More Chaos

Well, things are still a changin....

My stepmom Sharon went through surgery with flying colors. The tumor was a little bigger than they anticipated and one of the 3 lymph nodes tested positive so they took out another 11 lymph nodes but thankfully all of those tested negative. They still want her to go through a round of chemo and radiation. She meets with the oncologist this week so figure out her chemo schedule and her radiation therapy will start in January. Due to the treatments, this will be the first year that i can remember that her and my Dad won't be going to Maui during the winter.

I met with a client on Friday expecting an offer from the company and ended up spending most of the day in meetings with them. During the last 20 minutes they started to talk about an offer but couldn't give me a formal offer yet. Monday was suppose to be the final offer but nothing yet. I have no idea what to expect from them so i will wait and see.

I have to miss my kids halloween this week which i am a little bummed out about. I have to fly to New York this Friday to meet with another client and won't get home until 9pm Friday night. I had a lot of fun with them last year but since Jeanne had to miss last year she will get to have the fun this time.

Jeanne has decided to change course a bit and switch to a E.D.D degree instead of a Ph.D. The EDD degree is more corporate based and I think she will enjoy it much more. She is also looking at going back to work full time at UofI since we may end up needing the additional income.

For those of you that see my Facebook page, you can see that I enjoyed Beijing more than I thought I would. The city was amazing and the great wall was incredible. The long 13 hour flight still sucked but at least it ended up being a good conference event. If you want to see more pictures please visit my picassa page... http://picasaweb.google.com/wadekoehler/Beijing#

Emily Guderjan has stated that she plans on running the 1/2 marathon with me in April here in Champaign. THERE...its been stated publicly, now you can't back out Em!! The worst part is that her skinny little ass will barely train for it and STILL end up beating me.

I received some sad news Saturday. My former boss Phillip Cooke (76 years old) passed away from a sudden heart attack in Chicago while riding on the "el". He and his life parter of 44+ years were going to a party when it happened. I feel really sad for his parter Daniel to have to go through that ordeal. It's horrible when it happens but even worse when it happens in a public place like on a subway train. Phillip was kind enough to hire me into the association management/event planning industry when i had no experience and this industry has treated me well over the past 12 years.

Finally..since I have lost some income it's time Jeanne and I got serious about our finances. We are going to look around to find a good financial advisor to help us figure out our future and pay off some debt. Wish us luck.

Things, they are a changin

Ok, I am out of my funk now.....

since we have rearranged the home office, things have been going crazy. I can't say much about my career right now but i have 3 things a brewin. Hopefully as soon as I return from China I can put some more clarity into my future. Now that I seem to have some things moving forward, Jeanne is going through her midlife career crisis. Her phD program is not going as well as she hoped. She's doing great in it but it's taking more time away from home and the kids than she realized so she's struggling with what to do next.

Some random thoughts and observances lately......

1. Mike and Cheri Boles posted on Facebook about the movie Fireproof which i had never heard of. After viewing the trailer, I had this sudden urge (so strong that i can't explain) it to go see this movie. I took an afternoon off a few days later and went to see the movie by myself. WOW, what a strong message for a movie. Luckily my marriage is very strong so i didn't have to relate to the plot but it made me realize that i don't put enough into my marriage and my life with God. If anyone reading this (anyone???) is married (happily or not) i strongly suggest going to see this movie. It's got a very strong christian theme to it and it's a low budget film with Kirk Cameron but i promise you if your marriage is struggling (and i know one of my friends who is REALLY struggling) please go see this movie. The message is very strong and believable.

2. i am leaving for Beijing China Thursday and for the first time I am nervous about my travels. I think mainly its the 13 hour flight from Ohare to Beijing. I don't like being cooped up for that long but i downloaded the first season of Burn Notice/Iron Man/the Big Lebowski and Forgetting Sarah Marshall as well as 2 books. I am sure Beijing will be amazing and i will take plenty of photos. I am helping host an event on the Great Wall of China next Thursday night which should be amazing. They are even letting us fly our conference sponsors flag on the wall for the evening. How cool will that be??

3. When you don't really have a portfolio or even a retirement account you really don't care what the stock market is doing.

