Whatta Weekend!  It was jam packed with meaningful moments for me.  Friday night my group of new girlfriends (from the PINK exercise and coaching classes for breast cancer treatment patients I recently finished at Piedmont) got together for cocktails and a potluck dinner at one of our homes.  So fun to see some of my favorite people made up and dressed up a bit for a nice evening since we've really only seen each other in workout garb.  We've all become quite close during our recoveries, and I think it's surprised all of us that we've found it easy to open up to each other as much as we have -- we love being together!  We also got a chance to bring our significant others and friends, so it was a very festive evening.

The following morning most of the PINK group walked in the breast cancer walk/run at Atlantic Station.  I took a trip up to the N GA mountains with my "Project Wednesday" group of buddies.  These are my dear friends who I've been meeting with weekly for 7 years or so for dinner, drinks, and lively conversation.  Unfortunately for a handful of us, our group is dwindling as Larry and Greg just moved to New Hampshire (I thought it was Maine, Teague thought it was Connecticut, and Anthony thought it was Rhode Island, but we now know for sure it's New Hampshire -- it's pretty much all the same when it's that far away) to what Larry and Greg like to call Project Wednesday's "new vacation home" to make us feel better.  John and Anthony are now (temporarily, the rest of us hope) living in New York as they've opened a play there to rave reviews.  That leaves Renee, Teague, Beth, Emmie, and me  here missing our buddies but determined to keep the group alive and bringing in other friends from time to time.  Wow, I've really digressed here!  Renee, Beth, Teague, Emmie, my mom and I all traveled up to Cleveland, GA for the Grand Opening of the new Babyland General Hospital Saturday.  It was a trip!  The weather was just perfect for families to enjoy the celebration. I have never seen anything like the gorgeous new building on the hill.  There are nurseries with rocking chairs and cribs full of Cabbage Patch Babies in every shape, size and color waiting to be adopted.  Then there's a room FULL of hand-made and painted Cabbage Patch Kids amid the cabbage.  My mom and I were so busy adopting a couple of babies for my two new great-nieces that we missed out on the live births that were going on while we were there.  Each baby comes out of a head of cabbage.  Beth (who brought along 2 of her original Cabbage Patch dolls from when she was a little girl for her 4-year old daughter Emmie Grace) told me that the Cabbage Patch "doctor " would say, "The cabbage is 10 leaves dilated," and hilarious things like that while the baby is being birthed.  Emmie Grace adopted her own baby and it was a ridiculously sweet moment to see her  (very seriously) sign the adoption papers.  The highlight of our visit was meeting the man himself, Xavier Roberts, father of the Cabbage Patch!  We were all taken by his wonderful manner and genuine interest in us.  He signed our new babies' butt cheeks!  Thanks to Tammie and Margaret at Babyland for making sure we all had a delightful time.  And, of course, we got a big kick out of seeing "Little Kaedy Kiely" on display, the Cabbage Patch doll named for me to be raffled this Friday night for The American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.  She was decked out in blue jeans, sneakers, her tiny 97.1 River t-shirt, and her pink baseball cap with a half a wig inside (a nice accessory for chemo patients) covering her bald head.   $5 raffle tickets are still available -- go to http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY10SA?team_id=645660&pg=team&fr_id=24433 You do not need to be present to win.

We all topped the weekend off by driving from Cleveland to beautiful Blue Ridge, GA where John and Anthony have a cabin.  Anthony was in town from New York, so we had a great time Saturday night into Sunday catching up and enjoying good wine and great conversation out on the screened-in deck with a fire in the fireplace.  It was downright windy and chilly!   

The weekend reminded me that we live in a state with many beautiful places to visit.  If you're heading up to N GA, and have special little ones in your life, be sure to stop by the magical Babyland General Hospital for Cabbage Patch dolls and LOTS more.  It's a real treat!