Panic
December 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
For some reason I left the house and decided to walk to the store and I left both girls at home alone. As I walked back home I heard crying coming from the house and dropped my groceries and started to run to the house, but I couldn’t get there. I kept running and running but the house never got closer it just was still far away but the crying gets louder and louder. Then all of a sudden I wake up and sit up straight in bed like I’ve just been poked in the ribs and I unclench my teeth and gasp for air. Once I realized that I was dreaming I lay back down.
This is a recurring nightmare that I have from time to time and mostly the details are the same. Sometimes I am going to get the mail, sometimes I am just going for a walk but the end result is the same, I can’t get back to the house in time to help the girls.
Lily was about 1 1/2 hours away at her cousins house and the night before my sister-in-law told me that Lily’s eye looked a little red and puffy. Then the next morning she suggested I call the doctor because eyes had discharge and were red. So I called Lily’s doctor and they were totally booked. They could refer me to the urgent care but I would have to call back at Noon to see if there were any cancellations at Lily’s doctors office first before they would refer her. So I called my insurance company and they let me know that Lily can be seen at any urgent care or ER when she is out of her network. So after some coordination we got her an appointment at an urgent care near my sister-in-laws house at 10:15 am.
I was shopping for one last minute Christmas gift for Abby and now I needed to get to Lou’s work to switch cars with him so that he could pick up Abby from preschool because I wasn’t sure if I was going to be back home in time. Then some work issues were starting to arise and I wasn’t able to get them fixed because my team was working on it but I was still anxious about it not getting done in time.
I called my sister-in-law twice so that I could speak to Lily and both times it went to voicemail, then I texted her and didn’t hear back. I just wanted to talk with Lily to see how she was doing but between trying to coordinate with the insurance company, the doctors offices and each other I never got to talk to her because they were trying to rush off to the urgent care. As I drove to Lou’s work I realized that I needed to get gas and toll money and then I missed the exit off the freeway to his work. This was now going to put me behind even further and I was going to miss Lily’s doctor’s appointment.
Then all of a sudden there was this feeling of a punch in my chest that took the wind out of me. I tried to take a deep breath and I couldn’t but I kept trying to breath and felt like I couldn’t get enough air. I had my Bluetooth in my ear so I just tapped the phone and called my mom to help me. Not sure what she could do but I needed someone on the phone with me. As I tried to talk to her I said “I can’t breath” she asked me “are you in an accident?” I said “No, I can’t breath” she said “I can’t understand you, are you ok?” I said “I can’t breath”. In retrospect this was pretty funny. While I was trying to breath, I had to keep telling her that I couldn’t breath. Somehow I made it off the freeway and started back to Lou’s work while my mom keep asking me what was wrong. The whole time I was driving I felt my entire body tighten up, my face was tingling and tears were just rolling down my face and I still couldn’t breath. I was having a panic attack, and a really bad one.
When I finally made it to Lou’s work I was still having the panic attack and he hoped in the car and I parked. I felt horrible, my whole body was tight, felt like I was going to barf and I still couldn’t breath. He started talking to me and I couldn’t process what he was saying, it just sounded like garbled words. I remember telling him “I need to get to Lily, I need to get to Lily, I need to get to Lily”. By this time her appointment was happening in 15 minutes and obviously there was no way I was going to make it to her appointment, I still needed gas and get toll money and drive there.
As I sat there trying to calm down, I realized that I wasn’t going to make it, I wasn’t going to be there for Lily. There were too many obstacles in my way and this was my recurring nightmare coming true. Now, let’s remember that she didn’t have a broken arm or been in an accident nor was she in grave danger. She was in good hands with her aunt BUT for me I just really felt that I needed to be there for her no matter how minor this situation was.
So, Lily had the doctor appointment without me and was prescribed drops for her eyes and I ended up picking up Abby from Preschool early, getting lunch, gas and meeting my sister-in-law 1/2 way between our houses and I was back in town by 2pm. It seems that Lily just has a cold and is suffering from really bad allergies.
The lesson here is that I need to relax and I am sure that you can all see that, but how can I relax when there is so much going on? There is Family to take care of, work tasks to be done and holiday things to do. I am not sure exactly was to do except that something has to change. Today I am home with Lily we are watching movies and doing Fun Fusion. There are a ton of things on my to do list but those will need to wait.
Hello? Is anyone there?
December 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
I’ve been working from home for six years now and I seriously can’t believe it has been that long! That is the longest I’ve been at any job. I guess that means then I am doing well. But as a business owner I’ve had to deal with the usual stuff such as getting new clients, employee issues and cash flow ups and downs. Of course working from home has been great because I can come and go when ever I want, but then if I am not working I don’t get paid. Normally, when you work in an office, if you go to the bathroom, attend a company meeting or stand in someone’s cube for 20 minutes and gossip then you get paid.
There is something that has been bothering me and I haven’t been able to figure out what my problem is, I’ve been in a little funk. Then a few weeks ago I started to play Christmas music at home while I am working. Then it came to me, my problem is that I am lonely and I miss all that goes along with the holiday time in the office. When you work at home it can be lonely with only two cats to talk to, but they sleep through most of the morning anyway so they aren’t much help. I miss having people around me while I am working, and this is funny because when I worked at the ISO is used to drive me nuts when people would hang out by where I worked and chat it up with me because then I couldn’t get my work done. But now I miss that…see I said that it was funny.
I do have clients that I talk to from time to time and team members that I connect with about projects but we just talk about work. Nothing can replace having someone in the next cubical to talk to about what you are doing for the Holidays and there is no one to hang out with during the company Christmas party. I suppose that I can solve this problem by going to some local networking functions and connecting with other local Virtual Assistants but guess what? If I am not home working, then I am not getting paid. So you see there is this catch 22 if I don’t work during the day then I have to work at night but I don’t want to work at night or on the weekends. Actually, it isn’t that I don’t want to it’s that I CAN’T. There is just too much going on with the girls at night and on the weekends it is virtually (hahaha) impossible for me to sit down in my office and work at night or on the weekends.
In addition to being lonely, I am also missing that separation of work life and family life and I want a paid vacation and paid sick days because I don’t get those ‘perks’ unless I put money aside and save for it. Although as I mentioned before that I can’t work at nights or on the weekends it doesn’t mean that I don’t try to or that I don’t think about work. So to solve this problem I just need to be more disciplined and not look at my email outside of my normal working hours but that is kind of hard to do when you are helping other people run their business.
Now that Abby is having a great time at her preschool and Lily is in school all day I am thinking about going back to work. I know, it sounds NUTS, it sounded nuts in my head too when I was thinking about it. I know, I know I just finished my Online Business Manager Certification but I think I might be able to still apply what I learned in that program to a J.O.B. You see, it isn’t that I don’t like what I am doing, but I would go back for my mental well being. I miss talking with humans and I think I want to at least explore this new idea. So while I will still be working from home I am going to be sprucing up my resume, getting some new work clothes and seeking out new opportunities. Who knows, in the process I might end up making some changes in my home office that will make me happier or that perfect office job might just come along and I will take it. We shall see what 2012 brings and don’t get me wrong 2011 has been great but I think I am ready for a change.
