I admit I was actively stalking …

…stalking the #relevant11 Twitter stream that is! And I wasn’t alone! lol

Many of us gals didn’t go to The Relevant Conference this year for various reasons. And there were only a limited number of tickets available anyways to keep the conference from being too large; tickets sold out months before the conference. I’m glad I got to go last year, the very first Relevant Conference and my very first  blog conference to boot.

A few of us are doing a stalker’s blog link-up and so here is mine to add to the mix. I’m sharing some of the Tweets I read and Retweeted during the conference.

His praise is the only praise we need; He is our identity. – @gracefullmama

Am I willing to go unnoticed? To serve without recognition? @GraceFullMama

People love to give advice on #facebook, ask a question!

Go check out @yoono !! RT @tzdelar: @Hey_Donna what tip from @SimpleMom changed your life? huh? do tell!

Am I attention hungry, or God hungry? Do I have an appetite for God, or to being known?@AnnVoskamp

Ask God what He wants you to do with your leftovers. Then be obedient. @shaungroves

God appoints people who disappoint so they can point to the God who never disappoints. -@AnnVoskamp

I’m seriously thinking about buying an Early Bird ticket for next year and if I do…I will be looking for sponsors  for my trip to Relevant ’12!

Any takers? …

*Linking up with other Relevant Stalkers here and here.

A big thanks to Ron, owner of Vision Marketing Inc and About Print. He had his About Print division design my cards to match my blog. They turned out great!

I had these cute beauties to hand out to the other bloggers and company reps I met at Relevant!

They have a glossy- laminate look and nice sturdy feel to them. Not cheap. I appreciate my professional looking bloggy cards! And if I meet you at a blog conference you might just get one   .  Follow About Print on Facebook here.

*You can see ALL my Relevant posts here.

“By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”  Hebrews 13:15-16

I enjoy finding little things to thank God for, do you? Here is my list, or some of it. I find myself thanking him for the mundane or not so mundane as I enjoy a warm shower as often as I choose. Some do not have that choice. Are you thankful even for the little things in life?

Sometimes, I’m not as thankful as I should be I think. Sometimes, Too many times, I compare what I have with what others have and I find I’m not satisfied.  If not kept in check, these negative thoughts lead to discontent and unthankfulness. Thankfulness IS a choice. I choose to be thankful for…

1. my family
2. a warm or hot shower every day to my choosing
3. inspiring hot coffee
4. a reliable vehicle (which incidentally has scratches and a few pieces of duct tape on it- all bearing stories of children or travel)
5. cheap cable -limited but perfect for us
6. husband’s stable job
7. freedom to homeschool  my boys
8. freedom to worship God according to the bible
9. freedom to talk about God in public and go to church without fear of arrest
10. second hand clothing stores
11. hard times that have made me who I am today- for God’s glory, not mine.
12. wonderful God fearing, bible believing Pastors who say the hard stuff  because we need to hear it
13. good health
14. premature babies (mine) and the NICU experience
15. Facebook which allows me to connect with friends and family around the world- for free
16. my blogging  journey
17. making new blogging friends
18. my 7.5 year old Dell computer /printer- the only printer we have in use
19. opportunities to make money from home to help with the finances
20. mammogram scare, MRI need, all to a good end
21. each new day I open my eyes and breath …is a good day!

I’m linking this post at Ann Voskamp’s blog today. I had the opportunity to meet Ann in person at The Relevant Conference last month.  Ann has a gift with words as you’ll see at her blog A Holy Experience.com. Ann is a farmer’s wife- they have 6 children, she homeschools, and they raise a thousand or so pigs/piglet in Canada. You can click the image above to visit Ann’s blog.

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I have thick, curly hair and it can get a mind of its own, if you know what I mean. See its still bushy after being cut. I think Erin might be using the flat iron on it now or getting my hair ready for it (pictured below).

