On June 15th I had the pleasure of attending the Women’s Leadership Council, Power Of The Purse Luncheon and Silent Auction. The event is coordinated by the United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut. The Women’s Leadership Council is part of the United Way and works to build stronger communities through education, financial stability and access to immediate emergency assistance, such as food and shelter. Proceeds raised from the Power of The Purse event helps to provide personalized financial education workshops, one-on-one financial coaching, free tax preparation and a matched savings account program to help women and families in their community become financially stable. Slalom was a silver sponsor at this event and I was so happy to be able to attend as a guest of Slalom. I am proud to be a part of a company that cares so much about the community we are in.
When I arrived at the Connecticut Convention Center I was blown away by how many women were already at the auction. There were many, many purses available for auction and there was an online app that we used to bid with. I had my eye on a few, but the cost was going higher than my budget was going to allow so I had to sadly let them go. My favorite was the Tiffany & Co. bag.
We were first greeted by the Mayor of Hartford, Luke Bronin. Then Erica Dean the Event Co-Chair from Comcast welcomed us along with Jocelyn DeMaio from The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. and Empowered Indoor Cycling Studio.
Next was a powerful video from Heidi Voight of NBC Connecticut. She shared her story of how her family needed the help of the United Way when her mom was raising her family as a single parent. They were in a desperate situation and needed help and the United Way in Milford, CT helped them get through those tough times.
There are many families in CT, more than one in four households, who are living in a demographic referred by the United Way as ALICE. ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. They are above the federal poverty level but below a basic cost-of-living threshold. It’s a real struggle for these hard-working families. This struggle makes it hard for families to afford the basic needs such as housing, childcare, food, healthcare, and transportation. But with organizations like the United Way and the Women’s Leadership Council we can help.
The featured speaker was Dr. Bertice Berry. O-M-G! She was spectacular! She was funny and her message was very powerful. Some of the points I got from her message were:
Clean your filter and get rid of things in your life that you no longer need or that are not good for you.
Remember to take a moment to feel the joy of doing something good for someone else.
No matter what WE are going through, we still have the power to help someone else.
We are connected by our stories.
Sometimes we see what people didn’t do instead of seeing what they did do.
Forgiveness is not letting someone off the hook, it is getting off the hook you were put on.
Our accomplishments don’t complete the work we need to do.
Sometimes we think we are on different sides of the street, but we come together to heal.
We deserve goodness
ALICE is US, we need each other, we are connected to one another.
These are some beautiful, honest statements that we really need to live by! I could have listened to Dr. Berry speak all day. She speaks from her heart and her experience.
I had the pleasure of meeting her at the end of the event. While waiting to greet her I had the chance to meet Davine Manson after the event was over. Her photo was on the centerpieces of the tables and she is also highlighted in the program. I asked her how the United Way had helped her and she said it was through The Village that she was able to get help for her family. She suffered from a traumatic brain injury from domestic violence. Because of this injury she had frequent seizures, PTSD and depression and suicidal thoughts. She couldn’t drive because of her seizures. But she was fortunate to connect with Andrea Robinson, The Village’s financial recruiter/educator. She worked with Andrea to update her resume, improved her interview skills and secured a job as an executive assistant to the Chief Medical Officer at Charter Oak Health Center. When I was talking with her she said she wanted to give back and create a program for women in need as a way to give back for what was given to her.
During the event we were asked if we could help the United Way reach a high goal they had set to raise $60,000 that day. Not only was that number met, but it exceeded it within a very short time! This event was wonderful and I hope to have the opportunity to attend it again next year. I will be looking for more messages by Dr. Berry on YouTube. She is very motivational and inspiring. I hope this inspires you to look at what opportunities you have in your neighborhood to give back and lend a hand to women and families in need, or possibly even attend The Power Of The Purse event next year.
