Lipstick, sweet tea, and hazing

I barely made it home from the South!  Well, maybe that's a little dramatic.  I almost got bumped from my flight because the Delta computers mysteriously canceled my seat reservation between the time I checked in the night before and when I tried to board the plane.  Lucky for me, someone on board was willing to accept a free flight voucher for waiting until the next flight to Mpls.  I needed to get home to my men!

I think I love the South.  It's all sweet tea, lipstick, high heels, lovely women and new friends.  Oh, and spectacular conferences.  That was certainly my experience this weekend.

Normally I would say that there are no words to describe how amazing She Speaks was.  But...since it was a conference on speaking and writing, it's a bit ridiculous to leave it at that.  It was a two-for.  A two for one.  Two conferences for the price of one.  Not only was it a well-oiled machine working to teach us the crafts of speaking and writing, but it was a 'knock it out of the park' women's conference.  I admit that I have never been to a women's conference before (that I can remember), but when indeed I do attend one, it shall have rather large high heels to fill.

The only bittersweet strand woven through this experience is that I don't get to share all that I learned and heard with my dad.  He was the 2nd person I told about this conference 2+ years ago and he was excited for me from the get-go.  He prayed for me, listening with me and stood with me as I saw the light transition from a question  mark to a green.  Miss you, dad, but I know you are proud!  

My sweet Timo gets a boisterous shout-out for all he did to make this weekend a possibility.  I won't get into the (literally) gory details about what transpired while I was gone, but I leave you with this.  My children hazed my husband in my absence.

Let that settle in.

They hazed him.

Like in a fraternity.

Seriously.  His bald(ing) spot is bigger and we both went to bed at 8:15 last night.  8:15 people.  Yawn.

Everyone survived and things are back to a new normal.  It's good to be home!