Austin Texas Real Estate Blog

I have certainly written a bunch of posts about my children and the funny stuff that they say and do, but I realized it had been awhile since my last "kid" post.  Time to change that.

We are about eight weeks away from having our fourth child now (!).  I don't know if it's related or not, but Abby (our almost-three-year-old) seems to be getting more and more naughty, and finding new and inventive ways to misbehave.  Actually, I do know - she's just a two year old kid who is testing her limits.  I mentioned to Pam earlier when I was trying to prepare lunch for the kids that having Abby around was much like having a climbing octopus in the kitchen with me. 

At any rate, one of Abby's interests appears to be fashion, as she spends much of her day changing clothes.  Her new favorite catch phrase is, "I like your shirt!".  She says this to every member of the family now:

ME: Hi, Abby!

ABBY: I like your shirt!

ME: Well, thanks.  I like your shirt, too.

ABBY: It's very colorful.

This conversation is repeated many times daily.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Since we have started potty training now, Abby often just takes off her diaper and runs around bottomless in the house.  The other day, Pam asked, "Abby, why are you so naked?".  Without missing a beat, Abby replied, "Because I don't have any clothes on."  DUH!

A few days ago, after breakfast, I was chatting with Brandon and Aleah (10 and 7) about what they might want to do when they grow up.  Pretty standard fare in many homes, I would assume.  But not in the Crouch house:

ALEAH: I want to create a time machine. 

BRANDON: I want to develop something that I can inject into people to increase their white blood cell count.

Um....wow.

As we talked more, I realized that Aleah had given some serious thought to this idea.  "I'll probably have to make it holographic if I want to go back and see dinosaurs."  I love the fact that she has been thinking about her own safety while time travelling.  Who am I to quell this type of creative endeavor?

I was talking to Brandon one night earlier this month, and this is an almost-verbatim quote from my child:

"Dad, there's so much death and dying.  I think I might want to be a doctor.  That way, I can help to extend lives, at least for a little while."

Color me proud.

As I have shared repeatedly here, my kids have a knack for making me laugh.  The Christmas season is no different, of course.  I just wanted to share a few of the humorous things that they said this year.

Abby is two and a half years old now, and she is a natural performer.  Several times lately, she has appeared on top of the ottoman in our living room, or perhaps behind the puppet stage upstairs, proclaiming, "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!  WELCOME TO DA SHOW!"  When I then ask her to perform, she seems to be out of ideas, but she will sing if prompted a little.

Abby actually loves to sing, and my wife still swears that she heard her harmonizing to a song a few weeks ago.  It would not surprise me.

In fact, over the past month or so, Abby has developed her own very special rendition of "Jingle Bells":

Jingle bells jingle bells

Jingle all the way

Nobody has ANYthing, Yes and all the way.

I guess she takes after her father, since I am notorious for making up different lyrics to popular songs (please see these previous posts for more on that topic: Why do I have so much trouble with song lyrics? More about my "lazy ear syndrome" and MORE song stuff - Am I hard of hearing? My Lazy Ear Syndrome).

My son, Brandon, made me laugh pretty hard with some of his Christmas commentary.  Two days ago, he said this to me:

"Dad, I really hope it's not foggy this Christmas Eve.  Otherwise, we might have to call Rudolph.  Who knows if he's even still alive?  If he is, he has to be in his 40's by now!"

To those of you who say, "life begins at 40", apparently my son would beg to differ with you.

Last night, as I was putting the kids to bed, Brandon mentioned an interesting idea:

"Hey dad, you know how they have Elvis impersonators?  There should be Santa impersonators, too.  In fact, what if Santa sang songs and Elvis came to your house with presents?" 

Actually, that would jazz up the holidays a bit, wouldn't it?

When he was five, my wife took Brandon shopping at a local mall, and there was a Santa there taking pictures with the kids.  To understand how funny this is, you must know that we never pretended that Santa was real or really talked about it very much, since we wanted to be able to always tell our kids the truth.  This stemmed partially from the fact that my wife was traumatized as a kid by someone who lied to her telling her that she was going to see Big Bird on a TV while she was having a medical procedure.

At any rate, when Brandon finally met "Santa", he said, "I think you're real."  Santa replied, "Well, of course I am.  What would I be if I weren't real?"

"A puppet." 

Enough said.

