WHERE I AM TODAY: Reigniting My Own Spirit!

My beloved Bert, who knows me so, so well,often says that I take life on as if there was no tomorrow and that I do EVERYTHING in a BIG way! He smiles when he says this and often chuckles and shakes his head.

My high school counselor Dale Hanberg, who saw me involved in almost every activity in high school, smiled at me and chuckled when he told me that if I didn't slow down that I'd burn out by thirty. He said, "Linda, there is no one quite like you and none of us can keep up with you. The pace you keep, and the things you accomplish, always go above and beyond!" Again, Mr. Hanberg is someone who knew me well.

I've found over the past several years of blogging that there are several reoccuring themes that echo Bert's and Mr. Hanberg's descriptions of me:
1) I love what I do at work and with my family.
2) I am passionate about being a teacher, consultant and all of the personal roles like wife, Mom, Nana, and friend.
3) It's hard to find time for everything I love to do.
4) I need a more balanced life with more time for fun.
5) I often resist making choices that balance my life.
6) My life is way more balanced in the summer!

I notice this lack of balance most accutely at the end of the school year when I feel I am literally going full speed at every moment. As Wayne Dyer says in his book "Being In Balance"...
"There is more to life than making it go faster."

However the end of the year has a pace all its own, and "balance" is in short supply in my life.

On June 17th I did a workshop for a wonderful consulting client, June 18th was graduation at SCC, and Friday, June 19th, my grades went in at SCC. Granted,these activities are all part and parcel of choices I have made and requirements for my jobs. However, within minutes of my grades going in it felt like I was starting to breathe again. I found myself smiling, almost as if being "balanced" was right around the corner!!

Being balanced for me is not an absence of activity. Rather it is doing some of the "FUN STUFF" that reignites my spirit. So here are a few of the "reigniting" activities that have gone on recently:

1) GOING TO EMMA'S KINDERGARTEN GRADUATION:
Oh my gosh, where did this year go? It seems like only yesterday that I was putting balloons in Emma's front yard as she went to her first day of kindergarten. She was so little then in stature, but she had such a big spirit!! Watching Emma at her graduation celebration, and seeing her memory book in her classroom, was a great reminder that time flys. It was so fun to be a part of this celebration for her! She's off to first grade next year!

2) EMMA's OVERNIGHT AT OUR HOUSE/ CHEERING FOR JESSI and ROG AT THE MEDICAL LAKE TRIATHLON:
Friday June 19th Emma stayed overnight at our house. She is so amazing and so, so funny! She cracks herself up and everyone else in the process. She became "Ninja Girl" and walked around like Daniel in Karate Kid making Ninja movements, noises, and then falling into hysterical laughter. We did some crafting together as we were a "cheer squad" the next day at Rog and Jessi's Medical Lake Triathlon race. In true Emma and Nana style we went to Joann's, got glittery visors, tons of glittery stickers, a blue boa, and sign materials. Saturday morning after our slumber party, (we didn't get much sleep because of all the thunder and lightening), we crafted our little hearts out. We decorated our visors, matching water holders, and made signs. We then headed out to cheer! What a hoot!! Seeing Rog take first place at that race and Jessi take the first woman in the race made me, once again, appreciate their dedication, courage, and training for this sport!! We loved cheering for them!!

3) BIRTHDAY SPA TIME WITH JESSI:
June 24th hold special meaning for me since 32 years ago Jessi was born on that day. To celebrate her birthday this year, I took Jessi to Spa Paradiso where we both had massages and then had a wonderful Davenport lunch! What a treat to spend that fun and relaxing time together getting pampered!! Massages and spa time really reignite my spirit!!

4)JACOB'S OVERNIGHT BEFORE HOOPFEST WEEKEND/ FUN WITH JENNA:
The end of June is always crazy with athletic events like Ironman and Hoopfest! The night before Hoopfest started, and Ryan played for two teams, Jacob stayed overnight. It seems like ages since he has had time with us and that he has grown three inches since his last overnight. He and Boppa played basketball and we watched fun movies. The next day we had Jenna, since hours of being on basketball courts in the heat doesn't work well for her, and we went to the water park on the south hill. She is such an energetic cutie and she loved running through the spraying water. What a hoot!!

5) TIME AT THE LAKE:
Since our townhouse is in the midst of construction from our winter flood, and there is dust and construction everywhere, Bert and I took some time to go to the lake and have fun in the sun. My favorite part of our time there was going on the inner tube behind the boat and laughing myself silly!! What a treat to reignite my spirit by just having FUN!!! It was also especially great to have some time with Zac and Kayla. Zac is headed to high school next year and is so tall that he towers over me. Kayla is headed to middle school and is a beautiful young lady both inside and out. It feels like I hardly have time with either of them during the regular school year so some catch up time is so important.

