he did pretty excellent even though i’ve never seen bananas served at a party (and no, he wasn’t going to make a fruit salad). he made sure i had a massive box of wheat thins, candy, chips and salsa, veggies and oreos (because those are his favorite packaged cookies). please also note our excellent wine selection all thanks to linda at yamhill valley vineyards! linda is fabulous and their wine is exquisit (as is their beautiful tasting room) so they are now our official wine sponsor wooohoo! i can truly recommend them because it’s been our ‘go-to’ wine for over 4 years. jacqueline and i modeling our love for their wine and also ‘how to be a speaker!’

i know what you really want to see is how we displayed all of the snacks ravery bought. i have to give ravery credit where credit is due and he arranged all of the fruit platters and they were quite visually pleasing (note the pineapple topper)! i’m a little upset i was rushed while taking this picture because while i appreciate the healthy end of the table, you don’t get to see the cookie plate, bowls of candy, chocolate covered pretzels and pastries! see folks, this is what happens when you rush through things.

we had a great turn out from lots of our friends and aspiring speakers at the launch party! it was great to see a lot of the people that helped ravery on his journey in winning the world championship of public speaking and who are basically just good people.

shout out to lisa and kim for stepping in and helping serve beverages and taking pictures! you ladies are fabulous. thank you also to ellen (not pictured) who scrubbed and scrubbed to remove a WHOLE bottle of red wine that broke on the carpet. you work magic. also, ravery is only allowed to climb on counters during launch parties.

thank you to everyone who came out to show your support and of course i need to plug the fabulous product they launched; 8 DVDS, 8 CDs, and a 94-page workbook for a home study course available on How Be A Speaker for a heck of a deal until June 14.

i’m so proud of my boo (a funny story behind that nickname some other time) and all the hard work, energy, enthusiasm and dedication he has poured into following his dreams!

we ended up getting to bed close to midnight that night and had to be up at 3:45am to get him off to airport to catch his flight to houston in order to speak at district 56′s conference happening this weekend! that was an early morning but luckily i came home and slept about 2 more hours so i could function properly.

warning: abrupt change in topic is about to happen…i later received a call that my new glasses are in finally (this will have been my 4th time to the eye doctor because there has been something wrong with them each time and i keep seeing weird rainbows because of the polish). so i get there and guess what…they had to replace the lenses because they got scratched and they put the damn polish BACK on so i was seeing rainbow prism again. i left AGAIN without new glasses.

as i’m driving back home, trying not to feel completely annoyed and irritated by this whole process, i’m literally 1 block away from our apartment and some fool decides he doesn’t need to stop when rolling out of a parking garage and slams into me. thankfully, neither of us were hurt but let me tell you…i was pissed.

i was very proud of myself for only saying to him “are you FREAKIN’ serious?! seriously?!” and walking away to take a few deep breaths because i can’t really deal with more crap in the midst of everything going on! i reminded myself that obviously he didn’t do this on purpose and accidents happen. i also thought about how i’d want someone to react if i hit someone so breathed it out and reined in the fire-breathing lady that was on the brink of eruption.

thankfully the door still closes but apparently i need a whole new door and the bill is $2,300. doesn’t that seem ridiculously absurd!? i was thinking a few hundred max (and thankfully it’s not coming out of our pocket, just the time and energy). we will have to wait to get it fixed when we get to texas because i have my 3 day leadership seminar starting this thursday and then we start our roadtrip the following tuesday. can you tell i still have some lingering feelings about how annoying this is AND the only reason  i was in the car was to pick up my glasses, which i still don’t have. thanks for letting me rant a moment. it’s done now.

here is how i spent last night…popping a massive amount of bubble wrap to help relieve my stress and drinking wine. cheers to a new day! and to a blog post full of many feelings :)

 life lesson: accidents happen, they are called accidents for a reason so try to keep your cool (but still process your feelings).

