Valentine's Day with an enemy.

Valentine’s Day: the one day of the year that we have to cram 364 of screwing up into one big flower bouquet or a box of candy. I have always tried to do something different each year, flowers and candy just doesn’t cut it for me, I try to be creative and mix things up, and this year was no different.

Em & I decided to not spend much at all for Valentine’s Day since we had plans to surprise Mom at the Lake (I will get into that in a little bit). So, I had to think of something that did not cost much money and she would love.

Friday afternoon I bought 65 balloons and one very large Valentine’s Day Balloon that I would fill her car with while she was at school. I planned a head and called the school to let them know that I would be in the parking lot for an hour blowing up balloons and please don’t call the cops on me. I was not sure how seeing a man sitting in the car in the parking of an elementary school would look, but I did not want to ruin Emily’s Valentine’s Day surprise by going to jail. It took me about an hour, and 3 almost pass outs, to blow up all the balloons.
It worked perfect for me. Emily went all day seeing other teachers getting flowers and she had, for the first time in 6 years, not gotten flowers from me on Valentine’s Day, needless to say, she was a little bummed. Here are the balloons back at home.

All the pictures in this blog can be clicked on to see a bigger size



Saturday morning, bright and early, we headed down to the Lake to surprise Momma T for her Valentine’s Day. We stopped and got a balloon and a rose and placed it on her first door step and knocked on the door. When she opened the door she saw the balloons and Winston came running in. Seeing Mom’s surprised look was worth getting up so early!

We spent the day shopping, seeing Grandpa (who is doing amazing. It was the first time in 4 months that I have seen him without tubes and out of the hospital), and an old enemy. Emily wanted to see our old Lake house where I lived when Dad passed away. Cindy, Dad’s 2nd wife, still lives there with her new husband, so I knew there was a chance that Cindy would be home, but we forged ahead. For those who do not know, Cindy and I have not spoken in 11 years. We never got along while Dad was alive and certain things happened after Dad’s passing that will forever leave a small scar for Justin and me.

When we pulled up we see Cindy outside with her dogs, and I knew at that point that we have crossed the point of no return: we had to say hello to the woman that I had grown to despise. I walked down the hill towards her and she immediately says: “Josh? Is that you? “At this point there are so many different things running through my mind. All the bad things that I have said, and written about Cindy ,the many fights that we had and the long battle for Dad’s attention. Cindy at this point has two options: kindly ask us to leave, or be as nice as possible, and as I was slowly walking down that hill, I expecting her to be curt with us and ask us to leave.

I introduce her to Emily and the conversation begins. Mom, Cindy, Emily and I chatted for about an hour about Dad, family, what we are doing, and no mention of bad times were brought up. Now, part of me believes that that Cindy was very nice because Emily was there, but, no matter, she was very nice and I hate to admit it, but I enjoyed the conversation and am glad that we stopped. I feel a certain closure now. I know that Dad was watching on pins and needles as well. Sipping his Hamm’s beer and just waiting for the fireworks to happen. We went inside and I was able to show Emily around and tell her some stories about the house. We went through old pictures and Cindy gave us any pictures that we wanted, so questions asked. She even gave us one of Dad’s old Ion Electric hats, which was Dad’s electrical company.

I left the old house with mixed feelings. Here is a woman that I have worked so hard to despise, but was a large part of my life for 13 years, and that is hard to ignore. I am not saying that next time I am at the Lake I will swing by and say hello, but that day, Cindy could have been a huge bitch like I remembered her, but instead she was as nice as good be, and I am glad to have a little bit better memory of the woman that my Dad was married to. Here are 2 of my favorite pictures that I now have.

This is one of the last pictures we have of Dad. This is him working on the MASSIVE all marble shower at the Lake House. That is Cale, our Scottie at the time: Winston is the 4th Scottie in the Tyler family.

Yes, Dad thinks he looks good here. Style was not one of Dad's strength: At least he smiles big!

Justin, Dad and myself. I am around 10 there. It is a great shot of the 3 of us!

