See this?

This is my laptop in its sleeve.  It looked like this all day (I’m typing this on my phone just to keep it looking like this!)

Today was the first day of Express Leadership Academy and while I brought my laptop with I never pulled it out a single time.  Not even once!
Between the training and networking with my training cohorts I was fully engrossed and engaged the entire day.  Spending a day focused on getting better has been awesome!  It feels great to spend the time “sharpening the saw” and work on the business.

While I can’t promise that I won’t open it up tomorrow I’m enjoying a day without my laptop.

Thanks!!!

While flying from La Crosse to Chicago en route to Oklahoma City I was getting a lot of things done for work.  It felt great to have peace and quiet, time to focus on nothing but getting better, self improvement, or sharpening the saw depending on how you prefer to see it.  Time to reflect on my leadership style, successes and failures.  Time to focus on how to get better, to prepare myself for leadership training over the next few days.

As the flight got closer to Chicago I paused in thought and looked out the window.  We were flying through the clouds as we turned around over Lake Michigan.  For a moment I completely lost my train of thought and stared at the clouds in wonderment of being above and in them (I know, I’m still totally a kid at heart!).  

All at once we broke free of the clouds and the sun shined bright on my face.  I instinctively closed my eyes, tilted my face towards the sun, and basked in the warmth.  I was transported to hiking on the Athabasca Glacier, looking up to the sky and feeling its warmth on my face.  Simultaneously, I was laying on my rock in the boulder field at Long’s Peak, my face turned towards the sun.  I was in Hawaii on the lava fields pausing from our hike to enjoy the feeling of the wind blowing off the ocean with the smell of melted rock in the air while I looked up to get the sun’s rays on my face.  I was in all these places in a heartbeat and was feeling the same sunlight warming my face and I smiled.

How awesome is it that one little thing that we have the opportunity to do almost every single day of our lives can bring such simple and pure joy?  So many days I put my head down and focus on the tasks that I feel need to be completed and forget to look up.  Today I’m glad I looked up and appreciated the simple warmth and joy of raising my face to the sunlight.

Thanks!!!

I love all of my teams, I really do.  Today I am especially thankful for my Winona team.  Coming back in from vacation I got the chance to spend the day with them as I was prepping for the next training event.  Even though I was focused on other offices for much of the time it was just a great feeling to be in the office with them.

Between early morning updates on what’s going on in the area to our one on one conversations to our team meeting to the short conversations in between there was a great feeling of being back in my work home with them today.  As I’m heading out for training and won’t be in that office again for a few days it was great to get re-centered with them.

I’m not sure that they believe me, but I really did miss them over the past week or so and was excited to spend time with them today.  I probably don’t say it enough, but I truly appreciate the stability they bring to my professional life on a daily basis.  Their hard work is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!!!

In order to get Dominic prepped and ready for hunting in the next couple of weeks we needed to get my old rifle sighted in for him.  Special thanks to my buddy Steve for taking us out to his parents’ farm to help us out.

After a very scenic hour long drive to just outside of Hillsboro we unpacked the rifles and got everything situated.  Steve did an excellent job of helping to keep the boys safe and coach them on shooting.  Dominic started with a .22 and then worked his way up to my Mini 30 and Gavin got in a couple of shots on a BB gun and then the .22.  Both boys did pretty well!

Once the boys were done I was able to use two guns that I had not used in a very long time, two guns that mean a ton to me.  One is my grandpa’s old hunting rifle, the other is my other grandpa’s old BB gun.  In the case of both of them there was definitely a feel of nostalgia and a wave of awesome old memories of both of my grandpas when I picked each of the guns up.  In both cases I’m pretty sure I had both of them helping me shoot at a least one shot from each (one of the bullseyes was pretty much dead center, I must’ve had some help on that one, even though it was close).

A long time ago my dad made a comment to me about taking a moment to think about the person who gave me something whenever I use it or pick it up.  I still find it interesting that one comment made a long time ago (while building the garage) has stuck with me all this time and keeps ringing in my head when I pick things up.  Just over the past couple of days this has included a watch from Garwood, Packer Super Bowl confetti from my Uncle Frank, and a bottle opener from Rick.

The time that I spent thinking about both of my grandpas, while fleeting as the moment was, has stuck with me and I keep thinking about the two of them during the chaos of the rest of my day and it makes me smile.  It also warms my soul to think that each of them are somewhere up above and probably smiling at seeing me use their guns and remember times I had with them.  At some point down the road (hopefully a long ways off!) I’m excited to be with them again, give them big hugs, and tell them thanks for helping me shoot today.

