Lifeway Women's Leadership Forum

It is a rare, rare thing for the two of us to spend nights apart. We choose not to do it because we are better together, but evvvvvvery now and then, one of us has to be gone, and it was my turn this past weekend. Stories of our time apart...and my apologies for how very fast I talked. I was either really caffeinated or still very sleep deprived!

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You'll hear more about this in the podcast, but of course I have pictures for you too! (Please note that I was unable to take my good camera, so I have very poor quality cell phone shots for all these, but it will give you an idea!)

I've had this conference on the calendar for several months, and I was really looking forward to the chance to learn and make new friends, but I was also highly anxious about leaving Ryan behind. Not only do we not enjoy being apart, but he knows all my travel weirdness, and I wasn't sure a dozen other women would find it quite as charming. :)

We planned to take the church van, but it was going to be 100% full in seating, plus luggage, so we were admonished to pack conservatively. I don't even know what that means. Apparently it means this:

You can't really see my purse on my shoulder, but it was packed (aka weighed down) and other than that, this little carry on and a tote bag made up my entire luggage for four days. So what this tells you right here is that God is still in the business of miracles, because if you know me, you know there's really no other explanation. I take this much to church on a regular basis. (And now you know why the camera didn't get to go on vacation with me.) Not to belabor the point, but as I stare at this photo, I do believe this may be the single greatest accomplishment of my year.

Okay, moving on. :) Because we didn't really want to leave our car sitting in the church parking lot for four days - and because Ryan wanted to use said car while I was gone - he took me to the church at lunch time and dropped me off. We took this photo right before the dam behind my eyes burst and I had a flat out meltdown right there in front of all the ladies about to road trip with me.

Yep. I was that wife. And I didn't even care.

I dried it up before the group photo:

Yes, I am in the back clutching my coffee cup. :) The four women on the left side of the photo are my fellow women's leadership team members. (We have one more, but she is just a few weeks away from having a baby and didn't feel she should risk an out-of-state trip that late in the game. She actually took the picture for us.)

At the last minute, one of the women decided to also drive her car down, which allowed the van passengers to have more room for sitting/luggage, and it allowed those of us who aren't crazy about crowds in vans to have a smaller vehicle.

The conference was held in Nashville, Tennessee, and the trip there was not NEARLY as smooth as my travel with Ryan had been the week before. We hit a few traffic snags, but nothing lasted too terribly long.

When we arrived in Nashville, we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I was a bit concerned when we arrived, because I had never seen this combo offered before:

Tacos and waxing? Oh. Two separate businesses. :)

We stayed in a set of condos at a Wyndham resort near the Opryland hotel. (Or, as our GPS called it, the "oh-pree-land.")

They were really nice - and much more cost-effective than hotel life, especially since we were staying 3 nights.

We traveled down on Wednesday, and the conference started Thursday morning. I didn't really sleep that night, so thank goodness for coffee! I got up early to talk to Ryan on the phone before he went to work. (Nashville is on central time and we're on Eastern, so he was headed out to work before I really needed to be up and coherent.)

 I asked for a selfie and this is what I received.

We made our way to the church for the conference and got our group picture while we all looked fresh and the booth was empty!

My breakout session that morning was about leading anxious women in anxious times. Myself. I'm leading myself in anxious times. LOL! There was actually a lot of good information in there about leading anxious women and how to handle personal anxiety. Cindy Townsend taught the workshop and she had THE most delightful southern accent.

Ironically the session was thoroughly overcrowded, and there were people blocking every aisle and exit. Isn't that perfect for a girl whose anxiety is heightened by crowds?

I forgot to show you our SUPER CUTE conference notebooks. You'll understand why I fell immediately in love:

We left the church to get lunch at The Chop House. I'd never eaten there before, but the food was REALLY good.

One of the ladies ordered this appetizer that I've never before seen on a restaurant menu:

Deviled eggs with candied bacon! I didn't have to be persuaded to try one. It was delicious, and so was my salad that followed:

After lunch, the conference began in earnest, but I've talked enough for today. I'll come back tomorrow.