Catching up with myself and those I love is a huge part of reigniting my spirit!!

Speaking of catching up with myself...I head to my annual retreat to Cannon Beach at the end of this next week. My dear friend Sharon and I look forward to this retreat and rejuvination time all year long! This year has been rewarding and very challenging so I feel blessed to get away and get rejuvinated- spiritually, physically, intellectually and emotionally!

Before I head off however I'm headed to SCC this morning to finish cleaning my office and room and get ready for fall quarter!:) Somehow being a teacher never ends! :)

I hope your summer time is full of love, fun, personal rejuvination, and blessings!
God Bless!
Love Linda

Somewhere Over the Rainbow!

Wow! What a weekend in Puyallup! The highlight was, without a doubt, hearing Emily sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in Ella Fitzgerald fashion! Better yet, she publically dedicated it to her Grandpa Bert, and it's his favorite song! Lots of tears! We are so proud of Emily and all her hard work with drama and singing. She is one gifted girl!!

I'll do a longer catch up post AFTER finals are over!!
God Bless!
Love and hugs to all of you!
Linda

WOW,WOW, and WOW AGAIN!: Amy Gets Her Masters Degree From Gonzaga University!!

One of the truly fun parts of being a Mom is seeing all of the milestones my children go through as they grow up....their first steps, first day of school, first date, graduation from high school, graduation from college, getting married, birth of their first child...the list goes on and on. My prayer has always been that they would grow up to be who they are uniquely meant to be, be happy in their own skin, know that God loves them, and that they would fulfill their dreams.

Last Saturday my precious daughter Amy achieved one of her dreams. She graduated from Gonzaga University with a Masters degree in Communications and Leadership Studies. She set a goal, she dedicated herself to achieving it, and she accomplished it in style- getting an A in every class and special recognition of her Masters thesis about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the workplace.

How Amy achieved this dream is beyond amazing to me. I too have a masters degree (two of them) and the work load at the post-graduate level to achieve a Masters Degree is incomprehensible to most people, unless you have done it. There are hours and hours of going to class, reading academic works, writing and rewriting papers, conferences with academic advisors, presentations to give, more papers to write, an oral exam and presentation of your thesis, and writing a thesis that is scrutinized by an academic committee of the faculty of the university.

It is rigorus academic work under any circumstances. Yet to do it , as Amy did, while working part time as the manager of a consulting practice, getting pregnant and have a new baby, being an exceptional Mom to four children (and attend all their activities), being an amazing wife, daughter, sister, and friend, participating in a church, and driving children in cars for hours and hours...and hours....well that to me defines an exceptional effort and achievement.

Yet since Amy was a little girl she has never been one to "toot her own horn!" She is very humble and grateful for the opportunity to get an education, but she will be the last person to tell you she got an A in all of her classes or that she did her studying at night so her children wouldn't have to compete with school for her attention.

Saturday was Amy's day...her graduation day. Not only did she look beautiful, she looked radiant. Seeing her cross that stage, and seeing her at her graduation party, warmed my heart.

She was surrounded by Ryan and all four of her precious children, her family, her best friend Jodi and her family...it just doesn't get better than that!

So here's to YOU Aim! I'm bringing a band of horns, trumpets, a big brass band, to "toot your horn" for you! Boppa and I are SO, SO proud of you...who you are as a person, your love for the Lord. the servant heart you have for others, and this huge accomplishment of getting your Masters degree! We love you to the moon and back, and we are proud that you are our daughter!!

May God bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you and give you joy and peace! May you always know His love for you and that you are His beloved child!

Your proud Momma

Spring Communication Conference- WE DID IT!!!

WOW! It was a bit like birthing a baby...months and months of preparation and hard work, concern and intention...a goal to put on a conference for SCC and the community.

The Spring Communication conference has become an annual event in my life. Five years ago I agreed to take it over to see if we could make it more professional and really highlight our department and bring in new students. I saw this event as a marketing opportunity extraordinare, if we stepped up to REALLY showcase what we give to students in our classes. It could also be a gift to our community because we could market it in Spokane as a free opportunity for education.

What continues to amaze me is that this event grows and grows, and we now have a class that puts this on as a communications internship for students in our communications program. This year we had three student managers and ran it as a business. While I was the CEO, the managers (who participated in the conference last year) learned management skills as they supervised key committees.

This may sound pretty "typical" for a business, yet we were putting on a conference for 1000 people, decorating the huge conference center, providing food, muffins, fruit trays, juice and coffee for a thousand, brochures, marketing postcards and more...on a BUDGET OF $00.00.

That's right NO MONEY!

This student-run conference had to get donations during a recession to function. And they DID IT BIG TIME!!

The marketing blitz was phenominal..complete with professional postcard invitations, readerboard signs, brochures put out, invitation speeches made in classes and churches, and signs everywhere!

