Decompress

I am forcing myself to decompress this weekend. 

Since the transition of new ownership and new management January 1st, I have been working continuously. Pretty much 10-14 hour days (no breaks and working through lunch, sometimes I can be a bit of a workaholic) and I am lucky to have one day off. 

New owners, new management, new team, all new equipment, new systems to learn (about 10 with different functionalities and trainings + trainings + trainings ...), while doing events and renovations which started this week, and the phones ringing off the hook with leads supernaturally pouring in, as a girl who thrives in multi-tasking very well, I have it in me to keep the momentum going. 

But, I'm not. 

I choose to decompress this weekend and have purposely and intentionally kept this weekend open, free of work for two whole days.

I am no good to anyone depleted. The thing is, I'm not depleted. I feel like I am racing on caffeine and can continue working at a feverish pace. Did I mention we have an open house next weekend?

My goal for myself is to step away from working for two days. When my mind races with work thoughts and ideas, I force myself to shut them down and embrace two days off.

Believe me, Monday I will be like a dog at the races chomping at the bit for the gates to open and take off running!

Work hard. Play hard. Reward yourself.

That already started.

Who knew Tiffany Blue and pink go together so well!

Getting my nails done, a few fun purchases for me and and evening of snuggles and kisses with my very pregnant Mariah & Sofia, I woke up today to ... slow down ... relax ... what do I want to do ... what sounds good ... what sounds fun and I'm doing it. 

When my mind thinks work, I shift it into relax mode. It's time to decompress. 

Well, decompress with three events I chose on my personal schedule for today. ha ha

Professional Headshot

We were required by the City to have professional head shots taken for our positions and they had a photographer come in to do these. I guess it is a good idea to do this every few years, it does seem like its always needed for something. 

It is definitely time to update my profile pic on this blog. 

This is me at 48 years old. 

Chaos Coordinator

I never knew I would enjoy being a wedding coordinator, being the person in charge of making a girls dream day become all she wants it to be. Where I fine tune the details and blow fairy dust to give them more than they hoped for.

Each wedding and each bride is very different. There is a passive bride who doesn't care about the details and allows everyone else to choose. Then there is the micro manager bride that knows exactly what she wants, has every detail listed and lets every person in their bridal party know what the expectation is. 

Both are easy.

The bride who doesn't care about the details is easy to please. The micro manager bride handles all the details. Share them with me and I ensure it happens.

Bridezillas? They are annoying by nature and I often feel sorry for the grooms parents as they see what their son is about to marry. The grooms? Hey, they are adults and I'm pretty confident they see the brides behavior prior to wedding day. 

The upside of dealing with a bridezilla is I already know what the plan is for the day and our venue is spacious enough where I role out their day with little contact with them. Their entourage/bff's can coddle and jump on command. Not me. 

Then there are the parents of the bride and groom. They come from nervous for their baby's getting married in general to nervous of the cost of the wedding/reception. They come in at odd's with the other set of parents and sometime the mom's come in to lay down scenario and control the show. 

I allow them all to be themselves and have the wedding they want. 

One of my more memorable weddings was when the gift table had to be at the front of the room, farthest from the doors, because the room was full of thieves. The father of the bride had to take the cards out of the card box and lock them in a hiding place all evening. 

Planning a wedding can feel overwhelming. Whether it is simply elegant or elegantly simple, tell me what you want. I ask a couple easy to answer questions and voila! it's done.

Many brides openly say they book at our venue because of me. They love my relaxed approach to their day and openness to give them the wedding and reception they've dreamed of. 

Truly, I want them to have the wedding day they've imagined since they were a little girl. It's an awesome responsibility. I can add special touches they haven't even thought of and I can see their excitement bubble over. 

For me, I get to see the behind the scenes nervous excitement, the vows from beautifully traditional to striving for extremely unconventional and yes, sometimes I cringe. The food, the atmosphere, the delicious cakes & pastries and evenings of dance music fill their air. 

Brides-to-be, a cookie bar with 6,000 is ridiculous. Having 500 dozen cookies in my walk-in cooler that I have to set and stage for you to end up loading up and carrying home is far too much. Whoever has the most cookies is not guaranteed happily ever after. 

I never knew I was going to enjoy this unexpected career in my life so much. 

