December 2013

December. This will be my first December in 14 years away from Montana. Montana spoiled me. A white Christmas almost every year. That beautiful winter glow that most people only read about in books. This year will be Little E's second Christmas but technically the first one that she might count because she's able to get real big girl toys.

It's interesting to see how a child can really change everything. Portland, you're not too bad. However, nothing can ever replace home (Montana).

Sick

Recently Evalyn and I came down with the flu. Which really made me wonder how any parent ever survives it. How does anyone still want to have children after having to deal with a sick child, it truly is heartbreaking. There is nothing more frustrating than having a sick child while you're also sick. How do you manage? Any tips for handling sick toddlers?

Portland, OR

Hi friends! I've fallen behind on my posts. On a good note, we're finally fully relocated to Portland, OR. 

I must admit that I was a bit worried about getting lost. My worries were not unwarranted since Siri is constantly getting me lost. The good thing about getting lost is that you get acquainted with the city much faster than if Siri gave me the right directions.

For some odd reason the worst traffic day is Wednesday. Isn't that weird? not Monday but Wednesday. Portlanders are an interesting breed.

New Adventures

"The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams."   - Oprah Winfrey

Today I start a new adventure, a new chapter in my life. I moved to Missoula, MT - 14 years ago with my family. This time I'm moving to Portland, OR with a family of my own. It's such an exciting time in our lives! 

Let's face it though, it was time to move on and I couldn't imagine a more perfect time than now. I've met some wonderful people and made some long lasting friendships.  I won't lie and tell you that I'm not sad to leave. I just never thought I would become so attached to Missoula, it must be the fact that this is where Little E. was born. I'll take all of wonderful memories and keep them close to my heart as we embark on our new journey. 

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful moms! Being a Mom is a 24/7/365 type of job that never ends.  Today, I am thankful that I got to spend the day with my mom and my daughter. 

Stuff

How much is too much? Let's analyze this in terms of "stuff" and I say stuff because it can be related to almost everything.

We go to the store and buy things, we shop online and we acquire things through our friends and family. What a lot of us don't realize is that we really don't need everything we think we do. I've talked about Spring Cleaning and de-cluttering your electronic equipment and files. But today, I want to talk about the material things.

There's nothing like cleaning or even better yet moving to realize how much stuff you don't use. Yet, these possessions take up a lot of room. There's a rule about getting rid of anything you haven't used in a year. That's when the emotions start setting in. We become attached to things we no longer use because it was either worn or received for a special occasion.

That's when we need to gather the courage to separate our needs from wants and give these items a new life. Instead of accumulating dust, said items will receive the love and appreciation they deserve. So take sometime and clear out the stuff that you've been meaning to get rid of for years but haven't been able to. Think of it this way. Get rid of it in your own terms, otherwise you'll have great items tucked away in a box.

Government Alerts

May 1st, 2013

I woke up to my phone beeping at me, and for the second time in a week it wasn't my alarm, or my child (which should technically count as an alarm!). Nope, it was a Weather channel Freeze warning. Having lived in Montana for a longtime I'm used to such warnings. Except that instead of having to get up and watch he morning news, these alerts are conveniently delivered to my phone. I did mention that this was not the first alert of the week.

The first alert was an Amber Alert on Monday morning. A little boy had been kidnapped by his parents in Kalispell. The fact that the Amber Alert when out to everyone with a smart phone at 7:00 am as soon as it was reported by the police department. I was surprised that it took the media 30 min's to report the Amber Alert, by then all of my friends on Twitter and Fb had posted and "re-tweeded" or "shared" the car and suspects information. When the suspects changed cars once again Twitter and Facebook were the first to report it. Thankfully it only took a couple of hours to track down the suspects and quickly get the little boy to safety.

Thanks to technology the Amber Alert received enough attention to make a difference in a little boy's life. Shortly after, everyone wanted to know how they had received such information since they had not signed up for any alerts. Turns out that most people are not aware of this feature in your phone. They're under Government Alerts and you should have two options Amber and Emergency. These are set to on by default and can be manually turned off at anytime.

