CFA Seminar 2012

      Well, hello world.  It has been a while since I was got on here to report about our life.  This week has been a whirlwind in Orlando, kicking off with our Chick-fil-A Seminar.  Every year, we head to some fun location with 4,100 CFA peeps for 3 days of a massive CFA pep rally (if you want to read about last year's, click here).  There is great food, and it feels like a giant family reunion.  Chick-fil-A treats us so well, and I feel so enormously blessed to be with a company who takes the time, energy and resources to invest into us.  The first night was an awards ceremony, and at the end, Martina McBride came out and did a surprise concert for us.  She has an incredible voice and was so gracious.



We got to hang out with good friends - some of whom we only get to see once a year at Seminar.  Here are Kristen and I.  You made the blog, Kristen!



There was this huge piece of balloon art right in the middle of everything that we were constantly walking past.  There were many speculations about what this thing could possibly be.  We landed on it being a giant zygote.  It required several pictures.

Another amazing thing about this year's Seminar is that some of our good friends were awarded a store of their own.  It was this crazy secret for about 3 weeks that we got to be in on, and then, we got to see it all play out on stage.  Congrats, Kristin and Glenn - you guys will be amazing in Encinitas!




Since we were there over Valentine's Day, they hosted special dinners poolside for us all.  There were beautiful, fancy invitations delivered to our rooms.



And, we had a delightful, full evening under the stars with our friends.  Not that we could see many stars due to the light pollution in Orlando, but it was nice to be outside.



Seminar is such an amazing time.  I really could go on and on talking about it.  Here are a few more tidbits.
-  As of last Friday, Chick-fil-A is debt free as a company!  I feel like this deserves so many more exclamation points than I am usually comfortable giving anything!!!!!!!  I think the Cathy family should give our government some pointers, because this required sacrifice and was hard, but they did it.
-  I wish that everyone, everywhere had to wear a name tag that identified who they are and where they are from.  It is so nice to be able to figure out who everyone is and be refreshed on people's names who you may not have seen in a year.
-  Though it may be a bit nerdy, I love going to all the sessions and learning.  Most "leadership" principles can be applied to almost any area of your life, and it is fascinating to soak in new information.
-  It is a bit exhausting to be running into people you know and love every 10 feet or so.  It is a bit like summer camp in that way, and when it is time to leave, you are pretty ready to go.  John and I are both split down the middle with extroversion/introversion, so it definitely used up all of our extroverted energy.
-  Truett Cathy is getting old, and I feel that it is such a privilege to see him speak.  He is 91!  I imagine that it is truly amazing to look around that giant stadium of people and know that God brought it all about through him.  Truett is a hero.  He is also forever immortalized on these M'M's that they gave us.



-  They announced that next year, Seminar will be on a Cruise.  Watch out world.
-  Every year, I fall more in love with our company.  We may sell chicken for a living, but it is so much more than that.  I love the family that we belong to.  Thanks, Chick-fil-A, for being amazing and exactly what God has for us.

That sort of sums up our time at Seminar.  Next episode I will be blogging about our time in amusement parks - Harry Potter World was awesome!