Gift Planning Day

National Staff Meeting concluded with a day of meeting with our ALSAC Gift Planning team.  A day of learning more about other departments, team building and building rapport with one another.  Above is a photo of my regional team.  We work out of home offices in California, Oregon, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Iowa.  Our beloved administrative assistant works at our National Executive Office in Memphis.

Two of my most favorite Gift Planning Peeps.

This is how our serious director of Stewardship makes his presentations.

And it's all business with one of our regional directors.

 

I was on the winning team for our ALSAC / St. Jude trivia team.  We just happened to be the most competitive.  It runs in our blood!

National Staff Meeting was wonderful this year.  I always love getting to spend time at St. Jude and among my dedicated and enthusiastic colleagues.  I am forever grateful for all that ALSAC / St. Jude teaches me and for the opportunity to make contributions toward finding cures and saving children!!!!

ALSAC 2010 National Staff Meeting Danny Awards Ceremony

My colleague, Calvin I were award presenters at the Danny Awards Ceremony tonight.  The awards are pretty comical and honor our hard working colleagues throughout the country.

A little bbq for dinner?  Pulled pork sandwich, mixed in with some nacho cheese (?) and more bread.  Nothing but healthy cuisine for these national staff meetings!

After Calvin and I revealed our award winner, 2 smurfs ran on the stage.  Here I am finishing "smurfing" Chris.

A beautiful Memphis night.  It was h-o-t  this week so I did all I could to stay indoors.  Thankfully the Marriott is connected to the convention center, so very little time was spent outside.

A future in hosting awards shows?  Not likely, but it was fun to have the honor of being a presenter.

San Francisco

I'm in San Francisco for work this week. I'm staying in Mill Valley ~ not too far from the Golden Gate Bridge!

Before dinner, Leslie and Amy (my wonderful colleagues) stopped to take in the view. It was a crystal clear day and pleasant. I'm used to always being f-r-eeee-zing in San Fran.

We drove around Marin Hedlands. More beauty!

With Amy

We ate dinner in Sausalito. I *think* maybe I could live there. On a boat.

I have a crazy travel schedule the next few weeks. But that will soon be over and I'll be back home. No doubt I'll be researching the next place that I *have* to go. The way I see it... I'm going to do all I can, while I can, with what I have... God willing!

Have a great weekend, y'all!

A day in Crestline

I had some work to do today in Crestline, CA. It's a beautiful and quaint little mountain town. Being that I drive by my friend Carolyn's house to get there, I convinced her that she needed a day off and should come with me! I did my work visit and she spent some time with her kids exploring Crestline and Lake Gregory!

I met up with them when my work was done. They had trekked up to 7-11 for slurpies and had already been to the used book store and spotted an a-ma-zing scrapbook store.

Elizabeth, Carolyn and Robbie

We had lunch at a great Mexican restaurant and then Elizabeth and I perused the Scrapbook store while the non scrapbookers snoozed.

A beautiful day with friends away from smog, traffic and noise. Perfect!

Vegas Baby

Last week I had a work event in Las Vegas. Two of my coworkers joined me as well as my parents! We worked hard and also had some time to enjoy a bit of Las Vegas.

We even found a MARLO THOMAS slot machine!

I may have lost a few dollars... but I'll never tell!

We stayed at The Mirage on the Vegas strip. (Thank you to cheaphotels.com)

The Revolution Lounge. It brought me back to the days of being obsessed with The Beatles and singing along with Tia and Tysha in High School.

The pool. And no, I did not venture to the Mirage Venue, Bare.

Thursday we ate brunch at the Monte Carlo and then headed to The Wynn and Encore. They are beautiful! I love the interior decor. Butterflies and flowers... fun and whimsical...

Loving the flowers... would make a great quilt pattern.

Las Vegas doesn't appear to be suffering from much from the state of our economy. Everywhere that we went was jam packed with people....

Outside on Wynn patio...

What a group!

Nice bruise on my arm, eh? That was from the icky scary blood vampire blood draw-er last week.

Mariposas bonitas...

We visited the Guardian Angel Cathedral, in search of a stained glass window, donated by The Danny Thomas Family.

We didn't think that the doors would be open... but they were and we went inside...

And we found it!

The inside of the Cathedral was gorgeous!

My parents and I outside of The Wynn.

We saw Le Reve. It was PHENOMENAL and worth every penny. I'm hooked and want to see every Cirque du Soleil show!

Before the show...

Leslie loved it too!

Gelato cones at The Venetian.

Thanking all of the St. Jude Supporters!

My mom and dad came to help and it was so great to have them!

Jim, Leslie and I at the hotel... our work here is done!

Our next stop was Lake Las Vegas.

The gardens in The Lake Las Vegas Ritz Carlton. A girl can dream...

And on to the new M Casino and Resort. It just opened this week and everybody and their brother was their to check it out!

We ate dinner at Studio B. They have over 200 dishes and chefs prepare delicious appetizers, entrees and out-of-this-world patisserie desserts. There was a 2 1/2 hour wait...but...somehow I, "made friends," with a man and his wife in the VIP line and they added us to their party. Sweet!

Salmon cooked on bamboo

And on Saturday morning I was homeward bound; leaving Las Vegas.

Until next time...