What’s Your Life Passion
November 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
I always hear people talk about their life passion and how they follow their life passion and they make money. When I hear that I am jealous, how do they do that? If I follow my life passion then I will become a starving artist. In my 20′s, when I lived in San Francisco and attending Academy of Art college it was ok to be a starving artist, going to drawing class, computer labs, taking pictures and having a great time ‘finding myself’. Well, I never finished my art degree because I became tired of being a starting artist and realized that the one thing I really wanted in my life was a family so I got married and had kids. So here I am, happy with my family life but honestly, there is something missing. As long as I can remember I’ve always had a passion for photography, always had a camera and entered contests from a young age.
After I got married but before the girls were born I continued pursuing my passion for photography and traveled around with Lou and took many photographs. I was published in People Magazine and won an award at the California State Fair and sold my Stock Photography. Those things showed me that I was on the right path. Then the girls came along and while I still took 100′s of pictures of the girls and photos at family gatherings with my point and shoot camera I put my big camera (Nikon D300) in the closet in it’s camera bag because it was just too hard to lug around with all the baby gear.
The past few months of my life (Fall 2011) have been a struggle for me and I’ve been questioning my path. Maybe it is that I am getting older and feel like I haven’t gone down the correct path BUT I have the family I’ve always wanted so what is the problem. I have a successful Virtual Assisting business and in fact I am on my way to becoming an Online Business Manager and the ability to grow my business even larger. This of course helps to pay the bills but something is missing, even Lou has noticed that the past few weeks I’ve been a little ‘lost’. Each day after I drop Lily off at school I’ve been thinking about what my problem is and all I want to do is grab my camera and go shooting or move to Florida and work for Disney or Nascar but then I bring myself back down to Earth, and go to my office and get to work for my clients.
However, I’ve decided that I need to do something to bring me out of this funk and get back onto my path. I’ve decided to get photography back into my life, maybe for just a few hours a week for now. Don’t get me wrong, I love my life but something is missing. I will be taking some online classes through Better Photo just help get me back into the game.
My soul soars when I am behind the lens, my heart beats faster when I’ve got some Blue Angels in my lens and I hold my breath when I see the perfect landscape. When I am driving the girls around town I am always looking around at the landscape around me and ‘framing’ shots in my mind, I used to think that everyone did this…haha nope just photographers do that.By following my passion of photography it will help me get back onto my path. Who knows really where the path will take me, guess that is the part of life that makes it all exciting. Maybe it will take me to Florida, maybe I will be published again, or maybe it will just bring me more joy which is all I really want.
P E N G U I N S, Penguins Oh Yes !
September 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Our class mascot was a stupid Penguin and P E N G U I N S, Penguins Oh Yes! was our class cheer, lame.
Last night I had the pleasure of catching up with about 40 of my fellow classmates from St. Francis High School class of ’91. The reunion was held at The Mix in downtown Sacramento. By 9pm I was so ready to leave, I couldn’t hear anyone talking and found my self having to shout just to have a conversation. HAHAHA Maybe our 25th can be held at a less crazy venue.
It was great to catch up with everyone, even though most of us are on Facebook there are still aspects of each others lives that we don’t know about. Everyone looks the same, isn’t that crazy? I thought that no one would even know who I was but they still remembered me. It was tough for me to describe my business because they are not in the ‘virtual world’ like I am so I need to work on my spiel.
Here is a picture of me and Kathy, known her since she was the ‘new kid’ in 7th grade. She is pregnant with baby Jackson, due in 7 weeks.
Father Daughter School Dance
September 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Lily and Louis attend
their 1st Father Daughter School Dance last week. She had a great time and ran around with her friends the majority of the time.
I guess the Fathers & the Daughters don’t really dance together, they just show up and the Dads hang out while the girls run around like crazy loons.
Sounds just like the Mother Daughter Luau we attend last spring. LOL. Well whatever, she had fun so that is all that matters.
The Mother of All Giveaways! A $949 Bunk Bed from Costco, wait what?
September 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Epoch design is giving away a $949 bunk bed, yup I typed the right. If you live in the Sacramento area and you need a bunk bed then you need to check this out. Apparently they do this from time to time because when someone returns a bunk bed to Costco they have to pay to ship it back.
Visit their site for all the details about how to enter and more information about the bed.
This is still in the original packaging, in brand new condition!
The Seneca Twin Over Full Bunkbed, available at Costco for $949, is constructed of solid birch hardwood and features a multi-coat lacquer finish in natural birch for lasting beauty.
They will be choosing a “winner” (via random.org) on Tuesday, Sept. 6 at 5:00 PM PST.
Summer Camp Success
July 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Abigail Waiting for Lily to get out of Gadets, Gizmos and Goop Class
Lily has completed 6 weeks of Summer Camp at St. Mary’s School and it was worth every penny. There were two sessions, each lasting three weeks. I was nervous at first because each hour she started a new class and needed to navigate her way there. When she was in Kindergarten the teachers took the entire class from place to place, but now she was kind of on her own to get to the next place. I did find out the the teachers do help direct them so she did have some guidance.
My biggest annoyance was the stupid Snack Cart that they had set up at recess and lunch recess, Lou dubbed it the “Crack Rack”, it was filled with candy and chips costing anywhere from .10 cents to $1.00. I only gave her .50 cents per day and on one day I did not give her money because her behavior the night before did not warrant the candy ‘reward’. However a little girl gave Lily $2.00 because she felt bad that Lily didn’t have any candy money and as I recall that was the day that Lily came home with a stomach ache. I think she learned her lesson that candy is best eaten in moderation.
She took some great classes such as Art Explorers, Dynamic Detective, Gardening, Hip Hop, Legos, Gadgets Gizmos & Goop and Scrapbooking. She was busy all day and she loved it, this was great practice for her when school starts in a few weeks. She will be entering First Grade, thank goodness we are done with those stinky 3 hour days of Kindergarten. She is sooooo ready for First Grade even though she will be turning 6 a few weeks after school starts I still believe that we made the right choice to not hold her back a year.
Here are some photos of her time during Summer School.
And here is a video of her Hip Hop class performing for the school.
Lily Graduates from Kindergarten
June 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Wow, what an awesome day. Today Lily graduated from Kindergarten and while at first it seems like this is the ‘end’ of something it is really the beginning it is the is the beginning of her school years. Kindergarten was really just a ‘practice’ for the next 8 years at St. Mary School. It was practice not only for Lily but for our entire family. The Kindergarten years are for Lily to make new friends and get used to the school environment and the school routines. As a family we had the opportunity to use this year as practice as well with learning about fundraising activities, volunteer opportunities, where to park, and most importantly what items are hot sellers at the school silent auction and even more important that that is learning when to leave the house so we are not late.
I did not cry when I dropped her off for her 1st day of school last August, but today I held back those tears. The class entered the gymnasium to their “Good Morning” song, which I have heard just about everyday at drop off and I realized that I wouldn’t be hearing that song again because she was leaving behind the fun world of singing songs, coloring and dancing around. Soon we will be back on campus for Summer Camp but shortly after that she will be in 1st grade where they get down to business with the school work and before we know it we will be at her 8th grad graduation.
I think that this year has taught our family to breath and enjoy the moments because it all goes by so quickly.
