Anna Matsunaga

From Anna Matsunaga, Team Momentum, Keller Williams Realty Tacoma, 253 353 2662 www.teammomentumrealestate.com

Verity Mom applicant-

News-- A Seattle area credit union, Verity Credit Union has created a contest that has created a real stir. The contest is to choose one local mother to be their "Verity Mom" This mom will be paid to blog, to make videos and commentary on local events and review local businesses. In launching the program and through the contestants doing all they can to get attention for the contest Verity has gotten much more attention than some expensive TV campaign ever could. This is smart high tech, high touch all the way viral marketing.

I am so impressed with the Credit Union for thinking of this idea and am excited they have decided to target the audience they have, one that often does not get the respect of the community or the focus of businesses that advertise. I liked the idea so much I decided to go ahead and apply myself. Now I am one of 34 local area women who are competing for the title of "Verity Mom. Funny thing is I had not even heard of Verity until Saturday of this week, that evening I logged into facebook and there was an ad for the contest.

I had appointments scheduled for the entire next day, but decided to see if I could make it work any way to get my application in. I had less than 4 hours to work on it and that was punctuated by feeding children and bed time stories. Still I was able to get my entry in just 5 minutes before the midnight deadline, although I must admit the blog and bio and video all were less polished than they would have been had I known about it sooner. I am excited about this no matter who wins!

If you are a business owner large or small you need to go to their website www.veritymom.com to see how they have created this awesome viral marketing. While you are there please comment on my entry/blog. ( I am entry #27) If you are in WA you should look into an account with them, any CU that thinks out of the box like this has to be banking extraorinare.

Also if you have a business or service that you own, or that you really like and it is family friendly please comment here on this blog with info about it, why do you like it and their name and web address, I will include them in the resources page Verity has on line for all to see.

If you have ideas for blog topics that would benefit moms ( or at least make them laugh) please write about them to me in comments as well.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

--Anna Matsunaga

From Anna Matsunaga, Team Momentum, Keller Williams Tacoma 253 353 2662. ( verity mom applicant) www.teammomentumrealestate.com

My husband and I have been married now for 23 years. (never dreamed we would be getting ready to go to his 25th Highschool reunion with a tiny new baby!)

We have been through good and bad times. We have had times where we felt so close and others where we wanted to just kill each other. Mostly I have learned a lot and grown a lot, and frankly have been blessed to have married a really good man. When we got married we had an awful lot going against us. We were from differing cultural, religious, economic and ethnic backgrounds. No one in either of our families wanted us to get married and we were really young ( I like to say, I don't know 9 years old because telling people we have been married for 23+ years and together more than 25 kinda dates me)

I will not tell you we have a perfect relationship. We really really don't and in some ways in fact it really needs help. I will tell you though in many ways it is what others could only hope for and much of that is because of some things I've learned that I would like to share with you.

One of the places I see relationships go wrong is with expectations. You see one person expects something of the other and because of it they are unhappy when it does not happen. I think a big part of the reason I have been happy is that while I have standards ( boundaries) I do my best not to have expectations that will get in the way. I have learned the hard way that when you do, well you miss other stuff that might be even better.

Here is an example. We as women tend to like to "cuddle" or "just be held" more than men. In the evenings I often wanted to sit with my husband and cuddle while we read or watched TV or something like that. Problem my honey never ever wanted to do that then, in fact he needed space at that point. His job was stressful and he needed a lot of time to wind down. Unlike me when he was stressed out being close and being touched just stressed him out more. I was also frustrated since when he was in the mood to touch, he was often just "in the mood". I had expectations that when we were married we would spend lots of time just cuddling and talking and such and I was very very disappointed that between his differences in this area and our very very busy schedules my needs in this area were not being met. I even felt angry at times and some what depressed about it. I had expected it to be so different. Finally I resigned myself to never working this out and most of the time doing with out this need met

Had I known then what I know now about accepting it would not have had to be that way for many years. Finally I came to a place where I had learned to just let go and accept and I had stopped being angry or sad about it and just figured that this was a part of my life. Funny thing is once I came to that place something totally different happened that made me realize it was my expectations that had made me be missing this need being met and it was not my husband at all, in fact he was willing to meet this need, in fact needed to and wanted to as well, just not in the way I expect. My expectations had gotten in the way....

