New job

We are happy to announce that Mr. Right has taken a new job - in a few weeks he will start working as a real estate agent in Fort Worth.

It does not mean that we are quitting ministry. 
There are some crazy statistics out there about how many people who graduate from seminary are out of ministry within five years. I think it's an unfair statistic. Because a lot of churches can't afford to support their ministers full time. There are church plants that routinely use bivocational ministers - they work to support their family but their main mission is ministry. In fact, some people say that this is the future of church ministry.

This will be us for now. Mr. Right will have a "regular job" albeit a very flexible one so that he can support our family and still do ministry. We now consider ourselves bivocational.

The kind of ministry we like to do isn't very clean. Mr. Right likes to work with internationals. The down and out. The poorest of the poor. The people that society tends to write off. You know, the kind who don't have any money to support a minister. And there aren't a ton of jobs out there for that.

But that doesn't mean we can't do it. We're already voluntarily running an ESL ministry at our church, working with refugees from around the world. And Mr. Right volunteers with our Spanish-speaking ministry. And he is uniquely gifted at sharing Jesus with random people he meets in lines at grocery stores. The funny thing is, he's never pushy, rarely brings it up - but people just see him and immediately open up and tell him their life stories. At the pharmacy. And the gym. Just about anywhere he goes.

So he will continue to do ministry. And he will continue to finish school. He's scheduled to graduate with a Masters of Divinity (a 98-hour degree) in 2013.

It does not mean we will never again work at a church. 

It does not mean that we won't someday end up living on the mission field, finding ourselves as the outsiders who need someone to teach us the language and the culture. 
But for right now, we're going to do that for others, in the name of Jesus. We'll just being doing it for free.

It does not mean we're leaving our church.
In fact, we plan on staying for a very long time. Our church is our home, we love the people there, and we feel like we have great opportunities to minister there. It just means that instead of working through every service, Mr. Right will get to sit next to me, worship with me, maybe even ride together to church (something we have never done since we've gotten married). It means that we're in a good position to find some new ministries to do together. As volunteers.



We need your prayers.
Change is exciting but also scary, especially for two people who are planners to a fault. We need prayers as Mr. Right changes careers and builds a new business. We really feel like this is what God wants, and we assure you that this is something that we have prayed over for quite some time. But navigating through change and finding new roles to serve in can be challenging. And I need your prayers because as always I battle against fear of the unknown - pray that God will continue to give me big faith and the wisdom to know how best to support Mr. Right through this transition.

We need your friendship.
We are thankful for friends who love us no matter what our jobs are, who trust us to follow the Lord's leading for our family. Mr. Right will need your encouragement (and your referrals... wink, wink) as he starts a business from scratch.

We need rest.
If you go to church with us, you may not see us for a few weeks. Mr. Right hasn't gotten to attend a single worship service in ten months. He needs to hide in the back of a sea of unknown faces and just worship. And so we have plans to visit the church where our brother-in-law leads worship. The church that Mr. Right's parents helped plant. We may take an out of town trip that doesn't involve us driving back at midnight Saturday night so Mr. Right can make it to work the next morning.

But we will be back, with batteries recharged and hearts excited for a new chapter.

The longest day EVER

Yesterday I worked a full, action-packed day, then had a full extra day to go shopping and hang out and sew. How?

Well, that's what happens when your day starts at 2:00 a.m. and goes until 10:00 p.m. And that's why I don't have a job in morning radio.

Okay, full disclosure - there's several other reasons why I don't have a job in morning radio. Like, nobody has asked me. And my voice isn't that great. But I think the number one reason will always be that I don't want to set my alarm for 1:55 a.m. ever again.

We hosted the area's most popular news/talk morning show at the hospital on Friday, and it was one of the most fun experiences of my PR career. I work with a lot of reporters and producers, and this team was probably the greatest I've ever worked with. Everybody was professional, but laid-back, ON TIME, no drama, and delivered much more than they promised. It was a really fantastic experience.

It's also very strange to have a conversation with someone who has an iconic voice that you've heard on the radio for years - it's kind of like their lips are moving but the sound doesn't match up. 

After putting in a full 8-hour day, I went home and crashed for two glorious hours, then woke up and it was only 1:00, which left me feeling like I'd somehow snagged an extra 3-day weekend for myself. What a treat.

