My continuing session

I had one of the most amazing teachers for my continuing sessions. These sessions were an hour and a half each morning and an additional hour in the afternoons. My teacher was Jim Watkins. His topic was "Communicate to Change Lives". It was so full of information, and was so much fun. I had fully intended to skip around to several of these sessions because there were so many, that I had a hard time deciding where I wanted to go. I went to Jim's class first, and was hooked! I never missed a session if I could help it. Sometimes I had to meet with an editor or publisher, but I would hurry back to hear the rest of the class's message.

The messages he shared from his book of the same title were meant for me to hear. It was totally awesome. I have added his link to my list of blogs on the right: called Heavy handed with a light touch. Check it out he has a lot of stuff on it, and it is well worth the time to read.

I met a woman named Joyce when I was on the shuttle van from the airport. We instantly connected. It was amazing. She is from Birmingham Alabama. We were sisters from the get-go! Inseparable (till she left on Saturday morning). We will be keeping in contact, as we may have some business dealings together. I will be talking about this more in the future as the Lord shows us His perfect will in this. So make sure you check back to see if there are updates.

I feel a bit more rested this morning as I seem to be getting back to my regular schedule. The two hour time difference sort of threw me for a loop. I was awake before 7 this morning, I usually wake up about 6-6:15. I still have so much to do writing wise, but decided that yesterday I needed to get my ducks in a row, and my mind settled before I attempted any more writing. I am squaring up my piles, going over the notes I took, and trying to remember what I was told during the meetings I had. I did record some of them on a mini recorder, so I need to listen to those as well.

I found out that I have a terrible habit of using exclamation points, not one but several, and very often! Dave D used to tease me about doing that when I worked at NPCC, sorry Dave that you had to suffer through all of that. I also found out that I should not use parenthesis as frequently, and not write words all in caps. The young man that has been helping me do editing mentioned that more than once during the editing of Through the Tears. Ok, I get it. It is just so hard to not use those things to get my point across.

Remember I am a rookie when it comes to writing. I missed so many things going from school to school. I think I missed those lessons. I know I shouldn't make excuses, but I truly did not know. I am also learning to vary the length of my sentences. I was so concerned about the fact that my paragraphs had multiple sentences, that most of the sentences were about the same in length. Boring!

I am having fun writing now. I am not looking at is a work, I am looking at it as a hobby. Something I like to do that is fun. I am learning, so bear with me.

I may be making a trip to Birmingham in June to share at my friend Joyce's Relationship Conference. I am still praying about this one. I want the Lord to use me, but I want to make sure I go according to His leading, not mine.

Again, thanks to all of you for your prayers. I was pretty worried, but God really came through for me. He provided financially, and made a way for me to meet so many people. I was worried too about going off my diet, that I would gain weight. I am happy to announce that I am down to a 23 pound loss now! I actually lost weight while I was there. Thank you Jesus!

I need to get busy around here. I have to stuff a weeks worth of work into four days since Jeff and I are going to Tennessee on Friday. The boys got us a gift certificate to go to Serenity Falls cabins for this weekend Friday-Saturday. There is significance in why we are going this weekend. It marks the eighth anniversary of Liz's death. I cannot believe she has been gone that long. I miss her so much. I'm at the point where I really need a hug from her again. It seems when I get to that point, God tends to give me a dream. I get to talk to her, and hug her and tell her how much I love her. Then I feel much better. Maybe God will allow that to happen again. I am not going to count on that, but I can hope.

We are going to drive over to see Micah on Sunday and Monday too. It is a long drive, but I haven't seen him since we had that horrible snow storm that shut down the state in March. I miss him a lot too.

I better get some things done, I'll keep you posted on anything exciting, and maybe even some boring stuff!