BACK TO THE BEGINNING
I'm now home in Indiana. I got in at 3 A.M. and crashed in our waterbed. I'm still lazying around the house just smiling at the great time I had in Arizona.

It was a back to the beginning time in many ways. I got to spend some real quality time with my daughter. She used to love to lay her head in my lap and have me caress her hair. Since she's a grown woman now, that hadn't happened in many years, but every night I curled up on the couch with Kara's head in my lap and just ran my fingers through her curls. It was a comfort to her and to me both as we grieved for Harley. I'm so glad I went. Though we've always been close, it was a reconnecting time for me and Kara.

It was also a back to the beginning time for The Three Amigos. Way back in the days when we only had one or two Heartsongs under our belts, me, Kristin Billerbeck and Carol Cox roomed together at the Glorieta Writer's Conference. Kristin touched on the weekend, but I'm going to tattle on the full story. Our room was tiny and painted a hideous green color we dubbed "Aqua on Steroids." All our families were appalled that we were rooming with women we'd met "on the Internet." I think they imagined axe murderers lurking in the bathroom. The reality was much funnier as three women from different parts of the country and with a different culture experience became friends.

Getting together with Kristin and Carol on Monday to brainstorm brought back all the old memories of that conference. Our weekend started with Kristin demonstrating what it means to be a princess. First thing upon getting in the room, she announces she's taking a bath. No big deal, right? There are three towels in the bathroom. She uses one for her hair, one to step out of the bathtub onto and one to dry with. We can always get more, right? Wrong. Think CAMP. We were each given ONE TOWEL for the weekend. So we had to shake the dirt off one towel and let the others dry, then use them the rest of the weekend. That's when you know you're true friends. LOL!

Then we all began pitching our projects in earnest. I met Erin Healy for the first time at the conference,though I'm sure she doesn't remember. Now years later, here she is as my freelance editor that I adore. Carol had a request for more of a proposal from a bigger house that weekend. I think it was from Bethany but I can't remember. Anyway, due to some computer glitches or something (my memory is fuzzy on this), she had to redo a huge synopsis. Kristin was a fast typer so she sat on the floor with a laptop computer on the end of the bed and retyped Carol's entire proposal.

My espresso addiction was born that weekend. Kristin HAD to have her mocha so she had a rental car delivered to the camp and we drove to Santa Fe where I got my first taste of a blended iced mocha. In one sip I knew I was lost forever! That was our first trip in search of the perfect shot and the first time we had our picture taken in a coffee shop.

We've come a long way, baby. We're still friends and the journey has been worth it all.