If you haven’t seen the new Cars 3 movie yet, I suggest you race down to your nearest theater to see it! My family and I went to see it during its opening weekend and loved it! I love to go to the newest movies during release weekends because I feel like there is a special excitement in the air. The theater is usually more full, and you are one of the first to see the movie. We had seen the latest releases of Star Wars, Beauty and the Beast, Moana, Finding Dory, and Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Men Tell No Tales all during their release weekends.
Cars is a winner in our house
My son was always a big fan of the original Cars movie. My son was born in 2007 and Cars was released in 2006. Since I grew up in a family who loves NASCAR, naturally we had to see the Cars movie. We loved it and when my son was old enough to watch movies this was on repeat in our house. He loved to line up all his cars on the rug and play with them. He had just about every Cars toy you can have and of course, one of his birthday party themes was Cars! Fast forward to 2017, he is now 10 years old and STILL loves his cars and the Cars movies.
Cars 3 was special. I loved the relationship Lightning McQueen developed reluctantly with his assigned trainer Cruz. He worked with this trainer after a devastating crash which took him out of racing for 4 months. Reluctantly, Lightning started training with Cruz and inadvertently started training her to believe in herself. Cruz, having been told she would never be a racer, didn’t believe she had what it took to be a race car driver. As her friendship with Lightning McQueen grew they leaned on each other to help each other reach their goals. No realizing that in the end they both would end up winning. Your favorite characters from the previous Cars movies are in Cars 3 such as Mater, Mack, Sally and Doc. As well as some new ones like Doc’s old friends and his trainer Smokey.
I don’t want to give away too much of the story, so I’ll leave it up to you to step on it and make a pit stop to your theater and see it soon!
Making of the Movie
Disney Pixar on Twitter shared some great backstory information about the making of the movie. John Lasseter holds a Motorama event that takes place on the lawn of Pixar Studios. This year’s Motorama took place on the same day as the release of Cars 3! John Lasseter has always loved car. He said “I have always loved cars. In one vein I have Disney blood, and in the other I have motor oil.” Jay Ward is the Creative Director for Cars 3. He is the perfect member of the team because of his knowledge of the details in cars. He visited the ghost tracks in the deep south to get a sense for the sport and added that feeling into the film.
After You Reach The Finish
After you see the heart racing film, you can download a fun app to your phone for playing the new Cars 3: Driven to Win game and continue the fun to train and challenge your family and friends in the Battle Race to become the Ultimate Champion!
Have you forgotten to wash your workout clothes and they sat in the basket with the rest of your clothes and now everything smells like a sweaty locker room? There is a solution for that! As I have been trying to incorporate non-toxic products into my household, Fresh Wave Laundry Booster is a great product that I wanted to include in my arsenal of supplies.
What is Fresh Wave
While at the Mom2.0Summit I met with the company Fresh Wave. They provide products that are non-toxic use natural ingredients such as water and plant extracts from lime, pine needle, aniseed, clove and cedar wood. They do not contain harsh chemicals and don’t contain synthetic fragrances or alcohol. They are also 100% phthalate free.
Why Fresh Wave?
I wanted to start using this product because of the natural way the odor is removed from clothing, furniture and cars. They eliminate odors by breaking apart the chemical bonds that exist between odor molecules.
How Do You Use Fresh Wave?
I took my ripe running clothes from the pile they were dropped in (yea I had to between work, running and a softball game) and loaded them into my washing machine along with my regular detergent.
It was a smaller load so I added just a half capful of the Odor Removing Laundry Booster, and ran the cycle.
After the laundry was washed, I put it in the dryer; but I did not add a fabric softener sheet to the clothes. I wanted to see if I would notice the difference in the smell without the use of the fabric softener. I was pleased with the results! They did not have the leftover locker room sweat smell lingering in them.
How To Get Rid Of The Mold In Your Front Loading Washing Machine?
The Laundry Booster is also great for removing the washing machine odors that tend to linger in front loading washing machines. Wet a soft cloth with the Laundry Booster and wipe down the rubber gasket, the door and another other visible seals.
Where To Purchase Fresh Wave?
