Crafty Lil Devil

We had the best weekend this weekend! J's work had a "Kingsdown Global Employee Celebration" this weekend and every single Kingsdown employee and their spouse was invited to the corporate office for an all expense paid weekend. It was amazing!J They chartered a bus for us and we all rode to Mebane (6 hours away) and took a tour of the plant. Then we checked into the hotel and rested for a few hours and then got ready for a western-theme party. And when I say party, I mean PARTY! They had a live band, line-dancing lessons, a trick roper, and a gun spinner (had to look that one up because I wasn't quite sure what to call it...but it was VERY cool!). All night long they had an open bar and things got pretty interesting when you combined that with the mechanical bull. :) They served a great barbeque dinner and then had a huge fireworks show and then a dj and dancing until midnight. It was a really fun night. Yes, Jason did ride the mechanical bull and I do have a picture of him on it. I'll have to charge up my camera before I can post that picture though. I really wanted to get my picture taken on it but knew I'd never have a chance at getting up on that thing without some help. I wouldn't have ridden it, but wouldn't it have made a funny picture with my pregnant self up on a mechanical bull. :)

The next day, there were several events you could choose to do and each one was as well-planned and as fun as the next. Some people chose to golf, some people took the chartered bus to the mall for some shopping (wish I would have done this one! They gave everyone a $25 gift card to the mall!). Jason signed up to play softball so I watched him. At the softball fields they also had a wellness fair set up (with free massages, blood pressure and blood sugar checks) and bingo. Then we all went back to our respective hotels for a rest. There were so many Kingsdown employees they had to rent out several. And when I say that, I mean they rented out entire hotels! We stayed in the Best Western and you could tell they had recently done a lot of renovations to it. It was very nice.

Saturday night, we all got ready for a formal dinner and hopped on the buses again to be taken to the Grandover resort. It is a beautiful place and we were in for a very elegant night. First, we had cocktails (or Sprite in my case) on the back lawn for an hour or so before dinner. They had an orchestra and hors d'oeuvres (yes, I did have to look up the spelling on that one). Then we all went inside to the ballroom for an amazing five-course dinner. Then they had an awards ceremony that lasted a long time. All of the employees were recognized for their time of service (even the ones who had been there less than a year were applauded and welcomed into the Kingsdown family) and some retirees were announced. It was a long night but a very nice one.

Everyone I met was so friendly and nice. From the CEO of the company, to several plant managers, to just the "regular Joes"...everyone was incredibly nice. And the first person that asked me how far along I was said "Wow! You're eight months?! You look great!" I just smiled and said thank you and chalked it up to them just being nice. But almost every single person I met said the same thing. Boy, that can make a mama go from feeling fat (ok, I know not fat...pregnant) to feeling fabulous real quick. :)

This morning, we got up and loaded on the bus for the long ride back. It was a great weekend but I'm very glad to be back home. On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things. (Jason and I did...not the busload full of people.) While we were there, we saw they had crab legs on sale and noticed a sign that said "We'll steam and season them for you for free!" Holy cow! We bought 2 lbs of crab legs for $12 and we are gonna eat well tonight! I've been craving crablegs for a while but haven't indulged because they're so expensive. Usually when we go out to get all you can eat crablegs (which is so far only once since we've been here) it ends up costing us about 70 bucks. We got the crab legs and the rest of our groceries (quite a lot of groceries, too) for $53. Can't beat that! And the best part is...now I don't have to worry about cooking dinner.

Gotta go, the crab legs are calling my name!