Top 10 Things about The 2:1 Conference

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Oh, my goodness, y’all! You know I just got back from The 2:1 Conference. It was a complete and total blast! I am so very, very glad I got to go and I can’t wait until the next one in 2013!

I’m just brimming over with things I want to share with you all and I’ll be doing so over the course of a few posts because God showed me a couple of things that deserve their own post. I wanted to share the highlights with you, though, so here are my top ten, but not necessarily in any particular order.

Top Ten Tuesday at Many Little Blessings
1. Rooming with Angie. Okay, so I know that Lauren, from Mama’s Learning Corner already has dibs on her for the Savvy Blogging Conference, but I call dibs on Angie, from Many Little Blessings, for any conference that we attend together after that.

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(me, Cheryl, and Angie)

Angie was absolutely the perfect roommate. She doesn’t snore (or, if she does, I fell asleep before she started), she likes the room really dark and really cold, and our getting ready schedules meshed perfectly.

And, although there was much discussion about the choice of firm and soft pillows that were really the same, I slept so well while I was gone. It was cold, it was dark, and there were not whining puppies or barking dogs. It was heaven!

2. Reconnecting with old friends. It was so nice to see some friends that I haven’t seen in two years or more, like…

Jolanthe

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and Rebecca.

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3. Meeting so many friends for the first time. It was also incredible meeting other friends for the first time. And, I don’t say “new” friends, because when I met them, I realized that we truly were already friends, even though we’d never met face to face.

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I told Amy that it was so cool to me that there was no awkwardness. It was just an immediate level of comfort and was more like catching up with and old friend than getting to know a new one.

4. Meeting several of my fellow Homeschool Classroom authors. It was so good to meet Dianna, Amanda, and Angie. Of course, Cheryl was there, too, but since she’s the one who organized the whole shebang, she was awfully busy, so we didn’t manage to snag her for a group photo.

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(Hey, Angie, did you notice that Bob didn’t make it into the picture?)

Oh, and apparently I missed the memo that we were all supposed to wear black.

5. Fabulous speakers. Wow! God really spoke through such fabulous ladies as Rebecca Powell, Rachel Carmen and Rachel Martin. Rachel Martin was slated to be the emcee, but she wound up filling in for one of the keynote speakers whose father became ill.

As she was speaking, I just kept thinking, “God is not surprised that Rachel is speaking today.” He spoke through her in such a powerful way. It’s one of the things that God said to me through Rachel that I’ll have to tell you more about in a later post.

The other thing God showed me – that also gets its own post – was during Rachel Carmen’s session. It was a sponsor breakout session, so I wasn’t expecting anything more than some information about Apologia’s products. It was so much more than that. I can’t wait to tell you more.

6. Plenty of sweet tea. When I checked in Friday afternoon, the front desk person told me that she had something for me. I laughed out loud when she brought this to the counter:

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In case you can’t tell because of the note, that’s a gallon of Chick-Fil-A sweet tea. Yes, my friends, I am loved. That gallon was from Jolanthe. Two other gallons showed up from Ms. Love My Crazy Life (whose real name I’m sure I was told, but I was sleep-deprived).

Yes, you read that right. We had three gallons of Chick-Fil-A sweet tea.

There was plenty of sweet tea for sharing, though I didn’t manage to find many takers. (What’s wrong with these people?!?) I did have one big group of, um, friends, who wanted to share. Yeah, Angie had to call the front desk and have them come spray our room for ants. Oops!

7. Flying. Yep, I love to fly! I was so very worried about going through airport security because I haven’t flown since pre-9/11. I know there are horror stories, but my experience was incredibly kind TSA folks. If I’d known it was going to be so easy, I wouldn’t have put off flying for so long.

Take-off is my favorite part. I was like a little kid on an amusement park ride. I had a huge smile on my face every time I got to experience take-off. Dealing with a connecting flight both ways wasn’t even a hassle…it just meant that I got two extra take-offs!

8. Nice people. With the exception of the one lady who wanted to fight me on my first flight (another story that deserves its own post), everyone I met was so very nice. There the TSA agent who, upon hearing that this was my first time flying in 15 years, told me that he was there to make things easy and to make my flight enjoyable.

Really? That’s not what I’ve heard. I didn’t tell him that, though. I just smiled and thanked him for being so pleasant.

