It's Thursday...

Wow it went fast. Work is so busy and action packed. It's all good but it's all busy too. I'm feeling better today about things. Met with a board member today who really gets the mission of our organization. He's got the time to help us focus and get where we need to be. He's a peach!

Day and a half until the Illinois Marathon. I'm so exhausted that I didn't run tonight and I'm going to have to cut this short so that I can get a good night sleep tonight. I think it will be a great day and I can't wait.

Writing class is going very well. I really am 'nsync' and having a great time writing. I could do more writing but I'm pretty busy at work. I'm doing good keeping up here which helps. I try to be faithful to my blog.

I've decided to share an assignment from Lesson 2. Assignment: Find a candle, set it in a safe place near your computer, and light it. Write a one-paragraph only description of the lighted candle.

The light from the candle is constant. Vanilla fills the air. The lights are low and the light from the candle shines brightly competing for my attention. There is something soothing and peaceful in gazing into the light. I am mesmerized by the light flickering on the wick. Hours could pass and I would be lost in my thoughts sitting here focusing on the candle. I’m lost in the beauty and simplicity of the light. Reflecting on my day, slowing down, I focus on my breathing and how peaceful the room has become. This candle gives me an ambiance that I long for, calmness settles in.

Quote for the day: Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else. Gloria Steinem

I'm all over the place today...

I swear...I feel like my emotions are all over the place today. No comment on why that is. It was a good day at work. I am so busy and I'm pretty much at the point that I will not bring my work home anymore unless it's critical. I used to go into work on the weekends but I really try to keep all my working during the work week. I find that I really need the weekend to recharge.

Writing class is going pretty good. I wish I had more time to write but I've done pretty good so far. It's nice to get back into it. Anyway..I might share some stuff as we go along. We'll have to see.

I'm very tired tonight....I played my first night of golf league and we won! This is the second time I have played and I have done pretty well. Maybe I'm not over analyzing yet. :-) I'm looking forward to playing more golf this summer.

But I'm really, really tired...just like bellz who is sitting next to me...I'm going to bed. Night night!

Quote for the day: Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe." ~Gail Devers quotes

Holy Cow, It's only Monday...

Today I seriously turned to someone and asked, "Is today Monday?" It was a whirlwind day. A meeting that lasted all morning and then some serious planning for the fall campaign. I have a lot to do. Materials need to be designed. Today we cleaned the work area upstairs. It was awesome. What a mess and to tell you the truth, I'm sure it has not been cleaned for three years. So today, we cleaned. It was kind of a good team building exercise.

I can't wait to go to Florida!! Six beautiful days in the sun with my husband. I can't wait! I hope to get a massage, work out and do some writing.

Quote for the day: You cannot live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you. John Wooden

If I can do 10, I can do 13.1

Yes, we ran today. Conditions were not ideal. It was very humid out. The elevation on the course was quite surprising. All will be fine next week but I'll be glad when it's over. I don't even care if I better my time or not. I just want to finish. I'm pretty sure this will be my last half. I like the running thing but I think shorter distances are my thing. I'm glad that I will be able to run without pain this year. That won't translate to a faster time but like I said...I don't really care about that anymore. This has been a tough training period. More later...

I'm in trouble...

I'm running the half marathon in nine days and I'm probably not ready. Traveling has wreaked havoc on my long runs. I can't remember the last time I ran a long distance. I'm guessing it was nine miles. Oh well, It won't be a pretty running day but it will be what it will be. Pretty profound, huh? I've continued to run consistently though and I could be in much worse shape. I'll be glad when this one is over. I love the idea but I think that next year we'll run the relay with another couple. :-) That would be an exciting next step. I'll never run a marathon but I'm thinking of walking one next June.

This morning I was up here checking my email and looking at posts from my class. The sun was shining just right and my little Bella was so adorable that I just had to grab my camera and take her picture. She is a little bit nervous but she is also blind. Anyway, I called her name and she looked at me and I want to share her with you. I love, love, love her...

A more precious cat there has never been. She's only 4 lbs. but I love all 4 lbs. of her.

Writing class was good last night. I'm going to do the next exercises that we get at least twice. What I like about our first assignment is that we were given permission to write poorly. I think I can do this assignment with little or no problem. I feel like I have lost some of my skills. I'm excited to keep up with this process.

Quote for the day: Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. ~Joshua J. Marine

Why so busy?

It's late, so this post won't be very long. I started my writing class tonight. I'm so excited. I know that if you don't use it, you lose it when it comes to writing so I'm happy to be back on the bus. It's going to be a wonderful 6 weeks.

My nephew had a baseball game tonight and I took pictures. I posted so many...about 50, which seems like a lot. Oh well. It gives me great pleasure to take these pictures. I'm so glad that I have three more years after this to take pictures. Here is one from tonight.

He had an awesome two base hit! It was jacked right over the second baseman's head. YAY!!

This morning was the Busey Economic Seminar. It's always an eye opener, I enjoy it every year. It's a great tradition that they have at Busey. Ed does a great job with it. My goal: to be the Economist of the Year! ...Right....

Ten more days until the Illinois Marathon. I can't wait. It will be an interesting day. I have not trained like I could or should have. Being out of town on the weekends has really hurt me. Oh well, It will be fine and I'll finish and that's really my goal.

Quote for the day: “I write down everything I want to remember. That way, instead of spending a lot of time trying to remember what it is I wrote down, I spend the time looking for the paper I wrote it down on.” Beryl Pfizer

It's all about golf today!

It's all about golf today. Hubby and I played golf tonight. I was a bit unnerved because I thought I was going to hit balls and I haven't hit a ball in a long time so I was excited. I was somewhat annoyed when I found out we were just going to play regular golf. Apparently, hitting balls=playing golf. Going to the range=going to the range. Oh well...It was awesome. I played pretty good actually.

