Stay Strong - Run Long

With the state of our economy right now, I think that everyone has their own thoughts, opinions and worries. Some of which are justified and should concern us. I think that the government needs to "punish" the greedy heads of these companies but we all need to examine our own lives too and not just look at the government. As history has shown bankruptcy, foreclosures, unpaid debts, credit cards and money problems have been on the rise for decades and not just in the past 8 years. At the end of each presidency there is always an economic dip. Every new candidate has their own "plan" to stimulate the economy because according to every candidate that ever runs for the highest executive office in the country, our economic status is in trouble because of the other guy. Don't get me wrong. I think that we as a country are in trouble because of a few companies and governmental problems, but we also need to look at the way in which we conduct our lives. How many people ...

The other day (last Sunday) I received a phone call from a man that I consider to be one of the best, God-fearing men in the country and it really concerned me. He might read this so I won't give his name, but he is my uncle and one of my favorite relatives. It is not uncommon for him to give me a call just to check in. He has been here 100% on my spiritual journey and helping me to find Christ. He is a great supporter of mine and I love to just talk to him sometimes as someone who can relate. This was the day of our girls birthday party. All of the grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncles were going to be at our house to help us celebrate, so I thought that might have been what he was calling about. I picked up the phone and he responded and then the phone went silent. Usually that means that I lost the call in my house but my phone didn't say "Call lost." I kept saying his name and telling him that I thought I was losing him. Finally I heard a sniffle and ...

A couple of months ago my lovely wife and I decided that we were going to take a vacation. Now, if you know us this is something that we haven't done in nearly 4 years (not counting the time off for the babies, which is hardly a vacation). We picked a week and just decided to fly by the seat of our pants. We went camping for 3 days, which was quite the adventure with two kids under the age of 3 in a tent. With no plans and fairly decent weather in the forecast we also decided that it was time to finally paint our house. For those of you who know, we have been attempting to paint our house for nearly 4 months, but with the weather the way that it has been we haven't been able to. We got back to our house around noon on Sunday and set out on the journey to have a perfectly painted home. It started off not all that bad. The weather was a little warm but we didn't realize that it was going to get much worse. We initially thought that we were going to spray on, but the sprayer s...

So, if you know my wife, which most of you do, you know that she always likes to have projects around the house. That is just the way she is. Most of the time it really annoys me, but she is the love of my life and I have to do it for her. Anyway, we have been attempting to get our house ready to paint for nearly a month. We have the paint purchased, the house is sanded (yes I sanded the entire house using an orbital sander and yes it sucked), the windows and seems caulked, etc but the stupid freaking weather will not cooperate. UGH!!!! Why can't we just have a couple of nice days with little humidity where there is no chance of rain and it can even be 90 degrees as long as the other things fall in line. We have just spent a lot of time in the preparation that I would hate to see us do it and have something go wrong. The weather has been really weird lately. From the tornadoes, the floods, air so thick you could swim through it and scorching temps. Oh well. Weather is one of the th...

I know that as a parent you are supposed to understand that your kids are going to fall and get cuts and "owies" but it is one of the scariest moments when you get a call from your wife saying that she is on her way to the doctor because your daughter split her head open. I have fallen plenty of times and have numerous battle scars to show it, but it is so much different when it is your baby. I am a pretty strong person, but when it comes to my kids anything will send me into hysterics. My wife called me at work yesterday wanting to know what she should do because Lil' Red fell at the daycare and cut her head open. My initial response was to call an ambulance. Obviously a huge overreaction on my part, but not knowing the extent of the injury I was freaking out. I told her to go to the ER because if it were serious I would rather have the ER docs take a look instead of having her sitting in an urgent care waiting room for an hour when she is bleeding profusely. All Mrs. Me...

So, today was such a nice day I decided to take an extended lunch and go for a long run. I went out for the first long run in a very long time without my iPod so I really got to enjoy the sights and sounds of the city. One thing though that really sets me off is smoking on a running, walking, biking trail. I understand that you are outside and due to one of the best legislation ever passed in Iowa it is illegal to smoke in all establishments minus casinos, but there are people that are on this trail trying improve their lives and you keep blowing your smoke right in my face. AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! It ruins a perfectly good day/run when you have to run through 2-3 people standing on the sidewalk or walking on the trail puffing on their cancer sticks. Have some common courtesy for your fellow human being. If you want to pollute your lungs and your body with that crap, don't get me involved. I have had several family members killed by this silent killer and I don't want that stuff affect...

When you look at the title of this blog you really have to open your mind up to how bad life really could be and people that are living in absolute hell. Yesterday as I was walking in to work, with sitting at my desk all day on my mind, I saw a homeless man standing in front of Starbucks. My initial human response is to avoid eye contact and just keep walking. Which is what I did. As I crossed the street I tried to envision what this guy might have gone through to end up sitting outside of Starbucks, wearing no shoes asking people for money. I obviously don't know him and don't know his ambitions or his past, but a guy driving his Cadillac CTS (one of my favorite cars) comes out of Starbucks and just walks past like I did. I realized that this was an extremely arrogant and pompous gesture as I have been blessed with a job that pays well and I don't have to beg for money. I didn't have any money on me as I never carry cash or credit cards, so I did the only thing that I ...