First let me say, thank you all who left comments yesterday! They blessed my heart more than you know.

Before I get into the meat of this post, I decided to share a picture of my hair — before and after. On Monday after the conference, I went shopping with Shari which was an awesome experience! (And yes, Shari, I need to do before and after pictures!!) Shari had a friend, Sharon who managed to fit me in for an updated hairstyle.

This was me while Shari was picking out the first round of clothes for me to try on. Duck said I looked like a cocker spaniel (which actually is a compliment coming from him as he loves spaniels). The picture above shows you what my hair looks like without blow drying or styling or anything. A frizzy, fluffy, thick, curly mess. Oh, and no makeup either.

This is my after picture. Sharon put some more layers in my hair so it wouldn’t flare at the bottom making me look like I had cocker spaniel ears I also have some makeup on that Shari showed me how to use. I use makeup on Sundays mainly, but Shari showed me some different, easy things I could do to make my eyes pop.

On to what I learned about others at She Speaks …

The P31 ladies love them some Jesus! Every single one of them made sure that we knew it wasn’t about them, it’s about Jesus. Many of the ladies had that inner peace inside them — the kind God gives you when you are walking in His will. At times I felt guilty being there. Here it was sold-out and I felt I was just taking up space. They all kept saying “God has you here for a reason” so I held onto that. I guess I was worried that since I hadn’t been having my quiet time, that maybe I went ahead of God and it wasn’t in His plan for me to be there. But, even if I was out of His will, He’ll still bring good out of it.

One of the biggest lessons God taught me during the conference is that Lysa is in my head. Ok, not literally. But everything she said — in every session I attended — was exactly how I had been feeling. God helped me to realize I am not alone. The devil likes to make us feel like we are alone, but that’s so far from the truth. In the blogger’s reception, I felt like I was a big ol’ dork and I also figured I was the only one feeling that way — but I wasn’t. We all want to be liked. We all want to feel like one of the cool kids. Just go read Lysa’s post from today. It brought tears to my eyes because it described exactly how I felt.

Lysa is just as sweet and kind as she seems to be on her blog. I thought she would be hard to get to, but she took time to stop and talk to every lady who wanted to. That’s no small feat. Holly, Lysa’s assistant, was so extremely humble and nice as well. She was helping Lysa by carrying her stuff and helping her stay on schedule where she needed to be. Lysa could stop and pose for pictures with everyone, Holly took care of Lysa’s things. It was just a really nice balance — they make a great team.

Robin was absolutely a hoot. She is funny and easy to talk to. She has a beautiful smile and knows how to best stand for photos. She’s a little quirky when it comes to taking pictures — she likes to angle the camera (an example later). And the girl loves shoes. Coffee and shoes. Here I am a Coke drinker and fashion challenged. She still let me hang out with her

Jo-Lynne is quieter in person than she is on her blog. She and I at certain times of the weekend were both feeling overwhelmed. She’s really nice and I think blogging is one of her passions too

Sarah is Jo-Lynne’s good friend in real life. I hadn’t read her blog much, but it was such a joy to get to know her better this weekend. She’s another one that was very easy to talk to.

Dawn has 8 children. That’s not a typo. Let that settle in for a minute. EIGHT children — and she homeschools. Amazing. She’s another blog geek like me and thankfully she loves WordPress almost as much as I do. I’d hate to have a battle of the blogging platforms over a relaxing weekend.

Valerie is very nice as well. She and I were in on some of the same writer sessions, but I know she’s much farther along than I am. She’s been published and stuff before. People kept asking me why I was there — and I know they meant writing, speaking or women’s ministry — because they all thought I was a freak when I said “for blogging.”

Alyssa was so much taller than I expected. She is a very tall toothpick that’s all baby! She’s very sweet and has a passion for her ministry that comes through in person as well as on her blog.

Melanie really is tall and always looked put together. It seriously blew me away when Melanie passed by on Saturday and said “Hey Lisa!” I hope it wasn’t too obvious my jaw dropped and my eyes popped out.

Shannon was a little shorter than I thought she’d be — I’m guessing because I had built her up in my head as being this huge blogger, I figured she must be tall too? She was very sweet and gracious. I felt like a big dork meeting her the first time (read yesterday’s post about deodorant failure), but it was a joy to sit around later in the weekend and listen to everyone talk blogging.

Sophie is beautiful, put together and just as sweet sounding in person as she writes on her blawg. I love how she knows how to spell all the southern words the way we say them.

I learned that these superstar bloggers (Sophie, Melanie and Shannon) are human too. They may seem like they are untouchable or don’t communicate with all their commenters, but really, they are moms just like us. They are trying to get their laundry done, cook dinner and spend time with their kids. They have so many people reading their blogs that there has to be some balance there. I heard Melanie say this weekend she wishes she could respond to everyone who leaves a comment, but she simply can’t. That’s something I can’t imagine because I don’t get that many comments. I do need to find balance though between real life and bloggy life. I hope you find that balance too.

KelliGirl probably thinks I’m an absolute nut! I told her before the conference to find me there and I had a surprise for her. She’s a big Harley fan (never ridden) and Duck was riding his bike down Sunday. Unfortunately she had to leave before she could get a ride. When we met, I just rattled on and on about how Duck was coming and would give her a ride. It didn’t dawn on me to stop and ask her if she was interested

Towards the end of the weekend, Kelli and I were walking and talking. She mentioned how very lonely blogging can be — you write something, throw it out there and then nothing. I told her I knew exactly how she felt because it’s the same way for me. She seemed really surprised. She said I seem to have tons of readers who leave comments. I have been blessed with some friends through blogging. Her comment though made me realize that maybe people were looking at me like a Shannon, Sophie or Melanie.

Just remember, there are tons of women who are ahead of where you are — maybe they are in the place you want to be. But there are also tons of women behind you who would love to be where you are. Look to those who are ahead and learn what you can, but turn around and teach those who are behind you as well.