We’re still having a party!  Since it’s a month-long birthday celebration, I think of gifts (no, don’t send any!!) and that makes me think of the blessings that I call my teammates.  I’d like to share with you the gifts that my pixels2Pages teammates have given to me and that they share with each other and with you. I am so grateful for each one! In the order that I met them, here goes…

Almost exactly 15 years ago, shortly after she became a CMC, I was introduced to Anne Lineberger as my sideline. From that moment, we have been fast friends – think Lucy and Ethel, Thelma and Louise, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and Anne’s personal favorite, Frick and Frack.  For me, Anne’s greatest gifts are those of her wonderfully Southern sense of humor, her love of adventure, and her whimsical spirit. We cannot have a phone conversation without laughter, and when you get us together in person, it’s all over! One of the things I love and admire most about is her willingness to learn new things and to TRY new things. I’m not sure Anne has ever come across something she thought she couldn’t do. Now, there may be things she refuses to do, but that’s different!! Anne would tell you that she is just a little bit anal, and she’s never met a spreadsheet she didn’t like, but that’s a good thing for me – I need a lot of people like Anne in my life – and it’s a good thing for our team, as she is our treasurer.  Other gifts that Anne brings to our team are her skill and willingness to create ALL of our handouts, her love of trying new techniques in Storybook, her background as an artist, and the example she sets for us to be lifelong learners.  Anne has more energy than most people I know, and I want to be like her when I grow up!

Mary Browder and I met in person for the first time at Showcase 2008, and it was like we had known each other for a lifetime! Of course, we had known of each other for years, but we sure had fun all weekend long! Mary is like the Energizer bunny – she is always working on something, and she’s always up to the task at hand. Mary is one of those rare individuals who are able to give up any personal agendas for the good of the team, and she does it with grace and humor. Mary recorded two of our first p2P webinars on Content Manager, and she recorded one of them about 19 times just to make sure it was perfect for you. Talk about attention to detail! Like Anne, Mary is an artist, which you can see in her pages and designs. In a past life, Mary was a trauma nurse, and she is willing to play the part of leader or follower as the situation demands. Mary is super organized and she quickly follows through on every assignment she is given.  Beyond that, Mary is one of those people who don’t wait for an assignment – she just sees something that needs to be done and does it. My favorite thing about Mary? It’s probably that she decided to take up kick boxing after turning fifty.  Shut up!  Or maybe it’s that she never comes to see you without bringing food!

I finally found Shelley Alexander in the Sydney airport in August 2009 after using the phone at the information desk to call her when I couldn’t figure out how to make an international call from my iphone.  It surprised us that we hadn’t recognized each other as I disembarked the plane, but it was awfully early in the morning, and she was a good sport to even BE at the airport, since I had gotten moved to an earlier flight and arrived several hours before I was due.  You can probably tell that one of the things I like best about Shelley is that she is a dependable friend, capable of changing plans and being flexible. Trust me, all of my friends find themselves getting good at that whether they wanted to or not! Shelley is also one of the bravest people I know, given that she invited me to stay at her house long before she ever met me, even knowing I could have been an axe murderer! Shelley is another take-charge person who rarely meets a challenge that she is not up to mastering. She is a planner and a detail person and an organizer (I suspect you are seeing a pattern here). One of Shelley’s greatest attributes is her ability to explain things in a way that is easy to understand.  She looks for inspiration in all things and generally finds it, and then she shares her creations and discoveries. I used to love reading Shelley’s “Tips of the Day” and now she writes clear, concise instructions for you. Shelley is able to break things down into manageable chunks, and she thinks through things and gets right to the heart of the matter very quickly. Like Mary and Anne, Shelley tackles challenges with a vengeance and almost always emerges victorious. Shelley is a night owl like me, which allows us to be able to chat several times a week, which keeps me sane, so I especially thank her for that!

On the first night I was in Sydney, Shelley had arranged for several of us to go to dinner at a really swanky restaurant, and Jenny MacKay (from the boonies of Western Australia) was one of our dining companions that night.  I can tell you that before I even met her, I knew I would like Jenny because she made it a point to travel to Showcase every year, even though it is about a five hour drive from Geraldton to the airport in Perth where she would catch a plane for a six hour (or more) flight. That is dedication! Jenny and I are almost exactly the same age, although she has lots of grands and I have none.  Jenny grew up on a sheep station in WA, and is used to doing whatever needs to be done and not waiting on others to do it. This trait comes in handy for us as we know we can count on Jenny to get the job done, whatever it is.  As Jenny told you in her blog, she loves computers and technical things, and she is able to patiently explain how things work to those who don’t have a working knowledge of technology.  Jenny will tell you that she’s not creative but that she can take an idea and run with it.  I think that counts as creative! Jenny is practical and resourceful, and we are so lucky to have her on our team!