Personally, I wouldn't turn these settings off for many reasons.
1. I am a mom, and I just couldn't imagine not being able to help bring a child back to safety.
2. It's simple. Can you imagine how much faster it would've probably been to issue an Emergency alert for the Boston bombing suspects in Watertown when the mad search started?

I am glad that these safety features are incorporated into our phones. I know that in the future they'll probably be more useful than they currently are. It's good to see first hand the difference that these alerts can make in someone's life. I just hope that everyone checks their phone and doesn't turn these alerts off.

What do you think about these alerts? Would you change anything about them?

Coworkers

When we go to college we dream about having that perfect job. For some people the perfect job for some means that everyone gets along and is also treated fairly, you move ahead ad you never worry about anything else. Then there are the nightmare jobs. Those are the ones where very unprofessional, backstabbing, people work and you have to deal with them or do you?

The following article provides tips on how to deal with these situations. I found it quite interesting because it's a topic that a lot of people are not willing to talk about but it impacts the entire company.

http://www.divinecaroline.com/life-etc/career-money/ten-tips-dealing-backstabbing-coworkers

Not all jobs make you miserable, because if they do, you should reconsider your employer. At the end of the day you'll always find nice people and mean people. Just follow the guidelines in the article and you're bound to find success!

Information

How much reading material is considered normal? I recently (2 months ago) discovered an app called Pocket. Pocket is so wonderful, that I wonder why I had not discovered it earlier. Pocket allows you to safely send an article to the Application, and read it later. What? Are you so lazy that you can't just look it up later?

This is not about laziness, it's the fact that there are only so many articles that a person can read in one day. I bet that if I stop Facebooking so much I could get more accomplished. But, let's be honest if I don't read something the minute that it comes out, I will probably forget about it. Unfortunately That leaves me with two options. Option 1: Save the article as a tab in my browser. Option 2: Email myself with the article url to read later.

Here's why both options failed:

Option 1: Failed when I realized that Safari on my iPhone will only allow me to keep 8 tabs open. Who on earth made that decision? Why 8? Ten would have been nice if you ask me. So what do you do when you run out of browser tabs? If you're me you install a second browser! Ah ha! I was so proud of myself for solving my dilemma. I'm sure that this is something that most people will never encounter. This was all fine until one day Peter asked me to look something up while we were driving and I couldn't. What? That's right. I had maxed out Safari and Chrome doesn't work without Wifi. Ugh! Back to square one.

Option 2: The old, I will e-mail myself so that I don't forget. Except this doesn't really work when I have to dig through my 5 email accounts to find out where it went. See how inefficient that is? I'm sure that most people don't need FIVE e-mail accounts, but that'll have to be another post.

In comes Pocket to save the day. If I'm on Twitter I can save it as Read Later and the article will be safely stored. it's way that Pocket displays the articles I send is by showing them like Google Reader would. A nice organized manner, I can read offline without any hassles.

There is so much information that comes out on a daily basis that this is the only way that I have found to stay afloat. This is the risk of being connected and staying up-to-date.

How much reading do you do online? What do you like to read?

Crochet

Yarn is such an interesting item if you ask me. You can knit it, or crochet it, amongst many other things to turn it into beautiful mostly wearable crafts. I think that I was 13 the first time that I tried crocheting. My mom tried teaching me how to crochet a hat, unfortunately, I ended up with a really ugly looking pencil holder.

How I went from a hat to a pencil holder, I will never know. I also didn't know that crocheting is a skill that can really come in handy. There are so many wonderful patterns, and yarns and crafty people with crafty ideas. It's amazing at the stuff that I find on Google and Pinterest.

Today, I am much better at making hats and learning about yarn. Who knew there was so much to learn? The moral of the story here is that just because you see a piece of string or in this case yarn don't dismiss it as worthless. You might not have fully discovered all of its possibilities.

Outer beauty

Dove is my favorite soap brand. Why? Simply because it actually works. Yes, I've been a Dove fan since I can remember even when all of my friends loved Bath and Body Works products, because they smell so good. Frankly, it's hard to make such decisions when there's hundreds if not thousands of different beauty products to chose from. Since I'm a creature of habit I stick to what I like. Lately, I've been liking Dove a lot more. Not because they have changed, but because of their clever marketing campaigns. The ones that empower men and women to love themselves for who they are.