And what did I do with my spare time? Sew pillows of course - you can check out the new additions in my shop. I also picked up the rest of the fabric so I can finally start my nephew Jack Henry's baby quilt. I'm down to just two months until his arrival so it's time to get scootin'. His mama (my sister-in-law) picked out a couple fabrics she loved and I'm supplementing - can't wait to share it with you. I've changed my mind a dozen times on the pattern, but in the end went with a slight variation of what I had wanted to do all along. I can't wait to start cutting.

How I make that money, honey

Today I'm doing a link up party with Lindsay, which I discovered by way of Lia Joy, who happens to be my in my Sunday School class at church.  And since I've never really told you what I do, here's my chance.

I am the marketing and public relations director for a local hospital. This means I figured out a way to get paid for doing things that I think are crazy fun. Don't tell my boss. :) Here's what I do:

1. Advertising, including billboards, print ads, tv and radio commercials, direct mail, brochures/collateral, t-shirts, people on street corners holding cardboard signs. Okay, not really the last one - that's a pet peeve of mine. But there is no better feeling than driving down the street and seeing your billboard on the side of the highway and knowing that nobody else will ever realize how much work went into it. Or the smell of a freshly printed mail piece that I've slaved over for a month.

2. Web stuff - I've created several websites from scratch, and I also do all of the Facebooking/blogging/Pinteresting/tweeting/YouTubeing on behalf of the hospital. Who would have ever thought I'd figure out a way to get paid to play on Pinterest? Then again, who ever thought when I was hired 8+ years ago that there would BE a Pinterest? Or, for that matter, Facebook?

3. Special events - everything from an employee party in an operating room to a community party of 500+ off campus. I've done grand openings and anniversary parties and surprise parties and more health seminars that I could ever count.

4. Media relations - I'm the girl that reporters call when they want to do a story about the hospital, which means I've worked Christmas Eve, New Year's morning, nights, weekends, you name it. I've worked on stories about West Nile and heart attacks and hair cuts for charity and baby making during ice storms. The baby making one made me blush, but you better believe it was such a good story it got picked up nationally.

5. Community relations - I get to serve on boards for non-profits, work on committees, participate in chamber life, go to events, and do service projects in the community. I've played Mrs. Santa Claus for kids and worked the finish line at a marathon and painted a house, all on behalf of my hospital. It's one of the very best parts of my job (besides Pinterest), and I consider myself so blessed to get to help others as part of my job.

Don't for a minute think that my job is glamorous. For every black tie gala I've planned, there have been five events where I had to schlep boxes of chocolate truffles to my hot car in 105 degree heat (true story) or set up events in the pouring down rain looking like a drowned rat while everyone else looks dignified. The last TV commercial I shot had me leaving my house at 4:30 a.m. - next week I'm doing a live radio broadcast that means I have to be at work at 3:00 a.m. And there have been days when I spent three hours standing over an old, squeaky paper cutter, or addressing and stamping postcards while watching Dancing with the Stars. Glamorous, not so much. But fun? Absolutely.

I love my job, I really do. Sometimes it exhausts me, especially when I have to work several weekends in a row. One year I went to 80 community events OUTSIDE of work (that was before I met Mr. Right). Not to mention the amount of stress I carry around as I struggle to leave work at the office but end up mentally taking it home with me and mulling over problems when I should be sleeping.

But when I get really worn out, I remember the times my husband, or dad, or mother-in-law, or I have been a patient in my hospital, and the fantastic care we received, and how the staff there provided me with comfort and reassurance when I was so very scared, and I remember why I chose to work in a hospital in the first place. Because I don't sell something that's meaningless or frivolous. I get to work on a team that saves lives, and my little contribution may provide comfort or peace during the scariest moment in someone's year.

Plus, let's face it. My cafeteria sells the most amazing peach cobbler known to man. That's reason enough to stay another eight years.

What about you? Join the link up party and leave me a comment with a link to your post - I'd love to see what the rest of you do!

Reasons

There's a simple explanation for the dire lack of blogging activity over the past week... I am so consumed by work and school at the moment that I don't have a single brain cell left to think of something interesting (or uninteresting, for that matter) to write about. 

