Layout: Fireworks

Ever wish there was a kit out there to scrap your fireworks pictures that wasn’t red, white and blue?  Sweet Digi Scrap’s to the rescue! She has released a kit called “Sparkle and Boom” that is absolutely gorgeous. You can find it at The Digi Chick.

Dream Manager: September 2013

Session 8:

Emotional Mastery

This session we examined the emotional area of our life. We also talked about The Seven Levels of Intimacy model.
After talking about our scorecard, we then worked on answering questions.
Identify three relationships in your life that are not working well. Then we had to answer these questions:

• Do the other people in these relationships feel the same way?
• How might you raise this issue with these people?
• How might you improve these relationships?

We next had to identify 3 relationships that are thriving. Then answer these questions:

• What does a great relationship look like to you?
• Identify three to five characteristics of a great relationship.

The Seven Levels of Intimacy overview

Every relationship improves when communication improves.

1. Clichés – In the first level of intimacy we simply communicate in clichés. The first level allows us to “warm-up” in conversations and interactions, but we cannot allow our relationships to get stuck here. What relationships in your life need to move beyond the first level?
2. Facts – In the second level of intimacy we tend to talk about the facts of our lives and usually focus on the impersonal facts like food, the weather, the stock market, or the results from the ballgame. In the second level the challenge is to move the conversation toward more personal facts. Who do you avoid sharing personal facts with in your life?
3. Opinions – The third level of intimacy is where every relationship gets into trouble. The reason is because we all have different opinions which have been formed by our education and experience. Here it is critical to recognize that opinions are constantly evolving based on new experiences and new education. It is this insight that empowers us to accept people with radically different opinions. How do you feel this insight will enable you to be more accepting of people with different opinions?
4. Hopes and Dreams – When we know the dreams of the people around us, we want to help them live those dreams. Nothing is more fulfilling than helping someone live a dream. We love the people who help us live our dreams. Do you know the dreams of your family, friends, and colleagues?
5. Feelings – The fifth level of intimacy is about knowing our feelings and being able to express them at the right time, in the right place, and to the right person. In what way can you grow in this area?
6. Fears, Faults, and Failures – Nothing stops us from becoming the-best-version-of-ourselves like fear. Leaders want to know their faults so they can either transform them into strengths or so that they can surround themselves with people who complement their weaknesses. When we reveal our failures, we give other people permission to be human. How does the sixth level of intimacy most challenge you to grow?
7. Legitimate Needs – We are happiest not when we get what we want, but when we have what we need. We have legitimate needs in all four areas: physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. These needs are most basically understood with the following example: If you do not breathe or eat, you will die. What are some of your legitimate needs?

Then we needed to answer the question: How might you use The Seven Levels of Intimacy model to help improve your relationships?

Next session… Intellectual Mastery!

Layout: Metamorphosis

 

Sweet Digi Scrap’s newest kit is “Off The Path”, now available at The Digichick.  I used it and a template from Scrapping With Liz’s Recyclables 26 collection to do this page about the butterfly garden Dennis and Allison are creating in their backyard.  Involving the kids in the process is a complete learning experience.

Dream Manager: August 2013

Session 7:
Physical Mastery
After our review of session 6 activities and our scorecard check-in, we started discussing the topic of physical mastery.
First: Rest and how does sleep impact your energy. We discussed our how many hours of sleep we need to feel our best and how we can optimize the amount and quality of sleep we get.
Next: Exercise. Do we have an exercise routine and if we do, what is it. Are we faithful to it. If we don’t have a routine, what do we think our exercise routine should be. We then had to answer the following:

• If you exercised 3 times a week, every week for an entire year, how would:
• You feel?
• Your life change?
• Your clothes feel and look?
• Your energy increase?
• What can you do to stick with your existing exercise routine or to improve your exercise habits?

Next: Food. What does your body tell you about food?

• Do you ever use food for…
• Comfort?
• Entertainment?
• Distraction?
• Fuel?
• What are foods that energize you and that drain you?

Trying to think of foods that energize and drain us was hard! We were supposed to think of 10 foods for each.  I could only come up with 6 for energizing and 7 for draining.  Then we had to answer the question about why we eat the foods that drain us (they taste good!!!!). Then we needed to answer the question of what can we do to consume more of the foods that are energizing for us.
Homework included reading from The Rhythm of Life and finishing our lists of energizing and draining foods.
Next session… Emotional Mastery!

