Thoughts and prayers..........

Thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of those on the trains.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,421801,00.html


And to those in Texas. This is from Hurricane Ivan approaching Alabama. I thought it was really cool video footage of the storm surge.

I'm sure they're capturing Ike in similar fashion.

a story about gun control.............

These guys picked the wrong mom to mess with...............

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,417122,00.html

Glenn Beck - The fusion of Entertainment & Enlightenment

I started listening to Glenn when I was driving back and forth to school beginning in 2001. It took me probably 6 months or more to realize he was LDS.

That's a long time for the mormon radar to start working.

You see, we mormons tend to speak in secret codes. We tip each other off to our mormonism, in subtle, secret ways. And so it generally only takes a few minutes to figure out, or become suspicious at least.

Recently, I was at a business meeting for Tow Business people here in Virginia. There is a lobbyist working to represent the small tow companies of Virginia. As I listened to him talk about the plight of the small towers, I began to become suspicious. After the meeting I was able to succesfully confirm his status as a member of the church. So in one evening it was confirmed.

I recall when I started to become suspicious of Glenn. It had to be January/February because they were talking about the Super Bowl. Glenn was planning his Super Bowl party and one of the assistants, Stu, was asking him about how that worked with his church and all. Stu was giving Glenn a hard time about having a Super Bowl party on Sunday.

In typical Glenn fashion, he said that Sundays were special, and reserved for family...."but C'mone, it's the SUPERBOWL!"

After some quick research on the web, it was confirmed that Glenn was indeed a member of the church. He has an incredible conversion story and I never tire of hearing him tell it.

It takes $$ to make $$.......right?

I've often heard the expression:

"IT takes money to make money."

Many times the context of this statement is the excuse I'm hearing from a person for his not being rich. It also tells me he has no ambition of becoming rich.

Well - I wholeheartedly disagree. President Lincoln also has something to say about that:

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." Abraham Lincoln

Not making any sense?

First of all: what does it mean to be RICH?

I'll often say that there's a difference between being broke and poor. Broke is temporary and poor is forever.

I find myself broke quite frequently. But I know I'm not poor. I'm rich. Mostly it's a decision of attitude.

No not an attitude of "I'm rich, so I'm going to buy a brand new Nissan Titan and make $600/mo payments." Not an attitude of look at what I drive, where I live, what I wear and you'll know I'm rich attitude.

It's an attitude of: "I may be broke right now, but I'm RICH! Got my hot wife, my beautiful kids, a place to live, a car to drive." It's a "count your many blessings" kind of attitude.

Now, back to the theory of it taking money to make money. Again, that's the EXCUSE. I've talked to a lot of RICH people. Often times their stories are similar. They didn't start with a bunch of money and get rich. They started with their labor.

The money was a fruit of their labor.

I met a man that was a very simple, country bumpkin man. He wasn't college educated. I don't know if he was even highschool educated. But he had integrity and he worked hard. He owned a very succesful roofing company with his brother.

I asked him how he got started.

With a big grin and chuckle he said: "You wanna know the truth?"

"Of course" I replied.......

"I read the package at Lowe's."

NO JOKE! After working for McDonald's for years, Sam East read the back of the package of shingles at Lowe's store on how to replace his mother's roof. Their agreement was she would buy the air compressor and nailers he needed to do the job plus the materials.

Sam and his brother then went on to build a multi-million dollar roofing company.

Does it take money to make money? Yes. The question is where does it come from?

But you don't have to start with money to make money. You have to start with desire. Survive on determination. Starve with perserverence. Hope for success. Pray that you make it!

The 2008 model

I suppose the other thing that is keeping me busy is us having our 4 kids, with the new addition the 2008 model. Maverick was born on August 1st. After a misprint in the paper we're considering changing the spelling of his name to Mavric.

Aspen was on the front page of the local paper because she's so darn cute. This was her first day of school.

Check out the photo gallery. Easiest thing to do is scroll to the last photo and work your way backwards. Even the local newspaper photographer agreed that our kids were the cutest.
http://www.newsleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=AA&Date=20080820&Category=CASSELLELEMENTARY&ArtNo=808200801&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=1

Still Alive & Treading Water

Ok so I fizzled out on this blog thing. It's harder than it looks.

Where have I been for the last couple of months. Working. I've worked like crazy this past summer in the garage with Joseph. It seems to be paying off.

We finally turned the profitable corner in July. We did nearly double our best month ever to date in July of 2008. I still wonder if it was a fluke. So, I temper myself with a short-term goal of 3 months of profitability and then I'll feel like we're making progress.

August seemed dead and felt as if we'd be right back where we started. August ended up being our second best month to date second to July.

Our systems our improving. We're becoming more efficient. Starting a new business is very challenging. For the first 18 months we we're taking a slow and steady nose dive. It's relief to see things turn the corner and start heading in the right direction.

It's much like learning how to waterski. When someone first learns to waterski, the task seems impossible those first few attempts. You hang on to the ski rope, the boat roars with a hefty pull. You're trying desperately to hang on, get your body out of the water, and keep your balance all at the same time....and most importantly, keep from drowning as you muscle your way to freedom on top of that water.

Once you do finally get there, it's incredible. Standing on top of water. Carving turns and jumping the wake. You go from being stuck and barely keeping your head above water with those big clunky skis and the life jacket chocking your neck, to incredible freedom.

I don't know that we're on top of the water carving turns and jumping the wake just yet. But I can feel ourselves rising out of the water and getting ourselves closer to our goals.

I wish everyone the best and hope to see them do the same.

Politics and Religion

I was a Romney supporter early. He has a proven track record as a BIG problem solver. The guy exemplifies success. Put his Resume against any other candidate and the contest is over.

But, the political machine chewed Mitt Romney up and spit him back out. He was too perfect for some, his full head of hair neatly combed, his chiseled jaw line, his ideal physical shape for his age, the guy had movie star looks and literally a wealth of experience at solving big problems. But he saw the writing on the wall and bowed out gracefully.

The mainstream pounded Romney on his mormon faith. Asking questions about polygamy of his great grandfathers from a century ago, blacks holding the priesthood and any other skeleton they could dig up on the church. He answered with grace, and never faltered in his faith. They wanted him to deny his faith, to force him into distancing himself from the church so that they could create weakness in his principles.

Why?

If a man turns his back on his faith, then couldn't he just as likely turn his back on his country?

It amazes me to see the parallels that Romney and Obama face. Obama's father was married to 3 women at one time. Not so much as a polygamist, he just never bothered to divorce the previous woman. Now Obama faces the same challenges Romney faced regarding his affiliation with his church.......

Only, the hate that you hear from Obama's pastors doesn't seem to be the message of the Mormon Elders. And now Obama finds himself having to resign himself from his church affiliation for political expediency.

IS that really the kind of person we want leading our country? What are his principles? What foundation does Obama place himself? He offers a message of hope and change, but what changes is he proposing? What changes and what big problems has he proven that he can solve?