My pitch because no matter how small or big your company is form a Relay for Life of Livermore 2011 team. Or maybe you want to be connected with a team. Or maybe you want to sponsor the event. Or maybe even a poster in your store front (thank you to our downtown stores who are already displaying the Relay colors) Or maybe a few brochures in your lobby because while maybe you are not in a position to be there this year but you might be help to motivate someone who should. So here I go.
Hello, my name is Kathleen Schoening and I am Team Recruitment Chair with the Livermore Relay For Life. Right now we are reaching out to local Livermore businesses to invite them to join us in the fight against cancer. This amazing 24 hour event is being held on June 25th and 26th at Livermore High School.
We are looking for teams and sponsors to participate so that we can Celebrate, Remember and Fight Back for every person whose life has been touched by cancer.
Still not sure and have questions? I would like to talk with you because we would love to have you as part of this incredible community of survivors, caregivers and people who care.
Why do I Relay? I Relay because when our daughter was 2 years old her daddy, my husband was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. For a year, my husband underwent chemo and radiation. Our daughter and I stood by, praying for the day we could say that daddy was a cancer survivor. And now, one year later he is.
So come join us.
This is going to be one amazing year!
Kathleen Schoening
Team Recruitment Chair
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Alameda Beach-The first beach I knew as a kid
This is the first beach I knew as a kid. This is the beach our mom would take us to and where the love of water and sand were instilled in me. So today, I detoured from a grocery store trip and went. There are days like this that I wonder why I am in the suburbs where my heart longs to live near a beach.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Winter at the Beach
Emma and I packed a lunch and headed to the coast today. We played in the sand,the water and met new friends. It was beautiful. Winter at the Beach always nice.
Monday, January 17, 2011
"No Room for Racism"
that is what the sign said in the back of my car window 19 years ago. I remember picking up my grandparents in Fresno and as my grandpa got in the car hauling his oxygen tank in he said, "Can I get in?" and he laughed. It was not a mean laugh, but rather a laugh of acknowledgment. My grandpa was a preacher and when I knew him, as I knew him and as I remember him he was not a racist but a man of God who welcome all in his church.
When my grandpa's health problems forced him and my grandma (the giggler) to leave the Church of Christ in Fremont to retire, they went to the home they owned in Fresno. There he was to rest. However, God had another plan (funny how God always does). My grandpa was called to yet preach again at a rural church (literally a two room church) in the middle of farm land. I think it is Road 22 Ave 12 right outside of Fresno or maybe Road 12 Ave 22. In the room where my grandpa last preached where the poorest of poor and an elderly black who came every week to hear grandpa preach. I said hear because the man could not see, he was blind. I will never forget that.
Here's why.
That day 19 years ago, when I picked up my grandparents we were going to a family reunion as we did every May. I remember that day like it was yesterday for some reason. My grandpa kidded I had lead a foot and laughed some more but it was the under currents of that day as I remember.
It was the whispers. The haunting of past generations being heard. Apparently without my grandpa's knowledge KKK meetings were held in the church where he preached in the south so many, many years before. Times were different then. It made my stomach turn. God is not a racist and neither should a place of worship be. I am not sure how the meetings stopped or if my grandpa moved on. Perhaps someday I will get the rest of the story.
Fast forward a few years down the road. My grandpa had passed and another family reunion was held. Talk there was how Snoop Dog might be related to us. You see Broadus/Broaddus are not common surnames.
I could hear my grandpa laughing now. I actually think grandpa might like a good clean rap about no room for racism.
When my grandpa's health problems forced him and my grandma (the giggler) to leave the Church of Christ in Fremont to retire, they went to the home they owned in Fresno. There he was to rest. However, God had another plan (funny how God always does). My grandpa was called to yet preach again at a rural church (literally a two room church) in the middle of farm land. I think it is Road 22 Ave 12 right outside of Fresno or maybe Road 12 Ave 22. In the room where my grandpa last preached where the poorest of poor and an elderly black who came every week to hear grandpa preach. I said hear because the man could not see, he was blind. I will never forget that.
Here's why.
That day 19 years ago, when I picked up my grandparents we were going to a family reunion as we did every May. I remember that day like it was yesterday for some reason. My grandpa kidded I had lead a foot and laughed some more but it was the under currents of that day as I remember.
It was the whispers. The haunting of past generations being heard. Apparently without my grandpa's knowledge KKK meetings were held in the church where he preached in the south so many, many years before. Times were different then. It made my stomach turn. God is not a racist and neither should a place of worship be. I am not sure how the meetings stopped or if my grandpa moved on. Perhaps someday I will get the rest of the story.
Fast forward a few years down the road. My grandpa had passed and another family reunion was held. Talk there was how Snoop Dog might be related to us. You see Broadus/Broaddus are not common surnames.
I could hear my grandpa laughing now. I actually think grandpa might like a good clean rap about no room for racism.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
All About Me Robot With Glitter Glue and Jewels
Emma was chosen as Star of the Week for her Pre-K class (names are taken out of a bag each week until each child has a turn).
