11/16/2011 - Awana

Another wonderful morning, I got up and read The Likeability Factor. Info for the day from said book comes from a study done from Redford B. Williams, who studied 1,368 heart disease patients for more than nine years. He said "...just being married or having a good friend was a predictor of who lived and who died after a heart attack. Those patients with neither a spouse or a friend were three times more likely to die than those involved in a caring relationship." (emphasis added) Interesting, eh?


Jenny had work at the same time I did, so on these wonderful mornings we have the morning together.


When I got home, I was in some pretty bad arthritis pain, so Jenny took over our AWANA group tonight while I stayed home with Liam.

Waking up at 5, I immediately began reading The Likeability Factor by Tim Sanders again. Did you know that while most parents insist they don't show favoritism, they frequently do, and it is their more highly likeable children who end up getting extra attention? This was revealed in a 2000 interview with Dr. Vera Rabie-Azoori. I will, as expected, assert that I do not show favoritism. After reading, I had some breakfast and got ready for work.


We had homemade chicken fettuccine Alfredo (thank you, Jenny!) for dinner. 


We went upstairs and I read the boys a few books we got from the library. I'll recommend one: Carolinda Clatter. It's really good. Super creative and different.


Jenny and I went through a course in Financial Peace University which was on credit sharks. Info of the day from FPU: Do you not like junk mail? Go to optoutprescreen.com! Do you not like telemarketers? Go to donotcall.gov!


Tomorrow is AWANA. We are looking forward to it!

11/14/2011

Today I got up at 5:00am to do my morning routine i.e. eat, read, read more, get ready. It's really good to give yourself tons of time before work. It's no good running jumping out of bed, slamming your alarm, and booking it out to your car where you begin speeding to work before you are even fully awake.


After I went to work, Jenny took the kids to run some errands while I stayed home and worked on two self-improvement courses I'm doing, which are Chalene Johnson's 30 Day Challenge and The Art of Manliness's 30 Days to a Better Man course. I highly recommend the former for those that want to get more organized on tackling their goals and the latter for those guys out there that want to be a... well... better man.


We had some Taco Bell for dinner and then went upstairs to hang out with the family then watch the Vikings play the Packers. After a sad first half, I went to bed.

Yes, I'd like to borrow 100 children's books, please.

After eating some Rhodes Caramel Rolls and watching some Word World, I hopped on Gmail Chat to talk to my brother (who is still in China). After that, we went to Plymouth Covenant Church to get our worship on.


The sermon was on King Uzziah and how his life was squandered by pride. Two phrases that may be a sign of pride are "I got this" and "I'm above the law". Pride can be so destructive; for the person and for those around him or her. 


After church we went home and watched some football while enjoying Solo's Pizza leftovers.


Jenny and Levi went to the library and got tons of books for the boys. Apparently you can rent 100 books at a time. Who has time for that, really? I also rented The Like Ability Factor by Tim Sanders, which I'm looking forward to. Tim Sanders is a really good author - I highly recommend his books to anyone out there reading this. My quote of the day from the book is:

"All in all, it became clear that unlikeable characteristics are a primary reason for failure, whereas improvements in likeability offer excellent explanations for breakthrough successes."

Also, did you know? (From the same book)

"A 2000 study by Yale University and the Center for Socialization and Development-Berlin concluded that 'people, unlike animals, gain success not by being aggressive but by being nice.'" 

Last, but not least... (From the same book)

"Easygoing, likeable people have one-half the divorce rate of the general population."

More football...


I played some Modern Warfare 3 with Aaron and his buddy, Josh.


After that, we had some dinner then the boys and I played some Super Mario Sluggers on the Wii. 


Levi cleaned up his room then the boys went to bed!


Jenny and I spent our time learning about Dumping Debt from Financial Peace University/Dave Ramsey. My truth from the day from Dave Ramsey is:

"When you use plastic instead of cash, you spend 12-18% more because spending cash hurts."

After that, Jenny and I watched a King of Queens marathon, which is a family favorite.


It was a good day. Tomorrow Jenny is working at 4am (at Caribou Coffee) and I'm heading to work at 6:30am.