Funny how we go into something assuming one thing and then it works out to be completely different.  This evening Dominic had an orchestra concert and we had to get there early so he was ready.  My thought was to bring some work along to do while I wait, taking advantage of a little quiet time.  When we got there we saw our friends, the Lygas, were already there so we sat down right behind them.

Almost as soon as we sat down someone said, “Hey Mike!”  I looked over and saw an old friend from Boy Scouts and high school, Kent Gabrielson.  It had been a long time since I last ran into Kent, and it was awesome catching up with him.  We quickly go caught up on kids, careers, Phillips, and everything in between.  Time flew by and before we knew it the concert was about to start.

After Kent’s son was done and they had left I shot the bull with Steve and compared beard grooming habits.  This was the second day in a row that I was in the presence of another epic ginger beard – what a treat!  After the show we were able to also listen to our boys (9 year olds) talk about taking his wife’s moped in the middle of the night to get pizza and party at a friend’s house.  It was comical!

We may have been there for the concert (Dominic did awesome) and I was planning on getting work done, but it instead turned into a very enjoyable social event and I’m thankful that it did.

Earlier in the day it was all about work, in particular, spending some time with my business partner and mentor, Norm.  Even though work life can get swamped we always spend time on the phone every Monday morning at 9am to get on the same page for the week.  It gives me a chance to take all the thoughts in my head and condense them into the three most important things that I need to focus on each week.

Today was a change of pace.  Based on some coaching and mentoring from him and others over the past year I wanted to try a new strategy for this year.  There are many long term thoughts and ideas that I’d like to work on and put into place, but in order to stay focused where I need to I’m only going to focus my time on things that accomplish those three goals this years.  Today I wanted to spend time bouncing many of those ideas off of him so I had a general understanding and then I’ll file them away to re-visit in 2019 because they are not mission critical to this year.

Spending time with Norm was exactly what the doctor ordered.  It was a great mix of him pushing and challenging me while staying open and supportive.  I learned a lot from the conversation and was able to look at a couple of things from different perspectives.  Over the next day I’ll get my notes put together from the meeting to make sure we both saw it the same way and then move back into the priorities for 2018.

What I’m most thankful for is the fact that I have a coach and mentor in Norm to help me through my thoughts and ideas like this.  In many cases I’d love to do my own thing my own way, but that’s not always right.  Sure, it works sometimes, but it seems to work a lot better when I get some solid feedback to re-tool a strategy first.  Knowing that I have a mentor like this who’s willing to give me a few hours to bounce things off of him is pretty amazing and I’m very thankful for that time with him.

Today’s been another awesome day.  From the time I woke up to the time I’ve ben writing this blog there have been many moments in which I’ve smiled and spent some thought thinking about how I would blog about them…  and I’m grateful for every single one of those moments.

Thanks!!!

This afternoon we had the opportunity to meet Courtney and Shane’s son, two week old Henry.  He’s cute, adorable, and one awesome little guy!  It was great to spend time with him, Courtney & Shane.  We shot the bull, snuggled with the little guy, watched some of the Packer game and had an awesome time.

There’s something so cool about seeing the glow that new parents have after the birth of their child, it made me smile as a fellow parent.  It took me back to when the boys were that small, seemingly eons ago in one day and just yesterday in other ways.  Thinking about how much our boys have grown has me thankful for appreciating my time with the boys, they’ll be grown before I know it.

Prior to heading to Shane, Courtney, & Henry’s house we had a thought provoking sermon courtesy of Father Matt.  In it he discussed how we need to remember that everyone needs to be treated a little bit differently and we should take time to think about that prior to action.  To help share the story he talked about his sister’s dog.  As an rescue dog she’s seen hard times and needs to be treated differently than other dogs.  She’s still a loving dog, but she needs to be handled very differently.  As you can imagine, I could relate due to my experiences with our rescue dog, LuLu.

It was a wonderful reminder for me when communicating with others.  How is it best to share a message?  What is the best way to communicate both good and bad news?  Many times I default to my natural tendencies as opposed to pausing to think about who the message is intended for.  As I prepare for future conversations I’ll be sure to pause and remember this wonderful message.

Another awesome day is in the books, I’m so thankful for these two very different moments that really helped to shape my day and thoughts today.

