Muskegon's Cash Mob Recap

The Cash Mob at Continuity in Muskegon, MI was a success!  We had about 15-20 people show up... some before the set time and some after as well.  The Cash Mob also made front page news of the Muskegon Chronicle, so it was great publicity both for the cause and for the store.  Since last week Wednesday, there have been a couple other cash mobs in Muskegon arranged by other local people and groups.  This is great!  The local stores can definitely use the help and support.  We haven't determined which store West Michigan Jobs Group will hit up next, but we believe it will be sometime in early February and probably more in the evening.  Here is the link to the article that was in the paper:  Muskegon's First Cash Mob Designed to Boost Locally-Owned Businesses  Feel free to comment your thoughts, suggestions, feedback, etc on this Cash Mob concept or the event itself.  Thank you!!

Muskegon's First Cash Mob!

So you have heard of "Flash Mobs" where people mixed in a crowd suddenly burst out in song or dance in the middle of a shopping mall or busy park, right? It's all the craze lately! Well a "Cash Mob" was inspired by those flash mobs but instead of singing and dancing it is shopping at a local store at a specific time. Cash Mobs having been catching on throughout the country! This is to give awareness to the store, give the local economy a boost, and have that overwhelming sense of goodwill during the holidays. This time of year is often the make it or break it time for local stores.

The West Michigan Jobs Group along with other volunteers are putting together Muskegon's very first CASH MOB! The store we have chosen is mob is Continuity downtown on Third St. We will all meet there at 4:30pm and agree to spend at least $20 (preferably cash so they don't have to pay credit card fees).  Let's show our support of this local business and if it is a big success we will try mobbing another local store sometime in the future.

From the Shop Local Movement Campaign:
- For every $1 spent at local businesses, 45¢ is reinvested locally. Non-local purchases keep, at most, 15¢ in your local community.
- Local businesses value, respect and appreciate your patronage.
- More tax dollars go to schools and roads in your community.

While on your shopping trip to Continuity, be sure to check out the other nearby local busiensses: Mia & Grace, The Valy Vietnamese Market, Brown Bag Boutique and Positiv-I-Teas.

See you Wednesday, December 14th at 4:30pm at Continuity and we will all just casually walk in and begin spending our $20. Can't wait!!

Celebrity Apprentice 2012 Cast

This morning I saw on Twitter that Clay Aiken is going to be on the 2012 season of Celebrity Apprentice.  Kathy Griffin in going to have a field day with that!

So I went on an internet hunt to find out who else was in the cast.  There are definitely a ton of rumors out there, but the most believable cast revealed that I have seen is as follows:

Clay Aiken - American Idol Runner Up

Victoria Gotti - daughter of John Gotti

Arsenio Hall - Former Talk Show Host / Comedian

Cheryl Tiegs - former model

Debbie Gibson - 80's singer

Dee Snider - lead singer of Twisted Sister

George Takei - Actor Star Trek

Marco Andretti - Race Car Driver

Teresa Guidice - Reality star - Real Housewives of NJ

Other rumors include Penn Jillette, Tia Carrere, Adam Carolla, and Lisa Lampanelli.  Clay Aiken and Debbie Gibson have been confirmed, and while the rest are just rumored to be part of the new cast, they are all completely believable.  A number of them have done reality shows in the past, even if just for a guest appearance, and the others are has-been celebrities that are trying to get another shot in the spotlight.

The rumors that I have a hard time believing of castmates are:  Kelsey Grammar - although his wife is appearing on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, I would highly doubt that he would stoop so low as to be on Celebrity Apprentice.  He has enough money and fame without needing to appear on the show.  Michele Bachman - Are you kidding me?  There has got to be no truth in that (hoping there isn't, anyway). Kirk Cameron - The only way he is on the show is if he thinks he can somehow bring the show to a new moral high-ground... but it could happen, I suppose.

While over the past few years I have lost what little respect I had for Donald Trump, I have to say I still enjoy me some Celebrity Apprentice.  Looking forward to what insane "celebrities" will do just for Trump's approval and another 15 minutes of fame.  As a reality tv junkie, I have to admit I am pretty excited for the 2012 season!

Restless

"Restless tonight
Cause I wasted the light"
 ...are the beginning lyrics to the song "One Thing" by Finger Eleven.  While the rest of the song doesn't really pertain to how I am feeling, those beginning lines really seem to ring true for me lately.  Lately I have been feeling like I am not as successful as I want to be.  I have a fantastic marriage, beautiful, well behaved children (at least on most days), but I am missing the business side of things that I think will make the holy trinity of me complete.  So I am left with this restless feeling inside of me that I have so much left to accomplish in this lifetime but not quite sure how to get there or where "there" really is.

When I told my mom recently that I wish I was contributing more to my family financially she pointed out that I was contributing by raising two great children that will grow up to be wonderful members of society.... or something to that effect.  She is right (yes mom, I am saying publicly that you are right) that is important and not a role I take lightly.  So why do I still have this feeling of wanting more?

