20 Things to do before I'm 40...in 3 months

1. Raise money for a cause
2. Zip line
3. Camp with kids
4. Take Aven horseback riding
5. Vacation at the beach
6. Get a six pack (not beer)
7. Learn to play the ukulele
8. Hike a 14er
9. SUP
10. Do 5 pull-ups
11. Learn to shoot a long bow
12. Catch up on baby books
13. Organize photos/videos
14. Learn to 2-step with turns
15. Learn to pole dance
16. Learn to sing
17. Cover up wrist and get lace tattoos
18. Climb 5.10 outside clean
19. Take a self-defense class
20. Learn 100 ALS signs

First thing on the list. CHECK! 40 here we come...

What? You are turning 40?!?

I Call Bullshit on 2014!

Whoa! That was crazy. Today is January 2nd and we are officially finished with the holidays. Thank God. This year was good. OK. It was fine..actually it totally sucked. 2014 was not my favorite.

Although the holidays were a little better, but I wish we were able to go on vacation to the beach over the holidays, I wish we had more time off, and I wish we had a little more sun. But you know what?

I don't mean to be Debbie Downer, but wishing for things to happen vs. making things happen has been my complete and utter downfall this year. Last year on NYE, we wrote our wishes for 2014 on a cute little piece of paper and put it in our NYE wish box. The same thing Andy and I have done for the last 4 years. Guess what happened? Nothing. The same bull-shit that happens every year. None of the wishes came true. They were all like, "I wish we have more money next year." "I wish we are all healthy next year." Bla bla bla. This year we didn't do any of our traditional traditions and it was great. We woke up Christmas morning to just the 4 of us. We didn't have any travel plans. We didn't do the big NYE feast and we didn't try to squeeze a hike in miserable cold weather with 2 little kids in tow. 

We just hung. I felt like a teenager. IT. WAS. AWESOME. Not having expectations for the holidays and just enjoying the little time I have off from work with my family was good.

There were some things we loved and I totally need to write down because they were too precious and I don't want to forget them. All of them centered around the kids. 

1. This is the first year Aven has been old enough to articulate and understand what Santa is and that she would like certain things for Christmas. One day she came running up to Andy and I (almost breathless) and said, "Can we put dolls sold separately on my list?" Andy and I were like "Sure..." To each other: "What the heck is dolls sold separately?" Then we were watching TV with her and saw this commercial...Oh Yeah!!! Each Sold Separately. #Cutebeyondwords

2. Santa left a note saying Aven's presents were wrapped in RED paper and Tristan's presents were wrapped in BLUE. One week later Aven told day care what Santa did. Looks like this tradition is going to stick.

3. We made Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve.

4. Tristan followed his big sister everywhere. He wanted to do everything she did. It was the sweetest thing to watch them together.

5. We took Aven to see Santa at Camp Jordan's Festival of Lights. Tristan was fascinated by all the blue lights. 

6. We had Aven's 4th birthday party...with friends. Tangled theme. She had a Tangled cake, Mother Gothel pinata (with frying pan), and floating lights. Come to find out the floating lights are illegal in Tennessee, so probably not doing that in the future. Darn, because they were SO COOL!

So for 2015, I am not doing wishes. I am not going to hope for good things for the future. I am gonna work my ass off.

The Social Network Phenom - The Circle

Life is crazy - full of change and prediction.

Within that simple sentence everything rings true. Life. Our lives. Our essence. Our souls. The energy that emanates out of our skin and bones, that makes each and every person important and unique, is mind boggling crazy.

Life is ever changing, evolving, and growing. You are not the same person you were 10 years ago OR even 10 minutes ago. Thoughts that have come into your mind have created new opinions of things.

Yet...at the same time life is very predictive. We know tomorrow is Saturday and we are going to do whatever it is we usually do on Saturday; and the next day, and the next.

Recently, I had the opportunity to go to the juggernaut of marketing conferences. Dreamforce. This marketing and sales conference in San Francisco is put on by the company who created Salesforce. Salesfoce is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool. Salesforce is headquartered out of San Francisco. Salesforce is a cloud based tool used to organize a company's sales leads and lead information. Dreamforce is BIG. I mean BIG. There were 130,000 people who signed up and attended this conference. I was able to sign up for sessions to learn more about social media, marketing, Pardot (Salesforces's marketing automation tool), and network. Here are some photos:

Branding. Branding. Branding. Oh yeah...that is Tony Robbins giving a keynote on the big screen in the background.

Some attendees playing ping-pong and bags on "campus"

Yeah...I got to hear Hillary Clinton speak. On the left is Marc Benioff CEO of Salesforce. On the far right is Klaus Schwab Chairman of the World Economic Forum...Freaking COOL!

Attendees were asked to bring can goods. The goal was to provide 1,000,000 meals to San Francisco needy people.

I also got to attend a Bruno Mars concert. I am not a fan, so thank gosh there was CAKE in the venue next door! YES! To say the least, it was a super wicked cool opportunity and great educational conference.

BUT...

I was reading THIS the entire time.

