I dont know how to do nothing well?

NOTE: This post was written last Thursday. Enjoy my insanity!

So here  I am my first day out of old career and waiting on the new one to start. Ive committed to myself, my husband, and those close to me that I will give myself at least a week to not work on anything except myself and things I want to do. So today I woke up early, did some Facebooking and Today Show watching and had a couple of client appointments scheduled for the morning. I text my friend Alicia to see if she would join me for lunch and away I went. Having finished my appointment early I stopped by Goldfinch since they constantly bombard my email with fun things worth taking a closer look at. I made a purchase(Slap watch, so fun, and for only $20 i might go get another!) then off to Back 40 Urban Cafe.  Great tasty food, updated my new obsession with photographing my food and took Alicia back home. SOOOOO now what? I have a short to do list of clean up items for my transition. I have another somewhat longer list of things personally that havent been done due to my life schedule being so weighed down. So what do I do? I turned to Todd. His advice, do nothing for once. SO here I am, and I stink at doing nothing. All I can think is.......hmm I could sort my closet, or send out notes, or start building the basis of new development programs.....ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

So here is my list of have to's, want to's and must do's........

Have to:
Tie up loose ends at old position
Schedule tint for windows
Check out healthcare options
Extract personal items from laptop
Write resignation letter

Want to's:
Cook at least 2 meals each day
IKEA and H&M visit in Otown
Clean garden
Spring clean closets
Fishing trip with my dad

Must do's:
Exercise everyday
HI plane tickets
Wedding Thank yous finish
Get rid of everything with old company logo!!!!
Visit Granny

The Broken Vase Incident

About 3 months ago I was getting ready for work when a catastrophe showed its ugly head. The funny thing is had I taken a 30 seconds to make a simple adjustment then the issue would not have become a crisis. Early one morning, as I used to start a normal day at approximately 5:30am everything was going as planned. Keurig on, sleep out of the eyes and morning news on.  Then I checked my email at 5:45am only to find that I had 2 mega client issues(ok not really, im bad about putting other peoples problems in front of my own) and I had to be out of the house by 6:45 to be in Jax at 7:30. While getting the coffee etc prepped I noticed a vase on the top of the fridge had done a little dance closer to the edge but I had made a point in my head to move it before I made my eggs. In the haste of my new found issue I neglected to move it and the vase broke into a million tiny fragments on a Friday morning, this Friday morning, why this FRIDAY MORNING when I already had so many things to do, and its Friday night shuffle! AHHHHHH Hobbs, and Mabel, and Kai, and Lani and Mallory and any of the other children who come over and eat the cookies(when i get home in time to prepare them) and play on my floor!!!

So here we are at what I call the Broken Vase Incident. No im not into superstition, but I am a believer in reading the writing on the wall. The broken vase in a split second became everything in my life I wanted to change. I was the rigid vase, who had shuffled to close to the edge, and just needed a little distraction to open my eyes! I was wound so tight, but didnt have time to fill the vase with flowers, or take the time to save its life. And that was my AHA moment.

So I will leave this post with this for now, as Im so incredibly excited I can not possibly write more about the why, so here it is, I resigned from my corporate job today, my executive career path with all its presidents club glory to pursue my passion. Officially I have taken a position with the Chamber of St Johns County in Membership Development and I cant wait.

Below is part of a letter I wrote this morning to my first real mentor from when I was an intern in college. After re-reading it, it really spells everything out very simply, very direct, and from a very honest place;

"I decided to leave the corporate world(3 years, 3 promotions and a Presidents club does not equal happiness) and pursue the "save the world one starfish at a time" challenge. After "previous employer" I went to ADP starting in Jan of 08. Its quite possibly the best corporation I think anyone could work for. Best products, great support, and very very profitable. But after being in a steady relationship for 3 years and married for about 5 months now, my personal values have changed and made me realize I should take this sales talent of mine and use it for good outside my own wealth creation; doesnt hurt that I married a very stable business man who supports me and gives me freedom to do such things."

So thats it! Now off to make cookies, do the Friday night Shuffle, then First Friday Artwalk and Celebrate with Friends, and see my family this weekend!

Im getting fat........

Ok so not really but this is how a major discussion began. I cant get in my desired workouts because of the grueling ironman schedule.

