Aunt Enabler

So my cute and precocious little nephew just had his second birthday. Life is great in the sense that takes everyone on various and unique paths, but it's not so great when there is distance involved and you don't get to eat up every precious moment of a kid's learning and growing. Praise be to the Internet and blogs.

I'm not a proponent for buying love (anyone remember that episode of Full House when Uncle Jessie tried that trick ... quality time is so much more valuable than material items!). I am however, a huge fan of enabling. That was probably my best self-aware a-ha moment of the week. Enabling usually has a negative connotation, but I find so much satisfaction in providing someone else with the means/power/opportunity to do.

Case in point: My nephew is obsessed with balloons. As his Mom and Dad can tell you he has uber ball-dar (yup, balloons are "balls"), so as part of his birthday present I sent a laughably large, but not inflated, red balloon; a conveniently perfect color for the Elmo themed festivities! This balloon is not 100% full of helium, as transportation was tricky. Therese and Chris are in Ohio for her sister's wedding so they are at the mercy of their rental car, hence the size restriction.

Therese sent along a happy report that the balloon was a hit! The giddy profile of Kelton's enthusiastic reaction to the balloon makes my heart smile. Happy 0-2 King Kelton!

turning japanese i really think so

I was asked to create "cute" invitations for an upcoming event, a Japanese tea. Most of the events I plan are too large to benefit from hand-crafted personalized elements, as my labor resources are limited (I only have two hands!). This tea however, had a limited invitation pool so it was about 1/5 of the size that I'm used to planning for.

Each invitee received a personalized Japanese fan that served as their invitation. The fans were tied with ribbon and a name tag, and then hand delivered. All details, including date, time, directions and RSVP information were accessible once the fan was opened.















It was a fairly inexpensive invitation that also helped introduce the theme of the event and served as a nice pre-event souvenir. I received a lot of complimentary emails of appreciation for the invitations, which was very flattering. Cute story from my follow-up on RSVPs: one of the ladies told me that she thought the invitation was so cute she wrapped it back up to display it and complete spaced on RSVPing.

Again, I share this b/c it's often easier to show some of what I do rather than just say "maven factotum" or "fun czar". :)

Documentary Film Project

THE AKHA WOMEN'S FOUNDATION AND DOCUMENTARY FILM PROJECT

My trusted friend Scott Christopherson and his colleague, both film student graduates, are working on a documentary film about the women of the Akha tribe in northern Thailand. They have teamed up with a non-profit organization, The Akha Women's Foundation, which works to empower the Akha women to learn skills to support their families (i.e. Thai/Akha massage and herbal medicine).

Scott lived in Thailand for a few years as a missionary and has returned a few times for various projects. He is hoping to use his degree to raise awareness of the Akha tribe, who live in remote villages in Thailand, Burma, and Laos and do not have documentation as citizens and as a result are denied public health care and education and often fall into, or are sold into, human trafficking in an effort to support their families.

Everyone has items about which they are passionate and support, especially as regards human rights. I share his project with you in case you have a few extra quarters, or even dollars, and this topic pings on your charity radar. You can donate via PayPal by clicking on the "documentary film" link above which directs you to the film blog and you'll find the PayPal link.

A movie that made ME cry

Wow. So a few months back I read about this movie, Dear Zachary: a letter to a son about his father, but of course it was not playing in a theater near me. As often happens, I hear about things that I want to see but then get busy and forget about monitoring their release date.

On Saturday I was at the grocery store grabbing some supplies for a birthday cake project and decided that since my car was parked equidistant to the store entrance and Blockbuster that I would at least stop in to see if there was anything I might want to rent/watch (Red Box line was too long). I perused the perimeter and did a double take with excitement when I saw the DVD of Dear Zachary on the shelf.

I didn't have time to watch it until tonight. (Long pause.) MAN. Just in time for Father's Day. This documentary tribute from his best friend is full of raw emotion (and not Real World style). It's an appreciation of parenting, real love, and sacrifice, and highlights how individual and selfish choices can stab the heart. If you do not want someone to see you tear up, watch this alone.

I'm still in awe over how infuriating the legal system made this situation. For those that hunger for the intriguing lure of a good SVU or Cold Case episode, this will satiate, but be forewarned that it is very tangible. And while the story is heartbreaking it is also really well made. I admit that my comments are vague, but I don't want to be that person that gives away anything or sets up certain expectations. I will say, see it.

Mmmmmm ... doughnuts!

Don't forget that tomorrow (June 5) is National Doughnut Day.

For the health conscious, if you follow the wisdom of Homer Simpson, you can pick a donut with purple in it, because "purple is a fruit."

Like buttah

My friend Beckie might be the only person to really appreciate this, but a while back she and Katie and I went to a movie. If I remember correctly Katie bought my ticket online and I was buying her popcorn/drink in return. For whatever reason it seemed that this popcorn was extremely expensive. The exact words exchanged between the movie theater employee and me escape my mind but I do remember being shocked by the price and piping up with a "really? because it only cost $0.25 to make that!". Beckie, rightfully so, was embarrassed by my behavior and we had a great laugh out of it. I'm usually not THAT person, but I was really caught off guard by the cost of the popcorn.

ANYWAY ... all of this is to say, imagine my excitement when I found out that my economics professor this fall is also the author of this book:
















HA!

Pistolling Through the Half

A friend convinced me to run the Laguna Hills Half Marathon with her and a few other friends on Memorial Day. We carbo-loaded (mainly with sugar cookies!) the night before with a team dinner and the morning of the race was rather cool, perfect running weather. I had to remind myself between working full-time, coaching full-time, and grad school applications, it was okay that I had not put in the mileage or training that I would have hoped to in prep for the race. So with no expectations, I set out to run ...























































































Apparently my guns ran out of ammunition!































I would like to thank "Pistol Pete" for motivating me to a best time (by .50 seconds).