Journal July 31, 2006
I guess I’ll be making it a quarterly journal. Last time I wrote I talked about turning 32. This time the celebration was because Evan and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. Wow, time sure flies.
So far a lot has happened. Evan shared some of what was going on… but I’ll add my perspective as sometimes it’s quite different being a female and also his partner and wife! So one of our big moments was both of us winning the 40 under 40 for Pacific Business News. What an honor that was. I was hoping that both of us would be recognized, but wasn’t sure because of our overlap in the many things that we’ve done together. However, although we’ve worked with the same company a few times, our roles and responsibilities were always different and our accomplishments within the companies were different. It’s funny how people will just see it as one. I guess when you get married, you truly are one, especially if you do things together.
I was having lunch with my mom the other day and I mentioned to her that my biggest challenge in my career is not moving up or doing things, but it was being an individual. Funny how Evan and I were both listed individually for the 40 under 40, yet many people think that we won as a couple. Yet when we tell them that it was an individual accomplishment, people seem surprised. Hmm, surprised because I won or because Evan won????
Following after we celebrated my second son’s birthday. He just turned one. It was a nice celebration and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. Part of the entertainment included a magic bubble show. The lady, Karin, from AlohaClowns did an amazing bubble show. Many of the adults and the children enjoyed the show. There were a variety sizes and shapes of bubbles to be amazed with. Following the show we had face and body painting. My older son got his face painted like a cheetah. It was really cute and he got many compliments later in the day. I would highly recommend AlohaClowns as Karin was amazing to work with and the entertainment was super.
I helped organize a training for the Honolulu Meals On Wheels chapter for the volunteers on Disaster Preparedness. There were two speakers, one that shared about the weather patterns and the other who shared what the warnings meant and what to do. It was very informative and helpful now that Evan and I have our own family to worry about and plan for. One tip that I took away from the training was that people should have a contact that is not necessarily located in the same area for family to call and check-in. When an emergency happens many of us want to be in contact with one another through cell phone or computer, but limited lines are available. The speakers shared that having someone as a contact elsewhere can inform others of where the others are at and who has checked in so far. So for example, a lot of our family is located on Oahu, and there are a few relatives in California. We have made our California relative our point of contact if anything happens in Hawaii. She will be the one that everyone calls and to get updates on how everyone else is doing until Hawaii is back in gear and we are able to reconnect locally. This is something to think about… We’re in the preparation of our next inservice training for September for the volunteers.
Evan’s brother recently got married and Evan was the best man. He did a really good speech, as expected. There was a lot of talk about Evan’s speech through the night before it happened because people didn’t know if Evan was going to embarrass his brother or feature him. But of course with good judgment, he delivered a loving and humorous speech about his brother. If anyone has ever seen Evan as a public speaker, he’s really good. He’s moving, funny and quite entertaining.
So I just went back to school last week. There were teacher meetings all day last week and today was the children’s first day back. I don’t teach children for another few weeks because we have to test each child individually on their English language skills. This takes a long time, then the test needs to be scored prior the child being placed. This year our principal is trying to have me lead the Art lessons for the school. I am not sure my position on this. It will take additional time and prep, besides the prep for my ESLL classes and the businesses. I will be going in to meet with him tomorrow to discuss my position further.
So the biggest news of the year so far…Our Greater Good TV got approved by a major TV network. We’re finalizing everything so I don’t want to say too much yet. I am so excited! Evan was working on the TV portion at first, but I thought that it could be tweaked a bit and I was excited to do this part of the business so he handed it off to me. Not having any experience in the TV production part of it or writing, I didn’t know where to start but I knew where I wanted to go. The first show I produced took me 8 ½ hours. It took me that long to script out the show and to organize everything. I thought if it’s going to take this long, I don’t know how our shows will ever get done. But then the next show I got the hang of it and it only took me 2 hours. I’ve done 3 more since then and it takes me about 2 to 2 ½ hours per show to script and organize everything. I’ve really been enjoying myself.
The best part of this all has been getting more involved with the employees in the Phillipines. I’ve been able to work with Dante closer with the audio and the production of the shows. Dante is so great to work with because he’s so dedicated to what he does. Dante and I have been so excited about these shows that we’ve been sleep deprived, I’ve been up till 2:00 am at times and Dante’s been up till 6:00 am in the Phillipines talking on the IM about the shows. We’re tired, but we’re enjoying ourselves.
Then I’ve been able to work with Jay-R, who helps us write our articles for the Star Bulletin, Hawaii.rr.com, Pacificnews.net … Jay-R is similar to me because he plans ahead and is very systematic in the way he does things. He’s also very organized which helps because he is helping us prepare for the book that we’ll be trying to put together before year end. Jay-R’s also been writing some good journals online. It’s interesting to read about what’s going on in another part of the world from another person’s perspective.
Lastly, we just had an article written about us in the Star Bulletin. It was a nice big article and nice picture of us at the radio studio. We were fortunate to be the front page of the section. We then followed that article with another article in Pacific Edge Magazine for the quarter. That too was a nice article. Like Evan said, it seems a lot easier to get PR now as opposed to when we were first starting. We feel blessed by the coverage we have received so far being that we just want to share our message of the intent of the show.
Oh, for those of you who are following Greater Good, we will be having a one year anniversary event in September. I am trying to coordinate it with the launch of our television show. It doesn’t leave much time, but would like to see if we can pull it off. I like working under pressure… So stay tuned for the details and please join us. It will be a fundraiser for an educational organization Evan and I are both acquainted with called Learning for Life. It’s a character building program for teachers and leaders who are making a difference with children’s lives by building their self esteem and character to be leaders of tomorrow. Please come out and support the cause and to celebrate with us!
