Today Jaidyn + Kaleb have their first baby.

How amazing. We are so curious to know how they are doing, but we don’t want to bother them, or intrude on an experience that is so special to them. We will leave tomorrow afternoon to stay with them a few days. I can hardly wait.

The ***’s house closed yesterday. I feel very grateful for that. I’m happy that they get to come back here soon.

The ***’s should be able to make a trip here next week. I’m not sure what to expect from them.

I need the universe Heavenly Father to provide me some more buyers and sellers.

I wonder at the growing trend for people to look to the ‘universe’ to provide for them instead of God.

It seems like many people I know are willing to believe that a power exists in the ‘universe’ beyond what we see or experience with our natural senses, but are hesitant to believe this power comes from a a heavenly being, and even more hesitant to think this heavenly being is the father of our spirits.

Why is that?

I suppose because it’s easier. Believing in a tangible, personal God makes things more complicated than believing in an impartial universe. I can think of two reasons.

One, thinking of God as an individual leads to the idea of an obligation to behave a certain way if we want to be on that individuals good side. It seems like the human race grows more inclined to reject a standard of behavior imposed by any influence outside of themselves. Not only is there a growing rejection of a moral standard, we simply don’t want to be told what to do by anyone.

Two, it’s more difficult to be convinced that we are not merely subject to the whim of a capricious God. A ‘being’ will have traits, where as a ‘universe’ just is. Where one may have love, and therefore love more the one that loves back, an impartial universe treats every being exactly the same. It’s easier to know where we stand.

The post The Big Day appeared first on TJ Eardley - Today.

We are having a special business meeting today for our company. Some management people and some SIR agents from California are coming. I believe they are doing some sort of agent panel.

Spring has arrived in the valley. The days are warm and the flowers are in bloom. We have song birds surrounding our house.

One day closer to our first grand child.

Besides taxes, today I’ll finish the business meeting I’m in now, pick up the keys from Clearwater to take to the *** contractor, and this evening I’m visiting the Meridian temple with *** and ***.

Today will be an excellent day.

The post Tax Day, but There’s Always Tomorrow appeared first on TJ Eardley - Today.

The weekend was good. we celebrated Sienna’s birthday on Saturday evening. Kelsee and Landon visited. We’ve seen alot of them lately. She has a lot going on in her life right now.

Sunday *** came to church with us. He called Saturday to see if I could pick him up. church was nice. We talked about hope in Elders Quorum. I enjoyed the discussion.

After church *** came over and had lunch with us. Following that, we went to the dog park with him, and Moose of course. We had a good walk and Jenn showed him how to use the step tracker on his phone.

After we took him home the rest of the day was kind of lazy. By the end of it I wished I had done more to be useful to someone. We had a nice soak in the hot tub to end the evening.

I’m thinking about Jaidyn a lot. She hasn’t had her baby yet, so she will be induced tomorrow.

I’m excited but also a little nervous for her. I’ve been daydreaming about what it will be like to see little *** for the first time. I hope she will be a powerful influence for good in the world.

We will leave Thursday night to stay in Utah for a few days to help where we can and spend some time with the baby.

Today I do the final walk through for the *** new place. It is slated to close tomorrow. I am excited for them.

I will also arrange a ride for someone for church on Sunday. I’m not exactly sure how else I will spend my time today, It’s an open book. Hopefully I will be productive.

The post Back to Pickleball appeared first on TJ Eardley - Today.

The post Loving Spring on Cirrus Drive appeared first on TJ Eardley - Today.

Before I get to the part about the blessing I want to address the overwhelming part. Part of me doesn’t want to write this list down because it feels whiny. But I also feel like a catharsis takes place when each thing is acknowledged systematically in writing. It’s about me being able to let go of each thing, if only a little bit. It’s kind of like writing them down takes away some of their power over me.

So, in no particular order, here are the things that are weighing on my soul right now.

