LOL – pretty specific, right?  But the title nails it in a nutshell.  After a busy and productive week of work it feels great to be back at home.  Dominic has a buddy over for a sleepover and they’re hanging out in the basement.  Meanwhile I’m chilling with Gavin and Becky on the couch and just enjoying some time together while watching a visually stunning movie about the beauty and allure of the mountains.  Time together talking, enjoying the awesomeness of nature, and dreaming new dreams together…  Life is pretty awesome!

Thanks!!!

Isn’t it great when you have the opportunity to spend time with someone you look up to, a friend, and a kindred spirit all at the same time?  I’ve had time today and will have more time tomorrow to do just that!  In order to help train a handful of relatively new teammates Karen dropped everything she has going on to fly up from OKC to help my teams and I out.  Ever since I picked her up from the airport this morning I’ve been laughing, smiling, and thinking in her presence.

As one of our trainers at Express HQ she does a phenomenal job of helping our teammates learn the Express process and philosophy.  At one point today she brought something up that totally blew my mind – even though I’m closing in on a decade of being in this business!  There were many lightbulb moments in the room today as she walked us through several tactics and concepts.  Karen’s training ability leaves me in awe and I respect her style greatly.  She opens herself up, is humble, but also exudes a strong confidence as she shares from past experiences, both good and rough.  While sitting in her trainings I catch myself vacillating between learning what she is teaching and learning more about training and presenting.  I’m looking forward to Round 2 tomorrow.

As great of a trainer as she is I’ve got to say that I’m just as thankful for her personality, energy, and spark.  She’s a down to earth, no nonsense individual who calls as she sees it, all while doing it in a way that keeps my laughing, smiling, and thinking.  Karen always is running at an 11 and it feels great to try to keep up with her!  Her mind is constantly in motion and I’m amazed at how many different conversations the two of us can have at the same time… and even go back to and wrap up after going in other directions.  I’d dare anyone to spend more than a couple of minutes with her and honestly say that they aren’t happier after the encounter.  Karen leaves a trail of happiness in her wake and I’m so thankful for the time with her today.

At the end of the day, Karen is one of those people that I feel is a kindred spirit.  In spending time with her I feel like I’m spending time with a wiser sibling.  Even if it’s been a while since we’ve last spoken we jump right back into conversation as if we talked every day.  What’s even more impressive to me is the fact that pretty much every single person I’ve talked with who’s had the opportunity to get to know her feels exactly the same!  She does an amazing job of connecting with others, getting to know us, caring for us, bringing us much happiness and laughter, and always leaving all of us in a better mood because we crossed paths with her.

Karen, thank you for the amazing help, your willingness to head up (in the snow and cold) to help us all out with less than a week and a half notice, and for bringing so much joy and happiness to my teammates and I today.  You’re a wonderful friend and I appreciate you greatly!

Thanks!!!

Whew, today has been a wild one! As I sit at the kitchen table grabbing a snack (more on that in a bit) I just realized that this is the first time I’ve had to myself to relax outside of drive time (which isn’t really very relaxing). We’ve got a big end to the week at work with an awesome two day training set to start tomorrow. In order to prep and keep everything else running all my focus has been on work… except when I was the Uber driver for Dominic for church! Even my normal chill time at the coffee shop with Gavin while waiting for Dominic was spent on my laptop catching up on emails.

With all that in mind, I love these crazy busy nonstop days. They are usually followed by much progress and moments of peace. This is when we’re growing and becoming stronger and better, I’ll remember that and smile the entire time.

The other thing I’m thankful for today is trying a new food. I’m really focused on eating the same things pretty much all the time, but after a couple of books I knew I just had to try something a little crazy and off the beaten path… pinole!

This superfood from Mexico is a staple food for some of the best endurance runners in the world. Who am I to argue? I ordered a couple of bags off Amazon and was able to have a little snack to try it out. Not too bad! Not great, but definitely edible. It’s also one of the first times I’d argue that the serving size should really be about half of what is listed.

With a couple of crazy goals starting to form in my head I know I’m going to need to try new things and do things I’ve never done in order to accomplish things that I never had. This was a nice psychological nudge in the right direction for me and I’m glad I tried it.

Thanks!!!

Earlier today I had the opportunity to be part of the solution instead of the problem. As opposed to complaining and not doing anything to resolve the situation I took advantage of the privilege of voting.

