After sharing all of my deepest insecurities with all of you, I went to Atlanta to see Beth Moore and to face them head on. I also got to spend lots of time with some wonderful women that I’ve grown to love over the past couple of years, but had not met yet.
The Lord spoke to me about a lot of things through Beth Moore and there are a few situations in my life that I’m ready to remedy. But for right now, I’m going to keep all of these things to myself and process them. I can’t change overnight, but I’m trying to take some big steps to changing the way I think about myself and stop obsessing over me. I think the biggest lesson Beth Moore taught me is that insecurity is NOT humility. Insecurity and narcissism are very close to being one and the same. So it’s time to stop obsessing over my flaws and start focusing on the woman that God created me to be and thanking Him for the many blessings in my life. It’s time to recognize that I am exceptional in my Creator’s eyes and I am clothed in strength and dignity. It’s time to stop putting myself down.
If you haven’t read the book, my new friend from Lauren from Adventures of Southern Newlywed is giving away her copy of the book on her blog. (I met her this weekend along with her mom and sister and they were so nice. I’ve been reading Adventures of Southern Newlywed since I got married and I was so excited when she came up to introduce herself. She doesn’t live too far away, so I really hope that we can get together again soon!)
I thought I’d share a recap of my weekend with all of you.
On Friday morning, I left Columbia and headed to Atlanta to pick up my good friend, Megan from Tales of the Trees. Megan has such a great, honest, hilarious blog. She’s so much fun to be around and she is one of the most real people I’ve ever met. The weekend would not have been the same without her. We totally “get” each other and have similar styles of dealing with things. I’m so happy that I got to spend so much time with her this weekend.
I picked up Megan from the airport and while I was there I met Caroline, Jenna, and Faith. The five of us went to kill some time before our next airport pick ups at a nearby Chick-fil-A.
Then, after a fun visit, we left to go back to the airport to pick up two more good friends, Mrs. NCF and Rachel from In No Simple Language. I had met NCF and Megan before, so I was so excited to finally meet Rachel. The best part is being with people and not feeling at all like you haven’t known each other for years. Everything was so easy and fun! NCF and Rachel are so much fun to be around. They’re carefree and love to laugh. Rachel is so sweet and easy to talk to. She’s so go with the flow and always points out the positive side of things. NCF is one of the kindest, most gentle, loving people I’ve ever been around. Both times I’ve hung out with her have been so easy and felt like I’ve been with an old friend. We even cried together a few times during the conference and worship.
The four of us headed to our hotel and then hopped back in the car to go meet Amy, Lianna, and Becca for dinner at a cute pizza place in Kennesaw, Georgia called Zucca.
I have been reading Amy’s blog since I started blogging and always feel like I learn something every time I read one of her posts. She is a great writer and a teacher (not to mention gorgeous!) when she probably doesn’t even realize it. I was thrilled to finally get to meet her.
After dinner, we hung out in our room for a while and I met Trina, Jenna, and Jennifer. We stayed up way too late and getting up on Saturday wasn’t easy, but we were going to see Beth Moore!
On Saturday morning, we woke up and went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel where we met a few more bloggers and Twitter friends. All the girls from Friday night except Becca joined us for breakfast and then we added Lyndsey, Natalie, Kim, Jennifer (Natalie’s twin sister), Rachel (their friend), and Kelly. I was so excited to finally meet Natalie. We’ve been Twitter friends for a while now and her family is so precious.
Natalie and me
Lyndsey and I have been “friends” for a long time. We started Weight Watchers Wednesdays together with Mojito Maven back when the three of us were struggling with gaining the “happy weight” after getting married. Then we were pregnant at the same time and emailed a lot about what we were experiencing during our pregnancies. Now we both have happy and healthy babies and I can’t wait for our chunky kiddos to meet each other soon. Lyndsey is also one of the most hilarious people I have ever met. Her voice, her expressions, her stories. She’s great!
Lyndsey and me
everyone at breakfast
Trina met up with us before we left for the conference and we were off to see Mrs. Moore! The conference was incredible and we even got to see Beth make an appearance in the “overflow room” when she came during lunch to do a question and answer session. The praise and worship during the conference was a great experience. There’s nothing like worshiping with 300,00 other women nationwide and standing next to some of your newest, most wonderful friends and singing to the Lord.
After the conference, we headed to a fantastic restaurant called the West Egg Cafe (Amy had some great dinner recommendations) and met up with PinkSass. It’s a great restaurant where all of the food is grown locally and served fresh. I had a delicious fried egg sandwich! (Disclaimer: we’d all just been rained on and our hair was a mess. Just wanted to put that out there before showing what we looked like after walking/standing in the rain.)
Megan got to try grits for the first time.
We all had delicious cupcakes and cookies.
On Sunday morning, I got up early and headed home. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone, but I know that we’ll see each other again. I missed my boys so much and was so happy to get home to see Hudson smiling at me after church. I feel completely refreshed and ready to go. If you ever get the opportunity to take a girls weekend away, you should definitely do it.