Finally, mortgage lending seems to be getting caught up with the rest of the world when it comes to green.  I had started a draft on green mortgage lending in Active Rain and then saw and participated in the post by Ritu Desai   Calculate your Carbon Footprint and decided that it was time for the information to be shared with the rest of the world.

ENERGY EFFICIENT MORTGAGES or EEM's are Here!!!!

Here's the facts that you need to know:

1)  Can be used for purchase or refinance to incorporate the costs of the improvements into the mortgage;

2)  Dollar amount can't exceed 5% of the property's value (not to exceed $8,000) or $4,000 whichever is greater;

3)  Can be used for FHA or conventional loans. 

4)  If FHA, then the FHA maximum loan limit for the county MAY BE EXCEEDED by the cost of the energy efficient improvements;

 5)  Single ratio of 41% can be used. 

6)  Energy Efficient rebates from government agencies, utilities and manufacturers may be applied towards the borrower's minimum 3.5% contribution.

7)  Regardless of the property's value, EVERY BORROWER who otherwise qualifies can finance at least $4,000 of the costs of the energy costs if the costs exceed at least $4,000.

There are other bells and whistles, but in this day and age, those people who want to move into green living now have products that are designed to assist them in making an energy efficient move.  I just built a house using a geothermal heating and cooling system.  My most expensive bill since moving in (even through the entire winter was $40, on the nose. 

The time is here to take advantage of this product.  Talk to your lender today to find out more information.

You want a story????  I have  a story for you. 

Last week a I took my first full week off in over two years.  I left my wife home with our soon to be 2 year old.  I took the other 5 kids with me to the farm in Wisconsin.  It was a blast.  If you've ever read the book, Wild At Heart, by John Eldridge, you'd understand how important it is for a dad to be involved intimately in the lives of his kids.  I told the kids that this was going to be a fun adventure.

One half way through the vacation two other dads came with their kids and the real chaos began.  Among the activities that we did were:

1)  Disc Golf (check out www.pdga.com) for more information.  I used to play professionally, and it's really my passion;

2)  4 Wheeling - nothing better than riding in the mud and the muck and the crap with 5 kids;

3)  Fishing - did a lot of trout fishing and caught quite a few nice rainbows and brookies.  We later cooked them over the fire.  It was a blast....nothing as fresh and nothing tasting as good;

4)  Camping out-As this is a relatively new adventure for my kids, I let them camp out in the yard of the farm.  Nothing better than 10 kids in a 6 man tent. 

5)  Fireworks - we put on a firework show that the kids loved.  Made life just "sweeeeeeeeeet" as my kids would say;

6)  Quarry - The kids went ballistic swimming in this 80 acre quarry.  It was so much fun.  As the weather was just getting better we had 3 full time lifeguards and just our group and 3 other people in the entire quarry.  Can't beat that with a stick.

7)  Trap shooting - I let my kids shoot the shotguns and blow up and shred some great sport clays.  My six year old daughter even got to pull the trigger once.

8)  Ride horses - that's always a farm favorite.

9)  Prayer time - What would a vacation be without thanking God for the blessings that he provides;

10)  Naps - these kids were running on fumes the entire time....this was critical

My wife loved having the time to herself (for the most part) and had some nice time with her girlfriends.  I loved being the Dad of the year.  Thank you God for the great opportunity, but it was an awesome experience for all of us.

I had the best 4th of July party....bar none!

We were to have a great 4th of July party as always, but the rains came a down.  They were consistent all day.  The last thing that I wanted was for 40 people to be hanging in our house with the kids running in and out all day tracking crap in while we waited for the fireworks to begin.

Every year, we buy a lot of fireworks and put on a display that the entire neighborhood comes to see.  It's just so awesome.  Being a pyromaniac helps.  I light up the sky as the neighbors ooooh and ahhhhh to the big booms in the sky.

This year, because of the "rain delay," we decided to postpone the firewords display until Sunday, July 5th.  We had 40+ people over with more than 1/2 of them being kids.  As the sun began to set, we had set up our display and began to let the fireworks off. 

Our show lasts about 45 minutes.  The ooooooooooooohs and ahhhhhhhhhhhhs abound.  My pyro lusts were satiated as I smoke a cigar and used it's glow to light the fireworks.  About 45 minutes into the show and just into the grand finale, the cops....er COP (singular) slowly pulled into my driveway.  Although we couldn't see that the car was a cop car, we all just knew that it was. 

Our community went from being a nice local piece of the county to becoming incorporated.  The new community sucks.  The leaders are all about power and the funds that they have are so grossly mismanaged that it's pathetic. 

I've been doing this for over 10 years and have never been visited by the police.  Needless to say, I'm not sure if I was visited because these are the new community police that are looking for something to do or whether I just picked a bad night, one being NOT THE 4TH OF JULY, to light off the fireworks.

