Gig Harbor Undressed

Happy Mother’s Day!

This clip is not new, not originally from me, but pretty fun!  Happy Mother’s Day!

Winning by doing the right thing

It’s amazing how many opportunities we are given each day to make a choice between right and wrong.  I’m not talking about major decisions here, this isn’t should I or shouldn’t I murder.  I’m talking about decisions that appear small when you’re faced with them, but can just seem huge after the decision has been made.  I want to quickly highlight 3 such decisions that I noticed this week:

1. My wife and I were buying dinner at the new Costco in north Gig Harbor.  Just a simple pizza.  My wife noticed when we ordered that the guy who took our order seemed new, and it seemed like he didn’t do something quite right, and my wife told me that she felt our order never got placed.  Sure enough, about 20 minutes later (it should only take 10) they realized they never took our order.  We weren’t too bothered, didn’t make a fuss at all, yet the person running the orders brought us each a free frozen yogurt and a free pizza as well.  Wasn’t necessary, we’d already paid, we didn’t ask for anything, she just did it.  As a result, we took the extra pizza and shared a nice dinner with some friends we hadn’t seen in a while.
2. My wife bought some cute shoes online for our baby daughter.  They came with free shipping which was a bonus.  When the shoes arrived, the little flowers weren’t sewn in correctly.  They weren’t ruined, just not quite right.  My wife called the company to see how we could send this pair back and get a new pair without getting dinged for shipping, and the company offered to send a new pair while we kept the first.  Not necessary, not what we asked for, but it certainly made my wife happy and took away the inconvenience of sending the shoes back.
3. Western Oregon was playing Central Washington in a playoff implication softball game.  A Western Oregon player hit a home run, but tore her ACL as she rounded first base (in her excitement she missed the bag, and tried to stop and turn around to touch the base when her knee tore).  It was determined that since the runner couldn’t round the bases she’d be held to a single…if her teammates assisted her she’d be out (that rule was later found to be false, but at the time that was the umpire’s understanding).  CWU had a chance to turn a 3-run HR into a 2-run single…great!  But two CWU players walked over and carried the Western Oregon runner around the bases (nothing in the rules said the opponents couldn’t help) giving up a run that they could have saved.  CWU ended up losing by 2, but those players certainly take a win with them through life.  Click the photo for the full story. 

Doing the right thing matters, even if it appears small at the time.  It’s something I strive for in my own business.

Is my baby the cutest?

I entered this photo of my daughter in the Warm106.9 radio station’s “Baby of the Week” contest.  She was chosen as one of the finalists for this week.  I think she’s the cutest, but the question is do you think she is?  If you get a minute, click here to vote on who you think the cutest baby is.  If you think it’s our daughter, thank you…if you vote for somebody else, I guess that’s okay.

Snowshoeing On Mt Rainier

Yesterday a group of 22 guys from Believer’s Fellowship church here in Gig Harbor took a snowshoeing trip up to Mount Rainier.  What a blast!  It’s amazing to live in a place like Gig Harbor, surrounded by the water and all the beauty that the Puget Sound has to offer, and yet in less than 2 hours we were up on Mt. Rainier snowshoeing! 

When we got to the mountain, it was snowing gently.  Not a snow storm, but a nice gentle snow.  As we began hiking in to Reflection Lake (a fairly short, easy hike), the sun shown through and made for a perfect day!

These gray jays aren’t shy at all.  We sat down on the lake to enjoy lunch, and these guys come swooping in from all over the place and will eat right out of your hand. 

 We finished the day by sliding down the hill to the parking lot.  What a rush!  Click the image below for a quick photo tour of our day.

Believer’s Fellowship of Gig Harbor launches new website

I’ve made mention of our church, Believer’s Fellowship, a few times in this blog.  Believer’s is a non-denominational Christian church located on Hunt St just east of Wollochet St in Gig Harbor.  While there are many wonderful things about our church, three things stand out as very unique to me:

1. We don’t have membership.  Anybody who walks through our doors and participates with us is a ”member.”
2. We don’t take an offering.  No money plates or baskets will pass by.  We believe that tithing is something God asks of us, but feel it should be a voluntary, joyful act.  There are offering boxes located in the church, but no collections will be taken.
3. We have a huge age diversity.  Our nursery is overflowing, our Sunday schools are vibrant, our junior high and high school groups are well attended, we have a huge 20-something population, several “working” age adults, and lots of happily retired Gig Harbor residents.  Not many churches I’ve attended, in Gig Harbor or elsewhere, have such a wide age variety.

Believer’s Fellowship doesn’t believe that church is primarily a Sunday morning activity.  We are focused on building community within Gig Harbor and the surrounding areas, and we do that through outreach programs and multiple home-groups. 

If you’ve been looking for a Gig Harbor church to attend, check out Believer’s Fellowship’s new website that was just launched this week.  There’s even audio of Sunday’s teachings under the “Connect” tab.  Simply click  on the image below to learn about what our church offers.  There are several great churches in Gig Harbor other than Believer’s Fellowship.  Click here to view a further list of Gig Harbor’s churches (not exhaustive, but includes several of the great area churches).

You gotta love dogs!

You’ve gotta love dogs, and you’ve gotta love YouTube!  Watch this video and try to tell me that dogs aren’t smart.  Enjoy!

Ice Sculptures

I thought that this was a neat ice sculpture (this is in a waterfall in the Canterwood Golf and Country Club), but check out these ice sculptures in St. Paul, MN!

Mt. Saint Helens

Okay, this has very little…okay, nothing…to do with Gig Harbor, but I love these pictures and wanted to showcase them.  I drove a group of middle school students from Tacoma to Mt St. Helens in April of ‘06, and got this view.  We didn’t go up the mountain, only to the visitor center and museum a ways away.  Still kind of fun and some really pretty photos.

Fool proof Get Out Of Debt plan

A friend shared this video with me today.   Following this advice is a sure fire way to get yourself out of debt.  In this day of foreclosures, bankruptcies, out of control consumer debt, this is worth the 2:21 it takes to watch.