Dawn and I are always into something - before the wedding we started Sunrise IMC, an integrated marketing agency focusing on the small business market. We worked with a couple clients and after the wedding life took over and we didnt not have the time or resource to effectively serve them. After almost 3 years of marriage we are now back up and running - The Brister Group has been kicking along for about a year now … we have helped companies with their trade show exhibits, hand outs, brochures, content and case studies. We also helped launch a brand new juice line for a South Florida juice company … branding, messaging, media, ad’s, content, label design, press releases, sales presentation slides, everything about the launch was awesome and the product has been picked up in a few states by Whole Foods. We are now putting together a simple website and are looking forward to the new clients we will be meeting along the way. If you know of a small business, or if you are a small business that is looking for a new way to reach your customers or members, give us a buzz … we would love to chat with you!

I took Dawn to the airport yesterday (Friday Jan 2nd) for her next business adventure. They have her in Perth, Australia this time. Sooo - her flight left at 7pm Friday night, she just landed and its 9am Sunday morning! Think about it … she skipped all of Saturday! Dawn likes to refer to airplanes as Time Capsules! Once your on board and they close the door, time kinda slows down, there is nothing you can do other than sleep, listen to music or watch a poorly edited movie! Oh well - at least she is in Australia, right? Its in the 90’s … and its summer!

So - what did I do last night??? Well, I was up until 4:30am fighting off wave after wave of locusts and grinders and boomers in a new game I got last month, Gears Of War 2! It is such an epic game - very fun to play and even better with friends. Lindley and I try to play together at least once a week … since he is West Coast time, I gotta wait until around midnight my time for us to get going, but its the price I gotta pay!

Tyler and Bryan were down here for 8 incredibly fast days! This trip we pretty much just hung out, did alot of talking, dinners, shopping. We had a great time … and the BEST part of the whole trip was when more than one friend of ours (Dawn and I) told us how amazing the boys are and how mature they behave and how polite they are to people. Those boys are awesome! I am so proud of them … and the fact that they have been able to show us they are responsible by bringing their grades up!

Tyler was able to get his drivers license and is now legally allowed to drive - HUH??? Yeah, that one snuck up on me too! ha ha

Well … just wanted to make a quick update, not much going on over the next 6 days. However, next Friday I am flying to Nashville to catch a Predators hockey game. That should be fun! Its all part of my goal to visit every hockey arena in the NHL once for a game. Not sure how long that is going to take … but it will be accomplished!

Hope you all are well …

Sitting in Tampa waiting for their plane to leave the gate. I snapped this picture quickly before they revolted! We had such a great 8 days … Lots of good talks, hanging out and spending time with each other.

What awesome young men these kids are turning into. I had quite a few friends tell me how amazing they are … So polite, so sweet, so pleasant to be around. I am very proud of Tyler and Bryan … I can not wait for the day when they can live with Dawn and I.

I finally got these two boys sitting still long enough - the other day I asked them to answer the following three questions … nothing earth shattering, I just wanted them to put their thoughts down so I could post it up here! If you have questions for Tyler and Bryan, leave a comment and I’ll have them answer it.

Tell me about your most memorable Christmas:

Bryan – My memorable Christmas is flying on an airplane and seeing my dad and my step mom. It was the first time I saw Ms. Dawn.

Tyler – My most memorable Christmas was when I was about five or six. I visited the doctor about three or four times that week due to the fact that my parents had put angel hair on the tree and it severely screwed up my asthma. It was awful and I was miserable. That was my most memorable Christmas.

Tell me about the best present you gave someone:

Bryan - The best present I got someone was a watch for my mom. The watch has silver bars crossing each other.

Tyler – The best present I ever gave someone was my mom and it was a shrinky dink in the shape of a dog. The dog was green, red, burgundy, black, and brown with a purple head. My mom still has it and I complain to her to throw it away cause it’s cracked and chipped and has been thrown everywhere. That was the best present I gave someone.

What do you love the most about visiting your Dad?

Bryan - We do a lot of fun things. For example we went to Disney World, MGM, and Universal studios.

