Hello, ladies! I hope everyone made it home safely and happily from the Siesta SMT Celebration. For those of you who were unable to join us, please know that we missed you and thought of you a million times. I don’t know when or where, but I feel certain there will be a “next time.”

Yesterday would have been a great day for me to write a recap of the event, with it being so fresh on my mind and heart, but I was so tired I could barely string two sentences together. Did anyone else feel like that? Thanks for your patience as I spent the last 48 hours recuperating and tending to my family. I know Mom would be on here right now except that we start our new semester of Bible study tomorrow (yippee!) and she’s got her sweet little head in her books today. So here is my feeble attempt to recap a weekend that was too wonderful for words. Please forgive my lack of pictures. I will work on those tomorrow.

Dressed in my black and green SSMTC t-shirt, I set out from the house on Friday afternoon and headed to The Omni. Hillsong United was playing loudly in the car and it was one of those times when I probably embarrassed myself in front of other drivers but didn’t care. My heart was so full! I got to the hotel and drove to the back to find the “free” parking garage, which I knew about thanks to a comment I read from one of you. As soon as I got out of my car I saw a group of Siestas who were leaving to have dinner at Pappasito’s. It was such a fun encounter – the first of many! I made my way into the lobby to check in to my room and there were Siestas and pink feathers everywhere. My first thought was, “They came! They really came!” What a wonderful sight! I got to see Tiffany, Adrienne/Fuzzytop, and Melana/Moose Mama as well as many other beautiful ladies in pink boas. (That was such a great idea, y’all.)

I dropped everything off in my room and looked out the window to see some of our Siestas (I think) hanging out by the pool. They weren’t actually swimming, but I was so glad they got to enjoy the beautiful warm day. Next I went up to 1123 to check out the hospitality room the hotel had given us. It was so pretty! I felt like I was in a palace. I got to visit with some more sweet Siestas and then it was time to head to the church.

It was not long before our ladies started to arrive. In fact, I think some of y’all beat me there. I was stationed at one of the name tag tables, which is where I met Kelly Jo from Kentucky and my bloggy friend Charity who brought me a box of tea from the UK. We had never met face-to-face but I felt like I knew her. I’m sure you can relate. Melanie/Big Mama was there (in a very cute jacket) bearing cookies from her favorite bakery in San Antonio. Siesta Tiffany brought the Moore girls two boxes of cookies from JD’s Chippery – our favorite place in Dallas. Are you kidding me? Could we be any more blessed? My friend Marla Taviano came in from Ohio and it was such a gift to have her there. She made her own boa out of fun scraps of pink fabric. It was so adorable!

Wow, this is already so long and the conference hasn’t even started. Sorry!

Soon it was time to begin. Mom came in and Melissa and I went on stage to help her welcome everyone. I immediately got a hundred massive butterflies in my stomach when I got up there and saw all 507 ladies. It was very exciting to see everyone though! We shared some fun statistics about who was there and where they came from (even Alaska and Hawaii!) and then it was time for worship. Travis Cottrell led us with a Houston-based praise team (which included our own LPM sister, Kimberly McMahon/KMac, and our Tuesday night worship leader, Lisa Pierre) and the iPod band. They were awesome. We were on the front row and could hear everyone in the room singing so loudly. It seemed like the group didn’t even need a warm-up – we were at a “10” from the start. During worship it struck me that in Siestaville, Jesus is truly the first and deepest bond that we all share. Our love for Him is the Reason for all of this.

(Please allow me to interject that I just heard from a Siesta who discovered on Saturday morning that her 4-year-old son had unpacked all of her unmentionables to “play a trick on mommy.” That deserves both an “LOL” and a “bless her heart!”)

Beth brought a great message from Psalm 119. She had her own little trick planned in which she tried to tell us that we’d be memorizing all 176 verses in 17 hours. I just looked for my notes to share some of the points I wrote down, but I can’t find them anywhere! Oh no! Y’all will have to help me out.

After the session, we all had Siesta Mama’s Texas sheet cake and mingled in the church foyer. Can you believe she was able to bake that much cake and teach the conference? Neither can I! We have Chefs Paul and Katherine to thank for our yummy dessert. Lots of fun pictures and hugs later, it was time to say goodnight.