Anyway, the policeman said:

Your party's over.  We've had a lot of complaints from your neighbors.

I said "I'm OK with shutting it down, but I know that the neighbor's didn't complain because I've been doing this for over 10 years and all the neighbors are here."

He responded "well not your neighbors per se, but jsut people complaining about fireworks in general." 

I said fine.

The officer was a gentleman and gracious.  My only beef is that the small community is all gone.  The big big government of Campton is hell bent on taking away the small cozy feeling that unincorporated Kane County used to offer. 

I know that I'm not the only one to feel this way.  Just offering my .02 cents.

Mr. Policeman....you were kind and gracious.  All the mom's and dad's appreciated your professionalism.  The kids freaked, but as I told them...now they have a story to tell.  Campton.......I'll refrain from saying anything further.

Let me just say that I was a Michael Jackson fan.  He was a phenomenal entertainer, a great musician and one heckuva song writer.  His personal life was a wreck though.  I think his parents screwed up raising him, but in the end he paid someone $20,000,000 to settle out of court for the child molestation charges.

Now...at the ripe old age of 50 Michael is in a situation where one in 7 people throughout the world are to watch his memorial service today.  Me??????  I'm so bummed that he's gone.  But the worship of the world is, in my opinion, quite demented. 

I was at a meeting last night.  The meeting spoke a lot about scandal.  The four most recent scandals were:

1)  Ed McMahons death....he ended up bankrupt because of decisions and choices he made;

2)  Farrah Fawcett....getting buried in the Catholic Church yet living in a life of infedelities;

3)  Steve McNair....One of my favorite players.  But let's be honest....what's a married 36 year old man, who's a father of 4, doing hanging out (more than hanging out) with a 20 year old woman.  Great player?  You bet, but a very scandolous death;

4)  Michael Jackson.  I'm so bummed that he's gone.  I really enjoyed him.  I couldn't wait for his next tour.  However, I can't think of any reason an innocent person would pay $20,000,000 to someone to go away if they were innocent.

The world looks on with a lack of clarity.  We need mercy and compassion.  I sin quite a bit.  I feel for all 4 of these people.  But let's at least call the acts what they are.  I hate rationalizing that each one of these things can be explained. 

Really in Michael's case, I pray for his family, his parents, and especially his children.  But one billion people watching the king of pop being memorialized?  WOW!!!!!

We had our 4th of July party on the 5th of July.  Fortunately, we did all the work for the 4th of July.  The weather told us that we were going to have to postpone the party and our fireworks until the 5th of July.  The silver lining was that we were all done prepping the morning of July 5th.

So....as an avid sports fan.  Specifically, I like violent sports, MMA, Football, Boxing and anything that's fast paced.  I hate soccer and baseball (low scoring).  For whatever reason, I love Tennis.  I supposed that I was on the High School Team was one reason that I'm still infatuated by it.

So I sit down on Sunjday A.M. and watch bits and pieces of Wimbledon with Roger Federer and Andy Roddick.  It was stunning.  I knew when I was watching it that this would become an instant classic.  I had to leave to run some errands for my wife.  En route, I stop at a cigar store that has a huge flat screen high def screen and both of the players are in a 5th set playoff.

I tell the owners and my kids we're hanging here until the end.  Well....long story short, Federer wins a classic tie breaker against the American Roddick.  I really didn't want anyone to lose as each seemed to have left their hearts on the playing surface. 

It was a great battle.  Just wondered if you watched it and came away with the same take on it as I did.

My mom's father was what every man should be.  He lived in Grinnell, Iowa.  He was one of 8 and was destined to be a farmer.  He had allergies, so great grandpa went to the fields and said "Charlie, you're not fit to be a farmer, you're going to the University of Iowa.  They packed his bags and off he went.

After becoming an attorney, he helped Kennedy and Truman get into the presidency and was offered positions in each office in Washington, D.C.  He gracioiusly declined as he wanted to represent the farmers in his hometown.  He ended up buying a farm and leasing it as he never lost his love of the land.  He really had a passion for the farmer.

He attended mass faithfully and, as a member of the Rotary Club, he never missed a meeting in over 40 years of membership.  He learned how to golf at 55 years of age and at 85 golfed better than me in my prime. 

My favorite story though is when we went to the 4th of July celebrations, I mean, his birthday parties.  He'd always say that all of his friends came and that he was having the biggest party known to man. 

Happy Birthday, Charles Peter Vogel.  You are missed, but you are my mentor.  The fireworks celebrate all that you have done for our country, but mostly our family!  You are missed and I love the tribute that our country gives you each year.

Write on!!!!!

Looking for a way to create relationships?  Looking for a way to deepen your relationships?  Then write a note.  Writing is fast becoming a lost art.  The days of the handwritten note are so far gone that the recipient of a handwritten note almost calls 911 asking for someone to bring an oxygen tank to the reader.