I am an early morning person ( which may be hard to believe when you notice how late I often blog, but it's true. ) My honey, well he really is not. One of the things that irritated me the very most about him was the fact that he would set the alarm clock and then hit snooze continually for sometimes as much as an hour at a time. I have so little time to sleep and I sleep lightly enough that this meant that I lost an hour or more of sleep and this really really made me very angry. I must say for years I was NOT nice about it ( but the word you would use to describe my behavior is not very nice either, so we will not use it ) This went on and again I got more and more angry about it as the years passed, especially once we had kids because you and I both know what that does to you sleep. I EXPECTED that when the alarm went off that one should just get up and get out of the bed and start the day right then. ( remember I am fully awake once the alarm goes off I'm a morning person.) I EXPECTED that he would do the same. When the alarm went off and I missed my precious sleep I was plain and simple, ticked off. I would try for a bit to go back to sleep all the while feeling more and more angry as I began to drift 20 seconds before it went off again. I would often yell at my husband over this and when I contained myself I still started the day seething mad.

Then one morning I just lost it, I had been up most of the night with 2 sick kids, I had a full day of work the day before and it an even fuller day scheduled for the day I was so rudely waking up to. I just wanted the alarm to go off when it was actually the last moment I should be in bed and not a moment earlier. I just totally went off on my poor still sleepy husband who takes longer than me to wake. And then in the midst of my ranting and rampaging he said something that stopped me cold, that brought me to tears and made me realize how expectations and me being blind because I was expecting something to happen a certain way was getting in the way of enjoying something better......

"Anna, I set the alarm an hour early so I can just snooze it and cuddle with you."

All these years I had really needed that from him, and all these years he had actually had an entire hour he WANTED to spend with me doing that very thing, but I had missed it, and instead of being the kind of woman a husband might want to actually snuggle with I had been ( well you know it's a word we won't use in this post and that's would still be a nice way to put it), and through it all my husband had tried and tried to give me what I wanted and because I expected it to happen at a different time of the day I missed out and so did he....all the time with me thinking it was HIS fault and that he was the selfish one.

I began to wonder how many other things made me unhappy because I EXPECTED something to be an exact way and I missed something even more wonderful

I found that there were many instances that were in the way of me being happy....and it was ME an not him that needed to change. For instance I really really wanted my husband to buy me flowers on occasion, and he never did. ( okay he bought me some when I graduated and again when we almost got a divorce and we worked things out and did not...a whole other story and a good one too, that also was mostly bad communication and again mostly on my part) I dwelt on that so much that it really really bothered me. Then when we purchased our first home my husband with his own hands sifted the soil in an area of over 2000 square feet and with his own hands built me beautiful raised bed gardens in our back yard. One by one he removed all the rocks and made a desolate waste area into a beautiful organic garden. ( and not because he is a fan of gardening, but because I always wanted a garden) Then it hit me, he wanted to give me something more lasting and that I would be able to use and enjoy year after year. He wanted to give me something that lived more than a few days. When we moved away he once more built me another one and this time the raised bed was made with cottage stone so he had to transport all of them too. It was even more beautiful than the first one. I came to appreciate the gifts of his hands and heart and not be angry that he and the florist down the street were not on a first name basis. ( yes I would still love flowers from him, but now I don't pine after them and I know he shows love in more lasting and concrete ways.

I guess my point is that instead of focusing on what you don't have in your relationship and instead of having rigid expectations both of you will be happier if you be open to who the other person is and not expect, be open to the surprises in the relationship and look for the beauty in it, because if you are locked into your expectations and focused on what you expected and did not get, you may miss the very thing you wanted or something even better.

I hope this can help some of you and I hope you can make the changes before you miss the joy you could have had. I know I missed too much. I am thankful my honey stuck it out while I figured it out.

--Anna Matsunaga

If you liked this blog you will like what I have in mind for "Friday Date Night" a blog post most Fridays on relationships. This is the type of thing I would like to share every Friday with readers if I am selected to be Verity Mom, if you would like to see this type of content, please comment and also tell me what you would like to know about relationships as well. ( for more information on Verity mom go to www.veritymom.com)

For help with your Real Estate needs call Anna @ 253 353 2662.

From Anna Matsunaga http://activerain.com/momentum, and www.veritymom.com applicant

This is the blog I wrote for my application blog for a paid blogger/mom position with Verity Credit union. Please let me know what you think and go to www.veritymom.com to vote. This will be a position that gets lots of media and web presence and I would like to use it to help other moms and families, promote the credit union and also to enhance the image of Realtors in the community. Please read on.

Let's face it when you have a family, you always need to pinch pennies, but with recent changes in the economy in many areas ( likely yours) it's becoming even more important to make your money count.

This becomes especially important if it makes the difference between whether you can stay at home with yoru children or not or if you are working full time away from kids and home and want to be able to provide them with the best possible childcare. So how do we do it? Let's explore some ideas, of course no one blog could give you all the answers and if it could, well it would simply be too long for a busy mom to read.... so here goes.

