The Magic of Giving

We are in the final stretches of our company's United Way campaign, where we try to raise around a million dollars in 2 weeks. As I mentioned previously with golf outing photos, our theme is the Magic of Giving so we're sort of leaning heavenly on Disney vibes.

So it was totally appropriate that my one fall decoration at my desk is Scarecrow Mickey! God bless Hobby Lobby for having everything under the planet!

Since this was our team's week IN office, we got to participate in the dress-up days together.

Can you guess our team dress-up theme? If you said "Flannel" you get half a point. It was a flannel shirt OVER a favorite band shirt. I wore my Here Come The Mummies shirt I told you about during my summer work-from-home t-shirt tour!

Here's our team of writers looking 100% like '90s Grunge and I couldn't be prouder. We get into this!!

One of the fundraisers is always "Beer and a Smile" – Point Root Beer that is. You could order for anyone in our Stevens Point offices and the business area that was in charge of this would deliver. I was excited to get one from my friend Sharon. Yum, yum!

There's lots of other raffles and contests going on. I'll let you know if I have any luck. It's definitely been fun so far!

Doing things for others truly IS magical! 🏰

FORE! the Kids

I love working for a company who is so committed to philanthropy and charitable giving on all levels. And we employees are invested in it, too – especially our annual United Way campaign. (Which of course benefits far more than just kids.)

Since our golf outing is consistently a popular and successful fundraiser, we hold it in August (across two days due to the high interest) as sort of a pre-kickoff to the official kickoff in September. So today was not a bad day at the "office." 

Our organization's theme this year focuses on the magic of giving so naturally we had some Magic Kingdom vibes going. This is our golf league foursome and I think we've done this several years now. Going with the theme, our team name was It's a Small, Small SentryWorld!

I call this one "Channeling my Grandma Minnie's spirit!" She's been gone too long! 😟

They tied in some unique activities, too. On the first hole for every Disney trivia question we got right, we'd inch closer to the hole for our first shot. We rocked it so we bypassed Pluto, Goofy, and Minnie to start at Mickey – just 50 yards from the hole! Nice.

The weather was perfect and views were stunning, per usual. So much fun!

Our scorecard looked pretty, too. We finished 5-under par, which we're pretty sure is our best finish yet. No prizes for us. The leading team was magically 25-under!! That's why we focused on having fun in the sun!

It's going to be tough to return to the real office tomorrow. Thank goodness it's our golf league night right after work! 🏌🏌

Forever in Blue Jeans

Canadian tuxedo (noun): a denim jacket worn with a pair of jeans: if you can wear denim to the office, then you can wear a Canadian tuxedo.

I'm sure you feel like you've waited decades for one more great photo of a Canadian Tuxedo. I honestly didn't realize it hit legit dictionary word status, but it has!

I think I mentioned previously that we had a lot of different dress-up days (opportunities) during our United Way campaign. One of those was team spirit day. So while another writer and I were in San Francisco riding street cars, they voted on an All-Denim Day vibe (or Canadian Tuxedo Day). 

I knew I must have a jean jacket somewhere among my 42 jackets in the house. And sure enough I found it the morning of! Naturally, when we work in marketing we have the photo and video studio at our disposal. So here is the official team photo....

We were missing 2 writers gone to a conference but otherwise the rest of us were all in on the all-denim.

Then we decided to do a super cheesy photo (because we are fun-seekers, after all) and we call this one our Sears Catalog pose...

And if you recall Sears Catalog, you may also have Neil Diamond's Forever in Blue Jeans song in your head right now. If you didn't, it should be there now! 

🎶 Money talks... But it don't sing and dance and it don't walk.... And long as I can have you here with me, I'd much rather be forever in blue jeans... 🎶

Also, I love this team! Also, we do have an opening for a PR Specialist on our team if you and someone you know is looking to be as cool as a Canadian Tuxedo!

What Are The Odds?

 

What are the odds I'd have a glorious sunrise commute two days in a row? I mean I couldn't stop myself from taking a picture!

Also because my sleep has been lacking this week, I enjoyed the sunrise and stopped at a gas station for a mandatory sugar-free Red Bull. Hey, the sun is inspiring to take on the day!

Our United Way dress-up day today was literally United Way T-shirts of any kind if you have them. That was not me. I did however "support the kids" by visiting the King Cone ice cream truck! Hey, we walked across the street to our other office so we not only enjoyed ice cream but we got lots of steps!

Today I also learned that our friends' at the Feltz Dairy Farm Store have a ton of pumpkins and pumpkin stuff. When I asked if they had my "pumpkin spice eggnog" I loved last year, I was thrilled to see them reply: "It just arrived today." 

Thus my after-work detour to Feltz's! 💛

Tonight was also my return to church choir practice. I missed the first week because I was in San Francisco. Then last week I spaced it out and missed it because it wasn't part of my usual routine yet. So I got the music at church on Sunday and plunked my way through this coming Sunday's song on Carter's Casio keyboard.