4. I ran again for the first time Sunday. It felt great and painful all at the same time. I am planning on running a 1/2 marathon here in Champaign in April. Who's with me?? C'mon, let's do this together!!

5. My stepmom Sharon recently discovered that she has breast cancer. Luckily she caught it early and it having surgery and radiation therapy starting this week. Please say a few prayers for her and my Dad. I am not sure who's more freaked out about it; her or my Dad. Oh and btw, if you are female and reading this, do me a favor and give yourself a self exam or at least have your husband do one for you. (that means you Em!)

6. I LOVE Facebook. It's so great catching up with old friends. Even if you aren't talking to each other you at least get to see photos of their life and families.

7. Speaking of friends....Lately I have realized how fortunate I am to still be best friends with three guys from grade school and high school. I think sometimes I take them for granted since we've known each other for so long. Recently talking with new colleagues and newer friends it seems that most people don't stay in touch with people they went to high school with let alone grade school. Eric, Jim, Jon and I have known each other since 2nd grade and have gotten each other through good, bad and indifferent times but I love the fact that we still constantly talk to each other on the phone and it's nice to know that I could call any of them at any given moment and they would drop everything to help me out just like i would them.

8. Also, speaking of newer friends...in case he's actually reading this....Joel, we still owe you and your new bride a night out on the town. I promise I am not going to forget about it.

In a Funk

Ok, so I am in a funk right now and need to get out of it. My job is not steady right now; bordering on finished and I am not working out. I really haven't got back to working out regularly since the triathlon.

Jeanne and I rearranged the house over the past 2 weeks moving the kids to the same room with a new bunkbed which they love and moving my office to Paige's old room. We also rearranged our master bedroom and cleaned all three bedrooms and upstairs bathrooms. Hopefully we can start swinging some good Feng Shui toward my career and our finances.

We have some pretty hard decisions to make over the next few months if the worldwide gig falls through. Jeanne is talking about going back to teaching or finding another corporate job while she continues to get her PhD (at a slower pace of course). I can honestly say I have never been this unsure of my future and it stinks. Those of you that know me well know that I am somewhat of a control freak (ok, MORE than somewhat) and an endless planner. This career phase I am in right now is so out of my control that it's killing me. I have busted my a** for the past two years to increase sales for my client, been successful to the tune of raising their income by a little over 20% and now being tossed aside due to a change in their daily management that I have no control over. I have been doing a lot of praying and hope that God gives me some signs soon of what he has in store for my career future. In the meantime I HAVE to starting working out again. At least working out relieves SOME of the stress that I am under right now.

I know things will work out in the end and God will take care of me and my family and i just have to keep reminding myself of that. Keep us in your prayers and hey, if you know of any sales or event planning jobs out there that would possibly allow me to work remotely from home, let me know.

Until next time....

Sometimes business just sucks

Well I spent the beginning in Murfreesboro TN to try and expand my business and start a new association management company. I arrived Monday afternoon at the Fairfield Inn in Smyrna TN. I can't say enough about this little Fairfield...always friendly service and clean rooms along with easy access to both Murfreesboro and Nashville. After checking into the hotel, I went back into Nashville to have dinner with Trey. It was great spending time with him and we had a great dinner at Neros in Green Hills. (try the Elk, it was like a great filet mignon) After we got done with dinner Trey talked me into going to the movie theaters next door to try and see Tropic Thunder. Luckily we arrived right when the movie was scheduled to start and walked right in. The movie gets off to a very weird and very funny start. Trey and I both looked at each other and said "What the hell?" at the same time before we realized that the actual movie started (without giving it away, once you see it you will know what I am talking about). The movie was weird and hilarious at the same time. Robert Downing Jr.'s character steals the show if you can figure out what he is saying most of the time. I dropped Trey back off at Vandy and said a sad goodbye since that may be the last time I see him for a LONG time since he's moving back to Louisiana soon.

Tuesday started off great with me finding a local accountant and climate controlled storage facility right away. Since I was ahead of schedule, I went to the local bike shop to see if they had any bike shoes on sale but alas no luck. I then swung by our friends Jeanne and Shaun's house and left a little trophy surprise present for them before picking up Melanie from State Farm for lunch. Unfortunately Matt wasn't able to join us AGAIN. Damn you Matt, if you don't like me just say so LOL. Mel and I had a great lunch at Logans and it was fun catching up with her. We can't wait for the time to come where we can move back to TN to be able to hang out with them and the Hepborns again.

