BAMA!

If I could do it all over again, I think I might want to be a bama girl! We were at the beautiful and enormous University of Alabama yesterday. What a gorgeous campus with historical charm and the appeal and ease of modern world conveniences, the main one being that they have a full out Publix on campus. Those of you, who live in the southeast, truly understand the magnificence of a Publix grocery store. The bakery alone is sheer splendor. This was an exciting discovery for us Publix loving gals indeed. Then we found a nail salon, hair salon, tanning salon- so many salons all in one place and all on campus! And just around the corner a smoothie shack, Kinko’s/UPS, book store (of course), restaurants, bars and even a dance club or two. Greek row happens to be right across the street from the stadium. Sweet! No cars needed at Alabama that's for sure!
(UA Student Services Center)After checking out the greatness that is the University of Alabama, we found our way to the Student Center ballroom for our program. We had the pleasure of speaking to 1,000 new members of sorority life at Alabama and got a chance to visit with one of favorite students from SEPC, Julia. What a great day! We are incredibly lucky and forever thankful to be doing the work that we do and to have the chance to meet so many wonderful student leaders like Julia. Thanks so much for the opportunity sister!

Bama girls at heart,
K & B

Luck is on our side...

Picture- At Grins with the lovely ladies of Panhellenic

If it's true what they say about crickets being lucky, then Texas State University could quite possibly be the luckiest campus we've ever been to! We heard it was "cricket season," a season which we had honestly never heard of before our visit to San Marcos, but it became hugely apparent soon after dusk. We had to be careful to watch where we stepped, because there were literally crickets everywhere; seriously. It was truly bazaar.
Enough about the crickets, we don't want to lose focus of telling you all about a truly amazing group of women we met while visiting TSU during this fabulously lucky season. : ) The smart, beautiful, respectful, polite and of course extremely hospitable ladies of Panhellenic at TSU were so good to us! They really made our visit a memorable one. We spoke to about 500 awesome sorority women. The energy in the room was empowering in its own right, the Greek women at TSU rock. Having the chance to work with this amazing group of women was an honor and another reminder of how lucky we are to have THE coolest jobs ever! The lovely and talented women who make up the Panhellenic Executive team invited us to join them for dinner after our program at this great local hot spot which is known for their $1 Margaritas. Yes, only $1, we could hardly believe it ourselves. No margaritas for us this time, but the food was excellent and the company was even better! (P.S.-Visitors of the lone star state should not be permitted to leave without partaking in some superbly delicious Tex-mex… hmmm, hmmm, good!) Not only did we have a great time talking with them about Greek life, Tamara's fear of crickets, Recruitment, life after college and the importance of taking advantage of every single minute of your collegiate career (God, I miss college), but we also had a chance to learn more about the new campaign they've started at TSU called SUAVE (Students United Against Violence Everyday). A fabulous name for an important cause; you go girls! We look forward to hearing how your first week of SUAVE events turned out.
Still feeling lucky,
K & B

Nacho, burrito, what's that up in your Speedo?

This is one of our favorite sing-a-long songs which we happened to learn while waiting tables at a Mexican restaurant years ago. Waiting tables, well, not so good. Sing’n in the kitchen, awesome! Come on; give it a try, we think you’ll like it too. It goes a little something like this: Nacho, burrito, what’s that up in your Speedo? You’ve got trouble, on the double… (then we usually just make up the rest). Fun, right? So why are we singing this oh so memorable and delightful song you ask? Well, its a little celebration of our minor on the road accomplishment, well I guess we can call it an accomplishment. We started our day in the Houston airport where we enjoyed a tasty Mexican treat, breakfast tacos. Yummy! In honor of delicious Tex-Mex throughout the land (especially in Texas) we decided to challenge our pallets by sticking with the taco theme throughout the day. You may be thinking, wow, that could get tough, but hey, we’re dedicated! So, for lunch, we found ourselves at Kirby’s Café, a hip local diner serving traditional Austin cuisine. This place was artsy, quaint and fabulous and we thoroughly enjoyed our bean-n-veggie tacos. Mucho Delish-e-oso. When dinner time rolled around, yep, you guessed it, tacos! The perfect ending to a truly fabulous day! The simple things in life make it so much fun.
Adios for now,
K & B

Success, friends and sadness.

