June Family Photo Shoot - Thanks to Grandma Ross

Here are some of my favorite photos from our June photoshoot with my friend Shannon...thank you Grandma Ross for the AMAZING photos!!! I'm sending the discs north and I'm sure Melinda will pick some of her favorites of her family to share - right???? hahahaha...

BUSY 4th of July Weekend Update

Friday (7/3): Edwin spends the night with Grandma Nikki so we can go to dinner and attend the Huey Lewis concert in Mason with friends.

Saturday (7/4): My cousin Jennifer got married! I did a lot of dancing and everyone LOVED seeing Edwin, of course!



Sunday (7/5): We traveled to Indianapolis for Ava Mueller's (Edwin's 2nd cousin) 1st birthdy party. Edwin had a blast playing with all of the kids. He is so close to walking...won't be too much longer, I'm sure!




Edwin w. Braelyn


Edwin w. Ava, Kailey, & Braelyn


Ava - The Birthday Girl!!!


Solomon


Edwin - exhausted after the party...

Huey Lewis - Happy 4th of July!

Tonight I thought I was going to my 2nd Huey Lewis concert - both with Dave. I thought my first was in the summer of 2004...but I was wrong. Apparently, my first concert was in 1984 with my parents and Uncle Rick...

My dad and Uncle told me about that at tonight's show...crazy!!!

Pillow Game

This is one our favorite games to play...

Meeting Tip

This post may be a little narrowly-focused, thus not applicable to all readers, but I gave this tip out a couple times at work recently and got good responses, so here it goes...

For years I had this annoying habit/problem at work of leaving my desk for a meeting, getting to the elevator, then realizing I had no idea of the location. I would then have to run back to my desk, unlock my PC, pull up Outlook, and pray that the meeting would be in the my building. Rare occasions would require a walk across the street, in which case I'd only be late by a minute or 2. Once time I figured out at 8:57 a.m. that I was supposed to be at another office 8 miles way at 9:00 a.m. It was then I decided I needed a system.

Another somewhat-unrelated problem I used to have was what do with all those random meeting notes. You know, you attend a meeting, take anywhere from 2 sentences to 2 pages worth of scribbles on a legal pad, and those notes just add up meeting after meeting until you're walking around with a portfolio full of notes that may or may not have names, dates or subjects associated with them. Then these notes end up being a lot less useful than they could have been.

2 birds, 1 stone, etc...

Now each morning, I print out all appointments for the day from Outlook and carry them with me in my portfolio throughout the day. The date/time, subject, attendees, and (most importantly) the location are listed right there at the top of the page. I am never left staring at an elevator wondering if I need to press up or down. Plus, I have a nice sheet of white paper that has all relevant details at the top and, when you count the front and back, has 1 & 3/4 pages worth of blank space. (I prefer taking notes on unlined paper anyways.) Then when I get to my desk, I simply drop the (now clearly-labeled) meeting notes into the relevant project file.

Nothing earth-shattering, but it helps nonetheless.