• Sienna dealing with an insurance company who is uninterested in truly helping her after a person they insure ruined her car.
• Organizing a family history activity for my wards Thursday night R. S. meeting.
• Losing my office at work because someone who lives a hundred miles away promised somebody something and someone close to home decided I was the easiest one to move.
• My oldest child going through childbirth for the first time and her doctor mentioning that it’s possible the baby could get stuck.
• Jenn’s arm hurting.
• Preparing for a lesson on Sunday.
• How to reach the goals I have for my career.
• Exercising my body enough.
• The daughter not yet mentioned on this list getting married in two months and having a reception in three.
• Organizing the family reunion we were picked to organize 2 years ago that is supposed to happen this summer.
• My wife’s company switching insurance companies for the third time since she’s worked there, and wondering how that effects her and us.
• Finding our marriage certificate for the new insurance company so I can be insured.
• All the specific daily to-dos I need to get finished.
• financial obligations for medical things and other ‘life’ items.
• A broken billing system at my dentist that is trying to back charge me for work done 18 months ago.

All of this, and probably some things I’ve forgotten, add up to me filling overwhelmed.

A person might ask what blessing comes from having the weight of all these things on my soul.

For me, it is the blessing of submission. The recognition that all of these things add up to more than I can deal with brings me to the place of freely letting go and understanding that my power is actually pretty limited. The place where I have the most power is in my head and heart. I can let it weigh on me, or I can choose to acknowledge that I am not strong enough to tackle all of these things on my own, and that Heavenly Father will do what he will do, and I’ll be good with that.

The post The Day-to-day Stage Where it gets Overwhelming appeared first on TJ Eardley - Today.

So many people in my circle need help with real estate. The news points out everything dire about the economy, but people still need to buy and sell houses.

I’m coming to realize there really isn’t a busy or slow time in real estate, it’s more about when I expect to have business and when I don’t. It’s always busy if I will take the time to look around me.

I am blessed to have a very large sphere of people who know me. I believe they like and trust me too. 

And this is such a fun business to be in. There are so many things I like about it. I am always learning something new. It stretches me more than I want to be sometimes, but I am grateful for it.

The excitement level is just right for me. I will never be a sky diver, or something similar, but the adrenaline of putting myself out there to the public is enough for me.

I’ve started working with a new out of state client referred from another agent. That’s fun. The Wert’s closing is next week. They are out of state so I don’t have anything I need to attend. This reminds me I need to ask for a settlement statement from the title company.

This is the same day Jaidyn + Kaleb are slated to have baby ***. the thought is a little bit all consuming for me. I’m excited, but also nervous for them.

The post In Awe of the Growth All Around Me appeared first on TJ Eardley - Today.

It was fun to go downtown Salt Lake and feel the energy of it. Plus all of the people gathered for conference also brought a good energy.

We parked about 4 blocks from the conference center, which worked out to about a 15 minute walk. I am grateful to be able to spend so much time with Jenn, and even more grateful that we got along with each other perfectly. (at least, I think we did🙂)

This week I will give more attention to being intentional. That sounds like a slogan in the making.

Hopefully the Purdue house will get back on the market soon. I’m grateful to be able to list that house.

Jenn and I are in charge of the Stewart family reunion this year. Time has gone by fast and we need to get it organized and get the word out.

Attending conference felt like a renewal.

It was the first time in quite a while where we watched all the sessions. Technically we listened to the last one because we we in the middle of driving back home.

Reading the Come Follow Me sections, some of the very first verses for this week read “But your mind has been on the things of the earth more than on the things of me, your Maker…”

Those words feel meant for me. I think about the ripples that my actions, or lack of action, send out into the world. These are invisible, and I wonder what effect I could have had if I were just a little more set on my Maker, and less set on the things of the earth.

But thinking about what might have been can not change what was. Plus, focusing on the past is still setting my mind on things of the earth. Can I learn to set my mind always on the things of my maker, now, than on the past or the future? I believe I can.

The post Feeling Renewed by a Quick Trip appeared first on TJ Eardley - Today.

The drive last night was easy going. We stopped in Burley, as usual, to have dinner. we chose Burger King.

After we ate we decided to drive by the Burley Temple.

We arrived in Orem just before 9:30.

*** asked us to bring boxes to *** daughter ***, so we called them when we arrived and handed them over.

The mountains here are still capped with snow, and they are beautiful.

It always feels refreshing to travel, even if it’s only a few hours away.

Tonight Jenn and I will take the train from Vineyard to the conference center to attend the 6pm session of conference. It’s not an experience we have often, so I’m looking at it as an adventure.

