I have a friend and colleague, Caryn FitzGerarld, who is a dynamic and gifted writer. She recently completed an inspiring anthology that features 30 Ordinary People Sharing their Experiences Living EXTRAordinary Lives! This book is a must have if you want to be inspired by some amazing stories of people who have gone from ordinary to EXTRAordinary! Introducing: "Living the Life of My Dreams: Essays & Interviews with 30 Ordinary People Living EXTRAordinary Lives" Featuring … [Read more...]
February 25, 2011 By 4 Comments
Getting a Regular Relationship “Tune-up”
The Friday before this past Valentine’s Day, my wife and I attended a two-day marriage conference. We’ve attended several of these sessions throughout our soon-to-be 16 years of marriage, and I’m always fascinated by the responses I get from both men and women when we tell them about these marriage meetings. For the most part, women who’ve never been to one tend to be more interested and intrigued to hear details about the sessions while the guys could not care less and want nothing … [Read more...]
February 22, 2011 By 1 Comment
Sanctus Real – Lead Me
Here's a great reminder about what's truly important in life and how we can't lose perspective of that. … [Read more...]
February 15, 2011 By 11 Comments
Valentine’s Day Off…Required a LOT of Work!!
I took the day off from work today to spend with my wife while our two daughters were in school. First thing we did was to attend the 10am showing of "The King's Speech" which was a fabulous movie - highly recommended. We then grabbed a bite to eat at a nearby Thai restaurant where I had pre-arranged to have a dozen roses delivered to our table. Then when we got home, I gave her a framed/matted 8"x10" picture of the faux magazine cover below I'd created at … [Read more...]
February 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Neighbors Pesky Over “Pesty” Misperception
I recently heard about a neighborly conflict, which I know to be true, that I found to be shocking…and it goes like this. A family of four has lived in the same house within the same neighborhood for several years. The father works for a pest control company that graciously provides him with a company vehicle that he can drive directly to various customer sites. Based on conversations I’ve had with the dad, who is a highly-trained professional, he typical works on large commercial and/or … [Read more...]
February 9, 2011 By 7 Comments
Incredible pix and video of a 25-week preemie…
I became aware of this family through a colleague at work. Below is a video montage with snippets of their incredible home video of a preemie who was born at a gestational age of 25 weeks - that's more than 15 weeks early compared to a full-term child. This baby weighed 12 ozs. when she was born and she is thriving today. This should help refocus our attention on the value of life and cause us to hug our own children a little tighter tonight before bed. I promise it'll be the best six … [Read more...]
January 25, 2011 By 5 Comments
What We Value is Often Misguided…
With a few exceptions, there is currently very little watchable AND enjoyable programming on network television these days. Most of the programs that I personally look forward to are on cable – specifically Discovery and History channels. There is a genre of reality-based series on those channels that are “must-see-TV” for me and they are American Pickers, Pawn Stars and Storage Wars. The basic premise of each is treasure hunting in some manner or another. However, what each of the … [Read more...]
January 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The Will to Live…or Die?
Life is hard. Life is loss. Life wears you down, yet despite those challenges most of us still prefer living to dying. But that’s not always the case. For instance, statistics show that many surviving spouses die within two years of their predeceased spouse. An abstract on that very subject published in the American Journal of Public Health produced some interesting findings after studying more than 150,000 cases involving the deaths of one spouse after the other – the abstract defines … [Read more...]
January 11, 2011 By 4 Comments
How to Help Pre-Doom Your Marriage….
Depending on what statistic you use either 1-out-of-2 (50%) or 2-out-of-3 (66%) of marriages in theU.S.end in divorce – either way the institution of marriage is eroding. While marriage might not be for everyone, here’s something to consider if you’re considering taking the plunge - you might want to consider NOT have sex with your spouse-to-be. Findings from a recent study suggest that speeding too quickly into the physical aspects of a relationship early on can result in a crashing … [Read more...]
December 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment
A Great Holiday, Family Tradition!
Every Christmas since our daughters could stand up on their own, my wife would engage the herculean task of making holiday cut-out cookies. Thank God I married a gal with the patience of Job for such an arduous job. I couldn’t do it, but I’m delighted to write about it and provide a few select photos of the festive frivolity that took place in our kitchen this week. Here is our youngest, rolling an overabundance of flour through a film of cookie dough. Once the cut-outs were in the … [Read more...]