Lets face it, if I want to see my husband something has to give. Between selling season, tax season, Ironman training, there just isn't a whole lot of time left unless we just don't see each other. Typical day goes like this, and this is 7 days a week, not M-F

430am wake up
5am Dunkin Donuts for pre swim Coffee or Working to accommodate later workout
545 am at pool or run
7am home for shower or in office if no training
7am until 2pm or 5pm when more training starts
7pm home
830pm sleep

This is just Todd's schedule. Mine parallels except my training activities must either happen at 530 am or 5pm in order to do my job effectively so I was starting to get fat since I began skipping my workouts so as to be home. Without skipping mine, the cumulative time I would be spending with my husband on a weekly basis would be around 5 hours, NOT ACCEPTABLE.

The great thing about issue is we found out we can really work together through issues, calmly, effectively, and fix them. Some many say just don't skip, be your own woman, others "Why cant Todd just skip his?" The reality is Todd is very very good at this Ironman thing, so if we are going to do it, lets go big! At this point in time it does take some higher ranking on the priority list. The compromise? We revisited the training program for starters. Second Todd will be accompanying me on the beach cruiser when I run as to not create more stress on his body and so I'm not running alone at night. Lastly with the days becoming longer, I can start riding again with groups in town of retirees as they try to flee the heat.

All in all, it was a great insight into how well we work together. I only hope others can have these crucial conversations. I know the week or so leading up to this it was awful to keep it inside. I don't know how some couples let it stew for years and years. No wonder many fail.

Age has Father Time as Tax has Uncle Sam,

. As we Americans love to give colorful and creative descriptions to the things we generally dislike, dont understand, and have little knowledge to critically think about thus pigeon holing concepts, I will follow suit in the spirit of tax season and itemize our list of activities and call it The Cow. I will explain why The Cow later.

 Enjoy

Todd                                                  Heather
Business owner                                   Corporate sales
CPA                                                   Mentor
IM training                                          Asst to the IM
Rotary                                                ACRR member
RRCA State Rep                                YPO Board
ACRR Member                                  Cutter housemom
YPO Member                                     Daughter
SJC Chamber Board                           Granddaughter
First Atlantic Bank Board                    Sister
Flagler Hospital Board                         Niece
Cutter Coach                                       Wife
IU Alumn                                             Hospice
BKCC Alumnae                                  13.1
JTC team member                                Blogger
SAC member                                       the cook
PS3 creator/admin                               friend
Hospice
Son
Brother
Nephew
Uncle
Husband
In law
Crossword Maniac
Sudoku champ
M&M Connoisseur
friend

I thought it was of extreme detriment you should all understand how many opportunities you can fit into your life. I will also make a typical schedule since so many inquire how we fit it in ;) You will notice there is no "follower of CSI" or Sunday football.

So why........

So why did I start this blog, what spurred the inspiration?

I was finishing up my 10 mile run yesterday, a little weathered from my first long run back in over a month, and a dear friend of ours pulled me aside and asked in a very concerning tone, "are you and Todd ok?" Much to my surprise since Todd and I are doing quite well actually. We have decided to start(and by start I mean very preliminary review so if you sell real estate please do not call us, we aren't doing anything for a while) looking for a home, and Todd is well into his Ironman training which we are settling into that schedule as best as can be expected. So I asked what he was referencing. "With all the time you two are apart that has to be hard?"

So this was the spark, the epiphany, in the words of Schmeee(Hook) "I felt like a lighting bolt just hit my brain." I have to admit, versus my expose, this will not be a daily devotional to the happiness of my life, rather it will be the sometimes hard to read or even understand explanations of why we do the things we do that bring us to ultimate fulfillment.

Get ready for the marathon.............

Welcome to Nevland

I feel like I, or should I say "we", owe it to the universe to open our world. Not because I think anyone cares but because I know we have the most fulfilling, diverse, enriched lives and I want to share that with everyone in hopes to affect even just one other person; to inspire them to make the most of an extremely long life and enjoy with every fleeting moment that seems to go by too quickly the wonders of the bodies capabilites and the minds limits. I know my concept of time may seem conflicted.   I hope to enlighten some of how my husband Todd and I really do fill every minute of everyday and not waste a single second .

Last year was the wedding, this year is the marriage, the ironman, the big moves and the small ones.

I hope this finds its way into some of your lives, some of your blogs you follow, and brings comfort, happiness, sadness, and every other emotion we should all experience to have a full life. Everyday can not be cake, but everyday can be filling.

So here we are, Welcome to Nevland