Before you start to try to pinch pennies more than you already are, take inventory. You have a much better idea what would be a realistic goal and it helps you be encouraged as well since it is easier to measure your progress. Take a month or at least 2 weeks and keep track of where you spend pretty much all of the money that goes out of your household.

To do this get a large manilla envelope for your car, one for a desk or work area at home and a section of your purse where you put reciepts. Be sure to mark them with what they are for if it is not obvious at the time of purchase. Also check all of your accounts and find out what your balances are and also importantly what the charges are for maintaining them and whether or not they are interest bearing.

Doing this is like weighing at the beginning of a diet and keeping a food diary.

Once you have this done, just like with the diet you will immediately see some areas that are obvious as far as needing improvement. Start there and make a goal of 3 changes that will make a difference right away. Keep a notebook or log of your progress and your spending including when you are tempted the most to break with your goals also track your sucesses, even if it is as small as ordering water instead of coffee when you ate out or perhaps better yet planning ahead more so you did not have to eat out just to have dinner before 10pm. ( I've been there so I'm pretty sure you have too!)

Ok, you say this is not fun.

My answer is no pain no gain.

But because I want you to be successful here are some ideas to make it more fun.....

1. Pick a "budget diet" buddy. Find another mom who wants to slim down her spending and strengthen her family finances. Share your goals over tea or coffee ( at home if you want to save) and hold eachohter accountable. Call her if you feel the desire to splurge. Share ideas.

2. Find substitutes. You know how it's easier to stay with healty eating if you can substitute a healthier item for a less healthy item? Well...this principle works here too. Did your "money diet" journal show that you spend lots on expensive dinners? Could you and your husband go out for just dessert instead? (ok that would maybe ruin your ACTUAKL diet, so it could be just coffee or tea too, you really just wanted to go somewhere with no kids to talk right?)....point is with out a budget healthy substitute you will likely not be able to stick with your plan.

3. Do "cheat". Like the diet, if it is all deprivation then it will not work as if you do too much deprivation you will end up gorging ( splurging) and go off your diet entirely. Decide ahead of time a few small spending indulgences you will allow for you and your family.

4. Reward yourself. Set a goal. Once you reach it have a reward waiting. It could be something you can purchase or have saved for....however like with the diet it's best not to reward yourself with food ( in this case actually spending) It is better to reward yourself with something like an afternoon off. Having a friend over or something like that. However be sure it will motivate you, if that means spending that's ok, just be sure you've earned it first.

5. Make yourself accountable. When you tell others that you are going to ( you fill in the blank it could be lose weight, work out, or improve your familiy's bottom line) it helps because if you have the right kinds of friends they encourage you and because you want to save face. A conversation could go like this...." Hey Sally, this is Anna, I just wanted to touch bases with you to ask for your support......Well I have made a goal to improve our family finances and for part of that I am looking for ways to spend less, so for one I'd love any of your ideas, also would it be ok if when we go out we go to a Matinee and skip the popcorn and pop? ( hey that WILL help your actual diet!) This helps take the pressure off later when your friend calls and wants to do something that is costly, if they still do you can remind them of your goal and they will be much less likely to be offended.

6. Involve your family. Find out something the whole family wants, but does not have the money for. Start a jar and add money to it every time you DON"T spend on something that was really unneccessary, ask them to do the same. Explain the other benefits and sincerly and with out judgement listen to their ideas. People support what they help to create and what has a real and tangible benefit to them.

7. Look for painless ways to save. Take your bank for instance. Look for interest bearing checking and or savings. ( ie like the Cartwheel savings @ Verity Credit Union) Look at your credit cards, could you close one of the accounts so that you were paying one less annual fee, or better yet could you find one with out an annual fee? Also be sure you keep track of your accounts ( it's easier than ever with online banking) so that you do not lose money with overdraft fees.

8. Use the following things to help you when thinking of spending money.

a. Is it a purchase that can wait? If so wait a week or even a day. Often at that point you will find that you don't need it.

b. When you're weak think "this week" What does that mean? Ask yourself if you will use it this week or at least once a week. If the answer is no. Wait to buy it, again often you will find you did not need it. If you do, you will feel more sure of the purchase because you thought it out.

c. Always compare. Often if you compare products and services you will find that you can get the same thing for less.

When you use these ideas you will find that you are slimming down your budget and making for a beautiful and strong financial future for your family.

Want more actual recipes and exercizes that will help you accomplish this? Stay tuned to "Saturday Market" for more ideas.

Please see my application video on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izh_Q-BtGSA and go to www.veritymom.com to vote.