Now don't go feeling too sorry for me. Yes, I just pulled a 14-hour day today, and a 12-hour day yesterday, and several 12-hour days last week. In fact, if you add up the hours I will be either working or in school over the next six days, it adds up to around 75. Including Friday night and 14 hours on Saturday. Gulp. 

But in between school district advisory board meetings, organizing galas and putting on marathons, I've managed to fit in a few hot tub nights, a drive-in movie, neighborhood dinner parties, a little Bachelor watching with girlfriends, and a huge blow-out party at my sister's new house. I may feel like I've been run over by a freight train (that's what a full week without a decent night's sleep will do for you), but as I drove home tonight at 9:00 after a long day of work, singing at the top of my lungs to Taylor Swift's Love Story, I was quite happy.

Front page news

Today I had a story on the front page of the newspaper. Actually, it was on the front page of both Section A and Section B, complete with several pictures. That story represents hours of work behind the scenes, coordinating interviews for the reporter, prepping my folks being interviewed, finding background research... I even had to re-design our Web site so they could link to a certain video (which didn't exist until I did a quickie online tutorial on how to upload videos... now that's customer service!).  My name may not be on the story, but seeing it there in black and white (with color photos!) makes me a really happy girl. Plus, it makes my boss really happy, which is even better. I do these all the time, but this one I'm framing and hanging in my office... it was that good.

Other than that... I forgot to mention that I ran 5 miles yesterday with an average of 8:30 per mile. I've got to hit it hard again tomorrow, and then we'll run 12 on Friday. Three more weeks and I start my lazy girl workout!

Grant Teaff & Pecan Pie

I had yet another fundraising dinner for work tonight (this one for a very worthy Christian non-profit). If you're taking notes, that's my 5 millionth fundraiser this month. No kidding.

I must admit that I wasn't super excited about having to work until 10 p.m. on a Monday night (since Tuesday I have class until 9 p.m.--two late nights in a row), but I was pleasantly surprised because (1) Grant Teaff, the best football coach in Baylor's history, gave a fabulous speech, (2) I got to get my photo made with him (and my eyes were open!), and (3) they served some really fantastic pecan pie, which happens to be my favorite.

So my night turned out to be pretty darn good. Sic 'em, Bears!

Irony

I'm in charge of a big event for work tomorrow. We're expecting around 500 people for a ribbon cutting ceremony, followed by a lunch. It will take place in a giant tent... 60 feet x 90 feet. There's no sides to this tent, just a top.

Which leads to the irony...

The fire marshal required us to post "emergency exit" signs in this tent! In a tent with NO SIDES. So if by some crazy fluke a fire breaks out during my party, hopefully my guests will see my strategically placed signs and evacuate my tent via the labeled exits. Not necessarily by simply WALKING OUT of this tent with no sides. Apparently that's expecting too much of people.

It's obvious that strict government oversight is always the best answer.

I never thought I'd say this, but...

Today at work I went to a fundraising luncheon sponsored by one of my favorite non-profits and watched a Las Vegas Oprah impersonator do a "favorite things" spoof with all of our local mayors. I came home with silly string, a water gun, and an eye patch. They even served molten chocolate cake... my favorite. For Oprah's big finale, she sang a Tina Turner song (apparently the Oprah impersonator moonlights as a Tina Turner impersonator). I kept waiting for her to rip off her Oprah-ish satin shirt to reveal her Tina Turner sparkly mini-dress hidden underneath as she did the "rollin' down the river" dance, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

The worst feeling

Today I'm hosting a group of community leaders at the hospital all day for "health care day." They're learning all about health topics and getting the "inside scoop" on how hospitals really run. We're in a boardroom, listening to speaker after speaker, and I'm making sure everything runs smoothly.

Mid-morning, I had to switch out somebody's presentation on the computer at the front of the room. I was talking, and squatted down quickly to stick the flash drive in the back of the computer.

RIP.

That's the worst feeling. Ever. I've got 20 community leaders staring at me, and I'm not sure if my pants are in one piece or two. Or in shreds. All I know is that I heard a terrible, terrible sound. A ripping sound, right in the back of my pants.

Thankfully, I only ripped the lining. The outside is still intact. For now at least.

But it looks like I'm going to need some new pants.