Okay so, the Edge has a flat iron that heats to 400+ degrees (thats like 200+ more than my own flat iron at home). I’m not sure I’ll ever get my hair “this” flat Thats okay. My husband like it more curly than flat anyways. But I like the straight look for something different and something not-so-bushy! I never did try to straighten it while at Relevant. When my Relevant roomie saw my straight haired profile pic AFTER Relevant she thought I had just had my hair done AFTER the conference. No, Lisa, it was the same hair cut I had at Relevant, minus the flat iron! hehe

Here I am with straight hair and my makeup makeover.

She did a great job and the makeup was nice too, some kind of mineral makeup I think. I can’t remember what brand.

The Edge Hair Design was formerly called First Impressions. Today I got their email newsletter stating they are having a Black Friday sale November 26th – Buy a $100 gift card and GET a $20 gift card FREE. If you live in the area and decide to stop by be sure to  tell them Tracy from Hall of Fame Moms told you about them {I don’t make any money for that, by the way. But it would be cool to find out someone local read this post and decided to use their services which include more than hair and makeup.}

*The Edge Hair Design (find them on Facebook) provided my hair and makeover services for this review and as sponsors of my trip to Relevant.  Be sure to see ALL my Relevant Conference posts here to find out about giveaways and who my other sponsors were.

You know by now Chevrolet gave me a 2010 Chevy Equinox (SUV) to drive to The Relevant Conference in Harrisburg, PA this past weekend. Both of our vehicles are older and it was a relief not to have to take the one my husband thought was “safest” for the trip and have to leave him the other to drive the boys around in (which by the way, spent the weekend in the shop for some expensive repairs ;(

So, without further-ado, let me tell you about my ride -  in a nutshell…

…Wonderful!

Smooth ride, On-Star, navigation, HEATED SEATS, dvd player, dvd screens in front and behind each front seat (driver’s screen shuts down when driving),  in “reverse” mode a camera shows me whats behind me on the dvd screen, AM-FM-XM music choices, roomy trunk with a pullover- extension to cover whats in there, tinted back seat windows, easy temperature settings, great sound system… What more is there!

Well, it was beautiful too

Thank you, thank you! Connie Burke and Chevrolet for giving me the privilege of driving one of your sweet SUV’s. Here are a few more “professional/official” stats on the vehicle I drove to the conference.

2010 Equinox  FWD LTZ

2009 Top Safety Pick Award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

EPA Fuel Economy Estimates:  City mpg 22 and Highway mpg 32. Estimated Annual Fuel Cost: $1,502

Bluetooth for phone.

Compass.

Leather wrapped steering wheel with audio controls.

2.4L 4 cyl, DOHC SIDI Engine

6 speed Automatic Transmission

…and more!

One thing I appreciated is seeing on the screen WHEN the next travel plaza was coming up! I could then decide if I wanted to stop or wait for the next one. If you’d like to see the inside of my sweet ride (which the delivery guys have already picked up and taken away) I also have uploaded a video on Youtube of the inside of my “ride” you can view.

So, thank you again, Chevrolet!

*Subscribe here to get my blog posts delivered by email or RSS!  Follow me on Facebook and Twitter too Stay tuned as I talk about my other two sponsors in future posts.

I almost don’t know where to start and I for sure don’t know where to go next or how to end this post. There is so much good and great to say and I haven’t even begun to really process it well.

I’ll begin by saying this was my first blogger’s conference and I have no desire to really go to any others. I hope there is a Relevant 2011!

This conference was about putting God and our families before material things, stats, and money.  We learned much about the bloggy things that do matter in this life, but they come second to our calling as followers of Christ, being godly wives and godly mothers.

I met wonderful women, some blogger’s, some not. I met wonderful speakers who did not wear ego on their sleeves. They talked, shared, laughed and mentored us not only in groups but one on one.

There’s so much more to share, but I haven’t processed it all yet. I look forward to making some good changes with my blog that will benefit my readers and my family.