questions:
1) your go-to snack when planning a party? (mine is probably crackers and cheese)
2) one of your favorite nicknames for your significant other?
3) what do you do to relieve stress? (i need some more good ways to get it out)

needless to say, i was looking forward to finally getting a solid night’s sleep with ravery back home and me not worrying about this event anymore until i awoke to the sound of dropping tools. apparently they are ripping down the building that shares a lot with our apartment complex. they started at 7:02am. fine, whatever, i’ll get up because that’s 2 hours later than when i had been getting up. thank goodness i put some pants on because i saw THIS when i walked in the living room…

a MAN basically in my apartment (okay, he was outside but honestly like 6 feet away-it’s that close). i freaked out. this is not normal-we live on the 3rd floor. i ran and hid in my bedroom until ravery got home (he had a speech at 6:30am so i knew he’d be home soon) and hoped this situation wouldn’t turn into a lifetime movie. thankfully it did not and yes, that’s where my mind usually goes. i jokingly told ravery we should offer them something to drink and then he opened the door and did. they declined but then he took their picture.

they are building scaffolding and then apparently work is to be done. my blood pressure dropped some and i feel awkward in my own home having these guys able to see my every move and watch me eat my morning wheat thins- so i leave for work. let’s all remember i’m still a zombie because of lack of sleep and brain overexertion so when i walk into my apartment later and find this….i almost enter a full-fledged panic attack.

here is what runs through my head: a) omg i’ve been abducted and they encapsulated my whole apartment b) there has been a murder and the gruesome scene has to be blocked c) the world is trying to suffocate me.

i get it together a little more and go with option c) the world is trying to suffocate me. not only does our apartment look  disastrous because we are moving and sending 1 load with ravery as he leaves for a speaking engagement in houston on thursday (side note: pretty proud of myself for booking him on southwest airlines because he gets to fly 2 bags for free…aka 2 bags full of all our winter clothes and books for FREE! they are the best airlines).

take a moment to appreciate the stomach of our vacuum. ew.

but now this is our view:

it’s honestly really bad. just looking at this picture is stressing me out. it feels like the walls are closing in on me and i don’t like it one bit. luckily i can sit in our bedroom and only see a portion of the white sheet and cranes so i think i’ll be hiding in here for the next 2 weeks (that’s right…we MOVE in 2 weeks ahhhhh). the only positive thing i have taken away from this new and unexpected experience is that i get a blog article out of it. otherwise, my chest feels like a sumo wrestler wrapped in a white sheet is sitting on it. as if i wasn’t freaking out enough…

life lesson: wake up and put pants on, you never know when construction workers will be present.

questions:
1) one of the most ridiculous things you’ve woken up to…
2) how many hours of sleep a night do you need to be a pleasant, functioning person? (i need 7-8)
3) how do you feel about enclosed spaces? what is one of your fears?

moving question: for those of you that have shipped large boxes full of your personal belongings, is the post office or fedex ground shipping cheaper?? thanks!

yes, there was a basket of pastries as part of our breakfast to start the day at kafe leopold in georgetown. best patries ever. then we became tourists and explored DC!

blue skies and the magnificent lincoln memorial. this is ravery’s favorite one and i can see why-it’s powerful.

then this happened: a woman literally ran over to us while we were taking pictures and said “i have the best idea. ok stand like this and do this (motioning and acting out how she wanted us to stand) and INSISTED we do a pyramid pose. she was about 50 and very enthusiastic so we appeased her. below is the picture she captured. i hope we made her day? it was quite strange. ha!

DC was actually the first place ravery and i went together outside of colorado! a few weeks after we started dating, he was off to work in georgetown for the summer then onto study abroad. i met him in DC and he showed me an amazing time (it included a fancy hotel room, delicious meals, matching piercings and the midnight showing of harry potter)!

then we found our friend jordan who moved to DC a while ago and is loving it!

we needed more pictures (but no crazy lady this time) and ravery loves a good jumping photo. please note the BEST PHOTO BOMB EVER (random person jumping in the background too in the red!)

then we walked to see the washington monument (it was under construction) and someone made little steps for the ducks to get out of the reflection pool. toooo cute.

