Books and posters and websites, oh my!

We are busy checking things off of our 'projects we started a million years ago but have not finished yet' list, and it feels good.

Mark and I started brainstorming about a book idea a year ago. We thought about how he sets goals, how I set goals (now as a former athlete/'real' person and when I was a for real athlete). We talked about how goal setting has and continues to be such a big part of us and our success. And, we talked about how little goal setting education we received as young athletes. I'm certainly not blaming coaches or parents... I have been both, and I know that there is hardly time to do much of anything except what absolutely has to be done. So, Mark decided that a log book with goal setting guidance would be extremely useful for the young swimmers (and coaches! and parents!). So, the S.W.I.M. goal setting method was developed. Great idea, right? Well it was a great idea until we started traveling, had a baby, traveled some more, raced a little, went to class, taught classes and tried to manage a happy household. The book got put on the back burner.

This August it was revived. Then it saw the back burner again. And then was revived... again.

I am proud to say that it has been sent to the printer. I hope you are as excited as we are! This is HUGE!

Posters. Not a difficult concept. But the follow-through on my end stinks. A dear friend of ours (acutally, another Olympic wife, Heather Knowles), is a wonderful photographer. She shot Mark with his medals over 2 years ago and said at the time, "you should really print posters..." It was a good idea. Yesterday, I finally confirmed with her that I was planning to print posters and ask her to design them. That one was taking up a spot on my list for way too long.

So, like the book, we hope to have these posters in hand an available (dare I give a deadline?) month or so.

Mark's website isn't all that great. I'm not being offensive (I was the one who put it together, and I don't take offense one bit). It isn't that great, but really, it doesn't have to do much but introduce Mark to the world. However, with as much 'love' as this blog has gotten (Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!) I am seeing that more people are starting to drop by Mark's site. Also, once the book and posters are ready to go, Mark has to be able to make them accessible. Hence, a better (and better looking) website is in order. So, as I removed two things off of my list, the website has creeped back on. Oh well, the job of an everyday Olympic wife is never complete.

Being a professional athlete (or the wife of a professional athlete) = being an entreprenuer.