Softball!

Tonight is my first softball game! Yea! I was supposed to play last week, but it snowed. Tonight it's going to be beautiful, and hopefully I can hit a few homeruns to propel my team to victory. Or something like that.

On another note, I randomly helped our local children's theater, Casa Manana, get a defibrillator today. My friend who does P.R. over there called to ask me about it, I called a lady who raises money to buy them, and ba-da bang, ba-da boom, she has an extra AED that she's willing to donate (normally they cost $1500... yikes)! Now those kiddos will be all set in case of an emergency. I wish everything was that easy.

Community party girl

For awhile it seemed like I was cutting back on all of those community events that come with my job. I only went to a handful of formal events last year, and it was good to take a break. But now the break is over and I'm back to being a community socialite.

Tonight was an auction. I bid on a few autographed baseball pictures and a hot stone massage. We'll see if I won anything. I strongly considered bidding on being "Mayor for the Day" for one of my local cities. It would be interesting to play politics for a day, and it'd be good publicity for my hospital. But, I decided I'd rather go for the massage. A girl has to have her priorities.

Last week was a volunteer appreciation dinner for the Cowtown Marathon at a ritzy Fort Worth country club. They served the most fabulous salad I have EVER had in my entire life at that dinner. If you want a good salad, visit Mira Vista Country Club. Seriously.

I'm not sure what event is next... I should check my calendar. I need an excuse to buy a new dress!

That white stuff falling from the sky

Today was pretty boring... I took the day off of work and wrote a research paper ALL DAY. Bleh. On my list of things I want to do on any given day, sitting at my computer analyzing articles on weight loss surgery and the accuracy of advertising and Web sites is not very high on my list.

But then it snowed, and everything changed. It's so beautiful, it almost makes up for an otherwise dreary day.

My highly retouched movie star photo

A few months ago I had to have my picture taken for one of the boards I sit on. They needed our photos for the directory or website or something, and even though I already have a professional headshot for work, I was forced against my will to get my picture made yet again.

The day we were scheduled to take this photo, I got a huge zit on my chin. And somehow I popped a blood vessel in my eye (yes, that was lovely). I was having a bad hair day. I felt pale. And really, really not cute.

So I jokingly asked the photographer to "retouch" my photo. I encouraged him to go crazy with Photoshop and do whatever it takes to make me look presentable. Well by-golly, Photoshop is a wonderful thing! Because after he was finished, I ended up with flawless skin (where'd those freckles go?), perfectly white teeth, perfectly clear eyes, and not a single hair out of place. Even my shirt has been whitened.

So now I know how those celebrities must feel after those big magazine covershoots. There's no way they could possibly look as flawless in real life as they look on the covers of those magazines. As someone who dabbles in design, I know how to tinker with a photo to "enhance" it. But this one of me just made me laugh.

And trust me, I'm going to use this photo forever.

Video killed the radio star

So today was the big day... the big radio interview! I got up extra early (5:30 a.m.!), put on my cute new shirt, a pair of blue jeans and my cowgirl boots, and headed to downtown Fort Worth to hang out with the crew at 95.9 The Ranch. They turned out to be really fun people... very laid back, and extremely nice to me. We chatted for a few minutes about my connection with the Marathon, and then it was time to start the interview. Gulp. Right about that time I spilled some of my bottled water on their counter. That's right, I'm cool.

The interview went great. It started out with one of the DJ's commenting on my cowboy boots (I knew it would be better to show up at the country station in casual clothes instead of a stuffy suit) and from there the conversation flowed pretty well. Being on the radio is a lot easier than being interviewed on TV... there's no cameras to worry about, and after a minute I forgot about the microphones and just had fun hanging out with them. And, I didn't spill anything once the interview started. Or pass out.

They're going to replay my interview later this week, and they invited me to come back next year! I must say, that was one of the coolest things I've gotten to do with this job. I've always had a secret dream to be a radio personality. Which is obviously never going to happen, but today I got to live it for about 15 minutes on a tiny local country station. I'll take it.

I feel like an underachiever

I have some really cool friends. Many have accomplished some awesome things (successful lawyers, mascots, tv personalities, corporate bigwigs, even a spy), and today I found out another one of my friends has overshadowed my accomplishments.