playing in the sculpture park! so amazing to be in the sunshine and with great friends in a fun, new city (jen and i didn’t even plaaaan to match-we are just that good).

before our flight on monday, we went to the zoo because it’s freeee (like most everything in that cool city) and i feel in love with this panda. he was just covered in his food and eating non-stop. i watched him for about 15 minutes then imagined myself in a similar situation covered in cookies. amazing.

did you know male pandas do handstands to court their mates?! i had no idea. i am going to ask ravery to work on this.

since we found out we’d be going to DC a few months ago, ravery had non-stop been talking about his favorite sandwich place EVER. this was his description “it was in a convenience store in the back somewhere in georgetown.” obviously very descriptive. but we went back there and found it! it’s called “wisemiller’s” and it truly is delicious!

his favorite sandwich of all time, “the california chicken.”

right before we went to the airport we had to go see the gorgeous georgetown campus and lookie here: us on monday

and us in july 2007!!!

i much preferred visiting in may as opposed to july because it was waaaaay too hot and humid for my taste the first time we visited DC together. glad i have much ‘cooler’ memories now.

and of course we had to run (ok, slowly walk up) the stairs from the exorcist movie.

i hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. back to work for me and trying to negotiate with mother nature not to rain on the big event i’ve planned for work and have outside from 9am-5pm tomorrow!

life lesson: it’s good to give a city/place/person a second chance, the situation and environment may be different and you may actually enjoy it better!

questions:
1) when you visit a place, how likely are you return or do you like to explore new adventures?
2) favorite animal to see while at the zoo?
3) where’s the best sandwich you’ve ever had and what was on it?

we got to washington, DC late on thursday night, while it was also still ravery’s birthday! we stayed with his friend jen  (don’t worry, she became ‘our’ friend a few years ago) and they have known each other for 10 years!!! they actually met at HOBY, the same youth leadership seminar i’m helping to put on in a few weeks (except they met at the texas one). that’s pretty amazing and one of the reasons why i agreed to be the leadership seminar chair for it is because it changes people’s lives and then you stay friends forever! jen is also a really great friend because she made him a HUGE birthday cookie!

we ate 3/4 of it that night. traveling burns a lot of calories, right? then on friday ravery taught a workshop and you may be expecting me to show you a picture of ravery teaching this but instead i choose food. i asked one of the participants to grab some snacks for the event since it was right at dinner time. her spread was basically spot on and i didn’t even tell her specifically what to get except “some healthy and some fun.” thanks donna-great snack selection!

can you believe this?! i was in chip heaven. food should taste good multigran chips are my favorite healthy chips in the world. doritos are my favorite non-healthy chip in the world and i ALWAYS love kettle corn. always. i haven’t had a cream puff in a few years and i have obviously been missing out. those pop back real easy. dont worry mom, i had a handful of carrots too!

saturday was the district 27 conference and we had a great time (fine, i’ll show a picture of ravery speaking instead of food this time but he previously cropped it for something else so it’s a weird size.) also, everyone is real fancy here because when you ask them where they work, it’s typically some answer of “the pentagon, the senate, homeland security, etc” and then my eyes get real wide because how cool is that?! it has also been an honor to meet so many servicemen and women, thank you for your service!

everyone here has been so kind and accommodating to us, always making sure we were taken care of and had what we needed. we got to hang out with ralph, their lieutenant governor of education and training and now district governor-elect and he had many many ‘ralphisms.’ when i thanked him for his kindness he said “it’s easy to be nice to nice people” and i feel like that’s so true. i feel thankful to have gotten to be around many nice people this weekend! here is a picture of their district governor dianne presenting a newly awarded crystal with her “DTM” or distinguished toastmaster award, the highest achievement in toastmasters. it’s a big deal. that’s ralph in the back on the stage (don’t be mad i snapped your picture ralph!)

i also experienced the best hotel food i’ve had yet! it was by no means healthy but it was certainly delicious comfort food. i got to have mac n’ cheese and mashed potatoes (my two favorite carby foods) chicken pot pie, some veggies, corn on the cob, a semi-okay biscuit (remember, i’ve experienced BBOML-best biscuit of my life before) and peach crumble.