And I think we'll be fine Sunday.

Got home in time to wonder what I could wear tomorrow for our United is the Way campaign that involves a Stars Wars themed dress up. There may be something in the works. I'll keep you posted.

Pretty Tuesday

 

Although I hated to hear the alarm this morning after so few hours of sleep (I think it's an age thing). But Got rewarded me with a lovely morning commute.

It was just pretty and gave me some hope that another week of work in the office. Of course, it's still our jam-packed United Way campaign going on, so it was fun today. We got some cool pictures of our team. But I'll have to wait and share them tomorrow because I didn't get all of them from our photographer. Oh yes, when you work in marketing you can have professional photographers take your picture and not just a phone! 😁

Tonight after work I headed to Girls' Night Out at the new Rodeo Tex Mex Grill in the building formerly occupied by Polito's. Yes, second night in a row of Mexican food. If you haven't been, check it out. You wouldn't even recognize it as the same place. Secondly, my food was delicious. I got the Chori Pollo (which is spicy chorizo with chicken) and it was excellent! Nice to have a few new options at relatively the same price points as El Mezcal.

Also, great to see the lady friends!

Got home and just fielded a catch-up call from my baby boy so my day is literally pretty and pretty good!

It Worked Out In My Purple Favor

Last night I blogged before I had to address the Monday Night Football situation. I mean even you Packer fans don't like the Bears so we have some solidarity there.

But I was not convinced during the first half that our very VERY young QB could rise to the occasion. I am so glad I was proven wrong. Especially since our two-week United Way campaign began at work today and the dress-up theme was favorite team.

Yup, I wore the lovely bracelet above plus my now favorite shirt...

The one Jim and I wore to a game last year! We are still hoping for one Super Bowl win in our lifetimes.

Let me just clarify. There were a few more Viking fans at work and they commented on needing a shirt like mine. We all know the pain and struggles. Then, since I went straight from work to shoot middle school football, I was wearing the shirt and a guy from the opposing team (Iola-Scandinavia in this case) asked if he could take a picture of my shirt.

Maybe creepy but I trust he's been through the same pain. Maybe Purple Power will carry us all (well some of us) through the week!

May the Course Be With You

It was a great day at the office today – since 6+ hours of it was golfing for United Way! Hey, it's all for the kids! 

Our company's theme for this year's fundraising campaign is United is the Way so it naturally lent itself to some Star Wars themes. (Above) Which is why I teed off by Yoda (who I am taller than!) on the first hole.

But wait, this is a fundraiser! So we paid $20 to spin the wheel and we lucked out with the Luke and Princess Leia ball placement. Making it an easy birdie on our first hole!

Later on the course we ran into one of our fellow marketing dudes who was videoing things for the event. But was totally in costume!

Here's me trying to use my throat-crushing powers for good! Though coincidentally have Darth on our hole helped get my drive on the par-3 green. Let's not examine if my powers lean more to the dark side.

To be honest, most of the day was fighting wind (you can see above) instead of evil. But we can't deny that when it was behind us, it was an actual helpful factor.

Despite the morning chills (I'm serious about the wake-up temps of 52 degrees) it turned out to be a pleasant day with some cursing – but consistently gorgeous views. And so many laughs. 

I'm wishing us all a great week with continuous out-of-this-galaxy golf outing feels! 😁

Cheers to TGIF

It's been quite a busy week at work while we "work" to have fun for our United Way campaign. One of the fundraisers was "Send a beer and a smile" so people could give someone a Point Rootbeer and smiley cookie.

Two very nice people sent me beers and smiles. So I got a tasty cookie for breakfast yesterday! Feeling the love.

Speaking of love... after worked I raced down to Rapids so I shoot some pictures of our Lady Royals tennis team. It was Senior Night so I got there in time for that anyway, and the first love-love serve! 

From there I headed down to the Lake Camelot area to take some senior pictures. This handsome young man also happens to be on the Shermalot Waterski Show Team I photograph. So it was no surprise that after a few "land shots," we were in the boat!

That was so fun to see him show off his bare-footing skills! Fun. 

I even got a bare-footing father-son duo photo!

I think ON THE WATER is my favorite new photo shoot location. Just sayin'!

Maybe we all be in for some this weekend!

Charity Combined with Clarity

My company takes our United Way campaign very seriously. So thankfully today, that meant a scoop of delicious King Cone ice cream – for a good cause of course!

It also meant raffle baskets and thanks to our marketing department, an incredible book fair. Oh gosh, if you have a favorite author or book title in mind, you need to let me know ASAP as this sale/fair only goes through Wednesday!

Of course my clarity in life came on the golf course after work today. A bit windy so there were actually waves on the water holes. But not bad versus the super high humidity and temps of previous weeks.

