It seems that I’ve been going in twelve different directions at once lately as I prep to be out of the office on vacation.  Trying to get everything done includes not just work, it also includes things like taking the boat to storage, buying a washer & dryer, and things along those lines.  Throw in the normal chaos of the Kreiling house and it’s been pretty wild.

While this has been going on there’ve been several reminders of previous vacations.  My Facebook feed keeps showing me pictures from our New Orleans vacation four years ago. Going through my phone I keep running into pictures of previous vacations including Colorado (with the family and with my friends), celebrating Steve’s 40th in Vegas, touching dinosaur bones in Utah, exploring Belize and Australia, and a little bit of Hawaii and Canada mixed in for good measure.

I’ve also been seeing and hearing things that make me long for future trips including Iceland, Ireland, and, of course, Hawaii.

Who knows why, but I really do love travel and seeing and experiencing new things while on our trips.  I’m very thankful for having a wife with the same appreciation and for raising our boys to have the same travel bug.

While I can’t always be on vacation as I would love to be, I’m very thankful for pictures of past vacations that rekindle my passion and make me smile every single time I see them!

Thanks!!!

Even though we’ve moved our pontoon to a slip less than 3 miles from our house we still take it to a storage place about 20 minutes away.  Seems crazy, right?  Nope, it’s totally a very sane decision.  Al’s kept our boat in storage for us every year that we’ve had it.  In the summer we leave the trailer there too. Every single year we decide to drive all the way to Brownsville to keep it there because of a handful of reasons.  

First off, I’m pretty sure this is the most scenic storage facility in the world!  Seriously, just look at this place! Nestled in the bluffs it is a great place to drive to and from.  On the way home today I went the long way just to try a new drive home.

Second, the rates are very competitive and he takes great care of our boat.  We’re never nervous about the shape it’ll be in when we get it out, it doesn’t break the bank, and he’s always got it out and ready with less than 24 hour notice.

The thing that keeps us going back more than anything though is Al.  The guy is awesome!  Great values, takes care of us, and is incredibly flexible.  He’s always in a good mood and is smiling and happy to see us.  If we need to drop off or pick up at odd hours he’s got us covered.  If those odd times mean that we have to come back later to finish the apaperwork or cut him a check he doesn’t even question it.  He’s got those excellent old school values of doing business over a handshake and reminds me of the service o try to provide to our customers.  

Mothballing the boat for the year is kind of depressing, but I’m always happy to take a scenic drive to go see Al.

Thanks!!!

I am one very happy Kreiling right now!  Here’s my current view:

I am very grateful for Becky (Max’s mom) driving our family to Madison for soccer games today.  We decided to carpool and she offered to be behind the wheel.

The Beckys (is that the correct plural term for more than one Becky or is it Beckies?) are sitting up front sounding like their having a good time talking.  The soccer boys are all behind me watching a movie, talking, and playing on their electronics.

I’ve got my laptop on top of my lap (I know, ironic, isn’t?) and I’m hammering away on a bunch of things that I needed to get done for work before the next week starts.  I’m in heaven!  Driving is a relaxing thing for me to do once in a while, but sometimes I realize just how much time I’m losing by not being able to get stuff done.  The past hour has been very productive, and I’ll have more than enough time to get caught up on a lot.

Thanks again for driving Becky, you’re the best!!!

Thanks!!!

Early this morning the boys and I packed up and headed home from Spook O Ree.  As we headed home we caught a wonderful sunrise as the sun slowly, and then suddenly, appeared over the bluffs.

While watching all four of their soccer games we had the bluffs all around us.  While watching my focus would occassionally drift to the top of the bluffs and I was reminded of the trails Becky and I have run up there.  

As we drove home we drove towards an awesome sunset as the sun dropped behind the bluffs of Minnesota and turned the sky and its whisky clouds a brilliant orange.

I am so thankful for having this dazzling beauty all around me all of the time, this place is amazing!

Thanks!!!

It’s that time of the year again!  Load up our camping gear and head out with the boys to Spook O Ree, our annual Halloween scouting night.  This year has been a little different as Dominic is now one of the Boy Scouts who scares the Cub Scouts and I on the haunted hayride.  He also camps with them so Gavin and I are on our own.

So far so fun!  Lots of fun, screams, and good times!  

Back to the chaos and haunted houses!

Thanks!!!

Four years ago today Jeremy and I went for a pretty sweet trail run in the Hixon Forest trails.  The weather was awesome and we had a great time shooting the bull while enjoying some beautiful fall scenery in the bluffs.  At the end of the run we got back to the car and I realized that somewhere on the 5+ miles of trails the knot that held my car key to my shorts had come undone and I had lost my key!

After several moments of panic I noticed something pretty amazing on my car…

How awesome is that???  In a world when the news is filled with stories of lies, crimes, threats and violence (& that’s just the Presidential candidates!) it is very refreshing to know that there are lots of honest people who do the right thing.

Thanks!!!

On Sunday we were parking the pontoon in our driveway.  Becky was trying to help me out with where I needed to go with it, but we were communicating in completely different ways and not understanding each other.  I wanted her to be doing one thing and she thought she should be doing it a different way.  As I was finishing up I couldn’t help but laugh as a memory popped back into my head.