This year we had 1100 total participants, gorgeous decorations and flowers, balloons everywhere, platters of fruit and food, Roberta Greene as the keynote speaker, eight other workshops following, and a celebration luncheon to boot.

My role on May 5th was to be the MC for the keynote session, introduce the keynote speaker,

and give two workshops, one at 9:30 with Scott Finnie and one at 10:30 on "How To Become An Optimist!"

Whew! It was an amazing experience with so many highlights...filled with hundreds of hours of work for me and not much sleep:) But seeing the students be self-empowered and do what seemed impossible with such hard work and professionalism made it WELL worth the hard work. Also, when we look at the FTE numbers for our department, we are up 30% since last year! That means more of our students at SCC are being exposed to how to be better communicators!! Another goal reached!

Thanks to all who asked about how it went and special KUDOS to Bert and Amy for coming to the conference to support me (and to Tim for taking care of Jenna so Amy could attend)!:)

As I always say...I have the best job in the world!

God Bless!

Love Linda

BLOOMSDAY 2009- "WE ARE WOMEN, HEAR US ROAR!"

This quarter I have been teaching a Gender Communication class and it has brought up many memories for me of growing up female! Last week one of my female students was using a thesaurus and actually found us listed under "weaker sex"....She was furious as was I. Are you kidding me???

In 1972 (I was born in 1947) Helen Reddy sang a number one hit called "I Am Woman". This song was controversial at the time and yet is still applicable today. The lyrics say in part:

I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And I know too much to go back and pretend.

Cause I've heard it all before
And I've been down there on the floor
No one's ever going to keep me down again!

Today is Bloomsday and the race course will be crammed full of women runners. When Jessi and Amy were little we used to sit at the top of Doomsday Hill and yell for the wheelchair athletes. In 1986 I was running and did the Bloomsday course in one hour and twenty minutes....not a big deal by most standards, but great for ME! On another note, Bert did Bloomsday in 50 minutes when he was 50! Way to go Boppa!

And that's what it is really about in my book...EVERY woman having the right to achieve their FULL POTENTIAL with no artificial restrictions like gender.

This morning my daughter Jessi is in the second seed group and is wearing BLUE..she is number 721. She EARNED this place in the race and is running it so sick most folks would stay home. She'll be out there giving it her all! I'm ROOTING for you Jess Jess!

Amy's best friend Jodi is also running as fast as the wind! All I can say is WOW!! Get those Kenyans Jodi! No matter how fast you run...we are so proud of you!

While I am cheering for all of the athletes who have the guts to do Bloomsday, I am sending up a HUGE cheer for all of my "sisters" who are out there!

Give 'em heck ladies! Let's hear you ROAR!!!

God Bless!
Love Linda

"When You're Smiling, When You're Smiling...The Whole World Smiles With you..."

Where have I been for the last month since the last time I blogged? Literally, in a whirlwind of activities. I got up this morning at 2am to work, and after a brief talk with God took the time to look back on the last month since spring "break". I use those two words loosely since it snowed (again) during this time and didn't feel much like spring, and it didn't seem like a break since I spent most of my time at school working on the spring conference. However, it was a great luxury to get up at 5 or 5:30 instead of my usual 2:30 or 3!

Here are a few of the "current events" in no particular order:

1) I am thrilled to be teaching a new class on gender communication, and I am loving all the new learning I am doing about my own gender and the opposite gender. I have 39 in that class (the cap is 27) and some folks are sitting on the floor since my classroom cannot accomodate that many desks. All have chosen to stay no matter the cramped quarters, and we are having a blast. :) Did you know that if you inject female baby monkeys with testosterone they will be as aggressive as male monkeys? Did you know that in families who choose to raise boys without any guns present as toys that the boys will make guns and swords out of carrots or even pieces of bread? Lots of work to prep for a new class, but well worth the effort!!

2) The Spring Communication Conference is right around the corner. This is an event at SCC, put on by my department, that I have been in charge of for the past four years. We now have a practical business communication class that helps to put on the conference with me, and it is a magical experience to watch students take full responsibility for putting on a conference for 1,ooo people with speakers, food, decorations, and marketing on a budget of ZERO DOLLARS! We get donations for everything. Yesterday we did a "marketing blitz" and it was a huge success! Very rewarding!! This year I have three managers who helped with the conference last year...what a gift! It takes hundreds of hours of work, but it is a life-like learning for my students!!

3) It was so, so fun to have the annual "Easter Extravaganza" at our home again for our entire extended family...complete with spring flowers everywhere, Easter baskets for all, a cool Easter egg hunt, and a wonderful brunch with yummy contributions from family members. I LOVED seeing everyone together having fun and relaxing, and since I love traditions this is one I want to keep up....no matter how busy I may be. He is risen!!

