Hello and Season's Greetings to all! Happy Hannukah to those of you who celebrate Hannukah!

This has been a busy week! Tuesday and Thursday, I hosted my very first teleclasses ever, "Trash the Resolution: 5 Steps to Making Changes that Really Last". A good time was had by all, and I will be doing the teleclass again. The next two Saturdays, I will be doing the class in person in my office. I am very excited!

Wednesday, Awareness Village hosted it's first Annual Holiday Open House for the merchants in the office complex (though everyone was invited!). It was a successful evening. Several people came to share warm wishes, hot apple cider and snacks.

As Santa says, "Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas!"

Happy Friday! Yesterday afternoon, I went to Carson City to run a couple errands. On the way back, I started singing a Christmas carol with the radio. (If you must know, it was "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". LOL) I must be getting into the spirit of the season!

This morning, local TV was filled with news of the holiday food drive. It reminded me to decide what I would do this year for those less fortunate than I. It doesn't have to be anything big, a can of food, an hour of time, a cash donation, or even a simple prayer. Have you thought about what you might do? If you have some ideas, please post them in the guestbook.

I am also interested in holiday traditions. Is there something special you and/or your family do during the holiday season? Please share! Ciao!

Hello all! It’s a beautiful sunny day in Incline Village, Nevada! According to the TV weatherman last night, Old Man Winter lovingly deposited 13 inches of snow here yesterday. That seems like a lot, but I’m not the person doing the measuring. I am happy, nonetheless. One of my favorite things to see is snow being hit by sunshine. It looks like someone took a bag of glitter and spread it out over the ground.

The last couple of weeks have gone very well. People have been signing up for the "Trash the Resolution" teleclass, but there are some spaces left. Email me at julie@awarenessvillage.com or phone me now to reserve your spot!

In November I went to New Orleans. I had a great time. I’ve been there several times, but this time I visited a few new places. I have a timeshare condo in the French Quarter at the Quarterhouse, an awesome place! I went to the New Orleans Botanical Gardens in City Park and the new location of my favorite restaurant, Old Dog New Trick. My friend, Matt, joined me, and it was really nice to show him around to some of my favorite places. Highlights of the trip were City Park, Audubon Park, Café Du’Monde, Central Grocery (Matt loved the Muffaletta sandwich!), walking around the French Quarter, sitting on the levy people-watching, and one of the Haunted History tours. There are so many things to do in New Orleans! You can’t be bored when you are there!

Next door to the Awareness Village office is my friend, Jan Foss’, Studio and Gallery, Watercolors by Jan Foss. Jan has been a painter for 20 years and teaches watercolor classes and workshops throughout the Tahoe/Reno area and in Minnesota, where she works with a greeting card company. She paints mostly flowers (which she is particularly passionate about) and landscapes. Her teddy bear paintings are soooo cute! She uses a watercolor technique to make the teddy bears look really fluffy, and then she adorns the finished product with a real ribbon! Check out her website!

One of Jan’s favorite things to paint is personal angel portraits. All she needs is someone’s name to develop the portrait. Before she sits down to paint, she meditates and prays. The portraits represent a deep trust in the creative process, and a connection with the source of her creativity. Who do you know who would like to have an original, one-of-a-kind, personal angel portrait?

On November 7, Jan hosted a show of one of her students, Trina Gold. Trina has done some fantastic watercolors, including some of irises and scenes from a family ranch in New Mexico. Trina and her husband also have a music studio, here on the north shore of Lake Tahoe, Big Water Studios.

Thursday, October 30, 2003 – Wow! Long time no blog! I’ve been very busy the last couple of weeks! Last Thursday I went to my first meeting of the Incline Village/Crystal Bay Chamber of Commerce. As a new member, I got a nice plaque to hang on the wall of the office and I said a few words about Awareness Village. Standing in front of all those people with a microphone in front of me was a different experience for me, one that I am committed to having fun with! I also met many very nice people and I look forward to meeting many more.

I have also converted a couple more of the pages in this website to the new template. Check out the new coaching page and the Reiki page! More new pages are coming soon!

I finished up my stint as a volunteer as a Kokanee Coach for the Forest Service. Kokanee Salmon spawn in Taylor Creek, off Lake Tahoe, in October every year. As a Kokanee Coach, I spent some time at Taylor Creek educating visitors about the Kokanee Salmon, their life cycle, and spawning. It was quite fun and I will definitely do it again next year.

Friday, October 17, 2003 – I’m making more progress on the website. The sound file isn’t working, and when I get the patience (grin) I’ll figure out why. Though I work Saturday, I’m glad it’s Friday. I don’t know if it’s years of conditioning, as a result of working Monday through Friday, or if it’s because Saturdays seem to flow so well and I get an enormous amount done. Hmm. Probably a little bit of both.

On Sunday, I am going to a Psychic Fair in Reno with my friend, Eileen. I haven’t seen her for months, though we live 45 minutes away from each other. I’m really looking forward to having some girl fun! You know how you get that busy life thing going and you don’t always pay attention to yourself and the personally meaningful parts of your life? Well, I’ve been doing that the last couple of months and it’s time to break that pattern! Cheers!

Thursday, October 16, 2003 – This morning I got the glitches worked out on the home page and even added a sound file, me welcoming all the visitors to the site! Now all I need to do is make all the other pages conform to the new site and get the Member Pages completed. It’s going to be a big job, but I’m really looking forward to it. It will be lots of fun! If any of you have any ideas on what type of member content you would like to see, please email me at julie@awarenessvillage.com.

Wednesday, October 15, 2003 – Hello! Well, I’ve done some more work on the Awareness Village home page today. It is much better, but there are still some small glitches in alignment and a photo to be added, but it is much more promising, I think, than it was before. YEAH!

On another note, last night I did my Icebreaker Speech at Toastmasters! The Icebreaker is the first of the initial ten speeches you do as a Toastmaster member. I was a little bit nervous, but it worked out pretty well and I was chosen as the best speaker of the evening. (I got a ribbon!) Now that I’ve done my first speech, I’m ready to conquer the world! (Oops, I got carried away.)

Saturday, October 11, 2003 – Hi! Julie Hodges, here! Welcome to very first entry in the Awareness Village Blog. I’ve been working on the new website most of the day today. I’m having some luck, but there are still some glitches, which I am sure I will be able to work out. It will be really fab when I get it all finished. Today is a sunny day in Incline Village, Nevada. Overnight, it got down into the 20s, but today it climbed up into the 70s. All in all, a delightful day!