Christa's Blog
Experiences being a Buyers Agent in the Ann Arbor and surrounding area.
Last feed update: May 21 2013 12:42:04.
Remembering My Brother Jamie, My Best Friend
Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:56:58 -0700
I remember the day that James Lindsay was born. It was March 4th 1984; I was 6 years old. My brother Matthew and I had been staying with a friend from church while mom and dad went to the hospital. We finally received the call... "The baby is here!" we screamed and danced around in circles hugging each other continuously. When we arrived at the hospital my mom answered the door grinning from ear to ear. We immediately asked her... "What did you name him?" to which she responded so proudly "James Lindsay and we will call him Jamie". Now understand that this was a huge relief to Matthew and I as mom and dad had asked for our opinions on names prior to this day. They had favored the name Andrew and my brother and I were adamant that he not be named this. We had a neighbor boy that smelled really bad and so Matt and I did not want our baby brother to be named that for fear he might smell as well. (This is no offense to my next brother that WAS named Andrew). Needless to say, mom and dad never consulted us children on names again. I am the oldest of 5 children. I have 3 brother's and a baby sister with 10 years between she and I. Being the oldest child, you feel a responsibility to your younger siblings. I've always felt the need to protect and teach them. I admit there were times in my life, that I could have done a better job. I myself went through teenage years of rebellion and fell short. Of course nothing that my gracious heavenly Father hasn't forgiven me for and always faithfully taught me valuable lessons through. In times when I've felt self doubt and guilt for not being able to live up to what would have been a "better example" the Lord has shown me grace and mercy and forgiveness. Forgiveness not only from him but forgiveness for myself THROUGH him. I took care of my siblings for years. My parents were very active in the ministry and I was the "built in" babysitter for many of those years. Jamie and I had a unique bond from the beginning. He was quiet child, very passive, very sweet. He had my heart from the beginning and I loved to care for him. Jamie was always dirty as a young boy. He would play for hours outside and never seemed to mind having dirt and mud on him. I remember carrying him inside the house and trying to clean him for mom before our family dinners. Even then, he never fussed and would always let me as I kept saying "Jamie, mommy wants you to be clean for dinner time". I was constantly writing and performing "plays" for my parents, relatives, people in our church and sometimes would summon our neighborhood for a production of "Super Book". Jamie loved hated it. I would always make him a lead role and would push for him to do them with us. I would constantly tell him that he was the best fitted for the role I had assigned and if he didn't want to do it I would plead with him "Please do not quit on me!". Jamie never quit, not in our childhood and not into our adult life. As we became young adults Jamie and I became more than siblings, we became best friends. We shared a common passion for sports, music and living life to the fullest. We both loved to laugh and could make each other laugh so hard that our stomach's hurt and tears would roll down our face. Jamie is very witty, very intelligent and would even "judge" his own jokes by giving scores of 1-10. He would also make me very aware of when my jokes would "fail" on the lower end scale of 5 or below. He'd also be the first to compliment me when it was an as he would say "Epic 10". Jamie took me to buy my first set of golf clubs. We spent 2 hours at a sports store (had he not been there I'd have purchased the first "cute bag" I found and been done. Jamie wanted me to have the best so he stayed until he found clubs that he felt suited me best. We went to the course every day for 2 weeks. It was awful. I was awful. I kept saying "Well gosh, it looks so much easier watching on TV!". After those 2 weeks, I wanted to quit. Jamie begged me for one final game so at 2pm on a sunny Tuesday afternoon we went to a small course near my parents home. I lined up for my first drive and he coached me as he always did. "Christa, keep your head down, eye on the ball take a deep breath and let the club do the work. You can do this you're so athletic...I KNOW you can do this". I swung....I drove the ball 180 yards. He jumped out of the golf cart and ran up to me screaming "There you GO! There you GO! I knew you could do it". He picked me up and swung me around as if I had just won the PGA. We played golf every summer for the next 4 years. He was proud of me. He would encourage me. He would compliment me with the most sincere compliments. The biggest compliment he gave me was this...I can quote this because I wrote it down. "Christa, you know I love you, you're my best friend. Some people might take this the wrong way because you're my sister but I want you to know that when I find myself looking for a wife, I find myself yearning for the qualities that you have. I want a woman like you to be my wife". It is and forever will be the greatest compliment that I have ever received. My brother went to be with Jesus recently on October 14th 2011. He was involved in a car accident in Nashville Tennessee and had a massive stroke which caused traumatic brain damage to his brain stem. The brain stem is the part of our brains which allows our hearts to beat and tells us to breath. It gives us the ability to support the basic functions we need for life. I have read and am still reading "Have Heart". In the days to follow, I would like to use this platform to share who my brother was is. I refuse to speak of my brother in the past tense. He is very alive, more alive than we are. I want to share with you who he was and what he had become and the things he taught me. I praise and thank my Father in heaven for the 27 years of the gift he gave me in Jamie. I have found more gratitude in my spirit over the last 3 weeks dealing with an unbelievable pain than I have found in the last 31 years of my life. I hope you will join me to read about who he is, what the Lord has done for my life and my familie's life so we can all grow as brother's and sisters in the Lord and prepare for that precious day when I get to see my brother, my best friend once again. I dedicate this blog to my beloved brother James Lindsay Caulk. Originally posted on HaveHeart
