Home, Home on the Range…(links provided)

I'm a little late posting yesterday and today…but I'm here!

So glad to be home…for four short days.

The Wonderdogs will be home shortly for a short respite from the boarder.

My list of stuff to accomplish in those four days to get ready for a National AADE Board Meeting (housed within a three-day National AADE Technical Conference) is a little overwhelming, but I think I've might have it drilled down to manageable. (no pun intended)

I just finished my Pathways WALK.  I'm really excited about the next phase of my training, and I have some homework to do.

AND Friday night, we get to see REO Speedwagon at our local Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center!  I "heard it from a friend"!!!

And until then, I'll keep on loving you!!

Check out REO Speedwagon here!

Huggery

We learned in our training this weekend that hugs are important.  

Eminent US family therapist, Virginia Satir, regularly made a startling claim:

“We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth.”

Well, I told ThatManILove that every statement, and every day, we’re trying to give/get 12 hugs from each other.

Day 1?  We rocked the casbah.  Laughed every time.

Day 2?   We got all 12 in, again.  

Day 3?  I think we had hugged twice, so far, by evening.  Our day, yesterday, went kind of crazy.  He got up with me at 4:30 a.m., and went to the gym with me.   It had been a rough day on each of us, individually.  Lots of meetings, etc., super different schedules.  So, again, by 7:30 p.m., two hugs - not even enough for survival, according to Satir. We had a bunch of catching up to do, and ended up making a concerted effort to get all of our hugs in for the day!  And...it helped us have a really good healthy conversation, too, about some stuff we needed to resolve.  I’m liking this hugging stuff!

But really, it’s kind of become a game. We’ve hugged good morning, we’ve hugged good night.  We’ve even hugged in the middle of a conflict.  I may have to invent a meter for measuring hugs.  Think that will work?

So...today is Day 4.  As soon as we get home from the gym, I’m going to try to snag four or five hugs...so we can get a head start on the hug-o-meter for the day.

I love Hagen's cartoons!!

So, go!  Hug somebody!!

Sayonara, 2012….I Will Not Miss You

2012.  It's been a looooonnnnnng year.

A year of both good, and bad.  Much joy, much heartache.  Hope, deferred.

A year of both decision and indecision.

A year of mostly waiting. 

I have a huge knowing, in me, that 2013 will be much better.  I cannot explain it…but I know it. Have you been there?

Come midnight tonight, we will have made the turn into the year 2013.

Tonight, we celebrate the wedding of dear friends, at a beautiful place in the Hill Country.  And within that celebration, we'll also celebrate us…ThatManILove and I.

What better place, than a wedding, to remind us of all we have to anticipate, experience, and enjoy?  

What better place?

Happy New Year, y'all.  May all your dreams come true in 2013.

Who Are You Going To Be When You Grow Up?

Today was an interesting day.

I set up a lunch to affect introductions between a young lady I’d never met, and a friend, who had once been a lobbyist in D.C.

And then, I watched.  It was a very informative lunch, one where the more experienced woman gave advice to the younger, less experienced young lady.  And we came up with a strategy to help her, and to afford more introductions on her behalf.

The young lady listened, took mental notes, and immediately did all we asked of her. Her resume needs a little tweaking, and I think we need to have another meeting…but, I think she’ll go far, once she finds her way.  She wasn't shy, she wasn't cocky, she just asked all the right questions, and listened to the answers.  I think she'll turn out to be a hard worker, and one with integrity and character.  It's who she's designed to be.

It’s fun to be a part of the connection, a gathering of the right people, that eventually helps form a path to a career.  Most of us have benefited from help such as was given today. 

I'm appreciative of the help that has been given to me.