who is your mentor ?

Did you know that you can be a mentor to someone that looks up to you, someone that needs some guidance and simply someone that just wants personal development.  Everyone needs a mentor, it's a good thing.  Could be a family member, could be a colleague and could be someone you aspire to be just like them. Nowadays, in our networks, we have a community of mentors you can reach out to.

I encourage you at every opportunity to look at potential mentors and reach out to them. Once you are ready with your goals and know what skill set you want to focus on....then you can select someone that will be able to help you in that area.  If you are like me, I am sure you have a ton of questions and personally, I just love to find out what makes others successful.

Meeting with your mentor can be as frequent or infrequent as you would like it to be. You can meet in person or meet through telephone discussion. With social media today, it is easy to get in touch any time ! You just need to figure out what works well for you.

What's important is that you prepare your topics for discussion and timelines. Once you have identified your mentor, I am sure they will be able to provide to you career advice, coaching, support and help you answer some of your questions.  The most important thing is not to be shy. We are constantly learning and developing.

Sometimes, we are at social gatherings and we meet lots of successful people - don't be shy to ask questions. There is nothing more interesting than to learn a little more about people who are successful.

As parents, we can learn from each other by sharing our experiences. Your experience might just help out someone else !  Everyone can benefit from mentoring or being mentored !!!

Make time for things that matter...,

I could probably write about a million and one things that matter, and all in time....i will ! As you can see - there is nothing wrong with having goals...mine is to blog daily.  Before I get into this post - just wanted to share with you, and you probably know this already - we all learn from each other and most often, we will be intrigued by someone close to us.  I can say that I have many times over.

"Make time for things that matter" said Phil, my eldest last year when Pink in the City was invited to speak to students, parents and staff at Laval Liberty High School and present an award.  Hearing this from him was really special....here I am, the parent hearing this from my son.....I must have done something right ! All joking aside though, how true, none of us has time to spare, our days fill up quickly with all that we need to do. Phil was sharing with everyone that he certainly did not have any time as a medical student, and if he can give countless hours to volunteer as a paramedic in Cote-St.Luc, imagine what we all can do.

The take away for me from his inspiring speech to all the students that day was when he said "one day you can be like 11 year old Lawrence and start your own Pink in the City "  Wow, how true, anyone can do that as long as you want it and the beauty of it is that it can be done...it's not something we just talk about, it is not fiction, it is grass roots success story right in our neighbourhood.  That's an entire other blog...


Pink in City (PITC) is a family run non profit and you can find it on Facebook. It has evolved in the last 8 years into a success story I am so very proud of.  This past year, I had the honour to work with an amazing committee, who contributed countless hours, time, talent and unconditional love to make PITC a great success.  This team raised 60,000$ to benefit the cedars breast clinic.  Last night, we all got together from PITC before the summer.  As I looked around the room, all these volunteers had made a commitment....they made the time for things that matter !  My family and I have to be the luckiest to be working with such dedicated individuals.  Success does not come easy, all I can say, is we have a powerhouse full of passionate individuals who are ready to take PITC to the next level....I cannot wait to start working on PITC stuff again with everyone in the fall ( although, we all really have not stopped working on any stuff - it is just continuous ).  The other observation in this room last night was the energy and enthusiasm....is it possible that we can get so excited to do more, and let's remember...we do not get paid for this, all volunteer time.  The answer was easy to see...yes...this was grassroots efforts in our community at its best.  They count on organizations like PITC to fund medical equipment and areas of need - so if any time has been important - this has been a really important time for the private sector to really step up , with volunteers and the community to work together to make a difference in the lives of breast cancer patients.  Thank goodness for the amazing support from our volunteers, our supporters and sponsors that without them, Pink in the City would not be possible.  Stay connected with us and help us colour our city Pink !

Phil giving his speech at LLHS May 2013

PITC organizing committee Spring Charity Ball 2014

PITC at Cedars breast clinic - donated 60,000$

Lawrence, Phil and Steven opening speech at Spring Charity Ball 2014

Many family and friends around us are threatened by cancer in every community, every single day...we can save lives, raise awareness and make time for things that matter. Together we can make a meaningful difference in the fight against cancer.  So the next time you think you can't, think about 11 year old Lawrence and how he got an entire community on board ! check us out and follow us on Facebook Pink in the City.

