I went with a group of girls that are in my downline... A downline consists of people who have been recruited into the business and those that are doing the recruiting on 5 levels.. I went with some over me...my recruiter...and some down under me... It was great fun!
It is much like summer camp for grown women... We show up with gifts for each other and cards and doo dads that we hand craft for other handcrafted items to take home as samples. The trading and gift giving is such fun....and one of the highlights of my trip.
Every day we dress up with all our pins and buttons and hand crafted clothing ...purses and the like.... and troop over to the convention center. We were fortunate... the Marriot was across the street... There are 10,000 or so of us ladies and some men who stand in line hawking our samples for other pretties... We then all make a mad dash in for the favored up front seats to listen to Shelli...the owner...and the entertainment and training that they have for us...
There is such an air of excitement... We all dance and wave and laugh and take pictures.... pumped up by being with other folks just like us... After the general session each day we go off to classes to cram all the business knowledge and how to's that we can manage....so that we can take it back home and put it into practice. After a long day of cramming and enjoying all the suprises of the day....we head back home with a stop somewhere to grab a bite to eat and fall into bed each night exhausted...
One of the favorite events of the week is Awards Night... A year's worth of work hopefully adds up to being included on the incentive trip. This year the big one is Figi...and they now have smaller trips .. They had a panel of 3 ladies on the stage this year....to do a guessing game to find out what the smaller trip was... I was selected to be on that panel. I like to laugh and say I had an out of body experience... Some strange high pitched woman's voice came out of my body... haha! Talk about stage fright! All I could see was 10,000 faces staring at me....and bright lights.. yikes! I got a free stamp set tho...for participating...and I loved that! :) After the awards they had a little social... with a DJ and dessert and lemonade and dancing.. I liked the dancing part and me and my crazy upline Rolanda got out there and acted like fools...and danced to all the cool music... lol! I guess the camera man thought it was entertaining because we were filmed for the video highlights at the end of convention... :)
I had some great evening meals.... and one of my favorites was at a little joint that served Street Tacos... They were different...with pulled pork but tasted great! I also had guacamole sucio.
(dirty guacamole) yum!! I drank a silver margarita with stuff in it I never heard of...but sure did taste good! We ate at PF Changs and tho I just had dumplings and a spring roll I enjoyed the atmosphere... Another great meal was a salad I had...made out of baked goat cheese... Simple but great... We had the usual Denny's type stuff...but when you are with friends it always tastes good..
When it came time to pack for home I wasn't sure how I was going to get all my free stuff in my luggage!! I had to do some fancy packing and stuffing but I finally got it all in...and had a great flight home...
As I reflect on the trip I know I was really suppose to be there this year... When I was making the decision to go... I knew I wanted more to be in God's will even more than I wanted to go on this trip...and believe me I wanted to go! :) I decided I would go forward and if God didn't want me to go...I knew He would put up a huge road block...one I couldn't miss....and if that happened I would be ok and have peace about not attending... What a difference it made in the peace I had about the trip. As a result...nearly everything blessed me... I had so many opportunities to not only share my love for what I do in my stamping business but share my love of God... I was blessed to be with a strong praying group of women....
I have a photo page of my trip.... ( see side panel or click on the link below) I hope you take a minute to look at them...
http://joymountain.blogspot.com/p/photos-stampin-up-convention.html
It is good to be back in Texas... hot weather and all! :) No Place Like TEXAS!!
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