Half Way

After last nights class I am now officially done with half of my MBA program! I was so excited last night that I went home and fell asleep. It was a long last week of this class preparing for our group speech and writing the group paper. Our speech was a bit long, but I think we hit the highlights that we needed for the Professor.

One of the biggest take aways thus far in this MBA program has been the dynamics of working in a group setting and how to operate within that group. While it is challenging at times my ability to encourage, coach, and participate with my group is growing and I am excited that this skill set is being used. Working full time and going to school definitely stretches you and I am very thankful for a supportive wife and partner in Melissa. I am not quite sure if I could do all that I do without her. I am continually blessed by my wife and I sure when this degree is done she will feel like she has graduated with me.

One Year Ago Today!

Yes - today marks the date - our first year of marriage is now in the books! It was today last year that we were all making our way up to Timberline Lodge to celebrate the marriage of Melissa and Nathan in the snow. While our wedding was amazing our lives together in marriage is the real adventure and the sweetest part of this story.

This year has flown by and as Melissa and I reflected last night our first year of marriage has been wonderful. It was not always easy, but we are learning as we go and I think every year will get better and better. Melissa has a surprise for me tonight and will not tell me what we are doing for our anniversary. This coming weekend we are going to head over to the Oregon Coast and spend some time in a house we rented in Neskowin just north of Lincoln City. We are praying for sunshine and blue skies but will be happy with 50 mile an hour winds and rain as well =)

Our friends Peter and C also surprised us with a fabulous dinner last night at their new house in Canby. It was a candle light dinner that was amazing and we also got to hear about their wedding in Seattle that we were not able to attend. We feel blessed by our family and friends and look forward to many more years to come.

M & N

Happiness Index

I was reading CNN today and came across an article outlining the new book written by Eric Weirner - "The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World". I was struck by this article as we have been going through a sermon at church on greed over the last month and I was interested in what Eric had found on his journey. I posted the article below from CNN. The most interesting piece of the whole article is that in the second to last sentence Eric states, "I would describe myself as a recovering grump," Weiner said. "At this point, I think I am marginally happier than before I started the project."

God has to be our fulfillment here on earth because nothing and I say nothing will fill that void except knowing and having a relationship with God. While Eric did not come to that conclusion in his book I also noticed he is still not completly satisfied with this life.


'Grump' travels the planet to find bliss
Story HighlightsJournalist spent a year looking for the world's happiest countries

Eric Weiner: Bhutan is probably the closest thing on Earth to Shangri-La

He marvels at the creativity and "coziness" of Iceland

Self-described "grump:" chocolate contributes to happiness in Switzerland

By A. Pawlowski
CNN
(CNN) -- It may take a lot of frequent-flier miles, a penchant for cold places, a tolerance of taxes and regular doses of chocolate, but happiness could be within reach. However, it's not where most people might expect.

Just ask Eric Weiner, who made it his mission to find the most content places around the globe, uncovering lots of surprises along the way.

Hungering for a tropical paradise? A warm climate doesn't necessarily make a happy nation, Weiner said.

Thinking of moving to a wealthy state? Money can degrade happiness, he found.

Weiner, who wrote the book, "The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World," began his quest for very personal reasons.

"I'm an unhappy person, so it's kind of what prompts a hungry person to search for food," he said.

Weiner spent 10 years as a foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, a job that took him to some of the least happy places in the world.

It was enough to send him on a yearlong journey to look for just the opposite.

Weiner mapped out his quest with a combination of scientific and personal methods, choosing some countries because they traditionally score high on happiness surveys and selecting others to see how factors like money play a role.

A world map of happiness, based on 100 different studies and produced by Britain's University of Leicester in 2006, listed Denmark as the world's happiest nation.

But for Weiner, the place where he felt the most bliss was a toss-up between Bhutan and Iceland, countries that ranked eighth and fourth, respectively, on the happiness map. Weiner's list of favorites also included Thailand, India and Switzerland. See photos of his favorites and listen to him explain why they're happy »

His top two picks, though very different countries, have unconventional paths to happiness, he said.

"Bhutan is probably the closest thing on Earth to Shangri-La, that fictional paradise," Weiner explained.

He pointed out that while other countries focus on their gross domestic product, the Himalayan kingdom proudly touts its policy of "gross national happiness."

"The Bhutanese very much believe that happiness should be part and parcel of every government decision," Weiner said.

Cold place, warm relationships

Thousands of miles away, Weiner found happiness in a very different environment, marveling at the creativity and "coziness" of Iceland.

"Everyone in Iceland is a poet," Weiner recalled.

He visited the country during winter and said he found a certain beauty in the cold and the darkness. Such a chilly climate usually encourages warm relationships, Weiner found.

"The cold inspires people to cooperate, traditionally. If you go back a few hundred years, people in cold climates have to cooperate or they die together. It's that simple," he said.

Weiner found a different flavor of happiness in Switzerland, where he discovered people are content partly because everything runs like clockwork. Simple pleasures like trains arriving on time contributed to national happiness, he said.