i probably should be working out right now but instead i’m writing this blog and eat 7 pretzel chips left over from friday’s workshop (those are acceptable to eat in the morning before 8am..and a handful of kettle corn).

we attended their district speech contest and it was one of the best ones i’ve been too! ravery won his district contest exactly a year ago and that’s when you find out you get to go to the world semi-finals and then hopefully finals of the world championship for public speaking! exciting times-i still remember us freaking out vividly with excitement!

i was complaining to ravery that i didn’t have any good head shots so he offered to take some in the pretty setting outside the hotel. he offered right as i was eating cake and no, i’m not going to put down cake to take a nice picture so here’s the best one. i’ll be updating my linked-in profile soon.

we had a delightful dinner with some of the contest winners from earlier, the dignitaries from the district, the amazing volunteers that helped to put on the conference and more nice and funny people. here’s a not-well-lit picture but i can assure you they were all quite nice and good looking.

district 27, we’ve had an amazing time with all of you and cannot thank you enough for all of the hospitality you’ve showed us- we cannot wait to come back!

life lesson: it’s easy to be nice to nice people

questions:
1) favorite kind of chips…go!
2) what is your favorite comfort food (can you tell i haven’t had breakfast yet)
3) what is something nice you have done this weekend for someone? (we donated from our 10% fund to a new toastmasters group in Loas)

first-happy happy birthday to the very best husband, partner, friend, speaker, person i could ever imagine-RAVERY! he’s a whooping 26 today and i got him some treats this morning.

the nice thing about living above a starbucks is they open before 5:45am so i could go get him some birthday treats because we are traveling to washington, DC today! he also gave me a bite of the “morning bun” i proceeded to eat 93% of it. sorry i ate your birthday bun boo-it was unexpectedly delicious.

we also enjoyed our time at the district 22 conference in KCMO (that’s the cool way people say kansas city, missouri) last weekend!

i got to spend some quality time with kim, their district governor elect and as well as her daughter heather! they were such fun ladies (as were basically all of the great people we met at the conference).

we all met in orlando after ravery winning his title of “world champion” and heather is a regular commenter on the blog which i SO appreciate so shout out to you great lady! because she reads the blog and has high attention to detail, she was tasked with picking out the speakers’ gift and look what she got ravery:

“would you rather…” the game! who knew this even existed!? they were also so nice and got me a little gift too of the smaller card version for our traveling. so amazing and thank you district 22! we played this as a family later and it was hilarious (i would still rather ride in the back of a truck with cows for 2 days than be in a cage for 13 hours on a flight).

on our way out the door from my grandparents house in leaving for the district 22 conference-my nana hands us a bag full of treats since we’d be at the hotel for a few nights. she hooked us up with biscoff spread (AMAZING), wheat thins (because she knows me well) and cookies! oh and also some fruit because she wants us to be healthy. isn’t that amazing??

i have a new favorite thing now. if you’ve been on delta or alaska airlines, then you’ve probably been handed a biscoff cookie and relished in it’s deliciousness. well they made it into a spread and it awesome! my uncle’s girlfriend heidi actually WON a whole case of it and gave one to my grandparents who ‘lent it out’ to us. we ate half of it. wheat thins with cookie spread on it-whoa.

ravery also taught his workshop the morning after his conference and my mom and nana came! of course we had to get a 3 generation shot and apparently my new moisturizer makes my face much oilier than the rest of my family.

one of my favorite parts of KCMO was not only seeing some of my wonderful family and meeting more wonderful toastmasters…it was the SUN! it was 78 degrees and i took full advantage of it (look at how dang pasty i am!). nevermind that i’m allergic to grass and then had hives on me after laying here for 15 minutes. worth it.

we are now headed to the district 27 conference in washington, DC and to celebrate ravery’s birthday in his favorite city! it’s been a whirlwind of a week but it’s been exciting!