Of course, we're still so blessed we get to golf at SentryWorld and play the back 9 for league just enough to experience an appreciate the Flower Hole.

Still looking pretty in September!

Something my two black thumbs could never accomplish!

Since were into mid-September almost, we've got the bonus sunset views.

And wildlife, too! We loved that they didn't care about our tee shots. There was obviously tasty in the grass by the 18th tee box!

I had a great round – despite some required mulligans to keep me happy. Worked out just fine to cap off a day of doing good for United Way. 

More to come for the next 2 weeks. Hope you all have a chance this time of year to support a very good cause!

Cursing, er Golfing, for a Cause

It's not a bad Monday morning at work when you're hanging out with the CEO. On the first tee that is.

Thankfully, he's a good golfer, too, and we could use his drive on the first hole, too. For a good cause.

Today was our second day of golf outings to support the United Way (plus we'll have 2 weeks of activities in September). Last Wednesday and today. But today was like, hey, it's MONDAY, what else would you rather be doing??

Our foursome was our usual golf league foursome of marketing co-workers Tom, Patrick, Lisa, and me. Since we knew we had notchance of winning versus those 18 under par types, we could curse our bad drives/putts and just had fun!

On a few holes we could "pay a pro" to get close to the hole. I mean, they are pretty good! That included our famous Flower Hole at SentryWorld. We were fortunate to play it in it's prime bloom!

Plus, we birdied it, so that added even more to the beauty!

I pretty much couldn't stop taking pictures of the flowers. But we did get through the last 2 holes – and finish 6 under par. Great for us!!

The only downside was that we had to return to actual work the rest of the day. For a good cause, right?

Generous Rewards

If anyone claims people who work in marketing have the most fun, then yup, they're right. But sometimes we have to earn the fun.

We recently had our United Way campaign at work and since 100% of our 60-person department participated, our generosity was rewarded with a special event. In this case: Beer and BINGO. Well, beer, other beverages, BINGO and the all important pizza!!

I've just gotta say that after last week's failure at axe-throwing, I redeemed myself.

I got a BINGO when we had to form the letter S. And won a fabulous prize of campfire marshmallow roasting sticks. This is definitely my sport! I mean if axe-throwing and bowling are sports, then surely BINGO belongs in that same category.

I also tried my hand at BAGS (aka Corn Hole, aka Bean Bag Toss) and I sunk a few in the hole. There was much rejoicing – mainly by novice me – but still it was fun.

Got home and all the cabinets and our new wall border are installed. I'd love to show pictures, but I think I'll wait until countertops hopefully are installed in the next week to show a sincere "before and after"! So far, we love, love it.

It's like I can't stop winning! Bring on my much-earned 3-day weekend.

Different Kind of Fall Colors

I'm ignoring the sporadic fall colors popping up before it's even mid-September. But today I got to enjoy some different fall colors. First it was the 44-degree wake-up temperature accompanied by fog on the way to work.

Fog and a sunrise that is. So that was pretty cool!

My mid-day color was a bit more conventional. As part of our two-week United Way campaign, King Cone made an appearance in our parking garage. Yes!!

After work, the clouds were a dark gray before opening up just about our tee time on our last night of golf season! So we commenced to meeting at the 19th hole and enjoyed a little time together. When the rain stopped, we all headed home.

And there was more color on my way home. Just over the businesses on Division Street in Stevens Point. 

Then, when I turned onto Deer Road to make my final leg home, there was more color.

When I got home, I thought I'd share one more color scheme from my visit to my hair artist last night. Definitely can't compare to nature's beauty. But also definitely not boring.

Find the color in your week, my friends!

Swinging For A Good Cause

I know there are all kinds of golf outings that serve as fundraisers. But at my work, out United Way scrambles are pretty big deals. And my regular league night foursome and I were ready to contribute and play at the full-blooming SentryWorld today.

Taking a nod from our U.S. Senior Open champion Bernhard Langer, our team was called Moves Like Langer. Not to be confused with Maroon 5's Moves Like Jagger, quite obviously our inspiration for playing a little air guitar before teeing off on Hole 1.

After 2 heat waves days and at least 3 more predicted this week, I'm not sure how we were blessed with a cloudy 74-degree day. But we'll take it!

Thanks to some extra United Way donations "for pro hits", we were in position to make some decent putts today. I even sunk our albattoss putt and had to create a far superior dance compared to my par dance and birdie dance! And it was. Thankfully, no pictures or video.

Lisa and I held up our part from the women's tees. In the end, we finished 5 under par. Not bad for a day's work, eh? And for a good cause, of course.

The fun thing is that the 4 of us return to SentryWorld tomorrow night for "regular" golf league. I suspect we'll keep the scramble format going just for how fun it is! And that unbelievably great score.

Plus the legit heat wave returns Tuesday so we may want to do it for self-preservation.

Be careful out there this week!