Another exciting week!

DANG I am busy!!! Is it really Easter this next weekend???

Ok, well, last weekend on Thursday night, we headed to Bloomington for the Hearts @ Home conference. It was {as always} incredibly uplifting and encouraging. This was my 4th year attending. This time was more about organization and planning for me. I am SO excited about doing the "Super Summer Challenge" over the summer for the kids (click on the link for more info!), and I am also SO excited about the new skills I learned to continue to purge and get organized! I have been on my way to this for some time. Karen gave me even more useful skills! Not to mention Ken Davis made me LAUGH! Even some of his stand-up that I had seen, he still made me roll!

So Sunday night, I got home at about 7:30pm, and then left the house, to leave for Oprah, at about 2:35 AM!! Home six hours! Yikes!

Here's Kelly VERY early!! Wait... isn't she suppose to be driving?? :)

Where we entered...

Since no cameras inside, here I am outside...

...and Kelly at the Oprah Store.

I miss visits to Chicago! I MUST visit more often!

Oprah was a great time! It is really interesting to see how it all works! The set doesn't seem near as grand as it does on TV, and Oprah, well, she is quite the Diva! WOW! People running on stage to fix this, adjust that, spray this... but do ya blame her? She IS the riches women in the world, right?? :) We saw Simon Cowell, the winner of the British version of American Idol, and the winner of "America's Got Talent"... it was very interesting and entertaining! We were in an upper area. But we could still see great!

After the shows (which was live for Chicago, and 3 or 4 pm for the rest of the country) they did some taping for promo, etc. Then they told us they had a special treat. They would feed us a "divine" lunch (uh, Subway is divine?? LOL), and we would stay for a special taping with Kirstie Alley. OK... so it was kinda implied that it was with Oprah, but OK... Well it was a "test" taping for a possible new talk show (hosted by Kirstie). It was cool to see them redo the set and all, but it was a LONG day. For our time, we got a CD of the British Idol winner Leona Lewis. We got back home at about 7pm maybe??

Since I went looking at available Oprah tickets, there have been at least three other calls! (I am trying to get a reservation for my MIL) So if you want tickets, go to Oprah.com and scope it out!

By the WAY! Happy Birthday Alicia!!

My good friend Alicia (who went to Hearts @ Home with me)
turned 40 today!!!
Here are some pictures from our celebrating her Birthday over the weekend! Her sister brought a HUGE balloon arrangement to Biaggi's! She was a bit red!


Happy Birthday Alicia! You are loved!