Survived the trip ... May not survive this rain!

My trip to St. Louis went totally fine! Rachel survived just fine, and I was not too traumatized. I had a really good time, went with a GREAT group of girls. There were 6 of us total ... drove up to St. Louis together (7 hours!), stayed in a nice hotel The Embassy Suites in St. Charles, MO. Oh, they had the best FREE breakfast. So yummy. I highly recommend staying there, if not only for the breakfast!

The conference was really, really good. It was about PLCs - Professional Learning Communities. I had some trouble in some of the sessions - it was SO HARD to be seated for so long. I am not used to sitting all day and it was tough to be the student. Not to mention, the chairs were >thisclose< together and I had some claustrophobic episodes. But the presenters were wonderful and I actually started wishing school was starting soon. Yea, that sounds a tad insane. Nevermind, I am happy it is summer and there is no school!

We had a couple adventures while in St. Louis though .... for example, there was a naked man on our floor. Apparently, he was "dared" to go into the hallway naked. He was also at our conference - so we had to run into him a few times during the event. Um, HELLO, Mr. Teacher-Man, don't you realize that you can be ARRESTED for things like that? And lose your teaching license? Hello, poor judgment much? I can make some dumb decisions too, but this one was a doozy. However, it does make for some funny stories.

We also did a LOT of shopping while there ... there was a Gymboree Outlet! That is one of the BIGGEST things I miss about Las Vegas - the shopping. *sigh* We went to old downtown St. Charles - it was so cute! And there was a small winery, had some yummy Blackberry Wine. YUM! We bought a few bottles and had a "slumber party" that night ... drinking wine, listening to music and playing cards. I have a new favorite game - Phase 10. LOVE it. I am going to have to buy it and bring it to my parent's house this summer. We also ran twice while there - very impressed. Once inside in the hotel gym, and once outside in a neighborhood. I am very proud of myself!

But, of course, I come back to INSANE Oklahoma weather. We had over 10 inches of rain in about 8 hours or so. There is terrible, awful flooding on my side of town. Our neighborhood is totally fine - we are actually on higher ground, so we did not accumulate much water. Also, our neighborhood pond is wayyyy down low, so it did not overflow into the neighborhood. But there are several neighborhoods around me who are destroyed. Families lost everything. They just escaped with the clothes on their back. Several of these families are from my school. I just start crying when I think about it. Not to mention, we are getting more rain tonight. I cannot even imagine what they are going through.