Meet the parents.....

Many of you know I moved here in 1999 to get someplace where it doesn't snow. At the time I had several job offers, the Texas State offer was the only one that would get me away from snow. And I chuckled when people told me that when it does snow here, everything else stops. That's actually pretty cool inmy opinion....

The biggest concern I had about moving to Texas was leaving my family. I knew I'd mostly miss my mom and dad, but I also have aunts and uncles and cousins and neices and nephews and brothers and sisters there. Times were going to be different for sure but I figured part of "becoming a man" included making things work on my own.

Now I'm working on trying to convince my parents to move here. Mom is having her second knee replaced in July, and would be down here right now if she could. Dad is just plain old getting old, and really doesn't need the commitment of a house and yard to take care of. While mom is ready to go now, dad isn't quite so sure. Yesterday he told me that he's lived in IA for 70+ years and he wasn't sure he could make that big of change. Honestly that would be kinda scarey. But I reminded him of all the places that are just a few blocks from the house they'd be living in - that seemed to help some. Then I told him I'd give him my TomTom so he could push "home" wherever he was and it would bring him back home.

Thinking of having my parents close again is kind of exciting. When Rick and I move to our new house we'll have the place we're currently in available for them. I like knowing that they will be here - we can have dinner once or twice a week, go to some of the fun activities that Austin has to offer, have family holidays without airfare, etc. Should be fun. Now....help me out.....mentally focus on my dad agreeing to sell everything he owns and leave everything he knows... ;)

Exciting News

Yes, I admit it, I am an education junkie. I love to learn stuff. All kinds of stuff. I also like to share stuff I know with others, and learn from them.

One of my very favorite past experiences was teaching University Seminar and Educational Psychology at Texas State University. I consistently received extremely high evaluations, and always had a great time. I loved it when I walked in to a class of students annoyed because they were "forced" to take a "stupid class" and after a few class sessions, they were having a great time and getting some real value from the course.

This week, I received approval from the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) to teach Mandatory Continuing Education (MCE) courses. At the end of this month I'll attend a full day workshop at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M in College Station. Once complete, I will be authorized to teach Legal and Ethics courses for both new and experienced agents.

I'm pretty stoked about this....I love to teach, I love to meet people, I love to learn from people, and I enjoy spending time making a difference.

Once the course at A&M is complete, I'll be working on approval for additional courses....marketing, business building, agency, contracts, principals, etc. Then, I'll be working toward certification from the Texas Association of REALTORS® to teach the GRI series and Quickstart. Very exciting times!

Look for me in a classroom near you!

What happened to April!?!?!?

Funny isn't it....it's now May 2! Is time speeding up?

So you've got to check out the new Cheddars in South Austin. It's good. The people there smile. If they goof, they make it right. Very nice.

Today I was in San Marcos, showing properties. It's really quite amazing how much the area has changed in the past few years. When I first moved here in 1999 there was a distinct gap between Austin, Buda, Kyle and San Marcos. Today, there's barely any way to tell that you're "in between" towns is when you run into the sign that you're entering the next town. Wild, huh?

The Blogoal (Blog Goal - fancy huh!) for May is at least one entry a week. Watch for'em!