I’m still not quite sure what we had on the trailer, but I remember my dad asking me to get out and help direct him in backing up.  What I do remember was that he had a seemingly irrational wave anger suddenly come over him and I couldn’t figure out what he was so frustrated about.  Now, decades later, I understand. 🙂

Ever since the boys arrived it’s been funny to see just how many times something happens  that causes me to suddenly understand what it was that was so frustrating for them in that specific moment.  Most of the time it’s pretty harmless.  Hit in the crotch by the boys, apologize to my dad.  Boys break something in the house, apologize to my mom.  Seems like the boys are ungrateful little bastards (which I type with a smile and in a loving way), apologize to both of them.  It’s crazy to think that funny used to be knocking my dad’s hat off into the lake and mean used to be throwing me in after it.  Now, I see that I may have had it backwards! 😉

While I wouldn’t even know where to start on all of the times I’ve told them that they were right, every time it makes me smile huge and I have fun sharing the story with them.  Being able to consider them such great friends and being able to have complete humility is a fantastic thing.  The fact that they are still around is also a great thing that I am very appreciative of.  I can’t, or don’t want to, imagine a day when I am not able to hop on the phone and share how the boys made their first crack about putting me in a nursing home and then apologize for doing the same!  (Nick, you did sign the papers for Dad, right?)  Every day I can share with them is a blessing and I am very grateful.

Thanks!!!

Way back in the day, like decades ago in the high school days, my friends and I went to a concert together.  It was one of our first overnight road trips, head to a concert in Stevens Point, stay over at James’ grandparents’ house, and then head back.  While the main act is pretty embarrassing to mention, please keep in mind that it was in Stevens Point…  Anything was better than nothing.

When we got to the show we found our metal folding chairs in the middle of the gymnasium (yup, that’s how tiny it was) and waited for the concert to start.  The warm up was a band we hadn’t heard of before, Billy Pilgrim.  It was two dudes with acoustic guitars and microphones.  That was it.  No supporting cast, no anything, just them.  Prepared to be completely underwhelmed we were absolutely shocked when they started playing.  My mind was blown, they were AWESOME!  The songs were great, the lyrics fantastic and the way they were just enjoying the hell out of jamming out was very memorable.  Needless to say, they completely destroyed the headliner.

It took a while, but eventually I was able to track down their albums.  Ever since they have been either in a CD binder in the car or downloaded on my phone.  So many of their songs have resonated with me at various times in my life and it seems like I pick up something new every once in a while or see things in a different light.  There’s just something relaxing and soothing about listening to their music.  It’s like snuggling up under a warm blanket on a cold rainy day.

And that’s why they popped into my brain today.  Between running around seemingly non-stop for the past couple of weeks with another busy couple of weeks ahead of us my nerves have been feeling a little frazzled.  Soccer, cub scouts, work, and everything in between I caught myself having to take a few more deep breaths tonight than I’d like.  Driving home from scouts I heard a lyric in my head that made me smile, hit the brakes, whip a U turn and head to the store to pick up a little something…

From their song Halfway Home (great song to chill to by the way!) :  “Son just sit a while, and let the whiskey dull the edge”

And that was all I need to hear in my head.  I poured myself a little, turned on that song, sat on the couch and started typing this blog.  It was the music my soul needed to hear today to help me chill.

I’m so thankful that we happened to stumble onto this band way back in the day!

Thanks!!!

Interesting side note #1, I’m pretty sure this was the same road trip when Chris rolled down the window (literally) and joked about throwing his Hootie and the Blowfish CD out.  One second he’s laughing and joking, the next it flies out the window and his jaw drops.  “I didn’t mean to do that,”was his response as the rest of us laughed.

Interesting side note #2, Billy Pilgrim is no longer around.  Kristian Bush is no a part of a pretty famous country band, Sugarland!

Parent teacher conferences tonight went really well.  Almost all positives, only a couple of things for the boys to work on.  All in all, I couldn’t be more proud of them.  They’re a couple of great kids with good heads on their shoulders most of the time.  Of course, I’m very thankful for that.

But that’s not what I’m writing about today.  The thing I’m thankful for today is being able to look at them through a different lens.  In my head I have these expectations and perceptions of who they both are and how they both react to things.  Spending as much time with them as we do I can’t help it, I totally have paradigms of each of them and just expect that those thoughts are always correct.  Going to conferences reminds me that there is way more to the boys than I think.

Between seeing them interact with their teachers and other faculty I got to see different sides of their personalities.  Somethings were spot on with my ideas, but others were just a little different.  Watching Dominic’s confidence when talking with adults made me smile, I sometimes get worried that he’s a little too shy.  While I get anxious about Gavin’s ability to sit still and focus we see him calm down and focus on one thing at a time.  Hearing the stories, examples, and progress from the teachers helped me see other sides as well.  There were different strengths that I sometimes don’t recognize or pay enough attention to.  Dominic’s ability to work with anyone.  Gavin’s competitiveness and ability for great self-reflection.  There were so many nuggets from the night that I am having a tough time remembering them all.

It was a great reminder for me to watch the lens I’m wearing when I look at the world and try to see it for what it is, not what my brain is twisting it to be because of my previous experiences, preset paradigms, and false pretexts.  I still remember someone telling me long ago to envision the lint screen in a dryer.  Before interacting with others I need to remember to clean it out and start fresh.  That’s what the parent teacher conferences helped me do tonight, clean out the filter and see the people my boys are growing up to be.  I’m very thankful for the opportunity to see them clearly from a different angle.

Thanks!!!