ReMARKable

I just wanted to share the series of lessons we are enjoying at Christ's Church of the Valley (CCV) on the book of Mark.  Jeff Vines, our senior pastor, is an amazing speaker and he has the gift of challenging every member of the audience - seasoned vets of faith and those searching for an answer.  Check out this week's lesson we heard Sunday - CCV 4.22.12.

Great Neighbors

One thing you really don't have any control over is who your neighbors are and if you'll like them or they'll like you.  You can drive through a neighborhood at all times of the day and night before you 'make the offer' to buy that dream house.  You can check the stats for crime in the city and how the schools are ranked, but unless you go door to door and interview each and everyone, it's just a crap-shoot.  You kinda get what you get and try to make the best of it. 

So, let me fast forward to our street.  I did drive the neighborhood at all times of the day and night; checked the crime stats and tried to find out everything I could before we made the offer.  And when all is said and done, we lucked out!  We have great neighbors!  We got invited over to a birthday party last Saturday and just had a great time.  Except for one house on our cul-de-sac, our new friends are interesting, family focused and just fun to hang around.  We were only going to stay for an hour and ended up hanging out and visiting until almost midnight.  We talked about our kids and grandkids and our jobs and school and the economy....we almost solved world hunger!!

Here's to having some great luck and finding some new friends!

CMSO

So, what's a CMSO you ask?  Well, that's my work 'official' title.  Sounds impressive, doesn't it?  It stands for (okay, my kids don't even know this....) Chief Member Services Officer.  Since I work at the credit union, this means that I'm the guy responsible for what happens to our members in our branches, how we bring in new members, how we market to our members and also, how our wealth managers deal with our members.  I really enjoy my job and I try to give Partners my 100% effort.  But, when you work hard, you need to play hard too.  We try to have fun at the office and I wanted to share a video (see below) that started with an outrageous goal we set, followed by the team actually achieving the goal by the end of the year!  As for the background, we had been talking about working together to make the goal a reality, that we needed to be synchronized....hence the skit idea.  We told the team if you meet the new account goal for 2011, the senior managers would do a synchronized swimming skit.    Anyway, Kim created the costumes (except for the shorts...that was Mike's idea).

Another part of my job is to develop leaders.  This is very enjoyable and yet, challenging in that it takes a ton of energy to try to guide the growth of other leaders.  I have been blessed to be around some great leaders and mentors in my life.  Several of the business writers I enjoy are Jim Collins and John C. Maxwell.  The team at the office just finished reading Jim's new book "Great by Choice" and we are getting ready to read John's book "The Five Levels of Leadership".  I believe the old adage is true....Leaders are Readers!  Old school, I know, but it's true in my book.  Here are the links to more info on johnmaxwellonleadership.com and jimcollins.com .

Easter in Tennessee

Kim and I had a great 38 hours over the weekend!  We started off leaving Ontario airport on Friday afternoon and landed in Nashville around 11PM.  After getting some great (actually lousy) service at the DOLLAR rentacar (full body cavity search and blood test were optional), we were off to Buchanan (Paris) Tennessee. We arrived at 1:30am and we were up at 7ish in the morning to the noise of two awesome grandkids! We started our day with a great breakfast and then it was time to play cars and then go see the new house the kids are building.  NICE PLACE!  After a great lunch, we rode the three-wheeler around and Jaxon was able to ride by himself (in first gear).  But, first gear goes pretty fast, he was so cute with a huge motorcycle helmet on his head. So after a few talks from Dad, he slowed down (just a little).  He gave Mema and Gramps a ride - you can see one of Mema's thrill rides here -

We had dinner at a place called the Olive Pit (short for the Pitifully short of salmon and lasagna - which is only served on Monday).  We had some laughs....and a decent meal, with what little they had left on the menu!

Sunday was church and a great lesson on guardrails!  Then, we were off to Easter lunch, which was awesome, and the Tennessee version of the Easter egg hunt!  On a huge 'lawn' Jaxon and his cousin Nate went crazy finding eggs, while Kazen had to open each plastic egg he found and examine what was inside!  What a crack up!

We finished off the day with an Easter tradition by shooting guns!   A 9mm, AK47 and 12-guage were shot by all of us.  Funny story after that at the security checkpoint with the TSA agents.....just kidding!  Kim and I then left for our 2-hour drive back to the airport.  After having to switch planes at Nashville to another Southwest flight so we could beat the weather delay in Denver, we made our way to Las Vegas and then Ontario, landing at midnight.

What a great weekend....all 38 hours of it!  We are now trying to catch up on some missing sleep!

Mr. Saturday

So, while Kim was recouperating this weekend from her injections during the week, I was busy doing just a couple of things over the weekend.  My kids affectionately call me Mr. Saturday due to the fact I actually enjoy doing yard work.  It's kinda my therapy after a typical work week.  So, I'll mow and edge the yards, trim bushes, wash cars (sometimes) and have fun doing it all.  Weird, I know and so the nickname from the kids. 

This was an interesting weekend though.  I probably should have stayed home and spent time with Kim, but a long-time friend needed help moving.  So off to Uncle Ron's to pick up the trailer.  Off to Jerry's to help move him from one apartment to another.  Then, back to return the trailer and home.  Oh, did I mention I needed to do a training run for the Pasadena 1/2 marathon I am running in May....so I squeezed in an 8-miler.  Then to top off the day, it was off to do some grocery shopping, cook dinner for my on-the-mend wife and then I collapsed.  Mr. Saturday - done!

But wait....there's more!  There's Sunday! - Church and then a meeting for a very cool ministry I am hoping to serve in.  Did I mention I still needed to mow the lawns and wash the cars....on Sunday!  Mr. Saturday strikes again!

A couple of other fun facts from the weekend.  I decided to take a stroll down memory lane when I picked up the trailer.  I stopped by the house we lived in from 1986 to 1993 in La Mirada.  We moved in when Kari was 2 and Kyle was a newborn.  Believe it or not, in 2012, the house still has the same screen door we put on the house when we lived there!

And, lastly, for a laugh, here's the end of my 8-miler on video.  Notice the primo average time per mile!!  Enjoy your week and see you next Saturday!!