Dream Manager: July 2013 Individual

I had my 3rd individual session with Kim in July.  We talked a little about my vacation in May and then started focusing on my dream of bringing Core Financial Wellness to the company.
I updated her on my steps for this dream:

• following the FPU program myself – in progress
• investigate whether FPU vs Core Financial Wellness would be a better program – will contact Lampo Group to discuss this
• present a Financial Wellness luncheon for interested employees – scheduled for sometime in September

I had planned on listening to my FPU CD’s on my vacation and I did.  I made it thru the 13 week and the 9 week of CD’s in their entirety.  I was also able to start listening to the 13 week set again.
I had also started putting together ideas of what I would present in the FW lunch and learn.
Next step is to put together a PowerPoint presentation of about 45 minutes for the lunch and learn.  Once we set a specific date, HR will post sign up sheets and it will be publicized on the digital display boards.
Felt very energized after the session!

Dream Manager: July 2013

 

Session 6:

Time and Energy

Again we started by reviewing our session 5 homework and a check-in on our scorecard.

Part of our activities included choosing a word from this list that best describes how we feel in our everyday life and another word that best describes how we feel when at work.

• Angry
• Anxious
• Burned-out
• Confident
• Defeated
• Defensive
• Depressed
• Enthusiastic
• Exhausted
• Fearful
• Invigorated
• Joyful
• Mellow
• Overwhelmed
• Resentful
• Serene

My words were Confident for work and Serene for Life.

Next we discussed the 4 levels of energy and where our selections put us in the levels.

• Level 1 = depressed, exhausted, burned-out, overwhelmed, defeated
• Level 2 = angry, fearful, anxious, defensive, resentful
• Level 3 = mellow, serene
• Level 4 = confident, joyful, enthusiastic, invigorated

We then talked about where our time goes by filling out a personal time inventory record. This is pretty much a chart of the 24 hours of the day broken down in 30 minute increments starting at midnight.  We had to fill one out during our session of the previous day.  Our homework included filling out another one with what we would consider our ideal time inventory. We had to consider where we would spend less time, where we would spend more time and do we take time to reflect and work on our dreams.

We also talked about what person, place or activity increases our energy and what person, place or activity decreases our energy. 

Our homework included answering the following question: What are 3 things you can do this month to increase your energy?  As stated above, we had to complete our ideal time inventory.

Next session… Physical Mastery!

Layout: Blue Streak

 

Sweet Digi Scraps is back!  Her newest release is now available at The DigiChick, Choose Happiness.

I used it to scrap my favorite roller coaster at Cedar Point.  Because whenever I think of the Blue Streak, I smile!  It is definitely an “oldie but goodie” in the roller coaster world.  One of my fondest memories of Cedar Point is when a friend and I rode the Blue Streak 5 or 6 times in a row.  We got off a ride and hopped right back on!  It was in the evening and the park had pretty much cleared out after a late afternoon downpour.

I just love this ride…

… and Sweet Digi Scrap’s kit is great too!  Template is by Scrapping With Liz.

Sweet Digi Scraps Sale!

 

Be sure to check out the kits Liz of Sweet Digi Scraps has on sale at The DigiChick this weekend.  Here are a few of my layouts using the kits…

Kit: Shore Thing

 

Kit: Summertime

 

Kit: Tea 4 Two

 

Kit: Fun Night

 

 

Kit: Summer Daze

 

Kit: Find Yourself, The Scholar

 

Other kits on sale: Life’s Lemonade; Find Yourself, The Photographer; Find Yourself, The Performer; Find Yourself, The Trainer; Find Yourself, The Daydreamer; Find Yourself, The Crafter; Find Yourself, The Artist; Find Yourself, The Undecided

All kits are $1.00

HURRY! Sale ends soon!

Dream Manager: June 2013

Session 5:

The Genius of Personality

We started by reviewing our session 4 homework along with our check-in and discussion of our reading from the book.

Kim then handed out the results of our short quiz to determine our Myers-Briggs personality type. We looked over our results and discussed whether they were right.  During the month I had found several Myers-Briggs quizzes on the internet. Depending on the questions, I would come up with different results.  My result from Kim’s quiz was ISFP: Introverted-Sensing-Feeling- Perceptive.  At home, my results were either ISFP or ISFJ.  More of the ISFJ though. ISFJ: Introverted-Sensing-Feeling-Judging.

