Off to California!

We're saying good bye to the mountains and hello to the beach! Today starts our 3 month adventure to California. We're going to spend time with my widowed dad is the reason we're going. When Keith was tied down to his J.O.B., doing something like this would never have been possible. So I'm grateful!

We'll be taking a break in Las Vegas for a day so we can try their good eats and Tae can play so we won't be posting for a few days.

My 10 Mountain Lessons

I came here August 1st STRESSED OUT! Due to Susan's success with her business, I did not really need to work anymore, so I gave 3 months notice to tie up the project . Anyone who's ever been an executive in the corporate world knows that your job and projects "own" you. I worked harder that last 3 months than I ever had to ensure the successafter I was gone. So, I arrived worn/burned out.

I honestly was no longer myself. After years of working 70 + hour weeks, travelling across the country and globe, obsessed with revolutionizing an entire industry (and bringing manufacturing back to the US), it was over. DONE. SILENT. STILL.

What the hell was I going to do? No board meetings, reporting up to Switzerland, no 10pm or 7am meetings with the team in India?

So now, after two months of living an amazing life in the mountains of Colorado (really exotic for a boy from Nova Scotia), here are what I've learnd;

1. Toilet Training cannot be done in one day.
2. The steep, high altitude mountain switch-backs on the bike trails are not there to punish you, but rather to lift you up to a better view.
3. Don't feed the Grey Jays. They are called "Camp Robbers" for a reason.
   
4. Being 35 in the mountains means you go fishing, biking, and hiking, not down a mountain on a bike with huge tires and no pedals.
   
5. Being 2 miles high means snow in August and sun burns in late September.
   
6. Hauling a 2 year old up a mountain in a bike trailer is something neither of you can escape, so make sure you are well rested and feed.
7. Most people cannot figure out how a man can be the primary care giver of a 2 year old (IT"S NOT LIKE HE'S STILL BREASTFEEDING PEOPLE!)
   
8. Drink Lemonade. They prevent kidney stones and colds. Seriously, before you end up crying like a baby from the pain, with your pants down inside a CAT scan.
   
9. Living on a golf course means you need to understand what a "bad slice" is, and clue into "Hey buddy, watch out..." a bit sooner.
10. Be grateful for what you have now. Right now! This made me realize that the couple of years before this I had just a fraction of what I have now, and that is was not really living.
    

Leaving the Mountains

So today, Tae and I spent the morning wrapping things up here in the mountains. We returned his library books and said good bye to the local storekeepers and friends we got to know while here.
Keith slept in because he was up till four am last night due to food poisoning or something.

Afterwards, I went for my last bike ride here and i went to Frisco. I feel like I'm getting more and more in shape and its been so exhilarating biking and listening to my personal development amongst the glorious setting. I've inserted a picture of my bike ride to give you an idea.

Now, both my Tae and Keith are napping while I get some chow ready. I'm really grateful for our lives. It's been a GREAT 2 months here (even with the kidney stones!)

Having Time

We've lived the past two months like never before. No stress of any kind. No rushing to make that appointment, run errands, pay bills, make it to the office, pack lunches...you get the picture. Instead, we wake up everyday to our 2.5 year old crawling into bed with us or telling us he wants some milk. We spend our days biking, swimming or playing, calling friends, making meals, hanging out at the park...you get the picture. But what's been really exciting is that when you are in that space of contentment, of warmth and perfection, then your creative juices flow so much easier! Both Keith and I are entrepreneurial spirited and for years we have had an idea box that we would write our ideas and throw into the box and in 8 years time, we have never once opened that box up to pursue anything due to how BUSY we were. Well, I'm thrilled about 2 new ideas we have that are multi-million dollar ideas. The beauty is, we now have the time to nurture and play out our ideas AND coupled with the personal development and growth we've experienced in this last year...well...we're making our lives AMAZING, and I am so grateful.

My 2 year old LOVES sushi!

So today was another typical day. I took Tae to run some errands, do some shopping and play at the park. I really appreciate the transit system they have set up in the mountains. It picks us up right ourside our mountain condo and drops us off at the next mountain town over. Tae just loves riding the bus and I appreciate the environmentlness of it. They have a STUNNING park next to the transit station. Its got a beautiful lake with the massive backdrop of mountains. It's just truly beautiful. Anyway, daddy got to play with him as well. We all went for sushi for dinner and Tae was REALLY excited to go. He bobbed up and down saying "I'm happy!" with a wide grin across his face. Man...being able to raise Tae stress free with Keith to help is such a GIFT. Children are SUCH a gift and I can't seem to get over how lucky we are to be together...always. Tomorrow we're going to Vail for their kids story time!

Farmers Market

Vail has a quaint farmers market and we love going there for its their quaint library, so we went today and it was another STUNNING day. Man, mountain life is incredibly blissful. We enjoyed strolling around and this time we brought Tae's guitar so that he could play along with the local band. It was a raggae band and Tae LOVED it. We had great eats, great music and a relaxing time in the library. The childrens area is one of the best I've seen a library have. When we got home, I biked up to the Vail pass while listening to Esther Hicks audio. I'm currently listening to the one that comes after Ask and It is Given. The ride was all uphill on my way up and it took me an hour to do. The way back was all downhill and it only took 10 minutes. It always amazes me how much quicker it is to go downhill and the thrill of it! The beautiful sky and mountains, the aspens turning and the breeze through my hair. Life is much appreciated!