Tyler – What I love about visiting my dad is that when we come down we always do different things; like going to Universal, Disney World and Downtown Disney. I also love visiting their friends because they give me good advice just in case dad and Dawns’ lecturing doesn’t do the job. That’s why I love visiting my dad.

Every year we (24 or so of our closest friends) all have dinner @ Cafe
D'Antonio's and then we break out the Christmas Carol books and sing
songs while the people visiting Celebration walk by looking at us funny!

Here is Tyler and Dawn doing their best at holding a tune!

We stopped in Tampa to grab some sustinance before our hour long trek
home.

Here they are showing me how well they share … Ha ha

We are getting ready to have Tyler and Bryan come chill for the next 8 days. Dawn just got back home from a quick trip to Kentucky and I just landed a 4 week job helping a local marketing agency on the social media side of a campaign for one of their clients. Its really exciting, because my plan is to show them what I can do on this project and hopefully they will ask me to help them out on future projects.

So … stay tuned for updates this week. I’ll be posting pictures, stories and such. Maybe I’ll give Tyler and Bryan a writing project to post here on the blog. Hmmmmmmmm

Anyway - hope you all are well … more to come later.

Well - my first election has come to a close. Not even close, I had my ass handed to me by an arrogant, self serving opponent who played the game better than I. I walk away with my head held high, my integrity intact and my pride a tad bit bruised.

That said - what I also walk away with is the knowledge of who is actually in my corner and who is on the fence, I walk away knowing who I can turn to and who I should avoid and the greatest lesson I learned was who I know to be my true supporters are actually and honestly behind me 100% of the way!

I was just taught a very valuable lesson today - one that someone has to walk through to learn. Its not something that can be told and understood, its not something that you can read in a book and practice it. Its the lesson of great loss. I am not talking a loss of a hockey game, or a loss of a poker hand … its not a loss of a “sure thing” wager where the underdog pulls a miracle out of nowhere in the last seconds and wins it by one point. This is the pain of true failure - an epic loss by 60+% … one where you look back and say … even if I did try a little harder, I would have still failed.

So - right now, I am raw … not really enjoying this feeling, but knowing I have to make it through, I have no choice - this is not the end. Its just another lesson that I needed to learn … something that has forged my character to become even sharper, clearer, stronger. This is not a stumbling block, this is not an obstacle - this is only a learning experience - this is ONLY what makes me stronger.

As I run for our local community development district (CDD) seat I am finding it a learning experience every time I turn around. I was looking up words online last night for another post I did regarding the NHL and I ran across the synonyms for “Pander” and there it was “politic” … it gave me a chuckle.

Does it strike anyone else as humorous that these two words can be associated with eachother? The more I walk around town, talking to residents of Celebration, asking for their vote - I am realizing there are quite a few distinct types of people here.

1. Those who dont really know what a CDD is or does
2. Those who do know, and really WANT something done
3. Those who do not know what a CDD does, yet still want something done
4. Those who do know, and want something done that the CDD has no control over

I do not know which type of person I am going to come across until I am allready knee deep into the conversation … this might seem fun at first, but lemme tell ya!!! I really enjoy talking to those who do know what a CDD is yet want something done that the CDD has no control over. It gives me a new found respect for elected officals.

As I sit and watch the barrage of presidential commercials on TV … and the more and more vague these two candidates are in their messages I realize they have to talk this way in order to survive. Everyone has heard the saying “you cant please everyone, all the time” … I would like to reword it by saying “you cant please everyone … EVER!”

It is pretty awesome running for office … I am crossing my fingers and really want to be elected. I think that in the end, it is every politicians desire to contribute to our foundation as a country, to be part of the solution and do good. I will always look back on this experience as an incredible lesson.

This place has one of the original Mayflower passengers. There are
also other historical people buried here … Along with a bunch of
people convicted of witchcraft.

This trip has been really interesting today … I did not think I
would enjoy Salem as much as I have.

Dawn is dragging me on a walking tour of "haunted" Salem tonight …
Hopefully I don't scream to loud! Ha ha