Ok so today my pal Shawn's book comes out. I feel like I know a celebrity since everywhere I turn, there is another review of the D-Man's book (all good of course). So that makes today exciting. Besides, Shawn and wife Gwenn would make great celebs. It would make my buying the magazines that I know I should not buy a less guilty pleasure.

Naturally, I am psyched about tonight's Grey's premiere. I cried my eyes out watching the finale last night. This show is so good. My husband came into the room to see what was wrong. I love the writing and the development of the characters. So strong. But, mostly I cried because of the dog- Doc. For those of you who do not know, my dog fell very ill this summer and had to be put to sleep so watching that is still awful. However, giving the week I have had I found the flowing tears a therapeutic release and helpful.

I also chatted via this cool tool myspace with an old high school buddy yesterday. It was his birthday, "Happy Birthday". Tony is a guy who I always really liked and respected in high school and was sad that over time we had lost touch. No more thanks to this age of instant gratification.

Coming off a crummy week, I have to say that the next few days look amazing. Our Godson is coming to stay this weekend for his birthday and has no idea my better half is taking him to Tallahassee for a football game. He will be wicked pumped. Then I take off with Kel for a few campus visits that we could not be more excited about. The women we have chatted with there are out of this world. We are looking forward to learning and working with them.

In reflection I guess what I learned this week is, when someone or something gets you down you have two choices. 1. Either learn what you can from it and use the pain and anger to propel you forward or 2. let it erode who you are and subsequently let them win.

We went with 1.

Much love always-
Becca

Kitty City!

We have our first little break in the semester and we’ve been home all week, it’s a good thing, because it’s kitty city at Casa de Addington! My husband Court and I recently became the proud foster parents of 5 adorable baby kittens. Court rescued 5 abandoned kittens earlier this week and they're currently living in our guest bathroom. They seem to be enjoying cuddling up on blankets in the bathtub. (Sweet as peaches picture attached.) The little babes are so adorable and super sweet! They’re pretty fragile and understandably scared and nervous, but all of them are extremely gentle.
I contacted an amazing completely volunteer run agency, CAT CALL which rescues and cares for cats and also manages cat adoptions. Tonight, I took the in for their first check-up and we found out that we have 3 girls and 2 boys! We also learned that they're only 3 1/2 weeks old and they weigh about 13 ounces each. Tiny, tiny little lumps of love! Their guesstimated and now "official" birthday is September 1st. Just today, they've started to meow and play. They're becoming very social with each other and even with us. I don't know how much longer we’ll be able to keep them confined to the tub, but for now, its working. CAT CALL asked us to keep them until they’re 8 weeks old and ready to be adopted. How could we say NO?! The next 5 weeks should be very interesting, especially for my cat, Abby!

Proud foster parent of the fabulous five,
Kelly

Time with T.J.

Today was great, our mentor was in our hometown and we got to break bread with him and see him speak (always a treat) at The University of Tampa. He finally met both our husbands and gave us a big thumbs up- not that we had any doubts.

If you do not know T.J. or have not have the chance to hear him speak...PLEASE check him out on myspace or through CAMPUSPEAK at www.campuspeak.com. He will make you laugh and make you think.

Always-
Kelly and Becca

PS- The gorgeous gal in the photo with us is Casey the Director of Greek Life at UT.

Our Famous Friend Shawn

We were sitting on a plane in Baltimore waiting for the flight crew to replace what the pilot referred to as, “some minor navigational equipment” (thank God!). Becca was reading the USA Today and I was focused on a highly entertaining and newly important task of creating a wrestling name roster. What is a wrestling roster you ask? We weren’t really sure either, but we decided to strategically and creatively come up with wrestling names for some of our friends. We sometimes do imaginative, albeit strange things when we’re bored (read more about this on our blog entry titled, “A dog named Wonton”).