When reading through the descriptions of these 2 personality types at several different websites, I always came back to the ISFJ as my type. We discussed our personality types during our session and for the most part everyone felt that their type fit them.

Each month we also would spend a few minutes celebrating the achievement of dreams.  If we could, we would share pictures.  This session was my turn to brag...  I had taken my first ever 2 week vacation.  In a way, this one dream also had some other dreams involved with it.  I wanted to see the Wright Bros Memorial located in the Outer Banks, NC.  Dad and I did this. It was a great day spent with my Dad. He enjoyed it as much as I did! I also wanted to experience some part of WDW with Allison and her kids. Allison, Wendy, the kids and I spent a day at the Animal Kingdom. It was a great time and Allison was glad I was along so she could ride Expedition Everest! I also made it to the Magic Kingdom.  Never thought I’d spend a day walking around there by myself but I did.  Bruce did come over and meet me for the evening.  We also had a great time. It was so nice to spend some alone time with my “big brother”. I really should just do some posts about my vacation!

Homework included more reading and also exploring our personality type:

• How might your personality type impact your group interaction?
• How can you explore your opposite personality type so that you could learn more about yourself and others?
• How might your personality type impact your conflict style?
• How does your personality type reflect jobs or work situations when you’ve succeeded or faced challenges?
• What personality type strength do you most celebrate?

Next session… Time and Energy!

Dream Manager: May 2013 Individual

 

We discussed my final plans for vacation. Since everything was under control with that, we started discussing my dream of bringing the Core Financial Wellness program to the company.

My steps for this dream consisted of:

• follow the FPU program myself – in progress
• investigate whether FPU vs Core Financial Wellness would be a better program
• present a Financial Wellness luncheon for interested employees – sometime in the fall

I also planned on listening to my 2 sets of FPU CD’s as I drove the highways during my vacation. They are very motivating to me and would give me ideas of what to present in the luncheon.

Another energizing session!

Layout: You Complete Me

 

Those words sum up how I felt the first time I saw each of my kids and held them in my hands.  I had fallen in love with them from pictures, but holding them just completed me.

Sweet Digi Scrap’s “You Complete Me” kit and template were used for this layout.

Layout: A Hero Takes Flight

 

I am very proud of the fact that my hometown is also the hometown of a real American hero, Neil Armstrong.  Neil not only served in the military during the Korean War, he was the “first man to walk on the moon” in 1969.

Dad and Neil were in high school at the same time and the same age although Neil was a year ahead of Dad because of skipping a grade in school. Mom’s parents were very good friends of Neil’s parents and because of that we also knew them.  When Mom and Dad built our house, we were living very close to Mr and Mrs Armstrong. In fact, I can see that house from my office window.

We were given a photo with Neil’s signature that has been proudly displayed in our home all these years.  I decided it was time to scan and scrapbook the picture along with a picture I took of a drawing exhibited at the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum.

I used Sweet Digi Scrap’s kit “Comic Heroes”.

Dream Manager: May 2013

Session 4:

Money and Your Dreams, Part 2

Besides the review of our reading and our check-in, we discussed how we felt about doing the homework.  A few participants had a hard time with it but saw the need to become more comfortable with budgeting.  Both Kim and I emphasized that budgeting is the key to you being successful since you are telling your money where to go, not wondering where it went. Yes, Kim was a participant in a Financial Peace University class at this time and I’ve participated in several classes myself.

We did an exercise on calculating a number where we would feel “financially free”. Then discussing what things cost in relation to that number. We also talked about the financial component of our dreams. Some dreams will cost us more than others and we need to account for the cost in our planning for the dreams.  We also talked about calculating our net worth at this specific point in time.  We can come back to that later and see how things are going.

Before ending the session, we had to do short personality type quiz. Kim would give us our results in the next session.

Our homework includes completing the financial components for our target dreams and to calculate our net worth calculation.  We also needed to look at what works and what doesn’t work in our budget and what is the hardest thing about implementing the budget.

In doing my homework (after my vacation), I did some internet research on the cost of apartments in the Orlando area.  I’m seriously thinking about retiring there!

Myers-Briggs personality types in the next post!

Layout: The Best Gift

 

Christmas 2003.

I decided to get the kids a bunch of toys. For fun, I wrapped them up and put them under the tree. On Christmas Eve, Pepper got one of the gifts and brought it into the office where he proceeded to open it by himself! Such a smart little guy I’ve got!

