Team Psaradelis Blog

Tomorrow we officially have a new president! Unfortunately it will happen while most of us are at work so SET UP YOUR TIVO! Regardless of who you voted for it's time to support who we elected to lead our country.

Did you know...

The oath the president takes is "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." The newly elected or re-elected President traditionally adds "so help me God" to the constitutionally mandated statement.

There is no requirement that any book, or in particular a book of sacred text, be used to administer the oath, and none is mentioned in the Constitution. Use of the Bible being customary for oaths, at least in the 18th and 19th centuries, a Bible was generally used.

Yes it's official; I have lost my mind! Yesterday I made the decision to run my first 1/2 marathon... Why, you ask? Well first off it is the "Rock n Roll Marathon" in Seattle. Pretty cool name. Next, there are bands every mile. That means live music for all 13.1 miles...how sweet is that? And last but not least, I need a goal to go after. 13.1 miles seems like a lot of running, however when you start looking at the training schedule for a 1/2 marathon, it seems attainable especially for someone like me. Check it out: http://www.jeffgalloway.com/training/half_marathon.html

This training is a 17 week schedule, with only running 3 days/week. The first week ends with a 3 mile run. And being that the 1/2 marathon is 21 weeks away, that means I have an additional 4 more weeks to train. Today was my first day. I started with a 25 minute run at 11 minutes/mile with a couple 10 minute walks to start and finish...not a bad start!  Hey, if you are interested in joining me on this 1/2 marathon, lets do it!

I just discovered Pandora Radio and I'm hooked! Pandora is a free internet radio station but the difference is they play songs that have the same musical sound by different artists. So if you're in a mellow mood that's what you'll get mellow music, if you're in a funky mood you'll just get funky music.

What I really like is I don't just get the same artist over and over again. Plus I don't get some really energetic songs and then get hit with a slow song to lose my momentum. And there's no commercials!!!!

Here's what Pandora's website says about their site "(we) capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like."

It's completely free so you have nothing to lose! www.pandora.com

The Super Bowl is only a few weeks away and I heard this amazing story on the radio that I wanted to share from ESPN's Rick Reilly. Warning, you might want to get the tissue out.....

They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas.

It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.

Did you hear that? The other team's fans?

They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, "Go Tornadoes!" Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions.

It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players on—by name.

"I never in my life thought I'd hear people cheering for us to hit their kids," recalls Gainesville's QB and middle linebacker, Isaiah. "I wouldn't expect another parent to tell somebody to hit their kids. But they wanted us to!"

And even though Faith walloped them 33-14, the Gainesville kids were so happy that after the game they gave head coach Mark Williams a sideline squirt-bottle shower like he'd just won state. Gotta be the first Gatorade bath in history for an 0-9 coach.

But then you saw the 12 uniformed officers escorting the 14 Gainesville players off the field and two and two started to make four. They lined the players up in groups of five—handcuffs ready in their back pockets—and marched them to the team bus. That's because Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility 75 miles north of Dallas. Every game it plays is on the road.

This all started when Faith's head coach, Kris Hogan, wanted to do something kind for the Gainesville team. Faith had never played Gainesville, but he already knew the score. After all, Faith was 7-2 going into the game, Gainesville 0-8 with 2 TDs all year. Faith has 70 kids, 11 coaches, the latest equipment and involved parents. Gainesville has a lot of kids with convictions for drugs, assault and robbery—many of whose families had disowned them—wearing seven-year-old shoulder pads and ancient helmets.

So Hogan had this idea. What if half of our fans—for one night only—cheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the Faithful to do just that. "Here's the message I want you to send:" Hogan wrote. "You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth."

Some people were naturally confused. One Faith player walked into Hogan's office and asked, "Coach, why are we doing this?"

And Hogan said, "Imagine if you didn't have a home life. Imagine if everybody had pretty much given up on you. Now imagine what it would mean for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you."

Next thing you know, the Gainesville Tornadoes were turning around on their bench to see something they never had before. Hundreds of fans. And actual cheerleaders!

"I thought maybe they were confused," said Alex, a Gainesville lineman (only first names are released by the prison). "They started yelling 'DEE-fense!' when their team had the ball. I said, 'What? Why they cheerin' for us?'"

It was a strange experience for boys who most people cross the street to avoid. "We can tell people are a little afraid of us when we come to the games," says Gerald, a lineman who will wind up doing more than three years. "You can see it in their eyes. They're lookin' at us like we're criminals. But these people, they were yellin' for us! By our names!"

Maybe it figures that Gainesville played better than it had all season, scoring the game's last two touchdowns. Of course, this might be because Hogan put his third-string nose guard at safety and his third-string cornerback at defensive end. Still.

After the game, both teams gathered in the middle of the field to pray and that's when Isaiah surprised everybody by asking to lead. "We had no idea what the kid was going to say," remembers Coach Hogan. But Isaiah said this: "Lord, I don't know how this happened, so I don't know how to say thank You, but I never would've known there was so many people in the world that cared about us."

And it was a good thing everybody's heads were bowed because they might've seen Hogan wiping away tears.

As the Tornadoes walked back to their bus under guard, they each were handed a bag for the ride home—a burger, some fries, a soda, some candy, a Bible and an encouraging letter from a Faith player.

The Gainesville coach saw Hogan, grabbed him hard by the shoulders and said, "You'll never know what your people did for these kids tonight. You'll never, ever know."

And as the bus pulled away, all the Gainesville players crammed to one side and pressed their hands to the window, staring at these people they'd never met before, watching their waves and smiles disappearing into the night.

Anyway, with the economy six feet under and Christmas running on about three and a half reindeer, it's nice to know that one of the best presents you can give is still absolutely free.

Hope.

It's getting harder and harder for most people to make ends meet. And on top of that many Americans have credit scores that could really use some work. Times are tough but it's a new year, so let's try and Improve Your Credit!

Your credit score is kind of like how much you weigh, no one ever talks about it. Not quite sure why. Maybe if we did we would strive to be slimmer and have better credit. We also don't talk about how much debt we have. I say talk about it, not brag, but really talk about it. Maybe admit some decisions were bad or explain how you paid off a high bill or measures you are taking to pay things off. You might inspire someone, especially your children!

I have a friend that commited to putting all extra money toward their student loans in 2008. It wasn't much each month but by the end of the year they had paid off 15% of their debt. That's inspiring!

If you need some more tips, check out our website or contact us directly!

Does making one extra mortgage payment a year really help? You bet it does!There's a simple trick to significantly reduce the length of your mortgage and save you thousands of dollars. The trick is to make one extra mortgage payment a year and apply that payment toward your loan's principal.

Here's an example!

Example: $100,000 loan, 30-year mortgage, 6.5% fixed interest rate

 If you have questions or need any help PLEASE contact Sean or Brian Psaradelis at (425) 297-4220. This really does work and who wouldn't want to reduce their mortgage loan?

Happy 2009! We had a great time bringing in the New Year, as seen by the eyes of 4 year olds! New Years Eve doesn't make a lot of sense to a 4 year old. We count down from 10 every night to turn the lights off at bedtime so that wasn't exciting. The highlight was by far seeing fireworks coming out of the Space Needle, or Space Noodle as they call it.

I'm not really a resolutions type of person but I am making an effort to try new recipes this year. Sometimes we get stuck in a rut with our meals so I'm trying new ones. So far none have been that exciting but we'll see.

Hope you have a fantastic 2009!