Not Feeling Guilty About Day Care This Time
May 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment
When I was pregnant with Lily I refused to put her in day care and go back to work. I liked a few of the people that I worked with and missed them when I left, but my job was going nowhere and I was bored doing the same thing all the time. There was a lot of office gossip, office games and I was getting to old for that kind of environment. As soon as I could start my maternity leave I was gone, I didn’t even wait for Lily’s due date to be near, I left 6 weeks before she was due. The thought of having to put Lily in day care every day and go back to the office and be miserable was not something I wanted to do, it was going to cause me extreme stress and mommy guilt. Why suffer through the day being unhappy in my job while Lily was unhappy in day care? I felt so guilty about putting her in day care, the thought of it made me sick to my stomach. So I searched high and low for a way that I could stay at home with Lily and still work. After I weeded out all the crazy jobs such as medical biller and phone sex operator I stumbled upon the world of Virtual Assistance.
When Lily was around 3 months old I saw a Patricia Beckman on Good Day Sacramento doing a story about being a Virtual Assistant and I knew I had to connect with her, she was my ticket to staying out of the office. I contacted her right away and within a few weeks starting working with her doing various administrative tasks for her and for clients. I worked with her for a few years and then decided to create my own Virtual Assisting firm and hire my own team of VA’s. Today we are going strong and have a team of 8 people and we focus on Internet Marketing for Women business owners who want to make their business shine on the Internet. We help them through Internet Marketing strategies, Social Media promotions and eCommerce solutions. You can find out more about my company at http://SunriseVirtualServices.com
I’d been running my company for about a year and growing it really well and then BAM! I got pregnant again. I tried to keep things going and it was good for a while because babies lay in their cribs and sit in exersaucers while you work. But now Abigail is 16 months old and she needs other little people to interact with and an environment where she can thrive, my office is no place for her to thrive in, LOL. I know that she watches too much TV and I felt that there has to be a better solution.
Lily will be starting a summer camp program in June so I had hoped that this would give me more time to work on my business but I would still have Abigail at home and need to tend to her needs.
Louis and I had talked about putting Abigail in day care environment but not until she was about 3 years old. Recently things in my company were really stressing me out because the company was growing so much I couldn’t do it all, I did have things delegated out to my team but there just wasn’t enough time for me to work on much and I felt out of the loop and disconnected from my company. There are big things that I can do with my company and I’ve had little time to plan and execute them and that has really stressed me out because I feel like I am missing out on some golden opportunities. I even had higher than usual blood pressure readings at a recent dr’s visit so I knew that something had to change.
At first the thought of putting Abigail in daycare made me feel guilty. Until we visited Goddard (where she will be going and where Lily went for 2 1/2 years) and she loved it! She ran up and down the halls, she played in the classroom, she interacted with the teachers and I had to drag her out of there. I am sure there will be some crying involved when we do those initial dropoffs but she is easily redirected so I don’t feel like there is anything to worry about.
Having her in daycare 5 days a week at even just a half time schedule will give me 20 hours per week to work and have better communication with my team, work on growing my business through in person networking, marketing and teleclasses.
So this time when I ‘go back to work’ there will be no Mommy guilt because I will be going to an office where there is no office gossip, no office politics and nothing but the ability to grow my business.
Dawnukkah
March 23, 2011 By 6 Comments
I am not sure exactly when I knew or how I was told but from a very young age around 8 or so, I’ve known that I am adopted. I guess when you tell kids things they just accept it and don’t over analyze things. I wasn’t angry about it, I just figured that my ‘real’ mom (as I called her in my mind when I was young) wasn’t able to raise a baby so she gave me to my mom. But as I got older I learned what being adopted was and I learned a little bit more about my birth parents. The only thing that my mom gave me about my birth parents is a pathetic looking piece of paper with two columns on it. The 1st column says “mother” and the 2nd one says “father”. On the paper are the typed words that make up who I am, things like my birth parents eye color, age, ethnic backgrounds and their hobbies, she was 16 and he was 20. If you are curious, she was good in school and had plans for college and he was a cook. Just so you know, I don’t like to cook.
There is this crazy fantasy that I have every year as my birthday approaches. What I fantasize about is finding a birthday card in the mail with no return address on it, a mystery card. Inside is a vintage 70′s style birthday card with a kitty cat and some flowers on it. The simple words written inside are “Thinking of you, Love Mom”. Well, I never get that card in the mail, she never has sent it and I am pretty sure at this point she never will. It has been years since I turned 18 when she could legally come and find me but nothing has happened, no knocks on my door. Yes, I am a bit disappointed. I’ve registered with a lot of search registries too, but nothing.
What I do think about every year on my birthday, without fail is what my birth mother was going through when I was born. She was 16 at the time and I think about how scared she must have been, did she have any family with her during labor, did they even care? Did anyone care when I was born, there certainly wasn’t a Daddy waiting to hold me or a Mother waiting to snuggle with me. I even thought of my birth mother and her situation after my daughters were born. I knew how horrible labor is (yes it is horrible and it sucks and it is painful) and I though of her and felt bad for her.
When I gave birth to Lily she had to be taken to the NICU and I remember the nurse holding her and walking out of the room with her and I just lost it and started crying, I was thinking of my birth mother and what she must have seen as they took me away. I also spent the 1st night in the hospital alone, Lily was in the NICU and Louis was exhausted so he went home for sleep. I was so lonely and I just wanted my baby, I cried until I fell asleep. It must have been what it was like for her, she gave birth and was alone, no family, no baby. Lily did come out of the NICU the following afternoon so there is a happy ending there.
This is probably why I created Dawnukkah. It is a silly celebration week of my birthday that I joke around with my family about. And this is why I make such a big deal about my birthday, it is to hide my real feelings and my thoughts about my birthday. Up until now, only Louis knew of these feelings that I have. He knows it when I get the mail around my birthday what I am thinking about. Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that I am alive and that my mother had the strength to give me up for adoption but it still makes me sad to think about her situation. I am my own Lifetime Movie.
The big question is will I find her? I’ve sort of tried, I have a name, I have an address and it might be correct or not but for some reason I just can’t do it. I know I can just hire someone to find her but I chicken out. I am not sure why I chicken out because I do not like mysteries or cliff hangers yet I am the biggest mystery to myself. Weird.
Writing this blog post has helped me to release these feelings and not having to keep them bottled up inside feels pretty good. Sure, I cried pretty much the whole time I wrote this post but it felt good to get it out. I think what prompted me to write this blog post is that last week I was watching Glee and the song “Blackbird” by the Beatles was sung by Chris Colfer. I really liked the song, it spoke to me about being free. I did some research about the song and found out that Paul McCartney wrote the song about the civil rights struggle after reading about race riots in the US. You can hear the song on this site http://www.jango.com/stations/267243409/tunein?song_id=288128
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free.Blackbird fly Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.Blackbird fly Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to
arise.
So let’s raise a glass to another year passing and celebrate life, Dawnukkah !
Abigail’s 1st Birthday Party
February 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Abigail turned 1 year old on January 18th and I am finally getting around to posting about it on the blog….well I’ve been a little busy. 
Here is her 1st year photo. She is wearing the same dress as Lily did when she was 1.
Abigail LOVES Dora so we had a Dora theme birthday party and I tried really really hard not to go over the top but we all know that is hard for me to do.
The one really cool thing that I did was get a bounce house for the kids. This wasn’t necessarily for Abigail because she just kept falling down inside of it but it was for the older cousins. You see, we are a total of 8 grand kids and when they all get together it pretty much turns into chaos and they run around like a bunch of crazy chickens. We are lucky enough to have an awesome neighbor who has a large family and they have a bounce house and let us borrow theirs.
