Teaching Ever After

Whew! What a FANTASTIC weekend it was at the #springteacherbloggermeetup2015! Have you seen all of the pictures with the longest hashtag in the whole world of hashtags? If not, you need to go check them out. The weekend was EPIC!!!! I was horrible at taking pictures, but thankfully my friends weren't, so I am going to share some of them with you.

First off, I was very up in the air if I was going to attend this year. I just had my newest bundle of joy only 3 1/2 weeks before the meet up and it was a C-section. I wasn't sure I would be up for toting a little one around. But I went last year and it was so much fun! I could not stand the idea of not going again. I convinced Mel D to go with me again and just like that we were on the road to French Lick (ok a little more planning went into it then that, but not much). There may have been some behind the scenes husband ~~conning~~ charming first. We couldn't help it though we just HAD to be there again.

We arrived in French Lick right by the skin of our teeth. We left my house just before 6 am (a little early for Mel D, but this new mommy had been up since 3:30) and thankfully the baby slept and slept and slept. Otherwise we probably would have been late and I HATE to be late. It took us a little extra time to navigate through the town because they had massive flooding from all of the snow melting. I kept thinking to myself what if we get flooded in? I was almost ready to turn around.

We started with some mingling and putting our tickets into the prize bags. There were so many awesome prizes to be won. Seriously, people and companies were generous! It was so great to see some of my bloggy friends again. Can I just say how surreal it is to have all of these friends who you have only met online and then you get together and it is like you have known each other forever. It is just the coolest having so many like minded people together in the same room.

Then, we did a getting to know you activity. Every table had to decorate a letter with information about yourself. Then we had to go in front of the WHOLE room of over 100 bloggers on a MICROPHONE and introduce ourselves. I was literally shaking like a leaf. Thankfully I am really good at making fun of myself and did just that. Then I found DeeDee Wills' friendly face and just focused on her. She really put me at ease without even knowing it. The tables combined ended up spelling out the mantra for the weekend...

After that, we had the teacher tool gift exchange which I blogged about last weekend. You can read all about that {here}. Trust me, if you haven't read about the tool I received you MUST do it now.

Then, we got together for some table talk sessions. I went to Crystal Radke's session and got to hear all about RCA. I have to say that is the newest addition to my teacher bucket list. I hope I get to go there someday soon! I also went to Christina DeCarbo's session and learned about the business side of TPT. I took a ton of great tips away from her session about how to do things the right way. Finally, I went to DeeDee Will's and Deanna Jump's session. Can I just say how down to earth and funny they are! We talked about Writer's Workshop. So much great information!

Finally, it was time for the GIVEAWAYS! It was like going to Oprah's Favorite Things show or Ellen's 12 Days of Giveaways show. The swag was overflowing! Check out the goodies we ALL went home with! My teacher heart was pounding with excitement! There was so many great things including new Scentos, a Vera Bradley bag, AND an ERIN CONDREN PLANNER! Shut the front door!

Are these crazy ladies done screaming about planners, markers, and stickers?!

After we all squealed with delight about our amazing swag we all began making dinner plans. We decided to leave the hotel and we went to this little hole in the wall Mexican restaurant. I got to share a table with some of the best in the teacher world. I seriously couldn't believe I had landed there. And wouldn't you know it, I didn't take a picture! There is NO proof that I had dinner with Mel D from Seusstastic, Katie from Little Warriors, Erin from Erin's Ink, Crystal from Kreative in Kinder, Deanna from Mrs. Jump's Class, DeeDee Wills from Mrs. Wills' Kindergarten, and Kim Adsit from Kindergals (she blogs with her daughter, Megan, who also joined us). Ummmmm are you kidding me!!! Yes, I totally just name dropped! Wouldn't you?! I enjoyed every second of dinner and laughed out loud more than once.

So if you remember from earlier Mel and I barely made it to the meet up on time. We never had a chance to check into our hotel. Since we were so last minute with our plans we had to stay at the West Baden Hotel. Normally it is a quick shuttle ride to the hotel, BUT the entrance was flooded. We seriously had to drive through B.F.E. to get to the hotel. I was convinced we were going the wrong way, so we turned around only to find that we were in fact going the right way. Ugh! After some roads out of Deliverance we made it to our hotel. We only had enough time to check in and change into our PJ's. Then we were right back out the door for the PJ party complete with pillows from the hotel. We were a sight to be seen!

When we made it back to French Lick hotel the PJ party sponsored by Teachers Pay Teachers and GoNoodle was in full swing. Teachers in pink were dancing to GoNoodle, eating pizza, decorating pillow cases, and acting silly in the photo booth area. It was a riot! It really took me back to my sleepover days. Thanks TPT and GoNoodle!!

There is SOOOOO much more I could share with you about the weekend, but this forever post would seriously be a novel. You should just come next year and experience it all for yourself. You will not be sorry, unless Holly decides to organize a murder mystery party like we chatted about. Might be a little too scary for me!

Can't wait to see you all next year!