I’m not much of a country fan, but as soon as I hear the opening line my shoulders relax and I smile… This song is what we sing to each other when life gets chaotic and one of us gets a little too tightly wound (Becky usually sings to me).
If the life of our family ever became a sitcom I’d put that song in as the theme music in the opening. The opening scene would be a split screen of Becky picking up the boys and running them around while I drive home from work. As soon as I get home the split screens join, I tag in and Becky tags out. The screen then splits again as I rush out to pick up the kids and run around while Becky is either studying or getting things done around the house. Eventually I get home, the screens join up as I sit next to Becky on the couch and we both almost instantly fall asleep. That pretty much sums it up.
Today I’m thankful for this song. It helps me keep my sanity and reminds me to breathe and enjoy the craziness…
The weather is awesome, it was a great day, I knocked many things off of my task list, but the thing that is fresh in my brain comes from opening a letter from my 401(k) provider. Sitting on the countertop was my quarterly earnings statement and it contained a lot of good news.
Over the years my investment in the 401 has been helpful in many ways. Before Becky and I were married I wouldn’t have trusted myself to put cash away for the long term. One of my business deals happened only because I was able to pull a loan from my own 401 to use to make the downpayment and I then paid it back over the next five years. There’s a sense of long term stability I have when I see what my potential monthly income is when (if) I finally retire at 65-ish. Everything in that statement makes me smile (at least this month!).
The part that makes me chuckle is thinking back to when my parents told me how much to put in as soon as I was able. They said I wouldn’t notice it when I started contributing, and it was better to start early, so I did. Had it not been for their advice I’d probably have used it for extra beer money or fantasy football wagering back in my early to mid twenties.
Needless to say, I’ll be focused on teaching my boys the same concept… Put as much cash in your 401(k) as soon as you can. Who knows what the future will hold, but for now I can sleep a little easier thinking of the future and all the life that Becky and I want to live when we’re old farts!
Each of us has a charity, a special cause, and organization that we love to help. Just thinking about it and the impact that it has on others can move us to tears. We’re passionate about it, will do anything to help it, and know that it makes our world a better place. Kid’s Cup is one of those causes for me and I’d like to ask your help in supporting it this year. Donations can be made at: http://bit.ly/KidsCup2017
Every single dollar raised for Kid’s Cup goes straight to the Mayo Clinic Children’s Center and Olmsted Medical Center supporting prenatal and new infant care. It’s an incredible organization that some of my business partners have built over the past 20+ years. Over the years it has helped to raise over $1,000,000 to help kids at those two wonderful health care facilities.
I’ve been incredibly blessed to have two very healthy sons and I pray that they continue to be that way. That said, there are many others who haven’t been so fortunate, it is great to be able to help them through their difficult times. If you check out the video below be sure to pay attention at the 3:45 mark… You never know when you may be helping out someone very close to you through this event.
As I started with, I need your help. I’ve committed to raising at least $1,000 for Kid’s Cup this year and I would greatly appreciate your donation of any amount. All the dollars go straight to helping the kids, there’s ZERO dollars spend on administration, sponsoring the event, etc… http://bit.ly/KidsCup2017
If you’d be interested in golfing in the event please let me know and I can get you more information.
Today I am incredibly thankful for Kid’s Cup. It’s an amazing event with an awesome purpose.
Rick & Jesse’s Birthday Bash is coming up quickly and it’s not very hard to tell that everyone is more than just a little amped up and ready…
While sitting at Dominic’s orchestra concert my leg started to buzz and it seemed to never stop. When the concert was over I looked at my phone and saw this…
All of these texts were from my friends, already planning and talking smack. Today was cold and gray, but this crazy flurry of texts from friends getting pumped for a weekend of hanging out brightened my day in a big way!
So Gavin’s sleepover last night was a huge success. When I picked him up at noon today he was still wearing his pajamas and was carrying his stuff all wadded up in pile in his arms… socks falling out every few steps. He went on and on about how much fun they had as we drove back to our house.
Shortly after getting home it was a quick lunch and then off to another soccer game. The whole time he’s telling me about how he’s not tired at all, he’s ready to go and wants to stay up late tonight.
You can probably imagine the smile on both of our faces when Becky and I got home from yoga and saw this…
Fortunately for Gavin, Dominic took pity on Gavin when he found him asleep on the basement floor right where he crashed. Dominic got him a blanket and a pillow and helped Sleeping Beauty get comfortable.
The kid is usually a non-stop bundle of energy, it’s nice to see him finally hit the wall the same way I do occasionally… he is a mortal! Whew!!!
Due to rain in Madison Dominic’s soccer games were cancelled. This meant an unexpected no travel day. Then something else happened that helped the view above. If you look closely you’ll see that there are no kids.
When I picked up Gavin from school he mentioned that some of his buddies wanted to get together for a sleepover on Saturday night. No one had gotten anything set up so I figured that the conspiring that the four of them had done was not going to amount to anything. Shortly after Gavin brought it up again at Festival today Becky got a text from his friend’s mom! They were on and we were short a Gavin for the night.
Dominic called one of his buddies and then set up a sleepover for him and a handful of his friends. Next thing we knew he was loading into his friend’s mom’s car and we were short a Dominic for the night.
Now it’s just Becky and I (and the animals) and we’re enjoying a very unexpected and relaxing night at home due, in part, to the conspiring of our boys!
When Becky and I knocked out our morning run we had a pretty interesting surprise… as we started down the road an SUV driving by stopped, the window rolled down, and the driver asked us, ” do you know what that light in the sky is? I’ve been watching it for fifteen minutes and it hasn’t moved.” Looking up we saw what he was talking about just above the horizon. It was stationary and it was much too bright to be star. “I’m thinking it’s a planet,” was my response and then he drove off.
