Fly American

Yesterday I (Jeff) was blessed to have an experience that let me "soar beyond my pay grade" for a little while. Through some networking at Kellogg, I was able to land a meeting with a person I've had on my "Famous People I'd Like To Share A Beer With" list: Gerard Arpey, CEO of American Airlines. So I jumped in my car at 3am, headed north to Milwaukee and caught the early flight to Dallas (Milwaukee simply because flights were half the cost of flying out of O'Hare...and double miles bonus!).

First, while many of you know that I can talk about the airline business and travel for endless hours, I realized that most of my questions about those issues would be wasted time, as I could find the answers online. So I formed a bunch of questions about stuff that I couldn't find in internetland: leadership. Boring, right? Not at all. We spent 2/3rds of the next hour talking about leadership and faith (!). Here's some selective takeaways from our time together, in random order:

• He is a big fan of Tim Keller, the pastor/author in NY, and highly recommended any of his books.
• His colleagues apparently dubbed him with his own acronym for leadership: WIDE (Wisdom, Integrity, Drive, Empathy)
• The entitlement mentality of many Americans is one of the most dangerous traps in society. Dangerous not just to our country, but to those people individually
  
• When asked about all of the attacks that come from being a prominent CEO, he said because of his faith: "the attacks affect me, but they don't move me."
• "You control the inputs in life. God controls the outputs." (Love this quote)
• His Christian faith/walk is the cornerstone of his leadership and he noted that he really does not understand how other people can carry on without this cornerstone
  
• He and his wife feel that God has called him to American Airlines to do what he's doing. As he noted, he could make a lot more money with a lot less headaches in another industry, but American is where he feels called to be
  
• He believes there is a high correlation between great companies and long-term consistent management (most of his senior management team has been working together at AA for 30+ years)
  
• Thinks we will see a global airline (i.e. someone like Star Alliance or oneworld becomes a single carrier) within his lifetime
• Thinks that with global growth, and the invaluable service that airlines provide, that somewhere down the road we'll see air travel demand explode globally
• Leadership is the same across industries and situations, only the business strategy differs
• Always try to do the right thing, there's a lot of gray out there, but always try to do the right thing (note: American is the only legacy carrier that hasn't declared bankruptcy, and Arpey has fought tooth and nail not to go this route despite the fact that all of their competitors have used this to reduce costs)

Bottom line: I have met and worked with a lot of C-suite executives in my day, and he really really impressed me. And based on my time with him and talking with a bunch of others, his attempt to walk in faith and do the right thing is obvious to many others. It always gives me hope to see and know that it's possible to follow Christ and lead a huge company. No person is perfect, but it's refreshing to observe authenticity and integrity when that's so hard to hold onto the higher you climb in the corporate world.

So let's all try to do the right thing, and fly American.

Zulily!

I was referred by a dear friend to this super fun site called Zulily.com . Its like a Gilt.com but for baby, kid and mommy items. I have seen some of the most unique items not only in the kids clothing options, but in the decorating options. I just purchased my first items for Emerson, and I can not wait for her to grow into them. I’m hoping she will fit into them for the summer and some of our fun parties.

If you need a referral here is one http://www.zulily.com/referafriend/?135808

Quickie

Allison and I went downtown for a lovely date Friday night. And while strolling through Wicker Park, we encountered a sign that made us stop, back up, and take a picture. Now, I understand "the quickie" is a legitimate form of amorous expression, but I've never known that IDOT felt it was worth advertising.

4 Months!

Emerson is Four Months today.... She is a super cute little girl who smiles often flashing her dimples on both cheeks. She hangs out with her daddy during the day, which often causes him to express his need for more firearms to fend off all the suitors in the years to come.

She is an awesome sleeper and continues to excel with her gross motor skills. She is starting to really notice her surroundings and loves to watch all the butterflies flutter on her mobile in her room. She has been starting to learn to sit up all on her own, but still mostly falls over.