Sometime soon, when I get sufficiently motivated, I will share some photos of our special day together today.  In the meantime, I hope that you had a terrific Christmas.

May God bless you richly in the upcoming year!  Thanks so much for reading.

December 2008 is one that has presented a few challenges for my family.  I am ready for Christmas (well, not totally ready), because it has to be an improvement over some of the stuff we have dealt with this month.

For example:

1. My wife and I both experienced a stomach virus (she had it worse than I did, which was compounded by the fact that she is five months pregnant).

2. My son's Nintendo DS case and all of his games were stolen from our van as we ate at one of our favorite restaurants in north Austin on December 11th, which was the day before his birthday.  Many of my ActiveRain and Twitter friends stepped in to help by sending money and games for him.  You can read my post here about that: How My Twitter/ActiveRain "Family" Made My Son's Difficult Day a Little Brighter

3. Six days after that theft, my daughter's actual DS was stolen from the TABLE at another restaurant when my wife took the kids to the bathroom.  Apparently, she left it sitting there for a couple of minutes.  When they returned, it was gone.  Elizabeth Golden went above and beyond by sending a second check for my daughter (she sent one for Brandon previously).

4. My wife accidentally backed into the vehicle of one of the maids who was cleaning our house.  Our car had damage - hers did not.  After that, while I was working upstairs, I overheard the maids using profanity (some in Spanish, some in English) while talking about my wife.  I made them leave my home immediately, and called the owner of the company, who is a longtime friend and a current client of mine.  Needless to say, they will never return.

5. Yesterday, our refrigerator decided die slowly.  We had to go out shopping for a new one, which answered the "what should we do today?" question.  It will be delivered tomorrow.  Tonight, thankfully, it is very cold (for Texas) outside, so much of our perishable food is sitting in boxes on our back porch.  It looks like we left it out for Santa so that he would have plenty to choose from.

In the midst of that, we had to get our house decorated, shop, plan for relatives who are going to visit soon, plan my son's birthday party, and keep our three children alive.  I also got two new contracts in place, thankfully.

Overall, it could be a lot worse.  I am blessed beyond belief. 

Thanks for listening to me whine for a minute. 

Truly, none of this stuff has put a damper on my Christmas spirit.  After all, it's just "stuff", right?   

Recently, I wrote a post about my kids' bedtime routine, and how I have begun to incorporate stories from my own life into this time with them:

Sharing the "Stories of My Life" With my Kids

A few nights ago, I was telling them about my own grandfather, who passed away when my son was very little.  I told them that Grandpa used to pick me up from school, and feed me dinner while we watched TV together and just sort of hung out. 

We watched "Gilligan's Island", "The Andy Griffith Show", "Leave it to Beaver", "Father Knows Best", and countless other programs that were no longer first-run shows, but well into their syndicated runs by the time I was born.

When I would spend the night at my grandparents' house, I watched "Hee Haw" (not willingly), "The Love Boat", and "Fantasy Island".  I decided to do my best to describe some of these shows to my kids.  I'm not sure that I was successful, as you will see in a minute. 

Here are some of my own recaps of shows that they have NEVER seen:

The Love Boat - This was a show with a LOT of guest stars every week.  It was mainly people trying to revive their careers (then I had to explain that concept).  Basically, it was a giant boat (kinda like Titanic), where people randomly fell in love.  I also sang the theme song to them.  I am not making this up.

Fantasy Island - As I recall, this came on immediately after Love Boat back in the 70's.  The show was about an unusual Spanish millionaire named Mr. Rourke who may or may not have owned his own island.  He had frequent visitors to the island who wanted to have their fantasies fulfilled.  His sidekick/helper was a little person named Tattoo (Tatu?) whose job it was to climb into a bell tower at the beginning of each episode and ring the bell while announcing the plane with visitors - "De plane!  De plane!". 

Mr Rourke's staff of beautiful Hawaiians would greet the guests with flower necklaces called leis, like they wore in "Lilo and Stitch".  He always encouraged them, "Smiles, everyone!  Smiles!"  Mr. Rourke used his special secret powers to grant even the most unusual wishes of his guests (customers?), but it usually came with a lesson involved. 

Gilligan's Island - Basically, all I had to do here was to run through the song in my head ("Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale.....") in order to give the premise.  I explained that despite their best efforts, Gilligan pretty much always managed to mess things up for them so that they had to remain on the island.  My wife and I have a long-standing joke about this, "Hey, remember that one episode of 'Gilligan's Island where Gilligan made a mistake that cost them a trip home?"  This is the equivalent of saying, "Hey, remember that one Eminem song where he uses some swear words?"

