NCCYM. December 8th, Entry #47.

Sara:  So, just a preface....there are about to be numerous blog posts about one awesome week that we just spent in New Orleans.  I say numerous because there were just too many awesome things that happened/were said/made us laugh/made us think/made us laugh some more.  And for the sake of your eyes and the sake of my poor little fingers, I am not going to try and put them into one giant post.  So, sit back, relax and partake of our fabulous week.

So, first up...the details.  Aaron and I traveled to New Orleans to attend the National Conference on Catholic Youth Ministry....NCCYM for short.  We partied with 2,500 other YMs from around the country...we even met some from Canada! (America's hat)  And we were fortunate enough to be with about a dozen awesome people from our own Archdiocese....Chris Walters, Chelsea Schmidt, Dana, Debbie and Mary Eloise Nearmyer, Mike Debus, Mikey Needleman, Kyle Kuckleman, Rick Cheek, Joe Peterson, and even though he just moved and is no longer in our diocese but I'm going to count him anyways, Shawn Madden.  Totally awesome, right??  Right.

We got to hob-nob with Catholic youth minister type celebrities.  We got to be part of a flash mob dance. (down below, we're in the background, look for us)  We learned more about each other than we probably ever wanted to know.  We toured New Orleans.  We teased Kyle when he was star struck with these Catholic YM celebrities.  We ate a lot of Cajun food.  I got to reconnect with old friends that I have met at other conferences. I literally laughed until my face hurt.  We were challenged and inspired by people such as Mark Hart and Fr. Larry Richards.  We talked a lot about poop (you spend that much time with more boys than girls and it's bound to happen).  All in all I'd say it was a pretty great week.