A Year of Change

It’s finally Friday. With all the work, school and things that needed to get done, the week went pretty fast. Of course the older you get, the faster life in general goes. Before you know it, it’ll be Spring! But not just yet, the dusting of snow outside and cold temperatures are making sure we know that.

This morning Lori has a doctor appointment and I have some computer work to wrap up and then after the days work, we can all start looking forward to the weekend. Tomorrow we’re going to try to get all our Christmas decorations down and put away and then Sunday we’re going to the Bronco game. I sure hope we win.

The National Western Stock Show starts this weekend too. We always try to get down to the show to see the rodeo at least once a year. The kids love it and so do we. Our favorite part is seeing all the animals. I wish we could drag my Mom along as she’d enjoy it, Mom????

Tonight we do have a western art show to go to which should be fun. It’s important to keep some culture in your life, especially these days with all the darkness in the World.

Guess I’ll run, I was thinking of going into a litany of current happenings around the World but not sure it does any good. At this point we all need to decide for ourselves what’s important and what’s not. Oh well, that’s it, take care and God Bless.

Lori and I and Jag all woke up at 6am which was too early for all of us. This morning I have a haircut at 9 but first have a conference call at 7 and need to get the boys off to their second day of school. Lori made it home by about 6:30 or so and I had made some chili as it was cold. This morning it’s eerily warm outside like California or something but there’s still snow everywhere. Looks like it’ll cool off this afternoon and then snow a bit more tonight.

Sorry for the short posts but we literally have no time. Lot’s going on in the World, mostly bad like the attack in Paris. Even the police which showed up on the scene early had to run away as they were unarmed??? Unfortunately it’s a different World we live in these days and mark my words, sooner or later, this same crap will be happening here. So take care, be safe, watch yourself and God Bless.

At least it’s a short week. School starts today and I’m sure it’ll be a little bit of a shock for the boys. Jag is better at getting up than Ty and I hear him coming down now at 6am but Ty will just sleep and sleep as long as we let him. Jagger just joined us on the couch saying “it’s too early for anyone to be awake”.

Lori is in the middle of trying to hire someone at work, (you should read some of the applications), wrap up the year and get off to a good start.  Today she’ll schedule her people for annual reviews as well.

I’m finishing up the 2015 financial model for my Company. It’s a big job to forecast revenue for 45 states for each month so it takes a lot of work and a lot of math. First though I have the Colorado annual meeting at the distributor at 9am.

I think it’ll take a few days for us all to get in the groove as Lori and I now have to get the boys moving, make breakfast and take them both to school every weekday. Time to run as it’s 6:20 and the pressure is on.

Have a great day, God Bless

Tomorrow school starts for both boys. It seems like they’ve been off for a month! Lori made it home around 8pm last night and I worked on and off until just about the same time. We both slept in until 7am this morning which is some kind of record. Lori said we must have needed the sleep.

It’s a big week for both of us at work. My Company has a big bank meeting in California and Lori has a big meeting Thursday to review 2014 as well. On top of that she needs to hire a new MA (medical assistant) and I have to go to New York, Houston and Dallas, Chicago and Michigan and Arizona. Throw in a trip to Vegas and I’ll be on a few planes in the next month or so.

today I need to get a new phone as mine cracked somehow. I think I dropped it a few weeks ago or so. I think I’ll change Jagger’s number too as he’s getting some scam calls. That’ll be another $500 bucks or so. I miss the days before cell phones. Believe it or not, we all got along just fine before everyone on the planet had a cell phone, although you can’t convince any kids of that!

Last night we watched the movie the Odd Couple with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matheau. The kids were rolling with laughter. I still think old movies were a lot better than the new ones overall. It just seems the story lines were better even though the technology is better these days.

Lori jumped straight in the shower and both boys are still sleeping and it’s now 7:22. Guess I’ll run and make my morning protein shake and start the day. We’re going to try to have a family dinner tonight with the boys back at school tomorrow. Hope everyone is well, be safe out there and of course, God Bless.

Here we go, the first real work week of 2015 is here, and I’m sorry to say, we’re both already running behind. The kids are still off school until Wednesday. My backs still a little  sore from walking through all the deep snow yesterday but we did get 23 birds. Tonight we will be feasting on roast pheasant as I didn’t get it together to cook them up last night.

Lots of organization that both the misses and I need to do today so we’d better get running. We slept in until about 6:15 so it’s already 10 minutes to 7. Ty spent the night at Vinny’s and Jagger was at church from 6pm until 8 last night. That’s about it.

Hope you all are well, take care and God Bless.

