Reflections on 2005
2005 was a very good year in spite of a life changing drama. It had several indicate changes in our life, but for the most part, it made for a great year!

We 2005 with Michelle being pregnant and that alone set the expectation for it to be a good year. Making a baby was very new to the both us so every month brought new excitement as we watched our baby develop. We continued with our plans to add on to our home to make room for the baby. Fortunately I had purchased the vacant lot next door to my home. I had not intentions of building on it but instead just wanted breathing room between me and the neighbors. Having grown up in the beach cities of LA and having spent 3 years in New York, I wanted to get away from a crowded living situation. Every home surrounding me was a second home so I had lots of privacy and with my periodic entertaining, I could make as much noise as I wanted and no one would complain. Anyway, now that I had a wife and a new baby, it was time to join the two lots and literally double the size of my home. So most of the first part of the year was trying to find an affordable architect and contractor.

Work was going really tough. The past two years did not prove to be profitable. Every year I had to let sales people go as either their skill or their will to succeed was not there. Living on a base salary was not conducive to my lifestyle and Michelle was only working part time with her business so what little came in helped, but was not enough to keep up. I really had to struggle to make ends meet.

In the late spring, I had a emotional breakdown. The final straw was when my computer's hard drive crashed while I was cleaning up my back up drives. Instead of making a back up of my back up to be cleaned, I went directly to my back up drive figuring my primary drive was fine. As Murphy's Law dictates, what could go wrong will go wrong. Purely by coincidence and bad luck, my primary drive crashed during the two days I was rebuilding my back up drive. 5 years of my life was on that drive and I did not have a back up! All my honeymoon photos (5,781 to be exact), and all my events and memories were on that broken drive. It was more than I could handle and I admit I crumbled. I left a message for my sales team and my supervisors that I was taking a sudden vacation and would let them know when and if I would be back after a week. I packed up my bags and camera and left for Death Valley.

I had never been to Death Valley but I figured it would be a good place to get away and I heard that the beauty and most importantly, solitude it provided was what I needed. I needed to reflect on everything that was happening in my life and figure out how I was going to better deal with it. It gave me plenty of time to reevaluate my aggressive goals for an early retirement. It helped me figure out how I could move Michelle's business from a part time business to a full time business. It helped me relax and place trust in my newly revamped sales team to finally meet our quotas and get a bonus. Most importantly, it helped me realize that I had to find something that could help me deal with life's frustrations and my expectations. Having left religion for the most part, I did find a prayer that I vowed would change my life.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.

I've read the Serenity Prayer a hundred times but it was now that I knew I had to follow it. As Brad Hamilton told Spicoli, "Learn it, know it, live it."

I came back to civilization refreshed, envisioned, and with a new mind set .I was not going to let the little things become bigger than what they were and I was not going to spend 80% of my time fixing things that impact 20% of my life. The stress of not operating at 100% was not worth a heart attack and risk never seeing my first born.

With my new outlook, I was almost immediately but to the test, while on business in Florida, I received a call from Michelle. "Do you remember that big blue house around the corner from us? The one up against the forest? Guess what, it is up for sale and Don & Theresa (our real estate agent friends) called to get us in on the initial viewing" Now the stress of a new home and move was not what I needed, but when opportunity knocks, I am going to at least open the door. As I flew home the next day, I ran through hours of financial scenarios trying to figure out how I could afford a home nearly four times more expensive than what I paid for my existing home. The next morning, we met Theresa at the home and after our walk through, I asked Michelle it she would be happy in this home. She told me it was her dream home and she would be so happy to raise our family in it so... I bought it.

The home had nearly everything we wanted. Michelle wanted more room and a large yard for our child to safely play in. This house gave us more than 1,000 square feet than before and the property was almost as big as my last property and lot combined. I wanted a bigger garage and if I couldn't have a lake view, I wanted to be up against US Forest Land. This house had an oversized 3 car garage and it was not only up against some US Forest Land, it was on the edge of Lake Tahoe so there was nothing beyond our backyard for probably 100 miles, and even then that was Yosemite. We only had 2 neighbors now, and one was only there 3 months a year and the other was only there a few days a month. I could make all the noise I wanted and only the bears and coyotes could complain. This home and location was about the best we would ever afford and it was up to us to make it happen.

