Hello from Houston!

I’m posting this morning from the Stampin’ Up! Leadership conference in Houston, TX!

It’s been so much fun – but VERY busy!  There really hasn’t been any downtime – it’s just one class right after another.

I did have a GREAT dinner last night with the ladies from SplitcoastStampers – it was so much fun to meet everyone!  There were 40 of us who attended a ‘Lowly Supervisor’ dinner while the other more successful ladies went to the ‘Manager’s Roundup’ – but I’m sure we had just as much fun and didn’t have to dress up in cowboy outfits like they did (I’m not kidding – they even had a mechanical bull for them to ride).

My  SCS name is ‘curlycurlyhair’, but down here in Texas, it’s more like ‘frizzyfrizzyhair’.  It was almost 80 degrees here yesterday and very humid – not my best hair-days, that’s for sure!  But since the hotel is connected right to the convention center, I  didn’t have to go outside, so that helped.

During the opening session, I forced my way up to the front row and sat right behind Shelli Gardner (the co-founder and CEO of Stampin’ Up!)!  I was tempted to reach up and play with her hair (she has beautiful straight hair that wasn’t at all frizzy), but I thought that might be inappropriate.  I also spoke to her at lunch – we had a wonderful sit-down lunch complete with a great piece of chocolate cake and fantastic bread basket – our table called her over and thanked her for lunch.  We also asked if she wanted to join us, but apparently she had her OWN table.  Imagine that!

I also sat behind the new VP of finance, Scott Neilson, who used to be a pitcher for the NY Yankees in the 1980’s.  During the break, I asked him for his autograph for Mike and also had my picture taken with him.  I didn’t get a picture with Shelli yet – I’ll see what I can do (don’t want to be accused of being a stalker, though).

Everyone here has been so friendly!  Even though I’m here alone, I never feel alone.  Of course, you know me – I’ll talk to just about anyone who gives me the time of day.  In fact, on the bus on the way to the airport from the parking lot, I met a man who makes sailboats and sails them in regattas all over the world.  Hmmm..maybe I’m a bit TOO chatty – but you just never know who you may meet.

The swaps have been fantastic – and mine were more than adequate.  Before I came, I was feeling a little intimidated, but as it turns out I had no reason to feel that way.  Everyone loved them!  They posted all the swaps up on a board for everyone to see and I actually saw several people taking photos of MY pop-up card – made me feel good!

I’ve learned so much since I’ve been here – I definitely want to go to Convention this year in Denver.  I’d highly recommend going (if you’re not already a demo, you may want to consider buying the $99 starter kit just to go to Convention!).  I hope I can get all the members of my downline to go with me.

I fly out at 6:40 tonight – I hope that the flight home is better than the flight down here.  Right before we landed, we hit an air-pocket and fell down quite a bit – when we landed, the flight attendant actually asked for a ‘moment of silence’.  Not a good sign.

Well, they’re asking us to wrap it up now – I’ll post more and some photos tomorrow when I get home…

Can’t wait to see what I learn today!