Thanks!!!

 

Becky’s on her way home and we’re pumped to have her back home. But with her on the road and Gavin at a sleepover it’s time for some Mike & Dominic time!

When I asked Dominic what he wanted to do he said, “well, it’s the last boys’ night, wed better do something awesome.” And with that we were off for pizza and a movie!

Time to hang with my other Best-est buddy!

Thanks!!!

There are sometimes where I’d like to get into more detail in my blog, but due to a number of reasons I have to skip some of the details.  Today there was one specific moment that had me smiling from ear to ear and it came in the form of an email from one of my team members.  As you could probably guess, part of it was “Wahoo!!”  It was an exclamation of happiness as a skill set was mastered, an statement of exuberance.  How cool is that?

Today had many Wahoo!! moments and I’m thankful for every single one of them today (in addition to the one that named today).  Whether it was seeing the smile of a friend that I haven’t seen in a while, saving myself from replicating past mistakes, knowing that Becky was on her way home, reminders of my dad, exchanging a couple of very well times texts, making progress on a couple of projects, a fun conversation with my mom, or one of many other Wahoo!! moments, they all made my day pretty awesome.

Nothing crazy, nothing earth shattering…  But each moment caused me to paused and gave me joy.  Today was an awesome day and much of the awesome came from many of the Wahoo!! moments, and I’m thankful for each and every one.

Thanks!!!

Becky and I are used to spending time apart, whether for work and whatnot. It’s not an all the time think, but it seems like it’s the case every couple of months or so. No big deal, time apart is fine (& healthy!). I miss her when we’re apart, but nothing crazy.

All that said, I’ve missed her a lot more than usual over the past couple of days. It’s been bugging me, what’s different this time that’s causing me to miss her more. The boys’ schedule isn’t as crazy as it’s been in past times she’s been gone or anything like that. Then it hit me – we missed out on one part of our vacation that I’ve always loved, but have taken for granted… the trip home. When vacation was concluding she was hopping a jet early in the morning to head to Australia while the boys and I were taking our time and heading home.

This meant I had some pretty cool vacation closure time with the boys. We talked about our favorites events, days, meals and memories on the way home. Looking ahead to the upcoming week we talked about what the plan was. There was a lot of conversation about past vacations and how much fun they’d been. In addition we talked about everything that we had to do as soon as we got back and divided up the responsibilities (laundry, dishes, pets, homework, etc). For us it was a chance to conclude the vacation, enjoying the memories and getting ready to back to real life.

Normally I do that with my favorite travel buddy, who also just happens to be my soulmate. We spend the conclusion of the vacation together as we head home. It’s a time to go through pictures, get our heads wrapped around what needs to happen when we get home, and to start planning for our next adventure.

To be honest, I’ve kind of taken that time for granted. With that portion of our vacation removed it doesn’t quite feel right. It seems like there’s something unresolved that can only be fixed by the two of us going through it. This lack of time together at the end of vacation has me missing Becky more than normal.

Isn’t it funny that sometimes we don’t fully appreciate things until they’re gone? Had I not gone through this on this vacation I’d probably have missed it. One thing is for certain, I’m appreciative of the time we have together at the end of vacation and I’ll go out of my way to savor it even more in the future… starting with the time we spend together on Saturday… wrapping up this most recent vacation.

Thanks!!!

After being on the opposite side of the planet our sleep patterns have been a little out of whack.  In addition to the time change we went from over 14 and a half hours of daylight to 9 hours in one day.  Even with a couple of good nights of sleep the boys and I could all feel the lingering effects.

Last night we had a very chill night and ended up having everyone in bed (myself included) before 8:00.  Dominic was a sleep long before then, he was snoring away as Gavin watched Harry Potter and I typed my blog.  While Gavin and I both would have rather stayed up neither of us really put up much of a fight.

When I woke up this morning I felt GREAT!!!  10 hours of sleep was exactly what the doctor ordered.  I went in to wake up Gavin and he shot right out of bed and was smiling big as he bounced into the kitchen to make himself breakfast.  Dominic, who can be pretty rough some mornings, came out of his basement lair and was smiling and talkative.  We had an awesomely happy morning, no issues, no frustrations, no complaints, nothing forgotten, everything went perfectly smooth and we were all out the door with time to spare.  It was AWESOME!