I didn’t know much about Justine Forrest before I met her at Shelley’s house on my second day in Australia, but one thing I knew was that she is a fantastic photographer! In addition to being a great photographer, I knew she was disciplined, too, because she was doing that Photo A Day thing – successfully! I knew she had a great imagination, because she thought up many of the monthly themes for Photo A Day, and they were so clever. When I met her in person I found that all of those things were true! Juzzi also has a fantastic sense of humor and the greatest laugh! You may remember Juzzi as the mistress of blueprints at p2P, and she has a style that is easy to recognize.  Justine is known for her clean, classic “magazine-look” layouts, which are the perfect way to highlight her incredible photos. You can tell from reading her blog posts that Juzzi is a wonderful encourager – I love her spot-on use of quotations and her easy-to-follow tips for taking better photographs. Justine is one of those quiet people who I suspect (well, I know for a fact, but I’m not telling) really cuts loose when you give her a chance.  I can’t wait to get together with Justine in person again!

I’m pretty sure I met Janice Gilhooley next, at the Meet ‘n’ Greet that took place the night before Showcase AU. Oh, how we screamed when we finally met in person!! You know, it’s quite a risk to meet someone in person that you’ve only known online (thank goodness I was married long before computer dating!) and I kept thinking “what if they don’t like me” as I met each of my new Australian friends that summer (well, it was winter Down Under!) Lucky for me, that wasn’t an issue – what we got was what we expected! It was Janice’s first Showcase, so that was fun for the rest of us, too! Janice is such a creative person, always tinkering and pushing the boundaries of the software to make it do what she wants it to. One of the thing we Americans can’t appreciate is the fact that a couple of years ago, the only digital content available to Australasians was whatever was on CD’s – no downloads! So they would see us using cute papers and nifty overlays that they didn’t have, and people like Janice would go figure out how to make them! When we first started p2P, Janice was not at all sure she would actually ‘do’ any webinars or recordings. I think she bought her first set of headphones after we all complained of the feedback coming from her computer and made her mute on our weekly calls. Wow, what a monster we have created! Janice loves doing videos now, almost as much as she loves designing content and blueprints and creating pages. There are a few people on our team whose minds just work on a different level than mine does, and Janice is one of them. I love Janice’s wicked sense of humor, too, and I’m so grateful for her contributions!  And you know, not many people would get up LONG before dawn to pick up a couple of relative strangers and drive them around for two days, then let them stay overnight and get up LONG before dawn to take them back to the airport.  Janice is that kind of friend!

I met Kerrianne Hobbs at the Meet ‘n’ Greet just after I met Janice, and I don’t think we’ve stopped laughing since. Except for the times that we are crying – the two of us are often at extremes, but we’re usually there together! Kerrianne is one of those fun, bubbly people that you want to spend time with, and she has the gift of teaching. Beyond teaching people how to do something, Kerrianne teaches people how to LEARN something. You may not see Kerrianne answering lots of questions on facebook, because she would rather lead you to the answer through Challenges than just tell you where to find an answer. Most of us are not that patient, so I’m thankful that Kerrianne has her ways to encourage you to learn new things. Kerrianne is one of those creative people who has more ideas in her little finger than I have in my whole body, and we are so lucky that she is sharing them with us! Kerrianne is a leader, and people love to follow her just to see what fun they will have and what fun things they will learn. Lead on, KA!

Last April I found myself in Canada, not far from where Marilyn Innes lives, so of course, I just invited myself over and Marilyn was gracious enough to have me. Mind you, this was just after our site had launched and since Marilyn was the brain behind our dashboard, she had probably not slept nearly enough (if at all!) in the weeks prior to my visit.  Marilyn is one of the quiet people on our team, but she reminds me of that EF Hutton ad – “when Marilyn talks, people listen!” An ace at researching and studying and learning what makes things tick, Marilyn teaches herself what she needs to know in order to complete a task.  Marilyn and Carolyn spent hours working together to plan the layout of our website, and then Marilyn worked to make it look the way it looks. If you’ve seen Marilyn’s Color Wheel webinar, you know the kinds of things she is capable of doing! Back in the SBC 2.0 day, many a night would I chat with Marilyn just to see what cool thing she was trying to make the software do. Marilyn also has a gift for cutting to the heart of an issue and getting right to the point. Sometimes leading a team of intelligent, creative, independent women is a little like herding cats, and I’ve been known to stray a bit or even get lost on a tangent, and it’s good to know that Marilyn (among others!) can keep me grounded and lead us back to the matter at hand.