At any rate, while I was in the middle of describing this show to them, my son interjected suddenly, "Why didn't they just drown Gilligan since they were on an island?  Or maybe they could have used a giant catapult to throw him to Malaysia!"

I laughed so hard it made me cough.  I often felt the same way watching Gilligan, but I realized that I hadn't made it clear that Gilligan was actually their FRIEND, despite his numerous errors.

So, I also tried unsuccessfully to describe "Happy Days" to the best of my abilities, complete (again) with theme song.  How can you explain the inherent coolness of the Fonz?  Of course, that was before he jumped the shark while wearing a leather jacket.

Image courtesy of http://www.stockvault.net

Simply put, I am blessed beyond what I deserve in this life.  I wanted to take a few minutes to put into words what I am thankful to God for this year. 

I didn't write my post on Thanksgiving Day for a couple of reasons:

• I didn't want it to get lost in the shuffle of other Thanksgiving posts (and there were a LOT of good ones)
• I didn't feel like blogging on Thanksgiving Day - too much food, family, and football for that

Brian Block wrote a post that struck a chord with me yesterday or the day before, called "Every Day is Thanksgiving!".  This pretty much sums up my attitude perfectly.

Although I think Thanksgiving Day is really important (which is why I try not to skip ahead to Christmas with our decorations, etc.), I also feel that I have more than my fair share of reasons to be thankful every single day.

• God - Thank you for blessing me so richly.  I am humbled when I reflect on this.
• Pam (my wife of almost sixteen years)-  You are my beautiful soulmate.  You make me laugh (and think) and I wouldn't want anyone else to be my kid's mom.  I love you - always and forever.
• My son Brandon - You, sir, are hilarious, talented, compassionate and loving.  You're a piano master with perfect pitch, a black belt, and a natural comedy writer.  You will also likely be the size of an average NFL lineman when fully grown.  We're friends, right?
• My older daughter, Aleah - You are focused, supremely smart, creative, and cute.  You have an artistic spirit, you read faster than any of us, and you are probably the best Monopoly player in the house (beat me fair and square the other day). 
• My younger daughter, Abby - You are so sweet, and a highly verbal natural performer (don't forget cuddly!).  Frankly, I think you have one of the cutest personalities I've ever seen.
• My unborn daughter (to be named later) - I so look forward to meeting you in April sometime.  You have a very loving family waiting to get to know you!
• My mom - I thank you for putting up with me during those "tough" years (which I realize is euphemistic).  I owe you a lot!  My sense of empathy, intelligence, and my personality all came from you.  I love you very much.

I could go on about material things or how much I love my career, but God and my family are completely worthy of center stage, so I am content to stop there.

Thanks for reading!

My RSS feed is http://activerain.com/jasoncrouch/rss  

Whenever you are considering reading a post on ActiveRain, there is some "preview" text which appears there. I think it's about 50 words or so. At any rate, if I give it away too soon, some may choose not to click on the headline and read the actual post.   Instead, I decided to draw it out a little bit first.

Okay, I can't stand it anymore.

IT'S A GIRL!!!

We took our two older kids along with us to find out, and they were very excited to see the baby moving. It always makes it seem more "real" for the rest of us. Perhaps more important than finding out the gender was the fact that our baby girl checked out as 100% normal based on the stuff that they look for at this point. That was truly a relief, since there were a couple of small issues last time that required approximately 197 additional ultrasounds (read as: thousands of dollars).

Here is the quote of the day from my wife, Pam, about this topic:

Well, at least we don't have to see the fetal cardiologist again. "Hey guys - we need you to see this doctor that makes umpteen gadzillion dollars per minute. He is here to tell you that everything is just fine. Please pay at the front.".

The pictures on the right are authentic, and taken this afternoon:

1. Sucking her thumb or chewing fingers
2. Just chilling out
3. Waving?

Needless to say, this was a terrific pre-Thanksgiving present. We are blessed beyond belief, and we have so much to be thankful for this year.

On a side note, we haven't spent much time on names yet, so we are open to your suggestions for interesting girl names.

Our tastes tend to go to less common girl names - we have Aleah and Abrielle so far.  Also, since we are constantly confusing their names with each other, we have definitely decided NOT to have another "A" name. 

