become legendary

this has to be one of the best, most inspiring commercials i've seen in a long time. enjoy. his last statement could be applied to most any area of life.

new logos

I've added 4 new logos to finish out Set Two. Click here to see them. #'s 12-15. #14 is the final Crutchfield Photography logo as well. I was able to modify her blog and website to reflect the new colors/logo.

"v" is for vacation

Okay, so last weekend we finally got some time to head up to the mountains and do some camping. We found out the day before we left that the campground we were planning to stay at would not open for another 3 weeks! So, we ended up staying about 20 miles further down the Blue Ridge Parkway at Linville Falls Campground. Our site backed up to the Linville River, so we had a constant sound of flowing water, which was super calming. The boys learned how to skip rocks for the first time! The only downfall to the whole weekend was that right after we had started our campfire the first night, the park host came over and told us there was a burn ban in effect and we had to put the fire out AND we couldn't have any more fires the rest of the weekend. Let me just say my wife is pure genius. We managed to cook most of our meals in one single saucepan over a propane burner.

We just had a great time camping and hiking and going to Tweetsie Railroad. One of the pics below is on the hike at Linville Falls. There are trees in the forest there that are about 5' in diameter! The boys found a good stump. The other pic is on the trail above the Linville Falls Gorge. You can see the river on the left, and if it looks like a straight down drop, that's because it is! Literally, if you look over the side of that overlook, it drops straight down about 200-300 feet. Needless to say, we were a bit nervous with the boys and held on very tightly.

Anyway, was a great weekend and one of the best ever!

double dawg dare

It's amazing how entertaining a sprinkler can be. If you haven't played in one in a while, I double dawg dare you to run through one this week, just for the fun of it. You'll laugh and it will bring a smile to your face. These are 2 shots of Nathan and our neighbor, Abby, taking full advantage of ours this morning. So, here's the challenge: find a sprinkler, even if it's not your own, and just run through it. Don't fight the smile that ensues in the process. Then, come back here and post a comment about your newfound liberation for the rest of us to read.

looks very interesting...

just watch the trailer

am i the only one...

...who has ever noticed that on any Mickey Mouse show, Goofy can talk but Pluto can't?!? What sense does that make to a kid - one dog can talk, the other can only bark. Talk about species inequality. Where's Jesse Jackson when you need him?

hindsight 20/20

Okay, I'll try to keep this post short, but don't get upset if it isn't. This one could help a lot of us.

Most of you know that I am a follower of Jesus Christ and have given my life to loving Him and loving people. Because of that, I try to seek His will in most of my major decisions in life, both personal and professional. However, due to a recent situation where I had to part ways with a client, I have been reminded of this simple principle I first heard back in 2005: Everything that looks like a God thing and feels like a God thing isn't necessarily a God thing!

Eight months ago, I had just left my part-time job as a youth pastor to go full-time into my business. Simply put, I needed business to sustain the transition, when, lo and behold, a certain opportunity arose that seemed to be a direct answer to prayer. Not only was it new business, but it had the potential to be very lucrative. Everything in me seemed to say go for it. Now, eight months later, I wish I had taken those first few steps much differently. Maybe I was impatient. Maybe I was greedy. Regardless, I have learned a hard lesson that I might could have avoided had I listened to my wife and gone a little slower.

Let me briefly share with you some points that I picked up from Andy Stanley at the Catalyst Leadership Conference in 2005 (if only I had read and re-read those notes!):

- When opportunities line up with our prayers and passions, it is difficult to exercise restraint. Opportunities must be weighed against something other than the uniqueness of the circumstances surrounding them. It is very difficult to make sound decisions in emotionally-charged circumstances. We are not that great at evaluating circumstances, so open doors are not always an invitation.

- The most direct route to what you want is rarely the best route

The Application:
- Weigh every opportunity (even the obvious) against the law, principles and wisdom of God
- Decide every day that you will not sacrifice integrity for progress
- Give the right people and all-access pass to EVERY major leadership decision

- Being the leader does not exempt you from the need for wise counsel. It necessitates it!

We are only one decision away from sacrificing our integrity...
...which leads to a loss of credibility
...which undermines our influence

The wisest man in the world wrote more about the need for wise counsel than anyone else! Regardless of whatever your position on the job or in life, we all need to realize our need for wisdom. I can't change the past. I can only learn from it. May we all learn a whole lot more quickly and with as little pain/sorrow/regret as possible.