The Word on the Street

I received a phone call Sunday evening informing me that I'd been nominated as co-president for the Oregon Association of American Mothers, Inc.  I was told that they wanted to swear me in Wednesday during our board meeting at the state capitol.  So, yesterday, I was sworn in.

It's so interesting to be on this side of things.  The other co-president was Mother of the Year in 2011.  She's wonderful and amazingly talented.  She's been president in the past, so I'm thrilled to get to learn from her.  She's heading to the United Nations this next week to give a presentation.  Here's more on what she does.  I mean, seriously, can you imagine getting to work with someone like this?  What an amazing opportunity!

So, I head into a new experience.  Something always comes along after one thing has ended.  It's a great life!

Have you ever heard of American Mothers, Inc.  I mean, other than from me?

I really knew very little about it before I was nominated last year.

I think it's sad that so few people know about it.  It's really a remarkable organization.

With this new position, I have taken it upon myself to tackle a few obstacles that have been in our path for the past few years.  In speaking with some of the women that have been with the organization for awhile, there are a couple of negatives.  One has been the Oregonian newspaper and another is the Rose Festival.  I just refuse to believe that they won't include American Mothers.

Today, I spoke with both.  They both seemed to be accepting.  The Rose Festival sent me an application to participate in the Grand Floral parade, and the editor of the "Living" section of the Oregonian gave me a call and asked for further information.  Sounds like we're heading places.

Yesterday, we attended the legislative session for the day and were recognized there.  The Mother of the Year opened the session with a speech.  The representative who invited us, introduced us.  We also met with him before the session.  His name is Michael Dembrow.  He's a representative for Portland and works a lot with education.  He shared with us what they're working on right now in his committee.

During the session, our Young Mother was introduced as being from Hillsboro, without missing a beat, Representative Shawn Lindsay, came up to meet her.  He's the representative for Hillsboro and North Plains.  He found out that our Young Mother isn't from Hillsboro, but that didn't stop him from coming in to meet with us after the session as well.  He also sent some female representatives to come see us too--Vicki Berger and Julie Parrish.

I was impressed that these people, busy as they are, would come and spend some time with us.  It was a choice few moments.  We have some very good people representing us.

So, there is one negative remaining--the Governor, but I'm not even about to touch that one.  Two governors ago, American Mothers could get an audience, but not any longer.  I was told our current governor doesn't care about "Mommy issues."  Sad.  Not caring about "Mommy issues" is like not caring about society at large, if you ask me.  Mommy's issues are everybody's issues.