The Rudko’s have a few more trips up our sleeves. We’ll be in Lake George this week and in Connecticut in September. My sister Motria is getting married and everyone will be there, here is a picture of Deeko already pulling his tuxedo out of the closet. Yes, he does a lot of black tie events throughout the year so he has his own tux. I guess they really due emulate their father, I just didn’t think it would be this soon! My cloning project is working perfectly. We all hope Motria & Robert have a terrific day. It will be a great time, looking to report on it next month.

 We had a great time with my BNI networking group “Sweet Success” at the Blue Claws game. I don’t think Santino will be much of an athlete. He spent much of his time more interested in the bounce house and walking around. Deeko on the other hand has quite an arm and watched most of the game, waiting for a ball to come his way. Although I’m glad that the close ones we had were just out of reach since he didn’t have a glove! They have quite a stadium if you ever have the chance to go to a game. Plenty to do, even if you can’t sit still for the game. Here’s a shot of Santino and myself over in the outfield. Yes, it was just to the left of the bounce house, it’s the only way we got him to walk around for the shot.

 I’m looking forward to spending some final days on vacation with the kids. It’s all business for me until the end of the year. Well maybe not completely, but for the most part. We have quite a few projects to finish up and I always start thinking about end of year once the 3rd quarter ends. My wife Sunny laughs because she says I managed the family on the fiscal year. I guess I do, but what other way is there? Suggestions?

What will my kids talk about when they’re my age? Will it be Thomas the Tank Engine, The Wiggles, or maybe Buzz Lightyear? I wish I could only explain to them to stay where they are and grow up slowly.  For my sake and their own. I can’t believe my oldest is already 4, and the little guy is not so little anymore. I was always too ahead of myself, never in the moment. I lived my youth wanting time to go by quickly so I could start making my own decisions and get my career going. I think I started thinking that way a bit too young, at 10 or so. I’m just thinking that I hope my boys don’t follow that part of my footsteps. Any ideas on how to keep them right where they are?

We welcomed a new member of the family this month, congratulation’s to Douglas and Jenna on the birth of Douglas Thomas! I hope you guys get sleep soon, lol. It’s been so much fun to watch their oldest Nicolette and Santino grow up together. I’m still not used to being called Uncle Dee by 6 people ranging from 5 to 25 years old. I really got a jump start when I joined this family. It’s funny when Santino hangs out with my nieces and nephews and comes home calling me Uncle Dee.

So August seems it’s going to go by too fast. I hope everyone finds the time to get away and enjoy some summer before it’s gone. I think we have a few trips still planned, although scheduling them has been difficult. But I can’t complain, the year has been good to us and we’re all very thankful. More to come, be sure to comment on my questions. Come out and see us at our upcoming events. The Matawan-Aberdeen Idol Singing Contest will be August 3rd at 6PM on Main Street in Matawan, we have a few others before the end of summer so take a peek and come visit.

After all of the excitement of the past few months the family had the chance to get away for a spell to the family house upstate. Funny, while we were there we found some familiar characters in the photo to the right. Does anyone recognize these notorious gangsters? OK, so maybe not all of us are notorious gangsters but the 2 little ones are for sure! We try and do it all up there, and it was funny that the last time we had done one of these pictures we only had Santino, so we had to get an updated photo. The extended weekend was mostly spent in the Lake George area, Water Slide World, the family house on the Hudson River and some stops here and in-between. I can honestly say I only opened up my laptop twice, and I think once was just to look something up locally. Can someone tell me if learning how to relax just comes with age? I’ll tell ya it’s been getting easier, but it’s so stressful for the years you try and figure out how to unstress! Doesn’t that defeat the purpose? Regardless, I’d like to hear from anyone that can tell me if and when they noticed things just got less stressful: was it at a certain age, monetary goal success, moving, children, marriage, promotion? What was it, or maybe it hasn’t happened?