They then had a great time tearing the paper off the rest of the toys on Christmas morning.

Kit is “Merry Kissmas” by Sweet Digi Scraps and a template from Scrapping With Liz’s Recyclables 22 collection.

Layout: Snow Balls

 

Sweet Digi Scrap’s “Frosted Splendor” and a template from Scrapping With Liz’s Recyclables 22 collection were perfect to highlight the snow balls on the kids.

Dream Manager: April 2013

Session 3:

Money and Your Dreams, Part 1

We started the session with celebrating the completion of a dream by a member of the class.  Dale always dreamed of going to cooking school.  He went to a weekend course in San Antonio, TX in late February.  Another member of the class and I got together and got him his own chef’s hat, coat and pants.  We also had the coat embroidered!  The up side to this is that he fixes something for us each meeting!

After that we discussed our reading and did our check-in of our 4 areas.

We started discussing the financial aspect of our dreams this session. We discussed how we feel about finances and what some of our financial dreams are for our future.  We also discussed budgeting and how it helps us to achieve these financial dreams.

Our homework included preparing a working draft of our personal budget and organizing our financial paperwork and details. And, of course, more reading in “The Rhythm of Life”.

Some other questions we were to think about before the next session.

• What will you need for retirement?
• What do you need now? In 5, 10, or 15 years?
• What finances are needed to achieve your dreams?
• What might be holding you back financially?
• Who can provide information, support, or guidance to you with your finances? What resources are available to you?
• What do you need to improve your comfort or confidence with your personal finances?
• What questions do you have about your finances? Where can you find answers?
• How would you like your finances or financial awareness to be different?

More on this topic in the next post!

Layout: In Honor Of

“In Honor Of” Ted Marker, USN
Kit by Sweet Digi Scraps. Template from Scrapping With Liz’s Traditional Temps II collection.

Layout: Deck The Halls

Sweet Digi Scrap’s “Holly Jolly” was the perfect kit to highlight pictures of my cousin and his family at the Dancing Lights at Hollywood Studios in November of 2013.  I also used a template from Scrapping With Liz’s Fun With Chevrons collection.

Thank you to my family for sharing these wonderful pictures on Facebook!

Dream Manager: Dream Boards

 

As a part of our group training in January, all participants were to write one dream on a card and put it on a dream board provided by Floyd Consulting. This is what we ended up with:

During our first couple sessions, the topic of dream boards for display in the company came up.  Kim asked (or rather suggested strongly) that I put them together because of being so creative due to scrapbooking.  Wendy volunteered to help me.  Kim hoped that the 2 guys from Cleveland, and the 1 guy from Springfield would also do boards for their locations. 

Wendy and I decided to do 2 boards:

• What’s Your Dream? – a place to put the dreams we hope to achieve
• Living The Dream! – a place to share a dream achieved

We have 2 break rooms in the main plant so we decided to do 2 boards for each break room.  We had the original board shown above so needed 3 more boards.  Wendy was in charge of getting the boards.

I sat down at my computer and did a little scrapbooking and came up with the topics for the other boards:

I then pulled out an old laptop that I could use to run my Craft Robo and cut out the titles for the boards:

Wendy and I then put the titles and topics on the boards:

Wendy and I decided that if the Cleveland and Springfield guys didn’t mind (they didn’t!), we would do boards for them.  So I proceeded to print out more topics and cut more titles.  We glued them on the boards and had them ready for the guys the next time they were at the main plant.

Our maintenance man put the boards up for us.  2 are in the break room in the linen side of the plant.  The decision was made to put the 2 boards for the uniform side of the plant on the wall outside the break room.  They are hanging in between the men’s and women’s restrooms right by the water fountain so the employees can’t miss them!  We’ve got blank dream cards on the boards so if an employee not involved in the program wants to fill one out, they can!

Linen Break Room:

Uniform Plant:

As the year went on, dreams were moved from the “What’s Your Dream?” boards to the “Living The Dream!” boards. At the end of the first year of the program the boards looked like this:

Now that a new 1st year class as well as a 2nd year for class has started, we hope that the dream boards will really start to fill up!

Layout: Animal Tamer

A blast from my past…
A trip to the Toledo Zoo in 1960 using Sweet Digi Scrap’s “Zoo Keeper” and a template from Scrapping With Liz’s Sweet and Simple collection.