So, how was it, you ask? :D

If you read my blog with ANY regularity, you know that I spent this past weekend at the FaithWriters' Writing Conference in Livonia, Michigan. After all, I only did eight posts about it over the past two months.

There really is TONS to cover. The sessions were INCREDIBLE. The fellowship was amazing. The time was way, WAY too short. I was absolutely blessed beyond belief.

I'm thinking this is going to have to be another series. If I wrote everything I want to share in this post, it would be way too long. So, today I'll start with pictures and my thoughts on them. I'll get into the incredibly valuable information I received from the fabulous presenters in my next post on this topic, and I'm sure several other thoughts.

There are TONS of pictures of this particular weekend, thanks to some very prolific photographers on Facebook. Of course, most of my favorites are pictures that OTHERS took. Regardless, here is a link to all the pictures that I took myself (you should not need to be a facebook member to see these!): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=112493&id=722127135&l=eefd298480

And, of course, a few other fun ones from other friends' pix (as well as a couple from my own) are below.
Left to right: Scott Lindsay (Mr. Faithwriters himself--the man behind the curtain!), Josh Janoski, Leah Orcutt, Shari Armstrong, Amy Wiley, me, and Noel (CAN'T remember his last name - but he came all the way from AUSTRALIA!)
We played a LOT of fun games on both Friday and Saturday nights. What a WONDERFUL way to get to know folks better. In this picture, Leah and I tied for first in bananagrams (SUCH a fun game!).

Left to right, Scott Lindsay, me, Deborah Porter.
Okay - this IS my blog, right? I'm allowed to toot my own horn here a bit, correct? The ONLY thing that made me nervous about going to this conference was that I would have to stand in front of the whole crowd and receive my plaque for being the runner up in the Faithwriters/ Finesse Editing Services Page Turner Contest from 2008. I am SO glad they didn't make me give a speech! I was truly shaking the whole time. Such an inspiration for me to keep up my momentum on my book!

Left to right: Yvonne "Vonnie" Blake, Sara "Sawa" Harricharan (whose last name I STILL can't remember how to pronounce!)
It is absolutely amazing to touch the people you have only spoken to virtually. Needless to say, hugs were incredibly prevalent throughout the weekend. And every one of them was precious to me. I could probably share dozens and dozens of pictures of people hugging, but this one is meant to represent them all. Just look at the joy on their faces! (and I like the one of me and Sawa better, but I figure you're tired of looking at pictures that have ME in them!)

Back row - left to right: Sunny Loomis, Patty "Peejiepoopers" Wysong, Yvonne "Vonnie" Blake, Dee Yoder, Laury "Hally" Hubrich, Beth "Beffy" LaBuff. Front: Sara "Sawa" Harricharan, me (aka Jo, JoMama, JJ)
I don't know quite what to say about this picture. These seven ladies (plus our one missing soul, dear LauraLee "LaLee" Shaw) are my heart and soul. These are my incredible jewely sisters, most of which I had NEVER spoken to, much less touched or spent skin time with before Friday. Being in the same room with them was absolutely, positively the absolute BEST. I didn't think it was possible, but I love each of them even MORE now than I did before.

Well, I think I'll leave it at that for this post. I promise to be back (within a week!) with more stuff.