Friday, August 7, 2009

Week in Richmond

I spent the past week in Richmond, VA for work. Every year all of the Virginia marketing teacher's get together for updates and professional development. This year we had our regular conference together with every other CTE organization in Virginia. This includes business, tech ed, and family and consumer science teachers.

I arrived Monday evening, checked into the hotel and headed straight to my Aunt Mary's house. I love going to see them but it is always hard to be there now that my Uncle Barry is gone. I talked to Aunt Mary for a while and then we picked up dinner. Amy came over with Nathan and Sydney to eat with us. They have gotten so big and it was so great to see them all. It was just too bad I didn't have Izzy with me to play! We had a nice evening and I even left with two bags of clothes for Izabel! I rushed back to the hotel to register for the conference by 8 but I was a few minutes too late. I headed upstairs and got to visit with Ryan for a while. Ryan is a friend and sorority sister from college who teaches marketing in Northern Virginia. She has a little boy who is almost one and it is always nice to catch up with her! It seems like we only get to do it at these conferences!

Tuesday we had to be up bright and early (earlier than I get up with Tanner) to head to the convention center for the joint conference day! We visited exhibitors to get some classroom/school store ideas and supplies and then listened to a guest speaker for a couple hours. We went to a couple workshops, lunch, more workshops and then dinner. Our meal speakers were Bob McDonald and Governor Kaine. Creigh Deeds was supposed to be there as well but he had something come up at the last minute. Since I haven't decided who I'm voting for yet, it was pretty cool to get to hear from Bob McDonald but it was too bad we didn't get to hear from both candidates. Governor Kaine did a good job with his speech and seemed to be pretty into CTE courses. I guess it's too bad he won't be our governor much longer!

Wednesday I finally got to do some fashion workshops and learned some things that I can really apply to my classroom. After we were done for the day I went to dinner with the teachers from my district at The Tobacco Company. It was fabulous but pretty pricey! Afterwards we visited The Jefferson Hotel which was beautiful and then walked back to our hotel.
Thursday we just had a couple workshops before we headed home. By Thursday morning I was so excited to get on the road and home to my kids! Izzy was so excited when I came in and I was so excited to see her and Tanner!

Now I have a three day weekend which is exciting but Noah is heading out of town today :( I hope everyone has a nice weekend I'll be back to tell you all of the fun things we did over the weekend on Monday!

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