That night we surprised Mom again, with dinner at J’ Bruner’s. Which, if are from the Lake, you know precisely what I am talking about; if not, you probably just think it is just another fine dining restaurant. They have the best steak and lobster that I have ever had: hands down! Granted, you pay the price for it, but it was worth it. We always start the night off with the best onion rings in Missouri. Mom always gets the deep fried Lobster, and I used to get that until my stomach decided that it does not want to put up with me anymore, so I have opted for the boiled lobster, which is still good.

It was a great Valentine’s Day; probably one the best that I have ever had. Emily and I had a great day with Momma T and a great dinner: couldn't’t ask for much more than that! Later this week I will post pictures of Emily and I’s Valentine’s Gift to ourselves (we have to wait for the rest of the family to see it; it’s a surprise)!
Keep on Keeping on…..mrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Must....get....sleep....

So, I sit in my office for yet another restless night of sleep. I have this issue that I can not shut my brain down at night. I used to drink enough to be able to sleep like a baby, but at the pressure of my wife (and she is right)I have cut down to a mere 2 drinks.

I have just spent the past 2 hours digging through the direct mail, magazines and ads that we get at our household, and then emailing them about advertising, if I can track down an email address, or marking them to be called tomorrow. If I email them, I will follow up tomorrow. It is a nice little system I am getting down. Cold calling sucks, but it seems to be a little easier if I email first and then follow up with a phone call.

For most of my life, if I lie in bed for longer than 30 minutes I get bored and feel like I could be doing something productive, so I get up. If there is something on my mind, I typically can't stop thinking about it, and since I can't drown my thoughts out, I have to do something else to make me tired. Lately, staring at the computer screen for an hour or so seems to wind me down.

The crappy thing is that my alarm will go off at 4:58 am. Yes that is right, 4:58am. For the past 2 months Emily and I have been getting up at 5:00 and heading to the gym 3 or 4 days a week. It was a tough few weeks, but once I got into that routine, I love it. No phone calls, no text, no emails, no one to bother me; it is great. I get a great start to my day and am able to spend the evening with my beautiful wife!

I would say that I have been on a health kick for about a year now. I have lost around 20 pounds and am holding strong. I chunked up a little and one day decided that I am going to get back in shape. I talk to men in their 30's and 40's who are out of shape and 40-50 pounds over weight. they always tell me: "I used to look like you when I was your age." So, my thought process is that if I can keep my eating healthy and exercising a part of my life, when I have kids and life gets crazy, I can keep it up.

I could not have kept up this healthy, exercise lifestyle without the support of Emily. She has been amazing in keeping me motivated. She is up every morning, and eating healthy every meal. We won't say it has been easy, but worth it. We both decided that in order to style healthy and in shape, we must change out live and make it happen. Without Emily, I would be a 12 pack a night drinker who eats pizza every night for dinner.

We have found that eating healthy does not taste bad. Skinny Cow, and Weight Watchers have some amazing ice and chocolate products that full fill our sweet tooth! Also, sugar free chocolate pudding is fantastic. Grab the South Beach bars, they are a Tyler household favorite. It seems that sugar-free, low calorie, healthy has improved drastically over the past few years. It has really made eating healthier easier for us

Part of my weight loss can be caulked up to good genes. Moma T has always been in shape, and to this day she works out 3 days a week, and so was my Pops. Justin and I both have very high metabolisms, Justin's is much better than mine, but I am still pretty lucky in that area.

Good luck to anyone who is trying to loose weight, I know it is not an easy road to travel, but I can say it is worth every donut you do not eat!
I am off to bed so I can wake up in 4 1/2 hours.

Keep on keeping on...mrrrrrrrrrrr.

Let the Networking Begin

I feel that my best skill is networking. I consider myself pretty good at sales and marketing, but it is my ability to network that makes me successful in the world of sales.

Today was my first Chamber of Commerce meeting in Fenton, and I really enjoyed it. There are people who tell me that in order to get sales I need to be making cold calls all day until I make an appointment. I am not saying cold calls are bad; but in order to set one appointment I have to make at least 50 phone calls. And after 49not interested, it makes it pretty damn hard to remain positive. And, I am too pretty not to be in front of people. ha ha.

I spend 1/4 of my day making calls, and most of those calls I do not even talk to the person who makes decisions, I just get his/her name and when they will be in. I am slowing getting better at cold calls and hopefully will be more effective with the calls that I make, but networking: that's where it is at!

