Age 29, week #2

Age 29, week #2 + Lisa with a sinus infection and upper respiratory infection = no fun and no good work progress made. :(

29 and counting...

So week one of being 29 has been.... interesting.

Sunday was the anniversary of the day of my birth. It was a pretty good day. Started at children's church, went to hibachi for lunch, got to pick out a new necklace for my gift from my hubby, had a massage and went to pass out candy and hang with friends for Trick-or-Treat.

Monday an interesting thing happened; not sure how to explain but I have some Federal Labor Law's to research.

Tuesday I had Facebook interaction that was aggravating. After changing our anniversary plans due to lack of communication, the causing factor asked for justification for the alterations. Hmmmmm........

Wednesday: a fifth grader about brought me to tears at church. Not for a good reason. I got my feelings hurt and was reminded that I need to always tell people when my feelings get hurt or nothing can be done about it.

Today, I went to the Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge (aka Ballantyne Resort) for a work meeting. As I was going into the hotel a person yelled my name from the balcony and told me to come up to their room. Very weird. I have no idea who it was or if they didn't know me how they knew my name. Oh well. Guess you can tell I'm not adventurous (read: dumb) and didn't go see who it was.

Not looking forward to the cold nights we're expecting this weekend, however, I am very excited to go to the Baxter Fall Festival and Market Day on Saturday with Go Baby Go Shop of SC & Fit For a Princess AND to painting the Hoover girl's mermaid bathroom on Sunday.

51 weeks and I'll be 30!! :)

Love & Best Wishes <3

What's the word??

Greetings from Orlando - specifically Orlando International Airport. Waiting on my 1:30 flight... which is now at 1:50. So glad to head back to SC. We had a great time in Isle of Palms last weekend, but I'm still pretty sad that we didn't get to spend our anniversary together. Next year we will have much better planning. Instead my 3rd anniversary was spent sitting in conference sessions all day. I'll admit, it wasn't all bad. The opening session for the Make-A-Wish Foundation 30th anniversary conference was awesome! Disney brought in all the families who were there on their wish trips and they surrounded the room with balloons in tow. Then all the Disney characters came out to greet them. It was an amazing an inspirational moment that trully defined the purpose of why we were all there and why what me do is important - to create magical moments and experiences for the children that have life-threatening conditions and get to benefit from our foundation.

J and I have decied to save our pennies and come down to Walt Disney World next October for our 4th anniversary and my 30th birthday. It will also be Disney's 40th birthday; and they always have spectacular celebrations. The theme that they are unveiling for 2011 is Wishes & Memories. Sounds pretty good to me.

In other news I was recently appointed as the President of the Sisters in Law of York County; the spouses support group for the York County Sheriff's Office. While I wasn't completely convinced that I was the best person for the job, I am looking forward to expanding our group and making a larger impact throughout our community. I have some BIG plans for National Police Week 2011 - which I like to call Law Enforcement Appreciation Week. Another blood drive, a formal dinner, golf tournament, family walk/5k and MUCH more!!! Look for details coming soon.....

Tomorrow is our (Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central & Western North Carolina) Walk For Wishes at Carowinds and Wish Reunion. I'm very proud of Sandra for all the work she has put into the Walk and can't wait to see the grand total results of her efforts. It has been a love/hate relationship for her, but in the end it's always worth it. The Wish Reunion is sure to be a blast as well. We have distributed ALL of the 2000 tickets that we were given for our families. Praying for good weather so we have good turnouts for both events and so that everyone has an enjoyable time.

Our plane is getting ready to board... Sweet Home Carolina!!! Can't wait to see my hubby and spend the rest of the weekend hanging out with him!

Love & Best Wishes

Thursday I went to an awesome networking event called 6 Degrees - a social experiment of the human connection web. I got some great inspiration for the 2011 Wish Ball. So glad that our event chair, Annie Lewis was there. For people in Charlotte the FB page is: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130638000319900#!/pages/6-Degrees/157544477599650.

I also met with Dr. Barker about a new business venture that she is pursuing - SightWork - a vision therapy practice. I got to see all kinds of activities that use to help children develop their eyes to improve vision, comprehension and coordination. I'm going to be developing a logo, slogan and stationery. VERY cool project.

Friday we had a donor reception for work at Fleming's Steakhouse. If you ever go there, look carefully at the artwork on the walls. They have an artisit that composes all of the wall pieces. If you look at them casually or at a distance they look like beautiful enlarged photos, but up close you can see that they are all handmade paintings with exquisite attention to detail.