More trips to come. If any of you want to share your thoughts in the blog, please feel free. I’ve also started a mission on Twitter “DeeRudko” and you probably all know how to find me on Facebook “Dee Rudko”. A new fun little application is Foursquare. It’s an application that allows you to check into locations as you move through your day, it also links back to Twitter and Facebook. Check it out. I’ve been playing a bit of a game with a few of my friends to see who can score the most check in points. So far Cliff has us all beat, but I’m trying to catch up. Check it out and search for me. If you haven’t started in social media, you should. The business opportunities are endless. The personal aspects are fun. I found people I haven’t talk to since grade school. Funny thing is I started networking with them in business as well. Funny, some of us were fighting on the playground, now we’re passing business referrals. Who would have thought?

We’ve gained quite a few followers since then and have come a long way. We truly owe all of our success to our clients. We now have loyal ODS Managed Services clients in their 5th year of service. A client retention better than 98% and referrals that come in telling me how their colleague spoke to them about AMRCON for an hour about our quality of support. We really do want each and every client to be 110% satisfied with our service, our quality and professionalism. I know this is my personal page, but this means alot to me, making it personal! My humble thank you to all that have joined us along the way.

May brought closure to some pretty stressful matters, with that always come new ones. Yes, you heard it, I too can have stress. Although I’ll never show it, lol. At some point in my life I realized the need for balance. Without it we suffer and so will everyone around us. When someone asks me what I think the key to my success is, I’ll tell them spiritual, emotional, and physical balance. Some people call it various things, but for me that’s what it boils down to. I found it all made sense when some of the most successful, fulfilled, and happy individuals I knew followed some form of this unwritten law. Years ago I adopted it and can never go back. I thought I’d toss this in because it’s really how I hold together through anything put in my way. That’s what was on my mind for May.

June is just going to be terrific. AMRCON has so much going on from our Partner program continuing to excel, our ODS Managed Services trademarking, the new office, some great case study work coming soon and so much more. Keep tuned in – Dee Rudko, CEO

Here is another favorite of mine from the month. Not sure where the time goes but my 2 boys are like little men already. Although I had so much going on from the finishing up the move, the build-out and many other client projects, I was still lucky enough to find some family time on a couple of the weekends. The end of the month came to a close with a few days in Florida with Micky and I had a brief date with the beach in Siesta Key. It all came and went too fast. I’m definitely looking forward to a few traveling weekends we have in May when I’ll be spending some time with Sunny and the boys in CT with the rest of my family and grandmother. It usually makes for a nice relaxing trip.

I’m also looking forward to the Andover NJ Armed Forces Day at 131 Airport Road on May 15th at 9:00 AM, where they have an awesome model airplane show that runs most of the day. There is said to be  everything from smaller remote planes to actual model jet engines that will be flying. Check out their website for more details. AMRCON did a small sponsorship to help support the event. If you can make it let me know so we can say hello. I’ll be taking the family as well as any nieces and nephews that want to join us. It will be a great event for the kids. These planes are really amazing and will be controlled by the pros.

So I’ll be hidden away for a while after by the end of May and the next few months working on multiple projects. Stay tuned to our website to take a peek at what we have going on. We’re going to be blogging on a few of the projects, but we’re going to be releasing them slowly so our followers have a chance to read and follow them. Be sure to remember to post your guess at what birthday I celebrated, that should be fun. I’ll give you a hint, I was just nominated for NJBIZ Top 40 Business People Under the Age of 40! That should be exciting.

I had to quickly toss in this shot of Deeko opening his Easter basket. When did Easter become the new Christmas?

As we all gain momentum in our business year I sometimes find it difficult to break away and find some balance. My wife usually plans some weekend events with the kids but it’s sometimes still difficult to slow the mind down. So over the year I sought out some tools to help me find balance. I feel that I have the spiritual and emotional aspects under control, but after losing 30 pounds over the past year I felt I needed to get back into running. Some type of physical activity whether it be working out, running, or even walking was once a big part of my daily routine. In fact in high school I ran an average of 8-10 miles daily. I still hold a few records as well as under a 5 minute mile personal best. Thus I’ve been having issues with my knees. I guess you can’t have it all. I’m still pushing and running a few miles twice a week.

I started the process by going to the RoadRunner in Shrewsbury, NJ  to get fitted for some sneakers and custom insoles, they were great. Being an engineer I can’t begin to tell you how impressed I was with the technology they had to properly fit my feet with the right running sneaker. I highly recommend them, check it out.