What's our family vision...

Back in the day....1977 to be exact....who would have thought that this boy i met would be the man of my dreams.....we were high school sweethearts who fell in love....from the very beginning we were different, but different enough and strong together to picture what our future can look like.  We had dreams and a vision for a life together, family, and a path for success.

We dated for 6 years and during this time we knew we wanted to get married and we also knew that with lots of hard work, we were going to plan for that....start a family and start a life together.   We were very young, but as most of you will agree, it's about what you believe , what gets you excited and what you truly want to accomplish that will make it that much easier to achieve.  We had no money, but we were ambitious. We knew that we were capable of being successful, we both had the drive, energy and enthusiasm to explore and make things happen for us and that is exactly what we did.

We tied the knot in 1983.  By the following year, I started working at federal express.

Our first step was underway, we were clear about what we wanted, we even talked about retirement, really we did, we were big fans of RRSP's !  Together, we had a positive energy and ready to build future success. We both knew what we wanted to do and also knew it was not going to be easy. We were both equal partners. I always wanted to work and did so all through the years raising our family. There was no right or wrong in our family vision. There were times we had to compromise, but we always had a picture of our future, which kept us on track. That included both of us working, starting a family, and being active parents in the lives of our children.  As an only child, I always wanted to have a house full of children. What my mother did not tell me then was how much work was involved ! lol     Bringing our vision to life was probably the hardest and most rewarding part. Looking back now gives me a sense of pride.  We were young, both started working, not long after had our first son in 1985, second son in 1988 and our third son in 1995. We bought our first home in 1987.  What I remember during this time is that I went from being single, to getting married, and becoming a parent all within 10 years - my life had changed forever.....a change that I welcomed of course and learned every single day.  This was all very new to me, no idea of what would be involved. What i realized very quickly is that I enjoyed this part of my life and even with all it's challenges, changes and sacrifices,  I would not change it for the world.

June 1983 Newlyweds

1977 Baron Byng High School

Welcome to my first blog ! Meet Mom !

Wow....finally, I can now say...check - off my to do list ! starting a blog has been something I have wanted to do for a while now.

Welcome to my first blog of many to come. My blogs  will be focused on my personal experiences on  work/life balance, raising boys, marriage, career, success, mentors, parenting at its best and creating a life that you enjoy.....the list is endless.   It's all about loving what you do and do what you love !  Women working and balancing both career and family is not an easy task, but you can and do it successfully.  We all can learn from each other and sharing our experiences and stories is one way to inspire others.

Through my blog, I am also hoping you will find something to take away that is interesting, adds value and will bring you personal growth.  Married for 31 years, raising a family, managing a career and keeping the romance alive is something that I can say wholeheartedly that I am very proud of. It's not something I aspire to do -  it is something I have done successfully !  Everyone has a story and I am hoping that my story will inspire you to look for the sparkle and be the woman of influence you are so capable of being.

So, I would like to leave you with these questions, ask yourself - Do you love what you do ? What makes you feel great ? Are you passionate ?  What makes you unique ? Are you living your life?

Sharing with you this photo I just love - every photo has a story behind it.
A few years ago, like every mom I am sure out there, wants to take a nice photo of the family.
So, in our busy and crazy lives, in the month of december, I booked an appointment for all of us  to meet and do a photo shoot.  Well, it sounds easy, but anyone that has a family and tries to coordinate everyone's schedules knows how hard it is to make it happen. So, after numerous efforts with everyone, we finally all agreed to a date and location that was going to work for all of us and a location that would allow our dogs to participate in our photo shoot.  Let's just say, the day of the photo shoot there was a snowstorm, everyone was running late, some had to study, others were working and life happens ! Never a good time to take out time for a photo shoot. Everyone was not happy with Mom that this photo shoot was taking place. I must admit though, after all said and done, we had a really great time during the photo shoot - it was fun, and an experience for all of us to share. The dogs were good and enjoyed the new surroundings. This is my favourite pic of all of us.
So the takeaway is that our family life will always be busy and never time to do these type of activities.....take the time and make it happen.  I am so glad I insisted and did not give up this opportunity. It would have been much easier to cancel. This photo shoot was priceless and we look back and fondly remember the great time we all had.