At first I was going to be thankful for this perfect start to the day, but I realized that it’s really because of the sleep we’d gotten that everyone was in a great mood.  Maybe I need to think about forcing myself to bed a little earlier and getting a few more zzz’s every night.  When I think about what my end of the night is spent on it’s not always very productive, and to trade unproductive time for a happy start to the next day seems like a hell of a deal!  I’m thankful for the entire house being well rested, it made for a wonderful morning.

Thanks!!!

 

Today was the first day back to work and something crazy happened after being gone on vacation for a couple of weeks…  There wasn’t a pile of stuff to get done from the previous weeks.  I didn’t feel a crush of pressure from everything that had built up while I was out.  I was able to jump into what I was working on before I left.  How great is that?  The reason this was possible was because of my awesome teams.  They often took it upon themselves to take on additional responsibilities while I was gone.

While I was on vacation I was able to shut off all work related stress.  With no stress from work on my brain I was able to be completely present in the moment with my family and in the experience.  It was fantastic!  Not to mention that I was able to think of new ideas and solutions for work thanks to my mind being clear.  All of this was because of the wonderful teammates I have who are passionate about what they do and are very successful at what they do.

A funny thing happened on Thursday morning while we were driving…  I realized that I missed working.  I was missing what I do, and, more importantly, I was missing who I did it with.  Don’t worry, I still had fun and enjoyed the day, but I was jones-ing to see my teammates again!  The reason for this is that they are awesome people who share common values.

Thank you to each and every single one of my teammates for being awesome!!!

Thanks!!!

Today’s been a pretty awesome day!  It feels great to be home again.  The day has been filled with checking off many tasks like laundry, grocery shopping, making lunches for the week, all the normal weekly stuff packed into a day.  Oddly enough, while typing that even sounds tiring, it was actually exhilarating in a different way!  It was a very productive day at home, and I am very thankful for that.  However, it was something else that really warmed me even more today.

Sometimes my best-est buddy can drive me totally bonkers, other times he makes me incredibly proud to be his dad.  Today was one of those days.

The Campbell Fire Department drives Santa around the island every year to give the kids a chance to come out, meet Santa, and talk with him.  It just so happened that today was the day of Santa’s trip through town.  Becky texted me the times last night and I’d almost forgotten about it until we heard some neighbor kids outside.  I quickly filled Gavin in and asked if he wanted to talk with Santa and he was in.

Once we got outside Gavin waited very politely and was the last kid to sit on Santa’s lap.  As he sat on Santa’s lap the big guy asked him what he wanted for Christmas.  “I don’t need anything for Christmas, I already got my present.”  Santa shot me a nervous look and then Gavin continued.  “I already got a vacation to New Zealand!”  He then proceeded to tell Santa about how he just got back yesterday.

It was awesome to hear him not only not ask for something else, but to have appreciated the trip so much – more than stuff.  For that quick comment that gave my heart the feels I’m very thankful.

Thanks!!!

The changing of timezones really messed with our brains today!  Technically, we started Saturday morning by waking up in Auckland and taking the detour I wrote about yesterday.  Based on the timing of our flight, we left Auckland at 3:30pm on Saturday and landed in San Francisco at 6:00am on Saturday…  Yup, today has been a 40+ hour marathon day for us.

Throughout the day we’ve had to pause and think about what we had for breakfast, lunch, and supper…  and then for breakfast, lunch, and supper again!  It’s been pretty ridiculous, two sunrises, two sunsets, and a lot of fun in between!

We’ve had time chilling on our own, enjoying a movie or game as each of us do the same.  We’ve had time playing games with each other (Exploding Kittens is AWESOME!!!).  We’ve had a lot of fun joking around and giving each other a hard time.  We’ve spent a good chunk of time talking about the highlights of our vacation time together.  Most importantly, we’ve had incredible bonding time as father and sons.

It’s been an incredibly long day, the longest the boys have ever had, but it’s been an epically great one…  One that will be burned into our brains forever and that I’ll always be thankful to have had.

Seeing this in the car while we headed home made my heart smile.  Mission accomplished!

Thanks!!!