Vacation
January 18, 2008
Vacation
I’m on my way back from our annual ski vacation. Every year for the past 7 years we vacation out west for about a week with our best friends. We’ve been doing this tradition since BC (before children) and vowed to never let the tradition die. One year my littlest one was only 8 weeks old, but that didn’t stop us. This year our 5 year old actually skied the greens with daddy!!! The 3 year old put skis on for the first time this year. She was not thrilled with the whole process, but next year she’ll be about the age when she’ll really “get it”. They LOVE all the sledding, angel making and snowmen attempts. Living in
Charleston, we see about 1 snowflake every 10 years, so just seeing snow is like being at Disney World for them. In a minute I’ll give you an update on the latest events, but this whole vacation brings to mind an important topic. I do believe whole heartedly that family vacations… well… more importantly, TRADITIONS are imperative. As mompreneurs it’s so easy to be all consumed with work that it’s hard to imagine getting away. I actually proved to myself that I could do it (I had wondered if it was possible, as I left town with so many very hot irons in the fire, but I pulled it off!) Right now it’s 2:30 on Friday and I’m in the
Denver airport. My older daughter is running around with daddy and the little is at my feet playing with her little “Diego Activity Kit”. I’ve got a film crew coming to my house Monday, today was a deadline for getting a press release to the coordinator for an upcoming “Food and Wine Festival” in which I well be a vendor, I was almost in a product review section for OK Magazine and Martha Stewart (more on that later) and thanks to my wonderful friend Cher with a voice of an angel… (If you don’t believe me, take a listen at www.stardustlullaby.com ) I was given the opportunity to call THE go to person for new product development with one of the biggest Steak companies in the
US! All this did get accomplished from the lifts, slopes and fireplace. I left my mom in charge of order fulfillment, I had my cell phone with me at all times, I had computer access, I had my PR girls meet deadlines with one phone call, I made contact with Cher’s contact during naptime, and we had a WONDERFUL vacation. Thankfully I don’t think my family noticed all the work I got done. We usually book and pay for this trip in the summer, so that way when winter rolls around and we are all so very swamped with “stuff” no matter what, we HAVE to go, because we already paid for it! No matter what is going on at the time, we force ourselves to take this traditional winter vacation. Even if your vacation tradition is camping in the back yard every 4th of July or jetting off to
Paris every spring, that’s the beauty of doing it as a family. It doesn’t mater where you are or what you do, just that you do it together. The girls are already talking about next year! Gotta catch a flight… I’ll continue and post tomorrow sometime…
January 19, 2008
I’m back! There was a bit of funny business that happened while out there. I was riding so high because of all the wonderful stuff that was happening with
Cher (and of COURSE still not believing about Donny), that when I got a message on my voicemail (literally, I listened to the message still in my skis from the side of the mountain) I thought “OMG I’m sooo on a roll!!! I’m too hot now baby!!!” Only to be brought back down to reality the next day. I’m filling y’all in because I didn’t really know the way these kind of things work and my naivety got me all excited and let down for nothing. The message was from a gal with a “media” company (or so I thought). She left a message saying that she wrote product reviews for OK weekly magazine, Martha Stewart, and many more. She pumped me up and told me how perfect she thought Grill Charms were for her pieces and wanted to know if I was interested. Of course, I’m freaking out thinking “Man am I hot stuff or what!!!” She said she put all the information I would need in an email which I was able to check about an hour or so later. As she promised, she absolutely had all the information about being in many of the magazines she had mentioned and then some. My heart sank though when I read how much it would cost. Obviously I was very naive in thinking that out of the blue someone would just call me up and say “I found you online, LOVE your product, let me put you in Martha Stewart!!” I am still very very green and don’t know all the nuances to this whole game (and believe me, there are PLENTY). The only reason I’m sharing this is NOT to poopoo this girl or this game. She was so very nice, and I might just take her up on it someday, but I was just not aware of this practice so I thought I’d warn you guys before you go jumping up and down for joy without reading the fine print. There is fine print and catches to everything everywhere so before you go telling the world that you are about to be in OK Weekly Magazine…like I almost did…make sure you have all the facts. Fortunately, I only blabbed to about 4 very close friends and my PR girls.
Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products, Inventor of Grill Charms™ www.grillcharms.com