The party was a lot of fun, we invited the whole family, had it at home, ordered some pizza and drank beers and watch the football playoff’s.
Here are some photos from her birthday party.
Free Sacramento Driving Program on March 12-13
February 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
TOYOTA OFFERS FREE SAFE DRIVING PROGRAM TO EDUCATE SACRAMENTO TEENS AND PARENTS ABOUT DANGERS OF DISTRACTED DRIVING.
Program Demonstrates Dangers of Distracted Driving in Hopes of Battling 1.6 Million Crashes Caused Annually by Cell Phone Usage and Texting While Driving
- Free 2.5 hour program is open to Sacramento-area residents March 12 & 13
- Registration is open online at www.toyotadrivingexpectations.com
- Visit http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/electronic.aspx?fid=112578&id=E0C16054 to view program documentary
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. (Feb. 17, 2011) – Even though California state law prohibits drivers under the age of 17 with restricted licenses from using wireless communications devices, including cell phones and text messaging devices, distracted driving is one of the leading causes of teen related accidents in the country today. To help reinforce the dangers of distracted driving and better prepare teen drivers, Toyota is hosting its hands-on teen and parent advanced driving skills program, Toyota Driving Expectations, for nearly 600 Sacramento area teens and parents. The safe driving program will be held at Cal Expo, located at 1600 Exposition Blvd. in Sacramento, Calif., March 12 – 13. Registration is open online at www.toyotadrivingexpectations.com.
Since the program began in 2004, nearly 16,000 teens and parents have gained critical defensive driving skills and learned firsthand how everyday distractions, to which new drivers are especially prone, can have unexpected, dangerous consequences. Participating teenagers must be between the ages of 15-19 and have a valid driver’s license or learner’s permit.
Program Overview
In the United States, the crash rate per mile driven for 16-19 year-olds is four times that of older drivers, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Moreover, in 2009, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 5,000 people were killed in U.S. roadways and an estimated additional 448,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes that were reported to have involved distracted driving. Within this statistic, the age group with the greatest proportion of distracted drivers was the under-20 age group. In an effort to prepare young drivers with crucial safety knowledge, Toyota Driving Expectations goes beyond what is taught in standard driver education courses, putting newly permitted or licensed teens behind the wheel to face challenging, real-world scenarios in a secure environment. The program’s curriculum is designed for teens and parents alike to:
- Learn defensive driving skills and accident avoidance techniques
- Identify the dangerous driving situations that they encounter daily
- Experience firsthand the dangers of distracted driving and understand the relationship between distraction and reaction time
- Understand vehicle dynamics and safety features
In an effort to foster an open dialogue between teens and parents about safe driving habits, a parent or guardian is required to attend the Toyota Driving Expectations program. As a result, parents learn the best practices to promote safe driving habits with their teen drivers, providing them with tips about how to continue improving driving skills at home.
The curriculum for Toyota Driving Expectations was developed in partnership with multiple organizations committed to safe driving, including the National Safety Council and the Defensive Driving Academy in California, as well as from direct teen and parent feedback at three highly successful pilot programs.
Quote
“By bringing Toyota Driving Expectations to cities across the country, Toyota is committed to reducing the rate of fatalities and accidents among young drivers.” – Michael Rouse, Toyota’s vice president of philanthropy and community affairs
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE: TM) established operations in the United States in 1957 and currently operates 10 manufacturing plants. Toyota directly employs nearly 34,000 in the U.S. and its investment here is currently valued at more than $18 billion, including sales and manufacturing operations, research and development, financial services and design. Toyota is committed to being a good corporate citizen in the communities where it does business and believes in supporting programs with long-term sustainable results. Toyota supports numerous organizations across the country, focusing on education, the environment and safety. Since 1991, Toyota has contributed more than $493 million to philanthropic programs in the U.S. For more information on Toyota’s commitment to improving communities nationwide, visit www.toyota.com/about/philanthropy.
My Year In Review
December 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Well, seriously it is almost the end of 2010 and it has been filled with a lot of ups and a lot of downs. Maybe not ‘downs’ in the sense of tragedy, more like a few not so fun days mixed in there. I think the theme of the year was ‘exhaustion’.
Last January 
we kicked off the new year by adding Abigail to our family. I spent the first part of January trying to make her come out, but the little bugger stayed in there until the 18th and wanted to come out at 3:45 am during one of the worst and first storm of the year. My family almost didn’t come to see me in the hospital because the storm was so bad, whatever! I just pushed a kid out of my &$@# you better get your booty down here to see her! LOL. I kid, no really I do. If you want to read Abigail’s birth story and my rant about pain medication during labor you can go here – http://dawncullo.com/from-cheerio-to-soda-can-with-no-epidural-but-not-by-choice/
The first few months of the year were a complete blur. I was trying to do it all, run my business, deal with a newborn and help Lily with her transition of being a big sister. I felt bad for Lily, she really didn’t know what to expect. We tried to prepare her as best we could about what to expect with a new baby in the house but I know at times she felt out of place and that makes my heart hurt a little bit for her. We included her as much as we could in the care for Abigail such as her helping us get a diaper or choosing Abigail’s outfits for the day. But the funny thing is that most times she just wanted to go play.
Once Abigail finally reached about 3 months things started to get better. The weather was better and we could go for walks in her stroller and go play at the park with Lily. As the months rolled on we started to do new things with Abigail such as solid foods and she started to scoot and crawl and her Baptism at St. Ignatius. Soon it was time for Lily to say goodbye to her Preschool life and venture on to the world of Summer Camp.
The summer time opened up a whole new world for all of us and it came in the form of a Taxi. I got a glimpse into what Kindergarten would hold for me, the Taxi. You can read more about this experience here - http://dawncullo.com/taxi/
During the summer I also made a business mistake and disappointed a few people. They know who they are so I don’t really care to mention specifics in my blog but I still feel terrible about what happened but I needed to do what was best for my family and I made a tough decision. At the end of the summer I made a huge leap in my business and opened up a multi-VA firm. At the time I did this I felt like I couldn’t breath, I was so busy with clients that I felt like I was juggling so much responsibility. I am still working on growing the team and figuring it all out but having a great time knowing that I have a solid team of people working with me, I am not alone.
The fall brought us into the world of Kindergarten. At first is was a fun new experience, now 4 months later I am ready for 1st grade to start. I am so ‘over’ Kindergarten at this point. The 1/2 day schedule is killing me and the crazy lack of communication from the school is driving my Type A personality to drink. Yes, I’ve had a Rum and Diet Coke recently and it tasted awesome. =) You can read more about Lily’s 1st day at Kindergarten here – http://dawncullo.com/chapter/ and you can read more about my coming to terms with my past behavior in school here – http://dawncullo.com/as-the-world-turns/
We also finally had the opportunity to upgrade our cell phones and just in time too because both of our Crackberry phones broke as our contract ended. We upgraded to Android phones and just love all the things we can do with our phones.
