What do you do when you meet an Internet friend in person for the first time?

First, you scream, cry and HUG!

Then, you go out and have a fabulous time!

Barb from The Everyday Home blog and I have known each other online for YEARS.  We first "met" on the HGTV Home Decorating boards, long before blogs had become all the rage.  I was trying to find great ideas for our new home, and Barb had a lot of them.  Her design style is what attracted me to her, but her personality is what reeled me in!

Barb and I have somehow managed to keep in contact through the years via our blogs and Facebook. I owe her a lot for helping me get started blogging.  I've loved watching all the changes her home has gone through, as well as all the changes her family has gone through.  Multiple remodeling projects and three grandchildren later, we remain great friends!  The only problem was, we had never actually met each other in person.

Back in June, I found out that Barb was going to Haven (a fabulous home blog convention) in Atlanta, but it was too late to get tickets.  I was so upset that we were thisclose and still wouldn't have a chance to meet.  So, when I heard about the Southern Bloggers Convention, I just knew I HAD to attend.

The day tickets went on sale, I bought my ticket and reserved my room.  Then I got a message from Barb:

Yup, I WAS going to go and I WAS going to meet her!

Fast forward to this weekend, and my desire to meet Barb in person finally came true!

I walked into the registration room and there.she.was.  She yelled my name, jumped out from around the table and grabbed me in a hug!  We hugged and laughed and cried all at the same time!  I finally got to meet my long-lost sister!

We only got to talk for a few minutes because the conference registration was in full swing, but we had several other opportunities to talk and laugh and hug more over the weekend.  Even though she was slammed with conference responsibilities, she never failed to take the time to stop and talk to me (and Marty).

Before we knew it, it was Sunday and the conference was winding down.  We had to head out on our 8 1/2 hour journey home and Barb had to finish other conference duties.  So we said our goodbyes, but not before we made one last picture:

Barb looking all polished and put together and me wearing my frumpy travel clothes

But, it's not goodbye forever.  We've already made plans to attend future conferences together and I, for one, cannot wait!

Finally meeting Barb was totally worth the cost, the time, and the effort!

In my next blog posts, I will show you that not only did I get to meet Barb and attended a fabulous conference, I also got to meet another one of my long-time Internet friends, Beth.  Beth took us on an incredible adventure that deserves it's own blog post/posts!

I hope you all have a wonderful and fantastic week!