Back at the club, I got asked to play with the 18 holers group. Of course you don't have to be special to play, I'm sure they ask anyone but I think I would like to play. I thought it might not be possible but I'm going to think about negotiating playing golf on Tuesday mornings. Besides if fundraising is all about relationships, then I can work on some relationships on the golf course. Brilliant!!

We had our photo shoot today at United Way. It was awesome!! Fewer models and more relaxed. It think the pictures are going to be a good fit. I'm looking for a more vertical look this year with the photographs. I'm proud of what we have accomplished with our look and our own photos but we were lacking in individual pictures and simplicity...and we also focused on education, income and health. It's all good.

Not much else is new. I'm kind of tired and I have an early beginning.

Quote for the day: If you are caught on a golf course during a storm and are afraid of lightning, hold up a 1-iron. Not even God can hit a 1-iron. ~Lee Trevino

Is it Friday yet?

Seriously, I need a weekend to recover from my weekend. I did get up and run 5.5 miles this morning. Yes, thank you. I was supposed to run 10 but I only made one loop. It's a great loop though and I look forward to keeping this in my list of routes. It will be an interesting Saturday when I run 11 miles. I'm sure I will be a ball of fire for the rest of the day. Illinois Marathon is in twelve days!

I went in to work late today. We did get some things accomplished. Now that our spring event, Ready. Set. Grow! is over it's time to hit campaign hard. It will be an interesting year as we are working with our board to transition ourselves into more of an impact United Way. Things are going very well though as we have gone past $3 million for the third year in a row. We will in fact, surpass our $3.1 million goal this year. YAY!! What our donors give to this community is phenomenal. This is a great community because of caring donors and volunteers. As a matter of fact, this is National Volunteer Week. I give all United Way volunteers, a 10!

Happy Volunteer Week!!

Quote for the day: I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do. ~Edward Everett Hale

Sunday, April 18, 2010

What a great weekend. We headed down to Southern Illinois after the Ready. Set. Grow event yesterday. We have a car that was given to us by a family member that has been having severe mechanical issues so we took it down south to someone who can work with it and sell it for us. So after the event yesterday, I followed hubby down so we could drop it off. We used to have a home down at Lake of Egypt. About 3 years ago, we decided that we weren’t using it as much as we had been and put it on the market. It was a great home and I miss it sometimes but it was time to let it go. We had not been down in 3 years since we sold it so we stayed with some old friends, Jo and Dick, at the lake last night. It was great to be down there again. The new owners have done some wonderful improvements to the house most of which have been on the outside. They gave us a tour and allowed me to take pictures so that I could show the kids. They also invited us back and said we could stay there if we wanted to. How lovely. J Sunshine had a wonderful time. Sometimes I miss the lake life and I wouldn’t change all those wonderful years for anything. I have great family memories of the lake.

Two weeks until the Illinois Marathon. I haven’t trained for this as well as I did last year. I’ve missed some of my long runs and it is very difficult during the week to get my runs in. Tomorrow morning, I’m going for a late start at work so that I can get my 11 mile run in. I’ll be glad when the race is over. I think that next year we might run the Marathon Relay with another couple that we talked into running this year. I think they think this would be a great idea.

Quote for the day - Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others. Rosa Parks

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Today United Way hosted the first ever event- Ready. Set. Grow! providing information and education tools for parents and caregivers birth to six. It was a smashing success. A lot of data was gathered and parents and children participated in interactive activities. It was such a feel good kind of day. I can’t say how many people were there but I would say that nearly 350 families were in attendance. Great job, Beverley, @ United Way for coordinating all the various committees to help make this first year event so successful! We were fortunate to partner with Carle Foundation Hospital and also have such wonderful media partners at WCIA and Illini Radio Group. Special thanks to Champaign County Tent, A & R Mechanical and Lincoln Square.

Quote for the day: If you want your child to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others. Dr. Haim Ginott.

The freakin' weekend!

TGIF! Wow! What a week. It's been good and busy.

The thing that made me happiest today was having lunch with Julia. We had a very good time and a lot of laughs. I miss her so much.

The second thing that made me happiest today was when my nephew, Charlie, made one of the photos that I took of him, his profile picture. It brings me so much joy to be able to take his pictures. :-)

Tomorrow is our big event for the community - Ready. Set. Grow! I can't wait for this first ever event to offer information and resources to help plant the seeds for healthy child development for ages birth to six. What an exciting thing to bring to our community. There is no manual on how to parent but tomorrow we are going to give parents the tools to help them be good, responsible parents.

Tomorrow night, we will be at Lake of Egypt visiting with some friends that I have missed so much in the past few years.

If I didn't mention it in my first post, I love quotations...and I will try to share one with you every time I post. Have the sweetest of dreams! :-)

Quote for the day: “Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections.” Can't find who it's author is....

The beginning...

What better way to start a new blog than with a great day! I only wish I had the time and the umph to share all the wonderful things that happened today.

1. Am the new VP of Executive Club (pending acceptance at the board meeting)
2. Had an awesome speaker during our meeting today that talked about social networking.
3. That same awesome speaker came back and helped us with our Mission Statement.
4. Played Bunco tonight with a wonderful group of women that I had never met before.

It doesn't get much better. I decided to start a new blog today. This one to be more informational than anything. And it's time for new beginnings. I'm feeling that at this time especially. I'm learning some things about myself and am open to trying new things,....new ways of doing things. I might even share them as we go along.

I wish I had time to expound on these points but be sure that I will be back and we will talk and we'll have fun along the way. :-)

Quote for the day: Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. Carl Bard