Adieu 2007

According to Merriam-Webster online

adieu

Main Entry: adieu
Pronunciation: \ə-ˈdü, a-, -ˈdyü\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural adieus or adieux \-ˈdüz, -ˈdyüz\
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French a deu, a dieu, literally, to God
Date: 14th century
: farewell

I have 20 minutes to post my final thoughts of 2007. Oh, the pressure.

I've been giving a lot of thought to resolutions so I thought this would be the best place to post mine.

In 2008 I would like to accomplish the following:

1) Get healthy - Dropping 5 sizes (yes there are 5 to be dropped); stop partaking in Coca-Cola, french fries and limit fried foods to only once a week; decrease sugar intake; decrease or eliminate the need for high blood pressure medication; work out three times a week; participate in two 5k walks.

2) Get organized - Arrange my home, home office and office better and keep it that way; organize my finances and create and stick to a budget.

3) Get focused - Pay more attention; talk less; listen more; make family and pet's betterment of health a priority; be more passionate about life and work; plant and tend vegetable, herb and flower gardens; determine what to do with my backyard and begin work on it.

4) Get involved - Pick two charities and give time and energy; find and make an impact in a business networking organization

5) Get out there - Post on my blog a minimum of three times a week; take a minimum of 4 photos a week; take two vacations that require traveling by plane and at least 3 days away from home

Laugh out loud.

Love deeply.

Live with passion.

Whew! That's good. Want to be my accountability partner?

My Celebrity Look-Alikes

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

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Frozen Pea Friday is here!

Learn more about Frozen Pea Friday at http://frozenpeafund.com/

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Why Social Media Matters

Within the last six months I've developed an affinity for online social media and networking. I know that it honestly drives some of my colleagues nuts. Good thing I have a slew of friends on Twitter that share in my passion and my desire to spread the works of my new love.

Mostly people want to know what they'll get from using sites like Twitter or Facebook. I think many people have come to realize that MySpace tends to be a fun place and with LinkedIn is easy to see the business connections and networking. But Twitter? Facebook? And seriously, why would anyone over the age of 15 want to join any of these or even Second Life for that matter?

And a few weeks ago everything changed. Twitter suddenly mattered. Twitter mattered to Susan Reynolds and the host of friends that follower her Twitter posts and blog and artwork. Susan was diagnosed with breast cancer.

In addition to being an avid Twitter poster and artist, Susan dabbles in other fun things like Second Life and various other social media. Susan is not 15. Susan is way past 15 and I'm sure she doesn't mind me saying so.

Susan has become our friend, our sister, our confidant, our playmate.

And Twitter rallied.

Many people who call Twitter one of their social networking sites of choice decided to make a stand against cancer by creating a site and a movement based on one of Susan's postings about frozen peas. Frozen Pea Friday began last Friday on the Frozen Pea Fund site and all money raised each Friday goes to the American Cancer Society's initiative Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.

I had already had the opportunity to participate in November in the Austin Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and personally raised over $200 in donations, one donation actually came from a Twitter friend of mine. Around the same time I followed others on Twitter also participating in Race for the Cures around the U.S. So, the thought that the good people of Twitter would create such an effort for one of our own really didn't surprise me.

But what it should prove is the power of online social networking.

Any more questions?

The final holiday of 2007

Christmas 2007 has come and gone.

The lights are still up on our house and the Christmas tree is still decorated, but the presents are unwrapped and the new gifts need to find their place in our home.

Charles and I spent the last few days with my parents and sister and her family south of Houston. It was nice to get away from the normal routine of work and errands and chores.

The puppies traveled with us and found new friends at my mom's. She and my dad have two dogs, so with our two dogs and my sister's one, it made a typically chaotic home all the more festive, especially once we drug out the Christmas doggie toys and treats.

After our annual Christmas brunch featuring the famous egg casserole and crescent rolls most of us took a lengthy nap. Upon waking it was almost time for Christmas dinner of turkey, ham, sweet potato casserole and more. Yummy.

Then mid-morning Charles and I with one dog a piece traveled back home. The dogs have barely stirred from their nap positions and Charles and I can't seem to find anything we really want to watch on TV. Gosh, we live a fun life.

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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . .

Everywhere I go . . .

Good thing as the true countdown has begun. Only 6 more shopping days from this post and that includes today.

Our house has finally been made ready to celebrate my favorite holiday. This past Friday after work Charles and I drove over to pick up a tree. We were the only ones in the place that night and in less than 15 minutes we were loading our chosen tree into the truck. I worked on stringing lights after we returned while watching "It's a Wonderful Life."

On Saturday, I worked at placing all the decorations I had purchased earlier that week in their strategic places. I chose matte and shiny silver and a dusty purple for my theme colors and sprinkled throughout are a few odd ornaments like a bulldog to represent the company that I work for in Austin, Bulldog Solutions. I also picked up one of this year's Starbucks ornaments - the one with the snowglobe sitting on top of a red holiday cup. I love it.

I picked up silver, Swarovski crystal embedded cursive letters K and and C for Kim and Charles. Duh.

And then there's the annual Pier One Li Bien ornament that I've been collecting since 2000. This year's ornament is a rosey shade with an angel of course. Their ornaments are lovely.

Aside from the photo of the tree here, you can also find the tree on my Flickr site. On the Flickr site I'm able to indicate where each of the special ornaments are hung when you roll over the pic with your mouse.

On this past Monday, Charles was so good to string up 3 strands of white icecicle lights on the house and around the door post. I strung lights on the tree trunks.

All in all, I have to say that this is a beautiful Christmas in our new house. Now for the snow . . .

What we do for love

Made the trek from the Austin area to the Houston area (approximately 3.5 hour drive) for the second weekend in a row. Last weekend I set up a booth for Crimson Threads and had my friend Jamie, my mom, my sister and my niece, Claire, help me sell product. This weekend I had the pleasure of chaparoning Claire at a cheer competition in Houston.

The whole ordeal brought me back to my days as a cheerleader. Yep, I was one of those a gazillion years ago. We went to a few competitions and even made it as far as national competition and performed on ESPN at Disney World.

Claire's generation has evolved quite a bit from my days in short skirts. Claire's group was the only one in the Jr. Pom Pom division. There were a ton of Hip-Hop or Street groups and then there was the more traditional cheerleading with lots of flips and girls popping up over other girls shoulders.

The event schedule showed groups competing as early at 7 am this morning until way past 9 pm. Whew! I was happy to know we only had to spend a few hours of our day amidst what felt like a million people and most of those millions in pony tails and lots of glitter.

It was fun though and I also have such a hoot spending time with Claire.

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