Anyway, I had a few names done and Becca gets all excited. I’m thinking, wow, she’s really into this- this is going to be fun. But, she was excited because she was reading the Life Section of the USA Today and our buddy Shawn, who we will now refer to as our Author friend, Shawn Decker and his book, My Pet Virus: the True Story of a Rebel without a Cure were mentioned in the new Books section of the paper. Awesome! But, not at all surprising. Now, if you have not promptly left this blog to purchase this masterpiece, may we suggest you do so very soon?

Seriously, Shawn way to go!! We will definitely have to work a bit harder on your wrestling name, to be sure it’s worthy of your celebrity status, but still relatable, humorous and edgy, just like you.

It's Fashion Week in New York

The students at Skidmore College reinforced why we do what we do. They took the Let’s Talk About “IT” message to a whole new level by taking it to the streets of campus, spreading the word and engaging the college community. The Skidmore peer educators were decked out in t-shirts that were made to spread the word about our program and more importantly, to get students to talk about “IT.” A special thanks to our sunshine sister, Carli for the t-shirts and for making our visit to Skidmore possible. Students like her are our inspiration.

8 to 1

8 to 1. A statisitc we learned during a recent visit to Berry College in Mount Berry, GA. So what does 8 to 1 mean exactly you ask? Well, let me tell you, it's 8 deer to every 1 student at Berry. Yes, I did say deer. Like, the one's that scamper through the woods. It was a surprise to us too! Kind of strange for us city girls to see deer straight up chill'n on campus. But they certainly fit right in and there's plenty of room since the campus is on acres and acres of gorgeous Georgia soil!
The campus was beautiful and the students were awesome (and beautiful too). We had a fabulous time at dinner with a very dedicated team of peer educators. Thanks for the good times ladies and keep up the great work.

So hard to say goodbye!

Our first couple of weeks on the road and all has been excellent so far. The only minor travel misfortune for August was the forced farewell to a brand new, not even opened yet lip gloss- a somewhat traumatic experience for an avid lip gloss lover. Many of you can feel our pain, I’m sure. It was a little hard and kind of sad to say goodbye to cherries in the glow. So remember folks, no liquids, gels, or pastes permitted on flights- that’ll take some getting used to. Other than that, all is splendid in our travels so far and we’re looking forward to an excellent semester!
Have happy and safe liquid free travels my friends!

Close to the Home Front

We were thrilled with the opportunity to speak to the incoming students at the University of Tampa this week and proud to work with a campus so close to home. Having a chance to directly impact our community means a lot to us (and hey, the super duper easy commute was a plus too). I never thought I would feel odd going to work without getting on a plane first!
Just like many other colleges throughout the nation, UT has an amazing incoming freshmen class this year. They just keep getting smarter and smarter, kind of makes me glad I went to college in the 90’s. The competition is fierce!

HOW SWEET IT IS!

Summer’s over and we’re back on the road. Exciting! Our first gig of the semester could not have been more amazing. We kicked things off at Sweet Briar Women’s College, which is one of the most beautiful campuses we’ve been to. The buildings are gorgeous and the grounds are perfectly green and lush…just makes you want to read a book! The student’s were fantastic and the administration could not have been nicer. We had a chance to meet and talk with some really outstanding women. We commend the administration and student leaders at Sweet Briar for addressing such an intimate and important topic before classes even start. We were honored to be a part of the orientation programming (and ecstatic about being named honorary sweet peas). A special shout out to our lovely student host Caroline, thanks for everything!

A dog named Wonton

Our furry friend Wally...a.k.a Wonton.
Oh, the things we do to procrastinate. Some people do dishes, while others re-organize their office, I’m sure a person or two has absorbed themselves in the ultra time- consuming task of cleaning out their e-mail in-box, which always seems to lead to an entire new list of things we need to do. Let’s not forget perhaps the most popular means of procrastination, which I often refer to as “the perfect Sunday afternoon,” we click on the TV to engage in a favorite re-run marathon (my top pick being, Law and Order with Project Runway coming in a close second). Putting off work or school projects is extremely common and totally acceptable, so whatever you do, don't feel guilty. Delaying tedious to-dos is a part of life. No matter what we choose to occupy our time with, from the bottom of my heart to the tips of my toes, I believe we all at one time or another do it. We procrastinate.