I really do feel that my time is better suited in front of people, talking to them, hearing about their business and learning what I can do to make them more successful and in turn, make me more successful. The main thing I like about networking and networking meetings is that it feels like a big team. Here are 20 people that want to help me and want me to help them be more successful. I am a business owner and I know how hard it is to get something in front of Justin or myself. Business owners get so many calls a day about advertising that I really have to stand out, or be in front of them. And networking events is the perfect place. Starting next week I will be at 3-5 networking events a week and I can not wait!

The job so far is great. It is an amazing product and I really like my boss. As I get more into networking, and better at cold calls, the sales will just keep increasing.
I do have a new partnership that really compliments my current job. It really gives me the opportunity to help a business drastically increase their business. My marketing efforts will directly increase their business, which will be very awesome to see! I am real exciting about these opportunities that I have and feel very lucky to be in this position. I will keep you all posted!

Keep on Keeping on....mrrrrrrrr.

Updated Bathrooms!

Over the past couple weeks our neighbor has been painting 3 of our bathrooms: and they turned out really great. She does great work, for a stupidly low price. If you live in St. Louis and are in need of custom painting, let me know and I will get you in touch with her.

We also replaced all the toilet paper holders, towel racks, etc with brushed nickel instead of the 15 year old gold ones that were there. On a side note: the previous owner used a 3 inch screw with a butterfly anchor for the toilet paper holder: Why I have no frickin idea but it pissed me off and took me forever to get it out of the wall. For those who don't know: they're not made to come out of walls without a large hole. ARRGGGGG.

Here are some pictures of the bathrooms: You can click on any of the pictures to get a bigger view.

This is the 1/2 bath on the main level.

This is the guest bathroom upstairs. She drew all the rings by hand. We actually painted the base color and Sherry did the trim, which is nice. We also replaced the mirror to match the 1/2 bath.

And for the coolest bathroom in the house: The Man Cave Bathroom, which is only lacking a urinal to be complete!

That is the 7th hole on Pebble Beach

I finally got rid of the ugly gold light fixture and the gold around the mirror.

I also begun to replace all the light switches to white, which most people do not notice, but for some reason, the beige outlets and switches bother me. I decided to get the decorative switches instead of the normal style: as you will see from this picture.

In the kitchen to match our stainless steel appliances, I put stainless steal cover plates, and it turned out much better than I thought it would.






Emily has also started the long process of painting all the trim, doors and baseboards white. Currently they are all a cream color, which makes the house seem blah: well we thinks so at least.

So, as most of you know, it is a never ending project. We should have everything painted and outlets swapped out this week.

Hope all is well in your world! Keep on Keeping on....mrrrrrrrr

I got a golden ticket

Just a few random thoughts about American Idol. I try not to have my blog be filled with many opinions: just updates on our lives, but I am posted this because I am curious to see what other people think. So, please leave a comment and let me know if you agree with me or not.

I do not like Kara DioGuardi, the new judge. It has nothing to do with her talent or what she has done in the music business, which according to her Wikipedia page, she has been quite successful! I think she is annoying, arrogant and almost just plain bitchy. I think that Randy, Paula and Simon worked very well together and they didn’t need to throw in another judge. I don’t think she has said many useful things this season, mainly just bitch about Simon.

I don’t sing well, I know this because I get booed off of Guitar Hero World Tour on the easy setting. But if for some reason I thought that I sang well and told Emily that I wanted to try out for American Idol, she would want me to sing for her. I pray that my wife would tell me that maybe I should stick to sales, not singing. And just in case she would lie to me and tell me that I am awesome, please someone stop me and tell me that I am not a singer. My point is: Where the hell are these people’s friends and family to tell them that maybe they shouldn’t be a singer? There are some people that I have seen that are horrible; just plain horrible. As they walk away they are surprised that all four judges were horrified by their singing. Shame on their friends for lying to them.

Other than that, I am enjoying the season. The kid who lost his wife 4 weeks prior made me tear up and, and I hope he does well. Don’t worry; I won’t throw my opinion around this blog that often. Please comment and let me know what you think of American Idol.
Keep on Keeping on…mrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

A New Job for Me!!!!!!!

