day one is over

wow what a walk it is from the motel to the conference center. today atlanta had a wind advisory. so it made the long walk to the conference center a bit chilly. the guy on the news this morning said "we reached our high for the day at 6:30 this morning" it was quite chilly today. anyway...
today we walked down to the conference center and registered and looked for the liveworship booth. we found it and then went and had some breakfast. after breakfast we found a nice lady who showed us where some good restaurants were in relation to where we are. so we made our way to the cnn center to grab some lunch they had a large food court inside. then it was time for the herstory conference to begin. of course i was nervous 'cause i had to go by myself. but i survived and even met some people. they couldn't believe we drove instead of flying. the opening session was great. jeannie stevens spoke for a few moments and told us of her vision for this pre conference. i really like her, she spoke last year in cincy too. when she was finished kendall payne led in some worship, it was awesome! she has a great voice. the main speaker was virginia ward and she was amazing, very real, raw and fun. it was a really good opening session. we then broke out into seminars. i attended the seminar "the journey with difficult girls" it was great. kerry loesher taught the seminar. i attended her critical concerns course last year in cincy and i also really lke her. she is very real and just presents the material in a very clear way.
it was time for dinner break.
i met eli and we headed down to check out the booth and visit the madness sale at the ys store. i bought a zip up sweat jacket, then felt guilty for buying for about 45 minutes but got over it. we got a couple books and headed over to the booth and ran into guys from youthworks. we love youthworks! i can't wait to tell the kids where we are going on mission trip, i am very excited.
so then time for the herstory dessert and concert. the desserts were amazing, i snuck out an extravagant cookie for eli (shhh). the concert began with a girl named regina but i didn't really like her. kendall payne played the guitar and sang some songs, it was pretty good. then she put the guitar down and sat down at the piano. AMAZING! i really liked her. her songs are so real and open and raw. i really enjoyed the piano and singing much more than the guitar. after the concert there was a panel discussion, it was pretty good but i was so tired and the room was dimly lit and i was in a comfy chair. i had to get up and move or i would have been snoring shortly.
i met eli and i believe marty and jen had just arrived. we (eli and i) went to ted's for a late dinner. our server explained to us about the restaurant and after he left eli said "whose ted turner." i chuckled and said "google him." kudos to ed for the recommendation, it was great food. as we left the restaurant and headed toward the hotel i was glad i purchased the sweat shirt, it's cold here! aren't we in the south?
so here we sit trying to recover. i pulled a muscle in my leg walking the 15 miles (that's what it felt like) through the conference center trying to get from my sessions to the show floor. i have a blister on my foot, i must wear my crocs tomorrow the tennis shoes are not getting it.
i will post a another blog to recap the deep moments of the day that touched me. this is getting way to long.