It’s what she said next that makes her the most awesome wife in the world.  She said, “we should get a Beckett catalog to see what they are worth.”  Not only did she collect cards but she knows what a Beckett catalog is!  I used to be  a big baseball card fan and have boxes of them in storage.  Its so awesome knowing that my wife shared in a past time that I once loved as well!  She rocks!

An even bigger thank you to my wife for everything she has done to make the last 6 months perfect!

Every time the tooth fairy makes a visit, I am afraid it will be its last.  I am afraid one of the kids will see me sneak in or out and put two and two together or I am afraid the other kids at school will let them in on the “secret” and the fun will be gone for them (and me). Being a kid is awesome and my girls are the most awesome. They have that innocence that only a kid can have and to hear them talk about mythical beings makes my heart melt.

In relative terms, my time as the Tooth Fairy may be short lived but I will do everything in my power to walk softly and make sure that they enjoy this time as best they can.  Sweet dreams girls.

A few months back my wife and I picked up a book called The Switching Hour: Kids of Divorce Say Good-bye Again. It sat on the shelf like so many other books that we have, waiting for our “after wedding” life to settle down so that we may take some time to enjoy life with a little reading. A few weeks back I was looking through our books and I saw The Switching Hour. I immediately picked it up and started reading.

Each chapter in this book starts out with a child’s letter to a family member. I will tell you right now, they are tear jerker letters. If you dont feel a sense of sorrow for these children, then you have no heart. Now I will readily agree that I think the author probably went through a huge stack of letters and found the most profound, emotional letters she could to help drive her point across. I get that. It worked. It kept me reading and thinking about my own situation. Point well taken.

This book goes through the process as a child sees it as they switch from one household to another. As they say good-bye to a Mom or Dad, friends, step-family, and material possessions. The world as they had known it is gone. They now need to re-adjust to a whole new world. New expectations, new responsibilities, new friends, new churches, new beds, and possibly new parents. They hope and pray that the life as they knew it will return, but in almost all cases, it wont. This is their new normal. Two houses. Two sets of parents. Two lives. Being with one parent but missing the other. Evon O. Flesberg takes us through their journey with  7 wonderfully written and captivating chapters and at the end of each one, gives us a bit of advice on how to help our children deal with the situation at hand. She keeps it real and she keeps it to the point.

This book opened my eyes to their world but its not the end of my journey into theirs. It has shown me that I can do so much more to ease not only the switching hour for my children but their whole experience with living a double life. It has taught me that I can make the difference for them. That I can make their life as “normal’ as they expect it to be. It has taught me not to stop here. Not to take their lives for granted. To reach out and listen to them and their cries for normalcy. I can make the difference for them. I will make the difference for them. I promise.

I am going to sign off now and go spend some time with the family. I hope  everyone has a happy and safe Labor Day weekend.

A co-worker was rummaging through my desk this morning an came across and old pair of glasses that I had.  He forgot that I used to wear them while on the computer and thought it would be funny to see me put them on again.  I complied, we had our laugh and I proceeded to turn around and start working with them on.  I realized what I did and went to take them off. Imagine my surprise when I noticed how blurry the text on my computer suddenly became! I put the glasses back on and everything suddenly became clear again!  The headache that I had been fighting all morning also started to fade.

I only got these glasses when I needed to use up some end of year insurance money.  I never really intended to wear them on an ongoing basis.  Now that I definitely notice a difference when wearing them and not wearing them, I guess I should wear them more.

I have managed to avoid glasses for 31 years.  I think the time has finally come to recognize that I am getting older and things just aren’t as clear as they used to be.  Wait a second… maybe…just maybe…I am tired and a bit stressed and that is causing my gentle eye strain.  Yeah!  That’s it!  I am not getting older!  I feel great! Forget these glasses.  I don’t need them anykljaf…oops.  Sorry about that. I took the glasses off and suddenly was unable to see what I wrote. Crap.

]]> http://blessed4ever.com/2009/08/28/getting-old/feed/ 2 http://blessed4ever.com/2009/08/24/my-new-owners-manual/ http://blessed4ever.com/2009/08/24/my-new-owners-manual/#comments Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:06:15 +0000 Tyson http://blessed4ever.com/?p=265 For a while now I have been trying to find a way to tie my faith into my health and fitness world. I have always felt that we need to respect the body that God has given us and do everything in our power to keep this gift runnings at its best.  I knew that such a relationship existed but I never really took the time to try and find the correlation…until now.  One day my wife and I were at Mardells and I was looking through the discount books. Crammed among the books I found an audio-book called “The Great Physician Rx for Health and Wellness” written by Jordan Rubin.

Product Description

At 19 years old, Jordan Rubin was a healthy 6’1″ and 180 pounds. Shockingly, his weight fell to just 104 lbs. in a matter of months. His immune system was at an all-time low, as he suffered from Crohn’s disease, food allergies, anemia, fibromyalgia, intestinal parasites, and a host of other conditions.  After seeing over 70 health professionals, using both conventional and alternative medicines, Rubin was sent home in a wheelchair to die. But his story didn’t end there. Through determination and a powerful faith in God, Rubin refused to give in to disease. Instead, he educated himself on natural health (eventually becoming a doctor of naturopathic medicine), and applied its principles. Now, ten years later, Rubin is fully recovered-and he desires to share the keys to his own good health. These keys aren’t just for the disease-ridden; they are for anyone desiring to live an abundant life of health and wellness.

I found this book to be fascinating.  Hearing what the Bible lists as foods we should and shouldn’t eat was truly eye opening. For example, pork is a food that should not be eaten because of the manner in which a pig eats. A pig is unclean.  A pig if kept in an unclean environment (such as a mass slaughter house) can and will survive off its own fecal waste. That waste gets absorbed into the muscles and eventually in the human that consumes it. This is just one of hundreds of examples John gives in his book.

John preaches many times in his book that we need to eat as close to the source as we can. The more processed a food is, the worse it gets for us and our bodies. Eat clean, eat lean, and eat often. That is my motto and it should be yours too.

What is the first thing you do when you buy a car, new TV, or computer program?  You look for and read the manual and determine the best and most efficient way to use your new product in a manner in which it was intended. You wouldn’t buy a car and put diesel fuel in it would you? The Bible can and is a great owners manual for our bodies.  I highly recommend this book for everyone that wants to get their bodies to run at the potential that God has intended for us.