Anna Matsunaga, Verity Mom applicant and Realtor with Team Momentum of Keller Williams Realty. I would love to have your feed back...and your votes. Thanks in advance for your support!

P.S. Please also feel free to repost this blog!

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From Anna Matsunaga, Team Momentum, Keller Williams Realty Tacoma 253 353-2662 www.teammomentumrealestate.com

This is one of my favorites, measurements are approximate. This is healthy and tasty...if you manage your diabetes using protein and "slow" or complex carbs this is for you. If you manage it with a low carb diet, likely too many carbs as beans are high carb. This is likely a great recipe if you have hypoglycemia and for anyone who wants to eat lots of veggies.

Ingredients for White Bean Chicken Chili-

1 lb or so organic chicken breast in small bite sized pieces

2-3 T olive oil.

2 cans of organic white beans ( do not drain)

1 can quartered artichoke hearts in water ( do not drain)

1 Shallot diced small

1 zucchini chopped up small ( med sized)

1 med sized yellow squash chopped up small

1.5 large fresh tomatoes chopped or 4 handfuls of cherry tomatoes quartered

6 or so small cloves of fresh garlic pressed

1/2 bunch celantro, chopped and divided ( see directions)

Jalapinos (optional)

1/2 red pepper chopped

1/2 orange pepper chopped

Seasonings

Paprika

Sea Salt or Braggs liquid aminos

chili powder

Cumin

Tumeric

Garlic powder

Onion powder

1 T lemon juice ( or juice from half a lemon)

Purified Water

Toppings-

Avacado

celantro

green onion

Shallots

grated cheese of your choice

Chips

Ok Sounds like lots of ingredients, but it is fast and easy to make!

Directions-

Heat a large stock pot over a med heat.

While it is heating cut up the chicken and add to a med sized bowl and add seasonings and mix around to cover. I use lots of paprika, a bit of sea salt, a generous amt of garlic powder, a little onion powder, a fair amount of cumin and a little tumeric and a the amount of chili powder depends on how much "heat" you like. Mix together well.

Add olive oil to pot ( be generous ) and then add the seasoned meat. Cook until none of it is pink in the middle.

Then add the canned ingredients with all the contents of the can. Let cook for a while while you chop up the veggies for this dish.

Chop Veggies-With the celantro be sure to wash well ( do that with all of them) and chopp up the stems really fine before you add the stems. Add the veggies as you go.

Turn burner down to simmer once you have all the veggies in. Allow to cook for an hour or more until it begins to thicken and flavors marry.

Taste and add sea salt or Bragg's liquid aminos to taste. Also if you like it spicy, this is the time to add Jalapinos, but add with care and be sure to taste as you do. If you use canned you can use some of the liquid from the can too. Also add some purified water to thin down so that you can cook a while longer with out it being too thick.

Add a bit more celantro.

Cook a little longer.

Serve- This is great just as is, or add fresh toppings to taste @ the table. (see toppings for ideas, but be sure to try other things if you like as well.

*****Notes Instead of shallots you can use onions, but they are higher carb. If you are not worried about carbs then also add a cup of frozen or fresh corn for color and flavor, also add 1/2 a med carrot grated. This also works vegetarian, just omit the chicken and increase the beans by a can or so and stir fry the zucchini and yellow squash instead of the meat in the seasonings. If you are limiting carbs do not serve with chips. If you don't care about carbs this is great with corn bread as a side.

Copy right- Anna Matsunaga

--Would love to hear how you like it! This freezes well and keeps well in the fridge. Do what we do, make a big pot of soup on the weekend and have "fast" food all week ready for sides, snacks and lunch!

Anna Matsunaga, Team Momentum Realestate, Keller Williams Realty Tacoma. 253 353 2662 www.teammomentumrealestate.com

From Anna Matsunaga, Team Momentum Keller Williams Realty 253 212 1252.

If you have children and need some fun and free summer activites to finish out the summer here is something free that you can go do with your kids 2 days a week almost everywhere.

Regal cinemas does 2 days a week of Free movies 2 mornings a week in the theater.

Our family has gone in the past and it's really fun. Sure we have often already seen it, but still it's fun to see it again in the theater setting. During a heat wave here in WA is was a GODsend since the theater is airconditioned and almost no one has air conditioning in their homes here in WA.

Be prepared to be there early so there are still seats and be prepared to share the theater with lots of other people and their kids.

To find the theater and times nearest to you to go to www.regmovies.com/nowshowing/familyfilmfestivalschedule.aspx

Have fun @ the movies this summer. ( and likely next to and so on they have been doing this since 1991!)

--Anna Matsunaga, Team Momentum Keller Williams 253 212 1252

www.teammomentumrealestate.com