Our curiosity got the better of us and while Skywalker made a “pit stop” I loaded up the Star Walk app. It was Neptune – lit up brightly by the upcoming sunrise. As we ran by the beach we stopped to pause and enjoy the view and the bright planet I don’t think we really ever pay attention to seeing.
It was so peaceful, the water was so still. The cool crisp air wasn’t moving, the dogs were slowly walking and smelling, the duck quietly swimming, and, if you look closely, there’s an eagle soaring. We only paused asoaked it in for a fleeting moment, but that was exactly what I needed for the day.
As the day went on my world got crazy. Busyness and chaos ruled, some great, some stressful, it was a day of constant motion. While it was easy to be swept up in non-stop action there were a few times in the day when I paused, took a deep breath, and looked at the picture above. As I closed my eyes I could feel the stillness in my bones… and for that I am thankful.
Today I am thankful for the 15 incredible years of marriage I have had the opportunity to share with my best friend, travel buddy, and soulmate. You’ve helped me dream big, accomplish much, and be better than I would’ve been without you. Here’s to many more years of travel, friendship, adventures, chaos, memory making, and love!
… I feel the sudden urge to cry a little. Not today! Looking at this forecast for tomorrow in little Westboro, WI is making me giddy and I have a huge smile on my face! (Full disclosure: I will not be anywhere near Westboro, WI tomorrow!) The reason that this is what I am thankful for today isn’t because I’ve gone senile (but I’m pretty sure I’m inching closer), but because of the memories it brings up.
On April 25, 2002 the weather in northern WI was AWESOME! It was so warm that I was wearing shorts. The sun was out and it was a perfect Spring day. On April 26, 2002, the weather took an incredible turn right about the time we went into the church in Westboro.
While we were getting ready and our guests were arriving there was an incredible snowstorm that took over the northern half of Wisconsin. The snowstorm was absolutely awesome! It snowed so hard that the power to Medford, WI was cut off due to downed power lines at about 10:30-ish, thus ending our wedding reception a little on the early side. Becky and I were fortunate to be staying in one of the only hotels in town that had a backup generator.
When I looked at the forecast and saw a little bit of snow possible for Westboro early tomorrow morning it brought back a flood of memories and I’ve been smiling ever since. To be clear, I’m not a fan of snow, but I am a fan of weather that brings back amazing memories!
Not going to lie, I’ve been looking forward to this post all day! It’s fun to go back in time and remember how all of this craziness started. There’s a part of me that’s also very happy to get this all written out because, who knows, maybe our grandkids and great grandkids might get a kick out of hearing this story.
To bring everyone up to speed, I fell head over heels for Becky at the wedding and pursued her for several hours. With the help of my wingman, Captain Morgan, I was finally able to talk her into going on a date with me. The next day I saw her at the gift opening and re-confirmed our date… which she was hoping that I had forgotten. 😂. Which leads us to today’s blog, the first date…
Earlier in the week as we were setting up the details for our date I mentioned that I would be picking her up in a truck that was older than she was. She thought I was joking. I wasn’t.
While I was planning on leaving the Cities a little early to make sure I was on time work got busy and I left right on time. “No sweat,” I thought… Until I got a flat tire between Red Wing and Lake City. Keep in mind that at this time (1999) the coolest piece of technology I had was a pager that showed me live baseball scores! No phone, no way of calling, I was frantic to change the tire. As I fumbled with the POS (it’s a technical term) jack it was starting to sink in that I may be in big trouble. Fortunately a car passed by, jammed on his brakes, shifted into reverse and got in front of my truck. He pulled out an awesome hydraulic jack that lifted the truck up in a hurry. Tire changed and many thank you’s later I was back on the road.
At this point I was already running late and was getting nervous. As I rolled into Lake City I hit a payphone (anyone else remember those?) at Kwik Trip to let Becky know that I was running late. Her directions were pretty solid, and thank goodness for that! There was no GPS to help guide my way.
We talked for a few minutes and then headed out to Chi Chi’s for a bite to eat. It was obviously going well – we hardly touched our food, we were both a little too nervous to eat. We then headed out to the riverfront downtown and then up to Granddad’s Bluff. The entire night is still a blur for me. All I know is that when we got back to her place and I got ready for bed (she’d offered up the couch in the living room so I didn’t have to drive) we ended the night with one of the best kisses of my life (second only our wedding). It was AWESOME!!! The entire night was a fantastic mix of happy nerves, giddy excitement, and lots and lots of emotional fireworks. She was even cooler and more incredible than I’d picked up on at the reception. The night was, in one word, perfect.
Not from the first date, but not too long afterwards. Maybe the 2nd or 3rd trip down?
The next morning she had to head out early for a field trip for UWL so I got up and moving. Wanting to leave a good impression I decided to go back to the floral shop I had driven by to pick up flowers for her. With no GPS and zero sense of how I had gotten to her place (I was way to nervous and stressed for our date) I headed out. Next thing I knew I was at Goose Island. I realized that wasn’t the right way so I headed back through downtown and hit I90. Confused, I headed back towards her place again and finally found the florist. For anyone who doesn’t know La Crosse – I drove about 50+ minutes to get to a place that was about 5 minutes from her apartment. Oops!
Dropping off the flowers and the note I headed back up to the Cities. I knew that my life was going to be different from that day forward. Within 24 hours I had made my plan to move from the Cities to La Crosse. My life was set in a different direction, I had found the girl of my dreams, my soulmate. Fortunately for me, she was starting to come around to thinking that I was pretty okay. 🙂
For her, that moment, and everything since, I am incredibly grateful.