My balance seems to help me stop in the evening regardless of the amount of hours I put in, which right now is about 10-12 a day. I’m energized in the morning and rarely have slow afternoons. So I think there is something to be said about maintaining balance. The weekends are great when I’m with the kids and Sunny, it seems I can be there with more concentration. Not just physically being there and mentally elsewhere. These are my guys to the right as of March. Santino will be 4 in May and Deeko just turned 1 in December. Not sure where all the time goes. I wish everyone well in April, enjoy the nice weather finally. Again, everyone is welcome to come visit our new site anytime. Be sure to follow our grand opening event that we will be posting soon.

We have some very exciting news that will be announced on March 1st. It pertains to AMRCON and we don’t want to disclose too much, just enough to make sure you watch out for the announcement. In advance I think that some pretty good things can come to those who can find patience, balance and a little wisdom in life. It’s certainly the case with my family and business life. It’s sometimes easier said than done and don’t get me wrong I need to refocus daily and work at it all the time. You can ask my wife Sunny. Not quite sure how she puts up with my stressful times. I think that’s when she watches shows like “The Housewives of Orange County”, just to make sure other people are more crazy than our family, lol!

As many of you know the purpose of this section of the blog is to let you know a bit about Dee Rudko and who he is. I think it’s an important part of doing business, knowing who it is we’re really working with. We’re all people behind the calls and emails. I want to avoid AMRCON being a transactional or impersonal relationship. I do this by staying in touch with our clients, providing annual ODS reviews on-site, and providing updates to this blog. I hope you agree and would love to hear from you all in the comment area this month about what you think is the most important part of relationship building with your clients or customers.

So I have to end on another family note to include Santino. I wonder what I’ll do when we have more children? I guess this page of the blog will just get longer… This picture makes me think a bit about my youth and when the change took place where we were having fun then all of a sudden we became responsible for ourselves? No one ever said that was going to happen, not that I would listen… Santino and his mother spent some time putting this great snowman together. This last snow was a bit better to build a snowman. Seems like the plowing companies have been very busy this year. It was nice to have snow but I must say I hope spring comes soon!

I try and take in the start of the year with some small breaks with the family. We had a terrific 2010 launch at the office and we’ve got some work to do. However I refuse to get too stressed out, so to avoid getting caught in the hasty mistakes from business micro management, the family and I take a few trips in January. I find it a good time to let everyone settle in at the office and breath without me overhead. Don’t think we just take a back seat though, read From the CEO to find out what’s going on at the office.

So I’m lucky enough to have a wonderful wife “Sunny” who plans our excursions with the kids. I basically show up to a packed truck on a Thursday or Friday afternoon, get in the drivers seat and get my GPS instructions telling me where we’re going. It’s the best thing ever. As we drive Sunny fills me in on our plans and a basic itinerary. I can’t tell you how relaxing the process is as long as the kids stay peaceful.

So January is a big month not only in business for AMRCON but for the Rudko’s personally. The year always starts off with the obvious celebration, but Sunny and I also celebrate our anniversary first week of the month. This year was our 4th anniversary. Another great year growing our wonderful family. We took a short few days in Atlantic City and left the kids home. This was a pretty big step since the baby just turned 1. We had a terrific and relaxing time at Ceasar’s. We won on some of my wife’s favorite slots and enjoyed probably the most incredible aged steak at Morton’s, that I’ve had in years. You have to go if you’re a steak kinda guy.

Our youngest addition known as “Baby Deeko” started to walk this month. I was a bit concerned at first because he seems to walk sideways almost like a crab on the sand. He straightened up after a week and has now mastered walking while drinking from his bottle. I think this is the point in time where everything is going to change. Both Santino and Deeko seem to be playing together more and more. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes not so good. I think the mom’s with multiple boys know what I’m talking about. Otherwise just imagine.

