Hey there! I've been home for a couple of days from Orlando but this is my first chance to blog. After I blogged the Weekly Deals last week, I finished my swaps, anticipating heading out to Orlando for the Stampin' Up! Leadership Conference on Wednesday, January 28. It was not to be. I came down with the a tummy bug during the night and ran a fever most of Wednesday, so we rescheduled our flight for Thursday morning. We made it just in time to eat the lunch Stampin' Up! provides, and I participated in an organized swaps before I even cleaned my plate. (It actually was several days before I had enough appetite to even think about eating most of a meal.)

I was exhausted pretty much the entire time we were there, but I'm still glad I went. I had a chance to see several of my friends from across the country and even got to chat a couple of times with my friend Constanze Wirtz from the Netherlands. We met on the Stampin' Up! cruise last year. That's just one of the things I love about Stampin' Up!; the chance to travel and make new friends from across the country and around the world!

The next day I swapped with these girls, my Stamper's Dozen Blog Hop sisters!

l to r: Judy Garza, Patty Chenail, me, Janet Wakeland, Laura Milligan, Lee Conrey, Jodi Reinert. Hamming it up in the front is BJ Peters!

Thursday night Stampin' Up! hosted the Manager's Reception at Disney's Fantasmic! It is a nighttime show with water and lights, so I really couldn't get a decent picture, but it was fun. Thank you, Stampin' Up!, for always making us feel appreciated!

No Stampin' Up! event is without yummy treats! My downline, Linda Reaney, and I hammed it up with some of the Mickey-themed desserts Stampin' Up! provided:

Lemon Mickey tarts-

Chocolate brownie Mickey-head-on-a-stick-

Truth: I actually only ate the two little push-up cheesecakes on my plate as they were the only gluten-free item offered, but they were just enough and delicious!

For my local stamping friends, YES, the Birthday Bash Stamp-a-Stack for this Saturday IS A GO. This will be my only in-home event this month as my newest grandbaby is scheduled to arrive by c-section this coming Monday, February 9th. I will be helping Kimberly with the new baby, as well as big brother Liam, most of the rest of the month, so my posts will continue to be sporadic until things calm down at the beginning of March.

Today I'm headed to my hometown of Decatur, IL, to check up on my "big brother", Don. Don has had some pretty major health bumps in the road the past couple of months, and so Mark and I are taking the day to drive up to see him for a bit. It's about a 3 hour drive, so I'm taking some paper to cut to keep preparing for my Saturday class. Fortunately. I like to cut paper! lol!

Here are the new Weekly Deals, a day late, but great nonetheless. Go to my online store to order: www.carolpayne.stampinup.net

Until tomorrow, have a Stampingrox! day!

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