I can't really promise you anything other than giving you credit, but we are all ears!

Thanks so much for reading about our special day. I really appreciate those of you who have kept us in your prayers.  Have a very happy Thanksgiving!

My RSS feed is http://activerain.com/jasoncrouch/rss  

This afternoon, we spent a few hours with our friends from Christ Church PCA at San Gabriel Park in Georgetown, Texas.  This post is not about the park, nor is it about the church.  Instead, I just felt like writing about what a terrific and relaxing afternoon I had with my family.  I didn't bring my camera, but I wanted to share our day with you.

Shortly after we arrived, I took my seven-year-old daughter, Aleah, down to the mostly-dry riverbed to walk around.  She was a little hesitant because of all the "wobbly rocks" at first, but she warmed to the idea and ran ahead of me some distance. 

We got to a place where the water started again, pooling to a couple of feet in depth.  I got my son Brandon, and we spent at least 30-40 minutes there while I taught them how to properly skip rocks.  Frankly, I need to do this type of thing more often, since one of my fondest memories as a child was from the time I spent exploring the creeks near my grandparents' house in east Dallas.  Brandon surprised me by throwing some VERY large rocks and splashing himself.  I cringed inwardly, since he is not usually a "rough and tumble" kind of kid, but when I asked him if that was fun, he grinned and said, "THIS IS A BLAST!"

One of Aleah's friends showed up, and they got to feed bread to the group of assertive ducks at the water's edge.  I went back toward the picnic area with Brandon to grab some food.  Afterwards, a couple of his friends were in the large, flat field playing football.  Well, more like throwing the ball and then sort of tackling each other.  I joined them and asked Brandon if he wanted to play, too.  He seemed reticent ("my hands are full", etc.), but when I finally got him started he had a great time and did really well.  You have to understand that he is a really big kid with a lot of brute strength, so tackling or trying to strip the ball came pretty naturally for him.  Although he is still nine years old, most people peg him at about 12, since he's 5'2" or so already.

We played out there for what felt like an hour or so, and I got a decent workout myself.  I had forgotten how much I enjoy playing football, truth be known.  I played in high school (mainly as a defensive end and sometimes as a tight end), but when I was a kid, we had a Nerf ball like the one we used today.  Memories....

Just before we left, we managed to misplace our two-year-old daughter for about 45 seconds as it was getting dark.  This always feels like an eternity, and I don't do a very good job of remaining overly calm.  It turns out that she wandered over to the parking lot area - TWICE.  I don't know what was attractive to her over there, but it freaked us out to think how close she came to being hurt.  Despite this, I had a terrific afternoon, and I would like to return soon.

Brandon's comment to me as we were leaving was quite telling;

"Dad, we really need to play football more often." 

Sounds like a plan to me!

If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I lost one of my close friends, David Wilder, to throat and neck cancer at age 49 back in late March.  I can't believe it's already been over six months since he died.  As with most grief, it takes on a different feel after the passage of some time. 

In the interim, I have had some weeks when I could think of David and not feel the pain as sharply, but I don't think I have had many days pass without thinking of him at all. 

Yesterday, I made the mistake of thinking a little too long about the video they showed at his life celebration, and I had to stop and cry for a bit.  I realize that "mistake" may not be the right word, but you get the jist of what I'm saying, I hope.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I felt strongly led to participate in starting a new church in nearby Georgetown after David passed away.  I had prayed extensively about this, and I felt that God was telling me that this was the way to impact more lives for Jesus, which is what David excelled at during his life.  I never saw anyone who could present the gospel as persuasively and lovingly as he did.  He usually had a gleam in his eye when talking to someone who wanted to argue, as if to say, "You may not get it yet, but you will."

I am one of the people helping to determine the best place for our church to meet come next spring, when we are likely to outgrow our current smaller facility.  I did a presentation on Sunday for everyone detailing the places that the pastor and I had visited, and our "top three" options, all of which are middle schools.  When I was speaking, I felt like David was there with me.  Maybe he was.

Recently, I was speaking to a friend of mine who said something that stuck with me when we were discussing both faith and church:

"My family and I haven't been attending anywhere, but Jason, I feel like if I hang around you, I will end up back at church." 

This is a big compliment for me, since in my personal life I often feel like Paul from 1 Timothy 1:15:

"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-of whom I am the worst."

