June 10th!

June 10th was the last time that I updated this thing? Someone should tell me these things! Today is what... August 2? I think that is waaaaaay too long, don't you? (Of course you do. That's why you're reading this now, right?)

There has just been way too much to write about since then. My first idea near the beginning of July was to write about what I did on my summer vacation. My summer vacation was the 4th of July weekend. We did stuff, but I don't really remember what we did now. I'm sure we had fun. (Don't you love it when I don't get all caught up in the details. Things just go so much faster.)

One of the reasons that I haven't written anything, is that I have been extremely busy lately. I started another project the last weekend in June. The national launch training program for the new Nissan Versa subcompact. When I train, I travel. Said travel with this particular program has already taken me from LA (for training) to Bakersfield, CA (first training city), through central California, over to Reno, up to Bend, OR, continuing up the state to the Portland area, where I am now. I'll be up in the Seattle area by this time next week. Then I have to leave this program prior to its' conclusion, to start on another program comparing the new Mercedes GL450 to the Infiniti QX56 full-size SUB. Oh, did I mention that I'm driving all of this way? So basically, LA to Seattle, driving a small car (with two other guys in two other small cars, the Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris for comparison purposes) in about 6 weeks. Oh, and did I mention that I fly home every weekend from wherever I happen to be, so I can actually spend time with my family? Finish training at 5 or so on Friday, drive to a nearby (or not) airport, get home after everyone's in bed, spend a day and a half at home, and back to the airport on Sunday afternoon to fly back to wherever I flew out of to drive to another city to start work on Monday again. Oh, did I mention that the Infiniti/Mercedes program will have me going from LA to Seattle, to Utah, then to Las Vegas in three weeks? (At least for that one I'll be driving the Mercedes!)The glamorous world of business travel. And I still need to squeeze in flying home on the weekends between all of that driving for the Infiniti program.

Fine you say. So update your blog in the evenings when you're just hanging out in your hotel room, you say. Would that be before, or after, booking hotel reservations for every night of the travel mentioned above, for me and my two traveling partners. And it would definitely be after checking in on NDISB stuff to make sure nothing has blown up during the day. Then I have to check the NDISB forum and delete the spam posters who are joining the forum to link to some website that has nothing to do with scrapbooking. And naturally, I have to read the forums to see what's going on, and drop in a post or two of my own if needed just to keep things interesting. I suppose that I could do it before programming my Palm/Garmin based navigation system with the next days' dealerships and hotel so I know where I'm going. But usually I just crawl into my bed around midnight, so I can get up and do it all again the next day. (Thank goodness that Hampton Inn has instituted a nationwide rollout of actually putting comfortable beds in their hotel rooms (Imagine That!)) Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of Hampton Inns near where I need to stay. I'm rreally hoping that Holiday Inn Express (which is everywhere) picks up on that and encourages their franchisees to do something similar. So far, all they have is shower heads and new sheets. Seriously, they are so proud of their new sheets, that they are plastered all over their home page.

Anyway... the real reason that I wanted to post anything this evening is to tell you that I am sooooooooo proud of Theresa!

First, I am absolutely blown away by her devotion to her scrapbooking business, Natural Designs in Scrapbooking (which you can find at www.ndisb.com). She truly and consistently puts this pompous and meandering blowhard to shame. She gets up early with her kids, immediately starts working on NDISB stuff, gets the kids fed and dressed and off to school, goes to her "real job", and then reverses all of that at the end of the day. Seriously, she is on her laptop for hours a day at home before and after going to "work". She's working two forty hour a week jobs, plus raising a family in my absence, and I come home on the weekends and throw a monkey wrench into her perfectly organized chaos!

But what just about brought tears to my eyes was her selection as the Featured Designer at A Cherry on Top (http://www.acherryontop.com/)for the month of August. After I read about Theresa, I scrolled down and saw that the ACOT Creative Team used her featured kit to create some layouts. And just seeing so many women using her designs to make memories of their own really struck me in a way that hadn't happened before. I don't know why, because I've seen her kits used in lots of layouts before. I guess sometimes you can't really account for why you feel the way that you do. I just know that I am incredibly proud of Theresa, and just totally, totally amazed at her untiring dedication to her customers and team of designers and creative team members that she has working with her on the site.

Theresa knows all of these things. I tell her all the time. But you don't know that's how I feel. I should say that you didn't. Now you do.

Theresa... you are an inspiration to me, and as glowing an example as could exist for our children. (Even when you're yelling at them because they're fighting over who's going to pee first!) I love you deeply.