Chismville

I recently got a letter in the mail at work from someone I did not know! Huh! Has that ever happened to you? Ha! I know…lots of time. We call it “junk mail.” Well, I opened it because it had my name on it and was hard, so I figured there was a credit card or gift card inside. Oh Goody! What could it be? Plus I recognized the writing (more on that in a moment).

I opened up my junk mail from a guy in the Boston area that had a nice little “digital hand-written” note with a $5 gift card to Starbucks! How did he know I liked coffee? Why did some random guy give me $5 to Starbucks? Well, the note explained: “to put a smile on your face, David!” Good grief! The whole thing was a multilevel marketing program trying to get me to buy a note card company that sends cards to individuals with your digital handwriting on it. It is supposed to be as personal as it gets!

Well, I have someone locally who sends me the exact same cards and has tried to get our company to embrace the “unbelievable” business opportunity! The concept is not stupid but needs major improvement. The idea is that when you think of someone or a business contact, instead of sitting down and writing a personal, handwritten note, you use this company to do it. They write the note, print it and mail it! It supposedly looks real, but I have to tell you, it looks so fake and impersonal that I would never send it. My idea, from a marketing or just plan common sense perspective, is that if a person does not have 5 minutes to write a personal note on a postcard or letterhead, he or she should not waste money on sending a generic note out at all.

I get these notes from others that say thanks for attending a conference or for helping with this or that…but to me, it means nothing! I feel like the note is from a friendly computer, not a person!

Ok…anyways, back to my story. So I get this $5 gift card from this guy back east, and I think it is over…He is done sending me stuff! Does he stop there? No! He tries harder. I think he sent me just a regular letterhead note and package the next time. Is he done? Nope! He wants to market to ME even more. So then he sends me a supposedly custom email this morning that made me start cracking up. It was so generic and staged that I just thought to myself, “Does the guy sell any of these cards.” I had to show it to my friends reading this just for fun!

Marketing Genius? You decide!

I’ve always been good at journaling when I’ve had nothing in particular to write about. It’s those times that there’s tons to say I struggle. Now I wouldn’t label this affliction writer’s block for it’s something much more banal–I’ll go for calling it plain and simple business of life. Of late details have been spinning far too swiftly for me to pin them all down and put them on paper or uhhm, pixels. (One day it’ll be poetic to say “pixels.”) What with celebrating Joel’s third birthday, David’s thirtieth birthday, our fourth anniversary and moving our little family to the other side of North America, August is loaded!

Joel’s dreams came true this past week when he received his very own wooden train set. My dreams have been coming true all of my life–my good dreams. My very vivid imagination allows for all sorts of bazaar and terrifying nightmares on occasion, but it’s my happiest daydreams that keep becoming reality for me as the days go by. The book versus blog distinction prohibits me from posting the daydreams come true of long ago. The creativity of our all- powerful God allow for the variations and design triumphs that make the garment of life more original and beautiful. I love to look back and see how God has directed the course of my life. At the same time I loathe my own persistent lack of trust in God. My worries over little and big details always boil down to a lack of trust in my ever-faithful Heavenly Father.

It is so hard saying good bye to the dear friends I’ve made here in San Diego. Last week we finished up books in two separate book studies. Almost as long as I’ve been married to David and living in San Diego, a group of us girls has met at Emily’s house or my house every other Tuesday to discuss a variety of books. Last Tuesday we discussed the last two chapters of a book entitled UnChristian. Then on Thursday we finished an intimate couples study on Love that Lasts. It is so marvelous how God takes such things into consideration! As I look forward to this family road trip across the country, I think it’s also interesting and providential how Aria is my only baby who I’ve trained to take a bottle. This will certainly save time as we won’t have to make stops every 2 ½ hours along the way!

