What An Awesome Leadership! Day 1

I'm home, exhausted and completely overwhelmed with all the news, activities and excitement of Leadership 2011! What a jam packed couple days of complete renewal for the soul! Sometimes I get so involved in my day to day activities and routine, I wonder why I do this. Well, after Leadership I have no doubt why I do this and have a very clear path for my future. No one... and I mean no one... does that better than Stampin' Up!

Kim and I came in a day early to share a little BFF time before the madness. It was so good to see her again! We took a tour on Wednesday that included the Ryman Auditorium, Grand Old Opry Hall of Fame and the Wild Horse Saloon.

I sang a little ditty for the folks at the Ryman. They loved it!! Luckily only BFF and the tour guide were there. Ü What an interesting place, I loved it!

Onto the museum where we killed 2 hours with no problem. We were hungry by then, so we had this brilliant idea to eat at our next stop, the Wild Horse Saloon.

Only to find out it was closed that day and night for a private event! He said Staaaaaampin' Up! (that was Stampin' Up! with his southern drawl. Thank goodness there was already no 'g' on the end, he would have taken it off! Ü) had reserved the whole thing...how was that for a spoiler alert?! I just found out where the coveted Managers Reception was going to be and I was still starving! We went on in and looked through the gift shop. They let us into the bar to look around for a minute. We peeked at some of the SU! staff getting their private line dance lessons. Tee-hee! I won't tell anyone!

That took all of 10 minutes and then we had to wait an hour for our bus to come back and get us.

Back at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel where we stayed, we had to navigate our way through the miles and miles of hotel to find the place they were picking us up for Managers Reception. Luckily there were a few pointers in the right direction. I'm telling ya, Stampin' Up! demonstrators will have their picture taken with anyone holding a sign! Ü

Natasha Zandbergen and myself with a SU! employee.

It was pretty obvious where we were suppose to be when we found it...there were hundreds of demonstrators there with cowboy hats on. Stampin' Up! gave each of us a hat adorned with Early Espresso 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon and Antique Brads! We had a quick photo on the stairs then off to the bus.

Stampin' Up! had indeed taken over the Wild Horse Saloon for a fabulous Managers Reception evening! Here is the front door!

Shelli greeted everyone in her oh-so-stylish cowboy fashion. She's just adorable in anything!

They served a yummy buffet of pulled pork, brisket, and other southern stuff.

Shown in this photo is Dirk's wife, Natasha Z., Natasha H., Brenda, (who I FINALLY got to be a little goofy!!) and Twila.

Dave Robbins was the pre-show to Brother Trouble. Stampin' Up had their logo lighting up the dance floor!


When I got back, BFF crashed in exhaustion from her evenings' festivities hanging out with friends while I was gone. I lined my goodies up on my bed and took a quick picture. It was very cool to get the Managers Reception stamp set this year all wrapped up in brown paper, AND to be able to get our Leadership bags that night instead of standing in line the next morning! Oh, I tell ya, it's the little things that make us so happy! I did stand in line with Kim to get hers tho, but I was proudly holding mine from the night before!!

I'll be back with more fun photos this week.