Finally we have arrived at the end of the year and Abigail has started walking now, she pretty much walks instead of crawls. It is so cute to see a little 2 foot person walking around your house. You can see a video here of her 1st steps – http://dawncullo.com/abigial-walking/
3 new Cullo grandkids (Abigial, Karina & Charlotte) have been added to the mix to bring the total of grandkids to 8, holy cow. We had a everyone over at our house this past week for a few hours and I was pretty sure that they were all going to come rolling down the stairs or crashing through the ceiling. Look at them…aren’t they so cute and innocent looking? Needless to say but Abigail’s 1st birthday party will be off site this year at The Little Gym. =)
My goals for 2011 include starting a Virtual Assistant Coaching program, adding more products to my company such as Ebooks and Audio programs for sale. I also want to loose weight and eat better but everyone says that too and that is boring so maybe I will gain 5 pounds and eat some cake. =)
Happy New Year to you.
By the way, the picture that is the thumbnail to this post is of me and Louis at the infamous NYE “Party Like It’s 1999″ party at George & Claudia’s house.
Working From Home Without Loosing Your Mind
December 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment
How do I do it? How do I work from home with a 5 year old and an almost 1 year old without loosing my mind? Well, honestly sometimes I feel like I just want to hide in a closet and sleep but since that isn’t an option I have some tricks that I use to make sure my day runs smooth as possible and the girls still get their Mommy time. I work from home as a Virtual Assistant and I have a team of awesome people who also work with me. So how do I do it? One day the girls will be in school all day and I will have the ‘office’ to myself but until that day arrives I have a few tricks up my sleeve.
Nap Time
Do not, I repeat DO NOT schedule a client call 20 minutes before it is nap time for your baby! I did that once and was so embarrassed. Abigail was so fussy, all she wanted to do was cuddle up with me and take a nap. But since I couldn’t really snuggle with her at that moment all she did was scream and I had to tell the client that I needed to call them back. Instead, schedule your client calls for around when your baby wakes up from their nap. They are more than likely ready to play alone and be content without you for a about 20 minutes or so while you take the call. I have also tried to schedule client calls for when she is napping, however this can backfire on you because when they wake up they are screaming and you need to go into their room and pick them up etc and the client will hear all of that. Also, I’ve learned that Abigail falls asleep in the car everyday after I take Lily to Kindergarten and that is the best time to schedule a phone call. I just use my cell phone headset and drive home and talk to the client.
Movies
I’ve been known to turn on a movie in the afternoon to help get me through that dreaded 4:00 – 5:00 hour. That is the time when they are a little sleepy, hungry and cranky. I get them a snack, get their pillows, blankets and make a little snuggle nest for them to chill out in. Then I turn on a movie and it keeps them quiet for a little while and gives me some time to work on a project.
Movie time!
Purses & Boxes
When working at my desk or even in the playroom I get a few bags or purses and fill them with little toys. For some reason Abigail loves to unpack and repack bags and purses, this will keep her busy for about 15 minutes and sometimes that is long enough for me to do a quick email to a client or finish up a project. When she comes crawling over to me I plop down a purse in front of her and say “wow, what is in the bag” and she in good to go! I also keep a smallish toy box in the office and near my desk upstairs. It is filled will all kinds of random toys. I often rotate the toys with others around the house so the box isn’t full of the same old stuff. This is great for cleaning up the room too, just toss it all in the box and poof the room is clean.
Here is Abigail getting into one of the bags I give her to 'unpack', guess I shouldn't have left it on the table. =)
TV Time
How much TV does your kid watch? If you tell me less than an hour a day then you are lying and you have a maid, cook and nanny! There is no way on God’s green earth that your kids don’t watch more than a few hours of TV a day. I swear, those people and ‘researchers’ that say TV is bad for your kids never met Lily. She is very smart despite her avid TV watching. When she was a baby she watched Baby Einstein DVD’s, she spent her 1st year watching Mickey Mouse, Backyardigians & Dora. With that being said, there is nothing wrong with turning on Nick, Sprout or The Disney Channel while you get some work done around the house. I do however strongly encourage that for every hour your kid watches TV you spend time with them playing a game or reading a book or even dare I say it….go to the park. I even have the girls help me with the laundry. I ask Lily to sort the clothes by color and she thinks it is the best job ever! There certainly has to be a balance so be sure to not have your kid watch TV all day, just a few hours is good.
Important News
Do your kids always bug you when you are on the phone? Somehow Lily seems to have something important to tell me the second I get on the phone. To help curb this behavior I tell her that I am going to get on a call with a client (she knows what that is) and I ask her if she has any important news for me. I give her about 10 minutes to ‘think’ about it and then I get on the call with the client. Generally, she will come to me just few minutes before my call and tell me something crazy about school or one of her friends and I thank her for telling me her important news and then remind her that I am about to get on a call with a client. I would have to say that this one works very well.
Ask for Help!!
My mom lives very close to me (who suggested that?) and she is able to either take Lily to her house for an hour or so and make cookies or play in her backyard. This is very helpful for me when Abigail is napping, because then Lily gets a “mommy break” and I get a lot of work done. Unfortunately, this time doesn’t last all day, usually about an hour but having that hour of silence and uninterrupted time can be like winning the lotto, well almost.
Have a Satellite Office
I utilize Gmail and online project management tools so I can work from any computer, anywhere. I have a few office spaces around the house. The main office is downstairs in our ‘office’ and that is where most of my work stuff is kept such as books, binders and resource materials. Then upstairs, tucked in my bedroom I have a desk for my laptop. This desk is pretty cool because it looks like a dresser, and even has 3 drawers and desk space. I spend a lot of my time upstairs, the play room is upstairs and so it the laundry room and the girls bedrooms. I find that this is a good space to work in because I can work at night when Abigail is sleeping and I don’t need to run upstairs to get her when she wakes, just a short walk down the hall. My other workspace is a small table in the play room. There are times when I need to be in the same room as the girls, normally when they are watching a movie I am in the room with them. I set up my laptop on the little table and all is good.
Invest in an Android phone or iPhone
I used to have a Crackberry phone and thought it was fantastic, but I also got it 2 years ago. My contract was finally up and I upgraded to a Samsung Epic phone which runs on the Android network. Having a phone like this is super because I can work from anywhere. With my Crackberry I was able to get my email and get on the Internet but with an Android phone, it is a a whole new ballgame. The network is so much faster now, especially with 4G and the ability to connect to WiFi networks. I can log into my blog or even clients sites and make changes as needed. I am also able to connect to my project management system, Basecamp, as well as my invoicing tool Freshbooks. Just the other day while out to dinner with the family I was able to draft up an invoice and send it off to the client and was paid within minutes!
Don’t Do It Alone
Lastly, I have to advise any Virtual Assistant to develop a team of people to help you out. It was the best thing that I did to save my sanity. I was really hesitant to do it at first because I thought that I wouldn’t make any money if I was ‘farming’ out all of the work. However, what I found is that the clients that I already have really welcomed the idea of being able to take advantage of more services that I had to offer and ended up purchasing more hours from my company. So not only was I able to continue to work on their project, but I was able to give out work to my team as well.
My newest team member, Abigail. Her skills include jabber talk to monsters on Sesame Street
Those are my basic tips, and I have even more tips which I will be sharing in an upcoming book that will be released in January. The tips include more in depth working at home information and how to keep up on your house work, task list and setting goals. You can check out my website for more information about my team and my company http://sunrisevirtualservices.com/
Abigial Is Walking
December 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
December 11, 2011 we had the entire family over for a party and she decided that this would be the perfect time to take her first steps. This picture was taken right after she took a step. Everyone was cheering her on. Since then she has take at least 5-8 steps in a row and then decides to crawl.