life lesson: family, sunshine, and good eats can do wonders for the soul.

questions:
1) does or did your grandma stuff you full of delicious food all the time
2) are you allergic to anything?
3) would you rather ride in the back of a truck with cows for 2 days or be in a cage for 13 hours on a flight?

how cute and creative is she?! very. then my grandpa made a little fire in the firepit for a fun treat and we got to sit outside where it wasn’t even raining or anything. please note that this adorable picture of the grandpa and ravery was taken before the nana brought out a huge tray of various cheeses, grapes, and crackers in addition to the sandwiches we were eating. mmm.

it makes me so incredibly happy that ravery and my family not only get along but enjoy each other. this is so important to me because i do have friends that cannot stand their significant other’s parents in the least bit. here-there is lots of laughing, teasing and food. my nana even baked ravery his very own delicious birthday cake (you should know by now in my family we have birthday months so it’s starting early).

i stayed up way too late talking and giggling with my mom and nana and it was just what my soul needed. i feel so fortunate to have two very strong and intelligent women in my life that can listen, guide and support me in all i do.

as i’ve previously mentioned, ravery does NOT like tangible gifts for his birthday but enjoys experiences. so when my grandparents handed him a small box that was wrapped, i could only imagine what was going through ravery’s head and was already figuring out how i could hoard it away. fortunately, my grandparents know what’s up and handed him a lock with both our names on it and our wedding anniversary. for whaaat? maybe a joint locker at the gym we don’t belong to? perhaps to lock up our non-existent tandem bike? well…

there is this way cool old red bridge in a kansas city park that where people are “locking in their love” all up and down it. how amazing of a gift was this?! it was honestly the very perfect gift because not only did he get a cool experience out of it, this lock will be there forever and i’ll still get my ‘something tangible’ out of it! we had a family outing to pick our placement on the bridge.

what’s even cooler about this whole story is that my cousin was playing around on pinterest and saw the very famous bridge in paris that has thousands of locks on it with this same idea in mind. well she and my uncle were talking and mentioned it to her dad (my other uncle) and his girlfriend works for the kansas city parks and rec. she LOVED the idea and said “oh yeah, i have a bridge that would work perfect for this” and BOOM it exists in kansas city now. i’m pretty lucky to be a part of a family that is full of great ideas and makes things happen. check out more pictures of people’s locks here!

pretend like i’m not half asleep in this picture

our love is officially official now that it’s all ‘locked’ in. it was a fantastic day and i feel so fortunate to be working in KCMO this weekend and also getting to spend a few hours in between things hanging out with my amazing family. if you are ever in this city, get a lock and lock that love in with your partner, it’s really neat. ravery is all set to speak at district 22′s spring conference in about 1 hour and then we get to hang out with the great people of this area!

life lesson: you never know what might be in a little box, but it may turn out to be something that lasts a lifetime.

questions:
1) do you still cook/bake things for your family members that you don’t actually eat yourself? ( i do not, but perhaps i should start)
2) do you have any neat things like this in your city that people from all over would want to participate in? (i’ll take notes so i can add it to my list of things to do)
3) have you participated in something unique that shows your commitment to your significant other? or what would you like to do?

ps. happy birthday to my litttttle sister who i can’t even believe is 23!!! i still feel 19 so that’s weird. miss you sister and love you! xo.

my curls apparently came in much later in life than hers…

while yesterday was a tad bit crazy, i had my girls empowerment group in the afternoon and one of my girls made me this sign.

she spray painted it and then said “here, i made this for you chelsea because it’s true.” perfect timing little lady! she has no idea that this would become our only decoration in our bare and empty bedroom before we move. i do need to remember this saying when i’m feeling overwhelmed because everything will be okay.

i also felt proud of myself because even though i got home at 6:30pm last night and working out was the last thing i wanted to do-i ran 2.73 miles and my sanity thanked me. i need to remember that i can’t just eat my feelings but need to remain healthy during the next month of absolute craziness or i will burst and highly regret it later. that being said…

earlier yesterday i texted ryan from my crazy day and said i would most definitely be needing a dessert that night. look what he came bearing at 9:15pm-best man ever!