When I started seeing this article http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/dove-hires-criminal-sketch-artist-draw-women-they-see-themselves-and-others-see-them-148613
circulating on the Internet, the only thing that came to mind was "Well that's obvious".

Call me vain, but if I had someone ask me to describe myself, I would certainly embellish on the details. Isn't that why women color their hair, buy makeup and spend ridiculous amounts of money on clothes? We really don't need everything that we think we do. For such a positive campaign there were a lot of people whining on Facebook about how old they were and wrinkles and such. There goes the morale. Well, if you're concerned about wrinkles then do something about it! Right?

The aging process is one that science has not mastered. What are we to do? Well, we must age gracefully and accept the life that we have lived by being happy with growing old. We're going to grow old anyways. The way you feel about yourself is the way others see you. Some of us just need a little extra boost in self-confidence.

Now, lets talk about this self-confidence. When I said age gracefully, I meant it! I had a French teacher in High School that even though she was probably 50 something she dressed like the students. She also tanned a lot which didn't help her case either since it just made her look like a tanned old lady. Plus, tanning causes more wrinkles. Let's not take it that far either.

I just want everyone to do something for themselves that makes them happy. Positive visualization of yourself does wonders for the self-esteem. It all starts by loving yourself. Smiling, laughing and exercising are all simple things that release those "happy" chemicals in the brain. Leaving you, not only happy but with a positive self-image. So, next time that a loved one (or a stranger) says you're beautiful thank them and actually mean it.

Spring cleaning

When we think of Spring cleaning, we really don't think about cleaning out our electronic equipment. Today, I decided to clean out my phone contacts. In the process, I deleted 156 contacts! 156 people and businesses phone numbers that are no longer relevant to my life. I am proud to say that while 336 contacts might still be a bit much, I have trimmed as far as I could. Can you imagine having to remember that many numbers? Last time my phone got "cleaned out" it wasn't by choice, the phone died and I lost all I my contacts.

It's interesting that the more storage access we have, the more we seem to want to cling to unnecessary stuff. When was the las time you went through your email, your bookmarks or your external harddrive and cleaned out the clutter? I think that a simple life is conducive to a happier person. That said keep in mind your electronic stuff when spring cleaning.
If you have too much paper stuff that you must save, try scanning it and recycling the paper. We should all try to do our part to declutter and recycle as much as we can.

Good luck and happy spring cleaning!!

Violinists' playing a Taylor Swift Song

Country music gone classical. Certainly an interesting, yet innovative approach to music. Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/224E-VtB4k4

Customer Service

Most of us, will have worked customer service at some point in our life. Whether you worked retail, restaurants, or call centers you've been explained how to treat the customers.

Many walk out of said customer service jobs with the mentality that they, a) never want to work with customers ever again and b) they'll never use what they learned anyways.

You might not be willing to accept it, but every job you ever have deals with customers. Therefore, having good customer service skills will really help you out through out your life.

Think about it. As long as you have something to provide to someone, or your getting something from someone you're dealing with customer service.

So be nice and remember that hat comes around goes around.

Here's an article that provides some very insightful tips on how to treat others.

https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130411211410-33236097-use-their-name-it-s-important?_mSplash=1

The Enneagram

Personality testing is something that we have all heard and talked about at some point. Most of the time when we deal with personality testing it's either brought up at work, school or while reading a magazine. Some employers will have a prospective party take a test and submit it with their application. Why? Some companies like to create a culture. Unfortunately, if you're a terrible test taker it doesn't really say much about you, other than you're not getting the job. That's right. Your chances of landing a job are no longer about what you know, it's about your personality and how you deal with others. As well as well as whether or not others like you. Suddenly, employers care about who you are first and then worry about what you know. After all, a happy employee makes for a very productive employee.

Last week, I attended a social event in Portland, Oregon where I met Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Ph.D. It never crossed my mind that I would be actually learning about myself in a social event.

Ginger started to explain The Enneagram system and it's roots. She explained the different personality types and how to better understand them. This is not something that you'll read and fully understand the first time around. It takes time, not only that but it doesn't just classify you in to a category. This system is set up to improve yourself. That's right. It takes your weaknesses and strengths and it helps you visualize why you do the things you do.