I went back to the hotel to do a little work before one of my business partners arrived Tuesday afternoon. We met up and went to dinner where we caught up on old times and talked some business. My third business partner met up with us Wednesday morning where we met at the Crye Leike Commercial office thanks to a great commercial realtor Paul LaLiberte pliberty@bellsouth.net that has been so helpful throughout this long drawn out process. The three of us met all morning, broke to have a great lunch at Red Robin next door, and into the afternoon. Unfortunately as the afternoon meeting went on it became clear to me that this new business venture was not going to work out for me financially. If we were living in the area already and Jeanne was working full time I may have "gone for it" but at this point in my life I couldn't pull the trigger. Since I had a 6 1/2 hour drive home, we ended about 4pm with the thought to sleep on the information and get back to each other the next day.

I spoke with Jeanne quite a bit on the way home and the more we talked about it, the more clear it became that the money and timing was just too off. Over the next two days, my partners and I discussed more options but in the end I had to say no. The next day I found out that my two partners are going after the business without me. Even though it's a little odd feeling, I encouraged them to go after it if they could get into the bidding process this late. I wish them the best and hope that down the road I won't regret my decision. Sometimes business just sucks.

New bike!!!

I am SO excited to show off my new toy. Jeanne and I had made an agreement when i started training for my triathlon that I couldn't buy a new bike until i finished my first tri. As you all know (by the posting below), i finished that first triathlon and loved it. After getting back from Disney last weekend I started looking around the local bike shops, ebay and craigslist and came across a sale going on from the Javelin manufacturer in the Chicago area. Since the sale started in May I didn't figure they had any bikes left in my size but I called anyway. To my surprise and enjoyment, they had 1 bike left in my size still. So for a VERY low price (compared to other tri bikes), I now have a brand new tri bike. It arrived via FedEx yesterday and my local bike shops said they couldn't get it in to have it assembled and tuned up until next Wednesday. Of course, I couldn't wait THAT long so I put it together myself last night and will take it to my LBS next week to have a fitting and tuneup done.

I still need a name for her though, so if ANY of you reading this have a suggestion, please email it to me or post it in the comments area.

Disney World

So what does every athlete say after doing something for the 1st time when asked "what are you going to do next?" why of course, "Go to Disneyworld" and that's exactly what me and my family did. The day after my triathlon we headed to Indy for a park and fly to Orlando on Monday morning. Grandma drove over with us and we met up with Mimo to get ready for our trip. Monday morning couldn't come early enough and soon after waking we were on our flight to Orlando.

We took the Magical Express bus to our hotel the Yacht Club. The hotel was amazing and we were all greeted by Woody the Captain as we entered which the kids loved. We headed out right away to the Animal Kingdom. The kids loved the African Safari ride which we got to see an rare anteater, turtles and many other animals. After visiting some of the animals, we got to meet some of our favorite characters Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore. We stayed late at the park with Uncle Alec, Mimo and Daddy enjoying the Expedition Everest roller coaster which rocked!

The next day we started off early by hitting the pinnacle of the Disneyworld, the Magic Kingdom. JD was a little hesitant to ride any rides but after finally convincing him to ride the Buzz Lightyear ride he started to enjoy it, especially after Stitch was waiting to see him after his first ride. Paige was a trooper and rode every ride that she was able to. I think Grandma and Mimo enjoyed seeing the kids faces more than Jeanne and I did. It was so hot outside we decided to go back to the hotel and enjoy the amazing sandbottom swimming pool that also had a lazy river and water slides. We had been so busy that day that we decided to stay close to the hotel and went to the Boardwalk area for dinner at ESPN where Uncle Alec won a trivia contest and the kids got a baseball and football beach ball. After dinner, everyone except Alec and I went back to the hotel while he and I went to Jellyrolls, a dueling piano bar. We had a great time there coming up with some off the wall requests for the entertainers to play.

