A Week In Review

I was out of town last week on a business trip, which is why I have not been blogging. I, along with my buyer and 9 others took off on Tuesday afternoon to Southern California. I love that direct flight from XNA to LAX, although they are limited. We left snow on the ground and 30 degree weather and arrived safely without much delay to sunny and 70 degrees. Many on the trip know that I am a California native and wondered why in the world I would ever leave that place? Let me just say, I don't miss it at all. I love Northwest Arkansas and was thanking God that I live in such a wonderful place for Dave and I to raise the girls.

My girls were not happy when I told them I could see Disneyland's Matterhorn from my hotel room. We did not hit the Magic Kingdom while we were there, I will always save that for when my family is with me.

Tuesday night we ate at a wonderful restaurant called McCormick and Schmick's, then hit the Cheesecake Factory which was right across the street from our hotel. Tough luck, huh?

Wednesday, we traveled all over Orange County looking at stores and competitive outlets. We hit Rubio's at lunch for fish tacos and then after working the rest of the day,we ended up on the Pacific Coast Highway in Laguna Beach at a place called Coyote Grill. One of the girls in our group was celebrating a birthday that day. Wednesday night we did our store resets (the whole reason for the trip), we started at 10pm when the store closed, and finished about 2:30 AM.

Thursday, we visited more stores and then we headed off to a place called "The Grove", pretty much in downtown LA. It was fun, I was able to hit Crate and Barrel among other stores. We then headed to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and I had my first cupcake from "Sprinkles". It was okay, but what I enjoyed most, was seeing all the BMW's, Mercedes, Porsche's, etc. My dream car is a BMW, so that was a highlight for me. Then we headed to Santa Monica for dinner and ate sushi at a really cool restaurant.

Friday morning we recapped our trip, hit a few more stores then headed to the airport for our 4:20 pm flight. We had Darren McFadden(a University of Arkansas stand out, who is likely to go in the first round of the NFL draft this year) on our flight back. It was an un-eventful flight, we even landed a little early. I was glad to be home.

Saturday was softball tryouts, last Upwards Basketball games, skating birthday party for one of the girls, and errands to Sam's and Wal-Mart.

Today on Sunday morning, Dave and Ali took off to Tulsa for a mini softball tournament, Erica and I went to church to hear Jr. Hill, an evangelist who came to our church about 3 years ago. He was again wonderful and many people came to know the Lord which is great!

It has been quite a busy week and a WONDERFUL weekend! Hope your Monday is a good one!