Hey, this IS theraputic

I'm sitting at the Black Dog Coffehouse right now. Just wrapped up a commercial policy for a new client who truly gets it.

He said, "I wish you could buy everything like this."

I asked him what he meant, and he said, "Face to face like this, without all the smoke and mirrors, no hiding shit."

BAM! That one really hit me... reminded me why I'm doing what I'm doing. Here's this young guy running his own business, and he knows his job/skill/art very well, but he doesn't know much about insurance. He shouldn't have to! That's my job, and he truly appreciated what I did for him.

The guy signed a contract, wrote me a check and literally walked away with nothing in his hand, and he felt good about it! So good he asked for some cards of mine to hand out and thanked me for helping him.

Good day, and it ain't even lunch yet.

Living Green

Earlier this evening I was proud I had two full recycling bins at the end of the driveway, but only one trash can. I was a bit disappointed when I looked up and down the street though. Many of my neighbors have way more trash and NO recycling.

This wouldn't be that big of a deal unless you do the math. There are six of us living in this house, and Veronica runs a home daycare!

It isn't hard; I wish my neighbors would try harder.

I also have a window open on my PC entitled, "Build Your Own Rain Barrel." Since we've reworked the entire yard and we actually have grass growing now, it sure would be nice to water it with the rain nature already provides but falls on my roof.

That will be a good project to do with Alex and maybe Aidan. Probably a bit advanced for Aaron and Allison.

We've also done the CFLs throughout the home. We made that change early on... I noticed it right away on the electric bill since we did it almost throughout the entire house at once. This house has a LOT of lights, and the family has a bad habit of leaving them on. The CFLs have helped with the energy usage. I'd like to plan towards automating much of the lighting again... that will help when the system doesn't detect motion and turns those unused areas off.

I've got more to say about what I mean when I say green, but it's getting late.

Let's just say we're taking a Dave Ramsey financial course, so we're trying to get the finances reigned in as well. More on that later, as well as ramping up the planning for our big Halloween party on October 24th after the church's Trunk or Treat.

Talk to you later.

I can check this off my list now!

Our church held a Good Shepherd Night at the T-Bones event last year. They're trying to make it annual tradition. The T-Bones are a quasi minor league baseball team in Kansas City.

They asked for a volunteer to sing the National Anthem, and I stepped up.

I was really nervous and stressed out that day. Just ask Veronica and the kids... I bit their heads off every 10 seconds. Sorry.

The first few seconds were cut off, but here's the video. Afterwards my "handler" that brought me down on the field apologized. He said he always forgets on Saturday nights to tell the singer about the fireworks during the "bombs bursting in air," part. I was like, "What fireworks? I didn't hear anything?" I was too frozen in a thousand yard stare to even notice!

And, yes, I'm well aware I sang "perilous night," instead of "perilous fight." Oops.

We Still Believe In Your Mission

Well, here it is. July 3, 2007. 231 years ago tomorrow our country adopted the Declaration of of Independence declaring our independence from Great Britain.

It wasn't easy, and it wasn't a smooth process. People died in the battles to gain that independence.

Today people around the world want freedom just as we did, but they face much more dire circumstances.

Here in the US though, most of you are more concerned about Paris Hilton's homecoming from prison than about our men and women helping secure freedom for those people. Not to mention their freedom means more security for us.

At one time a majority of you did care (at least you said you did,) but because it wasn't resolved in a microwave minute you lost interest.

I still care, and our military still cares. Why don't you?

I hope the people in this slideshow still care. I bet they do.

Thanks to Lynyrd Skynyrd for the awesome music. Sorry it's so choppy. Looks great in raw format, but my YouTube skills must be too green still.

Grandpa Quinn, the kids and I hit the town!

Grandpa Quinn came in town for a visit on June 9th. He and I took to the kids to the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Bloch addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

We didn't time it this way, but we were fortunate enough to get there just as the cutting took place simultaneously at several entrances to the museum. We also lucked out and picked an entrance where hardly any people were lined up. In contrast, there appeared to be hundreds of people coming down the ramp from the main entrance when we got inside. Luck is good!

We also went down to Brush Creek on the Plaza and checked out some of the fountains, the annual Dragon Boat Race and had lunch at McDonalds.

It was a great time! Click on the vid below.

Helen Sherlock has passed

My grandmother passed away on June 12th.

She will be missed, but we take solace in knowing she is in heaven with her soulmate, Joe Sherlock.

I was entrusted with several photos of her to put together a video slide show in her honor. Here it is.

Tomorrow's the day

Although I've been plugging away at tests, first appointments and training for weeks, my official start date with Farm Bureau Financial Services is tomorrow.

I'm ready, but I wish it would have come sooner.

Here's to success!