Part of the reason could be because if I could rate myself as a SAHM, I would probably give myself a C+.  I think I have the wife part down okay, and most days I think I have the mom part down alright, but it is everything in between that after a year and a half I still stink at.  What I am talking about is the cooking, the cleaning, the organizing, the baking, the doing crafts with kids, arranging play-dates, etc.  There is definite rooms for improvement in those areas that I can't honestly say I ever picture myself being good at any of that.  It's just not in my makeup.  I feel that is why I gravitate towards business.  That is in my genetic makeup being the product of two full time workaholics.

I believe most people work because they have to but some people work because they want to.  Our family has gotten by okay without me working full time.  My Net Owl Media business has been coming along and providing for a bit of income as well.  But I always feel like there's more out there that can be done.  Not even for monetary reasons, but I want to see it flourish.  For us to be the ones that businesses in the area think of first for their online marketing needs.  We're not there yet, but I have full confidence we will get there.

Not only do I want our business to grow and be successful, but I want Muskegon to as well.  I know Muskegon can be bigger and better than what it is right now.  We live in such an amazingly beautiful area with so many untapped talents and resources.  It is by choice that I live here and I want it to reach its maximum potential.  I want to be apart of a movement to heighten the city's morale, get new industries in the area to create jobs, and get people moving TO muskegon instead of away from.  

So I am left with feeling like there is always work that needs to be done.  This is what keeps me up at night and makes me wish I got more done during the daylight hours.  I have got that drive inside of me... just have to keep working to get where I want to be.

Possibly getting burned out on Social Media

I have my facebook page open any time I get on my computer.  Yet, lately I have been finding that I don't even read status updates anymore.  Seems the people I have a small amount of interest in are the ones that post the most frequently and the people I care about the most rarely post.  When it comes to twitter I am following so many celebrities that I often don't catch my friends' tweets.  Then there's Google+ that seemed like the coolest thing on the planet when my friends and I all jumped on board, but it wasn't soon after that I was only seeing posts from the same 3 people and nobody else was on there.  It became a ghost town in the matter of a couple weeks. 

I am faced with wondering... is it time to clean house and downsize my friend lists?  Am I just too lazy to properly organize my networks so I only see who I want to see?  Or have I just become plain bored with social media?  Maybe I only know boring people.  ;)

Okay, I know the last point is not true.  I have plenty of intelligent, interesting, inspiring, and engaging people in my life, so why the boredom?  Even though in the past week or so Facebook has created "lists" which is similar to G+'s "circles" so you can select the group of people that you want to see your statuses, I still feel people are editing themselves as to not reveal too much about themselves online... even to their own friends.  I'm not saying I am any different.  I try to be careful about what I say, how I say it, who I am saying it about, and who can read it.  Which I think is smart since you never know for sure who talks to who and the person you intended it for might not be the only person/people that see it. 

So if everyone is doing this self editing, how can we keep social media interesting?  I do love hearing about what my friends' kids are doing or saying, the latest deals the mom bloggers post, or excitement about an upcoming concert/wedding/event they are attending.  I even enjoy the occasional rant on politics, pop culture, and social issues.  But I am losing the desire to want to check in to Facebook multiple times a day to read about it.

Facebook is still my drug of choice for now mainly because G+ still isn't taking off as much as I had hoped.  With Twitter I thought it was so cool in the beginning to follow a bunch of celebrities and laugh at their silly tweets.  That is, until I realized that celebrities are no more interesting than regular folk.  I unfollowed Alyssa Milano after the third tweet she had regarding what she was making for dinner.  Turns out, I don't care. 

Again, I really thought G+ would be the answer to my prayers, and maybe someday it will be.  I'm a huge fan of anything Google, so I was ecstatic about G+.  The first few weeks were great and there seemed to be a lot of interesting, intelligent dialog going on there.  I was loving it!  Until it all stopped.  Where did everyone go?  Today, Google+ went public and I am still holding out hope that it will take off.  But will it remain interesting and intelligent? 

So the questions are... other people bored with social media as well and what can we do to keep it interesting?

ISR Videos of Oliver as Promised

Here are some videos of Oliver swimming (floating) in his winter clothes as promised.  I still have a couple more from his last day of lessons that I need to get posted on youtube as well.  Hope you enjoy these!

Our Amazing ISR Experience

A few years ago I saw that video on YouTube of baby Miles who is an 11-month old seen walking out of the slider door at his home and falling into the pool while trying to reach a ball.  After falling in he floats to his back and remains floating there in his pajamas until someone is able to come and get him.  At the time that I saw this I was completely amazed and showed my friends the same video.  The video states that Miles learned these skills through ISR (Infant Swimming Resource) and I definitely thought this type of survival training would be essential for anyone who had a pool and babies at their home.  My daughter, Hope, was about the same age as Miles the first time I saw the video, but since we didn't have a pool at our house, I wasn't sure I saw the need for this type of extreme (as I saw it at the time) training.  It seemed a bit overkill to me.

