I may have forgotten to mention in all of the Perfectly Unique hullabaloo, but the (in)courage gals and I have officially retreated.

It’s a thing we do, this crazy group of writers. We take a few days, once a year, and all convene in one beach house and hug and cry and laugh and chat and eat and blog and plan and dream and laugh some more.

Here are your Nashville (in)courage people, right to left- Jessica Turner, Angie Smith, and your dear Annie- a hot mess after travel, no make-up, and a little more thigh than I usually post on the internet.

I missed this weekend in 2011, I lived in Scotland you know, but two years ago, it was one of my favorite weekends of the year.

So we arrived yesterday at a variety of times and the hugs and the squeals and the tears commenced.

Oh the tears.

I cried when I saw Emily. With our books- Perfectly Unique and Graceful– being twins, this whole journey has been beyond sweet. To really hug just kinda made us lose control of our tear ducts. We met at the door, we hugged hugged hugged, and there were 0/4 dry eyes.

I cried when another (in)courage sister cried as she told me how her daughter has loved my book. It meant too much. I couldn’t keep my eyes dry.

But mainly, we sat around and caught up and walked to the beach and told funny stories.

This is more than a collection of women who write on the same website. We’re friends. We love each other. We’re invested in each other’s lives and families and writing and hearts. We treasure the times when we are sharing the same air, the same house, the same bowl of peanut M&Ms.

The drive was not easy- lots of hours and lots of rain- but to get here and see these dear friends has made it totally worth it.

If you wanna keep up with us this weekend, we are rocking the #inBeach hashtag.

After what was the most insanely fun couple of days, it’s nice to rest with my people- the ones who speak heart and blog and God and gal.

I hope you rest this weekend. We’ve all worked hard this week to make sure Perfectly Unique is in as many hands as possible, and I am beyond grateful. You deserve a big high five and a hug and a pumpkin spice soy chai.

[Yes. That is a real thing. Try it. And then tell me how happy you are.]

Y’all have a great weekend.