Anne and I were together when we met Carolyn Bodkin on our road trip to Showcase last summer. Carolyn was really brave, too – she let Anne and me stay at her house, not even knowing when (or if) we would actually make an appearance. We knew we liked her before we met her, because she went out and bought three or four luscious desserts for us to share after we finally made it to her house at o’dark thirty! I hope you read Carolyn’s story about how I first noticed her on facebook – I loved that we have similar senses of humor, even if they can be a bit warped at times.  But she is nicer than I am! Not only that, she is organized and methodical and practical, in addition to being very creative and artistic – all of the things I’m not! Carolyn is one of those wise souls who you feel like you can tell anything to, and because she’s an excellent proofreader, too, I’m going to ask her to forgive me now for ending my sentences with prepositions and splitting infinitives. Carolyn does a lot of the behind-the-scenes work at p2P, and we count on her for her skills in planning and strategizing. In keeping with one of our many common themes, I know Carolyn will work to find new solutions to problems, often before I’m aware there is a problem. She sure makes troubleshooting easy!

I FINALLY met Tameka Bond in the lobby of the Hilton at Showcase last summer. Ever since that Whiney Mandela page, I had been counting the days! And oh, did we make a scene! Tameka is one of the most amazing members of our team in that she is able to pack more into a day than anyone I know. She is supremely organized and unbelievably creative. I would just bet that if I asked her today for ten video tidbits by Monday, she’d let me know on Friday that they were ready. If not before! Tameka is a master at time management, and she has such a cheerful spirit that you would never think that she is ever stressed. You recognize Tameka as the tidbit queen, which she is, but she is ever so much more. A master at marketing, Tameka has more ideas than we could ever hope to implement. Ditto for her many creative technique tips – I don’t know how she ever gets a page done for playing around and learning new things, but she does! Need ideas about anything? Turn Tameka loose on a brainstorming session. You will never know what hit you! The organized, structure-loving people on this team (read: almost everyone but me) have let me lead them in chaos for a year, and now I’m turning over the organizational bits to them (work to our strengths, I say!) and Tameka is serving as our secretary. She will have her hands full keeping me straight!

Just before I met Tameka, I heard Jeannine Campbell yelling down from the floor above, “Oh, Mothership!” (which is how Tameka knew it was me!) and I knew the weekend would not be a quiet one. Well, I knew that before I got to Minneapolis! Jeannine is a bundle of energy, too, and with a mouth that goes almost as fast as mine. Jeannine is my kindred spirit on p2P – we are the ADD ones, the Squiggles, the ones most likely to get sidetracked and definitely the ones most likely to be late. With everything! We also know how to have fun! Well, so do the rest of the team, for that matter! In spite of all of our frivolity, Jeannine is the one who kept the IT ship going all year long. She was on duty almost 24/7 for many weeks, and if there was an IT problem to be solved or job to be done, Jeannine probably did it. We owe her a lot! You probably recognize Jeannine as one of our head cheerleaders, too, as she is all about sharing the digi love. Jeannine is great at helping newbies get going and like Jenny, she’s a whiz at working with beginners and technophobes. Jeannine is the one who named me “the Mothership” (among other things) and she keeps us pepped up and going when things get rocky. I appreciate your zest for life, Jeannine!

Next week, I will meet Kim Mannino in person for the first time, and I can’t wait! We are having a little pixie party on Tiki, and Kim has never met any of us, so it should be great fun! Kim is another one of those quiet workers who churn out idea after idea and amaze us all with things that seem like nothing to her. She’ll fire us off a page she’s made or an idea she’s had and wonder if it’s “okay” and we’re all “OMG, it’s gorgeous!! How did you do that?!?!” Oh, for just a sprinkling of her creativity! Kim inspired many of our favorite features – she did our first workshop (did you see the calendar workshop?) and she shared our first (internal) Start2Finish – and for someone who wasn’t going to do any videos, she’s become a pro! Kim is great at teaching – I’ve already learned lots from her – and creating. I don’t think she sleeps, or if she does, she’s creating freebies and pages in her sleep. Kim, you are so much more than enough that I can’t even tell you how good you are! We are all thankful for your many gifts!

My apologies now for the length of this post, but after all, it’s our party and I wanted to take my time unwrapping and sharing all of these precious gifts! To our fans and followers, thanks for all of the birthday wishes, and to my teammates, thanks for the gifts you bring to the team! We’re successful because of YOU!

More birthday hugs,

Jan