As part of the assignment, she had to complete the All About Me Robot which of course right now nothing is done without glitter glue and jewels!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Grateful for Real Girlfrieds AKA mommy friends
So I can honesty say that I am more than blessed in the mommy friends department. Being co-director of the local moms club has helped with this (and as Clark says he never thought by me being in a Mommy club that he would get friends).
As I write this my girlfriends and their husbands have helped my family and I through an Emma crisis. Emma was having some difficulties with one of her playmates. This playmate can be overly aggressive. So issues arise.
We had already been told to keep our child away from this playmate by a professional that had seen interactions between the two children and had said that this relationship was toxic to Emma but life happens and interactions occur. Then the latest situation happened and Clark was done, Emma was done and so was I.
We knew we could only control Emma. We also immediately enrolled her into an anti-bullying/self defense class. Sound extreme? Yes, in some ways. But we are not always going to be there as parents and Emma needs to know how to be assertive using her mind, words and if necessary physically. And as a girl, knowledge is power.
So Clark and I have intentionally kept Emma away from this other child. Then a girlfriend mentioned "Why?". You are then giving power to the child and the parents (yes to answer the question we have talked to the parents and repeatedly we have been told we "parent differently" or when Emma was shoveled in the corner and repeatedly pushed on by this other child after Emma was yelling "no" that it was one time incident, we realize we can communicate over and over but it is not our child and we only can teach our child right from wrong).
We really started to think and PRAY about this. My girlfriend was right. SO the other day, when I knew Emma would be around her other friends and I would be around mine, I went to a place where I knew this child would be. In a span of 90 minutes, this child did not share with Emma, would not take turns with others, would grab things from others, tore apart foam pit squares, stormed off and pouted about 6 times. Yes, I counted because each time I said nothing to the parent or the child, but to Emma I said, "Come on let's go do something else." And off we would go. In our dust, the parent had try to discipline.
I almost had to laugh at one point the other child said to mine, "Why don't you want to be friends with me?" Mmmmmmm...I am not 4 years old, but if you were consistently not sharing, not taking turns, storming off and pouting, I would not want to be friends with you either.
So at the end of the time, Emma, I just love her honesty says in front of me, the child, the child's parent, "Mommy, She was not mean to me today." I had to smile because we had chosen not to engage with this other child when the behavior was out of control and my child felt good. YEAH!
I should add we know Emma is not perfect. However, our job as her parents is to do the best we can for her and to guide her in the best direction and sometimes we need the advice of real girlfriends or AKA mommy friends. It goes a long way!
As I write this my girlfriends and their husbands have helped my family and I through an Emma crisis. Emma was having some difficulties with one of her playmates. This playmate can be overly aggressive. So issues arise.
We had already been told to keep our child away from this playmate by a professional that had seen interactions between the two children and had said that this relationship was toxic to Emma but life happens and interactions occur. Then the latest situation happened and Clark was done, Emma was done and so was I.
We knew we could only control Emma. We also immediately enrolled her into an anti-bullying/self defense class. Sound extreme? Yes, in some ways. But we are not always going to be there as parents and Emma needs to know how to be assertive using her mind, words and if necessary physically. And as a girl, knowledge is power.
So Clark and I have intentionally kept Emma away from this other child. Then a girlfriend mentioned "Why?". You are then giving power to the child and the parents (yes to answer the question we have talked to the parents and repeatedly we have been told we "parent differently" or when Emma was shoveled in the corner and repeatedly pushed on by this other child after Emma was yelling "no" that it was one time incident, we realize we can communicate over and over but it is not our child and we only can teach our child right from wrong).
We really started to think and PRAY about this. My girlfriend was right. SO the other day, when I knew Emma would be around her other friends and I would be around mine, I went to a place where I knew this child would be. In a span of 90 minutes, this child did not share with Emma, would not take turns with others, would grab things from others, tore apart foam pit squares, stormed off and pouted about 6 times. Yes, I counted because each time I said nothing to the parent or the child, but to Emma I said, "Come on let's go do something else." And off we would go. In our dust, the parent had try to discipline.
I almost had to laugh at one point the other child said to mine, "Why don't you want to be friends with me?" Mmmmmmm...I am not 4 years old, but if you were consistently not sharing, not taking turns, storming off and pouting, I would not want to be friends with you either.
So at the end of the time, Emma, I just love her honesty says in front of me, the child, the child's parent, "Mommy, She was not mean to me today." I had to smile because we had chosen not to engage with this other child when the behavior was out of control and my child felt good. YEAH!
I should add we know Emma is not perfect. However, our job as her parents is to do the best we can for her and to guide her in the best direction and sometimes we need the advice of real girlfriends or AKA mommy friends. It goes a long way!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Many years ago Clark and I become members of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We would go for the weekend spend time at the Aquarium and then go to the beach. Then Emma came along. I still remember her first visit. We had paid to have a members only dinner at the Aquarium by a known chef and she slept the whole time in her car carrier. Since then, we go every few months and everything changes frequently so nothing remains the same.
Of course any reason to go to the beach in any season is perfectly fine with us!
Now of course economic times have changed. Instead of going for a weekend, we pack a lunch and go for a day. We hit the Aquarium and then the beach. We love it now just as much as because of Emma. Her joy of being at the beach warms our hearts in any season!
Sunday, January 2, 2011
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