Today’s been another non-stop day, but one filled with much time with family.  As I look back on the day it’s almost a blur of going from one activity to the next, but I’m smiling and enjoyed so much of it.  In the overwhelming majority of the tasks ad events I was able to spend it with my family and that felt wonderful!

The family time started as we all loaded up and headed out for church and had time together in the car and in the pews.  After church Gavin had Sunday school and Becky was heading to Rochester to see a friend which left Dominic and I cruising through Menards to pick up supplies to paint the workshop.  It was fun doing math with him and walking through the steps and materials needed for this project.  We also had time to talk about life in general.

After lunch Gavin headed up to the workshop with my to help me make the trash picks that we would use later in the day for his Weblos project.  We spent time, just the two of us, talking through the design and working on them together.  After a while Dominic joined us and we realized we had a little extra time so the three of us started putting up the first coat of primer on the ceiling.

Realizing what time it was we hurried to dress in warmer clothes and headed out to Nelson Park to do a service project for Weblos.  It was a pretty unique opportunity for both boys as Gavin needed to do a project like this to help him earn his Weblos badge and Dominic took the lead in the project to help him with Boy Scouts.  A handful of other Scouts showed up and we spent over an hour cleaning up the garbage at the park.  Again, it was a project, but it was a wonderful reason to spend time with the family.

Gavin had a wonderful idea to wrap up the night – a family game of Catan!  There were ups and downs for all of us as we laughed, competed, and had a great time with each other.  How awesome, spending time as an entire family to wrap up a great weekend.

As I get ready to head off to bed I’m so thankful for all the reasons / excuses I had to spend so much time with my family tonight.  It was incredibly refreshing and just what the doctor ordered!

Thanks!!!

Last week’s alternate solution which included knocking out a couple of workouts on a Saturday morning date has stuck. This morning our alarm went off early and Becky and I were off to the YMCA and Root Down for cycling and yoga. It felt awesome to start the day off with a great couple of sweats before getting into the other weekend stuff! Even better, it was pretty sweet to start the day with some time with Becky! 😁

To wrap up the night (besides our trip to the grocery store) we headed to The Pumphouse to watch The Dark La Crosse Show. It was a play waking through a handful of interesting stories from La Crosse’s sordid history. The stories were crazy, hard to believe, and very entertaining. Some were a little serious while others left us literally LOLing! If you have the opportunity to head out to see it I’d highly recommend it.

Today’s been a great date, lots of time with Becky and some workshop time. Tomorrow will be a lot of time with the boys and I’m pumped for that as well.

Thanks!!!

LOL – pretty specific, right?  But the title nails it in a nutshell.  After a busy and productive week of work it feels great to be back at home.  Dominic has a buddy over for a sleepover and they’re hanging out in the basement.  Meanwhile I’m chilling with Gavin and Becky on the couch and just enjoying some time together while watching a visually stunning movie about the beauty and allure of the mountains.  Time together talking, enjoying the awesomeness of nature, and dreaming new dreams together…  Life is pretty awesome!

Thanks!!!

Isn’t it great when you have the opportunity to spend time with someone you look up to, a friend, and a kindred spirit all at the same time?  I’ve had time today and will have more time tomorrow to do just that!  In order to help train a handful of relatively new teammates Karen dropped everything she has going on to fly up from OKC to help my teams and I out.  Ever since I picked her up from the airport this morning I’ve been laughing, smiling, and thinking in her presence.

As one of our trainers at Express HQ she does a phenomenal job of helping our teammates learn the Express process and philosophy.  At one point today she brought something up that totally blew my mind – even though I’m closing in on a decade of being in this business!  There were many lightbulb moments in the room today as she walked us through several tactics and concepts.  Karen’s training ability leaves me in awe and I respect her style greatly.  She opens herself up, is humble, but also exudes a strong confidence as she shares from past experiences, both good and rough.  While sitting in her trainings I catch myself vacillating between learning what she is teaching and learning more about training and presenting.  I’m looking forward to Round 2 tomorrow.