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(Jolanthe and Carisa)

All the people I wound up sitting with on each of my flights was really nice, especially the pilot I sat with on my flight back from Dullesa pilot, I had to clarify to Megan, not the pilot. She was a little concerned about that arrangement.

After we landed he, without a word, pulled out his smart phone, pulled up his Delta app and checked to see from which gate my connecting flight was leaving. He told me where it was, pulled out a map to show me where we were and where I was going and made sure I knew where the food court was.

I keep thinking that I wish I knew who he was so that I could somehow send him a thank-you note. Pay it forward, Kris. Pay it forward.

And, I can’t forget Joy’s wonderful husband who worked really hard to resurrect my phone that died as soon as I arrived in Sterling.

9. My phone dying. Um, yeah. I sent a text when I arrived at Dulles Airport on Friday. When I arrived at the hotel, my phone was dead. Completely dead. Not a dead battery, just nothing. Bumming Angie’s phone to text Brian and call him a couple of times was the only contact I had with my family all weekend.

I also missed texts from friends at the conference – well, probably not too many since I whined to anyone who would listen about my poor phone.

So, why is my phone dying on my top ten list? Because I went to get a new one today and it turns out that I could get a smart phone for about the same price I could get a basic one. So, guess what I got? My very first smart phone!

I’m so excited! It’s going to take me weeks to figure it out. I’m really afraid that it’s smarter than me.

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(Maureen and Dianna)

10. Great sponsors. Last, but not least, I want to mention all the great 2:1 sponsors. Apologia (I can’t wait to attend one of their retreats), Bright Ideas Press, Classical Conversations, HSLDA, CurrClick, All About Spelling, Grapevine Studies, The Homeschool Lounge, Home Educating Family, and HEAV.

I have to say a very special thank you to Peter Pollock of New Blog Hosting who so patiently answered my 2,001 questions about moving to Word Press.

I had such a great time. I encourage you all to make plans to attend next year, if you can. You will be so blessed.

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday.

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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.

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27 Comments

  1. Kris! It was soooo much fun re-connecting with you at 2to1. You are such an incredible lady–so talented and so real. You should be speaking more, my friend–and I'm sure you will as the Lord leads. You have so much to offer.
    btw, I will say again, you look absolutely fabulous. You are the picture of the good things that happen to us when we are diligent and disciplined. I love that. And I love you!

  2. Thank you so much, Rebecca. It was so good to see you again, too. It's been too long. Love you, too, friend.

  3. I am SO glad that tea brought a smile to your face ~ although there were a billion other things and people over the weekend to help with that, it never hurts to start the weekend off right. 🙂 The kids laughed when I told them about it and say 'hi' too.

    and YAY for smart phones!!

  4. Thanks for sharing at the break out sessions.  I learned a lot at both! I'm looking forward especially to putting some unit studies.

  5. Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the sessions…and your comment reminded me to change the discount code on my ebook for you. Let me know if you have any problems downloading.

  6. Thanks for sharing today.  I love meeting people in real life & wish I could have attended this conference.  BlissDom was a great opportunity for me to meet other homeschool bloggers and I've put 2 to 1 on the calendar for next year.

  7.  Eric burst out laughing when he saw the HSC picture.  He wondered how it was that at 5'5.5" that I look like an Amazon woman.  😉

  8. It was so nice to meet you in person. If it makes you feel better about the group pic, my shirt was really a dark navy – it just looks black in the pic 🙂

  9. I thought it might have counted that I changed into black for my breakout session later in the day. 😉

  10. Love that people brought you sweet tea, lol!  We had a few ants in our room, but no sweet tea.   Hmm, must have been the chocolate?  It was an amazing conference!

  11. I loved it, too! I heard that we weren't the only ones with ants, so maybe my tea wasn't totally at fault.

  12.  I was wearing my super flat flats as well.  Guess that extra half inch makes a difference.  😉

  13. That's a riot — I had to scroll back up and look at it again. I knew Kris and I were about the same height, but we look like books to yours and Amanda's bookends. 

  14. Kris — This is a late comment, but I'm so glad that we got to officially meet! You are exactly how I imagined — sweet as sugar, and down to earth! 

    Thanks for letting me pal around with you!
    Looking forward to next year! 

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