Duh!

I just had a duh moment on the way to work this morning. You know how when you travel to work you see some of the same cars every morning... Well I have been seeing a Honda Element for the last several months off and on and the plate on it is a vanity plate that says "GAILIUM". I just got it this morning, Gailium...Honda "Element", Gail is probably her name and she made it sound like an element because she drives an element... Yeah I'm a dork!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

NYC Bound!!!

We are on our way to lovely New York City for the weekend. It is a whirlwind 12 hour excursion of fun, adventure & exploration! My wife and I gathered a few items and some warm clothing and loaded up on a tour bus with four of our friends and about 40 others to go see NY @ Christmas time. We are currently somewhere in VA. and off to fun times. I was hoping to get some sleep tonight since we left after 10 pm but everyone has a lot of nervous energy on the bus and are as talkitive as a bunch of little girls. I have to admit that I am excited too:)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

The joy of the tree...

Yesterday we went to get our family Christmas tree...a trip that my son was quite excited about! My son is 2 about to turn 3, and very excited about Christmas and Santa in general. We started our adventure at a local tree lot to peruse the merchandise if you will. The size tree we were wanting to get started off at $60! There was actually a tree there that was $225...it was a big tree but I'm not quite sure why anyone in there right mind would pay that much for a disposable item. But I digress, my son was running all over this lot "looking" at the trees when my wife and I decided to go to the Food Lion and get a tree at a much more affordable price of $29.95. As we were leaving the tree lot with out a tree he got very sad. He looked at my wife and I and said "we not get a tree?" so I assured him that we would would not go home with out a tree. So we get to Food Lion and we pick out a pretty nice tree for christmas. We get it home and into the house and my son is so excited, we finally get him to sleep and my wife and I decorate the tree. When he wakes up to the decorated tree he is in awe...the next words out of his mouth made it all worth it. "It's perfect! Santa will love it!", at that point my wife and I knew just how blessed we are!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

Funny thing...

So I am sitting in my car waiting to turn at a red light when out of no where a large group, dare I say it, a "gang" of scooter riders come whizzing by! I kid you not, a gang of 7 scooter riders with their scooter mamas on the back holding on tight! I maybe alone in this thought but I found that to be the funniest thing I had seen.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod

Potty training... Yay!!!

Fewer words scare a parent more than those mentioned in the title..."potty training". Just the mere mention of this causes anxiety in my soul! Oh it seems like a easy enough thing to train a child to do, I mean I do fairly good job of using the potty myself...how hard can it be?!
Wow, noone ever tells you about ALL of the "accidents" that happen in the process and just how much laundry you end up going through. Why this very evening I find myself rinsing out the poopy drawers of my 2yr old. Ah...memories! I will definitely be sharing these stories with his future wife.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod

Change...

Change...we here a lot of people talk about it, heck it was even the focal point of President Obama's campaign, but what is it? Is it as simple as saying "Out with the old and in with the new!"? I feel that if it were that simple to change that we would live in a much different world where only the best nature of man would be shown. Since we currently live in a very dark world where the best of anything seems to be very far away at times, I'm going to guess that change is more than just saying that we need to change and that we are going to change, it requires action!
We see our failures of change all around us every New Year when we make our resolutions of change for the new year ahead of us. Only to succumb to our own boredom and laziness a few weeks into it. Change takes effort, it takes forethought, it takes dedication and it takes time! We need to ask ourselves are we dedicated to making real change in our lives or are we just going through the motions.

Promises, promises!!!

nbsp;  Keeping promises...it seems like a simple concept does it not? But why is it so hard for some people to do. At work something I have told my servers is that if they tell a guest that they will be back with a napkin or with refills, then they need to be back with a napkin or refills. Keep your promise to the guest and they will take note! Some of them have taken it to heart and some not so much. But this need not only apply to the realm of casual dining but to everyday life as well! If you make a promise to someone then you need to follow through with that promise. I would rather someone tell me that there is no way that they can do it than make a promise that they can't possibly keep. I can respect that much more than someone who makes themselves a liar!. Now I know that there are always going to be times in life when something unavoidable happens that keeps us from keeping a promise, it's just the nature of things. But wouldn't it be nice if EVERYONE made a concerted effort to keep their word! Currently the only entity I know of that has kept His word every time He has given it is God almighty!

   I challenge any and all who might read this to go out of their way to keep their word, to keep a promise to whomever they have made said promise to. I truly believe that you will see a noticeable change in how people interact with you and how you interact with others. We will definitely put a lot more thought into what we are promising to those around us!

Facebook...bringing families together!

As I prepare for another day at work I had the opportunity to chat with my sister on facebook. We talked about about life in general and caught up to some degree on each others life. With my job I don't get back home as often as I would like because home is pushing about 8 to 9 hours away. The sad truth is that if we weren't on facebook I would probably not chat or talk that much with a majority of my family and friends back home on a regular basis. I know that in this day and age a lot of people like to demonize the social networking sites out there for being some sort of predators paradise on the innocent of this world, but i would have to vehemently disagree. I believe that responsibly run social networking sites can actually bring families together! I know that it does that for me and my wife, we are both about 9 hours from our families. With out facebook we would feel fairly isolated from all of our family! The ability to daily chat and view pictures of loved ones; and sometimes not so loved ones:); makes life bearable and allows us to stay informed and somewhat involved with our family. Until God leads us to move closer to family...i say God bless facebook and the other social networking sites for keeping us together on some 21st century level.  

A new level of TIRED!!!

Have you ever been so tired that you couldn't even make it to your bed?! That is where I was at just the other day. I got home from work, I work in restaurants, and nearly fell out on the floor. Slowly I crawled to bed and tried my best to sleep a few short hours before my wife got up to go to work and my son got up to go to daycare. After that I am up because I lack the ability to take 30 minute "Power Naps", and am sadly jealous of those who can! It is either full on sleep or nothing! I am on day two of my two days off in a row, (if you have ever worked in a restaurant you may understand my excitement at two days off in a row!), and I am just now starting to feel rested...AH FUN TIMES!!! Sadly back to the daily grind tomorrow!

The Mine phase!

So I am taking my son into day care today and as we get to his room they are eating cheerios. My son quickly runs to his seat to chow down on some cheerios and milk, when one of his teachers says to him "Ben, tell daddy bye!". He gets up from his seat and says "I want to give you a hug and a kiss daddy!", which that in and of itself is enough to make your heart melt. At that same time 3 other kids get up to tell me bye and try to give me a hug as well...sounds odd but happens a lot in this class. At this point my son grabs my neck in his little arms and yells "NO, MY DADDY!!!", puts his mouth up to my ear and says "I love you daddy.". It makes me tear up thinking just how sweet that is...but it also got me to thinking that we start at such an early age laying ownership on the things we care about. He is only 2 and has a fairly clear idea as to what is his and what isn't. I am definitely HIS daddy and not everybody else daddy, and not to be shared. So as he goes back to his seat I give the other 3 kids hi-fives and tell them bye too. And my son can rest easy in the fact that he has established "ownership" of his father to the other kids in the class, and those two rooms down...he's a loud kid. At the end of the day I love my son and i love being a dad!

The First Blog!

Well here it is the first blog of my life...probably the saddest excuse for a blog is ones first! I have to get it out of the way to pave the way for all the future thoughts that will pour from my mind and onto the keyboard. What is there to say... so much going on in the world with wars, health care reform and sadly Michael Jackson's death. I swear if i never hear another thing about Michael Jackson's death it would be too soon. Just let the guy rest for God's sake!
Again I apologize it is my first blog ever, but that is all I've got for tonight so good night and good luck!