I must say that this weekend was a strange combination of stressful and busy as well as relaxing and rejuvenating.  We loaded up the car on Friday afternoon and headed to Mom and Dad’s for the evening.  We were pleasantly surprised by a homecooked pot roast dinner with Gma and Gpa on Friday night and got to look at a bunch of pictures from Calder’s party (I know, I know – I still haven’t posted my pics either!).

After realizing at nearly 10pm that our hotel reservation was incorrect (for Sunday night instead of Saturday) I spent a good 45 minutes on the phone getting it straightened out.  Garth spent that time and then some trying to download some YouTube videos just in case we didn’t have wireless for our presentation.  Wearily, we climbed into bed only to sleep lightly due to an always-moving-puppy and a noisily-sleepily toddler. 

Saturday was spent bouncing from session to session at the MRA conference, and we did fairly well in that we were 3/4 in selecting great break-outs.  We began to feel much better about our presentation – not as nervous and taking note of presentation techniques that worked (and trying with all our might NOT to commit those that didn’t). 

We were back at our hotel room by around 5pm on Saturday and had the e-n-t-i-r-e evening to ourselves.  We commtted to spending the next couple of hours to getting all the last-minute work completed while ideas were fresh in our minds.  Surprisingly, we met our goal.  By the time our Pizzapapalis dinner arrived around 6:30 we were pretty much finished and ready to chill. 

We were both pleased with how our session turned out.  Of course, we know there are changes we would like to make, but we had enough people there to make us feel somewhat encouraged, but not enough to be too overwhelmed.  What’s more, we kept it informal and conversational, which we enjoyed and we think the audience appreciated.  There were about four gals who stayed for the entire time, came and spoke with us afterwards and were inspired by what they learned.  That’s a success in my book!

I think my favorite part of the whole experience is sharing professional success and accomplishment with the most important man in my life.  I still remember how much he impressed me when we began dating – he was so thoughtful and attentive to minor details.  We had great conversations about our respective work and could help one another as well.  Now that we share the same type of work, it’s even better.  He’s an amazing teacher, terrific husband and fabulous father.  Not that I didn’t know it already, but spending some quality time with him this weekend, made me realize this all over again!

This was the first time we’d both been away from Calder overnight, and he did tremendously.  I know that Grandma had a great time and we really appreciate her helping us out.  We certainly missed him and realized just how much he has transformed our lives!