he literally stood in line at voodoo donuts after his already later meeting to get me a chocolate donut. he’s pretty fantastic. his favorite is their famed maple-bacon bar. if this freaks you out, you should still try a bit of it because it’s pretty delicious. he also bought me a cookie earlier in the day because he knows these are my two favorite. thanks for helping to keep me sane (or at least on a sugar high) amazing life partner of mine!

life lesson: remember to take good care of yourself even when you think you don’t have the energy.

questions:
1) what is one of your favorite quotes or sayings?
2) how do you make sure you’re taking care of yourself when you get stressed?
3) what are you most looking forward to this weekend?

you may or may not know this about me…but i have some hoarding tendencies. i fear that i may get rid of something that i will really want someday later or that if i get rid of things someone gave me, i am showing them disrespect. maybe if i get rid of small momentos, for some reason that lessens the memory associated with it. i’m being completely serious, i hold on to many things. take the picture below for instance; i saved that ribbon from when ravery won his first ‘best speaker’ ribbon in toastmasters 2.4 years ago (i know by now he’s a pretty good speaker, but this was incredibly hard to get rid of). yes, those are napkins- from the amsterdam airport 4 years ago…i just liked them because i’m dutch and think they are so cute and remind me of my grandma. those cards are RSVP cards from our wedding…i have almost all of them because a lot of my friends wrote super cute things on them.

i attach sentimental value to almost everything. ravery on the other hand is very good at appreciating things and then sending them on their way. he also makes it abundantly clear that on birthdays and christmas, he wants experiences and not physical gifts. i, on the other hand, would like a mixture of both. this has been one of the sources of disagreement in our relationship because i do love ‘things’ and he is very minimalistic. this has been my face over the last few weeks when having lots of conversations about what stays and what goes:

i’m pretty sure on this day i added kahlua to my coffee. we’ve had countless arguments over what i feel like i need to keep and what he feels like needs to go. it’s not fun. it’s tiring and exhausting. we are only moving to texas with what can fit in our small, compact camry. that’s it. we don’t have family or storage here so it’s not like we can put some stuff away and get it later. i have actually been pretty proud of myself for releasing my sentimental grip on a lot of things and ravery has done a good job giving me credit and acknowledging that it’s really difficult for me. i have also done a good job acknowledging that i know he doesn’t like lots of small things and i’m doing my best to downsize. thank goodness for a commitment to good communication, a door between us when we need a minute and kahlua.

that being said, ravery is still in ohio today so i had a garage sale at a friend’s house yesterday and sold (and then gave away  many of my prized possessions. i was also very proud of myself for maneuvering this large load and fitting it all in my car to take to grace’s house (i can’t really have a garage sale on a corner of downtown outside of our apartment).

look at how cool grace’s house is with a huuuuge drivway and awesome garden she created all by herself! impressive. anyhow, i learned a lot of garage sales lessons yesterday. you should allow more than 45 minutes to put up signs and get everything set up because once those signs are up-people show up even if it’s before when it starts.

you should also be prepared for people to judge things that you hold dearly. it also really helps to be surrounded by your friends so thank you to everyone that came out yesterday (jen, alison, jess, kim, grace, and darby). whether you knew it or not, you helped me cope with having to part with a lot of things that hold sentimental value and please be prepared to give me quarterly updates on my belongings you so generously bought. i’m only somewhat kidding.

a portion of my amazing coworkers i’ve been so lucky to work with!

do you know what else helps you cope with people saying they will only pay $3 for something you know is worth at least $20? this:

oh, what’s that you ask? just some delicious blood orange margaritas that grace and kim prepared! they were both beautiful and delicious.

that’s grace! photo credit grace and kim :)

it also helps when your friend alison comes bearing delicious half-cooked cookies from whole foods to share as well.