Real Estate

Yesterday I enjoyed putting together a video for an out of state client. They are currently in Arizona, but hope to move to somewhere in Southern Idaho.

I need to some some sort of communication to my friends on my mailing list.

I have a pclosing in about a week and a half, and we should get the Purdue house back on market soon.

General Conference

we thought we would catch the train in vineyard and ride it into Salt Lake, but we aren’t adept at public transit. We didn’t think to check what times the train would be coming. For some reason I just thought it would be waiting for us when we got there. 🙂

So we missed the ideal time for getting to the conference session on time. Not knowing exactly what to do, we decided to drive towards Salt Lake.

we ended up driving all the way downtown and parking a few blocks from the conference center.

It was about a 15 minute walk from the car to to the conference center, but it was great to be able to walk through the temple square grounds and see the planted gardens.

As we reached the door where a sister missionary was scanning tickets an elderly man and a young boy with a ‘future missionary’ tag were holding up their phone to be scanned. The sister missionary paused as she realized their tickets were actually for the Saturday morning session.

She kindly pointed out their tickets were not for this session, and she suggested they may be able to get tickets at a standby office.

They seemed confused and I couldn’t help but feel that boy’s excitement at the prospect of attending conference and the disappointment of being turned away. It seemed more important for this boy to attend than for us, so I asked the sister if we might let them enter with our tickets.

As I talked to the sister, Jenn followed the two, who were walking away, and told them we would give them our tickets.

They gratefully accepted, and as they came back the missionary taking tickets said we could also go in. So we made it, at the moment the conference started. Even before it started, we felt the blessing of it.

It’s been good so far.

I have felt the spirit of it in different ways.

One of the things that have stood out to me is that I must fight against casual discipleship.

One of the speakers mentioned that more and more biblical scholars are starting to push the idea the the resurrection is meant to be figurative.

It seems like so much has changed in the world in just the last 10 years.

The post A Quick Trip Out of Town appeared first on TJ Eardley - Today.

I’m looking forward to being a grandpa for the first time soon. I don’t know what to expect, but I think it’s going to be amazing.

Real estate continues to go strong, though sometimes there are things that I can’t write about because of confidentiality. It’s rarely boring.

I feel on the cusp of something grand. It’s difficult to explain why.

I’m grateful for the variety of experience my life provides.

I’m grateful my kids are making their way through this life and managing it independently.

I’m grateful for the success that has come our way.

The post I’m Excited to Travel appeared first on TJ Eardley - Today.

It took nearly a year to sell. The listing started with the hope that the sellers would be able to walk away with a little profit. However, the odds were not in their favor.

They had purchased the house less than a year before, and due to the situation they left the house without utilities on. It’s very hard to sell a home at a premium when a potential buyer walking through the house can’t turn the lights on.

Trying to navigate the process once 90 days had passed without payments was difficult too. It appears that Idaho Housing hires out to a third party company to handle the day-to-day administration of their loans. Getting answers from people who worked there was difficult because every person seemed to have a different level of understanding, and they didn’t have a dedicated person to talk to about Idaho Housing loans. Finally someone told us to use email instead of phone and it worked much better.

The story of actually getting it sold is long and detailed, but I can confidently say I know how to help someone short sale their home if that is their only option.

It’s already Thursday. The week flew by.

we’re going to drive down to visit Jaidyn and Kaleb this weekend. It will be a quick trip, and then we should go down again within a week to see our first grand baby.

Today I hope to get some video done. It’s been a while since I put myself on camera, and I’m having withdrawls. I never would have expected I would feel so compelled to do that.

I also want to mow the lawn.

My subject of religious study for the moment is still Love of God. I read a verse from the Book of Mormon this morning about ‘singing redeeming love.’

I like the concept of love that redeems. A quick google search of the roots of the word redeem show it going back to a latin root that means to ‘buy back!’

I also think of it as bringing value back to something that has lost its value. That love has the power to bring back value that was lost, or buy back something, is evident and so cool.

Influence can be exercised in a variety of ways, but love is the one that builds a legacy.

The post It Would Have Gone at Auction appeared first on TJ Eardley - Today.