CFA NEXT IN THE BIG D & ICE STORM IN THE ROCK

Every year, CFA takes us someplace in February for our annual conference.  For the first time, this year we did it by regions instead of having everyone together.  At first, I was super bummed about this, because it meant that I wouldn't get to see dear friends that I usually get to connect with.  And, while that was still a bummer, having a smaller/slightly less overwhelming event was a pleasant change.  It was always easy to find John in the crowd, because there was only one massive dining room instead of 4-5.  It was all just simpler.

We stayed in the Omni downtown and had a view of Reunion Tower from the terrace off of our room.

Early Monday morning (like 4:30 a.m.), we woke up to news that an ice storm had accosted our hometown.  This meant several things for us.  One - we had decisions to make about the business right off the bat.  Ice storms are fairly miserable for us on that front.  Two - we started praying immediately that the power would stay on at our house for John's parents and our children.  Then, we argued for quite a while about what threshold it would take for us to have to leave Dallas early.  I started continuously checking the power outage maps on my phone hoping for the best and dreading the worse.

I'm pleased to say that our home never lost power, praise King Jesus.  Things were a bit crazy at the restaurant including having our supply truck jack-knife in front of the restaurant and be stuck for 3.5 hours before a tow truck was able to rescue it.  This managed to make the local news in a pretty funny way - click here to watch the video of a local kid getting a chance to report this urgent news.

Our days at CFA Next were completely packed.  It included lots of food at every turn.  Each break brought a whole new set of snacks to choose from.



There was a fair amount of time sitting in sessions while eating snacks.  That bug doodle was actually part of the talk.

Good times were had with good friends and funny operator photo-bombers.



One afternoon brought massages for Kristen and I.  We were so excited.

We celebrated the great year in many ways, including Dan Cathy joining a local high school marching band to parade through the room.  During a different session, Dan randomly joined our table.  You can bet we all straightened up and engaged a little more as soon as he sat down.  He talked to us for a bit after it was over, and I am always amazed by his gentle kindness and humility.



John and I also snuck away one night to see a great friend from college at the Meddlesome Moth - a really cool restaurant.



I love our annual CFA pep rally.  CFA is my favorite company, and I am so thankful to be in partnership with them.  While they do not get everything right at every moment, they are doing their absolute best, and their hearts are in the right place.  Looking forward to next year when we will be back together with the whole company in Orlando again!



Past CFA Seminars

{2014}  {2013}  {2012}  {2011}