As great of a trainer as she is I’ve got to say that I’m just as thankful for her personality, energy, and spark.  She’s a down to earth, no nonsense individual who calls as she sees it, all while doing it in a way that keeps my laughing, smiling, and thinking.  Karen always is running at an 11 and it feels great to try to keep up with her!  Her mind is constantly in motion and I’m amazed at how many different conversations the two of us can have at the same time… and even go back to and wrap up after going in other directions.  I’d dare anyone to spend more than a couple of minutes with her and honestly say that they aren’t happier after the encounter.  Karen leaves a trail of happiness in her wake and I’m so thankful for the time with her today.

At the end of the day, Karen is one of those people that I feel is a kindred spirit.  In spending time with her I feel like I’m spending time with a wiser sibling.  Even if it’s been a while since we’ve last spoken we jump right back into conversation as if we talked every day.  What’s even more impressive to me is the fact that pretty much every single person I’ve talked with who’s had the opportunity to get to know her feels exactly the same!  She does an amazing job of connecting with others, getting to know us, caring for us, bringing us much happiness and laughter, and always leaving all of us in a better mood because we crossed paths with her.

Karen, thank you for the amazing help, your willingness to head up (in the snow and cold) to help us all out with less than a week and a half notice, and for bringing so much joy and happiness to my teammates and I today.  You’re a wonderful friend and I appreciate you greatly!

Thanks!!!

Whew, today has been a wild one! As I sit at the kitchen table grabbing a snack (more on that in a bit) I just realized that this is the first time I’ve had to myself to relax outside of drive time (which isn’t really very relaxing). We’ve got a big end to the week at work with an awesome two day training set to start tomorrow. In order to prep and keep everything else running all my focus has been on work… except when I was the Uber driver for Dominic for church! Even my normal chill time at the coffee shop with Gavin while waiting for Dominic was spent on my laptop catching up on emails.

With all that in mind, I love these crazy busy nonstop days. They are usually followed by much progress and moments of peace. This is when we’re growing and becoming stronger and better, I’ll remember that and smile the entire time.

The other thing I’m thankful for today is trying a new food. I’m really focused on eating the same things pretty much all the time, but after a couple of books I knew I just had to try something a little crazy and off the beaten path… pinole!

This superfood from Mexico is a staple food for some of the best endurance runners in the world. Who am I to argue? I ordered a couple of bags off Amazon and was able to have a little snack to try it out. Not too bad! Not great, but definitely edible. It’s also one of the first times I’d argue that the serving size should really be about half of what is listed.

With a couple of crazy goals starting to form in my head I know I’m going to need to try new things and do things I’ve never done in order to accomplish things that I never had. This was a nice psychological nudge in the right direction for me and I’m glad I tried it.

Thanks!!!

Earlier today I had the opportunity to be part of the solution instead of the problem. As opposed to complaining and not doing anything to resolve the situation I took advantage of the privilege of voting.

While I’m not one to get into the who, the what, and the why, let’s just say I was normal me and voted a split ticket. It cracked me up when I saw the following post from six years ago…

I guess some things will never change! As my friend Todd put it many years ago, I’m “a pollster’s nightmare,” and brought to be one.

While I’m thankful for my opportunity to be a part of the solution I’m also so thankful to live in a society in which my voice matters and I’m free to share my thoughts and values. I’m thankful for all those who fought to give us that freedom, those who’ve saved it, and those who continue to uphold it.

Thanks!!!

It seems like every year I struggle a bit. Even though I’ve been getting plants of sleep the changing of time really throws my body off a bit. My body is confused when it wakes up in the morning and is even more confused when it starts getting dark by 4:15. Throw in how dreary of a day it was and I struggled a bit…

Except when I had my sun lamp on! That bad boy brightens up my entire office and feels so much better than fluorescent lights. Maybe it’s purely a placebo effect, but I swear I feel much more awake and alive when that light is on. Of all my Amazon purchases this is one of my favs.

Winter may be coming and we’ve got another month and a half before it starts getting lighter out again, but it won’t feel nearly as bad with my sun lamp burning bright over my head.

Thanks!!!

