Love Our Girls!

We had our second team meeting for the GreenHouse Globetrotters Tuesday night. Once again, I was amazed by the incredible group of young women who make-up this team. Their resilience, their courage, their individual beauties, their compassion for others... Everything about them is truly remarkable! Here are a few highlights from the evening...

We wanted to give the girls a chance to get to know us better, so we decided to start spotlighting one leader at each meeting. Paula was the first leader to share something personal/unexpected... She is an incredible singer and musician.



Joan and I have done a lot of traveling together: Uganda, Mexico, Ecuador...
Every time I'm with her she starts and ends my day with a motivational saying. I simple treat that I absolutely cherish! Joan shared one of her special reflections with the 2009 team.



Ashley Hunt and Adrian Brown working on decorating their journals.



The focus of the meeting was on Image and Self-Reflection. Sheryl Bryan, one of our leaders, has spent almost her entire career in the field of Image/Style Consulting and Personal Shopping. She was the perfect person to lead a team exercise on non-verbal communication... Sheryl talked with the girls about how they want to be perceived by others and reminded them that we are all constantly being judged based on what we wear and how we carry ourselves.



The rest of the leaders acted as Sheryl's show-and-tell. We paired-up and modeled two contradictory styles that could fit one persona... Mallory and I were students. Sara and Joan were teachers. Paula and Vanessa were business owners. Vanessa took the cake in terms of costume. There was not a girl in the room that wanted to work for her or buy the product she sold... V, thanks for playing such a trashy CEO!

Legacy Update

We have crossed the $250,000 threshold in our Legacy Campaign! Considering the economic conditions in which we are asking for money, this feels like a tremendous accomplishment. It positions us to invest over $80K in community programs for the next three years!!!

The not-so-bright side is that we still have $750K to go before reaching our goal.

If you are in the Greensboro area during the months of April and May, make sure to check out all of the special events we have going on with our Designer Showhouse. Great opportunities for Mothers Day, Graduation and just plain-ole girlfriend fun.

- Empty House Party: Saturday, April 4
- Hats & Hooves: Saturday, May 2
- Container Gardening: Tuesday, May 5
- Meet the Designers Party: Friday, May 8
- Sustainable Style: Tuesday, May 12
- Entertaining on a Dime: Thursday, May 14
- Reach Out Run (5K & 10K): Saturday, May 16


P.S. If anyone happens to be up at 4:45 Monday morning, please call and make sure I am awake. I have a 7:15 flight out of Raleigh!

Perspective

CNN is headlining a story today, “Report: 1 in 50 American children homeless”

Not only is this scary, and seemingly impossible (especially as I sit here enjoying a good breakfast, a warm home and contemplating which outfit I should wear today); this story has a relevance to my life that I would have never expected.

As many of you know we are taking a team of 16 girls to Romania this summer as part of the GreenHouse Globetrotters program. One of the girls on this team (a beautiful 16 year old) shocked me when she arrived to her scholarship interview in a taxi. Since then she has slowly shared more and more about the experiences of her past... Talk about humbling; talk about scary!

Can you imagine spending two years in middle school searching for a place to sleep at night?

Can you imagine how lonely it would be to have a biological father with bipolar disorder, an incarcerated drug dealer for a stepfather and a mother who works the streets as a prostitute strung out on cocaine???

Can you imagine being dropped off at middle school with a teacher who works at your school because he secretly buys drugs from your stepfather and, in exchange for a deal, let’s your stepfather use his car during school hours?

Can you imagine how hard it would be to study in a dimly lit room of a motel (a motel that is so disgusting it should be condemned) while strangers smoke illegal substances out of used aluminum cans they’ve found in a garbage bin nearby?

Did I mention all of this took place only a couple miles from where I live??? A beautiful, intelligent and dream-filled high school girl... She is everything we were at that age, yet she has battled for existence in ways we never imagined possible.

Her story breaks my heart. At the same time, I am grateful to have such a resilient and determined new friend. There is so much she can teach us.

JLG Designer Showhouse...

www.juniorleagueofgreensboro.org

Romania, here we come!

We had our first DGH Globetrotter Team Meeting last night. Here are a few pics from the evening:

Life's Little Blessings

I stumbled upon a new job over the weekend, Poop-Sitting. Yes, I really did just use the phrase "poop-sitting" so, before going any further, let me back up a few days and explain how I was introduced to this new-found profession.

Mike and I came down to Houston late Thursday night for our 1-month old niece, Elizabeth's, baptism. Despite our late arrival, Alexandra, Duke and Courtney were awake and eager to entertain. The family excitement has not weaned since...

To give credit where credit is due, Alexandra, who turned two in September, has been Chairing the social committee. She has kept us entertained with non-stop conversation and endless amounts of energy. We have had golf lessons, gone grocery shopping, done hair and make-up, cooked, made Valentines, played cheerleader, danced, watched videos, read books and taken at least one ride on every item in her garage that has 3 wheels or more. It has been a blast. A true gift for uncle Mike and aunt Ashlie.

Unfortunately, late last night (during the cheese course of our Valentines dinner celebration) an unwanted visitor joined our group... The Big D!