After the reception I went with Lori to celebrate Heather's birthday!! SO FUN! We had a grand time and even took care of a little bit of business planning for the Sisters in Law meeting next week. Lori and I had to hitch a ride home... but it was well worth it. :)

Today I realized that since my car was still where I parked it last night that I had to reprint and cut business cards to fill an order. I then took them to deliver to the Candy Cane Market. Fit For A Princess http://www.facebook.com/fit4aprincess and GO Baby GO of SC http://www.gobabygoshop.com/page64.html had so many cute products displayed. Check out their products!

I also got a mural complete today for Baby Garrett! Pictures are up on my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/LWDesignsSC.

Headed tomorrow to Children's Church and to Austin and Taylor's birthday party. Great times with friends!!

Love and Best Wishes!!

Snapshot

I recently realized that some people see bits and pieces of what I'm involved in, but not the whole picture.

I sit everyday at my desk at the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central & Western North Carolina where I'm the Marketing Manager. I hear stories of kids that have life-threatening medical conditions and create communication and collateral to help make those wishes come true. If I don't have a scheduled meeting or activity, I usually go home and continue to work on the projects that I complete for the wish granting and development departments of my office OR for internal or third-party events that we benefit from.

I am the youth ministry leader for the Wednesday night KidServe program at Carolina's Cornerstone Churhc. This group of kids focuses on mission work and serving others and the helping the community. Then on Sundays in alternating months I also am a small group leader for the 5year-old to 5th grade girls during our 11:00 service.

I am a member of the Sisters in Law of York County, which is a support and service group comprised of the spouses of law enforcement that work for the YC Sheriff's Office. These ladies give their spouses everyday as they serve to protect and keep our community safe.

I belong to a ladies Bunco group that get together once a month to socialize and play bunco.

I have have a start-up design company, LW Designs. I create custom invitations, business identity, event management and home art. I am currently working on projects for the USO, a vision therapy company and a local dentist. I also have 2 mural projects lined up for the month of Ocotber - a nursery and a kids bathroom. I am starting to develop holiday cards for 2010.

I also am an independant consultant for Thirty-One gifts. This is the least time consuming of my activities as I have only held online parties to date. The products are awesome and the company is Christian-based.

I am a wish granter for BOTH the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central & Western North Carolina AND MAW of South Carolina. I am currently working on helping to recruit more volunteers in South Carolina and planning a BUNCO fundraiser for their chapter since they are struggling with funds.

My husband and I will be celebrating our third anniversay on October 20th - in separate locations. I will be in Orlando for a MAW national conference and he will be in Aiken fishing with his daddy.

Where's Lisa

Where has the time gone?? I can't believe I haven't written a blog in over a month.

KidServe Children's Ministry is going AWESOME!! We've gone through three weeks learning about service and feeding the hungry. The kids have been collecting all kids of non-perishables for the Fort Mill Care Center. We were selected by Kids Care Clubs as the recipient of a $250 mini-grant for October. The kids will be making ceramic bowls for Empty Bowls which we will auction off as a way to raise money to help FMCC as well.

I've also been reading Purpose Driven Life with my friend and co-worker Sandra. It has been so helpful. I can't believe that I've been able to learn so much about myself through a book.

I got disappointing news recently; my trip to Disney World has been postponed. My discount fell through and we hadn't budgeted to pay full price for our big trip. Instead we're going to take an anniversary trip to the beach and take a trip to Disney next year. It will be Disney's 40th anniversary and my 30th birthday!!

Lots of projects coming up... a new bathroom mural, a nursery mural, Toy Story mural, a couple of canvas paintings, Christmas cards, new business logo and colatteral design and much more!!

The Thirty-One business is not going very well. Who knew it would be so difficult to sell cute bags?! I love them, but I'm not quite as persuasive in getting others to.

Hope to have some new pictures of work up soon.

Love & Best Wishes!!

BUNCO night September 14th

The Bunco group that I belong to, Stateline Wine & Dine Bunco, is looking to add more regular members. We play once a month - on a Tuesday in the middle of the month. We had 12 and dropped to 4, and are looking to get back up to at least 12. If you are interested in playing, please let me know. I am hosting the September Bunco night at my house. It's a good opportunity for anyone who doesn't understand Bunco to come out and see what it's all about - food, fun and friends.