Has it really been almost a week since i’ve blogged?
Sorry, been busy working on a big event this weekend.
No, i am not an events planner…but somehow i got roped into doing this event. I’ll tell you all about it when i survive it!
I did promise L. that i would finish my post about WOO…..so this is for you L.!!
I recently had to take a required test for a board retreat….it was a test to discover our strengths. Not spiritual strengths, just strengths. (and i’m sure event planning isn’t one of them!)
So here, according to Strengthfinder 2.0, are my top five strengths: WOO, Positivity, Strategic, Communication and Empathy.
When i first saw WOO, i thought maybe i’d opened the Japenese version of the results! But according to S-2.0, this is what WOO is…
Winning Others Over - “People who are especially talented in the WOO theme love the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over. They derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection with another person.”
WOW….i feel so exposed! :0)
But yes, i would say they nailed that one. I have always loved meeting people and finding ways for people to open up and talk about themselves. But doesn’t everyone enjoy that?
The one strength that i really questioned as “strategic”. Yikes. I have never even used that word in a sentence that i know of!
But here’s what they say about strategic: “People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed….”
Know what i thought of immediately? Songwriting.
When i am writing a song, i have a place i want to land. I have something i want to say. The challenge in songwriting is to find the right way to get there. It has to be just the right word, to create just the right thought or emotion, to convey what my heart wants you to feel. Sometimes it can feel like going through a maze…..you approach it from this direction–then that doesn’t work, so you try another direction—and that doesn’t work….and then you try another appoach and WOW….you just found the path that takes the song home!
This was an incredible moment this week! The underdog came back to take it all!
It was the first Idol finale that i’ve really watched. In fact, this season was the first season that i was really engaged by the show. (did you read that word “engaged”?…..that’s a new hot button word for churches….more on that later).
The two hour show was packed with great entertainment…but to be honest, i thought it was geared towards Adams’ genre….and therefore meant that Adam was set up to win. I mean come on, they have rock stars like Rod Stewart, KISS and Queen for heaven’s sake. We all know that Adam can scream with the best of them. They did throw a little Keith Urban in there, though. Just in case we wanted to cheer for Kris again….one last time.
Turns out we’ll be cheering for a long time.
Everyone knows that even though Adam “lost”, all he needed was this exposure. I’m sure we’re about to see Adam everywhere! There is no denying he is a very talented singer and showman. It will be interesting to see what he does with his new career.
What i’m curious to see is what Idol will do for Kris. All during the show they talked about how Kris was true to who he was. I agree. Kris picked songs and did with them what felt natural to him. And it worked every time. So i wonder how much creative influence they will allow him to have on his recording project.
We’ve highlighted the contributions of music to the healing environment at Mayo Clinic in some previous posts, but here’s another video from last fall that we discovered on YouTube. The exuberance of this older couple playing in the Gonda Building will brighten your day.
In the Quota Club, we like to take time at every meeting to give members a chance to brag on something that is going on in their lives. In order to do that, they have to contribute a dollar or two towards our service fund. We pass around a pinata and they get a chance to share good news as well as contribute towards helping someone else. At the end of the year we have a pinata party and break it open.
So here’s my pinata… and now i’m going to brag!
Last night we had the high school band awards program. We had reservations for 299 people, but it looked like more than that to me! We had a great buffet of the best southern food and then the band director got up and began to give out awards.
Karlee walked away with:
Medal for District Honor Band
Region Honor Band
All State Band
Symphonic Band Festival Superior performance
Commerative Medal for Grand Championship
110% Award
Jazz Award
Section Leader of the Flutes for 2009/2010
and she won a trophy for Outstanding Band Member for the junior class!
Last week at the middle school concert they gave out a few awards at the end of their performance. Paige won Outstanding Muscian for the 7th grade band. I think i might have another award winning band member on my hands!! :0)
My Mother’s Day treat this year was having the girls travel with me this weekend and sing at Harmony Church! We had so much fun….and that was just getting there!