Shout to the Lord

My jesus, my saviour Lord, there is none like you All of my days i want to praise The wonders of your might love. My comfort, my shelter Tower of refuge and strength Let every breath, all that i am Never cease to worship you ...

I grew up loving southern gospel music. There are moments when you hear a familiar song, it strikes a cord in my heart and I feel enflamed with I love this.

Take those moments and magnify it into a holy spirit filled, world get behind me moment, is when I have my Sofia in my arms dancing with her. She loves music and minutes after I arrive she is in my purse pulling out my iPhone. She knows the routine.

Pandora has an excellent Kids Praise Christian music station we stream through a Bluetooth speaker and often we dance.

Shout to the Lord came on yesterday, while her momma was getting ready for us to leave for a day out, we danced.

Let me tell you ... hold love in your arms and suddenly praise music comes to life in a way I've never experienced it. My sweet granddaughter and I twirled and danced and when she put her head on my shoulder a million thanks to God went up. I love these moments! Thank you, God!

Shout to the lord
All the earth, let us sing Power and majesty Praise to the king. Mountains bow down And the seas will roar At the sound of your name. I sing for joy At the work of your hands Forever i'll love you Forever i'll stand. Nothing compares To the promise i have in you.

My Littlest Valentine

In Grandmomma glory, I arrived with gifts for my littlest Valentine.

A box of Minnie Mouse chocolates and her 1st baby doll. 

Sofia loves babies and now she has one to play with on her own before her little brother/sister arrives. 

Let's hope she gets over the latest "Uh oh!" game. Where she throws everything down and looks up with those almond-shaped brown eyes and sweet chubby face and says, "Uh oh!" 

Happy Valentines Day

My Littlest Valentine 

               xo

New Board Member Appointed

Of all the things I've lived through and am grateful as every year passes, for some reason, I absolutely believe God has another plan. 

A professional contact connected with a woman who was interested in planning a couple of events. A spur of the moment meeting turned into our paths crossing and we became two women sharing our unique experiences. She said I was exactly what she needed, with my own experience to add to my role, would I be interested in being on her Board of Directors?

The call came today, I was voted on last night by the Board and am now the new Board member that serves overseeing a nonprofit program to help survivors of suicide.

Honestly, I really had to do some soul searching wanting that in the rear view mirror of my life, but ...

But, is the segue to there is something else. I wish I would have known about this program many years ago when the aftermath was a nightmare. 

The woman I met who began this non profit, her husband committed suicide and she has two very little girls. My personal experience is slightly different and my role for my daughter became one where I had to learn to become a powerful advocate in her life and I think of those who don't have an advocate. 

While I want this far, far behind me, I do believe God has another plan. With supernatural paths crossing, if God is saying, "Will you?" I am saying yes.  

Her Hobbies Include ...

It's been an intense week. You know, the kind where I ran out of coffee in my home for 3 days because my schedule was so busy, there was no time to even stop at the store. It was a week of 13-14 hours days, corporate in town all week for training, two big events,with one being really important with the Mayor.

Multi-tasking and being the queen bee responsible for all things large-scale event related, I made it! With bows and congratulations, word in City Administration I pulled off a very successful event (with a partial new team, and chef to add extra nerves!). 

In the midst of intensity, I smiled, snuggled, hugged and kissed a whole bunch, too!

Friday night date night with my sweet granddaughter. Her hobbies include: typing on the laptop, unrolling toilet paper, climbing in and out of the bathtubs, pulling food out the of the food pantry, emptying out my bathroom closet, and I bet you didn't know how fun it is to take all the Alka Seltzer packets out of the box and put them everywhere. 

Who am I to stop such happiness?

Dinner was fried chicken, mac & cheese, and grapes, and chocolate Lactose milk, her favorites. For dessert I melted chocolate wafers and gave her Oreo cookies to dip, drag, and play in the melted chocolate. 

I felt my grand baby kick for the 1st time (photo 22 weeks). Tears of happiness and relief, feeling my grand baby makes me yearn to hold it in my arms.  

One of my Christmas gifts to Sofia was a princess tent. Mariah posted she was laughing and happy screaming inside if it she loves it so much. And I love her happiness.

Spoiledness happens at Grandmomma's house.