Halloween Ideas

So I'm thrilled for the holidays now. Before I had Tae, I could care less about the holidays...especially Christmas. All the holidays seemed so commercial. Now that I have my own child, I COMPLETELY understand what holidays are for. They're for children. To celebrate and to have FUN. Tae has been an absolute gift because he's so full of JOY and being silly and always wanting to play. He loves to laugh. Happiness IS his natural state. I LOVE having dinner parties, but now, I get to focus on throwing family fun parties and they'll be great in our new (100 year old) Victorian. We bought a Victorian 2 years ago and we're planning to move into it October 2008. I absolutely LOVE old homes. Anyways, Tae and I had another boring day of traversing the mountain town of Frisco. We went to the library and hung out, met Keith for lunch at JJs and we're now just relaxing at the condo. Tomorrow, we're off to Vail for their amazing Farmers Market. Life is blissfully relaxing.

Home Based Business Scam List

I thought I should share the most comprehensive list of Home Business Scams I have seen to date. It is so hard to know what is legitimate these days, especially in the the Home Based Business Industry. I post this in hopes it helps someone.

http://www.homebiz.bukiki.com/scam-alert/

Why I love money.

For me, it's not about flashy cars or designer jeans. I could care less about the bling bling. For me, it's about family, about the freedom to celebrate, share and to love. Keiths family is in Nova Scotia and my family is in California and both of us have one widowed parent remaining. We were based in Denver becasue of Keiths job but now that he's out of his J.O.B. we're free to live life! To follow our bliss and be with family. We're getting ready to leave the mountains and head for the hills of California to spend with my dad. Money for me is about the freedom to spend life loving, sharing and celebrating as a family.

Welcome to Fun!

Since being in Copper, I've been swimming pretty much on a daily basis. They have a great athletic center and a very large pool. All I do is jump in and do 20 minutes worth of laps and I'm done. Since this is summer, I usually get the pool all to myself. As well as the jacuzzi, sauna, miniature golf course, bumper boats, etc. Summer is SO much slower here than the winter and it really feels like we own the whole resort. I actually prefer the solitude and don't like coming up here in the winter because of the crowds. We went for a bike ride the other day down to Frisco and along the way there was this newly built rock landscape. It was pretty incredible! They (whoever it was) created a large patio area made out of natural river rocks embedded into the dirt. As you entered the patio, there were words spelled out with rocks that said "Welcome To Fun". As you walked through the patio, there were large animal sculptures of lizard like creatures made out of rocks! It was quite beautiful. There were also the end of season rasberry bushes that we picked. So my daily exercise has been either biking or swimming and its been so stress free! Although I can appreciate the mountains, I also like the hustle and bustle of the city, so I'm looking forward to going to California for the next three months. Oh yeah!

Allowing

This concept was completely foreign to me for most of my life. Always tight fisted and working to control my destiny and work my way to my desires, my goals, my visions. Did it work?...yeah! But man, talk about being miserable but those brief final moments of achievement. Is this a way to live? Not for me. For the first time in my life I am learning more and more this wonderful ebb and flow of ALLOWING. Trusting that the world is so much bigger and greater than anything that I can possibly understand and knowing that all is and will be well. If you're in a situation right now, you should try to ALLOW clarity and love into the situation. See what happens and get back to me! Learning, loving, Growing.
Make Your Life Amazing!

Living at a Top 3 Resort

When we bought at Copper Mountain a few years back, it was still "in the works" as a resort. The real "buzz" was in Vail, just 15 minutes up the road. Copper was under major renovation and there were a lot of gaps to fill, such as the night life!

Well, a few short years later, Copper Mountain was just named one of the top 3 ski resorts in North America by Men's Health Magazine (where we happen to be living since I retired last month!) Of course Whistler/Blackcomb was one, but so was Copper Mountain for the 1st time. Yeah! Copper Mountain HAS come a long way. It is now a year round resort, has a great night life and is the best skiing within two miles of Denver (previously only the locals knew that).

It was cool also to open the magazine and actually see our condo up front and center in the article as well. It is a great new building. I have to say, its nice to have a place in one of the best ski resorts in the Country. More icing on the cake! I'll almost hate to leave in a few weeks for the beaches of LA. I guess I'll manage.

I can't wait till Camp Woodward, the Extreme Winter Sport facility opens up! It is massive and really the only ski school of its kind along the crowded front range. Between that and some of the other improvements that just got passed this summer, Copper Real Estate is surely going to continue to increase 15-20% for a 3rd year in a row. Mmmmmm! Icing!!

Michael Losier

So I've recently completed Michael Losier's book "The Law Of Attraction" and I've completed the accompanying worksheets and exercises he provided.

