Rough Week

This past week has been one of the toughest weeks physically I've had in a very long time. It was the first week back at work after spending 2 weeks in Wisconsin visiting family. I guess my sleep patterns got all messed up while in Wisconsin because I was out of sync almost all week. It finally caught up with me by Friday night and I was in bed by 9:00 pm and slept off and on most of the day on Saturday. I didn't feel sick at all, just totally exhausted. I guess old age is telling me I can't ignore the need for sleep. Long days and short nights will always catch up to you. This is the first time I can remember it hitting me so hard.

Had a great day yesterday at church and last night for an extended time of praise and worship. Just what I needed to recharge the batteries. Woke up early this morning and ready to hit it hard again. Working this week on finishing up planning for 2009 - not a strong point of mine but I know the importance getting our direction set for the year. This one one of the items I thought I would work on during my time in Wisconsin but chose to put it off until we got back.

Now it's time to get back to it and move forward for 2009 - looking for a great year.

Another New Year

Hard to believe it is already 2009. My oh my how time does fly by. At the end of my 2 week vacation to Wisconsin. Haven't had this much consecutive time off in a long time. It has been a great time fellowshipping with family and enjoying some winter weather. Went down yesterday to walk along the Lake Michigan shoreline and it was quite amazing. Lots of ice/snow floating in the water and then waves crashing on the shoreline and tossing ice chunks everywhere. Here's what it looked like:



Definitely an interesting sight - quite cold too with the wind blowing in. Not quite Duluth cold but cold enough for this old boy. Tomorrow we head back to Texas - going to be another packed ride. We picked up an extra passenger so now there will be 8 of us in our Suburban for the trek home. Another opportunity for some great family time as we travel. Plus we picked up some additional baggage so packing will be fun.

Winter Wonderland

Well, we wanted snow for Christmas and snow we have. It's been snowing on and off every day since we've been here. Today they expecting another 6 -12 inches. Yesterday we did some sledding at a local hill. Lots of people flying down the hill and making the long trek back up. Even had a couple of ramps setup for jumping. I tried one jump at the urging of my boys. It was a great time right up until I landed on the other side. Tailbone is very sore today!! Other than that, it was a blast flying down the hillside. I just wish they would get a chair lift or something to make the trek back up a little eaiser. The ride down is quite fast but the walk back up takes work - definitely shows how out of shape I am.

Today we are driving out to my sister's house for our traditional Christmas Eve get together. We don't make it up here every year but we try to call sometime during the evening on the years we stay in Texas. It's a great time reconnecting with my family and catching up on the year. That is one drawback to living so far away - we don't see our families as much as we would like to. Tonight we are doing something a little different for our gift exchange. Typically, we draw a name and you buy for that person. This year we are all bringing a gift and we're doing some kind of Chinese gift exchange. Should be a lot of fun.

Tomorrow we'll spend Christmas day with Susan's dad and some immediate family. They have scheduled Friday as the day for extended family to get together and celebrate. It's get harder every year to coordinate a time as the families continue to grow. It takes a lot of effort to keep relationships moving forward and family ones are no different. I am truly blessed for such a great set of family relationships and try not to take it for granted.

Looking outside again and the snowflakes are now huge - very beautiful to see. Not sure how the driving will be this afternoon but the scenery is gorgeous. We see this once and a while in Texas but it's gone the next day so this is a treat for us. It gets old when you are living up here but for us visiting it is a special time. So off to enjoy this awesome time of the year.

Travelling to the Homeland

Back online again after a little time off. That's one of the downsides of creating an online presence - you need to keep up with it. I was reminded of that fact by several friends so I'm finally back at it. We are travelling back to our home state of Wisconsin for the holidays. Almost all of our immediate families live there so it will be a good time reconnecting and celebrating this great time of the year.

We are on the road as we speak hoping to stay ahead of the big snow storm heading to that area tonight. They already have a good amount of snow on the ground from storms the past couple of days so that should be fun. You have to love technology - working online while my son takes the first shift of driving. We normally travel in our RV which is a very comfortable and enjoyable way to see the country. This trip we decided to take the Suburban so there are 7 of us in close proximity for the next 17 hours or so. We've travelled back and forth to Wisconsin numerous times over the past 25 years so we pretty much have the routine down. We've been spoiled the last 4 years with the RV so this should be an interesting exercise in family togetherness and unity.

Signing off near McAlester, OK.

California Bound

It's off to California today (Burbank) for our quarterly peer group meeting. I am member of Heartland Technology Groups (HTG3). We have 12 companies that meet once a quarter for 2 days to work on our business. I can say without a doubt that this is the single best decision we have ever made as a company. Having a virtual board of directors who not only care about us as a company but more importantly they care about us as individuals. I've developed some great friendships from this group and always look forward to our meetings.

One big benefit of meeting regularly with people who care about you is the accountability they provide. This can be a tremendous blessing as well as a rather uncomfortable time. Being held to a standard and a set of goals can be intimidating. I know personally that as people start examining and looking under the covers I tend to close areas off. I don't hold up well under the spotlight and try to find ways to deflect and redirect the examiners. It's an area I have been working on to improve. My mind says I welcome the inspection but when it starts intruding on my personal space it gets uncomfortable. I don't want it to be that way. I desire to be more open and transparent and this group is helping to facillitate that.

So it's off to the sunny west coast and a great time of fellowship and sharing.

Here We Go

Well, I have finally made the plunge into the blog-o-sphere. I've been reading the blogs of colleagues, friends and miscellaneous vendors and associates and finally decided to start my own. This was one of my goals at our last meeting of my peer networking group and since we are meeting again this week I figured I had better get started. Peer pressure works and so here we go. I'm actually looking forward to the process. Not sure where it will lead but the train has left the station.