That’s right, a new job for me! After 6 months of looking for a full time job, I have finally found a job that I will enjoy selling a product that not only excites me, but I believe in.

The company is Fill n Thrill (follow the link)

Here are the basics. We are putting TV monitors on top of gas pumps at gas stations and running a Television network and I sell the ads. There will be weather, sports, news, traffic and local events mixed in with commercials. We are the only company in St. Louis doing anything like this, and to be in on the startup is real exciting to me. Everyone in the company, including the owner is learning as we go, and to be with a company where my input matters and what I do impacts the company directly is one the main reasons that I took this job. It will be like starting a business from the ground up, but I don’t have to put up the money for it. Since we are the only company in St. Louis right now, we are moving quick, fast and in a hurry to get as many TVs put up. If you are reading this and are interested, please contact me.

The price is actually very very low.



For the next month I will still be with Planet Cash making collection calls and waiting on Herman to close out the deal. I put in my notice with Water Way and I will admit, I was a little nervous telling Gino that I was going to leave. He put his stamp of approval on me for this job and I basically walked into a job that 15 other kids there would have loved to have. I did tell him from day one that I was still looking for a job, but after 6 months of nothing, I assumed that I would not find a job right away. He was real cool about it, and seemed very happy for my new job. I am very appreciative for Gino giving me a part time job. I actually enjoyed working at Water Way for the few days I was there. Being able to walk around and talk to different people was a lot of fun, and I was pretty successful at it. It gave me the extra confidence booster that I needed to land this job at Fill N Thrill. So, thanks Gino!


Over the past 6 months I have had a couple of job offers that I decided to turn down. I was in the unique position to not have to take the first job that was offered just so we could pay the bills. I do feel sorry for the people who have lost their jobs and are desperately searching and hoping that they can stay afloat: I wish them the best of luck! There were times that Emily was frustrated when I would turn down a job because I didn’t feel like it was a good fit. Looking back I am very glad that I was picky. I feel lucky to have found this job; I think it is going to be a great opportunity for me.


So, I have started my new job as you read this. I am training and learning the product as fast as possible. This could really blow up into something huge, or it might just fizzle out in a few months, but based on West County, I think this is just going to explode! I am able to work from home, go in when I want, leave when I want: as long as I am making sales, I can make my own hours: the perfect job for me.
I will keep you posted as the job progresses.

In the mean time: Keep on keeping on….mrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

A couple movie reviews

To start, if you have not voted on the poll to the right, please do so. Thanks!
A couple Movie reviews.
I have never posted movie reviews and nor do I find myself to be an amazing movie critic, but we did watch 3 movies in one week, which is quite a lot for us, so I figured I would pass on our thoughts of the movies.

Marley and Me
I actually did not see this movie; Emily saw it with her Mom and sister. But, Emily did say that it was one of the saddest movies she has seen. She cried real hard at the end, along with her Mom. And not just a few tears, sobbing. Emily says it is worth seeing, just bring Kleenex.

Tropic Thunder
I had heard both positive and negatives about this movie. Some say it was real funny and others hated it, but none-the-less, I have been wanting to see it. The overall movie was pretty funny, not Super Bad or Christmas Vacation funny, but it had some funny scenes. Robert Downey Jr stole the movie from Ben Stiller and Jack Black. He plays a 5 time Oscar winning actor playing a black guy. “I’m a dude playing a dude, dressed up as a dude.” Tom Cruise also has a supporting role and he made the movie. I knew Tom Cruise was in it, so I was looking for him, but he does not look like himself at all. Just for Tom Cruise alone the movie was worth seeing.

Leatherheads
I have been wanting to see this movie for a while. John Krasinki from The Office is in it, along with George Clooney. The movie is set in the 1920’s when pro football started. It was a pretty good movie, not as funny as I was expecting, but well directed and well casted. George Clooney did a real good job. It had the O’ Brother Where Art Thou feel. I would have to say I liked Leatherheads better than Tropic Thunder. Emily did not like Tropic Thunder at all and says that Leatherheads “wasn’t bad.”

I am currently watching Howard the Duck on Hulu.com. (you can watch movies and all the TV shows for free. Check it out)! Can't wait to finish it.

So, there are my movie reviews. Until next time: Keep on Keeping on. mrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr