Visit with Bubbe, Albany Conference, and BINGO!

I noted that at one point we had planned on taking a trip to Washington DC for the boys Spring Break. These plans took a back seat to being accepted to attend the 30 Free hour OASAS Conference I had signed up for in Albany mid-week of the break. Bubbe lives in Queensbury, NY minutes away from Lake George, NY. Albany is about 45 minutes south of Bubbe. We decided to make a visit to Mark's mom (Bubbe) while I made my way to the conference for two days. The boys went to the indoor water park and Lake George Village while I attended the conference. This worked out well for all of us.

Bubbe has a new place and first thing we all did was play some pool. The following morning I made my  way to Albany for day one of my Conference. Thank Goodness my hubby got up early and got me a Lg Ice Coffee for the road.
The drive in was CRAZY. I am grateful that Syracuse is not as big as Albany, any morning commute I make is nothing compared to the Albany trip, and I complain about the Syracuse one all the time. I finally made it to the Conference location with about 20 minutes to spare.

I was able to watch the local police do their jobs at the site.I found out later it was our instructors who arrived to early and tripped the alarm systems.
The 30 hour conference was broken into three components. The first part was online, and the second part was at this location for two days. The third part is homework (which I am not ready to do just yet). Once I am completed I will get a final assessment from part 3 and hopefully will receive the 30 hours. These hours will go towards my re-credential, but if I decide to become certified as a Supervisor I can use these hours towards that as well. Totally worth the interruption in the week vacation. Like most classes the hours drag, but we had some fun groups and I met up with Katy, my (former) SBH supervisor.
The course was on Clinical Supervision.

The thing about these conferences is that they open up an opportunity to network as well as learning. I was able to get a lot of information about the subject matter, but also gain insight on things whats new in the field, different jobs out there and I even connected with a women who works in Syracuse. I loved her approach and her supervision skills were great. She would be an amazing mentor. I told her I would be tracking her down in Syracuse. She was nice enough to oblige with giving me her number so I wouldn't have to really stalk. Her name was Molly. Interestingly enough I also worked with another Molly in the same group, and she spent the lunch breaks with Katy and I. She worked at the Prison system  and had been with the state for awhile. Several of the attendees were from State correctional positions or residential. There were very few people that I met who worked in outpatient settings. 

Katy had a hotel in the area and she was nice enough to let me stay with her. We had a delicious dinner and stayed up close to 2am talking. It seems we have a lot in common.

 Katy at the hotel breakfast.

This is a photo of the restaurant we ate at. Milestone, it doesn't look like much, but the food was YUMMY!!

Katy and I had a great time in those 48 hours together. We have so many similarities. 

 I definitely intend on extending a invitation to become more friendly outside of work in the future. I told her my plans of officially resigning (again) from SBH once I have all my CASAC information completed for the renewal and hope that we can continue to have a relationship outside of work.  

The second day at the training seemed to take longer, there was alot to jam into those few hours we had left. Lunch break was nice we found a nice little pizza place in an area just outside of Albany. (I cannot remember the name). The pizza slices were the size of my head and the special was two slices and a soda for $5-. They were so yummy too. I wish I had gotten pictures, but I was to involved with each and every yummy bite.

I got a picture of  my lunch buddies. My new friend Molly on the left, and Katy.  Just next door was a coffee place and this adorable little cake shop. I wish I took pictures of the cakes too. 

I went inside and found this adorable cake in a jar. I purchased one for my Mother in Law. I bet it tasted amazing. 

After lunch the day dragged on, and when the conference was finally over. I said my goodbyes to my newly made friends, wished Katy a safe trip back home to Syracuse and headed off towards the nightmare of traffic I new  I would soon be encountering as I headed up the Northway. 

 Those expect delays signs were about every few miles.....YUCK!

This is what a good percentage of my ride looked like! (I bet you cant say the name of that bridge five times fast.) 

Even with all the traffic...you can't help by notice this sign.

I really do LOVE NY!

I eventually made it back to Queensbury, NY. The boys had spent the last two days having fun with out me. 

On Wednesday they had a great time at the indoor water park.  Mark took some pictures using the i-phone, but I don't have those amazing shots. I was told they enjoyed all the slides and the wave runner the best. Thursday they spent some time at the outlet mall and in all spent over $150- on clothing. I can't leave them alone ever.

Thursday evening I had hoped to devour the remains of my amazing leftover from dinner the night before, but Mark thought that it might be risky having been in back seat of my car all day. I decided he was right and threw away the bacon burger on a pretzel roll.  (wahh!) Pizza salad and maybe a snack at the Synagogue. Yep we were all headed out for BINGO at Marks religious establishment growing up. 

 Ben is ready to WIN

I am not well versed on the BINGO lingo, or fluent on the boards, daubers or BINGO etiquette, but we attempted to make do. Bubbe was working the BINGO hall, and the boys love Chocolate Bar Bingo at the campsites. Winning Money sounded ideal. Of course none of us won, not even a candy bar. We had several boards we were playing on and it did get pretty confusing at times. Too celebrate loosing...we had ice cream at Friendy's. We wanted Martha's but we missed it by minutes before it closed. Ice Cream, Pizza Salad and French Fries are NOT a Healthy dinner, but I enjoyed it all just the same.

After a late night snack and such a long day, we all fell asleep pretty quickly. Original plan was to drive to Massachusetts for the Theme Park, but instead we decided to stop at some fun places on our ride home, see you at my next post on Secret Caverns....TTFN