I Took a Little Trip

Don't you love it when people fall off the face of the earth for a few days.  I know I do....NOT.  My apologies for being absent, but I have a good reason; I promise.  You see I was doing a little traveling for my job, that I was able to parlay into a little weekend trip that was waaaaay over due.  So where was I?  Several places actually.  I started off the weekend by heading up to Memphis to see my parents. We had a great visit and I got to indulge in my most favorite pizza and salad in the history of the universe.....a Junior (salad) and a Pizza from Arni's that my mom brought back from her trip to Indiana last week. If you've never had the pleasure of indulging in either of these you are missing out and I feel sorry for you.  If you have, you know what I mean.

This look got him very very close to getting to come with me.  Can we say guilt trip?

Le Arni's Junior et Le Arni's Pizza.  It must be cut like this to taste right and in case you're wondering, the "corner" pieces are the best.

As much as I would have loved to spend the entire weekend at my parents' house I had 2 more destinations to make it to before the Sunday night.  My conference was in Little Rock, AR, just 2.5 hours from Mom and Dad's, but it was also conveniently 2.5 hours from my grandma's house in Arkansas.  I am completely ashamed to say that but it had been almost 9 years since I had gone to see her.  I told my parents there was no way I was going to be that close to her and NOT go to see her, so Mom and I set out bright and early Sunday morning to go visit her.  We got there around lunch with a Pizza Hut pizza in hand and she was thrilled to see us.  I am so glad we were able to make it over there to see her and my aunt.  We spent a couple of hours hanging out, chatting about everything under the sun, and then it was time to leave so I could get to Little Rock for my conference.  Don't worry, Dad came to pick Mom up and grab a bite to eat before they headed back to Memphis.

My Dad's childhood home

I don't talk a lot about my job on here, but I recently started working in Injury Prevention for the state of Alabama. This particular conference was all about Injury Prevention and was attended by every state in the south/southwest region.  My head is still spinning on account of everything I learned while I was there and I am so excited to take what I learned back to our program!

Clockwise from top left: 1) The view out my hotel room window Monday morning...yes it SNOWED. 2) The Oval Office!  Ok not really.  This was the Oval Office replica in the Bill Clinton Presidential Library which we got to tour.  3) A replica of the President's Cabinet Room at the Bill Clinton Presidential Library.  4) My St. Paddy's Day dinner outfit...made sure I had my green on!  And I really really wanted to take the full length mirror that was in my hotel room home with me. 

1) They had a special exhibit on Presidential Pets at the Library....I thought it was awesome that this picture of Ronald Reagan, his dog, and Margaret Thatcher was taken on the actual day of my birth.  2) I added my pin to the visitor map.  I thought I was super special because I was the first person from my town to put a pin on the map until I saw the other 3 US maps that were completely covered in red pins.  

As great as my trip was, it was so good to get back home to Eric and the boys! I missed them like crazy!  I got back home late Tuesday night and spent most of yesterday playing catch up, so today was back to the grind.  Thank goodness this is only a 3 day week for me!