Oh, my little babies! I have missed you, and all of your wit and wisdom! I am back, sorta. Hooray! I am at my mom's house right now. I should be on my way home, but icky weather has held me here in Charleston until tomorrow morning. Darn, another day with my friends and family! I am sad, though, as I do really, really, really miss TJ, and Trey. (yes, and Gayle, too!)

I had a pretty exciting weekend, which started on Thursday, overall. Trey came to Charleston with me Thursday to hang out, since I didn't have a whole lot to do except register and check into my hotel. We ran around downtown, got cold, went to a couple of playgrounds and the battery, and got some food. It was fun, and it was nice to be able to hang out with my family outside of daily life in our home doing daily life stuff. I think the highlight of the day for TJ was when he got to play on the elevator in the hotel, and he got to ride it up and down about a thousand times. He would ride it all the way up, get off, run around the entire fifth floor, get back on, go down, run around the entire first floor, get back on the elevator, and, well, you get the pattern. He had so much fun, who could say no. After we finished, I felt like I was flying for a long time b/c of the elevator...it felt so strange! I was really sad when they had to leave, but it was nice to have the rest of the night to myself to just chill in a quiet room with nothing to worry about.

Yesterday was pretty cool at the conference. I went to lots of workshops that helped me learn a lot about controlling and preventing problem behaviors in my classroom, and some stuff about transition from school to work. One class in particular helped me a lot, b/c I figured out what I've been doing wrong with a couple of my students, and I plan to make some changes next week that hopefully will make things better. Wish me luck! They had door prizes, too, and I was further confirmed in the knowledge that I was not put on this earth to have my name drawn in any kind of contest, ever, that involves a prize. Jury duty, sure; prizes, no. I was vendicated to know that I still remember a lot from college three years ago, when I went to the College Bowl. I answered a lot of the questions correctly (in my mind, as we couldn't yell out or the teams could hear), and the ones I didn't know, I never bothered to learn while in college. It made me feel good to know that I actually retained a lot of information, and that maybe that monthly college bill is worth it. Pretty good for a girl who doesn't like to take notes (unless they're about cute boys!). Of course, my alma mater, the COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON won! Go Cougars!!!!!! They win every year, and they came in and swept the bowl again. It was a proud and fun moment. The girls on the team were pretty cool, too. I was astounded at Lander's performance. I wondered if they actually ever do anything pertaining to special education in their school. I'm glad I didn't go there.

Last night Julia and Mike, my two best friends in the world, met me and we hung out in my hotel room and had a slumber party! My plan was to rent Grease, only the best slumber party movie in the world (and Julia's never seen it!), and bounce around on the bed talking about boys. However, when we went to Blockbuster to rent the movie they didn't have it in VHS (there was no DVD player in my hotel room)! This movie is OLD, why on earth would there not be a copy in VHS!??? Anyway, we ended up getting America's Sweethearts at the front desk. It wouldn't have mattered, anyway, as we ran our mouths and stuffed our faces the whole time the movie was on! We saw the last few minutes, though, and all agreed that it was a cute movie (like we would know!)! We talked about EVERYTHING, which was really easy, since I have known Julia since third grade, and Mike since ninth, and we spent almost all of high school and after together. I did hear some stories that I wasn't involved in last night, and that was a little shocking, but hey, sometimes I had to sleep! We played truth or dare for about two minutes, until we realized that truth was out, as we had just divulged pretty much all of the truth in our lives to each other! We sat up talking until about 5 am, and I am so glad we did. I don't often get to spend quality time with my friends (although Mike passed out at about 1 or so) without having to hurry off or have the kids around. It was nice just being us and remembering all the fun we've had. We talked about a lot of stuff, even about God and politics (might I add, w/o argument or tension). I really feel like last night was pretty therapeutic, and I got to know my friends even better than I already did (which I didn't think was possible!). At five, we went to go to bed, and as soon as we layed down, our mouths started again. Finally, around six, we talked ourselves right to sleep!

This morning we got up and went to Waffle House for breakfast. It was so nice. Guess what we did while we were there for an hour? You got it--we talked our brains out! I swear, after all these years of knowing each other, and still we can talk, literally, for hours! It was great, and a rare treat! I may have to find some time to sleep sometime today, however, since I only slept about two hours last night! I am so glad I had this weekend!

Well, this is more than enough for now. I'll see you later, if you're still with me! I hope you have a grand day, and I'll see you later!