I didn’t expect to go to BlogHer - wasn’t making any plans, and then within the month before the conference I received sponsor money and a good reason to go. Frankly, I had left it up to the Lord. I’d prayed something like this: If it’s good for my business and I should be there you’ll have to make it happen Lord, because I don’t have the time, energy, or money to get myself there. And now I have a BlogHer12 highlight video and good memories.

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I really took a more casual, easy-going approach with this conference. It’s so easy to get exhausted and overwhelmed. I saw it on the faces of many women there – especially on Saturday. When people ask,

• “Did you have fun at BlogHer?” I can say yes.
• Did I go to private parties? One.
• Did I get lots of swag? No, that was not why I went.
• Did I make some new connections? I hope so. [I really need to write emails.]
• Is it the best blogging conference ever? No. Biggest – yes. Best – no.
• Would I recommend it to other bloggers? It’s not in my top 5 for sure.
• Was I occasionally embarrassed by some of the bloggers? Yes. I think I’ll use the term content creator for what I do.
• Did I accomplish my reason for going? Yes. I met the people I wanted to meet and even got introduced to some new products that I’m excited to try.

Besides getting to meet The Pioneer Woman at the Land O’Lakes Booth at BlogHer12 I got to hug a bunch of blogger friends that I’ve met before and even meet some of them face to face for the first time. It really doesn’t feel like a first meeting with those that I’ve interacted with for a while – especially the ones that do video. It feels like we are just continuing our conversations. And with that I’m off for more conversations [and video making].

Thursday evening I walked up to the Land O’Lakes booth in the BlogHer Expo Hall because:

• A. I have Land O’Lakes butter in my fridge.
• B. they were giving away freezer bags and mine at home has a ripped zipper.
• C. they smiled so pretty and were right in front of me.
• D. all of the above.

The answer is D. My main reason for going to the Expo Hall was not to get stuff, but I was tired and my brain was a mish-mash of thoughts. They said 2 things that caught my attention.
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Jendi & Devon with J&J products

I should be going to sleep. I have a photo shoot [sort of - hee-hee] at 9AM and I need my beauty sleep. I just realized it was past midnight when I told the MacBook to show me “today’s files” and it was empty. “What happened to my pictures?!” Oh, I have to look in “Yesterday” now.

Here’s what I did today:

Woke up early because I couldn’t sleep. Panicked halfway through the morning that I wouldn’t have everything and everyone ready. Heard my husband re-assure me, and even got the dishes done before I left!

Rode the Megabus to NYC. That’s a story for another time, but we [husband & I] did save money by doing that. We also arrived a half hour later than we were hoping to, but things worked out ok.

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