Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Yay!

Hurrah! I completed my 10th speech project today in Toastmasters! That means I have earned my Competent Communicator distinction. Meeting this goal feels so good, and it motivates me to finish my other two major Pre-Birth goals! Thank you to our VP of Education Bob Freel for encouraging me to finish my speeches.

Originally when I found out I was pregnant, I wanted to finish my speeches by August. Then in February I started thinking I needed to slow down my timeline (so much had been happening in the winter and I knew spring would be a busy time as well). Then he approached me about finishing my speeches, saying that if I could finish by June 30th, the club itself would meet one of its club goals for the year. Just knowing I had the support of the club members to finish was enough to motivate me, and I am really grateful that they have listened to me speak formally quite a bit over the past couple of months.

Now I am ready to take more of a background role in the club until Eric is born. I'll contribute with oral evaluations and maybe a few other roles, but my next formal speech will be sometime after Eric is born.

The best part of today's speech was having the chance to honor the memory of my Uncle Eric by explaining why I have chosen to name our son after him. For those who know the full story of Uncle Eric's life, and his untimely death, you know that this was an emotional speech for me. I just wanted to do him justice...

So yay! Now we turn our focus toward getting ready for my brother's wedding this weekend. I have a speech gig as their officiant, so good thing I have been practicing!

Then we continue to ramp up the focus for Big Goal #2: taking and passing the real estate exam this summer.

After that: finish my cross stitch sampler. I have actually been making progress this past week again and really, I am getting close to being done. I took a huge break during Christmastime and present-making time and then didn't pick it up for a couple of months.

It has been a great day!