Fresh Wave is currently sold at Walgreens, Target, and Bed Bath & Beyond.
Would You Like To Try This Product?
The first 3 people to subscribe to my blog and comment on this blog post will receive a Fresh Wave kit sent to your home!
I always have a hard time with my children’s birthdays; but this year was especially hard because my son turned 10 yesterday. He is a decade old ALREADY! The last days of school and his birthday being so close together are always tough for me.
It still feels like yesterday that I was admitted to the hospital on a Tuesday to not deliver him until 8:07 on Thursday night.
On the night of his birthday we were driving home from cub scouts and I spotted a large deer on a hill. I turned around and drove back to it hoping we could all see it close up. It was beautiful. We were able to watch it and take pictures for 5 minutes without her moving!
Then we drove to one of the open farmland areas near our house and saw a beautiful sunset. What a lovely time to spend with the kids just enjoying the natural things around us. These are the memories they appreciate.
This school year was tough for several reasons. The biggest reason was the loss of our friend Lyla. We are all still trying to heal. So as it ends it is bittersweet.
I am very proud of both kids. Adrienne has developed a love for pitching in softball and has been my All Star player. Kevin has taken to playing the trumpet and performed in his first band concert recently. They both have their own unique talents which I love.
Adrienne
It will be a tearful goodbye as Adrienne leaves Jerome Harrison school and her teacher who has been so instrumental in her success to overcome her fears and anxiety. And she gained a tremendous amount of confidence and bravery.
Both kids are growing up so fast. Each school year flies by faster than the year before.
The Frost’s Fummer
As soon as the kids are out of school we will begin the Frost Fummer of 2017. We have lots of fun trips and events planned. It kicks off with a trip to Lake George this weekend with my company. Slalom has a retreat for their employees every June in Vermont or Lake George. I am so excited that I am a part of this great company and that we can participate in this event; and the timing lines right up with the last day of school. It’s the perfect way to separate school ending and the beginning of summer break.
In my last post about the Mom2.0 Summit, I shared with you my experience during my first day at the conference. The second day was just as good as the first, if not better! You can also view a video recap of my day.
Mom2.0Summit Day 2 – Yoga hosted by Motrin
The day began with a 45 minute yoga class at 6:45 a.m. It was a beautiful, sunny, Florida morning with blue skies and the temperature was perfect. There were about 50 women in the garden area where we had the class. What a wonderful way to kick off the second day of the conference and energize ourselves before breakfast. I went back to the room, took a quick shower, had some FaceTime with the kids as they got ready for the bus and then went down to the lawn to eat breakfast quickly before the opening session.
Opening Session
Julianna Margulies was the keynote speaker for the opening session and she was phenomenal! Jess Weiner and Julianna spoke about the perception of women in business, doing what is right for you, social media as an actor, how to raise your children and aging. Some of the takeaways I got from their conversation were the following:
When you are in a transition in life, listen to yourself. Do what is right for you, not what is right for other people.
Listen to your body. You don’t have to do it all. It is ok to say no, or this not right for me.
In regards to your social media presence – be careful how you want the world to perceive you.
We have to be responsible in the way we raise our children in this age of social media. We have to teach our children to think before you tweet!
We have to stop beating up on each other. Get dressed up for your girlfriends! Make going out with your girlfriends and event.
Raise our boys to be men. It’s ok for our sons to see mommy go to work.
There is no balance – you have to sacrifice some things for other things. Be careful what you are sacrificing.
When women have to raise their voice and be commanding in a position they are looked at like a bitch; but if you are a man they are thought of as good leaders.
I could have listened to Julianna and Jess talk all day. You can watch some of the interview on my YouTube Channel.
Market Place
After the Welcome and keynote conversation there was time for a networking break at the Market Place. This is where we had the time to visit all the sponsors and form relationships with their brands so when we returned home we could write about them and identify opportunities to become affiliates or brand ambassadors. I had some great conversations with Munchkin, Fresh Wave, Treehouse and Flipp.
