When It's Time to Stop and Breathe

I love to stay busy. The past few months have been a blur. I can hardly believe that tomorrow is March 1st. For many weeks now, my life has been consumed by the time its taken to create the Port Orchard Living website. I've managed to juggle my 'regular' life (whatever that is?!) with multiple hours of data entry, research and writing. Today, after months of waiting and keeping my mouth shut, I've revealed the site. It's been a busy day.  I sent out the press release I'd been working on for the past week this morning before 7am and then spent some time visiting a few of the movers and shakers of the town. I feel very privileged to be in a community with so many caring and hardworking people. I multi-tasked on some projects from clients and ordered some hand out cards for Port Orchard Living (I realized I didn't necessarily want to have my phone number on the ones I hand out to strangers. It's not like I write personal feelings in a Blog or anything (ha ha). Now I've got a long list of people and places to visit to spread the word about the website.
Frankly, I'm beat. For the rest of today, I'm going to try my best not to think or brainstorm. It's going to be hard because there is so much I want to do and accomplish but I am truly tired and burnt out.
Tomorrow I will be refueled and ready to hop back on my 'Go Go Go Train', but for now I'm going to admit I'm not superwoman. (but just for the rest of the day)

It's Official!

For Immediate Release

Local Resident creates website to promote

Port Orchard Community

Port Orchard, Washington [Feb. 28, 2013] – Promoting the Port Orchard Community and its history is something Samantha Evans-McGuire is very passionate about.  Her new website, www.PortOrchardLiving.org is full of useful information about the community and includes an Event Calendar, Business listings, History of the area and comparison photos of times past.

Samantha has contributed to the local community in the past, completing volunteer projects for the Port Orchard Chamber of Commerce, Friends of the Manchester Library and South Kitsap Rotary. She was also named to the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal’s ‘40 Under Forty’ in 2007.

‘It’s been years since I’ve participated in the community, “ said Evans-McGuire. “I have been waiting for the right time to do something really big and meaningful. This website offers local residents something of value, while at the same time helping us all become more connected.”

The PortOrchardLiving.org website was created by Evans-McGuire and will be maintained by her as well. Promoting the business community and tourism are the top priorities. The website will include an up-to-date calendar of community events, local business listings, area history facts and other helpful information about the community.

PortOrchardLiving.org will offer free event listings to businesses and bonafide, local non-profit organizations. The goal of the website is to promote the City of Port Orchard and the business and events within. PortOrchardLiving.org is not affiliated with any organization or government agency.

For more information about Port Orchard Living or the PortOrchardLiving.org website, please contact Samantha Evans-McGuire at info@portorchardliving.org

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Feeling Good

For the past few months, I've been working on a BIG project. I've been creating a website to honor the town I live in and love. Port Orchard. It has taken a lot of work; countless hours of data entry, fact checking and research.
I'm happy to report that in a few days I will make the announcement that my website, PortOrchardLiving.org is complete. I'm so excited! It's a little like waiting for a baby to be born. Okay, maybe that is an exaggeration, but it is exciting!
I'm excited for two reasons. First and foremost is the fact that I am finished with such a long project. The second reason is that I can actually talk about it now. I've been really good about keeping my mouth shut about the website. When I get excited about something, I get really excited, so it's been a challenge to keep quiet about it.
The PortOrchardLiving.org website will focus on promoting business and community. There is a history section and photos that compare old times with new ones. There is a community calendar, park information and much more.
The future will bring additions to the site, but for now, that's all hush hush.
Thanks for reading my blog and I hope you'll check out the site.

Get out there and Walk....Your Dog!

If you've never been to the Howe Farm Dog Park you're missing out. It's a wonderful park for pooches and people! Please remember to only bring socially friendly dogs. In my many years of going to the dog park, my dog, Zigi, and I have had only one issue. A behaviorally bad Dog who escaped his muzzle (it was quite scary for both of us) almost turned our day at the park to a nightmare.
The park is open Daily from Dawn to Dusk, it's located on Long Lake Road about a half mile from Mile Hill Drive in Port Orchard. There are also walking trails to explore around the dog park itself.
There is also a restroom, so if you have to 'go' you don't have to go away from the park.

Patience. Yes, I know.....

.....it's a virtue. We've all said that, haven't we? 'Patience is a virtue'. I'm currently working on a really big project for myself and my community. It's something I've thought about for over a year now and so far I've got about two months of work into it. It's a lot of time consuming work and I've been diligently keeping on track with deadlines I have set for myself. I'm proud of what I've accomplished so far, yet feel like I need more praise than I am able to give myself. It's hard being your own cheerleader all the time. I just wanted to tell the world, "hey, look at this amazing cool thing I am doing!"
I'm at the point where I know the harder I work, the longer the hours I put in, the sooner I will be able to open my mouth and tell my friends about it. More so, I will be able to release a valuable resource to the community I love so much.
I'll keep plugging away and please stay tuned for great things my friends......

Grace, Gracious, Grateful

Life often gives us the opportunity to feel grace. Whether we chose to to be gracious toward someone or something, or grateful for someone or something is up to us. This week, although only Wednesday, has shown me many things to be grateful for and also allowed me to be gracious toward another human being in a way I would never have imagined.
My thanks of the week is that after many months (almost a year!) my car is finally running properly and I happened to do a job for a auto shop so I was able to trade the repair for my man (girl) hours; my best friends finally got their sewer system fixed after three weeks of frustration (and pooping at my place); and I reconnected with a dear friend that I had been in conflict with. That's a lot to be thankful for....
and....even with all these things being wonderful (and it's only Wednesday), the best thing this week was when I was given the opportunity to reach out to another human being with compassion and love.
I had the good fate of meeting a man who shared with me his hardships and joys of being paralyzed from the waist down. The sole breadwinner for a family of five, this man trusted, a total stranger (me), with a story of grace shown to him from an unofficial group of giving people. This man told me he was given the gift of a van fitted for him, with electric wheelchair ramp and hand controls. He told me about his previous van that had metal ramps that would often fail, caving in, causing him to go crashing to the ground. He spoke freely of the stresses of making sure he was 'ok' to take care of his family. He spoke of how grateful he was for his new van, and then he started to cry.
His head tilted downward and his voice drown out with quiet sobs. I watched his body slowly shake. I stood about 8 feet away from him, the counter that I was standing behind being the only thing in the path between us. I felt sad and hopeless and then I said aloud, "I'm a hugger!" I charged out from behind the counter toward the man and bent over to hug him. I held that man hard as he cried for a few minutes. With tearful eyes and an additional squeeze I released my grip and looked at him with a smile. He smiled too.
I am so grateful I am the kind of person who will hug a person in need. When I told my husband how much that meant to me, how much I was happy that life gave me that opportunity, he said,
'What was his name?' I just shrugged and said, 'I don't know'.
And honestly, I didn't need to because he reminded me of something very important: In all I do, I want to, and need to, include all persons, able bodied and challenged. We are after all, here on this earth to help each other aren't we?!