I really do like the simplicity of his methods and today...one of them worked! One of the things he suggests is to ASK for Information regarding an issue. Today, I did just that. I went swimming and asked for the answer to why I keep repeating a behavior that no longer served me, no matter how much I hate the behavior. The answer came to me within two hours and it became clear to me that I DO have a choice. I DO have the choice to continue to have my old self repeat the old negative habits, or I could CHOOSE to react differently. AND, it also became clear to me what part of my past was the root of the old habit and the actual truth behind it.

Now, I've heard MANY times before that I have choices and that it really is my choice how to react. I've read this a million times and time and time again, I could never break from the ingrained habit of my reaction. Today, there was a moment of clarity where I really could see that I wasn't powerless in this situation.

Anyways, it's been liberating to say the least and its such a good feeling to continually be in the process of growing and learning and changing. It's empowering and a joyful journey.

Wake Up Call

Its been 5 weeks since I retired. It has been an adjustment. Having adopted a relaxed and mobile life moving to a mountain resort in the Colorado Rockies (passing a kidney stone while here), getting used to the idea of Fall in Southern California before returning to move into our new home in Denver.

Life as an executive was fast paced. Rushing to and from airports, hotels, meetings; Keeping my staff productive and focused on the project and program road map; Proposals and Reports and ROI justifications to the boss and board. It was fast paced, intense, and very capable of giving me the grey hairs I have now at 35 after just a few years of working that way.

Everyone asked "Can you do it?" "Can you slow down?" "Won't you miss it?" "You'll have a new venture within days!" All these people knew me, and thought I thrived on pressure. Truth is, I survived on pressure. I would have left a long time ago without a challenge, but it was not thriving! Living on energy drinks, coffee and strong tea (the kind a Nova Scotian knows how to brew special for those late night meetings with India). No, that was surviving, barely staying engaged as I scraped enough time with my family to relieve the guilt of working too much.

Now, we have 3 weeks left at Copper Mountain, and the current marketing theme there is starting to make sense to me. It is "Free Your Mountain". I read it another way though. I read "Let the Mountain Free You", cause that is what it has done for me. No adjustment needed, just clean, crisp, fresh air, sun and beauty. And time of course, lots of time to enjoy my family and appreciate my new life.

This posting is called "Wake Up Call" because instead of relaying on an alarm clock or a hotel wake up to get up, now I just wake for my son to crawl into bed and say "Wake up Daddy, lets (do whateverhe is excited out that day).

Great Quote!

"You don't get in life what you want...You get in life what you are"

I was going over some old notes and I came across this quote and it just about knocked me over! I've said this before in this blog, but I can't get over how much more alive you feel when you're given the freedom to exist outside the daily grind, the traffic, the mundane routine that people get caught up in because they don't think they have other choices. I was telling Keith that when you're in the rat race, you give up so much more than just you're time. You give up you're freedom as a human being to experience yourself as you truly are.

Many will go their entire lives without ever knowing who they truly are and the potential they could have unleashed within. It's an absolute gift everyday to be alive and we're LOVING IT!

Not all home businesses are equal!

At a Labor Day BBQ, I ran into an acquaintance, a photographer friend of a friend. I asked him how business was going and he said GREAT and glowed with contentment. I said "really", interested in how successful his business had become (I am after all in the business of making money but more importantly having lifestyle and I wanted to compare my business to his).

He told me that business was booming and what catapulted his growth was his commitment to marketing. He said he now spends $20,000 in advertisements a year. I asked him what his average wedding cost is and he said $3500 of which about $2500 would be profit. From some basic arithmetic, I know he doesn't make more than six figures. and was in shock to find out that the return was not anywhere near the same as what I do.

In my industry, businesses that bring in between $800,000 to a million still don't spend $20,000/year in marketing and there's very little overhead. He also seemed to be working more that 12-30 hours a week. This was just another confirmation that I LOVE what I do and the freedom it brings me.

So, I follow my passion, and he follows him. I know he is happy and I am for him, perhaps I am fortunate to not have a skill to fall to, as it appears just following a simple system as worked out really well for me.

Kidney Stones!

Well, Keith has had a rough 2 weeks to say the least. He has never had any health issues for as long as I've known him and everyone comments on how healthy and clear his skin looks and how he glows. So, out of the blue, one Monday morning 2 weeks ago, he said that he started to urinate blood. But no pain. We went to the doctor and all the doctors could not tell him what he had. They ruled out kidney stones, appendicitis, urinary tract infection and kidney cancer. All the tests came out negative. Two days went by and no pain. Well, around 3:30 in the morning, I find Keith calling me from the bathroom floor in severe pain and not able to move. We called the ambulance and he went to emergency room. Even morphine was not helping the pain.

Anyways, long story short, the first doctor completely missed the kidney stone, but the specialist we finally went to verified that it was in fact the stones. So he's going to the hospital tomorrow Friday to get the whole issue resolved. Now what's interesting is we got the health insurance with a high deductible because neither of us have any health problems. Well, I'm just so grateful that paying for our deductible will not be an issue. I'm super thankful that Keith will continue to be thriving and alive to enjoy the rest of our lives together as well!