While I’m not one to get into the who, the what, and the why, let’s just say I was normal me and voted a split ticket. It cracked me up when I saw the following post from six years ago…

I guess some things will never change! As my friend Todd put it many years ago, I’m “a pollster’s nightmare,” and brought to be one.

While I’m thankful for my opportunity to be a part of the solution I’m also so thankful to live in a society in which my voice matters and I’m free to share my thoughts and values. I’m thankful for all those who fought to give us that freedom, those who’ve saved it, and those who continue to uphold it.

Thanks!!!

It seems like every year I struggle a bit. Even though I’ve been getting plants of sleep the changing of time really throws my body off a bit. My body is confused when it wakes up in the morning and is even more confused when it starts getting dark by 4:15. Throw in how dreary of a day it was and I struggled a bit…

Except when I had my sun lamp on! That bad boy brightens up my entire office and feels so much better than fluorescent lights. Maybe it’s purely a placebo effect, but I swear I feel much more awake and alive when that light is on. Of all my Amazon purchases this is one of my favs.

Winter may be coming and we’ve got another month and a half before it starts getting lighter out again, but it won’t feel nearly as bad with my sun lamp burning bright over my head.

Thanks!!!

Throughout the day there’ve been many things that have crossed my mind for which I am thankful.  Try as I might to find a common theme or one thing that rises to the top I’ve really struggled to narrow it down to one thing.  The nice thing about this being my blog and my rules is that I can do what I want 😉  With that being the case I’m going with a list of things I’ve been thankful for today.

• With Becky helping out a celebration of life for a co-worker and me up to my wrists in my ground turkey making my lunches and breakfasts for the week I suddenly realized that it was almost supper time.  Dominic jumped in made supper for us tonight, how awesome!  Thanks for making pork chops and couscous Bud!
• I’m so thankful for Becky’s huge heart.  Today she spent much time helping out with a co-worker who just lost her spouse.  She’s a continual inspiration to me.  When someone needs help she’s the first to jump in and do it, regardless of how much she has on her plate.  Her willingness to her neighbor is amazing and I love her for it.
• Last night I had a great time with one of my best friends, Rick.  He came down and we had a wonderful night of hanging out and shooting the bull.  Sometimes we get together and talk about largely superficial things.  Last night we got into some much deeper things and it was so cool to connect on some of those things.  Over the course of the day I thought of our time together often.
• At church today there was a couple with two small kids, probably ages one and three or so.  The kids were just like our boys were at the same age and I could see the stress in the eyes of the parents.  I was able to talk with the dad and let him know that it will keep getting easier as the kids get older.  Later, while everyone was singing I found myself playing peek a boo using my bulletin.  The reminders of how much the boys had grown and connecting and smiling with that little guy warmed my heart.
• I was able to spend time working on my workshop today and it felt great working with my hands.  The time by myself was a nice change of pace and I was able to both spend time in thought while also losing myself completely in the task at hand.  It was a pretty sweet combination of sensations.  There were a couple of times in which I thought of Dad and how much he would have enjoyed seeing the workshop.  Funny how it’s one of the places I feel closest to him.
• The boys and I are now on the couch cooling down for the night and watching the movie Touching the Void.  It’s a story of two climbers in South America who survive a disastrous climb.  Watching movies like this has helped the boys and I connect on many levels.  From discussing survival tactics to chasing dreams to understanding how to act in certain situations it’s been interesting to pause the movie and have conversations about why they were taking certain actions and whether or not they should have done something else.
• Gavin has spent a few hours sitting on the couch reading today.  He’s been totally engrossed in his book and it had me smiling and remembering many weekends in which I totally lost track of the outside world as I lived in the book I was reading.
• As the rain was moving down after church Becky and I both had the same thought at the same time…  November Rain!  We fired up iTunes and listened to that old tune by Guns N Roses.  It brought back many memories including watching the music video for it at my grandparents’ house with my brother and Aunt Diane.
• Two years ago on this day we were flying back home from a vacation in California.  It’s been so awesome to look at the pictures from that trip and re-live some wonderful moments!

There’ve been a handful of other things as well that I was thankful for.  In many cases I paused and just soaked it in for a few seconds.  Each of those moments were little bits of magic that brought me joy today.