Over the past couple years, I've heard more and more about drownings in pools and Lake Michigan.  In September 2010, my son, Oliver was born, and something just started to click with me.  I began to think about how I know I am not a strong swimmer.  I was terrified of the water all growing up.  My parents had me in swimming lessons for years and I would freak out over them.  I think they just finally gave up and figured I had learned enough to get by and wouldn't put me through the torture any longer.  My parents tell the story of how on Wednesday I would start having anxiety about my swim lessons that weren't until Saturday.  This is how much I hated the water and this went on for years.  So, to this day, I feel like I can do just that - "get by."  I definitely do not feel I am in any position to save someone if I had to.  I'd like to think that I could or that my motherly instinct would just kick it into gear enough that I would know what to do, but I am not even confident in that.  I cannot say without a doubt that I wouldn't first hesitate before jumping in for someone, even my own child, for fear of the water.  To be honest, this realization scared the crap out of me and I didn't want my child to potentially have to depend on me to save them. 

So as I began to contemplate swim lessons and what kind of lessons my kids should take, I saw a special report on the news about ISR swim lessons in Grand Rapids.  I had a facebook friend that I knew also had her daughter enrolled in the same lessons. I got her instructor's name from her, and he happened to be the same one that was featured on the news, Michael Petrella.  I contacted him that night and gathered all the information I needed to about the ISR lessons:  cost, location, duration, etc.  The cost is not cheap and the time commitment is great (10 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for typically 4-6 weeks).  Still, I thought, this is something that could potentially save my child's life.  We can afford it and I have the time, this is really something I should do - is what I thought to myself. 

I talked to my husband the next day about it.  He wasn't as sold as I was about it, after all, we don't own a pool, but he said if it would give me peace of mind and if I was willing to commit to the time involved, then he would support it. 

I signed up through the website http://www.infantswim.com/ and filled out the necessary registration forms and questionnaire for both my children.  Then within two weeks my kids started lessons with ISR Instructor, Mr Michael (Petrella).  I was nervous of what he would subject my kids to on the first day, I wasn't sure what to expect.  Being that the lessons were only 10 minutes long, I was skeptical of what could be done within that short amount of time or how traumatized my kids would be if Mr Michael tried to cram too much into one day.  Hope was up first.  She's my social butterfly, rather fearless daughter, but can sometimes be hesitant (as any child would be) of new things.  Immediately I could tell that Hope was comfortable with Mr Michael.  He started off pretty slowly, just having her get used to the water a bit and kick her legs.  By the end of the ten minutes she had gone under the water once or twice.  This was a different experience for her and it made her a little upset, but I expected a bit of that.  Here is a clip from her very first lesson:

During Oliver's first lesson, Mr Michael just held Oliver in the water and gently released him under the water to get him used to holding his breath as he went under.  I was really worried there would be some sort of dunking, dropping, or just some other action that would have probably left me more traumatized than Oliver.  But it wasn't like that at all.  Mr Michael is experienced enough to know that some of the things they do will make mothers uneasy. (Especially a mother like myself who is not comfortable with the water)  He was able to talk me through what he was doing and what he was looking for so I always felt comfortable with everything.  Oliver still cries throughout the majority of his lessons, but that's normal and to be expected for the most part.  He's learning new things and working really hard and the only way he can communicate is mostly through crying at this point.  Here is Oliver after 2 weeks of lessons.  He is still working on his float in this video:

After just four weeks of lessons, Hope completed her ISR lessons and was about to do the swim-float-swim ISR technique.  The final test was swimming with her summer clothes on for one lesson and swimming with her winter clothes on the next lesson.  This is to ensure that if she were to fall into a pool or a body of water with her clothes on, she would still be able to make it to safety or float until someone could rescue her.  I have shared this video with nearly everyone I know and everyone seems to be impressed with her abilities.  She's 3 1/2 years old, and this is after only 4 weeks of lessons:



Oliver is on his 6th week of lessons and just about there.  He's beginning to float like a champ and when Mr Michael puts him in face first in the water he's getting better at turning over to his back.  He's just about there and I'm thinking he'll get it after just a few more lessons.  I promise to post a video once he is 100% complete.

Aside from the survival techniques that are taught, the lessons have given Hope especially a sense that she can do anything.  Mr Michael's constant positive reinforcement along with meeting the goals of each lesson - whether it be swimming to wall and grabbing the ledge or diving in from a sitting position on the ledge and then going to a float - she has such a great sense achievement.  Mr Michael makes her feel good about herself and she can see the results of what the lessons have taught her.  This is something that will for sure will carry with her throughout her entire life, not just in swimming.  It has given her so much confidence in herself.

The reason for this long, detailed (possibly boring to some) blog post is to urge others to look into ISR swim lessons for their kids.  ISR is for children 6 months - 6 years of age.  I feel living in West Michigan, or anyone who owns a pool or is around pools often, this is such a necessary skill that all children should learn.  Drownings terrify me as well as anger me because they are preventable.  We don't think twice about putting our children in proper carseats, baby proofing our homes, or other safety measures to keep our children out of harm's way.  So why not put them in swim lessons?  It could not only save his/her life but also enrich their lives by feeling confident in the water.

For more information visit ISR's main site http://www.infantswim.com/ or if you are interested in lessons in West MI you can visit Mr Michael Petrella's website http://www.isrgrandrapids.com/.