Top Five Values

Last year, I was handed a deck of cards with different words on it. The words would represent my main values. The task was to narrow the cards down to my top five values. Initially, I was confident that I knew my what they would be...Piece of cake. As I started to shuffling through my cards and noticed that there were words that had meaning to me but in the process of elimination, I couldn't keep them. Only five. Just five? Ugh. Ok. I can do this. So after shuffling through the cards again and trying my hardest to not over-think this exercise, it was complete. Alas, my top values are:

Love - By His love I have life and I'm surrounded by love through family and friends. For all the love I've been given, I'm grateful. 

Responsibility - With great power, comes great responsibility. When you're given a gift, no matter what it is, be responsible with how you share that with the world and when you mess up, be responsible. 

Wisdom - When you have wisdom, you have the ability to make the best choices and to know it is the best. 

Friendship - Almost all (minus one) of my friends I am in touch today...Whether I met them at four years old or 30 something, I have a way to keep in touch with them.

Integrity - It's the little voice that has guided me time and time again away from doing something or saying something that was outside of who I am and want to be. 

What are your top five values? 

Leap Day - 29 Things I'd Do with an Extra Day

1. Sleep in 30 minutes.
2. Take a hot bath.
3. Make an omelette.
4. Journal.
5. Re-watch Parenthood's Season Finale.
6. Read.
7. Go to the park with my baby girl.
7. Paint something...Pottery or a wall.
8. Visit my friend and her newborn baby girl.
9. Stretch a lot.
10. Drink water.
11. Sit outside.
12. Blog.
13. Play with Pinterest.
14. Curl my hair.
15. Write a letter.
16. Order books from Amazon
17. Listen to some Nina Simone.
18. Visit the animal shelter.
19. Call my mom.
20. Play soccer.
21. Pick strawberries.
22. Go to St. Augustine.
23. Scan photos.
24. Watch the sunrise at the beach.
25. Test drive a sports car.
26. Organize my closet.
27. Send thank you notes.
28. Pray.
29. Breathe.

Three Reasons Why You Should Always Watch the Daytona 500

My cousin Justin and I at the Daytona 500 prior to the announcement
about the race being postponed to Monday at noon.

So in case you were out of the country or sleeping before 11:30 p.m. ET on Monday night, I want to be the one to tell say that you missed one of the most historical races in Daytona International Speedway history. Besides the race being postponed due to weather and 200 gallons of jet fuel igniting the track, there was a lot of talk about Brad Keselowski who "tweeted" the first pic from inside his race car while on the track and then, the Tide showed up...There has never been a cleaner track in all the world. Most importantly, there has never been a race like this is all the world!

After deciding to not return to Daytona and instead, let my cousin take my place on a school night, It was happy to park myself into my favorite chair and power up the laptop.

So to make a long race short, CONGRATULATIONS to team Kenseth, #17 who just happens to be Justin's favorite driver. I'm more of a Harvick girl...#29!

Here are three reasons why you should always watch the Daytona 500:

1 - You never know what's going to happen. 


2 - Even when you think you know, you really don't. 


3 - Tide and Twitter are NASCAR super stars (Maybe one day @DaleJr will actually send out a Tweet.")

Thanks to all of my followers on Twitter who put up with my non-stop tweets on Race night. The Daytona 500 was the most memorable race I've ever watched on TV. To think, I was almost right there near Turn 4. There's always 2013!

[[[ congrats to kevin and delana harvick on their anniversary and the upcoming birth of their baby! ]]]

Baby Showering My Cousin In Preparation for Baby J

Cousins, cupcakes and strawberry cream cake at Three Layers Coffee House

Congratulations to my cousin and her super hero husband! 

I wish you two the best as you prepare for the arrival of your baby. 

Some of the baby shower guests with Tanya and Baby J

happy birthday to my mr. wonderful!

Happy Birthday my love! Dinner at the "Dojo"/ Sakura in Jax. The first place where we ever had lunch together.
From left to right - Justin, Tanya (baby J), Shells, Teala, Tori, Ted, Baby girl, Cindy, Ted and Todd

Dinner @ Emeril's, City Walk

Yea, it was as good as it looks. 

