Gamma Phi Beta Convention Photos

I've put together a few convention photos. Some of these might not make sense (why are there hundreds of women walking around with hot pink hats with carnations?) but I guess I can just say it's a sorority thing. John McCain was staying in our hotel for a few days and he did stop by briefly for a photo op. He seamed nice enough but he does look a little frightened in the picture, what normal man wouldn't be a little frightened to see 800 sorority "girls" running at him with cameras. One of the highlights was a concert by Elizabeth Pitcairn current owner of the Red Violin and a Gamma Phi Beta. Apparently Elizabeth and the Red Violin both lived in the Gamma Phi Beta house at the University of Southern California. The violin travels with it's own private guard!

So where have you been?

We have been very busy and I know that I've been horrible about updating the blog lately! I was in Cincinatti, Ohio for the Gamma Phi Beta Convention last week, this week Mike is in Cabo for a mini-reunion with some of his fraternity brothers, and next week we're off to Hawaii for a week. I don't know about you but just thinking about all the traveling, packing, and unpacking makes me tired!

I had a blast at the Gamma Phi Beta Convention. Some of you may not know this but while we lived in Colorado I worked for the sorority as the Collegiate Coordinator at International Headquarters. When we moved to Oklahoma I stopped working at Headquarters and I started volunteering for the sorority as a regional coordinator. As a regional coordinator I directly supervise several collegiate chapters and right now I work with Gamma Phi Beta chapters at California State University-Chico, Sacramento State University, the University of Washington, and the University of Puget Sound. I really enjoy my time working with these chapters, it gives me a chance to use my master's degree and it allows me to give back to the organization that had such a huge impact on my development. I loved being in a sorority, I had a ton of fun in college but today I appreciate it so much more for the things that I learned that I wasn't expecting to learn. I learned a lot about conflict resolution, I learned how to make "small-talk" and have appropriate "cocktail party" conversations, I was able to experience incredible leadership opportunities, I found a few fantastic friends who I know will be close friends for the rest of my life, I learned how to network, I met my husband, the list goes on and on......
It was great to reconnect with so many of my sorority sisters this past week (all 800+ of us), I'll be sharing some pictures soon.

A new favorite food

Olivia has discovered a new favorite food.....asparagus. I know I was a little surprised too but she loves the stuff. Over the last couple of weeks I have noticed that Olivia doesn't seem to want/need me to cut all of her food up into little bite size pieces, instead she loves being able to take a bite of something then put it back onto her plate. Last night we had asparagus for dinner and I carefully cut several up into little bite sized pieces for her plate. She took one look at them and then reached over to my plate to get a whole asparagus. She refused to eat the ones I had cut up for her but loved eating them whole. I tried to get a couple of pictures of her eating the asparagus for my mom who loves asparagus as much as I do but she was eating them so quickly it was hard to get a good picture. I finally decided that I would video tape her eating the asparagus but then of course she didn't want to cooperate.

Father's Day

After all the excitement around our house lately it was really nice to spend a relaxing day at home! On Father's Day I had planned to surprise Mike with a trip to the zoo and a beach BBQ at a park near the house. After seeing how grumpy Olivia had been on Saturday we decided we'd rather spend the day at home. We did some chores around the house and went grocery shopping together. I know this may sound like a day of work but I think that Mike and I both enjoyed getting some things crossed off our to do list. That afternoon we took advantage of the great weather and spent some family time together in our back yard. Olivia and Mike loved playing in Olivia's inflatable pool (it's huge) and we had a backyard BBQ complete with s'mores.