A Pun Halloween

 

Whit loves Halloween - it's the very best time for him to dress up - by dressing down. He loves it more than anything when he gets to relax in basketball shorts. 

So for Halloween, he dressed as comfortably as possible and safety-pinned a cardboard quarter to his back - for a "Quarterback" costume. I painted a lightning bolt on my face and went as "Rolling Thunder."

I guess my whole family is into the punny costumes because my brother went as "Pumpkin Pi" (as in 3.14...) and my sister went as my husband (all she had to do was wear basketball shorts and dress socks - Whit doesn't even own white socks I don't think).

 

Dad

This is my dad. He's a gardener, a fisherman, an author, a chicken rancher, a train enthusiast, an intelligence analyst, and a voracious reader.

He isn't perfect, but he's overcome a lot of imperfections to get to the level of near-perfection that he's at today.

He taught me to be proactive (not reactive), that God answers prayers (period.), and that Tennessee is the best college football team in the world (Go Vols!).

 I couldn't have chosen a more perfect dad to raise me (probably one of the more difficult children to raise...).

Thanks Dad!

Let me count the ways...

When I got back home from a huge day of solo-traveling from Chicago, 

 This is what I came home to...

 

The last bouquet from our rose bushes. 

Whit picked them all and brought the inside just for me!

I missed Whit on the trip. Not just because of all the things he does for me when he travels with me - and he does do a LOT, so much so that I even started keeping a list of things I noticed that he doe for me (some things I never even noticed before). Here it is:

1. Pack the suitcases really well
2. Carry the suitcases
3. Lifts me onto the plane - I mean, I noticed he did this, but didn't notice how much easier it was when he did do it.
4. Provides me with unlimited cuddling while we fly. Cuddling up with th wall, even with 5-7 blankets and two pillows was so amazingly uncomfortable.
5. Carry me off the plane.
6. Knows where to go in the airport. I had to ask 4 people where the 2C door was.
7. Put me in cars. I was strapped down with 4 cables in the taxi. It'd have been so much easier to get a regular cab with Whit.
8. Talk to the hotel people and check us in.
9. Open hotel doors. They're heavy and awkward.
10. Pushes me on hotel carpet.
11. Unpacks stuff in the hotel room while I freshened up and reapplied makeup 
12. Put me on the bed
13. Moved furniture (and heaven and earth) to find an outlet to plus in my heater
14. Sets all my bed stuff up like water and pills ad bucket and stuff
15. Made me feel safe
16. Tucked me in
17. He explains jokes to me
18. Rubs my shoulders when I'm cold
19. Finishes my food
20. Cuts my food so I don't have to stab huge chunks of broccoli and eat them bite by bite off the fork
21. He worries about packing and getting places
22. Gets my purse for me when I need it
23. Gets stuff out of the purse for me when I need it
24. Worries about losing the hotel key card so I don't have to.
25. Hands me the centerpiece candle when I am cold
26. Squeezes the lemon on my salmon
27. Puts toothpaste on m toothbrush
28. Packs up
29. Zips zippers
30. Helps me straighten my clothes (the maid helped me. Her name was Sonya)
31. Turns the tv on and knows how to work the remote control
32. Puts pillows under my knees
33. Takes the airplane tag off my wheelchair - I had it on through the whole conference.
34. Helps me wet my hair with shower nozzle
35. Let's me snuggle up against his back when he sleeps even when he is hot
36. Checks the drawers for stuff we left behind
37. Carries the bags
38. Gets me food from the buffet line
39. Never puts ice in my drinks because he knows I don't really like it.
40. Gets me drinks
41. Gets me silverware
42. Holds my business cards and gets me them when I need them
43. Clips my name tag on me.
44. Pushes the elevator buttons.

 And still, after spending a weekend away from me, and when he should be relaxing and not working so hard for ME, he picks me flowers.  

I know it's cheesy (maybe super cheese-cheesy) but it makes me think of one of my favorite poems I studied when I was an English minor in college:

 

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Athena Leadership Summit 2012

I’m back from last weekend’s 2012 Athena International Leadership Summit in Chicago and have been trying to “settle” back into my regular routine, but can’t.

  (The wonderful Ogden/Weber Chamber Women in Business

committee members and me. From top left: Kristie Nielsen,

Joanna Kellerstrauss, Debbie Williams, Meg Johnson.)

It was the first conference I’ve been to that I haven’t spoken at and I am so glad I got to just sit back and soak up the messages and the inspiration from everyone who attended (even if they didn’t speak from the stage). I was so touched by everyone I met and I don’t think I could ever settle back into what I used to be or do again.

Every moment seemed to be “Aha!” and here are a few crumbs from the goddess buffet:

1.      The whole event began with Diane Jeppson, the President and CEO of Athena International, give her opening remarks, I was confused by her gestures when she discussed “Giving Back.” Instead of extending her hand out toward an unknown recipient of her goodwill, she reached out and grabbed the air, then pulled the “recipient” back into herself.

It was weird.

She did it several times before I caught on to her unspoken message. Athena Leaders don’t just throw out advice and counsel for others with passive “Well you should just…” comments. Athena leaders nurture and walk with those they lead.  

2.      Martha Mertz, the founder of Athena International, spoke on the Athena leadership principle “Live Authentically.” She told about the Athena awards itself, each of which is a unique and numbered work of art. Here is me when I won the Athena award earlier this year:

Martha talked about how the piece itself represents an Athena leader:

The base is a solid piece of marble representing a strong foundation.

The bronze figure is a leader who is polished and poised.

The crystal prism demonstrates the light the Athena leader exudes.

(cool coincidence – this is the 30^th anniversary of the Athena Award and I am 30!)

Martha definitely lives authentically. She is regal and you can see her kind eyes just as easily from the elevator as you can from the stage.

(Martha Mertz, Founder of Athena International, and me)

3.    Donna Messer…I was going to write a brief title for her but her accomplishments are so many that they are too many to write and a few wouldn’t suffice. Plus she’s awesome. She totally networked me in the bathroom and it was so smooth, I didn’t realize I was being “networked” until I was out of the bathroom – and smiling. She talked (appropriately) on building relationships. One of my favorite things she said (I have copious notes from her presentation – I couldn’t get enough of her) was to “stop thinking about the ‘me’ in the world and start thinking about the ‘we’ in the world.”

4.      All of the speakers were my “favorite” (really, how could I choose?) but Catherine Lee was maybe my favorite of my favorites. She is older and sweet and when she spoke I wanted to curl up in a Lazy-boy and just relax and listen. She spoke about the Athena leadership principle, “Learn Constantly” and there couldn’t have been a more suitable speaker for it! She was a housewife forever and then went into the workforce armed with her husband’s advice: “Whatever they ask you to do, just tell them ‘Yeah, I feel comfortable doing that’ and come home and I’ll show you how!” Within a (very) short time she was working in China where they affectionately called her the “big, elegant lady.” She isn’t big – it meant more that what she did was awesome. She lives by (and exemplifies) a quote I absolutely love: You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face (Eleanor Roosevelt).

Those are just tiny bits of what I took home from such a great event. I came to the conference knowing that I AM an Athena Leader (hey, I even have the statue), but I left understanding that, just like each award is a work of art, each Athena Leader has to  continue to put in the work before she’s refined enough to be art.

I’m at the beginning of my refining process. But I know refinement is possible because I met some very fine works of art over the weekend. The polished and poised Athena Leaders who spoke (and not just onstage) showed me the kind of Athena leader I want to become.