A. Maz. Ing.

Happy Birthday to my Nephew!

May happiness surround you all the days of your life. Make a wish!

Reason #22 Why I love the Happiness Project

Thank You Santa for Our New BFF!

There she is...Our new baby to help keep us cool in the New year.
Now I know why the guy who owns the air conditioning company we hired has the largest house in the county.
Yea, he now has a new boat thanks to us! 

TGIH (Thank God It's Houston's)

Holiday dinner with friends and fellow Santa helpers.
Merry Christmas Gene, Shari, Janice and Ted! 

Happy Birthday Josh!

Soon-to-be-DRIVING...Happy Birthday to you! He knows how to celebrate...SUSHI BOAT!

Merry Christmas 2011!

Christmas morning...like 12 midnight for the cousins and gifts!

My sisters with Baby girl and MJ. 

The cousins in a sort of Modern Family pose. 

Happy {Holiday} Hour with Tones and So

Last HH before the holidays. :-)
Bring your phones batches!

BeFrie Visits

Evanses Annual Holiday Open House
Joy, Geri Evans and I

Joy visiting all of her fans at the Orlando Citadel Corps

Our babies breaking bread (mostly rice) together. So sweet! 

Holiday Party Time at the J Dub

Love this man. 

So ready to party! Lovin' the hair. :-) 

Chris & Nicole wins Cutest Couple at the Holiday Party

And so it begins...Team Angel to the Rescue!

Love this time of the year...My family and I love volunteering at the Salvation Army Angel Tree program.  We've been spending the last several days when we have spare time to help get things ready to go for the families to pick them up.  We have only one goal - to ensure every single child receives a gift of clothing and of toys through the Angel Tree program. 

The program has become an amazing team effort and one that has taken a life of its own.  There are so many reasons to be thankful this year...For me, it's the kids and the families who are uplifted in their time of need through the generosity and the love of others. 

Good Sky Chatter

“One of the most important lessons I have learned over the past few years is how important it is to have time and space for being with what’s real in my life — to celebrate the joys, grieve the losses, shed my tears, sit with the questions, feel my anger, attend to my loneliness.”

Ruth Haley Barton, Sacred Rhythms

For more, leap over here.

Women's Auxiliary Annual Stocking Stuffing Party

Mrs. Barnett and I stuffing stockings and taking a picture together.
Love Ashley's smile!

Jean + Danielle + Diane = three reasons to join the
Orlando Women's Auxiliary...Amazing women! 

Arlene from Salon Ciseaux stuffing 20 stockings at a time.
She's got this down and has a Master's in Multitasking. 

Happy 40th to the Landis Twins!

Chris doesn't look a day over 38 ;-) 

Joelle and Robb - Celebrating it up!

Robb, Holly, Stacey and Chris
The Birthday Twins and their beautiful wives.
Note: Holly is ready to have her baby girl. It's her due date so any minute now. 

11.11.11 11:11

Today is special...It's 11.11.11 and lots of people were talking about what they were doing on 11/11/11 at 11:11 or making a super wish. I was at the office...Not wishing, Not talking. I totally missed this once in a lifetime moment of all ones. So instead of focusing on the exact hour and minute of the day, I will celebrate 11 great moments of today (and maybe I'll still get a wish granted, 11/11/11 11:11 style):

1 - waking up at 4:45 a.m. and realizing that I still had 15 minutes until my alarm went off
2 - driving to work without any major traffic along the way
3 - walking outside and the temperature was a cool 60 something degrees
4 - wearing my red cashmere sweater for the first time this fall
5 - eating a cuban sandwich, guilt-free
6 - drinking a chai latte
7 - picking up my baby girl almost before the sun went down
8 - laughing at a video called "ninja cat"
9 - almost cleaning out my email inbox (so close people!)
10 - enjoying leftovers for dinner. (keeping it simple)
11 - staying in and watching movies with my family (ahh...just perfect.)

So what moments are you celebrating on this number one super-special day? You have one more chance tonight to make that wish...May it come true.