There's No Place Like Home

Don't get me wrong...I love to travel, but the best part is always coming home again. Or at least that's the case when you've been with 14 teenagers for four days! This past week I took 14 students to Orlando for FBLA state conference, and let me tell you, that is an EXHAUSTING trip! Not only am I up responsible for them 24 hours a day, staying up half the night checking on them, most of the time I'm doing all this in business clothes and high heels! However, part of the deal is that my family travels with me. Yes, the whole family--Tracy, Matthew, Luke, and Mama; I joke that I travel with an entourage! It makes the trip so much better to have them with me during the down time.

On Monday, our group spent the day at Disney World. This was Luke's first trip when he was actually big enough to enjoy it. The last time we went, he was only 5 months old and slept most of the day. It was terribly crowded, as this is prime spring break season, but we managed to see a few characters and ride a few rides.

Luke checks out the park map, planning our day!

Eating at Planet Hollywood

Riding the train at Downtown Disney

We had a fantastic keynote speaker at the conference this year, Ben Glenn. You can learn more about him here. He let started his presentation with a chalk drawing, and let me tell you, the audience was mesmerized. Three thousand teenagers makes for a TOUGH audience, but they loved it! He also slipped in a couple of Christian references, and from looking at his website, I see that he also speaks for Christian events as well. He would be a fabulous speaker for a church or youth event!

The awards session is a dressy affair, and I just had to show y'all my new dress! Usually I don't dress up much for the awards, simply because I just don't want to spend a pile of money on a dress that I'll never wear again! But this year, I had the foresight to shop right after Christmas, when they put all the holiday cocktail dresses on sale. Scored this dress for $40, and you'll never guess where......Sears! Would you believe they had a huge selection of cute party dresses?

And it looks like I may be wearing this one again. I had two students who qualified for national competition, so we are going to do our best to get them to Nashville this summer!