Mary Poppins Wasn't Perfect

While working yesterday, the mailman came.  Yup. That's the sentence I decided to start this post off with. Exciting, right?   Well, what's even more exciting is that he had a package for me.  I opened the package and I immediately became choked up. In my little cubicle, while trying to get a press release out, I just sat at my desk and could barely move.  Inside was a custom made cookbook that contained recipes not only from one person, but many.  Recipes from my grandmothers, my aunts, my dear friends.... Recipes from people who have never met each other- but they all know me.  Recipes from my grandmothers that are family favorites. The ones we have when all our family is together. Seeing my grandmothers handwriting on those recipe cards.  Knowing how difficult it was for my grandma Scheatzle to write those out as she has MS. But seeing the handwriting I know and love.  Recipes from friends whose kitchens I've been...

I took this photo a year ago.  Even looking at it now, I still can't believe I was able to be in a room where taking such a picture would even be possible. And to think that life would even get more exciting from here. It's crazy. My first 6 months in Tallahassee at the new job- I wouldn't have called them boring- AT ALL- but it was definitely the learning phase. Learning the Foundation. Learning our mission. Learning how to be their voice on social media. Then June came along. And life became FUN. Lots of fun. Life picked up. I went from sitting in my little office communicating with people via Twitter to sitting in a room with a presidential candidate, to Disney World, to the RNC (OMG), to DC, back to DC again, apartments burning down, moving to DC, traveling to Arkansas, attending conferences.... I mean really. Life picked up. 20 months in to my job with the Foundation and I wouldn't trade it for anything. And I mean that. In other news, not much to update as...

We have a home video of my older sister and I modeling our new Christmas clothes. From 1987. I was three years old. Almost four. I was kinda cute, I must admit. We each had a handful of dresses and Dad had received a new video camera equaling the perfect combo for a modeling show. He put on some sweet tunes and was more than happy to narrate as though he were a beauty pageant host. We came out from our room, bashful at first, not sure what we were supposed to do. Dad had to do some encouraging along the way....asking us to twirl, curtsy or asking question like "who gave the dress to you?" Of course, as the modeling progressed, we became more and more comfortable in front of the camera. So much so, we'd hear in the background "Minda, put your dress down!" after I'd get so excited and my twirling would become a bit aggressive. Also, teaching a three year old to curtsy is quite comical. Each time the curtsy looked different, but most of the time it ju...