Meet...Endorsement

Bright and early Sunshine!

Morning came VERY early when all I could do was toss and turn last night. However, I had to refrain from hitting the very tempting "snooze" button and get ready for a long day. After scarfing down what little breakfast I could manage to eat at 6o'clock IN THE MORNING, I hurried around to finish getting ready.

Just a side note, I REALLY miss my puppies when I leave the house. Honestly, it makes the pit of my stomach ache to know that I cannot take them everywhere I go. I know that they really wouldn't be a bother. Laila LOVES to cuddle with me and she wouldn't dare leave my sight. And Bailey? Bailey is such a people-dog that she would make everyone instantly fall in love with her when they saw her bouncy self. But, the reality of this life is...I HAVE to leave them. With that being said, I typically stall as much as I can by rubbing their sweet little bellies and loving them before being the meanest person on the face of the planet and making them stay ALL BY THEMSELVES for the day.

Okay, back to my day. Today was a BEAUTIFUL, rainy day. I say "beautiful" not because I think that car wrecks on the highway, or not being able to see the person ahead of me through the blinding raindrops is beautiful, BUT because we NEEDED the rain. So, I didn't complain one bit when it took me over an hour and a half to drive 45miles to meet my supervisor. The great news is, I left early enough to allow plenty of driving time and managed to get there more than 15minutes before I was scheduled to arrive.

Once at her house, I helped load all of the meeting supplies into the car before driving for another hour to our final destination...Stroud.

For those of you that have not had the pleasure of driving through this lovely little town, you should. Please make sure that you do not blink while on the turnpike though. Otherwise, you'll miss it (and the true gem of this town...The Rock Cafe').

Unfortunately, we had a meeting to run before getting to take part in an amazing lunch at this little-known hole-in-the-wall. BUT the meeting went GREAT. The day before, I had the privelege of spending approximately 2hours using my creativity to make a "map" of the meeting. Literally, I created a HUGE room-sized map of roadblocks and villages that could be used to describe exactly where the membership has been and where we need to go. This map included things like school zones, storms, construction zones (with the well-known cop car placed behind a nearby tree), forks in the road, and speed bumps. All-in-all, this mapped out the entire day's topics on the agenda and turned into a wonderful visual for introducing the newest member of the Facilitation family...Endorsement.

You see, my supervisor had this BRILLIANT idea to turn our branch of work into something that everyone at the meeting could relate to. So, she put on her straw hat and broom skirt as she showed off our brand new baby girl, Endorsement. Thankfully, we work for a state agency that provides simulator babies to teenagers to teach the responsibilities of being a new parent. This means, we had a "real" baby to nurture throughout our meeting as we explained the role everyone shared of helping to "raise Endorsement". She was complete with a diaper, real cry, and emotions that could flip like a switch (just like the course our agency travels within this field).

Using "Endorsement" to gain a vision for the program, everyone was open to a fresh view on what it takes to make this as successful as possible.

After wrapping up the first half of our day, we called it a morning and headed over to enjoy our anticipated lunch at The Rock. Although this greasy cafe' is completely against the nutritionally balanced meals I have been trying to consume to be healthy...it was SO worth it. This once-in-a-long-while meal consisted of anything but the usual menu selections. I COULD have had anything from alligator to buffalo or german food...but I was good. I only ate small portions of a burger and okra and SHARED my fried apple slices cased in breaded pockets with gooey filling and sprinkled powder sugar with a delicious scoop of vanilla ice cream. Oh man, it was SO GOOD.

Lunch may or may not have been a good idea. By this point, I was so full that I could have immediately fallen asleep if it weren't for the laughing that was going on in the meeting. I love my group. Honestly, we have such a diverse group of professionals that are passionate about people and families...it just works.

Oddly enough, we finished strong (and early). Note to my (small) audience, "finished", "early" and "meeting" NEVER are in the same sentence. However, it happened. We wrapped up the meeting and loaded into our cars with minutes to spare.

Driving back to town, I had the opportunity to reflect on the meeting and discuss concerns that I had. I felt so great about how things were ran that there really weren't any negative points of discussion. This made for a quick trip back. I picked up my car and headed back to meet the person that I am really beginning to miss in the midst of this new schedule.

We immediately hopped into the pickup and headed over to the future in-laws' house. My future hubby is such a handy man. He rented an aerator and ran it over his lawn, the neighbor's lawn, and his parents' lawn. His sweetness paid off and we were able to enjoy dinner with his dad at somewhere I have been craving for days and days, Cracker Barrell.

Wholesome breakfast
A cup of yogurt
Fresh strawberries and blueberries
Granola with almonds and dried cherries
Blueberry muffin
2 scrambled eggs
3 slices of bacon

Honestly, it is divine. I only ate the parfait and eggs really. It is so much food! I enjoyed ONE slice of bacon (which is hard for me considering it is one of my FAVORITE foods), and I took my muffin and extra bacon to have a hearty breakfast in the morning.

As soon as I got home, I hopped in the shower and was in bed before I could think about doing anything else.

Tomorrow? Schoolday.