We were also surprised with a chance to win a Google home by visiting the Best Buy suite and taking a tour of their networked home. I was very impressed by the technology that is available to make your home a connected home with the use of several Samsung products, appliances and Google home. And I was a lucky winner to take home a Google home for my house! The kids love it and love to play trivia with it. I love the ability to ask it questions when the kids ask me something I don’t know, or I can set a time hands-free, set an alarm to get out to the bus stop, or just ask it to play music.
At the Market Place we were loaded up with bags and more bags with samples and swag! I was told to pack an extra suitcase for this conference and now I knew why! I love that I can take photos of the products that I am sampling, use them myself and then I can give my honest opinion to my readers about what I learned about each product. Because there were so many vendors, and also so many great hands-on workshops that I wanted to attend, I had a hard time visiting every booth. So i did the best I could to get to the most important ones on my list.
The following sponsors were at the Market Place:
Dove
Kia
Amazon FreeTime
Best Buy
Facebook
Prudential
Similac
Munchkin Grass Fed
G.H. Cretors(R) Popped Corn
Green Giant
GSK
MOTRIN
UP TV
Canadian Lentils
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Domain.me
Eagle Brand
SmartyPants Vitamins
Fresh Wave(R)
Mini Babybel(R)
TarcherPerigee
Flipboard
Treehouse
Toca Boca
Olive Garden
Flipp
OxiClean
TODAY Parenting Team
BuzzFeed
Hands-On Workshops
The hands-on workshop I was most interested in attending was Live streaming 2.0 – Understanding the Platforms, the Tools and Opportunities. When I learned about the Mom2.0Summit and saw the list of Iris Award nominees, Cat & Nat and Meredith Masony from “That’s Inappropriatete” caught my attention. They were nominated as for Breakout of the Year. So I needed to learn what they were all about. They were hysterical! Also, Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley from “I Mom So Hard” are now on my top 3 to watch in my feeds. I love the tell it like it is approach from these moms. But what impressed me the most is the number of followers they have! So I needed to learn how this whole live streaming trend was happening. I also wanted a front row seat so I could be closer to Cat & Nat and meet them in person!
Their workshop was great. I learned about some tools to use for simulcasting on multiple platforms, brand integration, setting up events on Facebook ahead of the broadcast to notify people when you will be going live, using your metrics to find out where your biggest audience is. Funneling from periscope, to an email list, to a Facebook group. All these little tidbits of information that I hadn’t considered when working live streaming into your digital strategy. It’s a whole new chapter for me that I have on my goals radar.
After the workshop Cat & Nat were going live with Meredith so the Cat & Nat stalkers followed them over to the TODAY Parents booth where they were going to live-stream from and watched them in action. It was fun!
Dove Self-Esteem Workshop
For lunch I attended the Dove Self-Esteem workshop with Jess Weiner. When I arrived groups were forming to create videos to have us talk about real stories about ourselves. I was in a group with Mona (from lunch the previous day) and Karen Hartzell. We shared about what we were insecure about in our childhood and then how or why that doesn’t bother us now as adults. I shared how insecure and shy I was when I was younger and I feel like I am the complete opposite of that now as an adult. Especially in the last few years. I think when I began running and joined a running community, I became less shy because everyone, especially my runDisney friends, had a shared common interest.
After that Jess shared with us how girls perceive themselves today. She said that middle school girls’ self esteem drops compared to girls in the third grade. I have a daughter in third grade and I am very careful about the way I speak about myself, other women and people in general. I never want her to think less of herself or criticize her appearance. I want her to be comfortable with her body all the time. When I am not happy with something about myself, I take care of it on my own but my children see what I do as a part of my lifestyle (eating healthy, exercising and running).
RISE
The theme of the Mom2.0Summit was Rise. The afternoon keynote speakers spoke about how to Rise Up, Rise and Shine, Rise Above and Rise Beyond. Each speaker was incredible. Gabrielle Bernstein, Sheinelle Jones, Mary Jennings Hegar and Tala Raasii each shared personal stories of how they used challenges in their life to Rise above and beyond them to shine in their own way.
