Austin

 Last weekend Nick and I went to Austin for a night. I was originally going alone because I had a Thirty-one conference to attend on Saturday morning for a few hours, but then Yiayia offered to keep Kate so Nick could join me and we had ourselves a little get-away. It's nice to be able to do that from time to time, so we were excited to get the chance.

 We ate at Threadgill's off of Congress Ave, and then after dinner parked over at the Austin-American Statesmen lot to watch the bats. Nick had never seen the famous bat colony of Austin, so I thought it would be neat for him. We aren't quite at the right time of year to see the entire colony, mommas and babies combined since the babies aren't born until August. Mostly we watched them swarm underneath the bridge and if they ever flew completely out we were gone by then. The weather was gorgeous though - it was not hot and the sky was clear. I can't say that standing on Congress Ave. Bridge and watching the sunset and the people on the lake below was a bad way to spend an evening, that's for sure.

 Then the next morning before I went to my conference, I dropped Nick off at a local golf course so he could play a round of golf.  He was put with a nice threesome consisting of a father, son and grandmother so he quite enjoyed himself and the company.

While I was at my conference I won a bag from the raffle drawing and they also gave away goody bags, so I left with a little over $100 worth of merchandise! Not a bad morning at all! The event also really got my wheels turning for National Conference. It's in Atlanta in August, and initially I didn't really think it would be a possibility because of money. The cheapest flights I could find were over $300, plus I didn't join Thirty-one early enough to earn conference for free and I'd also have to pay for part of a hotel room...so I wasn't really planning on going. Then I went to this small conference and decided I really, really, really wanted to go...so I started doing some heavy duty looking into it and called upon a friend for a favor and guess who's going to Atlanta in August?  ME! I'm very excited.