Wednesday started off with Breafast at Chef Mickeys in the Contemporary Resort. The buffett was great and the kids got to meet all of the stars of the show like Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald. After breakfast we headed to Epcot for some fun. The Nemo ride was great and we ran into Chip from Chip & Dale but most of the rest of the park was a bust for young kids so we called it a day again and went back to our hotel and enjoyed the pool again and some ice cream in the afternoon.

Thursday we went back to the Magic Kingdom and enjoyed the early morning hours for resort guests where Paige decided to morph into a kitty and JD tried to turn into his new favorite character Stitch before the park opened. We met up with Jeanne's family from Florida to hang out with them for the morning where we went to Mickey and Minnies house to meet the cute couple again. After enjoying some "It's a small world" again for the 3rd time, we all headed back to our hotel again so Danielle could enjoy playing in the sand with Paige while JD challenged Daddy to a mean game of PingPong. While Danielle went down for her nap, Mimo, Mommy, Paige and JD went to the kid's sandcastle club to enjoy some pottery painting before heading back to the Magic Kingdom again to enjoy some more rides (Pirates of the Carribean - JD's favorite/Thunder Mountain Roller Coaster - Paige's favorite) and enjoy the nighttime parade and fireworks from Main Street.

Friday was all about the Hollywood Studios where we got there early and enjoy the Little Mermaid and Disney's Playhouse shows and even got to meet our favorite stars from Toy Story including Buzz Lightyear and Woody before it started to pour down rain on us. Back at the hotel, everyone was getting tired and just wanted to go out for dinner except Paige and Daddy. We headed back to Hollywood Studios to enjoy our fastpasses for the new Toy Story ride which was very cool and then enjoyed the Hollywood Hotel House of Terror which ended up being Paige's favorite ride of the week.

Saturday ended our vacation and we loaded up in the Magic Express bus back to the airport to fly back to Indy. It was a great vacaction but we are all exhausted and still recovering. Time to start planning our next family vacation....

I am a Triathlete!!!

Hey everyone, I finally did it. I am officially a triathlete as of this morning. I raced in the Champaign Park District MiniTriathlon and it was great. My journey went like this....

Prerace
Ate powerbar at 6am, setup transition, forgot racebelt and had to run home to get it. Right before start of race at 7:30 ate powerbar gel and washed down with water

Swim
The first 200 yards of the race were in a lazy river which sucked. I couldn't find a rhythm swimming it and ended up doing dolphin dives and running in the water. This took up a lot of energy and i was tired already after coming out of the lazy river. After lazy river you had to run around the pool deck and jump in the lap pool for another 200 yards. I was out of rhythm and flustered after the lazy river but calmed myself down after the first 2 lengths. I found my stroke, slowed the heartrate down and even end up passing a couple people. The lap pool was over before i knew it. I was a little dizzy getting to my bike but focused on getting my socks and running shoes on (gotta love them Yankz). Ran bike to mount line, jumped on and off i went.

Bike
The first lap of the bike my legs were tight due to the lazy river run but they loosened up by the beginning of lap 2. On the uphill side of the course i kept around a 15-16mph pace and on the downside kept a 19-21mph pace. Overall the bike felt pretty good. I got passed by some fast people and I managed to pass a few people myself. I will be glad when i get a new bike and not ride the mountain bike anymore though. T2 was easy. Racked bike, took another quick drink and I was off since I already had my running shoes on.

Run
I drank a little too much water during the tail end of the bike and my stomach was all wishy washy for the 1st 1/4 mile. My legs were feeling tight and I was getting tired. I ended up walking for about 15-30 seconds four times which I was not happy with. I don't think I really NEEDED to walk but my mind was telling me to and I listened to the little voices in my head instead of ignoring them. I need to concentrate on running more and playing the mental game with myself. I think this is just going to take time though since I have never been a strong runner. Jeanne, Paige and JD were waiting for me at the finish line and JD even ran across the finish line with me.

Finish
Since the race doesn't use a timing system, I kept time on my watch. Unfortunately since I was so nervous, I forgot to hit the lap button after swimming and didn't realize it until the 2nd bike lap that I just let it go so I am not sure of my time splits. My goal was to finish in 1 hour and my final time was 54:29 so I was happy with my time for my first "tri" at this sport.