I remember when I went to a turning point retreat with Brian Buffini.  I heard two stories that blew me away.  The first revolved around George Bush, senior.  He said that he wrote notes daily as part of his daily discipline.  At one point he met some woman who was setting tables for a wedding event.  George had gotten there earlier and struck up a conversation with this woman.  They talked until the event was ready to start.  He asked a staffer for her name and address and wrote her a personal note.  Several years later, when George was running for his presidency, that same lady had married the Governor of some eastern state, Massachusetts, I believe.  She ended up influencing the then governor to support Bush in his election bid.  He did and Bush eventually won.  George said that the single most powerful weapon he had in his political career was note writing.

The second great story was that of Brian Buffini himself.  He was having some mastery event of some sort.  He wanted to have Neil Armstrong as a guest speaker.  He called him, but Armstrong wouldn't return his calls.  So he wrote him a note.  Again, Brian didn't get a response.  As Brian tells the story he wrote him once a month for many months until Brian received a note back.  Brian then received a note from Armstrong saying quit writing me.  Brian refused and just dropped him a note one time a month thereafter.  Finally, Armstrong wrote a note saying, in essence, "are you going to keep writing me until I meet with you?"  Brian responded with another note that said, "YES."

Needless to say, Armstrong had been sought after for speaking engagements for years.  NASA had asked him to come out of retirement so that he could be the spokesperson of NASA.  He refused.  Brian had broken Armstrong through sincerity, through notes and through persistence.  As Brian said, "Armstrong just hadn't been heard from in so long that I thought that he had wisdom and insight to share with the world."  Buffini got from Armstrong what no other was able to do.  He did it through note writing.

A couple of years ago I received a book from a cohort entitled "The lost art of the hand written note."  I think that done with persistence and with sincerity, it'll open doors for you in ways that you couldn't have fathomed.  I will say that my two greatest referral partners became that, in part, to the writing of notes that I used to do.

It's been a while and I lost a lot of my momentum, but now is a time to revive it for me.  I see great things in the sincere pursuit of a relationship through a consistent, non-pestering, persistence. 

WRITE ON!!!!!!

I've been in coaching for a long time.  I have some really great coaches and truly feel that I have been blessed to achieve great things for myself, my company and mostly my family.  Coaching has a vein of accountability woven within its fabric.  Coaching won't really hold you accountable, but if you have a drive for greatness coupled with a great coach, well.....let's just say it's difficult not to follow through on many of your quests.

The president of Cherry Creek Mortgage, Jeff May, invited 15 of his employees last year to join him in the Building Champions Experience.  The event was at Sunriver Resort in Bend, Oregon.  This was anything but a rah, rah seminar.  As many of you know, I'm a Buffini freak.  Buffini is so motivational, but the enthusiam wanes after getting back in the trenches. 

This year the Building Champions Experience will include:

True coaching immersion...

• Four days of coaching
• Real solutions
• Best practices
• Time to reflect and plan
• Customized learning tracks for sales, management and leadership
• Connection with an incredible group of like-minded professionals

Check out their site at  http://experience.buildingchampions.com/

 Last year I wrote about my experience below.......

I arrived on Monday not happy one bit about it.  Frankly, I have been so busy lately.  This has just been the most innopportune time for me to leave to go and invest time into myself.  THAT WAS TO CHANGE, and change quickly.  Dan spoke on stage and made it clear that he wasn't there to:

1)  Solve the world's problems and;

2)  or to be a public speaker.  This was to be an event given by coaches (not just Dan) in order to raise us up.  We had free access to the coaches thoughout the entire experience.  He didn't have products to sell at the back of the room.  He didn't say join coaching today and you'll save $50 bucks blah blah blah.  Nope....Dan was just real!  I love Real!   There was no hand holding.  No Kumbuya.  Just real stuff for real people.

AGENDA

Here's the deal....Everyone signed up for a different agenda.  In other w ords, it was custom made for me!  No one else.  Here was my agenda for the BUILDING CHAMPION'S EXPERIENCE: 

DAY #1

1) Arrival in the later afternoon and general meeting and reception

DAY #2

1)  Optimum Health;

2)  Life Planning Session;

3)  Life Planning Reflection;

4)  Hiking

5)  Extraordinary Marriage

Day #3

1)  Parenting

2)  Vision Building

3)  Vision Reflection

4)  River Float with Vision and Culture Emphasis

5)  Gap Management

6)  Movie Night

Day #4 

1)  Culture Gone Bad

2)  Living a convicted life

3)  Close of the experience

To say what each topic really involved would be impossible to do here.  Let's just say that it permanently changed my life for the better.  I am planning on going this year and would love to know if I could look out for anyone else who would be attending.