Monday, July 14, 2014

Incredible, Amazing, Mind Blowing, Exhausting=Vegas

Vegas!!!!! I. Can't. Even.  Seriously, I can't even put into words how amazing my experience was this year!!! I went last year, and although it was fabulous....this year just blows it right out of the water!!
I met SOOOO many fabulous teachers and strengthened so many friendships and learned so much from the best of the best!! The internet really is an amazing thing!!! There are soooo many people in my life that I have close friendships with that without the technology that we have today-we would NEVER have met. We share collaborative blogs and FB groups and I am a better teacher and person because of them....because of the internet.  It's still hard to entirely wrap my brain around it all.  Let me just show you what I mean.....

First, I met Deedee and her teaching partner, Kali at the St. Louis airport!!!! We were on our way!!!!!!!!!


Well, my roommates were not getting in until the NEXT day...but, never fear!!! My SWEET friend, Crystal from Kreative in Kinder, along with Tanya Solano from Mrs. Solano's Kindergarten and Kaci Hoffer from Mrs. Hoffer's Spot-who were all my roommates from last year, took me in for the night!! I LOVE those girls so, sooooo much! Sometimes we get a little loud :) They are just so much fun!!


The next day, my official roommates showed up and I moved all of my junk down to live with them for the week!!

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Ok. So, I'm not gonna lie...I was a little nervous to stay with these girls!! I mean, seriously!!! Wouldn't you be?!?!
Yes, they are the AMAZING and TALENTED:
and

Let me just tell you that they are THE most sweet, funny, down to Earth people EVA!!!!  All it took was a few minutes talking to them (in real life) and I felt like I knew them forever (and not just from the internet :) I seriously LOVE these girls!!!

Just look at all the fun we had!!!
We went out to eat a million times that week!

We had so much fun out on the town!!!


And, we even found time to go on a shopping trip where I spent WAAAAY too much $$!! :)


I am NOT a gambler!!!! I HATE it!!! It's absolutely PAINFUL to me!!! But, one night all I had left in my wallet was ONE DOLLAR!!!! I decided to GO FOR IT!!!!! I put my 1 dollar in the nickle slots and I just kept winning!!!!!! I got up to NINE DOLLARS and I cashed out!!!! LOL!!! It was fun turing my dollar into nine!! :) Just like magic! :)


Thne, there was the great Teacher-Blogger meet up!!!! What a crazy, awesome whirlwind of a night!!!!


I helped set up for the event and passed out EVERY SINGLE last Swag Bag to all of the guests!!! Did I mention there were around 550 bags and I ran out!?!? Wowza!!! There sure were a lot of people!!! (And a lot of Scentos!!!!)



Here are a few pics from the meet up!! Soooo many awesome friends!!! I love the picture of Kim Adsit photo bombing!!!! LOL!!! If you know Kim, you know she's saying BOOOYAAAAH!!!!! ;)


Here are some of my brand new friends that I met at the conferences!!!! Girls that knew me from my blog and were just sooooo gosh darn nice!!! And, my friend Brandy in the bottom corner only lives like 15 minutes away from me!!!! We will definitely have to hang out soon!


One of my most favorite nights in Vegas was when I spent the evening with one of my FAVORITES, Cheryl Saoud and the sweet, sweet Stephanie Stewart from Falling into First!!! Just LOVE her! We had soooo much fun!!! Can you tell???




Then, Friday was the VERY FIRST ever TPT conference!!! Watching the TPT team do the keynotes and the top sellers present was amazing and an experience I will never forget!!!!!

I even got to meet my sweet friend, Nikki from Melonheadz illustrating!!! She has done so many nice things for me!!! It was nice to finally get to meet her in person!!


Let's not forget about HaPpY HoUr.....


Look at all of these talented, amazing, brilliant ladies!!!!! So, so blessed to call them my FRIENDS!!!!!

Ummmm....bottom picture??? LOL!!! snapped when we weren't ready! LOL!! We seriously are NOT right!!!! Ha!!!

And, did I mention, I got to meet Paul Edelman himself?!?!? The founder of TPT!!! The man who changed my life in soooo many ways!!!


Just when I thought my week was complete and it just couldn't get ANY better...this happened!! LOL! Oh, yes, it did!!!!



I spent SIX days in Vegas this year and although they were FABULOUS, they were EXHAUSTING. By the end of all of this, I was ready to come back home to my babies :)

I'm linking up with A Burst of First. Check it out here:



5 comments:

  1. I loved your post! Girl! You were EVERYWHERE! Words can not describe how fun it was! Only 11 months and 3 weeks until next year!

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  2. OMG I missed out on a lot of the crazy fun you had. It is always great to see you and chat. I cannot believe how many pictures you have! Wowza! You are the best and I love when we grab time to be together. I will see you in 2015. Maybe you will present?

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  3. I love the enthusiam all of you have shared upon your return. I must go next year!. Looks like too much fun and a great learning adventure.

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  4. Katie,
    It was so wonderful to meet you in real life!! :) After having read/stalked your blog for so long I was so excited to see you sitting in the row right in front of me in a session! LOL Blessings for a wonderful new school year, and hope to see you again soon!
    Warmly,
    Robin Carrier
    P.S. Can I just tell you that I almost fell off of my chair when I saw that the photo we took is on your blog??? :)

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