I know that not everyone likes to believe or even like personality testing. Frankly, you might not even like anyone telling you about yourself, because you know yourself. Trust me in this one, just check it out and see what you think. I have found it to be very interesting and helpful.

Check it out and tell me what you think!

http://www.theenneagraminbusiness.com/index.html

IT skills translate to Parenting

Here's a picture my husband sent me. Enjoy! :)

Decisions

Today, I read an article about making decisions. We make decisions every single day that whether we like it or not will forever change our lives. Some decisions are small and some are big. Regardless of how we see them, we must not treat them lightly for that could be the game changer.

I've met a lot of people from different places in different places. And the one thing that I admire the most in someone is having the courage to make a decision under pressure. Why? Because at the end of the day someone has to make those tough choices that no one wants to make. Not only that but they're most likely to either hate you or praise you for it.

Some choices are as easy as dating someone until the hard question of sticking around comes up. Sometimes we make decisions based on what we're comfortable. Which can be bad. Just because you're comfortable where you are doesn't mean that it's where you should be. There's also those decisions based on where you want to be. Do you want to be married? Have kids? Go to grad school? Move to a different state?

Now, everything is easier when you're a single person. When you're married or married with kids things start getting more complicated and compromises must be made. At the end of the day you must stand by your decision and take responsibility. So, I advise you to read this article. This article gave me hope. It inspired me to believe that I can make the right decisions because my decision is no one else's. And remember, to take charge otherwise, you risk being a backseat driver in your own life.


http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130410071034-11846967-decide-or-else-making-tough-calls-under-pressure?_mSplash=1

Attitude

Today I read an article about attitude. Not the don't give me an attitude or I will fire you type of article. Instead, this was more eye opening to say the least. Not because I learned something that I didn't already know, but because sometimes we forget a out the little things and must be reminded of what makes you or breaks you.

Here's the link for the article: https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130304154223-15077789-how-to-give-yourself-a-promotion-at-work?trk=mp-author-card&_mSplash=1&rs=false

I do believe that there's nothing more important than having a good attitude. Unfortunately, sometimes regardless of what a great attitude you might have others will try to bring you down. That's when it's important to make those decisions necessary to keep you happy. Is it the friendship? The job? Whatever that negative thing is we must get rid of it!

More motivational books?

Ok, ok. I know, you're probably sitting there thinking what the heck? Another motivational post? Honestly, if it wast for LinkedIn, I probably wouldn't find so many motivational articles out there. Here's the problem though, every time I read these articles I see at least one or two books that I personally own. Which might say that I just have a large library. So just to set things straight I do not have a large collection of books. I think that if anything it says that I should perhaps start reading more of my personal books before reaching out to the Internet in search of 'literature'. With that in mind, here's the link that will take you to my newest find! I hope you like it!

http://m.inc.com/?incid=47378

Cha Ye Dan / Chinese Tea Leaf Eggs

Lately I've been craving Chinese food. Unfortunately, living in Missoula, MT doesn't provide a lot of opportunity to have some authentic Chinese food. Since my grandpa on my dad's side was Chinese, I grew up in a household where white rice is a staple. The smell of plain white rice is amazing!

To make the perfect balance in the water to rice ratio. Years ago my now husband bought a Cusinart rice cooker/ steamer all in one. However, the rice always seemed too wet. There's seriously nothing more annoying to an Asian person than poorly cooked rice. It wasn't until recently that I bought a small rice cooker. It wasn't that expensive but it was a dedicated rice cooker. Now , I have perfect rice and then I thought what better way to celebrate my new rice cooker than with some Chinese tea leaf eggs?

Note: Do not make he eggs while hungry since they take a while to cook.

I acquired this recipe from http://nookandpantry.blogspot.com/?m=1

I hope your enjoy it as much as I did :)

MITx: 7.00x Introduction to Biology - The Secret of Life

Today's post is about The Secret of Life. That's the name of the class (MITx: 7.00x Introduction to Biology - The Secret of Life)  that I started taking yesterday from MIT through the EDx program. These classes are called MOOC or Massive Open Online Classes, because technically anyone that has access to the internet and a desire to learn can take these free classes to expand their knowledge. EDx is currently expanding their partnerships with Universities through out the world. It's interesting to see how many people are willing to put in the time, to get a free education. Feel free to check out the website at https://www.edx.org/ and join the thousands of people around the world that are taking this wonderful class.

