Extra Ordinary

Finally, pictures from my weekend with the girls. Ummm, two weeks ago. Several of you asked for pictures. I'm sorry, it took me several weeks before posting. There was the week I found myself up to my elbows in cinnamon roll dough. Last week I was up to my elbows in tissues and cold medicine, ugh.

Anywho, here are the pictures and a weekend recap.

We had a good time, with good friends and listening to excellent speakers at the Extraordinary Women Conference. (Last year the speakers were good, but not spiritually deep. This year we had excellent speakers and were wading in spirituality. It was great.)



The conference began Friday night, with a performance by Anita Renfroe and Natalie Grant. Two dynamic performers, in their own fields. We arrived late due to traffic and parking issues. The picture above was taken while we were walking the mile or so to the convention center. (We were walking because the line for the shuttle buses looked about a mile or two long. It was quicker to walk.)


Though we had reserved seating we were still looking at the back of Anita most of the time. When I tried watching the jumbo tron I got a crick in my neck. Think sitting in the front row of a movie theater.

The next day, after awaking at 5 and leaving the hotel before 7 to park in the hard to come by convention center's parking lot (thank you for in-room coffee makers), was filled with more great speakers, and worship singing, led by Charles Billingsley.

Oh, we also wanted to arrive early enough to grab the reserved seats that were not on the ice rink of a convention floor. See, the convention center is also used as an ice rink, in fact while we were there it was still an ice rink. The center laid plastic mats over the ice, which were constantly wet, and constantly cold.

Enough about the really awful convention center (oh, I could go on about this convention center) here are some pictures of Saturday's speakers.



Stormie Omartian. I love her books, The Power of a Praying Wife/Husband/Parent.... She gave her testimony Saturday morning, a powerful story.


Nancy DeMoss. I had not heard of her before this weekend. Great speaker! I'm looking forward to reading her books.




Amy Grant. Oh my, where do I begin? I've listened to Amy Grant since, well since I started listening to music. This was the first time I heard her live. I was in tears the whole time, in part because I love the human element in her songs (they are about real people, real emotions,) partly she is as good a performer as you hear on the radio, and mainly because of the personal stories she shared, but we can talk about them another time.

It was a little surreal. If you listen to Amy Grant you sing along with Amy Grant, in the car, in the kitchen, in the shower (sorry Amy, we are getting a little personal.) However, to be sitting there, with her, live, standing on stage, singing the favorites everyone knows, such as Thy Word, Father's Eyes, El-Shaddai, you start singing along, with 10,000 other women. It was a little surreal.




Standing in line to meet Amy Grant.




Candace Cameron Bure, another wonderful speaker. Yes, that would be DJ from Full House. When we saw her on the schedule we thought how nice to see her all grown up, but didn't expect such a powerful message as the one she gave. It was powerful, and spiritually fulfilling, a perfect way to end the conference.



Several times I mentioned the lack of parking, traffic congestion, ice rink for a floor, cricks in the neck, early mornings, and the very cold ice rink floor. Friday evening, while un-kinking the neck, and wondering why my feet were freezing and the mats were wet (before I discovered it was an ice rink), I realized I had to make a choice.

Before that moment I was a little discouraged as to how the weekend began, but I wasn't going to let it get to me. When Charles Billingsley and the praise band came up for some worship time I realized I had become discouraged and that Satan was working his way into my attitude. I had to make a choice, at that moment, how would I view this weekend?

The eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely his.

~2 Chronicles 16:9

Oh, we joked about the ice (one friend saying she felt like sushi) but we didn't let it interfere with our weekend. A wonderful time spent with friends, and with God.

Was I going to grumble about all the negatives or was I going to focus on the positives and enjoy the weekend?

How will you face your weekend? If you are needing some encouragement (of just want to enjoy another cup of coffee/tea/soda) head back over to Home Sanctuary for more Company Girl Coffee.