Here is a video of her walking a few hours after this photo was taken.
Fast forward to today (December 22, 2010) and she now crawls onto anything she can. I was doing laundry and Lily yells “Mom, get in here quick!” I rush into the play room and find this.
Which quickly turned into this
Holy cow! We really have a fearless little adventurer on our hands.
Merry Christmas
December 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Merry Christmas from Louis, Lily (5), Dawn, Abigail (11 months) and Roxy Cat.
Well, here we are again…another Christmas season and personally since we have been married (for 10 years now) each Christmas has been crazy. I look forward to the days when I can relax and have a stress-free holiday, but not sure that will ever happen. LOL. I think that with the fast paced life that I lead now it doesn’t leave much time for the holiday planning and enjoyment that I would like. When the girls get older and are teenagers my life (hopefully) wont be as crazy and I can take time to slow down and enjoy the holiday season, but when that time comes I am pretty sure I will be longing for the days when they were babies. I suppose the lesson here is to just enjoy the holiday no matter how crazy it may be.
Happy Thanksgiving…ok it’s past so Happy Almost Christmas
November 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment
We had a fantastic Thanksgiving, I hope you did as well. We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year and had Lou’s sister Michel and her family over as well as both sets of our parents and my grandmother. The house was buzzing with people and the smell of turkey in the oven was awesome.
I decided to take the week off, but still checked in on my email to make sure none of my clients had any emergencies. It was really nice to be ‘unplugged’ for a few days. Ok, I do confess that I updated my work website, but that was fun. It sure was hard to get back to work on CyberMonday. Thank goodness I have a system in place to keep track of my clients project using Basecamp. It is an nifty project management online application that helps me to organize all of my clients ‘stuff’ so when I had to jump back into work today it didn’t hurt as much. =)
Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving.
The New Disney Store in San Francisco Here I Come!
October 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Dawn, Kristi, Laura
I worked at The Disney Store in San Francisco from 1995-2000 and had the time of my life, seriously it was a blast. I started as a part-time ‘cast member’ and worked my way up to Lead Cast Member, Stock Captain, and then Assistant Store Manager of the store in Stonestown (South SF). I made a lot of good friends while working there and many I am still friends with today. At the time the store opened it was called a Flagship store and was very unique. It had a Gallery section where every day I could walk in an view beautiful artwork from many Disney artists. We had ‘themed’ rooms such as the Ballroom from Beauty and the Beast (toy section), Alice’s Garden (children’s area) and the Soundstage (Adults). There were so many awesome things about the store, I was sad to hear that it had closed a few years ago.
But now I am so excited, I just heard that they are opening a new Disney store in San Francisco. It is one of the newly redesigned stores so it will be lots of fun for the girls (see the press release below). So we are taking a little trip to San Francisco to see the new Disney Store. We are going to take the girls on BART and visit the store. Lily has always wanted to ride BART (werido) and now here is her chance. LOL. I am also going to try and meet my friend Laura, who I worked with and now lives in Hawaii. She just happens to be in SF for the weekend. I will be taking a ton of pictures too and share them on my blog.
The Old News
400 Post St, San Francisco Store #592 - 1995-2008
On May 1, 2008, approximately 220 Disney Stores in North America became the property of The Walt Disney Company, operating under the Disney Consumer Products arm. The remaining 98 stores in North America closed by the end of summer 2008, turned over to a third-party liquidator. The majority of stores affected by the closures were lower-volume stores; however, a number of newer store locations were shuttered as well. Taking many by surprise, Disney closed its only two stores in the city of San Francisco, the Stonestown Galleria Store and its flagship Union Square Store on Post Street. In Disney Store’s heyday, there were three stores in San Francisco; the one at Pier 39 was one of the first Disney Stores to open when the chain began in 1987.
The Good News
According to Cushman & Wakefield, the Disney Store has leased 12,281 square feet, or the entire building located at 39 Stockton St. in Union Square.
The building, which is owned by 39 Stockton Street LLC, is located near the intersection of Market and Ellis Streets, close to the Apple Store and other retailers including the Ferrari Store, Barneys New York, Diesel, A/X Armani Exchange and Ben Sherman. The building was previously occupied by Benetton.
The New Disney Store will be in the white building.
Cushman & Wakefield brokerage professionals Kazuko Morgan, Courtney Griffin and Jennifer Hatch, represented the landlord in the transaction. Disney was represented by Thomas Power of SRS Real Estate Partners as well as RCS Real Estate Advisors.
“This is prime San Francisco real estate and a global iconic brand like Disney will be a great addition to the retail mix on the block,” said Ms. Morgan, an executive vice president in Cushman & Wakefield’s Retail Services Group.
The Official News
Here is a Press Release about one of the new stores that opened over the summer.
Disney Store Celebrates Grand Opening of New Store Design
Redefines Children’s Retail Industry with Innovative Design Including All New Disney∙Pixar Cars-branded Ridemakerz Experience
To tweet this release, copy and paste http://tinyurl.com/26ujax9 to your twitter handle (#disneystore #montebello)
PASADENA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, Disney Store celebrates the launch of its newly-designed store with a grand opening event at The Shops at Montebello complex in Montebello, Calif., just outside of Los Angeles. A crowning achievement of The Walt Disney Company, the high-tech makeover of Disney Store solidifies the retailer’s global leadership in children’s retail and activates the future transformation of its more than 300 locations worldwide. Among the many new attractions of the newly designed store is the first-ever Disney∙Pixar CARS-branded RIDEMAKERZ experience which sets the stage for kids of all ages to build 1:18 scale toy custom cars inside of Disney Store. Disney Store executives, stars from the upcoming Disney Channel Original Movie “Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam” and characters from Disney∙Pixar’s blockbuster film franchise Toy Story joined the festivities and greeted hundreds of Disney fans who waited excitedly for the opportunity to experience the innovative new store.
“As part of Disney, we’re committed to the value of entertainment and exclusive experiences”
The Montebello store is the first of 20 newly designed Disney Store locations that will open across major markets in the United States and Europe in 2010. The 4,800-plus square foot store’s floor-to-ceiling remodel now features multimedia technology, interactive storytelling and Disney Store exclusive merchandise that bring Disney’s most beloved characters to life for families in the local community.
“As part of Disney, we’re committed to the value of entertainment and exclusive experiences,” said Jim Fielding, president of Disney Stores Worldwide. “Disney is setting a new standard for the specialty retail category by integrating robust technology and creative store planning to make each visit customizable and that much more memorable. This is truly an immersive, one-of-a-kind retail experience for children and families that only Disney could deliver.”
Technology is integrated throughout the new store to create magical moments for guests:
The newly designed Disney Store is merchandised by franchise neighborhoods so guests can easily shop by character or theme and is anchored by several “hero fixtures” including:
- The Disney∙Pixar CARS-branded RIDEMAKERZ attraction is a one-of-a-kind immersive car building and customizing experience. Launching with three favorite CARS characters — Lightning McQueen, Mater and Sally — fans use tools to assemble their car, and their imagination to customize it with a wide selection of rims, side pipes, hoods scoops, blown engines, spoilers and many more accessories. Disney∙Pixar CARS-branded RIDEMAKERZ toy vehicles will only be available within the new Disney Store design and, later this year, at RIDEMAKERZ retail locations.
