girl's trip

**warning--looooong, rambling post ahead!!**

 

 Last Thursday, I headed to Memphis for the J*nior Auxiliaries Annual Education Conference with 6 other JARB members. Last year the conference was in Mobile and was a blast-- so I knew this year in Memphis would be a good time.

I took a few pictures-- mostly pretty random shots on my cell phone, but here are a few: 

 After we checked into our hotel- the Downtown Marriott, we took the trolley down to a few restaurants & bars. We made a stop at The Peabody (you know, the place with the ducks!). I couldn't believe how crowded it was on a Thursday night-- apparently The Peabody is the place to be! 

We ate dinner at a fabulous restaurant called The Majestic Grille. The food was fantastic, and the drinks were even better. (as you can see from all our empty glasses!)

on the way back to the hotel, the girls were quick to point out this convenience store named after my Jack Bauer, of course!

 The next morning was another trolley ride, this time to a great little cafe for breakfast:

 Here's where the pictures get random-- most of our time was spent in meetings, but we did take breaks for shopping at the conference galleria:

 I bought this bag--- how perfect is it for me?!!? The dog even looks like Jack!! The galleria is always my favorite part-- tons of little boutiques selling J*nior Auxiliary themed stuff (our logo is a crown, so they slap a crown on EVERYTHING!) and lots of non-JA stuff too. I might have bought a different JA shirt for every day of the week. ;-) I just couldn't help myself!

So all day Friday and Saturday we're in meetings and listening to motivational speakers. Saturday night is the banquet:

so many women in one place!

 

Julie & I- she's the incoming President of JARB, and I'm the incoming 1st & 2nd VP. 

 group photo

  one of these desserts is not like the others... ;-)  

 me with three of our new provisional members

The trip was so much fun! I don't know if I've ever laughed harder just hanging out in the hotel room with these girls. We had our first Executive Board meeting on Monday and I can already tell it's going to be a fabulous year and we're going to be able to serve the children of Benton County in so many ways.

life is good

Mike and I have had lots of fun lately--- just a few pics of our trip to Atlanta-- everything else is on facebook.

I got to meet one of my childhood crushes-- Luke freaking Perry. STILL HOT by the way.

I got to meet and hug up to Nelsan Ellis aka Lafayette from True Blood. (I squealed like a little girl)

spent some time with a vampire and some wolves.

got to dress up a few times and had an amazing vacation.

odds & ends

we went to Tulsa a few weeks go for Trek Expo (oh yes, super nerdy) and got the typical pics-- people in their costumes, actors from various sci-fi movies/tv shows and a few shots of us together.

Here I am with the Ghostbuster's car. The dress I'm wearing is new and I love it--- 50% off at Belk!

I've got a cut and color scheduled next week and I'm really leaning toward this cut & color... eeek, it's quite a change!

and really, no post is complete without Jack Bauer! :-)

storms, reality tv and a weekend trip

It's about to storm here-- the weatherman is predicting huge hail-- thank God for a garage for our cars and good homeowners insurance! Anytime we have any severe weather we know several hours in advance because Ellie starts pacing and freaking out. She absolutely hates storms. Jack Bauer could care less. (I mean come on, he's Jack Bauer! Did you think some thunder and rain would bother him? haha) Mike is off with some friends tonight playing some nerdy games so I have complete control over the tv-- that means some bad reality tv-- Real Housewives of NJ!! Such a guilty pleasure. :-) We're also getting ready for our weekend trip to Tulsa. I am so excited to see Conan O'Brien! The only problem with coming to Tulsa is trying to cram in all the things we want to do in just a day or two. We really miss our Tulsa friends and it's impossible to see everyone on every trip. I'm hoping we can do as much visiting as possible!
And since I hate posting without a picture-- here are a few from our garage sale last weekend:

We call this our 2nd Annual Solano-Farrar Garage Sale. :-) We held it at our friend's Matt & Amy's house and even though the sales were sloooow, we still had a blast. And wow, in the next picture my teeth look enormous... hmmm wtf

family and food and fun

We had a fabulous weekend of family, food, board game playing, shopping and just hanging out. My pictures are spread between 2 different sd cards, so they're a bit out of order. These are from our Saturday trek to Branson for some shopping & eating.

I realize this is picture overload of Mike & I, but two things: 1. It's my blog and I'll post what I want to! haha and 2. for every semi-normal picture I get Mike to take, there are a dozen awful pictures where he poses as a zombie. Annoying.

Tulsa Bound

I'm running around today trying to get everything ready for our weekend trip. We're leaving early tomorrow morning, driving to Tulsa and checking into the Ambassador Hotel. I told you guys that I have been talking to my biological father and we'll be seeing each other this weekend in Tulsa. He is the manager of the Ambassador and is getting Mike and I a room there for the weekend. So I'm terribly nervous and excited all at the same time. (On a positive note, The Ambassador looks like a fabulous hotel- we're looking forward to that!)

Mike and I are also going to Pam & Hank's going away party on Friday- I'm so glad we get to see them before they leave! It still doesn't seem real that they won't be in Tulsa anymore.

Saturday night we're thinking of going to the Drillers game. Mike & I have missed sporting events since we've moved :)

I think Sunday morning we'll do brunch with Bill (bio-dad) before we make the drive back to Arkansas.

Yikes, I have a ton to do today-- hope to see some of you this weekend!!

Road Trip Fun!

My Mom & I had such a great time in Little Rock. I don't have much time but thought I'd post some of our pictures:

Room Service=yum!

Clinton Library

Little Rock, Here We Come :)

My Mom & I are heading to Little Rock in about 30 minutes. We're going to the American idol concert tonight at the Alltel Arena. Its our yearly tradition :)

It should be interesting namely because I couldn't name the top 12 contestants if I tried. Who the hell are we going to see tonight?? Unfortunately, Sanjaya will be there. boo.

Mike is sooo grateful that he's not being subjected to A.I. hell. He's going on a float trip with a few friends from Tulsa. Hope everyone has a good weekend!