Here I am bursting with the news I’ve been dying to tell you for weeks:
No, I’m not pregnant (seems like a reasonable caveat with my track record.)
The BIG NEWS is about the Edel Gathering organized by lovely and wonderful ladies, Jen Fulwiler and Hallie Lord. It is going to be an AMAZING weekend of renewal and fun for moms (and conversation with other grown ups!) in Austin, TX July 25th and 26th. It’s like all my favorite Catholic bloggers are congregating into an awesome explosion of good times: Jen and Hallie will be there. Dwija and Cari will be there. Ana and Grace will be there! Check out the web site to be introduced to the whole fantastic team. Ahhhh! I wouldn’t miss this for the world. And not only will I be there, but….well, let me tell you a funny story:
A few weeks ago I got an email from THE Jen Fulwiler which was in and of itself enough to completely make my afternoon. It was about the gathering Jen and Hallie were brainstorming about (I had recently mentioned on Carrots that it seemed like a Catholic womens/blogging conference was really needed.) And my first thought was, “Oh my gosh! Jen’s organizing a shindig! And she’s letting telling me about it! She’s going to let me attend her event! This is awesome!”
Then my jaw dropped. Because Jen and Hallie were asking me to SPEAK at the conference. As in, be a speaker. Stand up in the front and talk. This can’t be right, I thought. So I checked to make sure she hadn’t accidentally cc’d me when she was emailing the person she ACTUALLY wanted to invite to speak…..But it did say “Haley” at the top of the email. Must be the wrong address! Must a DIFFERENT Haley. That explains it! So I did some very methodical google searches: “Haley catholic blogger” “Haley Stewart blog” “Haley Stewart catholic”, etc. Just me. Then I re-read the email approximately 25,000 times and noticed that she did reference “Daniel” and the fact that everybody had been sick at our house….so unless there was another Catholic blogging Haley Stewart with a husband named Daniel inhabiting a house of 3 currently ill children, she was actually asking me to speak at the event.
But I did make Daniel read the email, too. Just to be sure, before responding with a a bunch of exclamation points that yes, I would speak and I couldn’t be more excited about it.
So…….I’m speaking at the Edel Gathering! With some amazing women and please, pretty please, come hang out with me in Austin and eat tex-mex!
And if you don’t want to wait til July to hang out, you should definitely join me and some other Janeites tonight for the Motherhood and Jane Austen book club meeting. You can follow along on YouTube and we’ll be discussing Pride and Prejudice. So fun!
Also, today is the LAST DAY of the 40% off sale of our ebook, Feast! So, grab yourself a copy while it’s still $4.99!
Congrats!
Thanks, Mary!
EHRMAGERD I WANT TO GO!!!!
That is all.
Actually that is not all…congratulations on being a speaker there! That is so awesome! I really hope and pray that I can go.
Oooooo! I really hope you can, too, Jenny!
congratulations!!
Thanks, Theresa!
SO amazing! I heard about the conference/gathering when Hallie and Jen announced on their blogs and thought it was the most brilliant idea ever. Then I saw the lineup of speakers and planners and got even more excited!! Alas, I can’t be there, but what an honor for you and an amazing opportunity for so many mama’s out there 🙂 Hooray for you!!
Thanks, Danielle! Wish you could make it!
Yay! Congratulations. I wanna go, and I’m not catholic!
Well, as Jen said in an earlier post about the event, we won’t be checking for Vatican-issued Catholic IDs at the door 😉 If you’re game for talking about saints between tex-mex feasts, you should totally come!
So awesome! Congratulations!
Thank you, Marcy!
Well, now I have TWO reasons to not want to be 8 1/2 months pregnant in the middle of summer! Wish I could come but I don’t want to accidentally give birth on I-35.
No, you definitely don’t! I-35 is no fun even in the best of times, haha.
Oh man! Living in Croatia seems so bad after reading this! Congratulations, Haley! You so deserve this!
Just a plane ride away, right? 😉 Thank you!
Congratulations! You are going to rock it!
Thanks, Anne-Marie!
Wonderful! I wish, wish, WISH I could.come! I’ll be waiting and hoping till heaven to meet all you beautiful, inspiring women! You will have to post your speech up for us who miss it!
We’ll miss you, Kate!
How awesome! I think they chose well! I would love to hear you speak (and meet you) if I am able to go.
Oh, I really hope you can make it, Jennifer!
How exciting! I’m sure you’ll do well.
Thanks, Eliza!
Congratulations Haley!!! So glad you are speaking!! I really want to go and meet you wonderful ladies whose lives have inspired so much love and goodness and joy!!
I hope you can come, Luisa! It would be lovely to meet you!
This is so exciting. I wish I could go, but but–I won’t be in the country! Maybe I should send my Texas-dwelling sister as my emissary.
Where are you going, you globetrotter, you?
Congratulations Haley! Will baby Gwen go with you if she’s still nursing?
I’m not sure yet, Sarah! Lucy weaned herself at 13 months and I’m kind of hoping Gwen follows suit? She’ll be 14 months at the time of the gathering. I love nursing her, but after being pregnant/nursing for over 3 years without a break….it would be nice to be not nursing or pregnant for a few weeks at least, haha. I’ve never had to force a child to wean (B hated nursing, L lost interest), so we’ll just have to see what G does. I haven’t had to pump once for either L or G, but I would consider doing it for a short trip and leaving her with Daddy. I guess I’m leaning toward not bringing her.
Congrats! I also tuned in to hear you talk with Modern Mrs. Darcy (Anne) and your other co-stars. A job very well done! Keep at it!
Thanks, Tacy! It was a little nervewracking with some technical difficulties, but fun nonetheless!
So much fun! I’ll be in Austin speaking at a homeschooling conference about two weeks before this, so I don’t think I can go, but it sounds like a great time. You’ll be great, Haley!
Oh, Karen! I would’ve loved to meet you (and monopolize your time picking your brain with every homeschooling question ever…maybe you should be relieved you’re not coming after all, haha)!
Oooh, homeschooling discussion is always fun! But you’ll be busy being monopolized by others anyway. 🙂