Thanks!!!

This was a tough day to decide on what to blog about, so much to be thankful for from sleeping in to great neighbors to getting the new washer and dryer installed to seeing old friends and remembering forgotten memories.

Our friend John got married tonight and we had a great time at the ceremony and reception.  The reception was in a remodeled barn that looked pretty awesome.

While chilling with friends we hit the usual string of events…  first dance, father daughter dance, mother son dance, and then the dance for all married couples.  Just like clockwork at pretty much every wedding we’ve gone to Becky and I go into our normal routine and I absolutely love it.

First comes her huge smile and asking me to dance which is always followed by a fake eye roll and fake groan from me.  Next she “drags” me out onto the dance floor and we wrap our arms around each other.  Right about then the rest of the world melts away and time stops.  We smile at each other and then kiss, smile then kiss, and usually smile then kiss again.  It goes from eye contact to snuggling with our head next to each other and back and forth.  At some point Becky makes a comment about how cool the wedding was and how happy the couple seems, and I, of course, retort that they haven’t been married long enough to know better.  We laugh, we kiss.  One of us will comment on the song, tonight it was me talking about how the song reminded me of the episode of Yes Dear when Rascal Flats was singing for Jimmy and his wife.  By now we’ve usually gotten close to a couple we know well and I’ll either make a bad joke or “accidentally” run into them.  Becky smiles and giggles every single time and gives me a fake disapproving look.  The song is usually wrapping up about now so we snuggle in, hold each other tight, kiss a couple of more times, smile and stare into each other’s eyes, and then wrap it up with another kiss.

It may be routine, but I love every second of it. Rarely do we have a moment when everything else is completely irrelevant, the only thing that matters is each other.  I am thankful for every wedding reception we go to and secretly (not so much anymore I guess) wait for the chance for us to get our slow dance in.

Thanks!!!

Just hopped on the last flight, almost home.  It’s been a very successful vacation.  The blood pressure is down lower than when we left, that’s a success in my book!  The boys certainly change the complexion of  of vacation, a little more stress, different activities, and maybe even a broken toe due to yelling at one of the boys. 😉  Regardless, it was a success, many new memories were made, many old ones remembered, and ideas for new ones created!

While this is probably where I would add a picture and cut it short I’ve decided to do something different.  Seeing as I’ve become a big fan of reading my posts a year after they were written I’m going to help future me out on this one and give a quick day by day reminder and pic…

• Friday: Walk to the airport, get offered rides, have the first flight out of LSE for the boys, experience rush hour LA traffic, realize we flew halfway across the country to eat at a Cubs bar, and then walk Balboa Park.

• Saturday:  Head out to the ocean, have an awesome crepe breakfast, touch the Pacific Ocean, play in tide pools, have crabs in shell races, and chill.

• Sunday:  Early morning drive to Universal Studios, experience Hogwarts in person, realize how cool it can be to get stuck on a ride for 10 minutes because you get a front of the line password for other rides all day, watch some cool stunts, spend an hour driving around to see the “HOLLYWOOD” sign, and head back to the hotel.

• Monday:  Take our time getting moving, head out on the Pacific Coast Highway, drive up the coast, find sea lions after much searching, realize how much we hate driving in the LA metro, and go to the Channel Islands Visitor Center.

• Tuesday:  Ahh…  Channel Islands…  awesome boat ride out, found out Gavin is my “Adventure Vacation Buddy” because he loves standing outside on the front of the ship, get surrounded by dolphins (which now become Gavin’s favorite animal, sorry prairie dogs), kayak through caves, Dominic got to see his seals live and in person, had a great hike, ate sushi, and headed back.

• Wednesday:  Sleep in, eat a great breakfast including cookies, hike in nice state park, head back to the ocean, chill at the hotel, watch the Cubs win the World Series in an incredible game 7.

• Thursday: Joshua Tree National Park!  Number 18 for Becky & I (she’d already been there and hit 18 at Channel Islands – only 41 to go!), saw lots of cactus, climbed many rocks, enjoyed the desert, and chilled.

• Friday: Slept in, hit the ocean one last time, drove on the 405 one last f-inf time, and had a very calm and relaxing flight home.

Fun was had by all, and I’m very thankful we took the time out of our normal lives to experience this trip.  It has been a very successful trip!

Thanks!!!