When my friend and I were parting ways, I said something that I heard David say hundreds of times to me - "God bless ya, man!"

I realize that it may seem like a short and simple phrase, but it was something I picked up from David.  Hearing his words and inflection coming from my own mouth (and yes, maybe even a tinge of his northern accent) made me realize what a lasting impact he had on me. 

I walked to my car and started it, ready to leave.  As I was about to put the car in gear, it hit me.  The song on the radio was one of David's favorites, "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey.  I don't believe in coincidences (which my friend used to call "God incidences").  It felt a little like God was patting me on the back right then, and the feeling of His presence was palpable.

As I said back when David left us, I hope to be someone who picks up the torch that he was carrying, choosing to live each day looking for opportunities to spread the love of Jesus.  ActiveRain has given me a rather large platform to reach others, and I don't want to squander my opportunity.

If you are interested in reading some of my thoughts as I walked through Dave's illness and death, here are some of the posts I wrote back then:

My Friend David

This is the hardest post that I have ever written - An Update on my friend David

David Wilder (1958-2008) - See You Again Someday, My Friend

Life Celebration for my Friend David

I have been waiting to write this post for some time now, and I mulled over the headline for a long time.  Ultimately, I decided not to try to get too cute with the title.  Instead, I thought the direct route made more sense for my friends and acquaintances who would be interested to hear this terrific Crouch family news. 

I have been anxious to announce this for awhile, but I wanted to wait until we were a bit further along with the pregnancy.  Pam, my wife, had her second obstetrician appointment today, and the baby is growing normally and doing fine - heartbeat, bloodwork, etc.  We are about 12 and a half weeks along right now, and the due date is April 11th. 2009.  As you already know, the likelihood of the baby being born on that actual day is somewhat slim, although my son was born on his actual due date.  Since we are finishing the first trimester, we both felt comfortable sharing this info with you guys.  I might have done it sooner, but Pam's point (which is valid) has been, "Who do you feel comfortable telling if there is a problem?" 

Thankfully, we have already been blessed with three healthy, fun, smart, awesome kids, and we are excited about our new addition.

I did share this news with a VERY small group of friends from ActiveRain.  I want to thank those of you who have kept this secret for several weeks now.  If I didn't tell you, please don't feel bad, because I tried to limit it to a very select group, both online and locally.  I have to talk to somebody about it, right?

I actually found out on August 12th myself, which was the same day I wrote this review of a local restaurant:

Date Night at Beluga Japanese (Pictures, too!) (LOCALISM FEATURED)

One of the reasons that I wrote that post was to commemorate the date that I found out about our newest baby, along with the location.  Also, the pictures were taken in the seconds after Pam told me.  This was why I switched my profile picture to the one you see now.  Every time I look at it, I know what made me smile in that way.

My wife has a history of letting me know in some very cool ways.  With our first baby, she managed to inform me via fortune cookie by creating a custom "fortune" and getting it into the cookie that she handed me.  It said:

Roses are red, Violets are blue   I'm gonna be a parent, and so are you!

I still get a little misty-eyed about that day just over ten years later.  This time, she brought her camera so that "you can write a review and we can take some pictures for your blog" (she knows me too well).  After she took a couple, we reviewed them, and she started scrolling through some other pictures of our kids.  I started looking, too, then I saw a picture that looked oddly familiar: a positive pregnancy test. 

"What is that?", she calmly asked.

"It's a pregnancy test.  When was this taken?", I asked.

PAUSE.

"Are you pregnant?!"

No words needed - just a nod and a smile from my beautiful wife.

Pam and I are both only children, having been largely raised by our moms, so the second, and third, and (now) fourth child are foreign ground for us, but we are thankful to God for another rich blessing.

On another note, PLEASE pray for my wife, who feels miserably sick and tired much of the time. 

She has notoriously bad morning sickness, which is really more like "all the time sickness" in her case.  Obviously, we are hoping for a reprieve this time around, but (her words today, not mine) if the only result is her own suffering, it could be worse.  At least the baby is okay, and the end really does justify the means in this case.  Nevertheless, I would love for her to feel better.  She is taking an anti-nausea medication for the first time, and it seems to help some days, but not always.

