Monday, September 19, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Support my 2011 24 hours of booty ride Please!
Please choose to support my ride this year in October at Stone Mountain for the 24 hours of booty ride! Details and how to donate here: http://bit.ly/24hobATL
One of my goals is to show my team mates just how much money can be raised because of social media connections!
Thanks so much!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Summer & The Beach = Heaven on earth!
One place there is no doubt that I feel I am in Heaven here on Earth is the beach. Topsail Island NC is where we vacation and because it's in the Carolina's it's like going home too!
My son playing in the surf
Ah heaven! 
The siren thankfully didn't go off that week. No hurricane warnings necessary...
Me n Hubby out at the Fish House at Wrightsville Beach NC ~met friends from college there and had great seafood dinner! Where do you go on vacation? Are you ready for your next one already like me?
Thanks for reading and leaving me comments!
Monday, May 30, 2011
Empire Avenue
I'm hooked! How about you? Have you logged in and started investing in your friends and contacts yet? This site: http://www.empireavenue.com has quickly become a new favorite of mine to visit daily. A friend of mine Dwayne Kilbourne (@dwaynekilbourne) from our monthly #ChirpWdstck meetings, shared this site with us at our last tweet up. I will admit I was hesitant at first, like twitter in the beginning I thought no not one more thing, but just as I discovered with twitter, Empire Avenue has its own unique benefits for a social media person like me. Dwayne said on his profile that EA is like going to the "gym" for your social media apps. I found out quickly in the chats that there are folks to help guide you through the beginning stages. In no time I was buying stocks in friends and had finished my profile. I found friends from twitter who were already participating on EA and started "purchasing" their stock. Because of my great contact list on both my main social media avenues (twitter & facebook) I already knew many "great stock" to invest in off the bat! I'm having fun looking at graphs and seeing who's going up and who's diving down in value! I never thought I'd be one to enjoy anything to do with the stock market (too many numbers in my mind) but EA has made the numbers social... Bam, that was all it took!
I hope you'll try it out and see if this is a site you'd enjoy! I've already made great new contacts in social media, and they in turn connect with you on all your other social media sites. Its just one more fun way to keep the conversation going and to make great new connections that could impact your life for the better... For real! :)
According to empireavenue.com:
"'Activity' simply means how often you use that channel, posting statuses, tweets, comments, photos or whatever other content you might add."
"'Audience' is the size of the network of individuals that receives your content."
"Most importantly, "Interaction" considers the reaction of your audience to the content you post: the more they comment, retweet, 'like', favorite, or otherwise respond to your content, the greater the Interaction portion of your Network Score will be."
So sign up, grab some Eaves and start investing! I think you'll be enjoying it as much as I do in no time!
Let me know what you think of it here in the comments or you can always send me a tweet @swaygrl on twitter!
As always thanks for reading my blog!
Olivia
{EAV_BLOG_VER:6fd1d9644d1845a2}
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Having a blog here and there
How many blogs do you have? I think I might have too many. But the way things are these days everything changing so fast it almost seems necessary to have more than one. I have found it more difficult to daily update from this particular blog. I find it more intimidating and for some reason more formal than some of the other blog sites I have recently started up. I didn't like wordpress at all. It was cumbersome and difficult to learn. I don't like difficult. There are too many things to get done in a day for difficult. So I began using this site. It's been fun, but like I said, I have run into several reasons why I just don't post on this site as much. I start things and then fail to post them...
Well you wanna know which ones I'm fond of now? I found tumblr not more than a week ago, and while I'm still trying to figure it out, I'm fascinated and having a blast posting pictures, texts, quotes, and links. It's also easy to update and blog right from my iphone. So if I snap a picture and feel like blogging about it, that luxury is available where I haven't found a way to do that here. The other one I just found a day or so ago is also available on my iphone and it's a picture blogging app. It is called instagram. I am in love with the way you add fun effects to your photos right from your phone and post and share them right away.
What blogs have you found that you like? Is there one that will win out over all the rest? Share your thoughts with me!
My new links for blogs are: http://swaygrl.tumblr.com/ and http://instagr.am/p/_j9g/
Check em out, leave me a comment or like there too!
Thanks for following me here. I'm not giving up on blogger just yet!
Monday, November 29, 2010
Another prodigal story
I wrote this several months ago. Today I finally have the courage to share it. I think after reading Michelle Weibe's of http://www.interiorsbystudiom.com/ story in her blog, I let go of some of my fears of what others think. I believe that because our family has been through so much, we can show that much more love to those going through similar circumstances.
I want to begin with an example from the Bible. This is from Luke 15:11-24
"11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you,19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.t’22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began."
I think that is one of the best verses in the Bible there in verse 20 it says "and while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him" ~it doesn't say he waited inside the house to beat his butt for ruining his life and his fortune, nor does it say he scolded him angrily and told him to go back to where he came from.... He ran to meet him, hugged him and kissed him and then threw a big party to welcome him home.
Now this story is personal to me this week because my brother came home. I don't think he would mind me telling you just a bit of his story. He was in rehab for over a year. He is my baby brother. He's only 22 and already been in and out of rehab a couple of times. We nearly lost him this time last year. Last Thanksgiving we weren't sure if he would live or die. This Thanksgiving we were sure that he like the prodigal in the parable was dead but has returned to life! I can't explain to you all the emotions I felt over the past few weeks. There are so many of them jumbled up. Joy, pain, sadness, excitement, worry, fear, regret, heartache, relief, happiness, I mean that is just a few that I can express and they were all jumbled up at all different times.
I am so Thankful that our story worked out this way! I know many families who haven't been so lucky. Their stories end in a very different way. Unfortunately it seems to be an epidemic lately that isn't going away. I don't have enough room to tell you the whole story or to explain all the details you may be wondering about. It isn't about those heartwrenching details anyway. This is about the joy of welcoming someone you love home, who has been gone, and has made mistakes, yes, but how we can choose to show love and grace instead of anger and bittereness and resentment. The rest of that parable is a warning if you want to read on. I hope I never judge anyone the way the brother does in the rest of that story. I was once a prodigal myself, and hope that before I ever judge anyone I will remember how much my God has forgiven me.
Now more than six months later, I have so many good stories to share about my brother. He is now working full time for the ministry that helped him recover. He is in fact on tour with them this week seeing New England. Telling us that he is amazed to see how God is moving when they share their stories. Teen Challenge https://www.facebook.com/EmergngLeadersCollege is a wonderful ministry and anyone who loves some one struggling with addiction, I'd highly recommend checking out this program. I know that God put them in our lives at the appointed time to save my brother's life. I'm so thankful he is now sharing his story and changing peoples lives for the better!
Andrew is his name.... Pray for him. I'm sure all the extra encouragement is greatly needed!
May grace, peace, hope, love and faith find you where you are today and may Christ be the light that shows you the way....
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