Special thanks to the Lord for providing in his own ways enabling me to go to this conference. Thank you to @connieburke and @chevrolet for putting me in a suweeet #Equinox to drive in. I’ll tell you more about that SUV later.

Thank you to AboutPrint for designing my beautiful professional blogger cards that match my website. I’ll show you what they look like soon!

Thank you to Erin and Patty at Edge Hair Design for giving me a new hair style and highlights before the conference. I do have some pics to show you on here too.

Wow.

I’ll just have to share more, later

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This post is linked with TheRelevantConference, 4tunate, and GatherInSpirit.

If you’ve been following me for awhile you may remember me writing about wanting to go to The Relevant Conference (a Christian women-blogger conference). Money being the issue it is, I’ve had to seek the path of sponsorship. Learning the ins and outs of getting companies and brands to sponsor me  has been a new learning curve. I started too late, didn’t try enough places and ended up empty. I pretty much gave up the idea of going to the conference. I just wasn’t willing to charge the conference on a credit card. It was just too much. If the Lord wanted me to go, he’d have to provide.

Then, I saw it. Wait… maybe?

Yes, by golly, a wee little light at the end of the tunnel. My husband was actually open to the idea of me – going. {Did he really understand going to a conference isn’t cheap?}

Turns out, we’d earned some extra money selling parking during this event and, additionally,  had accumulated a huge credit towards paying our gas heat bill (from being on the budget program).  And so I began to look for ways to cut costs to attend Relevant.

• I found an Early Bird ticket for sale and bought it (another women who bought it and couldn’t go).

• I found other women who wanted to cut costs and now 3 of us are splitting the cost of the room.

• I asked Ron of  @visionmktg if  his company would be interested in sponsoring my blogger (business) cards. He said they would and they were done by Vision’s AboutPrint division! I’ll show them to you in a future post

• I made connections with Chevy/GM and asked for a car, and they are delivering an Equinox to my home! Thanks @connieburke @Chevrolet.  You can follow them and this hashtag on Twitter to see what I have to say about my #Equinox ride when I get back. I plan to show you what it looks like too

• I asked my hairdresser Erin – who is just the best when it comes to my hair- if the Edge Hair Design would be interested in doing my hair for the conference and they said- Yes! I’m scheduled for a full makeup and hair makeover (fun!). *I hope to do a “before and after” video on the blog.

So, turns out the Lord did provide {He is goooood, isn’t He?!} and I didn’t have to charge ticket or room on a credit card!

Thank you to all my #Relevant10 sponsors! You all have been the cherry on the top of this for me. I mean, I had to have the basics (ticket and room) but I could have gone to the conference without professional cards (and used my *ahem- not so pro-rather-cheap cards), a new do (vs. my bulky uneven probably split end hair), and a SWEET ride (vs. my 2002 duct taped van)- ! You all have been a blessing! Thank you again!

And if  anyone would like to follow our conference Tweets and see whats happening during this event,  just click on and follow the link to the hashtag #Relevant10 on Twitter. They will be live-streaming the event as well.

Finally! You can follow me here: Facebook,  Twitter, or subscribe here for my blog updates! I plan to tell you all about Relevant when I get back- unless I can get a laptop to use while I’m there. In that case, I’ll probably be sharing online FROM Relevant

So, Country Bob’s wants to know why I want to go to Relevant. Well, let me tell ya.

1. Relevant will be my first blogger’s conference EVER. I’m ready to go to one.
   
2. Relevant is for Christian bloggers, which I am one.
   
3. Relevant is close enough (Pennsylvania) so I could drive AND take my family (I hope).
   
4. I already KNOW (well I’m aquainted with ) several of the bloggers going, hosting, or speaking at this conference!
   
5. PLUS, I want and need to network with other like-minded bloggers. I really really want to meet them IRL {In Real Life}.
   
6. AND, I’m sure there will be things “bloggy” shared there that I could use or learn from!
   

So I ask you,  Country Bob, are those reasons good enough or what?  I think so, I hope you do too!

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