We Wanna Meet, Part One UPDATED w/ Pictures

I would love to link every time I mention a wonderful blogger I met this weekend, but I'm not feeling well. So, head to Shannon's to see an alphabetical list of attendees. Thanks, Shannon, for letting me cheat! Maybe I'll have extra energy to put in links tomorrow. Don't hold your breath.

I can't possibly put all that happened this weekend in one post, so I thought I'd just start with Friday night. I think everyone who went is still trying to process the whole thing and remember all the details, so I'll start slowly and hopefully remember everything I wanted to write about.

We (hubby, Caleb, and I) first arrived at the hotel around 6pm Friday. We drove through Ft. Worth at 5pm, so traffic was bad. When we got to the room, our keys wouldn't work, so hubby went down to the desk to get them fixed. In the meantime, Caleb and I are standing in the hallway with all of our luggage. The room across from ours has the door open and I hear a little one inside. I figured it must either be Holymama! or Gibee, because they were bringing their boys, too. Holymama came to the door, and I said, "You're Holymama, right?" She looked freaked out. :-) She said, "yeah" reaaaaalllllyyyy slow, still looking freaked out. I said, "I'm Jennifer." "Oh, like, Aggiejenn?" "Yeah." I think I heard a sigh of relief. I guess random people knowing your name in a hotel is pretty scary. Sorry for scaring you, Holymama!

Then, Jeana walked up and started talking to Holymama. She said GiBee was next door. I told her to tell GiBee we were here, and who should appear but Lauren and Faith as well. I've been in the hotel for 5 whole minutes and I've already met all these great ladies!

I think Lauren was just glad to see me because I'm short too. Everyone (Jeana, Holymama, GiBee, Faith) else is TALL, at least according to the standards of Lauren and Jennifer. Lauren is technically 1/4" taller than me, and I think she was pretty proud of that fact. Never mind that neither of us clears 5'4". :-)

(Lauren brought her daughter with her and she is BEAUTIFUL!!! And sweet, too. She bought the most adorable teal cowgirl hat on Saturday and looked so cute in it.)

After everyone changed out of their traveling clothes and primped a little, we headed to the restaurant. Hubby, Caleb, and I arrived first out of the hotel group. Shannon, Chilihead, and Kellygirl were already there. I recognized Shannon and Chili from the Kansas City bloggers lunch pictures. Shannon had no clue who I was. Is anyone really surprised? I mean, all 5 of you who read this blog would probably recognize me from seeing that annoying black and white picture everywhere (Katherine recognized me on Saturday night because of all the comments I leave everywhere.), but not Shannon. I think our introduction went something like this.

Me: Hi.
Shannon: Are you one of the bloggers?
Me: yeah, I'm Jennifer.
Shannon: Hi. (looking confused)

I should have used my code name. Lauren's son thought it was weird we all have code names, but apparently people don't recognize the "real" me!

Lauren and GiBee

Then I proceeded to help hubby corral a very tired and hungry Caleb. (He took him back to the hotel early so I could enjoy the night...isn't he great?)

Chilihead (and Shannon)

I'm not exactly sure of the order that everyone else arrived, but Shalee, Antique Mommy, the hotel group (see above), Minnie, CMommy, Kep, and Carol all joined in on the fun. (Am I missing someone?? I feel like I am.)


Faith (in PINK!) and her camera (which she doesn't like)

Holymama made us all super cool name tags with her scrapbooking skills. (She didn't use my code name on my name tag, either...maybe that's the problem!)

Carol and CMommy

CMommy and Minnie

Dinner was full of introductions, conversation, and laughter. I learned about Kellygirl and her hubby who are homeschooling their 4 kids. And CMommy and her new teaching job. And Carol's very busy weekend playing in her praise bands. It was a great time.

After dinner, a bunch of us crashed Lauren, Jeana, and Faith's room. Actually, GiBee and I came back early to put Hunter to bed in the adjoining room. The doors between the rooms were open and since Hunter was trying to go to sleep, I went and sat on one of the beds in the adjoining room to wait for GiBee and her sister-in-law. Pretty soon after that, the occupants came back and Lauren was a little freaked to find me sitting in her room all alone. She said something to the effect of, "how did you get in here?"

Yep, that's me. I'm the freak. First Holymama. Then Shannon. Now Lauren.

I think I'll join the circus now. Maybe I'll be normal there.

:-)

We laughed a lot that night! It was fun, and I got to learn Shannon's system for her kids blog names. How does she keep it all straight?

Stay tuned tomorrow for part 2...the Stockyards and dinner at Antique Mommy's house.