All in all, I’m thankful for a day in which I saw so many blessings all around me.  It was an amazing day and I’m so grateful to have lived it fully.

Thanks!!!

On Thursday I realized I’d slipped up big time.  Becky was going to go to yoga at 5:30 on Friday night and I realized that I hadn’t told her about the WSU volleyball game that everyone from our office was going to.  One of our past (& hopefully future) teammates was playing in one of her last home games this season and we’d had plans as a team to go watch for quite some time…  Unfortunately I’d forgotten to tell Becky about it!

When I realized the error of my ways I shot her a text with the info, apologized for forgetting, asked if there was a way she’d forgive me and asked how I could fix the situation.  Her offer for resolution was to hit a 7am cycling class followed by a 8:30 yoga session this morning.  I couldn’t help but laugh out loud, that sounded AWESOME!!!

How great is that?  I was able to get what I wanted (which was a fun family time as well) on Friday AND have an incredible start to the weekend doing things I love with Becky.  That was perfect!  Sure, it wasn’t quite what we had scripted originally, but this was way better.  I’m thankful for the monkey wrench I threw her way…  but I will remember to tell her sooner next time 😉

Thanks!!!

There were two separate instances today in which I drew inspiration from a personal hero of mine, Scott Jurek.  In one moment it was inspiration to run, in another it was inspiration to push past myself.

This morning I woke up early, even beating Becky out of bed!  There was one goal in my head, to get a solid run in to start the day.  One I had my shoes laced up I fired up the last thirty minutes or so of one of my favorite books, Born to Run.  In the finale Scott is racing  in a 50 mile race in the desert and I couldn’t help but drift from that to thinking of his adventure on the Appalachian Trail.  I’d recently finished Scott’s book, North, and the stories of more than 46 straight days of running to get him through the 2,189 miles of that trail.  As I remembered those stories I started to think about why I run.  Before I knew it I was floating and what was going to be a normal four mile run suddenly doubled into eight.  Had I not had a meeting at work I might have knocked out a few more miles, I was feeling that great!

In a meeting with some of my team today we spent time talking about my vision of where we’re taking our business “run.”  The goals I have for myself and my team are incredibly lofty and possibly borderline ridiculous, but they’re just this side of do-able and would leave an incredible impact on our communities.  Knowing just how hard we’re going to have to push and work to get there I used the story of Scott’s trip on the Appalachian…  including this picture of him finishing what he started.

After so much hard work and perseverance Scott gritted out all 2,189 miles of the AT in 46+ days.  In comparison, we need to move towards our goal in a similar fashion.  Our dream is grand and it’s going to take an enormous amount of grit to get us there.  To remind us to not only tolerate, but appreciate that challenge I used a quote that Scott has used before (originally from William James in 1906):

Beyond the very extreme of fatigue and distress, we may find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own; sources of strength never taxed at all because we never push through the obstruction.

How’s that for a nugget of instant motivation?  It is in this mindset that we can actually push ourselves beyond the edge of the map and see what we really have in us, only to then push past this new perception.

So tonight I’m so thankful for the two pieces of motivation drawn from one of my heroes, Scott Jurek.  We’ve never met, but he had a huge impact on my teams and I today!

Thanks!!!

The alarm a little before 4am was a bit of a shock to the system, but once my eyes opened it was time to make the chimichangas. There was a ton on my plate today, the only possible way to get it all done was to start early and get as much done before 7am as possible.

The 4am run with Becky felt awesome! Great pace, great weather, great conversation, pretty sweet start for the morning. After a shower and getting ready quickly I pounded out some of the work I needed to get done and then hopped in the car for the long drive. Turns out Nick had a long morning drive also so we were able to catch up and have an awesome conversation!

After we hung up the phone I just smiled to myself and realized what a full day it had been… then I looked at the clock and saw it wasn’t even 6:30am! How sweet – an almost full day done before the boys were even close to being picked up by the bus!

Thankfully all that planning paid off and I was able to get almost everything done as hoped (except a couple of things that came up throughout the day). Because it was all done I was able to focus on trick or treating with the boys, pick up the boat, send out a couple of things, and get a bunch of personal tasks knocked out. Time for a relaxing night of sleep and then back up and at ‘me early tomorrow… got another busy one lined up tomorrow!

Thanks!!!