But there may be a much sweeter reason why Switzerland is a happy place.

"The Swiss eat a lot of chocolate, and let's not forget that," Weiner said.

He was also impressed with how the Swiss view money.

"Their attitude is that if you've got it, hide it. While our attitude is if you've got it, flaunt it," Weiner said, comparing the Swiss to Americans.

Weiner called the United States, which came in at No. 23 on the University of Leicester's world map of happiness, a nation that "is not as happy as it is wealthy."

The impact of wealth and taxes

The relationship between money and happiness took Weiner to the Middle East and Qatar, a country with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, thanks to oil and natural gas revenues, according to the CIA World Factbook.

"I went there specifically to examine what happens when the entire country wins the lottery," Weiner said. He found the wealth made the residents comfortable, but also degraded their level of contentment.

"Most of our happiness is derived from our relationships with other people," Weiner said. "The money in Qatar has allowed them to wall themselves off, literally and figuratively, from other people. ... That's not a recipe for happiness."

There are no income taxes in Qatar, but that's not a cause for contentment, Weiner found. Some taxation is necessary for happiness because it's a way of being invested in a place, he argued.

"You're giving money to someone else, a government, and you're trusting them to do something good with it," Weiner said. "In a country where there's no taxation at all, people don't have vested interests in how well the government performs. You can't say, 'Hey, those are my tax dollars at work.'"

Quest creates buzz

Weiner's book has struck a chord, recently rising to the top 10 of The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list. An expert who studies happiness said part of the book's appeal may lie in how Weiner mapped out his journey.

"He arranges an interesting itinerary because he uses science as his compass," said Daniel Gilbert, a psychology professor at Harvard University and the author of "Stumbling on Happiness."

Gilbert said it's only recently that a combination of biology, sociology and psychology has been able to answer the "where's and why's" of happiness, a subject that has always fascinated people.

"The quest for happiness is the central preoccupation of human beings and has been for as long as there have been human beings," Gilbert said.

He echoed Weiner's findings that bliss is other people.

"Everyone has been telling us for the longest time that happiness is about social relationships, well, bingo, they're right," Gilbert said.

Meanwhile, after a year of exploring some of the world's happiest places, Weiner -- the self-described "grump" -- said his mind-set has improved somewhat.

"I would describe myself as a recovering grump," Weiner said. "At this point, I think I am marginally happier than before I started the project."

Imago Appreciation Night

This is coming out a bit late but a few weeks ago Melissa, Tamara, and myself all went to the Imago Dei Apprciation night downtown for the community group leaders and volunteer staff at our church. We got dressed up to the nines and had a night on the town that started with a beautiful dinner provided by Imago. We danced a little, ate a lot, and enjoyed the program that Imago put on. God has truly blessed our church and you can see His works in so many lives that we fellowship with. The transformation that happens when you let God take control is amazing and it is a humbling experience to see that work itself out in our lives.

After the appreciation dinner we went out for a drink at El Gaucho's in the Benson Hotel. We figured we were dressed to the nines and we needed to go to a classy spot. I will say their drinks are a bit overpriced, but live spanish guitar is tuff to beat on a saturday night =)

Love

M & N's

Crazy Interest Rates

The Fed has been active in brining interest rates down over the last month. This week Fed Chariman Bernake cut rates another 50 basis points.... Here is what a leading economist had to say about these cuts....

The Big Ease – But For How Long?
The Fed did not disappoint the market on Wednesday as it delivered another 50 basis point cut to its target rate. Since topping out at 5.25% in June 2006 and remaining there until September 2007, the Fed has now cut its target rate 225 basis points to the current 3%. The magnitude of the 125 basis point cut in an eight day period seems fairly unprecedented in Fed history showing that they are clearly trying to (re)act to prevent a U.S. recession.

The economic data from the week definitely shows some cause for concern – which has left the market still hoping for more in the way of cuts from the Fed. First, GDP hit a low of 0.6% in the Final Quarter of 2007 and December New Home Sales fell to their lowest point in 12 years. Non-Farm Payrolls fell 17k – their first decline since 2003 and grew by about 1 million over the past year versus 2 million the year before. But despite falling Payrolls, unemployment did not rise but fell from 5% to 4.9%. Personal Income rose 0.5% - more than the expected 0.4%. Consumer Spending was down -- off from the previous month -- but did manage to beat expectations.

With both the general economy and job growth slowing, the Fed is fiercely delivering interest rate relief to borrowers. So far, the 10-Year Treasury rate has reacted by falling along with the Fed rate cuts as investors seek safety. Some market pundits expect the yield curve to continue to steepen - meaning the difference between short and long term rates will rise. This expectation for more steepening is reflected in the Fed Funds Futures market expectations for further Fed cuts and the consensus of economists’ estimates that the 10-Year Treasury rate at year end will be above 4% (Remember, we are less than 50 basis points above the 10-Year Treasury rate 40-year low of 3.11%.) Also, debate is already taking place on just how long it will be before the Fed needs to reverse course and start raising rates – with the market now setting odds for the first rise later this year.