- The Disney Princess Castle with Magic Mirror – A child-sized princess castle anchors the Disney Princess neighborhood and inspires kids to make believe. As they walk under the iconic castle they encounter a magic mirror and with the wave of a wand, they watch in delight as their favorite Disney Princess character appears.
A customizable shopping experience:
The new store concept also includes the launch of an all new in-store application where guests can customize their shopping experience. Accessed via an interactive kiosk with touch screen, this animated experience gives users the ability to navigate a 3-D view of all Disney Store and DisneyStore.com products and discover the latest Disney Store news via video clips, articles, and social media feeds. This application allows the Disney Store to share its news to customers, who can then share information and in-store events via email, Twitter and Facebook.
The Disney Store Theatre: The newly designed stores will also feature a theater as part of its marquee attractions. Guests can pick from a selection of pre-loaded content that will be updated regularly and can view classic and new Disney entertainment, sneak-peek previews, music videos and more. The theater will also serve for special in-store events such as reading time, scavenger hunts and more.
The “Pixie Dust Trail” and “Magical Trees”: With its glistening blue glitter, the Pixie Dust Trail leads guests through the store and to major interactive elements as they enjoy a Disney-themed skyline and surrounding magical trees which are programmable with changing colors, images, and music set to an array of Disney themes.
The newly-designed Disney Store is scheduled to open in the United States this year at the following locations:
- The Shops at Mission Viejo in Mission Viejo, CA, is anchored by luxury retailers and offers an extensive merchandise mix in a sophisticated atmosphere. Disney Store will be located on the second level in a 5100-plus square foot space.
- Disney Store on North State Street in Chicago, IL, (Block 37 Complex) will anchor the southeast corner of the center in 4,464 square feet on level one of the mall. The complex features an eclectic mix of shopping, dining and entertainment within a five-story atrium, located in the heart of Chicago’s Loop between Washington and Randolph on State Street.
- Freehold Raceway Mall in Freehold, NJ, offers a complete mix of department stores, specialty stores, restaurants and entertainment making the property an ideal location for the new Disney Store.
- NorthPark Center in Dallas, TX, offers shoppers the best in every retail category, and the newly-designed Disney Store opening this fall will represent its premier children’s retail store.
Other locations to feature the new Disney Store design opening this year include: Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, NY; Santa Monica Place in Santa Monica, CA; International Plaza in Tampa, FL; Fashion Valley in San Diego, CA; Disney Store in Union Square in San Francisco, CA; and a two-story Disney Store in Times Square in November.
With each new store opening in 2010, Disney Store will designate a day for 10 percent of the sales to be donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation in the United States.
To find a Disney Store, guests can visit www.DisneyStore.com/storelocator or call (866) 902-2798. For more information, please visit www.disneyconsumerproducts.com/press/us. Guests can also sign up for email alerts at www.DisneyStore.com/Updates, become a fan on Facebook www.facebook.com/DisneyStore or follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/DisneyStore to stay connected to your favorite destination.
About Disney Store
The Disney Store retail chain, which debuted in 1987, is owned and operated by Disney in North America, Europe, and Japan. Disney Store is an affiliate of Disney Consumer Products, the business segment that extends the Disney brand to merchandise. Disney Store carries high-quality products, including exclusive product lines that support and promote Disney’s key entertainment initiatives and characters. Disney Store opened its first store in Glendale, California and, in doing so, originated the themed retail business model. There are currently more than 200 Disney Store locations in North America; more than 40 Disney Store locations in Japan; and more than 100 Disney Store locations in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy and Portugal, in addition to an online store, disneystore.co.uk. Each Disney Store location offers a magical shopping experience that can only be delivered by Disney (NYSE: DIS), one of the world’s largest and most successful entertainment companies.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6343815&lang=en
Holiday Cards
October 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Can you believe that it is almost time to start thinking about Christmas? Ok, so some crazy people have already started their Christmas shopping too, like my MOTHER! Crazy. It seems like every year I scramble at the last minute to get our Holiday cards out and mine end up looking like everyone’s card because they also waited until the last minute and went to Walgreens or CVS.
This year is going to be different because I am going to use an online card creation service called Purple Trail where you can create personalized holiday cards and hyperlink those keywords to. They have so many designs and card options to choose from so my cards will look different than everyone’s card this year. With each of the designs you can use it as is or you can kick it up a notch and use their ‘personalization’ mode move the photos, add other photos, change the text and the colors of the card. They even have a blank design option and you can create a card from scratch.
I am participating in a contest for Purple Trail and I am supposed to tell you the 5 ways that I make our holiday cards unique, but quite frankly I don’t do anything special. I just have a few rules that we have come up with over the years so I am going to pass those along to you.
- Don’t go to the ‘one hour photo’ type of joints so your card doesn’t look like everyone’s card. They don’t allow you to change where the image is on the card and they limit the amount of text you can input.
- Try and take a photo somewhere else instead of your living room, everyone has seen your living room and they don’t care to see it again.
- Don’t take your photo in front of your Christmas Tree, it is cliche and becomes ‘seasonal and dated’. Instead use a background that is nice enough to have displayed all year around such as outdoors at a park or just in your backyard.
- Don’t dress up your pet in a Santa hat, need I say more?
- Don’t have your family wear matching sweaters or all in the same color, that is soooo 1992 and not even necessary in this millennium. Let your families unique style show, even if your 3 year old is sporting stripes and polka dots together he/she will look cute anyway.
I am participating in a giveaway for PurpleTrail.com and it makes you eligible for a PurpleTrail gift code. Here is more information about the contest http://www.purpletrail.com/blogcontests
PurpleTrail is a print and online invitation service that allows users to create amazing invitations and cards. With thousands of designs and the ability to fully personalize them, PurpleTrail offers a unique blend of creativity, inspiration and customer service that can’t be beat.
Fog Willow Field Trip
October 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Lily went on her first Kindergarten field trip this week and they went to Fog Willow pumpkin farm. It was a blast, all the kids had fun petting the animals and picking out a pumpkin.
Lily and her Fog Willow pumpkin
Lily petting a baby Bunny
Lily...too short
The Journey
October 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I’ve been so torn as to if I should blog about this or not because I kind of wanted to keep it a secret. I found something totally awesome and it has really helped me to loose weight and feel a lot healthier. I am starting a weight loss journey and I wanted to post a before and after picture to show off my results and then tell you about how I did it. But I’ve changed my mind, I am going to tell you about it now. Why am I telling you about it now? Because I am hoping that what I tell you might motivate you to join me on my journey.
I had baby Abigail in January and for a few months I just used the excuse that since I just had a baby it is OK if I am over weight. I just kept telling my self that ‘one day’ I would start working out again but ‘one day’ has turned into 9 months and I am heavier now then when I was pregnant, really I am.
I have a Wii at home and it is good for playing games with the kids or doing Wii fit and doing some Yoga or balance games. I’ve done EA Active and like it, but I can’t get the leg strap to stay on and register my lunges correctly so I easily became frustrated. I needed to find something else.