My friend Ron White went to Afghanistan as a reservist for a year and just sent me a link to his photos. Normally he's just a nationally recognized memory expert who speaks all over the United States (I met him at my first job, and was even given a shout-out on the acknowledgment page in one of his books for my "grammar consulting"). I don't think I would offend him if I said he's just an average joe who set out to do something heroic in support of his country. Way to go Ron, I'm proud of you.

As for something much less heroic, I'm going to be on the radio tomorrow morning to promote the Cowtown Marathon, an organization that I help out with. It should be fun, since I've never been to a radio station before (although I have been on Kidd Kraddick in the Morning, a midnight trucker show on 820 a.m. and Rush Limbaugh... but all of those are because I'm a big dork who used to call into radio shows). Hopefully I won't make a huge goober of myself. I wasn't that nervous (mostly because this isn't the most popular station in town or anything) until I started thinking about how DJ's like to make fun of guests if they say something stupid. I could just imagine my flubbed speech getting played over and over as a teaser while everybody laughs. AT me. Oh my, I'm getting nervous just thinking about it!

Is it wrong that I was tempted to go buy a new outfit for my big radio interview?

I survived

I survived those junior high kiddos yesterday. Career day went fine, although I have come to the conclusion that my job is only interesting to somebody in college or older. Before that, I don't think these kids really have a grasp on what my job really entails or why it's so much fun. All those kids took away from yesterday is that I get a bunch of free tickets to sporting events, and I get to watch surgeries whenever I want. I always think they'll enjoy the idea of designing advertising, but their little eyes just glaze over.

But I brought gifts, so they loved me anyway. One girl told me afterward that she wanted to be just like me when she grew up. Ahh, what a smart girl (just kidding).

My news interview with Kristi Nelson also went great. Our story is going to run next Tuesday or Wednesday... I'll let you know when. I think we did a great job, and the reporter said she would definitely call me again for future health care stories. Let's hope she does.

Today I have to tackle all of that homework I put off all week. But if I finish it all today, I'm going to reward myself by going shopping for some new furniture! It's my absolute favorite thing to shop for, and I have been needing an extra arm chair for my living room, so today just might be the big day! I'm hosting a party next week for my Sunday School class and could use the extra seating. Plus, I'm just sort of in the mood to buy something big. It's either this, or I'll need to book a trip to Europe or something. And surprisingly enough, the chair would be much less expensive.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow will be a fun day. I love my job, but every once in awhile I sit back and think about what a cool job I have. I get paid to do things that I would probably do for free. Tomorrow is one of those days.

Tomorrow morning I am speaking at a junior high career day. I'll be speaking to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders about the importance of going to college, and letting them know about careers in advertising. I did this two years ago and my kids were completely unimpressed. I thought they would be fascinated about the thought of shooting TV commercials, designing advertising, going to cool events or working with the media. But 6th graders are different, and all they wanted to hear about was blood and guts. Unfortunately, my job doesn't involve many blood or guts (although I see that occasionally).

If I survive career day (which I should, since I'm bringing gifts for the kiddos... whatever it takes to win their love), then after lunch I'll get to work with reporter Kristi Nelson from NBC Channel 5 on a news story that involves one of our doctors. It's always fun to work with a news crew... it's not nearly as glamorous as you'd think, but it's exciting nonetheless. I enjoy coaching people before they speak on camera, looking for a cool place for them to shoot, talking with reporters (or even more interesting, the cameraman). I'm fascinated by the whole process.

So wish me luck. It will be a full day!

The News

For the past few days I have been working with Deborah Ferguson, morning anchor for NBC 5 News, on stories to promote the Cowtown Marathon (coming February 23... dust off those old running shoes!). Even though I work with the media on a daily basis, it's always fun to share a few phone calls with someone I watch every morning on TV as I debate whether or not I really want to get out of bed and face my day.

Stay tuned... you may be hearing about a lady who's running the Ultra Marathon to raise money for her friend who had a double-lung transplant. Or maybe the team of 13 ladies who are running the Half Marathon who had never run before in their lives, and who have all lost at least 50 pounds training for their 13-mile race. Or maybe the heartwarming story of a dad and his disabled daugther who will be running their first marathon together.

Sometimes my job is really fun!