She is a good little traveler who has taken one lengthy road trip and seven airplane flights already. We have learned the Emerson likes the planes up in the air, much more than on the ground... hopefully this is more reason to take overseas flights ;)

She loves to drool and explore things with her mouth (read: put everything INTO her mouth!). She "talks" almost as much as her mother does, and loves to have conversations with her animals. She is our joy.

Here are her stats.
Weight - 16lbs 2oz (90%)
Height - 24 1/8" (50%)
Head - 16 5/8" (75%)

Finally, her length is catching up to her weight!

Also, I promise I have put other clothes on her other than this (uber cute) pink dress in the last month. It is just coincidence that she is wearing the same thing as last month. You can check it out here, errr... I mean, here for evidence that I put her in other clothes. Gotta love Baby Gap!

3 Months
2 Months
1 Month
Birthday!

Amazon Lists

So, I added a new feature on the side of our blog -->

Its called "Amazon Lists", and it has links to a bunch of our Amazon lists. There you can find our wish lists (for Jeff, Allison, and even stuff for Emerson) which we generally update regularly. We have had a few requests, and since this blog is fast becoming the "home page" for all things Smith-y, this is a good place.

Also, you will find to other lists:

1) List of Kiddo Books we Already Own: hopefully self explanatory... but as I have been purchasing books for other people, I keep wondering "what if they already have this one?"... so, if you ever want to give our kid/s books, I will keep this list updated, and you can see what we already have.

2) Allison's Best Baby Recommendations: I still need to update this list with comments, but I have also been getting some requests for my favorite baby items. So, I will continue to update this list as Em grows into new development stages. I am far from an expert, but I certainly do my research (read: I am a NERD!) and I am happy to be a data point for anyone interested.

So... enjoy this new and exciting feature of our blog (I know... you just wet your self with excitement)

Wagons West

Despite life being very far from where we thought it would be, we have had another trip planned for a while now (shocker). And thus, this past Wednesday night, we saddled up, jumped on a plane, and headed westward for the far away land known as "Colorado".

We saw Kubiks:

Lauren Kubik is a cute ball of energy, whose command of the word "Actually" is impressive and pervasive throughout her speech. Most sentences (especially after you give her a command) begin with, "Actually...[insert rationale for why she doesn't want to do whatever you just told her to]". She is also a connoisseur of shoes and the color pink. And she was kind enough to let Jeff have one of her fudge pops for breakfast after insisting for a while that "Boys aren't allowed to have popsicles". And she was kind enough to read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" to Emerson. The cuteness factor was very very high.

Dave and Kate were kind enough to let us invade for a few days and get a glimpse into their lives. Colorado seems to fit them well. And at the very least, it's hard to argue against the weather. Sign me up.

We saw Kelly & Brandon:

We drove down to Colorado Springs to enjoy the day and visit Jeff's sister, Kelly, and her boyfriend Brandon. We enjoyed a drive through the mountains, a couple McDonald's ice cream cones, a walk through the Garden of the Gods, some picturesque views of Pike's Peak, and a drive around the Broadmoor Resort. The night was celebrated like true Europeans (no, we didn't partake in any "free" health care), as we enjoyed a home-cooked meal with Kelly and Brandon around 10:30pm.

After eating some leftover kabobs for breakfast, we said goodbye, saddled up, and headed back north to Denver to see...

Song & Peter Gedney:

Song is a long-time friend of Allison, hailing back to her undergrad days at CU Boulder. We got to see their new car, new house, new baby stuff, and let Allison google over their pending arrival, Baby Angus, any day now. It's been a mellow stay, where we've gotten to give them a glimpse of how headstrong 3.5 month old babies can be (thanks, Emerson), enjoy a game night (how did Allison win twice at Ticket To Ride? Does this mean the Cubs do have a chance this year after all?), cook some awesome blue cheese burgers, and enjoy a lot of hanging out. The mellow life isn't a bad one, even if we aren't always very good at it.

Tomorrow we are homeward bound, back to reality. We are blessed to have spent the time out here, and hope to make it a more regular occurrence.