There are many things I look forward to in Libertytown, Maryland. Amongst them is seeing my sister Kendra through her pregnancy, doing pilates in the early morning hours with various sisters, watching Joel bond with and learn from his young uncles Seth and Joseph, and having various family members, my grandparents and close friends over for a meal and games nights. I dearly treasure the possibility of being involved in my young siblings lives. I would always have a small twinge of anguish to hear of my married sisters taking Trina or Seth or Joseph on an outing. My dad will be able to visit us without having to get time off of work. I thrill with childish delight to think of exploring the pretty places of my hometown with my own husband. We’ll take walks through historic downtown Frederick, play tennis together at Libertytown park, follow the creek and let our kids get muddy playing in it like I loved to do! We’ll go sledding and make snowmen and then warm up with hot chocolate and wassail. We can drive to Annapolis, Gettysburg, Harper’s Ferry, Chincoteague, and DC to see the sights and enjoy time together.

I can hardly believe how swiftly our lives have changed. A couple weeks ago, I was painting the wooden letters of Aria’s name and mounting them above her crib. Now we’re labeling boxes. A few months ago we were preparing to have a baby and moving a few miles. That move was just a fire drill for the big cross-country venture. When I packed my luggage for my honeymoon in Maine and a new life in San Diego, I never would have dreamed that just four years later, we’d be a happy family of five, my usual car to drive would be a minivan or I’d be developing my thesis on how to regularly achieve the concurrent three-child nap! God is good to us. I certainly can’t imagine knowing the details of life for every living thing let alone orchestrating them in harmony!

Stay tuned on our adventures. Most likely my trusty, techy husband will keep people up to date even when our computer is stowed away in many layers of packaging materials on a moving vehicle.

I guess you can figure out from my Headline that the Chism Family is making the BIG move to the east coast. If you could not figure it out or were troubled by it, well…don’t be! It is the honest truth to date. With much prayer, I, Dave Chism, have decided to move my growing family to be closer to Joli’s family in Maryland. Some of the fine details about the actual location and job situation is still in the works. In short, we hope to live 30 min to 1 hour from the Washington D.C. area near or around Frederick County. Everything is happening so fast, but it looks like we might be packing up our home here and driving back east around the end of August or the first week of September.

Some of you may be asking why such a big move, Dave? Whew! That is a tough question to answer! I still have many hours of doubts building up in my mind right now, so I might have a better answer in a few years when I look back to see what the Lord was/is doing. I will try to give you all the short and clearest answer: Joli and I have talked a lot about someday being on the east coast to either raise our family or after our kids were grown. I guess in more recent months the thoughts have been settling on the plan of raising kids back there instead of retirement. Joli was a trooper to leave her entire family and extended family to marry a west coast, native from San Diego. She left it all to follow me. It has been a wonderful 4 years yet still a challenge at time. I think now the tables have turned where I feel a longing to be near her family! It is very mutual! Her siblings are still very young, and we wish to see them grow up being near by if at all possible.

Another major factor in my decision to move east is to get experience as a leader of my home and in the business community on my own. I’m not necessarily trying to be independent. God has been SO good to bless me with one of the best jobs I can ever have: working for my father. He is an amazing boss and has given me the freedom and liberty to be creative in his business. Many sons tend to get experience outside the family business before committing to take over the business. One can learn a lot about serving a boss who is not his father, and I will now get that opportunity. My dad always thought it was a good idea to work for someone but I was too scared to branch out on my own or leave because of the stable and wonderful job I had. I grew to really like my job and put my whole heart and soul into it. I then began to wonder if I could work for another boss and be a good and faithful employee. Would I have the discipline and the determination to be successful? I don’t know! So, I have lacked the confidence to grow in my business and leadership skills and feel it is time to make the second biggest decision of my life: moving to the other side of America (1st big decision was marrying Joli).

The reason for leaving now instead of a few years ago probably has to do with our current situation at Chism Bros. The economy in San Diego has been getting worse every week, and we are now in the middle of a recession. For the past 10 years, we have been in a growth mode and have been richly blessed. With my uncle, Pat Chism, dying of cancer a few years ago, I could not leave, because my Dad had to take a lot of time off to be with him. The following year was even more busy and I had no one to replace me. I finally have begun to share my estimating system with 2 employees this past year, and I feel confident that I am more replaceable. So now is a better time to leave than ever!

So, we will continue to post our plans, thoughts, travel plans, prayers and updates of our new life in Maryland in the coming days, weeks and months! Please drop us a line when you can! Thanks for reading.