I’m on the road a bit after 6 this morning to go pheasant and chukar hunting. We decided to leave a little early and see if we can call in some coyotes on the way. It’s always fun to bag a coyote as they’re one of the more nasty predators out there. They’ll go after not only your dogs and cats and other assorted pets, but also people if given the chance. They’ve become much more brazen these days and it’s a good thing to get rid of any that you can.

It’s like 4 degrees this morning so I’ll need to bundle up but when your walking the heavy cover (deep brush, corn stalks and trees), I’ll warm up pretty quick, hopefully! We’re taking a couple of good dogs with us which we’ll need with all the snow cover the birds will have. They’ll be bedded down well and it’ll take a good dog to flush them out. Hopefully we’ll be eating roast pheasant for dinner!

Meanwhile Lori is getting her nails done this morning pretty early. After that we’ll do something with the kiddos as I’ll be home by noon. It snowed more than expected yesterday as we picked up a few inches on top of what we already had. Not sure it’ll melt anytime soon with the forecast.

Time to run as I need to get on the road. Hope everyone is well, take care, God Bless.

It’s the first weekend of 2015 and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Lori and I decided that all our work weeks should be like this week. We work Monday and Tuesday, have a half day Wednesday, Thursday off, work all day Friday and then it’s the weekend! We’d be so much happier and probably more productive. Maybe we’ll start a Kickstarter campaign to build some momentum for this idea. (if you don’t know what Kickstarter is, it’s where regular people fund your idea in small amounts on the internet) Last night we hung out and watched a movie after Lori arrived home from work. The boys played most of the day but we did go downtown to take her lunch yesterday.

It’s almost 8am right now and everyone is still sleeping. Not sure what we’re doing today but Lori wants us to do something fun as a family. Tomorrow morning I’m going bird hunting which means we’ll be eating some pheasant wrapped in bacon for dinner tomorrow night, yum. I might even make an orange pineapple sauce, we’ll see.

I almost threw my back out again yesterday but it’s almost better this morning. Whenever this happens it’s because I’ve missed too many days at the gym and then when I go back, I push it too hard. You’d think I’d learn.

We have our live Christmas tree all down and should probably get on the other one today. I don’t know why I say “we” as it’s always Lori. I think that’s true in most family’s (the wife decorates and undecorates the tree) except for maybe Tom’s.

2015, sounds pretty futuristic if you think about it. Especially for those of us born in the 50’s, 60’s or earlier. It seems like it was just yesterday when it was December 31st, 1999! I remember it well as Lori and I were on a beach in Seattle with a huge bonfire where everyone burned things they wanted to purge from their lives. It doesn’t seem like it’s been  15 years! Of course to the kids, they have no idea what we mean as they’re still in that “life’s moving slow” and “I’m invincible” phase.

We’re determined to do more fun, memorable things this year as last year was kind of a cluster although Belize was a blast. Early in the year we were recovering (there I go with that “we” thing again) from Lori’s neck surgery and then the second half of the year was filled with Grandpa Bob’s poor health and passing. So this year, no operations and none of you are allowed to get sick as we have big big plans. We’re thinking of going to Scotland, Hawaii and Mt Rushmore for sure.

First up though, we both are determined to get in a better place at our jobs. Lori is installing some much needed changes and my Company is in talks for some potential M&A’s (mergers and acquisitions) which we’ve been exploring for about the last 6 months. We’re doing this to speed up our exit strategy meaning how can we get paid big time for what we’ve built over the past 15 years so keep your finger crossed as it could be a very exciting year.

The good looking one just bounded downstairs so time to sign off. She even looks great after sleeping all night with her hair all messed up and in her skimpy pajama’s. Think I’ll go have a cup of coffee with her so we can decide what we’re doing today!

Hope you all are well, take care and of course, God Bless.

Here we go, Lori’s off to work, I have about 4 calls and a bunch of computer work and the bills are still due! At least we get a couple of days off after today, sort of. We both need to get caught up and get ready for Monday.

Yesterday I went grocery shopping and then pretty much laid around the rest of the day. Lori went to bed like 6pm although she didn’t really fall asleep until sometime after 8pm. Both boys were up watching tv until close to midnight so we’re hoping they sleep in this morning.

We slept in until just before 7am so time to run. The pressures already on this morning as Dr. Rodgers is emailing or texting about a bunch of issues so as I said, here we go.

Take care and God Bless.

