Mel

I am dedicating this post to my good friend and stylist coordinator Mel Christoffersen. If anyone has met this woman they will appreciate why I chose to write about her.

When I met Mel (back in summer of 06), she was a new client seeking nutritional counselling and herbal remedies for her daughter. Little did I know that she was supporting our event by pinking her own clients, and has been doing ever since.... only a lot more. Mel makes folks feel 10 feet tall with her frequent terms of endearment (GF - girlfriend, BF - boyfriend, awesome, buddy, you rock hard core, BFF - best friends forever, high five, and luv ya).

Mel is one of those situations when God broke the mould. The impact this funny lady has created is nothing less than incredible. She strikes the heart strings & funny bone with such force you don't know what hit you.

The only way I can refer to her is as an experience.

I am proud to lead the Mel movement, the fan club. Her following is loyal and forever changed.

She is also an exceptional stylist. Owner and operator of Sheer Stattic, Mel has been servicing loyal clients for 16 + years. SHe can pack 'em in, 5 at a time and keep them happy.

I never asked her to be a coordinator with my daughter Meagan (who also adores her), she just assumed the position much like her other roles in the community (president of parent council, bible study, and ANY occasion where she can serve her fellow man).

I have painted this picture so far (for those who have yet to experience Mel) of a loving, kind, compassionated and giving woman of leadership. yes, she is all of those things. Quiet and subtle she is not.

The interesting quality about her is her ability to communicate freely without repercussion. It's genuine with an interesting twist of innocence. Mel is the female version of Borat (only with more heart and less hair). When she speaks, one is taken back initially until you get used to her. It's been 4 years and I am STILL not used to her yet and I am a trappers daughter.

Still, it's funny - so funny that one cannot keep themselves from looping her "Melisms" 'round and 'round in their heads.

I am convinced that some of our many volunteers and participants are repeats simply because Mel enriched their experience. This is invaluable to the cause, and she will never see that because she is humble.

If you attend our event, find this crazy lady (we have 2.... - that will be another post), and give her a hug, but be careful, she hugs with intensity. Intensity may cause a trip to your chiropractor, so beware..... but it's so worth it!

Mel.... If you are reading this, DO NOT correct my grammer and spelling, just enjoy it cause it's all true. We lov ya Buddy, you're awesome!! BFF.

Executive meeting

We had our monthly Massacure executive meeting with representatives from both Stollery and Make-A-Wish. These meeting are perceived as pure torture for me, so I bring cookies to take the edge off. Tammy is not wired in such a way that enjoys too much organization, communication and documentation all at once, especially if too serious. Too much work and no play chases this Massacure Diva away. Yes, I have officially changed my name from "Driven Mom" to Diva.

Anyhow, my point being that I find this painful, but not as painful as today.

A colleague from our committee who I have befriended and grown most fond of has left her position with us. She and I knocked heads for 2 years when she first joined us (because we are both strong and stubborn.....and right), then trust and respect worked its way into our hearts. I am very sad to see her go, and its likewise. She had become my primary reason I started baking cookies for these meetings, at that time it was to soften her up for me. Now I bake because I know she loves them, even if I know she may be the only one who eats them. Funny how folks grow on us. These people that we journey with become like family.

This last 4 years have. We have worked out a lot of bugs in that time and the process was indeed painful. It was "corporate" meet "mom and pop shop" - I am thankful for it now because we have found a happy medium that spelled success. This committee took us from counting hundreds of thousands in our home to taking it in house with the assistance of ATB bankers, on-line registration, sharing of resources and the hiring of a project coordinator (a Tylor and a Nicki). The list is lengthier but I wont bore you with it. These "special events" are more involved as they appear, but thats probably a good thing because we just want people to enjoy the experience.

What the heck???

Nicki's last post indicated that the pace has picked up a notch. There are many notches left to go until that pink hair hits the floor. Nicki and I will spend the next 5 weeks in the hamster wheel. Once in motion, it's hard to get off unless you fall out. Mid April I'm thinkin....

Today I broke 3 major resolutions at once. Lindor melting in the cheek, Timmies in the cup holder whilst I chat on the phone on route to my next meeting. Good thing I caught myself, 4 hours after the fact.

I am officially twitching. Was out shopping for Ephedra, Memory FX and St. John's wort and felt the ground shake like a jackhammer (had to do the math.... only 2010.... pfew.....) Then my van started shaking (mud in the tire??), then again in my office (that was actually the water bottle I somehow threw in the dryer). My point - I twitch, Nicki twitch. What the heck?

Today I dealt with merch..... again.

Merchandise is an area that one would not realize to be somewhat crazy. Thats an understatement. I deal with 2 areas.

First area is a donation.

Unicon Concrete generously donates our 400+ t-shirts to all volunteers (also our toques and baseball hats). There are various groups of volunteers in various sizes from child - adult XXXL. Each group gets a different shirt and Tammy has to make a somewhat educated guess as to numbers and correlating sizes. If I am off, it will be Nicki's fault because she will not let me have coffee.

I have changed this order 8 times and our merch rep Lise still talks to me. She just smiles politely and nods.

The second group of merch is purchased by an outstanding captain (who's bald head with the peace symbol graces our home page).

I take the summer to determine what we need, try to guess what we will sell (on advise of my 2 captains) and how much, go over it all with Tina to meet her approval, then beg for lowest prices. When the multiple negotiations and purchases are over I am sure that Sparks will delete me from their contact list and block my number. I literally spent 2 months sniffing water bottles just to find the safest one, wore the apparel, tested the durability of the bags and so forth. God love 'em, they have been oh so accommodating. It's necessary that we can sell our merch at bottom low prices (thank you Blair and Leanne). My angle here is not to soak our participants, but to provide affordable memorabilia to them.