The month is coming to an end but not before a trip to Crystal Springs to help my sister-in-law Ann celebrate her 50th birthday. Happy Birthday Ann! It was nice that we got most of the family crunched into a house on the side of a mountain. The company and amenities made it all worth the while. So much that after the weekend was over we came back home for a day then back for the rest of the week. I’m writing this blog from up here now, so don’t anyone feel sorry for me working. I feel truly blessed. Anyone looking for a get away with or without the kids, you really have to check out the short trip to Crystal Springs, or Mineral Springs in Vernon NJ. Full service Spa, skiing, outdoor/indoor pools, sauna, steam rooms, gym, restaurants and so much more. You can cruise through town or never leave the grounds. Any questions feel free to ask me. Hope everyone had a great January so far. I want to wish everyone a prosperous and Happy New Year! Talk to you next month.

 To go along with the Schneider Electric Intelligent Security Symposium featured on the main page this month, I had the distinct honor of meeting former Governor of PA and director of  Home Land Security, Tom Ridge. Tom was a guest speaker where he shared about the importance of working smarter through technology to protect and secure our country. The playing field has changed and we all need to take part in adapting. AMRCON is honored to be a part of the Schneider Electric group of partners to play a role in this modernization of municipalities, buildings and the rest of our surroundings through the deployment of smart technology. Look for future posts discussing the ongoing project AMRCON is taking on to further educate local municipalities. 

Ok so back to the personal note. What on earth happened to the year 2009? I thought it was going to be around a little longer. As I get older it seems the years go by faster, it doesn’t seem fair. Did you know an average ant only lives 90 days? They must really feel cheated! Thank God the average life expectancy in the US is 78-80. According to my plans I still don’t know if it will be enough time. There are places in the world to stay away from that have life expectancies as low as 40, we need to pray for them! Canada, parts of Europe and Australia are all over 80 in case you’re planning to move. So why these thoughts?

In recent weeks I’ve been affected with various emotions that left me reminded how precious life is. As we get closer to the holidays, life continues to move faster and faster. It’s a fitting time of year to take a second and look around, enjoy the people we have around us. Try to slow life down for just a second and enjoy it. I have much to be thankful for. My wife and my little guys over to the right to name a few. They always seem to have the power to slow me down and get me to remember what it’s all really about. Too bad Deeko really wasn’t about sitting with Santa!

From myself and everyone at AMRCON, we want to wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season and a Happy and Prosperous New Year! –Dee Rudko

Sporadic national, regional and individual Thanksgivings followed, but the day did not become an annual, national holiday until 1863.

President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day in which to express thanks for the many blessings enjoyed by Americans.

Today, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. Thanksgiving dinner is held on this day, usually as a gathering of family members, and features a menu of turkey and a variety of vegetables and side dishes.

Well I figured I’d add those interesting facts I learned from my MSPU newsgroup. I’m sure none of us forget the long weekend or day off we get for the holiday, but even I need to remind myself of the purpose. Now needless to say I think the spirit of the holiday has grown, so I believe it means something different for everyone. For instance I am very thankful for the life and family I have today. I’ve also been provided many successes, for which I can only take a small acknowledgment for.  Here are just a few things I’m very grateful for to the right. Here is Santino and Andrij actually sitting still, together in a model train in Lancaster PA last month. We visited the world’s largest indoor train set, which Santino has seen 2 years in a row now. If you have kids into Thomas The Tank Engine, I highly recommend it.

I’m actually one of those people who happens to enjoy spending some time with the rest of my family. Yes, I will also be one of those crazy people traveling on the wonderful US highways, however don’t feel sorry for me, we leave early and stay late. We purposely try and miss the traffic. Thanksgiving being the highest traveled holiday of the year. I hope everyone who plans to travel has a safe trip.

I know it’s November but I figured I would also share a little about October. We traveled to Hershey PA for the Halloween festivities. We’ve been doing that for a few years now and it seems like people are starting to catch on. It was busy but still very enjoyable. The picture here show the boys as Buzz Lightyear and Woody from Toy Story. I have to say they looked the part. Trick-or-treating in Hersey is a blast. They setup an area of the park designated just for it. The weather was perfect and the family had a nice long weekend.

I really can’t believe that we’re close to Thanksgiving and you know what’s right around the corner. That’s right 4th quarter financial closing. Just kidding, yes more holidays. It’s been an exciting year for the Rudko’s as well as AMRCON. I just want to close with another Thank you for Thanksgiving and that goes to you my clients, colleagues, friends and family.