Orlando, FL

Last week I was invited to attend an annual Leadership Training conference with the Alzheimer's Association in Orlando, FL.  It was a fun, yet packed 3 days.  It was a great opportunity to learn, connect and interact with others across the United States.  It was held at a beautiful hotel in Orlando with over 900 people in attendance. There were some great classes, trainings and other events that were motivating and inspiring.  I was so glad that I got invited to attend.

Happy Birthday To Me

33.  That's how old I am now.  My birthday was last Thursday, on the 22nd and it was a typical day at work.  I had an early morning board meeting and then I headed into my building for work.  We had cake and cupcakes to celebrate at work with my staff and then I headed home from work to have a little party with the family.  The wifey and kiddos were baking my birthday cake when I got home, it was Funfetti of course, my favorite.  After it was done, he packed in the car and headed to one of my favorite restaurants Boathouse 19.  We had a great dinner there and then headed home to eat cake, sing and open some presents.  It was a perfect way to celebrate my birthday with my family.  I also share my birthday with my mom. She was in Utah enjoying her day as well.  Happy Birthday to us!

Happy Birthday To Me

It's my birthday tomorrow.  I will be 33 years old.  That seems so old.  Maybe it's because my wife is still in her twenties, or maybe not.  Either way, Happy Birthday to Me tomorrow!  To celebrate and keep myself young (ha!) I got a new pair of adult onesie pajamas!  They are so comfortable and the wifey also got a pair.

I share my birthday with my mom Pat and the day after ours is lil Natalie's birthday.  They celebrated last week in UT without me.  Happy Birthday!

Work

My job can be tiring, both physically and emotionally most days.  I am responsible for the safety and well being of 36 seniors who are suffering from dementia, as well as caring for and maintaining a happy and healthy staff, ranges from 34-38 other people.  Most of my days can be draining, yet rewarding.  Because of these items, I try to have as much fun as I can with my staff. I have a core management team and we have monthly meetings where I try to have fun things and give them purpose and meaning while enjoying themselves and their job.  

At our last meeting, we set up a little photo area to shoot a picture for our upcoming Christmas/Holiday card. We went with a Seahawks/12th Man theme and we had a fun time with it.  It's the simple things that stand out and make the job even more worth it.  I am such a goof in these pictures, but they are a good example.  Stay tuned for the picture of the management team all together, it turned out awesome! 

Freedom Run

On the morning of July 4th, I ran a race!  I haven't raced in over a year so it felt good to get back out there.  It was a 5k in Tacoma and it was the perfect morning to race.  The weather was sunny and warm and the last mile was along the shores of the Puget Sound, it was beautiful!  Plus, I got a decent time.  It felt good to race again and it was a great start to a fun holiday!

Limelight Dads

I was contacted and interviewed by a fellow blogger a couple of months ago.  He interviewed me about my life as a dad and blogger for a segment that he posts on his website, Dad of Divas.  The segment is called Dads in the Limelight.  Today the interview was posted, so go check it out HERE and please share and comment, tweet, etc.....  you know the drill.

I feel privileged to be a part of this and to share my thoughts and opinions about being an active and involved parent in my kids lives.  What can I say, I love being a dad.

Happy Birthday to Me

I turned 32 earlier this week.  That seems so old!  I am a full blown adult, and some days it really is hard to understand that.  I have a wife, kids, a real job, working on a Master's degree, way too much responsibility and so much more that means that I am an adult.  I am lucky though because I married a younger woman, who is still in her twenties, and will be for a few more years.  I say that, because she keeps me young, and cool and hip.  Or something like that.  Ha.

I am not someone who is too big on birthdays, but my staff at work decorated (trashed) my office and they all got me cards, gift cards and an amazing chocolate cake that had this Oreo butter cream frosting, it was amazing!  After work, I headed home and the kiddos has decorations up everywhere.  We grilled steaks for dinner, opened presents and had funfetti cupcakes and topped off the night with toddler D having a fever, wahoo!  What a great day though!

Happy Birthday to me!  And don't you love how D puts her arm around me.

Care Plan for Life Updates

Geesh, I have been slacking with these goal updates, I am sorry.  Below are the updates from the past two months.  For August, I decided to tackle personal.  I tried to take more time for myself and figure out where I am exactly in my life and what path I am going on.  It has been great to get some extra thoughts together and see how I really am in a good spot in my life and am happy with the choices and decisions that have been made. 

For September, I got to teach Elders Quorum at the first of the month and since then I have tried to listen to more conference talks and stuff on the Mormon Channel app on my way to work in the morning.  I have about a 25 minute drive each morning and it's so easy to listen to them with my phone.  It puts a nice mood for the day too.  Hopefully I can keep it up. 

Physical/Fitness

Spiritual

Career/Work Related

Financial

Family

Self Development

Pleasure/Vacation Family Time

Personal

Educational

Friends

Social

Kids/Children  

Now onto the next month, which will be all about family. 
In fact, check out these fun pictures from last week:

 

Care Plan for Life, July Goal

I know I am way behind, but the summer has just been flying by, but let's scratch another one off the list and move on.  Things went ok for the month of June.  I worked on myself and trying to eat a little bit better and get more exercise, to help improve my overall self development.  I did ok, but there is always room for improvement. 

Physical/Fitness

Spiritual

Career/Work Related

Financial

Family

Self Development

Pleasure/Vacation Family Time

Personal

Educational

Friends

Social

Kids/Children  

For July, I have been working on Work Related Items.  I have been educating myself more about the type of people that I work with and looking for new and creative ideas to make me better at what I do.  There are so many resources and good people out there that have helped me.  There is so much to learn and take in. 

And here are some pictures, just because. This is my running view most evenings.  It's quite the workout running and pushing this kiddos. 

 

Work Outings

The last couple of weeks I have had some cool experiences with work. One day I got to spend the day at the State Capitol meeting with state representatives about health care spending/budgeting for our Seniors. It was a great experience.  The capitol has some amazing architecture and history. 

Then last week, we walked over to the Fire Station that is by my work and got an awesome of their building and their trucks, with some of the residents from work.  They loved it and it was cool to see what they do on a daily basis.