My guess is that Alexandra had gone so hard that she worked her stomach into a tizzy. And, despite several "Trojan Horse" attempts at disguising crushed Imodium capsules, we were unsuccessful at sneaking anything medicated into her system.

Which brings me to today... We were all dressed and ready to head to the church. Courtney's parents had just arrived from Austin and I was downstairs emptying the memory card in my camera, making room for afternoon photographs. Un-welcomed and unannounced, the "Big D" came back. We knew in an instant that our hopes of having Big Sister at the front of the church was far-fetched; actually, it was going to be quite dangerous for anyone within a 30' radius.

This is the reason I am sitting in a quiet, almost empty house on poop-sitting duty. I hate that I am missing Elizabeth's special moment, but in an odd-kind-of way I am honored to have a niece who will let me stay by her side when life (momentarily) loses its magic.

A couple highlights from our weekend:

Boys will be boys

Mike played in an indoor soccer tournament this weekend with one of his Greensboro friends, Gary Everhart. It was a round-robin style of play, so the day began at 9:00am and lasted until after 5:00pm.

The good news was they won! They were the undefeated champions of the (smelly) Twin City indoor tournament. Their trophy, a large pepperoni and cheese pizza from Dominoes.

The bad news was a goalie from the team they played for the championship... He had a major temper problem, and when the score hit 5-0 he lost his cool and head-butted one of Mike's teammates! Who in the world thinks about head-butting another person??? (Besides Zinedine Zidane) I feel like I just read something about this on my dad's blog - only he was talking about hippopotamuses in the African wild.

Here are a couple pics to document the victory (and the battle wounds).

Things look "different" today. Thanks for the advice and the prayers.

Whiney

Had one of my quarterly "I'm frustrated and overwhelmed" cries tonight. Not looking for pity, just optimism and prayers. I need my dad to come back to America so he can give me a "Big, you can do anything" talk. Settling for a glass of wine and a new i-tunes playlist (cheers to Beyonce).

(Lack of) Progress Report

I am embarrassed to admit that it’s only January 28th and, already, I am floundering on some (OK, most) of my New Years Resolutions. Here’s the progress report thus far:

Get More Sleep = F
5 hours last night, 4 the night before... Think this one might be hopeless.

Start Taking Vitamins = D
Still choking down between one to four a day (out of the nine I am supposed to be taking).

Stick to a Workout Schedule = F
I did swim laps last Wednesday... Maybe I could constitute one athletic activity a month as routine.

Walk Addie Regularly = F
We've been playing lots of fetch. Does that count?

Get Rid of Clutter = C
Slowly but surely.

Spend More Time w/ Grandparents = C+
Have helped Grandma print her Dancing with the Stars tickets off the Internet, download and print the free Suzie Orman book Oprah was giving away on her website, and open a CD full of pictures that my cousin sent her from Costa Rica over two years ago.

Maybe I should start over with February Resolutions.

Hip, Hip, Hurray!

It has been a near torturous wait but we finally received Mike’s Level-1 CFA exam scores, and he passed!!! Celebrations are an order for this weekend. (Now, if the Steelers can just win the Super Bowl... Mike will be on cloud-9!)

DGH 2009... Almost!

Wow, what an incredible week... 52 applicants, 41 interviews and 11 stellar women helping me to lead the way.

We have finished the Globetrotter interviews and are only days away from announcing our 2009 team. Thanks to the many volunteers who have been a part of this selection process. I love you all dearly!



(P.S. No clue what is on my face in this pic. I'm reflective!)

Proud to be an American

Regardless of political affiliation, most would agree yesterday was a shining moment for our country. A day of camaraderie and patriotism, both here and abroad. I appreciated Obama's emphasis on taking personal responsibility for our government and I was inspired by his focus on traditional values. He said that our challenges may be new, along with the tools we use to meet those challenges. However, "honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism... These things are old; these things are true." I could not agree with you more Mr. President.

I have traveled to many places where people are far less fortunate than we. It is because we are Americans that "our capacity remains undiminished." I believe we are keepers of a legacy, that our ancestors do have something to tell us, and that leadership by example is the most powerful form of influence known to man.

Top five reasons why I've been a bad blogger lately:

5. Have been busy getting ready for the 2009 Dustin's GreenHouse Globetrotter Team. All of the applications are in, we have 47 students from 13 different schools, and interviews start Monday... We've also outlined (almost) a complete program which will begin in February and run through September. I'll wait to share those details in a separate entry.

4. The Legacy Campaign has crossed the half-way mark, which means our to-do list is getting longer and more urgent. We raised over $12,000 from our Active members alone on Monday night. This is more than any other group of Active members has ever given! We are still a long way from reaching our goal but we are definitely making headway.

3. Work has picked up again... The Consulting world always slow down in December and then kicks into overdrive by mid-January.

2. Mike goes back to school on Monday so I've been taking advantage of as much quality time as I can get.

1. My parents' journey through Africa makes my daily activities seem a little blah. If you're interested in reading about their experiences go to www.afathersplayground.blogspot.com. Even if you don't know them, I promise that it's worth the visit. They are truly doing some amazing things!

Insightful

"Experiences are worth ten times the money spent on things. Things go away, are used up, break or are consumed. Experiences stay with you forever."

~Martin Green (my Pops)
From his journals of Africa