It will be interesting what tomorrow will bring.... at the very least, enough emails and phone calls to shock our nervous systems.

January 4th. I think.

So as Tam wrote yesterday, we were both working like mad – trying to be prepared for the dreaded Monday after the holiday season.

I don’t know about any of you, but I did wake up to my 9th alarm (seriously. I normally set 11 alarms), had to wash my hair twice as I put body wash in it after the first time… does that make it three times? Then I realized I had no clean clothes for work and I’m out of toothpaste. I arrived at work with two minutes to spare, but then had to scarf down breakfast here as I forgot to eat supper last night and was starving.

So needless to say, when I started actually working this morning, only marginally late, I was already ready for a nap. But here I am hours later, with three (now four) cups of tea in me (common Tam, coffee is over-rated..), and about to grab some Christmassy Girl Guide cookies for lunch before I head into some meetings, finish some artwork, and get ready for more meetings … did I mention that I love spreadsheets?... uh, I’m back in the swing of things. Mostly.
So, I hope that your first Monday back is just as filled with caffeine, naps on keyboards, and twitches as mine.

Nick

YIKES!!

This morning (at 3 AM) I woke abruptly (you know that gaspy, beads of sweat lining the forehead, heart jumpin around kind of wake) and realized I will not be anything other than overwhelmed for the next 5 weeks. I feel its safe to assume that Nicki will share this with me. In my state of sleep panic, the anticipation of Monday's kickoff to OMGwhatjusthitmecantsleepcanteathowfastcanIrunafterthisthingwhyaremyhandsstillpinkicantstoptwitchingoh....nickicaniPLEASEhave justonecoffee forced me to get it over with and start today. Turns out Nicki was at Starbucks all day doing the same thing as I on this last free Sunday... going over lengthy lists of to do's. Sabotage is a wonderful thing.

Christmas, although wonderful and necessary to re-charge also forces us to run like something that starts with an H come January 4. This month is highly unpredictable, so it is nearly impossible to plan things (except media events and schools) without rescheduling at least once. Our volunteer captains and volunteers all sorted into tasks and positions, merchandise finalized (this area is CRAZY in terms of planning, ordering and appeasing the masses), media events planned, school presentations, continued requests for sponsorships,

entertainment scheduled, pinking events, sobeys events, distribution of pink hair dye, posters and pledge packages, mapping the event, security, pre-drops, unexpected events, and so on, and so on......

My point being the list is lengthy and becomes so overwhelming that one could go insane.

Sure gonna miss coffee especially this month (my resolution started early).

Planning an event of this magnitude is much more than most realize. Its kinda like giving birth and raising children......you have NO IDEA of what you are in for until it's in motion and gets more demanding with every year. You pack on weight, crave cookies, feel nauseous, overwhelmed, no sleep, deal with a lot of something that starts with an S, lots of hugs, spend too much money, unruliness, eat on the run, pink your dog..... or not......loose your mind. I did apparently. All for a good reason.

Cant wait to see what's in store tomorrow. Hope you check in!

New Years Day

As Tammy has stated below, my family has a mostly-annual New Years Day party with a Chinese Gift Exchange - and some of the presents really wow people. There are the classics, like the tourist video of Vancouver that came back.. for 5 years. Or the Unicorn Thermometer.. Or the best gift ever - a case of Kleenexes. My best friend's parents didn't buy tissues for almost the entire year! This year I chose a bottle-like present - thinking it would be wonderful if it was actually liquor, but knowing it probably wasn't.. and to no one's shock, it wasn't. I received an empty bottle ready for recycling. Good thing I am a smooth talker and pawned it off on a visiting child... hehehe..

The gifts, though usually good conversational topics, are never the reason we invite those people important to us for the afternoon. We love to see our friends and family filled with seasonal cheer, food enough for an army (thanks mum!) and the night before's parties. Some of the people that arrive on our doorstep on January first, we only get to see once or twice a year, and others like Tam, I get to see often throughout the year. But it's different. It's not work, it's not anything, but fun (even if more than one Nikon was in my house!). And that's the point. To enjoy the season, and all it brings. Especially if it brings good friends and good food together.

I hope you've all had fabulous holidays and I look forward to seeing you soon (afterall it is Massacure Season now!)

Nicki

2010

Today our family (with my mom in tow) was invited to a traditional New Years party hosted by the Wohlands (Nicki's parents). My mom brought all of her 5 cats (actually she wore them - I call it her Zsa Zsa Gabor look, only faux not fur). Nicki's dad warmly welcomed us at the door (with a leash) and a hug. These people are truly wonderful and I feel blessed to know them. We met many years ago (Nicki's mom Doll and my Mom Zsa Zsa (Colleen) - best friends and business associates. Our kids played together, Nicki grew up with my two oldest girls. I knew Nicki would be assistant material because of her great track record for being amazing (even though I fired her again today).

50 people crammed into such a small space , the food provided was enough to feed my 400 volunteers, and the warmth in this home is most welcoming. It was interesting to see so many Proud Victims in that room that have at one time (and for some - still...) supported the event. A pink hard hat left evidence that maybe her dad Dennis may be participating again this year.

I make a point to observe certain strong qualities in folks (always looking for tips....), and was impressed by the leadership I witnessed regarding the Chinese gift exchange. Dennis took full control inside his home, yet puts his guests at ease with his welcoming warm nature.

I left with a plastic statue of monkeys, a outdated set of dishes that I will likely pon off on my newly engaged daughter, and a brittle glass thing that will end up in a vaccuum (when the case of posters crush it in my van because I forgot to remove it). I was not allowed to leave it there, and was busted when I attempted to do so. Gotta love those gatherings that make ones heart (and abdomen... thighs... and buttocks) swell.

Very soon, my break will end and the twitching will begin. 6 weeks away.......