do you like how bundled up we are? it was pretty chilly yesterday but thankfully did not rain even a drop! we had a pretty good stream of people come buy things and i can also tell you that bartering is not my favorite thing. i still had a pretty hefty load to bring to goodwill afterwards but i try to reframe that as letting other people enjoy what i’ve been privileged to have in my life for a while. i’m not sure why no one wanted to buy ravery’s crutches and knee brace?! their loss.

thanks again grace for letting me hold this at your house, for kim who helped us clean up too and everyone who stopped by yesterday to make me laugh and hug me. i also apologize if you saw gifts you gave me for sale as well. please know it wasn’t easy and i’ve appreciated the thoughtfulness and enjoyed your gift each moment it’s been in my possession.  when talking with old boss/mentor, naomi, she said “the memories pack lighter, the friendships last and adventure awaits you.” i’m going to focus on that and try to ignore the fact that i woke up to an empty apartment this morning.

my favorite thing to hold onto is cards people send me. my project this morning involves reading over the hundres of cards i’ve held on to since living in portland. how incredible is it that someone took the time to write kind things about you and how important you are in their lives? it’s amazing. i am in the middle of reading through all of these and burning the words into my brain. of course this involves tears and probably cookies.

life lesson: try not to pour sentiment into physical things but relish the memories.

questions:
1) what do you tend to hold on to?
2) are you a minimalist or do you tend to save a lot of things?
3) what do you do when you are sad about having to downsize and giveaway things you like?
4) one great thing about your weekend? (i got to see some top notch people)

anywho, ravery was the keynote speaker at the district 10 spring conference this past weekend in akron, ohio. i learned this used to be the rubber capital of the world (that ‘rubber’ means tires…my mind went there too for a second). right when we checked-in at the doubletree in akron, they handed us 2 piping hot, gooey chocolate chip cookies! i almost hugged the front desk lady because nothing is better than cookies after a super long day of travel. can you believe they do this!? we each had 3 more throughout the weekend-thanks doubletree for accommodating my addiction.

we did a question and answer session together and i didn’t even pass out and i’m getting less sweaty (yay for working on my own public speaking). ravery did let me know that i essentially just spoke in one long sentence because i continuously said “…and so…” instead of just ending my sentence. it’s a work in progress. the below picture is of his keynote and not us speaking together obviously, because i thought it would be weird to do a ‘selfie’ while speaking (though i was tempted).

i was not fully prepared for the 3 hour time change to effect me the way it did since we were only there for 36 hours but woooweee i’m still a zombie. yesterday we had to wake up at 4:27am to make it to the airport in time for our flight but in portland/my body clock that was only 1:27am! i bet some of my friends who are cooler than me were just getting into bed! ravery actually flies back out to ohio (this time columbus) for their district 40 conference this coming weekend and i’ve suggested to him he should just start going to bed at 7:30pm pacific time so he’ll be well adjusted for that time change again. thank goodness i have ravery to capture pictures of me taking a nap in between sessions at the conference.

we had a lovely time in akron and everyone was so nice! they even presented ravery with this delicious basket full of goodies for coming out and speaking (yes, i ripped into it about 7 minutes later and i can tell you the popcorn is amazing and the butter toffee peanuts are my favorite). that is their amazing and fun district governor, deonna -don’t worry americans, they had our flag on the other side of the stage in addition to the canadian one.

hey, i had to eat a lot because we couldn’t fit it all in our suitcase. please take note of various cookie wrappers and all the great things they gave to him (and when you’re married…it becomes yours too-woohoo)! and yes, that’s a half eaten pb&j sandwich that i ate throughout the weekend because i’m addicted to that sweet and salty combo.

earlier in the day we said ‘hello’ to a woman we were passing in the hallway and then she said “oh ryan, i’m really pleased to meet you but who i really wanted to meet was CHELSEA!” that was probably the neatest thing i could hear. maureen said she follows my blog and was really looking forward to meeting me-how stinking cool is that?! i am still smiling and here’s proof because i asked maureen to take a picture with me. she is also a phenomenal speaker that we got the privilege of hearing that night as well.