In case you were wondering, both of our older kids (9 and 7) want a baby brother to even things out around the house (two boys, two girls), plus they only have a little sister (2 and a half), so they don't know what a boy would be like yet.  Since this post could be read for years to come by my family, I will not state a preference for gender here.  Instead, I will lean on the more traditional statement that as long as the baby's healthy, I don't really care either way. 

For those of you who are wondering why we could possibly want another baby, here are my best reasons:

Thanks for taking the time to read my exciting news!  I will, of course, continue to keep everyone posted (pun totally intended).

Over the past year or so, I have had a shift in perspective that has been refreshing.  I have re-discovered my love of writing, and I have made a ton of new friends, not just in the virtual world, but in person and on the phone as well.  Frankly, two of my closest friends are people that I have yet to meet face-to-face (and you know who you are).  Additionally, I have gained new spiritual growth with the death of my mentor and friend.  Although I dearly miss him, I know where he is, and I'll see him again someday.

Along with this, I have grown my company and moved to a new office.  The fresh start is fun and exhilarating.  I would like to add more agents in the upcoming months, along with expanding and improving our agent training.  In fact, I have my eye on a couple of the agents right here on ActiveRain.  Time will tell whether they will join my company.  If not, I still intend for 2009 to be my best income year ever (no small feat).  I know that I have all of the abilities, resources, and personnel to make this happen.

I would like to take a minute or so of your time, if you don't mind.  Here are some lessons that I have learned in recent months:

If you have your health, you are blessed.  My mother-in-law has lived with us for nearly a year now, in a hospital bed in the front room of our home.  Every day, I watch her struggle with her body, which is stronger than it was, but not strong enough to walk on her own yet.  She is not in pain, but she must get dialysis three times weekly.  I thank God that I am healthy, and I truly understand how fleeting health and life can be sometimes.  Two of my friends died this year, one from cancer and one at his own hand, sadly.  Both men were beacons of light while they were alive.  While I am here, I want to be a beacon, too, if possible.

If you have a spouse and/or children, you have an opportunity every day to affect their lives and to create lasting happiness for yourself and for them (hint and note to self: this DOES NOT come from the money, and it never will).  I will readily admit that I make mistakes with my own family, and I lose my temper and patience sometimes, but they NEVER doubt that I love them.  Fatherhood is a badge of honor, in my humble opinion, and it is not to be taken lightly.  I want to create the kind of relationship that grows and lasts well beyond the first 18 years of their lives. 

Sharing and giving to others is the best reward of all, and you truly reap what you sow.  I used to have a sort of scarcity mentality with regard to real estate, but on Saturday, I was pleased that a number of local agents and a couple of brokers attended my birthday party, just because they like what I write and they wanted to meet me.  This would have been inconceivable to me a couple of years ago.  Three of them made a point to tell me how thankful they were for my help.  I don't mention this to pat myself on the back, but to illustrate how sharing and teaching can have far-reaching positive effects.  One of the brokers, Russell Lewis, wrote this comment on Jason Sardi's post earlier:

Excellent tribute. A week or so ago, I called Jason to ask for 15 minutes of his time to learn more about active rain as my learning curve here has been very steep. He was in the process of moving so when I arrived at the office, furniture, files and various office items were spread everywhere. When he walked in I looked up and said "Man, You are one tall drink of water" and he is indeed tall but friendly and not the least bit intimidating. Well after 2 hours, I finally took my leave and i have to tell you Jason is incredibly articulate and has a quick wit and most impressively has an ethical sense that he exudes. i was  so impressed that i have decided to send any business referrals to him for the areas he works in North Austin. Pflugerville, Georgetown etc. I do not spend time in those areas but feel certain that anyone I send to him will receive that same professional service I strive to give to my own clients. if this sounds like an ad, it is. i really enjoyed the time and have to add that he has a great sense of humor too!

 Nuff said! Russell

The concept that a local "competing" broker would offer to send me business in some of the areas I specialize in strikes me as simply amazing.  Thank you, Russell!  As we discussed, I think if we aren't careful we might end up being good friends. 

Every single day of your life provides a unique platform for growth and interaction.  I used to squander these golden chances with regularity, but not anymore.  This may sound trite, but I can feel something powerful striving to be released from within me.  When I take the time to look around me and really notice people and their situations, my business grows and so does my soul in some small measure.  Rather than just being a good real estate broker, I am striving to be a good man.  That encompasses a lot of different areas, but I feel like I am up for the challenge. 

Thanks for reading my rambling thoughts tonight.