I now had to not only scrape our plans to add on to our exiting home, but I had 60 days to sell our home and either build a home on my lot to sell or sell the lot as is. I reflected back on that week in Death Valley and I knew I had the courage to change the things I can, but I wasn't really sure I had the wisdom to know the difference. We knew we had to scavenge up as much money as we could so we decided to initially try and sell our properties on our own to save the real estate commissions. We got on the phone and email list and sent out a broadcast message to everyone we thought who might be interested and within a week we sold our home and by the following weekend, we sold our lot. The prayer was with me and I truly believed it was our destiny to live in that house.

I really must take a paragraph to express the good karma of friends and thinking of others. Don and Theresa, the real estate agents who helped me find my first home in Tahoe, became good friends. They were honest with me and pointed out detriments to homes I never would have noticed knowing that it would cost them an immediate sale. I strongly feel they had my best interests in mind and were patient with my 7 months of searching. Because of that, Michelle and I went out of our way to make sure we not only referred people to them, we told people they would be crazy not to use them. We referred almost a half dozen people to them resulting in two nicely priced home sales, not including my two purchases. So when I asked Theresa if I could pay her to just manage the sale, she insisted she pay us back by helping us for free. Again, further testament to their integrity. This turned out to be a blessing because with the help of a professional real estate agent, the entire deal would have fallen through! One of our buyers had numerous delays and problems with their bank loan. Their bank, in my opinion, were completely incompetent, useless, and had a complete disregard of customer service. Of course that is just my opinion. ;-) Any way, Theresa was able to tactfully rush their bank, challenge the home appraiser, and most importantly, negotiate an extension on our escrow with the sellers. The extension was not an easy one as they had a back up buyer who was offering more than what they were asking and had cash for an unconditional purchase. The lot sale went without a hitch and only because of the help from Don and Theresa, we finally moved into our new home 3 months later. If you ever want to purchase or sell a home in Lake Tahoe, you would be foolish not to use Don & Theresa at homeintahoe.com.

So now it is the middle of summer and 2005 was looking great. I had a new outlook on life, we had a new home, my revamped sales team was absolutely kicking butt, and Michelle was providing the goods to make a very healthy baby. My only regret during the pregnancy was I as very scared something might happen. When I was told the odds of down syndrome or a miscarriage were so high at our age, I had a difficult time allowing myself to get attached to our unborn. Several friends opened up and and told they had a miscarriage and we were told other horrible stories. Although it is good to know as much as possible, it really ruined my pre-birth experience. I never bought the baby doppler to hear the heartbeat. I never caressed Michelle's stomach, and I avoided even feeling the baby kick and move. I couldn't share my fear with Michelle for fear of ruining it for her as well. But on August 29th, 3 minutes after my son was born, any avoidance was gone and I simply cannot get enough time to spend with my son. (For a funny story on the birth, go to Joey's Page and click on Dad's Diary) He certainly was the highlight of 2005 and the highlight of my life.

The remainder of 2005 just kept getting better. Joey was so much better than what we were expecting. He rarely cried, he had no health problems, and Michelle was in all honest, being the best mother I could have ever asked for. She has a natural compassion, patience, and understanding that make Joey and me the most lucky guys in the world. How she puts up with us, well okay me, is beyond belief.

With the proceeds from the house and the lot I decide to reward myself, I mean my family, with some dream toys. I finally made the modifications I always wanted on my Jeep. A new 4" suspension lift, top of the line nitro shocks, 33" tires, 1,000 watt Alpine stereo system, off road lights positioned in every direction, and ugh, ugh, ugh! Joey can now be assured compete safety when we go camping, fishing, and hunting in the forest and desert. I also started to build my dream workshop and of course had to upgrade to air tools so with a Porter Cable air compressor, I now have MORE POWER! Now if I can just finish the home improvements for Michelle, I will be the Tim Taylor of Tahoe. Oh, and of course when I am sore and achy, I bought a large hot tub with all the aroma therapy, disco lights to celebrate my projects. Lastly, despite it being far from my dream home theater room, we added a 65" hi-def TV with THX certified 7.1 sound system. After all, I do owe all my customers of Johnny G Adventures the best of equipment and experiences. That is me, a giver. Give, give, give, and never take, take, take. Are you getting sick yet?

Could I brag more? I don't think so!
Did I just go through a mid life crisis? Maybe so.
Did I do it all for my family? Well, let's just say, a happy dad makes for a happy family. And knowing I didn't incur any debt, I am now one happy dad and hopefully have one happy family!

In summary, despite the temporary mental breakdown, thanks to friends, my sales team, my family, and probably the couple of toys I splurged on, 2005 will go down as one of my better years.

I look forward to playing with my new little buddy and the toys in 2006.

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