The church was actually located in Woodbury, but they booked us a hotel for Saturday night in Warm Springs. We got there too late to see FDR’s Little White House. Ever heard of that? I think i must have, but had forgotten about it.
Courtesy of “Wikipedia”…..
Warm Springs first came to prominence in the 19th century as a spa town, due to its mineral springs which flow constantly at nearly 32°C (90°F). It is famous for the Little White House, where Franklin Delano Roosevelt lived while president, because of his paralytic illness. He died there, in his room in the Little White House, which is now a public museum. Roosevelt first came in the 1920s in hopes that the warm water would improve his paraplegia, at the time thought to be due to polio. He was a constant visitor for two decades and died there in 1945. The town is still home to the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation (Roosevelt’s former polio hospital) which remains a world-renowned comprehensive rehabilitation center including a physical rehabilitation hospital and vocational rehabilitation unit. The springs are not available for public use as a bath/spa resort, but they are used by the Roosevelt Institute for therapeutic purposes.
Warm Springs is a cute little One Street, Main Street township. But the real fun was Highway 208.
Don’t ask me where Highway 208 is located…..but at some point in the trip, we spent 22 miles on it. Gorgeous hills, woods and wildflowers. We slowed down as a wild peacock crossed the road and then came to a complete stop for a squirrel who was busy taking a nap on the road.
We saw a farm on the right side of the road that was home to tons of cattle and one particularly gorgeous white horse. He was busy trying to munch on a bush that was just over the fence. Karlee said she wished she could take a picture and since we weren’t in a hurry, i stopped and turned around so we could go back.
I thought all country farm animals were nice and couldn’t wait to be petted by city girls. But when we found a little driveway to turn around in to go back and see the horse, the family dog (a beagle?), came bounding down the drive way barking (or i should say “woofing” cause that’s what it sounded like) and he didn’t look like he was happy that we were using his driveway.
We found the horse still feeding on the bush. I parked across the road and Karlee started to cross the road and the horse was like “i’m too pretty for a picture” and just pranced off. What’s up with that? Hey Mr. Horsey, what if she’d been about to feed you a carrot? Huh? What then? Too pretty for some yummy?
Karlee thought she’d settle for second best and take a shot of the cows, but they did the same thing. You’d think she’d been out there with a bow and arrow, hunting. We decided she might better get back in the car in case they decided to charge her instead of run away! In fact we laughed about that. What would we have done if they charged her?
Maybe that’s why Jim-Bob slowed down when he passed us in his truck. He probably wondered what a blue charger with three ladies was doing parked on Highway 208 in front of a wire fence and some stupid animals.
Shoot, i can’t think of a funner thing to do….at least on Highway 208.
….i’m listening to “It Matters to Me” by Faith Hill…..one of my favorites that she recorded!
….Paige won Outstanding Muscian in 7th Grade Band!
….watched Michael J. Fox’s show on optimism last night. ….attitude really is everything
….the girls and i travel to Warm Springs, Georgia this weekend. We’re booked to sing at Harmony Church on Sunday. i love me some girl time with my girls!
….i was tucking Paige in last night and she told me to turn the lights back on. She started digging around in her book bag. I thought it was for a paper that i needed to sign or something. it wasn’t. it was a Mother’s Day card she’d made for me. It was beautiful. I will keep it forever!
….it’s payday!
….i was getting my nails done yesterday and talking with Sue. Sue has been doing my nails for almost ten years! She told me that when Karlee came in to get her pedicure for prom she almost didn’t recognize her because of her new haircut and color. (you have to understand that Karlee only goes to the nail salon for once a year special occasions!). But then Karlee smiled and she was like, “oh, you must be Miss Donna’s daughter”! She said Karlee has a great smile. Yes, yes she does.
….we went to see “The Soloist” last Saturday. It was a good movie. It wasn’t exactly what i thought it would be from the previews i’d seen, but it was worth the $8 to see it! You’ll come away with a new perspective for sure.
Some days i struggle with the questions that have no answers. It’s all Miss Robinson’s fault.