we got to have dinner with her and some other excellent people. a few of the people we sat near asked us questions about how we balance me coaching him and wife-ing him (haha i just made that up) and more about our marriage. it was fun to talk about how our relationship works, how we find balance (and then readjust to find balance again). i think i have a slightly clearer idea of where i want my blog to go-we are just waiting to hopefully buy the URL so please send happy vibes that the guy will sell it to me (for now, i leave it a lingering surprise).

life is a little crazy right because i’m putting on a large event for my work that is happening mother’s day so if you have nothing to do or want to learn about new routes to nutrition, exercise, body image and stress management come out to laurelhurst park in SE portland or shoot me an email at chelsea@averytoday.com! i’m also the seminar chair for a youth leadership seminar that happens memorial weekend and then we leave 2 days after that to start our road trip. i will do my best to keep the blog going during this hectic time because it appears to be therapeutic for me and i cannot wait to show you some of my hoarding tendency so maybe you’ll feel better if you also save things from when you were 11 too.

if you live in portland and are looking for some good gifts, jewelry, clothing, books etc…i’m having a garage sale this weekend in NE portland so email me for more details if you want to stop by and and buy things or just say howdy (see, throwing in some texan twang)! clarifying statement from  the above picture picture: no, i’m not selling pills, makeup or toothpaste at the garage sale…but yes selling the things around my neck and wrists and a whole lot of other things. the dresser is already sold!

life lesson: do not take a three hour time differences lightly, it has the power to totally alter your world and mind!

questions:
1) does speaking in public make you nervous?
2) if anytime you checked into a hotel and they gave you a treat, what would you want? (i’m sticking with warm chocolate chip cookies)
3) garage sales…do you frequent them or stay away because you already have enough stuff?

the BIG announcement…we are moving.

we are moving from the rainy, beautifully green (color and environmentally friendly), liberal and full of amazing food places of portland, oregon to…the sometimes rainy, 100% humidity, 5th fattest city in america and conservative place of houston, texas. i’ll give you a minute to process it because this is the first time i’ve written it out and i need to put 2 more cookies in my mouth right now.

oh texas. i also know this is a touchy subject since i married into a texan family but let’s all take a minute and remember where i’m from (colorado). we were raised to dislike all things related to texas and i have uttered no less than 394082 times that i would never live in texas. in fact, before agreeing to go out with ravery, i made him promise me that he never wanted to move back to texas. so why the heck are we going to texas?!

we are taking a calculated risk and going full time with our business. we are jumping full in and we are changing our environment to change our opportunities. we’ve gotten too comfortable here and with too much comfort, laziness and the fear of ‘losing it all so you risk nothing’ sets in. we don’t want that attitude or feeling so we are going on a temporary adventure to texas! it’s only temporary because i still do not ever want to liiiiive in texas, but i will hang out there for a few months while we launch the best business in the world and eat some seriously good home cooked meals. if you know me at all, you would know that i would not be ‘home cooking’ those meals but instead my fabulous mother-in-law (MIL) will be because we are ‘hubbing’ with them for a while! my father-in-law is pretty great and we are both big big fans of donuts so i know that will work out beautifully.

how cute are ravery’s parents?! so cute.

we are leaving at the end of May and then road tripping for foreveeeeer. we plan on making a few stops along the way to teach workshops and visit my family in colorado (yaaaaay)! for now, we are off to akron, ohio this weekend for the district 10′s conference! i am still in shock that we will be leaving in a little more than a month. ahhhhh! time for more cookies…but first please check out my shirt my friend cassie bought me a few years ago when ravery and i started dating. she’s amazing and if you need a photographer for any event…she’s your gal! let’s all be clear that texas obviously messed with me first. we decided not to ‘hub’ in colorado because ravery knew he would never get me out there again. smart man right there.

life lesson: big changes can be overwhelming but it’s your attitude and outlook that help shape the experience.

questions:
1) have you ever moved far distance before? advice?
2) opinion of texas…go!
3) do you get along with your in-laws? (i lucked out and loooove mine!)