I share these thoughts of procrastination with you to tell you about a brand new activity Becca and I came up with this afternoon for the sole purpose of postponement. Summer’s coming to an end and we still have lots to do before the semester begins, so much in fact that we sometimes aren’t sure where to start. Rather than get back to work after lunch, we proceeded to spend 10 minutes, okay in all honesty, it was really more like 30 minutes. 30 minutes of quality dilly dally time, coming up with dog names that start with “W.” It’s a thing hard to do! Since a small chunk of our busy afternoon was spent doing this, I figure the least we can do if share a few of our favorites names- Wally, Winston, Winky, Woody, Willow and of course Wonton.

Going to the Big D...

Last week we had a rocking good time at the International Headquarters of CAMPUSPEAK Inc located in beautiful Denver. We cannot thank the gang enough for making it a wonderful learning experience.

The interns especially know how to bring the noise.

Which reminds me...if you are fabulous and looking for real world experience that is second to none. Intern at CAMPUSPEAK (details at www.CAMPUSPEAK.com).

myspace safety 411

Social Networking sites have taken society by storm. They have afforded us opportunities to reconnect with old friends, loves and in some cases, missed chances at love but these mediums are also alive and well with internet predators. Not to burst any bubbles all these sites such as Facebook, myspace and Friendster are all safe when used well, safely.

Ok, starting with the basics. Never give out your complete name, address, phone number or credit card numbers to anyone. This all seems obvious but you might be surprised how many predators can coax this information out of someone. I would never share that information with a stranger but someone I regarded as a friend, well that may be a different story. Truth be told, we are all very comfortable behind the computer as it seems to establish a wall of protection but if not administered properly it can make you an easy target.

So before we get in too deep, I want you to log in to your myspace account, Friendster or otherwise and set this puppy to safe mode. Or if you want to be searchable then simply clean up your profile. Now I am 100% a fan of these social mediums. I have found dear friends from college and high school as well as been able to see how that hot guy from back in the day turned out (still fabulous). But, I have learned to proceed with caution and you my friend, can too. For example, let’s say you decide to blog about a pretty rough day at work. Clients making you crazy, your boss even (I know that would never be the case with you all but suspend disbelief for but a moment) and your loving and sympathetic friends, comment on your blog about how your law firm should get a grip. How just because William’s name is on the marquee does not make him king and you are so talented as a young family law attorney if they don’t watch it- you will walk.
Now to a non-stalker type you and your posse are holding your cards pretty close to the chest, keeping it nice and vague. However if a stalker really wanted to find you at this point they have more than enough information.

Ok, killers, stalkers and perverts aside, let’s talk about who else may be reading all about your girls gone wild Friday night or how a night with the boys got a little out of hand. Your boss, your future dream boss, your professor or even you own family. None of whom need to know about that table-dancing scene that seemed so right at the time. So be smart and aware and take precautions to protect yourself and your future.

However if you fall prey to a predator, (which is frighteningly easy to do) perhaps you simply accepted a stranger, as your friend who will not leave you alone then you need to take this threat seriously. Follow these steps to stop the harassment. Keep everything! I know your inclination when a creeper will not back off is to rid yourself of everything that reminds you of them but for your safety- DON’T! Do not delete messages, chat logs, comments or otherwise. Store them on a disk and print out hard copies. Then call the police and ask for the Computer Crimes unit or for an officer who addresses online incidents. Most experts say if you have received a direct death threat or threats of physical harm call the FBI Computer Crimes unit. When calling in a crime make sure you stay calm, know your facts (who, when, where ETC) and let them know you have your documents for review. If you feel you need additional resources then visit www.i-safe.org, www.haltabuse.org, www.cyberangels.org or feel free to contact me directly at Becca@KellyandBecca.com as I would be happy to walk you through this process. The internet is an incredible source of knowledge and information but it is also a bit of a danger zone when explored recklessly. So proceed with caution but by all means proceed.

Becca and Kelly are I-SAFE certified, to learn more visit www.KellyandBecca.com