Week 30 - Best sister ever:)

Hey there, hi there and hello there family and friends. I first want to give a shout out to my cousin Emily...Steph and I wish we could've been there for some mall walking action for JDRF; hope you had a great time! Also, happy soon to be birthday Grandma Naber...hope you're feeling better:)

Had another fantacular week at work, nothing too pressing but continued on with some interesting projects. I've finalized my field force training module and now I'm working with Compliance again to make sure I'm in...compliance (I know, bad joke:). I've also been working quite a bit on a proposal so that boss-man Bob can get more SIFE analyst under his wing for next year by creating a raw video to submit to HR...the out takes are by far the best part, watch out Will Ferrell! I had another great meeting with my mentor Joe Smith, he's a great guy and had some pretty good insight on different styles of execution and leadership pointers. I learned a great deal more about the Field Force Development department this week but only have another week there before I move to sales promotions...giving away free stuff will be good times. Aflac is also raising some awareness about diabetes, so they brought in NBA Hall of Famer and slam dunk champ Dominique Wilkins formerly of the Atlanta Hawks. We had about 400 employees come and listen to how Dominique has dealt with diabetes throughout his life and how people are living with the disease and leading better/healthier lives. It was a very uplifting presentation and informative to say the least. O, and I listened to my mom on z102.9 back home as she promoted Let's Make Summer Happen day in CR...all I have to say is wow ma:)

I had another soccer practice with my team on Monday and I think we have a great crew. We focused our first practice on passing and teamwork and tomorrow night will be defense and dribbling, I'm really enjoying it! We finally finished up our basketball season with our last loss on Thursday; sorry, I didn't foul out or have any technical fouls but I did have two funny digs on a guy from the other team and four points...so I consider that one a win! I bowled pretty well this week with a pair of 130ish games and a 168, I might be getting better...then again, I might be getting lucky;)

Had some more fun with some of the volunteer organizations I work with again this week. We had our Trivia Bee planning meeting for the Literacy Alliance for the event this Tuesday...it should be a hoot! I also attended my first Hands on the Valley Advisory Council gathering where I met some interesting folks and learned a great deal more about HOV. They really don't do any advertising whatsoever, so I suggested we start a mini-marketing campaign like I helped out with back home for CorridorVolunteers.org. There's no need to recreate the wheel, so I think I can pull some of the stuff I created for that organization to use for this one to spread the word...should be pretty fun!

Lastly and bestly, my sister Steph came into town this weekend. After a delay in Moline she got into town late Friday night. We went to the Columbus Cottonmouths hockey game with some friends and people from work which was good times. Saturday morning I made some breakfast, sunny side up, and then we ventured down to the Riverwalk for some good times on the Rollerblades. We got about halfway back when all of a sudden two of my wheels split in half, which put me in quite the predicament with about a mile left...good thing I had on my lucky grey-toed socks that were up to the walking challenge. After a lunch at Fuji we came back and laid out by the pool (ok, it was only about a sunny 65, but that's about 65 degrees warmer then back home in Iowa so we both enjoyed it:) We then went old school and played some cribbage before heading out for a wonderful evening. Saturday night we joined some work compadres and mentors for an event at the RiverCenter; the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet and Columbus Symphony Orchestra. It was a great show strummin' on the ol' guitar and then we ventured over to Houlihan's for some appetizers and camaraderie. After some good times we headed down to La Cantina (which stands for The Cantina I'm told) for some salsa dancing which was accompanied by many strange looks as we all attempted our own style of salsa...it was hilarious! We stayed up until about four last night catching up and then headed to St. Anne's this morning so Steph could take a part in my very domesticated Sunday routine which included a trip to Winn Dixie. Next it was off to Callaway Gardens where we watched the birds of prey show, visited the butterfly observatory (where a Cockatoo perched upon our arm) and then walked around the lake in the gorgeous weather...it was fantacular. We came back for some dried beef on toast and then out to the Marble Slab for Steph's tax reduction and my student-loan-pay-off celebration...scrumtrulescent! It will be sad to send her off again tomorrow morn, but I had the most amazing time and I get to see her in a couple weeks so that will be swell!

Now for a new installment, the morsel of knowledge for the week, and I will start with a crown favorite...Mr. Rogers, "Knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people.” I hope everyone remembers this as they lead their lives day to day because we are who we are, and no trend, peer or societal pressure should make us conform to be like everyone else...keep livin' the dream.

Alwayz,

Nate