Melanie/Big Mama and I took Marla to have a traditional Texas Aggie dinner at none other than Freebird’s. Melanie is about the size of my pinky and she attempted to eat a monster size burrito. The monster won out in the end. I’m not sure if Marla was a fan of the Freebird, but she was a good sport about it. We finally headed back to the hotel and then Marla and I went to the hospitality room to hang out. It was after 11 at that point and there were only two Siestas up there. I was so sad to have missed the party! But more ladies trickled in and we pulled up chairs in a circle. That was a neat time. Two ladies were having a little issue with their room, and all of a sudden one of the Omni workers walked through the door and called out their names. He said, “You are now the Mistresses of the suite.” Then he swung open a door and revealed their beautiful new room that adjoined the hospitality suite. Everyone was squealing and laughing because it was just so cool to see God loving on them.

By this time I think we were all about to drop. Marla and I went back to the room and crashed. I slept until about 3:40, at which point I woke up never to drift back into blessed dreamland. It was a combination of being too excited and the room being too quiet. Oh, the irony of being unable to sleep in a quiet room! The good news is I was pretty much ready by 6 a.m.

We made it back to the church and grabbed some food. I think some of our ladies got to try breakfast tacos for the first time. (One of my faves!) After prayer time with the team, it was time to begin. Morning worship was tremendous and Travis had us ready to receive our word from the Lord. Mom brought the second half of her message and the Lord was moving in our hearts. She got really hyper toward the end and Melissa and I couldn’t stop laughing in amazement. She’d told us (and demonstrated) that she got so excited while listening to a Chris Tomlin song on her walk that she stopped, did a knee lift and played the air guitar. In the middle of the neighborhood. Oh my word, my parents are going to have to move now!

After Mom finished teaching, we broke up into pairs and said our memory verses to one another. Everyone spread out throughout the church and courtyard, which was a sight to see. Mom and I said our verses to each other while Melissa went out and took some pictures of our girls doing their thing.

Thirty minutes later we met back up in the fellowship hall where the event took place. It just happened to be in the room where Mom’s Sunday school class used to be, which was really special for her. We gave away some door prizes like $25 gift certificates to our LPM store, some Wising Up DVD’s, and a few So Long Insecurity books. We also had the ladies vote for their favorite blog name or screen name. Spicy Magnolia/Meghan came in second place and Lopsidedhalo/Brittney came in first! They came on stage to explain why they chose those names and then we gave them copies of SLI. They were both so adorable!

We did a little question and answer session with the time we had left. It was kind of like the one at the Siesta Fiesta in 2008, but shorter. Those are fun to do with Mom and Melissa but later on I always wonder if I said something dumb. That’s why writing is so much better! I can always go back and edit this post but once you speak something outloud, that’s it. That freaks me out a little bit.

Travis and the team closed us out with worship and I think we would have stayed there all day if we could have. Melissa, Mom and I hated for it to be over, so we decided to go out in the foyer and see everyone off. We got to hug a lot of necks, take some pictures, and say “See you next time!” It was bittersweet!

I want to end by telling you what WONDERFUL, AMAZING, GODLY, BEAUTIFUL, HILARIOUS, SMART, WARM, LOVING, GRACE-FILLED women you all are. We love you ladies so very much. I’m not just talking about the ones we got to meet, but also you sitting on the other side of the screen who didn’t get to come this time. You ladies are jewels and we love getting to journey with you. Thanks for everything you add to our lives and for how you enrich this ministry.

And thank you for coming to the Siesta Scripture Memory Team Celebration! We had a blast!

Okay, I’m going to try something new. If you would like to share your own SSMTC recap and/or pictures from your blog, you can link to it here. Copy and paste the link that goes directly to the specific post you have written (not just to your blog in general). If this goes well we might be able to use it for future events, which could be fun! If you just want to leave a comment, you can still do that. Just look below the McLinky and you’ll see where to do it.

Siesta Scripture Memory Team Celebration Recaps

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