Throughout the day there’ve been many things that have crossed my mind for which I am thankful.  Try as I might to find a common theme or one thing that rises to the top I’ve really struggled to narrow it down to one thing.  The nice thing about this being my blog and my rules is that I can do what I want 😉  With that being the case I’m going with a list of things I’ve been thankful for today.

• With Becky helping out a celebration of life for a co-worker and me up to my wrists in my ground turkey making my lunches and breakfasts for the week I suddenly realized that it was almost supper time.  Dominic jumped in made supper for us tonight, how awesome!  Thanks for making pork chops and couscous Bud!
• I’m so thankful for Becky’s huge heart.  Today she spent much time helping out with a co-worker who just lost her spouse.  She’s a continual inspiration to me.  When someone needs help she’s the first to jump in and do it, regardless of how much she has on her plate.  Her willingness to her neighbor is amazing and I love her for it.
• Last night I had a great time with one of my best friends, Rick.  He came down and we had a wonderful night of hanging out and shooting the bull.  Sometimes we get together and talk about largely superficial things.  Last night we got into some much deeper things and it was so cool to connect on some of those things.  Over the course of the day I thought of our time together often.
• At church today there was a couple with two small kids, probably ages one and three or so.  The kids were just like our boys were at the same age and I could see the stress in the eyes of the parents.  I was able to talk with the dad and let him know that it will keep getting easier as the kids get older.  Later, while everyone was singing I found myself playing peek a boo using my bulletin.  The reminders of how much the boys had grown and connecting and smiling with that little guy warmed my heart.
• I was able to spend time working on my workshop today and it felt great working with my hands.  The time by myself was a nice change of pace and I was able to both spend time in thought while also losing myself completely in the task at hand.  It was a pretty sweet combination of sensations.  There were a couple of times in which I thought of Dad and how much he would have enjoyed seeing the workshop.  Funny how it’s one of the places I feel closest to him.
• The boys and I are now on the couch cooling down for the night and watching the movie Touching the Void.  It’s a story of two climbers in South America who survive a disastrous climb.  Watching movies like this has helped the boys and I connect on many levels.  From discussing survival tactics to chasing dreams to understanding how to act in certain situations it’s been interesting to pause the movie and have conversations about why they were taking certain actions and whether or not they should have done something else.
• Gavin has spent a few hours sitting on the couch reading today.  He’s been totally engrossed in his book and it had me smiling and remembering many weekends in which I totally lost track of the outside world as I lived in the book I was reading.
• As the rain was moving down after church Becky and I both had the same thought at the same time…  November Rain!  We fired up iTunes and listened to that old tune by Guns N Roses.  It brought back many memories including watching the music video for it at my grandparents’ house with my brother and Aunt Diane.
• Two years ago on this day we were flying back home from a vacation in California.  It’s been so awesome to look at the pictures from that trip and re-live some wonderful moments!

There’ve been a handful of other things as well that I was thankful for.  In many cases I paused and just soaked it in for a few seconds.  Each of those moments were little bits of magic that brought me joy today.

All in all, I’m thankful for a day in which I saw so many blessings all around me.  It was an amazing day and I’m so grateful to have lived it fully.

Thanks!!!

On Thursday I realized I’d slipped up big time.  Becky was going to go to yoga at 5:30 on Friday night and I realized that I hadn’t told her about the WSU volleyball game that everyone from our office was going to.  One of our past (& hopefully future) teammates was playing in one of her last home games this season and we’d had plans as a team to go watch for quite some time…  Unfortunately I’d forgotten to tell Becky about it!

When I realized the error of my ways I shot her a text with the info, apologized for forgetting, asked if there was a way she’d forgive me and asked how I could fix the situation.  Her offer for resolution was to hit a 7am cycling class followed by a 8:30 yoga session this morning.  I couldn’t help but laugh out loud, that sounded AWESOME!!!

How great is that?  I was able to get what I wanted (which was a fun family time as well) on Friday AND have an incredible start to the weekend doing things I love with Becky.  That was perfect!  Sure, it wasn’t quite what we had scripted originally, but this was way better.  I’m thankful for the monkey wrench I threw her way…  but I will remember to tell her sooner next time 😉

Thanks!!!