Duck eggs

A week ago I decided to check out the Farm Animals section in Craigslist's. This would seem like a waste of time to most people because I don't have a farm nor the room for a farm animal. At the time it seemed like a good way to pass the time. Although now that I look back I have plenty of stuff that still needs to get done.

Back to my story. There I was minding my own business when I ran across a post that said, "Fresh Duck Eggs for sale". What?! People in MT are willing to sell me their Duck Eggs? Since Peter wouldn't let's buy a pig or a cow, these duck eggs seemed pretty harmless.

I immediately emailed the post owner since I wasn't sure hat he availability of these duck eggs was, I was expecting for the seller to say that they were all gone. Instead I got an awesome, "How many would you like?". How many? I've never bought farm fresh duck eggs, frankly I've never seen duck eggs at the store. Uhhh...1? No, I can't just buy 1. How about a dozen? The seller agreed to bring them into town since he was going to be in town anyways and we would meet at a local grocery store.

So there I was driving at 8:00pm to buy duck eggs from some guy I've never met off of Craigslist. Sounds like a horror story doesn't it? The seller was really nice, and I even ended up 2 dozen duck eggs since he said his ducks laid 20 eggs a day. I was all happy and excited until I was driving home and realized I originally only wanted one duck egg, then a dozen because I couldn't just buy one and now I was going home with two dozen duck eggs!!! What on earth was I going to do with 24 duck eggs? Then Chinese duck eggs or (pickled duck eggs and tea leaf eggs) came to mind. In the meantime I was a happy to have my duck eggs. I was very excited to see what these duck eggs could do. I'll prepare a post about my pickling experience for next time.

9 Business Books that will change your life.

            Today I ran into Dave Kerpen's article on LinkedIn. I found it interesting because depending on who you talk to, they will give you a different list of books that they think will change your life. Now, I'm not saying that they're not good books. I'm just saying that just because it worked for someone it might not do motivational wonders for others because everyone is different. I've decided to copy and paste the original article below as well as the original link because I'm not sure if people that don't have LinkedIn accounts would be able to access the information.

            Out of these nine books, I've actually only read one # 3 The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell. This was book was required for my management class in college. I  I am definitely in getting through this reading list and being able to give a first hand review. Until then, please feel free to read them and give me your feedback on how how life changing these books are. 

Great leaders learn every day, and reading great books is the one of the best ways to learn. I've been fortunate enough to read some excellent books over the last fifteen years - books that have inspired me to change the way I see the world, my business, and the opportunities in front of me. In the order in which I've read them, here is a list of nine books which have changed my life. May they change yours as well:

1) What Color is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career Seekers by Richard Bolles

I read this book when I was 21 years old and didn't know what to do with the rest of my life. It helped me go from a Crunch n Munch vendor at the ballpark to a top salesperson at Radio Disney. Ffifteen years later, I have given at least 40 copies away to interns, staff and friends who are searching for their career purpose. It's difficult work - because not only will you read the book, but you'll have to do a lot of exercises and soul searching throughout - but whether you're 21 or 61, you'll emerge with a clearer vision of what you want to do next and where you'll want to work.

2) Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends & Friends Into Customers by Seth Godin

No author has influenced me more as a marketer, business person and writer than Seth Godin. I could have easily included 9 books just by Godin - Purple Cow, Tribes, Linchpin, Poke the Box & his latest, Icarus Deception are all amongst my favorites. But Permission Marketing described social media marketing before it existed. Seth understood push-vs-pull marketing long before others, and this book, published in 1999, is still a must read for anyone in marketing today.

3) The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

This classic, one of three by Gladwell (Blink & Outliers are the others), demonstrates how successful products are launched, how ideas spread and how a trend can take off. It's influenced me a great deal, as a word of mouth and social media marketer. And it's an essential read, whether you're in marketing or sales, or just want to become better at getting your ideas to spread.

4) Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap - and Others Don't by Jim Collins

Collins is scientist of great companies - and this is his best work - chock full of case studies and simple yet profound principles like Level 5 Leadership. Even though I read this book when my company was only a handful of employees, it inspired me to want to build something great, and enduring. Whether you work at a large company that has the potential itself to become great and enduring, or you have a vision of a company you'd like to one day build, this is a must-read.

5) Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase The Value of Your Growing Firm by Verne Harnish

It's hard to believe I even had a business before I read this book by the founder of my favorite business group, Entrepreneurs Organization. Verne's 1-page strategic plan is now used by both companies I've founded, and thousands of other companies. And our management teams use much of the methodology from this book. What's great is that it's both inspirational and quite practical - an excellent read for any entrepreneur or manager at a small business.

6) The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work, and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber

This is a must read for any small business owner - especially "technical" owners such as lawyers, accountants, florists, restaurateurs, consultants and dentists. Gerber inspires the small business owner to get out of his/her own way, and to build systems and processes that scale and allow the business owner to work "on" the business and not "in" the business.

7) Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You by John Warrilow

Make no mistake - if you are an owner or leader at a business - this is a great, super valuable read, even if you or your owners have no intention or ever selling the business. The idea isn't to create a business in order to sell it - it's to create a business that has sustaining value beyond you and without you. Warrilow's book is a short, easy story - with powerful, unforgettable lessons - so much so, that after my business partner and I read it, we gave copies to the entire Likeable team to read.

8) Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

No matter what you do, this easy read will change the way you think about your work. It is so simply written, with small words and big pictures - and yet contains profound wisdom about how to be more productive and successful without being a workaholic or sacrificing anything. I read it in an hour on a plane, and have since shared it with two dozen colleagues, and referred back to it myself at least a dozen times.

9) The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family: A Leadership Fable About Restoring Sanity to The Most Important Organization in Your Life by Patrick Lencioni

Along with Seth Godin, Patrick Lencioni is my favorite business author. I've read and love The Advantage, Getting Naked, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and The Five Tempations of a CEO. But the reason I've selected this one as my favorite, is that, as I've written before here, our ultimate legacy isn't our career, but our family. In this book, Lencioni applies his management consulting methodology and brilliant storytelling ability to the running of a family. It's amazing how little strategy most of us parents apply to the most important organization we've got, our families, and this book helps change all that. Six months after my wife and I read this book, I'm proud to report that our family now has a strategic plan, complete with a mission statement, quarterly objectives, and weekly 10-minute meetings. And it's going GREAT.

Those are my nine favorites- though I've read dozens more I've loved. I've also written a couple of books that I hope have changed a few lives - Likeable Social Media, about the role of social media in today's society and how organizations can best leverage it, and, recently, Likeable Business, about how to leverage 11 simple principles of customer-centric, staff-centric leadership to succeed in today's social-business world.

Now, I'd love to know YOUR favorites. Which of these books have you read? What other business books have changed YOUR lives? What books have inspired YOU to become a better business person, leader and human being? Let me know in the comments here - and happy reading!

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130211165231-15077789-9-business-books-that-will-change-your-life?trk=mp-details-rc

Time

Lately, it seems like the thing that I lack the most is time. Yet, I seem to be very active in a lot of the major social networks i.e. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram, on top of dealing with a very active one year-old. For the most part I like to use my social networks to stay "updated" and I say updated in quotation marks because there's only so much information that one can absorb in a day without getting lost in it, and babies have a tendency to not like that.

So here's the thing, how do working parent's stay well connected? I have seen far too many people have children and suddenly fall behind on current events or the latest technology. Therefore, I have decided to start posting here links to some of the articles that grab my attention. Not only will this force me to downsize the number of articles that I just collect in my Pocket app. but it will give me sometime to digest said information. I will try my best not to stray away from this blog and will now and then post new information about the local tech scene here in Missoula, MT.

2013

The last time I blogged was in 2011! I must say 2013 snuck up on me. I am definitely getting old. A sign that one is aging is when we become so busy that a whole year and half has gone by and we don't even realize it.

This year I promise to keep my blog up-to-date with my latest findings. :)