Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Charlotte - Round 2

A few months ago we loaded up the car and headed to Charlotte for the weekend.

We did that again a few weeks ago!  This time, however, we didn't take Wren with us and we had a small glitch!!

The co-founders of ACN decided to do a contest of the best story on "How you got to Charlotte."  It was the weekend all the snow came and flights were cancelled left and right, so everyone's stories included lay-overs for hours and having to rent cars and driving for days.  The 10 winners will get to attend a VIP lunch with them on the Saturday of the convention in San Jose California, coming up in June.  Here's our story:

Our story doesn't include the kind of weather that you might think...my husband, Gary Washer and I along with our friends Brandon & Kelsy Beard had planned to leave murfreesboro tn at 4:30 am on Friday morning. That would put us in Charlotte a little before the convention started. However, my husband woke up at 2:30, and for lack of better words, yacking his brains out. I woke up, moved myself and my pillow out of the infested room and texted Brandon and Kelsy. Gary and I were supposed to drive and the hotel was booked through Orbitz under our credit card. Not sure if you've tried to cancel a hotel through Orbitz and especially at the last minute, but they charge you. So, we decided that Brandon could pretend to be Gary and come get his ID and CC so they would have a place to stay when they arrived. I then fell asleep on the couch. Meanwhile, Gary is still hovering over the toilet in the back of the house and for the first time in his life he is forcing himself to throw up to get whatever it was OUT of his body!! He knew the quicker he could get over it the quicker we could be on our way to Charlotte. By 10am he was feeling up for the drive. Still not 100%, but he knew he was on the upward slope of it. We finally arrived in Charlotte just in time for bed on Friday night. And after a good nights sleep we were able to make it for Saturday and Sunday! It was so powerful and definitely picked us up from being "under the weather"!!!

We still haven't heard who won, but are hopeful that we can be some of the guests!!  Getting to pick the brains behind this entire operation is something we can only dream of at this point in our journey with ACN!

The weekend was AMAZING!!  Yes, Gary and I missed all day Friday, but what we did hear was nothing short of remarkable.  We got to see 3 RVP promotions and those alone were so inspiring!  

Our own Team Coordinators, Robert and Teresa Epps got to give a short intro of themselves as well as our RVP, Michael Crowder and his wife, Jennifer!  We are blessed to have an up-line that cares so much about PEOPLE!!

Robert & Teresa

Michael and Jennifer

On Sunday of every convention there is a guest speaker.  This time it was Andy Andrews.  He was AWESOME!!!!!  The one thing that stuck out in my mind, as well as Gary's, was when he talked about math skills.  Asian kids vs. American kids.


He asked, "In the American classroom, when a teacher asks a student to come to the board to answer a math problem, who does she choose?  The kid who is good at math or the one who is struggling?"  I immediately answer the question in my head as, 'the kid who is good at math.' Andy agrees and goes on to say, "The reason American teachers do that is because they don't want to embarrass any child or cause any one to make fun of them."  He then says, "In an Asian school, the teacher will bring the child up who is struggling with math.  They will get to the board and answer as much of the question as they can on their own and when they get stumped the other students will help out.  They continue this way until they have the final answer.  Then the student puts down the chalk, turns to the classroom and bows.  The Asians help the ones who struggle and the Americans make fun of them."  WOW!!!!!  Now this is not anything against the American school system, this is just American's way of thinking.  Because, I too, would have chosen the 'American Way.'  We need to get out of this mindset and learn to encourage the struggling.  There were sooooo many more nuggets of goodness in his talk and I'm hoping that I have another opportunity in the future to hear him speak again.

Us with Kelsy and Brandon.

After the convention was over we got an invite to Michael Crowder's house
He took a panoramic of the room.  Can you find Gary and me???  We're there, I promise!  

It was awesome!!  We got to meet so many people and learned a ton about piquing people.  We finally made it back home around 11pm Sunday night.  It was a quick trip, but OH so worth it!!  We can't wait until next convention!


Kimberly


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