Miss. Robinson was my first grade teacher. I think she was the best first grade teacher ever.
She came to school every day like it was her favorite thing to do.
And her hair and clothes….perfect for 1970. Everything was always in place, but not so much so that you couldn’t give her a hug and wrinkle her pretty white starched blouse.
She was friendly but firm. She let us have fun, but she also kept control. It WAS 1970 after all, and teachers could still pull out a paddle and take you out in the hallway.
So we obeyed all the rules that she had written on the big yellow poster and one of the most important rules was to raise your hand before speaking. This was always a tough one for me…….because i really enjoying speaking! Miss. Robinson would ask a question and my mouth would fly open and then my hand would fly up! (who was that guy in Mr. Kotter’s class that always yelled out while his hand was in the air? Horseshack?…that was me!)
I always wanted to answer every question. I’m not sure why. I guess there is that special one on one interaction you get with the teacher when she calls your name. She actually stops and looks at you and waits for your response. And then when you have the right answer, there is that approving nod she would give…..it was like a hug all the way from the front of the room.
Who wouldn’t want to have all the answers?
It was the same way in Sunday School, and then teen quizzing….where the right answer would earn you a trophy!
Then you grow up and life starts throwing lots of questions your way. The hard ones started coming about the time i hit 40. I had survived the questions in my 20s by pure simple, blind faith. After all, God had gotten me through high school and college…..surely He was big enough for whatever came along.
And then i had children and the questions got a little harder in my 30’s. I went to Ladies’ bible studies and we did our best to sort things out. We still tried to answer all the questions.
Then i had teenagers and hit my 40’s. I saw friends go through trials and struggles i didn’t understand. And we finally came to the conclusion that sometimes there are no answers.
And any handraising i do will be to raise them in desperation to a God that is sometimes silent.
Hi. My name is Donna and i am a Colorholic. I am in love with color. Lots of colors. And colors all put together and/or mixed up.
It just makes me happy…..like this dress I bought….
okay, i tried to take a picture of the one in my close with my new camera/video recorder and it didn’t quite work. So this picture will have to do. (no, my dress is NOT that short…but it is that crazy!) (and sorry i couldn’t get rid of Nicole Richie)
And then there is this room with all the colors that i love…..
And then there’s the game my sister and i used to play. It had everything to do with color. In fact, the game was played with crayons of every color.
We used to pretend they were families. You know, there were the Greens, and then across the street lived Mr. and Mrs. Black and then Mrs. White was the sweet widow lady next door.
Our crayon families had children too….those were the crayons that were broken in half.
We could spend hours with the crayon families—making up stories about what they were doing and what it was like to live out of the box (hee hee).
**Now i’m going to state here for the record that i’ve never met another pair of sisters who played the Crayon Family game. Growing up, i thought it was something everyone did. But now i know it was just a very special game made up by two special girls. (and in case you’re reading this sis…i mean special in a good way! not special ed!)**
Life needs a little color in it.
It needs a splash of pink every once in a while to make you smile or a pop of orange to just make you laugh out loud.
Sometimes it needs some blue sky to make you dream, or some yellow roses to make you breathe in deep and enjoy the aroma of the blessing of friends around you.
Color is the high of life and the sweetness of serenity.
Color reminds me that there is flavor to life. I can choose red as my favorite today, or turquoise tomorrow. No two days are colored the same.
And my favorite days are those days i discover a brand new color!
I’d been exposed to Compassion International over the last year while reading Shaun Groves’ blog and a few others. This past Fall at Ladies Retreat, Susie Shellenberger brought a few pictures of precious children in case a few of us were interested in becoming sponsors. We were.
Shaun Grove and a few other bloggers are on a Compassion Trip right now.
and now i’m going to brag!
okay, i tried to take a picture of the one in my close with my new camera/video recorder and it didn’t quite work. So this picture will have to do. (no, my dress is NOT that short…but it is that crazy!) (and sorry i couldn’t get rid of Nicole Richie)