The points I took away from each of these wonderful women were:
From Gabrielle:
What is actually working in this moment now.
Claim ownership over the way we want to feel.
Your feelings form your experience.
If you want change your experiences, you have to change the way you experience your experiences.
From Sheinelle:
How do people feel when you walk into a room? How do your kids act when you walk into a room?
what energy do you give off?
Always believe in the special abilities God has created for you.
Two gifts to give your kids, roots and wings.
Girls compete with one another women empower one another.
From Mary:
Empathize with people who try to shoot you down.
What do you when you are afraid of a challenge?
Every time something scares you punch it in the face.
From Tala:
Do things that you love. If you love things so much it has a purpose from you.
Believe in what you want to do and follow through with it.
Overcoming the most difficult changes in life will set you on fire.
It’s human nature to focus on the catastrophe of what if .
It’s better to be at the bottom of the staircase of what you want to be on then to be on the top of one that you don’t want to be on.
How can you not walk away from hearing such powerful statements like these from such awesome women who are or have overcome challenges in their lives. After the speakers, I skipped the last workshop session of the day and continued to visit the Market Place and interact with the vendors. Then I dropped everything off at my room and hurried down to the Dove Real Beauty Suite to have my hair done for the Cabana Party.
Cabana Party
The Cabana Party was fun! It was held on the Da Vinci Lawn and I spent the majority of my time there at the Up TV booth playing Trivia. The women running the booth experienced some wi-fi issues so I offered my phone as a hotspot so they could run the game. It was a lot of fun and Barry Watson, the star of the new UP show Date My Dad played along with us for a few rounds!
After Party
The Cabana party ended around 8:00 p.m. and a group of us went to the hotel lounge to spend some time together. It was a great time! I was with Sarah and Lori Strong, Laura Christman and Steve Jones from Tree house, and Mandy Bennett from Eagle Family Foods Group. We enjoyed several hours of laughter, stories, drinks and appetizers. Steve’s wife and kids even came down to hang out for a little bit. It was a lot of fun and I loved how easy it was to hook up with people and enjoy a good time together.
This conference has been one of the best conferences I ever attended. It had such an easy, open environment for people to get to know one another, network, and learn from one another.
My children have seen me working out since they were babies. Whether I was doing weights or out running, they know that it is am important part of my life. Lately they have been asking to do some of my workouts with me.
My son wanted to run Matt’s Mission last weekend so we did the race together. He skated the day before so his legs were tired and he didn’t run as much as he wanted to. But I enjoyed the time we spent together.
Then the other night my daughter wanted to workout with me while I was doing weights. We told her that it would be beneficial to her to start doing leg exercises to help add some thrust to her pitching.
Then on Tuesday evening before Adrienne’s game my son wanted to come on a run with me. He did well on that run. He didn’t complain much and we were able to maintain a 13 minute mile. I had to hold him back at the beginning because I wanted him to keep his stamina for the entire 3 miles.
I hope I am making an impact with my health and fitness and I enjoy doing what I enjoy with them.
I had the pleasure of meeting her at the end of the event. While waiting to greet her I had the chance to meet Davine Manson after the event was over. Her photo was on the centerpieces of the tables and she is also highlighted in the program. I asked her how the United Way had helped her and she said it was through The Village that she was able to get help for her family. She suffered from a traumatic brain injury from domestic violence. Because of this injury she had frequent seizures, PTSD and depression and suicidal thoughts. She couldn’t drive because of her seizures. But she was fortunate to connect with Andrea Robinson, The Village’s financial recruiter/educator. She worked with Andrea to update her resume, improved her interview skills and secured a job as an executive assistant to the Chief Medical Officer at Charter Oak Health Center. When I was talking with her she said she wanted to give back and create a program for women in need as a way to give back for what was given to her.