Well Happy New Year! Today we all get another chance at a do over, a fresh start, a mulligan. There’s something special about today as in our culture, a New Year is a chance for a new beginning. So, what are you going to do with this new or second chance? Most of us come up with some sort of resolution that we’ll never keep yet we feel compelled to make it anyway. In fact I’ll bet several of you, if not all, are pledging to keep some sort of resolution that you’ve already made in past years. Don’t feel bad, it’s just human nature to keep on trying.

If you really think about it, and have something you really want to change, such as to quit smoking, lose weight, save for a vacation, spend more time with family, quit drinking, etc., how about taking a more gradual approach to phase it out of your life instead of stopping cold turkey. You see most people just can’t turn something off in an instant. Some can (like me and my dad) but it’s just because we’re wired that way. It has nothing to do with your willpower or commitment or anything, so if that’s not you, how about thinking about trying the gradual approach.

So let’s say you now want to change something in your life and you now know what kind of person you are (you can stop instantly or need to take the gradual approach), then the next thing to do is make a plan. Remember, hope is not a plan. (like that Hope and Change thing, get my point, ha ha) It’s also important not to try to do too much at the same time. Pick the one thing you really want to change in your life and then make a plan to do it, period.

So let’s get started. To be successful, first off, you need to have a positive mental attitude. If you do nothing about negative thoughts, chances are you will be settling for average. Instead, you need to continually feed your mind with positive thoughts.

A great percentage of successful people have all experienced some sort of setback or failure. They could have just stopped their journey right there and called it quits. Instead, they had a positive mental attitude about themselves and their abilities, which gave them the power needed to continue along and reach their goals. Creating this sort of attitude could be one of your most important habits that you end up incorporating on a daily basis. In fact for some of you, this alone might be your resolution!

No matter where you are in life, there is always more to reach for.  When you constantly strive to become a better person, refine your skill set and invest in your future daily, you become more as an individual. When you become more as an individual, your value increases.  The more your value increases, the more successful you will become — and it all starts with your habits.

So today pick that one thing, make a plan on how you’re going to achieve your goal, (if you want to lose weight, throw out all the bad food in your house, write down everything you eat, etc., etc.) and stick to it with a positive mental attitude.

You can do it, anyone can, you just have to want to, and trust me, everyone has at least one thing they’d like to eliminate, change or improve in their life!

So last night the boys, Jagger, Ty and Vinny, (he spent the night) woke Lori and I right at midnight to welcome in the New Year. Earlier in the day we stopped by a friends open house and dropped a gift at the party we bagged out of. Today we’re starting some sort of new tradition, maybe a movie, a long walk, breakfast out, who knows, we haven’t decided yet. Anyhow we wish all of you a happy, healthy, prosperous New Year full of peace, love and contentment.

Happy New Year and God Bless to the new and improved you!

Another year is in the books. People always say they hope the coming year is better than the last. I guess it’s human nature to want things to always be better or always want more.

Last night it was cold, really cold. Even though our heat was set on 72, it was 64 when we woke up as the heater couldn’t keep up with the cold. We let all our faucets drip during the night so the pipes wouldn’t freeze. On top of that, I threw my freakin back out yesterday morning at the gym. It wasn’t as bad as it is now as when I was home, I plopped down on the couch the wrong way and then it was really gone. I’m really mad at myself for letting this happen but it is what it is. Looks like we’ll probably miss the party we’re supposed to go to tonight. I’ll try to tough it out but we’ll see. My lovely wife just brought me down a heating pad.

Mojo of course is in. We haven’t even let him out this morning but will soon. I think it’s -5 right  now, which is a bit of a warming trend but he loves it. In fact, he never wants to come in. It seems the colder it is, the harder it is to get him in. Of course we shouldn’t be all that surprised as he is an Alaskan Malamute.

I have some work that I must do today. Hopefully I can knock it out in a few hours as sitting in my office chair is not going to be fun. I wanted to clean up the basement yesterday but of course that’s out. Oh well, enough about me.

Ty went to Vinny’s for a few hours yesterday and I think Jagger spent the entire day in his pajama’s. They’re off until a week from today, wow.

Lori went to her office for about 3 hours yesterday to get pay roll and a few other things done to get a jump on things. Today we’re also supposed to go up to my buddy Matt’s house who is having an open house from noon on. He’ll really be disappointed if we don’t show so I’ll at least try to make that. Best to get there early too as once the booze starts flowing, it won’t stop until way after midnight!

Think I’ll run so I can get another cup of coffee. Who am I kidding, I mean so my wife can get me another cup of coffee! Happy New Year, stay safe, especially of you go out. We always say that this holiday is amateur night. Take care and God Bless.