I wanted to find a work out DVD that I could do at home because finding time to go to the gym was impossible, I needed something that I can do while the kids played around at home. It came down to either a Zumba workout or Hip Hop Abs with Shaun T. I ended up going with Hip Hop Abs because (1) I saw Shaun T. on Goodday Sacramento as a guest one weekend and he was awesome (2) Louis said that he would do the DVD with me and (3) I don’t think we have enough room in our Living Room to do Zumba. =0
Finally, the day came when I got Hip Hop Abs in the mail and guess what? It took me almost 2 weeks to pop in the 1st DVD and do it. Slacker! The routines are easy but my knees, oh my poor knees! I had to modify some of the moves, but overall I really had fun doing the routines, and having Shaun T. lift up his shirt to show me his awesome Abs is a nice treat too. =)
Well, Hip Hop Abs is all good, but that is not what has changed my life so much. Shaun T. and his nice Abs are just the tip of the iceberg here, what lies beneath is this monster of a company called Beach Body. They are a distributor of many fitness DVD’s such as P90X and TurboFire. I had never heard of Beach Body before I bought Hip Hop Abs so I checked it out. It is basically an online community where you can join up and meet other people trying to loose weight. You can even have a ‘coach’ (for free) to help you along the way and keep you motivated. They also have a paid membership option as well but I didn’t sign up for that.
Ok, so here is where things start to come together…..
One day I met a gal at a business event and I really connected with her. She gave me her card and when I went home I immediately went to her web site and guess what? She was a Beach Body ‘coach’. {insert ding for fate} I quickly signed up to be one of her friends on the site and she became my ‘coach’.
A few weeks later she asked me if I wanted to try this protein shake called Shakeology. At first I was like ‘no thanks’ I’ve got my muscle milk and I am good. I did some research on the internet and couldn’t find a bad review or a bad thing posted about Shakeology. So I took a moment and watched a video about Shakeology and then decided to give it a try. Are you listening? This is the part that has changed my body. This is not your ordinary protein shake, I wouldn’t lie to you. When I finally got the sample packets in the mail I tried a few and liked it, and guess what? I wasn’t as hungry in between meals and this is what has helped stick to my diet. It’s not going to make you dramatically loose weight or something crazy like that, it is going to help you through the weight loss journey by giving your body what it needs.
I use Shakeology as my morning meal, and some cottage cheese as a snack later. This is a good solution for me because I am NOT a breakfast person or a morning person, if it was left up to me then we would all eat chocolate pop tarts in the morning. I don’t like to cook, much less cook when I am cranky in the morning. So using a protein shake is the best option for me. I was using muscle milk, but I recently read an article on WebMD about the amount of metals that are in those shakes.
Here is a super quick video about Shakeology.
Shakeology is actually really good, even better than muscle milk, I swear! Next week I will have been using Shakeology for 1 month and I have already lost 8 pounds by just eating better and using Shakeology. I don’t think that I would have been able to stick to my diet if I was hungry all the time, Shakeology has helped me keep the hunger away by giving my body what it needs so that I don’t have any cravings. Also, I haven’t had any coffee for 3 weeks now. We just happened to run out of coffee and decided to go without it for a few days and I never felt like I needed it again. Shakeology was helping me get through those no Coffee mornings. By not drinking coffee we have saved a few bucks a month and made some extra room on our kitchen counter since we put the coffee machine away. =)
So here is my message to you. Are you looking to loose some weight? Thinking about going on a diet or just want to feel healthier? Then join me on my journey as I loose this fricken baby weight forever! I want to get back down to my wedding weight (of almost 10 years ago) and it is going to take some hard work to do it. But now, with Beach Body, Shakeology and you I know that I can do it. I am now a Team Beach Body coach, so if you want to join me you can connect with me (for free) on my coaches site – http://beachbodycoach.com/dawncullo Oh, I forgot to mention that Louis is doing this too and he has already lost 25 pounds ! Crazy right? He is getting ready to start P90X in a few weeks so I am excited about that as well.
Hygiene Heroes
October 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Soap Soundz® Musical Hand Soap is a brand new product that is just starting to appear in major retailers. It might look like an ordinary bottle of liquid hand soap….but when the user pushes the pump down, they are treated to a musical tune or message, emitted from the bottle, as they wash their hands.
The Hygiene Heroes line is targeted toward children and toddlers. The fun music and message helps encourage kids to wash MORE and MORE OFTEN which ultimately leads to more healthy kids and households. The music also acts as a timer, playing for 20 seconds, the minimum wash time for effective hand washing (CDC).
Lily (age 5) received the blue soap called Captian Cleanhands which smells like Raspberry and it actually does smell good. The sound that is played when she pushes down to pump out the soap is fun and sometimes she presses it just to hear the guy talk. I think that this product is a good idea because it keeps kids entertained while they wash their hands.
The Season Harmony line a decorative accent to kitchens and baths during various major holidays. Right now we offer a Halloween, Memorial Day and Christmas version. The music played is relevant to the particular holiday being celebrated. I’d have to say that the Halloween one is my favorite because I would love to have that wicked laugh.
You can view their products online and sample the sounds at http://soapsoundz.com/ or follow their tweets at http://twitter.com/soapsoundz or like them on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Soap-Soundz/374181075297?v=wall
Seamless Socks Rock
October 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
SmartKnitKIDS Socks are 100% truly seamless; they have “No Seams to Bug Ya!” A truly seam free sock is great for kids with Sensory Processing Disorder, Autism, or for those who simply cannot stand annoying sock seams.
As well as being completely seamless, our socks are also form-fitting. This ensures that there are no wrinkles or bunches. A form-fitting design makes SmartKnitKIDS perfect for infant socks. No matter how much your little one may wiggle, the socks don’t come off. SmartKnitKIDS Seamless Socks do not have a heal so they can easily and confidently be slipped on. The heal-less design also keeps your child from out growing their socks as fast. For more information about SmartKnitKIDS, please visit us online at www.smartknitkids.com
Lily (age 5) has long suffered with sock seams. We have turned socks inside out, purchased ‘soft seams’ type of socks and without fail they never work for her. All summer long I am happy to not have to deal with her sock issue, but once the cold weather comes I dread our daily sock battle. She complains that her socks are too tight, the socks itch, the socks are too big, the socks are too small. But then I saw the SmartKintKids Socks and knew that this would be perfect for Lily. When we got the socks in the mail, she immediately put them on and had a look of relief on her face. They worked, she loved them and there were no complaints about her socks at all. The socks are very soft and I might even order a pair of them for myself, yes they make adult sized socks as well.
Steps4Kids to Write Their ABCs
October 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Steps4Kids to Write Their ABCs is a multiple award winning dvd that teaches how to write both upper and lowercase letters in traditional print. Selected as the “DVD of the YEAR” by Creative Child Magazine and as one of the “Best 10 Children’s Audio Visual Products” by child development expert Stevanne Auerbach, Ph.D, this dvd offers tips on how to: hold a pencil correctly, support left handed writers, and avoid letter reversals. This child friendly dvd also shows how to draw using select letters to make writing practice fun. Used in schools and homes throughout the USA to support students. (All products are made in the USA and comply with material safety requirements).
Lily (age 5) loves to do the letters on the DVD, she actually asks me if she can do it. What she especially likes it the animals that she can make with the letters that she is learning. I liked the DVD because there are tips for parents on how the children should hold the pencil and how they should sit while doing the DVD. I think that this DVD is great for kids in preschool & kindergarten who are just learning how to write their letters. I recommend not just turning on the DVD and walking away to do the dishes while your child watched this because it does move rather fast and you might need to use the pause button while they practice their letters.
This Product Was a Free Giveaway