Life was imitating art. I was thoroughly freaked out. In a nutshell, The Circle is about 1 company that manages ALL social media. 1 company. No more Facebook. No more Twitter. No more anything, ONLY The Circle. There was a "campus," people playing games on said campus, great influential speakers doting pearls of wisdom on the "Circlers," and the common goal to make the world "better." With most good plot lines there is a problem. The problem with The Cirlce is there is a monopoly and everyone thinks the growing reach of The Circle is great -- anyone who thinks differently, suspiciously gets their lives turned upside down (digitally speaking), and finds themselves in jail. 

*FREAKING OUT*

I love my job. I love being in marketing. I love feeling like I am learning new things, new ideas, growing, and obtaining knowledge at every turn. Social media allows us to learn and be so close to people emotionally when they are so far away physically. OR does it? Do we use social media to merely obtain more friends/followers? Do we think we are actually learning things coming through our news-feed? 

This experience has not made me turn away from social media, but given me pause to evaluate why I use social media and the power I hold in the palm of my hand. My goal is to value life and all the change and invariably predictive annoying things that come with it. 

I don't know...maybe we should all be super freaked out by The Circle, current social media, and the losing battle between privacy and policing those who need to be watched. Maybe we should throw out our laptops, tablets, phones, and go live off the grid...but then again if you read The Circle we all know how Mercer ends up.

LIFE

LAWD! I stink at blogging...

So much has been going on in the past 8 months. Revamping business strategy for the HUB, failed family vacation due to baby boy illness, regular life, and bla bla bla. Not that everything has been crap. Aven and Tristan are beautiful, smart, awesome kiddos. They make me smile everyday. Aven is a little fish and loves to swim. Tristan is wanting (and can) to do everything Aven does. Andy is such a great husband and wicked awesome dad -- so blessed. I have been training a lot...just not sure for what. I have my pre-kiddo body back (well almost, I would say I am 90% of the way there). I have been really digging lifting. I don't think I would get to the point of taking it seriously though. I love food too much. But "gettin' swole" is fun!

Back to the lack of blogging. Not that I haven't been thinking about it. Tons of ideas have been swirling. Some items I have wanted to blog about, but then either I don't have the time to actually put clear thoughts in writing, or it is no longer relevant. Here is a taste of what might be coming down the line...

1. Women in Sports - lack of support, lack of money, lack of draw
2. Motherhood shaming - the perfect mom vs. the lazy mom vs. the real mom
3. Buying Power of Women - why are we duped by advertisers and don't see our power?
4. Technology - what I am loving, what I want, and where is it going?
5. Body Image - how I feel about myself, how I view my female counterparts, and what I want for my daughter.
6. Ironman - do I dare?

I guess this is more of a work in progress entry. Getting something out there...anything is better than nothing, right?

3 Years of Mommy-hood

Today at 1:46 pm EST I will be celebrating my 3rd Mommy birthday. I look at my little girl and it really is hard to remember she was so tiny at 6lb 1oz. I thought she was so big! HA HA, now at 30 pounds it is sometimes a struggle to pick her up from the floor. :)

I hope some day she finds this blog and realizes how much I love her. It is so hard to put down on "paper" my feelings for her. I knew I wanted to have children. I was petrified that whatever perfect little human God blessed me with I would ruin her/him. I had faith with a little help, a lot of reading, and a lot of love I would overcome my preconceived inadequacies.

Over the the last three years, I have discovered Aven is a wonderful, smart, sweet, beautiful little girl. I think in our case, it has taken a village to bring her to this point. So far, my husband and I have done the best we can to help her discover the world, discover her capabilities, and show her kindness, but the other people in her life have helped us help her.

Last night taught me a very good lesson. Aven has been on "super charged 3 year-old status" for about 2 weeks. First came Santa. This year was the first year she GETS IT. Then comes her birthday. In between, we had house guests that are wonderful and so fulfilling, but throw her off a schedule nonetheless. She also has not been in daycare for over a week and I know how much learning and stimulation she gets can satisfy her insatiable three year old thirst for knowledge. (I have been trying to recreate it, but I am not quite hitting the mark ;-) ).

Well...she didn't want to go to sleep. Duh. It is her first birthday she understands is all about her. After Andy and I let her chat up her stuffed animals for an hour, I went into her room to lay down next to her. Two hours of telling stories, me pretending to be asleep, me falling asleep, me coaxing her to fall asleep -- I had to get up and walk out of the room and let her fuss herself to sleep on her own.

I am her Mom. I want to do everything for her so she doesn't have to go through the tough stuff on her own. But alas, I cannot. She is only 3 and will need me for a very long time, but it is the beginning of Aven discovering her independence. Whether that be putting herself to bed after a very long week OR it be letting her realize the internet can be cruel and it is best to put your best face forward when talking to the WORLD WIDE WEB.

*Don't get me wrong...I will always be there to tell her she is doing something colossally stupid or equally great; but I pray she will find the best path on her own.

Ultimately, I think Tina Fey said it best...

*She can have tattoos, but nothing in a language she can't speak, no cartoons, and please I beg you Aven -- choose an artist, not "some guy who has a tattoo gun."