"I'm on a Lead Generating Mission Today"
Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:07:43 -0800
Have you ever woken up and thought... "I'm going to be a lead generating machine today"... Even if you have, have you ever said it publicly? Okay..by "Publicly" I mean via Social Media. Well today, I did just that. I use Facebook often....who am I kidding? I use it every day...multiple times a day. Typically though, my primary use is for fun, as a way to connect with family, friends and my social sphere. I love checking in on what's going on in my "Friends" lives and I especially love posting funny (and as I always say "Witty") commentary about my own. I've heard the drill over and over (hubby won't shut up about it!) to use Social Media to enhance my business. I do utilize that angle of it, I've just never wanted to overload my Status Updates "Stupdates" with market statistics, data and a the constant noise of promoting my own listings. (Notice I said NOISE? That's what it becomes if it's all you talk about) My rule is 60% personal and 40% business. (I tell myself that, but it's really 95% social and 5% business) I will always post my listings and once in a while if there is some insightful info about the market that my friends could use, I certainly post that as well. Let's just be upfront, I do that primarily for the purpose of reminding folks that..."Yes I'm a REALTOR®, CALL ME". So today I woke up and I DID in fact think...."I'm going to lead generate until I get an appointment". I went on "The Book" and wrote that very thing as my Status Update to encourage some of my other fellow realtors to do the same. Well for that reason, and it's my belief (like every other user of "The Book") that EVERYONE on my friends list hangs on my every status update and sometimes can't go from one task to the other during their day without checking out what I am up to. That is true, right? Three hours after my update had been made public, I received an email from a gal (whom I've never met) looking for a Realtor. She has been working at the University of Michigan and needs to find a home in the campus area. She told me that a friend of her's recommended working with me and wanted to know if I would give her a call. Shortly thereafter, I received an email from "The Facebook Friend" that told me she had seen my Facebook Update about lead generating and it reminded her of a colleage that needs to find a Realtor so she passed along my information. I now have a Buyer Consultation set up with her for next week!! I had no intention of that stupdate leading to a buyer and never would have believed it would. It was the action I was about to take that I was sure would lead me to one, but not simply the act of posting about it. I'm glad I was wrong of course but it reminded me of the incredible reach and power of social networks and especially Facebook. I'm sure my husband Bob will read this and hopefully I'll get a smile from him. He certainly deserves it, as he listens to me all day, everyday in the trenches, "Lead Generating" and is constantly trying to get me to try new stuff. I'm usually a little hesitant. Well, tomorrow based on his advice I'm going to be sending personalized video emails to a ton of my leads so I'll let you know how that works. Now I can tell him "But, honey...I'm only on Facebook because I'm trying to generate more business"
Can we return to our Roots America ?
Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:05:13 -0700
In the last few days, our leader in this Free World proclaimed that we were not a Christian Nation. America was founded on the Judeo-Christian ethic. We as a nation have overcomed many obsticles in this nation because of the Sovernity God has shown this country. Freedeom of Religion is one of our greatest rights, and everyone is free to worship however they choose. But, to deny our heritage is wrong. Watch this video, it is a song by Carmen that I learned when I was 12 years old. With this being Easter Weekend, it has been on my heart and I wanted to share with you how amazing my Lord is. Although far from a perfect Nation our Founding Fathers founded this Nation on these principals.Perhaps you have not heard this, perhaps you have forgotten....
Missy Caulk Elected Ann Arbor Board of Realtors
Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:57:15 -0700
Since my mom, Missy Caulk has been on my case for about 2 years now to start a blog. I thought it would be appropriate to make this first blog about her. Yesterday we had our annual Ann Arbor Board of Realtors general membership meeting. Appropriate for this time of year it was time for the election of two new Realtor Directors. There were 7 agents running. Truthfully, this year my mom had decided not to run, as she had been on the Board for 6 years and wanted to give other agents an opportunity to serve. However, with some persuasion from our Team Leader (broker) Chet Hill at Keller Williams and unresolved issues she decided she would give it a go. Each candidate was asked to speak for "2 minutes" prior to the voting. Mom started out her speech by saying "When I was thinking about what to say I had to decide if I was going to "run on experience.....or if I was going to run on change". Contrary to common belief she does surprise me and has a sense of humor at times. Everyone cracked up. The biggest issues our board has been working through are if we are going to switch completely back to using old lock boxes or stay with the e-key. We've extended our contract with Supra e-key for one more year which mom made clear she was in favor of due to safety issues that we've had come up in Ann Arbor in recent months. We are also in negotiations regarding merging the MLS to become either regional or a state wide MLS or to have a single point of entry. Of the 7 candidates she was the only one that addressed the issues specifically and didn't speak too much on the "fluff". How refreshing! Maybe in her next life she should become a politician. She said to me, "I don't think I'm going to get elected this time". I responded, "You said that last time". At the end of the meeting it was announced that both Missy Caulk and Latonya Keith (our broker at Keller Williams) had won.. (Much to the dismay of the 3 other companies running candidates). I had no problem throwing the "I told you so" at her. Was there ever any doubt? Today at our office we had a champagne celebration. Congratulations mom you are an incredible woman and you never cease to amaze me! (Please excuse my terrible video skills! I'm still working on those too)
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