Just Another Day…

Category: Text Post

  • Two More Trips – Starting Wednesday

    US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) speaks during a campaign stop at the Merrillville Fire Department Station #2 in Merrillville, Indiana, May 5, 2008.

    I have two more work related trips for the year. 

    Starting Wednesday I’ll be in beautiful Merrillville Indiana doing an conference for IGA. Although it’s only about 50 miles from home, I’ll be there Wednesday through late Friday or early Saturday morning. 

    The beautiful Fiesta Americana Grand Coral Beach.

    Early Sunday I leave for Cancun Mexico (by far the better of the two trips) and come back from that on Friday the 14th. The job in Cancun is for FICP and there are several videos for that job that will be shot and edited on-site. We’re staying at the Fiesta Americana Grand Coral Beach which looks to be a very nice hotel. 

    So this year is a record for travel jobs, in both quantity and quality of locations. From as close as Indiana and as far as Bangkok Thailand, and ending up the year in Cancun Mexico… it’s hard to complain. 

    As you might expect, I’ll be doing posts from my travel locations.

  • New Family Photos


    On Saturday we decided to try again getting some photos of the boys as well as an updated family photo. They boys were GREAT and just seemed to love not only being outside, but playing with leaves (a new experience for them). 

    You can see the best of them on SmugMug.

  • Happy Halloween!

    I didn’t get many good photos of them yesterday, but what I did get is OK. I was a bit rushed taking them and didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to set things up. On top of that, the boys decided not to cooperate so just getting them both to look at the camera was tough. 

    You can see the rest of the photos on SmugMug.

    Today we took some new family photos, and those will be up later in the week.

  • The Windy City Lions


    Club Officers of the Wind City Lions Club

    Since 1993 I have worked on video projects for the Lions Clubs International Foundation, based here in Oakbrook IL. Projects include convention videos, on-site editing and news magazine shows, always highlighting the good that Lions members do around the world and for their community. Brenda has worked on the same projects since the late 1990’s (it’s good to be young).

    While becoming a Lion myself wasn’t anything I had thought much of in the beginning, it’s hard to deny that over the years it just kind of gets into your blood stream and before you know it you’re compelled to help others. For the last several years, many of us that work on the Lions projects have talked about not just joining a club, but starting our own. It took a lot longer then we had expected, but we finally did it. 

    One of the main reasons we did it now after all of this time is that the current President of Lions, Al Brandel, offered to sponsored our group and really pushed to get it done during his time in office. He was even kind enough to make a special trip to Chicago to be there for our Charter Night Dinner.

    So now Brenda and I are members of the Chicago Windy City Lions Club, along with 40 other friends and colleagues. Below is a video that we created for the charter night dinner to introducer our group to the people that were there. You may see a few people that you recognize. 

    For more information on the group, visit our new website at www.windycitylions.org.

    [flv:/blog/video/Charter_Video_v5.flv 600 337]

  • Meet Maria


    At Maria’s house this weekend for her daughter Angelique’s Birthday party.

    Earlier this year we hired a Nanny (Rachel), and things were working out great. It allowed Brenda to get a break hear and there, as well as help her recover from the surgery. It was also a great way to ease back into doing some part time work later in the year. 

    Several weeks ago though, due to personal reasons, Rachel had to leave us with no notice and we were left with no backup plan. Brenda was already working 3 days a week with a client and trying to meet his deadline, but we were back to square one with finding a Nanny. We went back to the same agency we used before (NannySitters) and they jumped through hoops to not only find us somebody fast, but to find us somebody that was a good match for our family and what our needs were (thanks Nicole!). 

    Well, after a few weeks of interviewing and trying out new people, we were introduced to Maria. Maria walked in and the boys went to her immediately. During her interview she fed and changed them, and got to know us as we got to know her. After our 90 minute meeting we hired her on the spot. Brenda and I were both nervous that if we let her go to any of the other interviews she had scheduled that somebody else would get her. 

    Maria has been with us now for close to a month, and Brenda and I can say with 100% certainty that she is one of a kind, and a blessing to our family. She’s not only great with the boys, but she’s great at taking care of us as well. She is always making sure the laundry for the boys is done, she keeps the house clean, and everyday when we get home she has cooked us a meal worth of a fine restaurant. We don’t even tell her what to make, she just surprises us with something different each day and we haven’t been disappointed yet.

    I could go on and on about her, but simply put it feels like she was placed in our life at the right time, and we feel so very blessed to have her as part of our family. Although she was brought in for the boys, Brenda and I feel like she takes care of us as well. 

    Thank you Maria!