Google. Swim Lessons. Hilarity Ensues.

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The kiddos have been taking swim lessons. It's been going well in the grand scheme of things. Jamisen has been excelling at the mechanics of swimming. Lily has been having a wonderful time but is less about the skills and is more about the sparkly fun to be had at the pool. It feels like every-other-lesson that we're pulling one kid out (usually Lily) because they're not listening to the teacher. Parenting is hard. 

Both kids are loving their roles in the household as helpers. Lily is obsessed with being at counter height. We try very hard to make sure she's positioned in the middle of the counter so there's zero chance that she can fall off but she loves to see whatever we're doing, including cooking. She's more into the controlling part of helping as opposed to helping- helping. Her favorite food to help with is banana egg pancakes.

Jamisen continues to be very into domestic arts. In the photo above, he helped to clean up an art project that went awry. He knows how to hook up the vacuum cleaner and how to use it. That is a sure sign that he's going to be quite the lady's man in college and beyond.

He also loves his Grandma Faiola very much. This is a sweet photo from the last weekend of my Nutritional Therapy course where he got to go to the children's museum with Grandma and Grandpa. It was wonderful to have Grandma and Grandpa Faiola in the same city as the school (and probably the only reason that the schooling set-up worked).

I recently had the honor of speaking at Google. They invited me to speak on 'Resilience' and what that means to me. It was amazing to be at their campus, speaking to their team and family members. I spoke of the importance of integrating all the experience and parts of yourself.

It was a career highlight and also deeply terrifying. There were so many smart people in the audience and it was hard to give the talk in a vulnerable and open manner and not feel nervous about how it would be perceived and received. 

Ultimately it went well (I think). Audience members seemed appreciative and open and had good feedback after the talk was over. It was a definite career high for me and I felt (and feel) grateful for the opportunity to share my story. It was amazing and it felt once-in-a-lifetime (hopefully it's not! Hopefully it's just the start). =)