Fall is back and I am loving it! Fall to me means football, cider and donuts, apple orchards, Halloween, leaves changing colors, and more football. It is my second favorite season. The drive up to our cottage at this time of year is great with all the different colors. I am sure all or you have the above as favorites along with my fall addition of babble. So away we go……..
A lot has gone on at work since my last babble. This year has been a challenging year in my business. I ran into some staff and processing challenges that set my business back some this year. But now that I am on the other side, I am a better Mortgage Loan Officer for it, and a better business owner. My partner Jon Arnold and our “Do All” employee Katrina Cole, were great at helping me get through it and past it. I don’t know if I could have made it through without them. The great news now is I found a great new employee, Billie, who is a superstar. I now have the best support staff around me that I have ever had in my 12 years in doing mortgages. 2017 is going to be my best year ever with all the great people I now have around me.
This past summer was a great and busy summer for the Ferrick’s. The weather was fantastic so for me that helps make summer the best season we have in Michigan. We had a lot of great times at our cottage in Lake City, Michigan this summer. The boys tubed, fished, and played on the beach many weekends. My wife and I enjoyed pontoon rides with friends and watching the boys enjoy summer to the fullest. At the end of every summer we always wish we could have spent even more time up north because we love it so much, but you can’t do everything. Also, at the end of the year great friends of ours purchased a home on our same lake. They have been looking for the right place for years. Even tried to buy one a few years back but the deal fell apart. We are super excited to have the Oliver’s be our Lake City neighbors!
This past summer was our first year for the travel baseball team some other dads and myself started at the end of last year called The Gorillas. We had such a fun and successful spring and summer playing baseball. The reason we didn’t spend more time at the cottage is we were at the baseball diamond most weekends having a blast. All the hard work Bill Jerow, Sonny Thomson, and myself put into getting this going really paid off. The creation and maturation of the Gorillas team is something I am very proud of. We won 3 tournaments, got second in one, and 3rd in the other 2 tournaments we played in. The great part of the team is not just we have a great group of players, but a great group of parents who I enjoy spending my summer weekends with. We have our 10U 2017 team assembled and we begin practice indoors for next year in mid-November. One of the dads from last year and I are going to do a 9U Gorillas team so his son and my youngest son Drew can have a Gorillas team of their own to play on. If anyone is interested in looking into travel baseball let me know. All the boys REALLY improved from all the hard work they put in.
My sons Max and Drew started school again back in September. They were both very happy with the teachers they got and the friends that are in the class with them. Drew had been wanting his friend Kate Oliver to be in his class and he finally got his wish. It seems weird to me that I have sons old enough to be in 2nd and 4th grade. It is not just all my grey hair that is showing my age. My oldest son has never been so excited to go off to school as he was today. Max and all the 4th graders at Knapp Forest are going to Zoo school at John Ball Zoo for the week. Each kid will be learning about animals and they each were assigned a specific animal to study more in depth. Max’s first choice was the grizzly bear, and he got it. He is so excited for the week. I think it’s a great concept and so glad Knapp Forest is doing this. My youngest son Drew is already there in his mind and just can’t wait 2 more years until he can go.
This past weekend was the last weekend of flag football for my youngest son Drew. He had an incredible season and is really turning into a good little football player. He is not a very big kid but he is determined to be good at football. Football is his favorite sport and it is a lot of fun watching him play and coaching him. Our team was the Bears and we had a fun season. We went 3-1-2 and all the boys got better. Drew had 5 touchdowns even though he was the youngest boy on the team.
My oldest son Max is in 4th grade this year and is playing 3rd/4th grade tackle football. I am coaching Max’s team and they are having a great season. We are 5-1, and we should have won the other game, poor coaching was the reason for the loss. We have our final game this weekend. I will be sad to see the season end. We had a great group of boys and they are exciting to watch. Max has really blossomed into a great football player this year. He has a lot of touchdowns running and receiving. He has also played great defense. This group of boys has a chance to be a special team when they are older if they keep practicing. Outside of The Gorillas, I have enjoyed coaching this team the most of any other team. The combination of me loving football, and how exciting they are to watch play just makes it fun for me to coach.
My wife Karyn is doing great. She has been super busy as always taking care of the boys and myself. She is a little bummed her Spartans are having a rough year in football. The only thing that makes her feel better about that, is they beat my Irish, and my Irish are doing worse. Karyn has also been busy planning the details of our trip to Disney World around Halloween. We have Disney timeshare points and have been many times, but we have never been for Halloween. It’s a kind of bucket list item for our kids. We are all very excited and can’t wait to get there. It is also beer and wine festival time at Epcot and that has Karyn even more excited. Karyn does a great job planning our fast passes and reservations so we don’t wait in many lines and get to really enjoy every minute of our vacation. She could do it for a living if she had the time. Hopefully this will be another memorable trip to Disney.
With 2016 getting closer to being over I have been thinking of what I want to still accomplish in 2016 and if I can help others accomplish some of their goals for 2016. So if you need any help please call or email me and I will do my best to help you out. Have a great fall everyone and talk to you in a few months.
Happy Fall All!!!!
