are serious party people!!!

After gorging ourselves with fondue we played a new card game called Nertz! What a great game and I was surprised when we finally all headed off to bed around 2:30 am. It's a very fast-moving, competitive game that totally gets your adrenaline running and makes you want to keep playing until you win a round! So fun!

We took a break from our card game at midnight, gave each other our Happy New years hugs and kisses, and then headed to the backyard to see some awesomely impressive fireworks. Easton and Brandon had a little too much fun managing our fireworks show!