4) Easter weekend Emma came for an overnight and since Jessi and Rog were out of town at a triathlon I got to take her to her first soccer game in Deer Park. She is such an amzing little girl and watching her make 7 goals ( in the pouring down rain)was so fun. Plus her enthusiasm for decorating for Easter, and getting the eggs filled with candy and money, matches my own!!:) We had a blast , and having one-on-one time with her warmed my heart!

5) After our "flood" in January of this year (see previous post for pictures of water soaked carpet and waterfalls coming out of our recessed lighting), we are headed for some major reconstruction this late spring and summer. ..that will be BOTH inside and out as the damage is quite major. Most of the drywall ceilings on our main floor need to be replaced and everything painted. Flooring must come up in some rooms and be replaced. The contractor was here yesterday with a game plan. Since I hate having my home in any disarray, we are "reframing" this positively by saying that we are getting spruced up and insurance is paying for it. A gift that doesn't look gift wrapped!

6) Amy's car accident, where she was driving and another car went through a red light and smashed into the driver's side of her car, left us stunned, angry, sad, and grateful. She has had some awful whiplash-related hurts to deal with (and continuing pain and headaches)...but she could have easily been killed. We are SO grateful to God that she is recovering. My "Mommy's heart" almost breaks every time my daughters are hurt, and this was no exception. First a deer for Jessi and then a careless driver for Amy. God and I have had some long talks about all of this.

7) I have LOVED any time I have spent with grandchildren recently. They are growing up SO fast. Zac is such a fine, tall, and smart young man, and he is learning to DRIVE....that's right, like drive a car!! How can that be???? Having time with Kayla over spring break was such a joy and seeing her play soccer is great fun for me! She is a beautiful young lady, inside and out. Jacob is growing in leaps and bounds and is beyond wonderful and Jenna steals my heart every time I see her. She is talking up a storm and is as cute as her Mama!! What a joy it is to see the babies of my babies grow up to be wonderful, loving, caring, talented children!! Great parenting is going on!!

8) Oh...and one more reframe. We received notice from the IRS that we are being audited for 2005. Since many of our past IRS records were water soaked in the "flood"... as they were stored upstairs where the flood took place...I have been getting additional records from our banks and places we contribute to. It seems we make too many contributions to charity (more than the norm) and that kicks up the IRS red flag that something may be amiss. We tithe at our church (and did at two churches in 2005) and contribute to multiple organizations that need help (Christ's Kitchen, Cup of Cool Water etc). No matter what the cost or inconvenience...we will continue to be givers. We've been audited before and they owed us money when it was all done. But it's lots of extra work when your records look like a combination of cardboard box and paper mache. Again, we're keeping our sense of humor!

That's it for me as April almost comes to an end! Whew! We have so much to be grateful for. God is good and we are grateful! I keep singing the old tune my Mom and Dad loved..."when you're smiling, when you're smiling...the whole world smiles with you!"...and that puts a smile on my face!

Love and hugs to all of you!
God Bless!
Linda

WHAT A RELIEF: A Change of Pace, A Smile on My Face, A Song in My Heart!!

It started this last Thusday at about noon...I was actually breathing again!!!

I'm talking about the deep kind of breathing you do when you are relaxed and content. Praise the Lord, my grades were in! What a marathon of all-nighters, grading 93 take home finals and then calculating their actual grades! You have to be a teacher to "get" how hard this is. But the good news is...IT'S OVER ...for this quarter!!! I found myself feeling lighter...and I don't mean because of the 4.2 pounds I've lost at Weight Watchers over the last three weeeks. My spirit was soaring, and I started to smile again!

Not only that, I went to one of my favorite stores...JOANN's...and bought ALL of the supplies for the Spring Communication Conference at SCC, which I am in charge of again! Another great relief! I knew the theme for the conference and would have that ready for the first day of school!
More smiling!

Yesterday, Friday, I spent most of the morning at SCC getting my classes ready for spring quarter. A long ways to go, since I'm teaching a new course on Gender Communication, but I am encouraged! :) Just having some time to breathe put a song in my heart! I even cranked up Aretha Franklin on my car's cd player, got out of the car, and danced with Boppa before heading down the road to SCC!

I'm even in the process of getting ready for Easter and I can hardly wait to pour my creativity into designing Easter baskets for family and friends!

I've desperately needed a change of pace, and I've been praying non-stop that God would give me "new eyes to see" and a "new heart" to feel His presence.

As it says in Ephesians 3:20...

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurable more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory!"

So today I'm up early, having coffee, getting ready to clean my house, reading The Message, and being reminded that He is able! No matter how hard it gets... I'll keep breathing, keep smiling and remembering that God loves me!

I'm sending smiles, hugs, and prayers YOUR way!
God Bless! Love Linda