Eating dinner, having fun with friends, walking along a crowded street - suddenly, your life is changed...or ended...with a sudden burst of gunfire. I keep thinking about that when thinking of the Mumbai incident. ALL of us will exit this life sometime, that's a given. For some, it will be sudden and surprising. Others will have months to say their goodbyes. Still others will have all of their friends and family die before them.

Tragic events like Mumbai bring thoughts of how I live my life and how suddenly I could die in just a few minutes from now. I try not to think of the politics behind the event, but rather the finality of life and how we are all going to check out somehow. Keeping those thoughts in the forefront of my mind helps me to live my life a little fuller, love a little deeper. I mourn for those who died, or rather those who were left behind.

By the way, this blog will be used for the 31 Day Journal Writing Challenge, so my posts will be mostly prompt driven.
 

Another great Saturday morning. I've developed a routine that is almost therapeutic. I normally sleep in until around 5 on the weekends. Coffee, news on the TV, and catching up with WDC for a couple of hours. In the summer I sit on the deck and watch the sun rise, for now on the couch in the living room. At about 6:30 the twins will come downstairs. Each of them gives me a long hug and then eat breakfast. Turbo comes down next and I take him outside for a few minutes. He always runs over to my newspaper and waits for me to come and pick it up. Soon, Ryan will come down and give me more of a "buddy" hug. He is still pretty affectionate for 13. Nat stays in her room sleeping and reading until later in the morning, so I usually go up and see her around 8. After that I go and jump back in bed with Rina and she starts waking up. After getting up and getting ready we usually go on a Starbucks run, though now life has been complicated by a bakery that opened up about 1/4 mile from our house. It is unbelievable!

Anyway, that's Saturdays at my house. I'm learning to chill in my adulthood, I used to be at work by this time on most Saturday mornings. I will still work a few hours this afternoon, but I cherish my family time and commit myself to that on the weekends. I have to, these little monsters are growing up way too fast. I only have 9 more years until the twins turn 18. We could realistically have an empty house by that time, if they all go away to college. Ryan will likely be finishing college by that time. Wow!!
 

OMG!!! My new job is overwhelming already...I got moved into an ops role as a project manager and the project I'm on is the second largest in the company. I am in charge of 11 project teams. The scope of this thing is unbelievable. I think I'll like it, but getting up to speed is going to take a lot of effort.

Bottom line, though...it's good to be gainfully employed. I am thankful for that.

That's all I have time to write, got to get back to work!!!
 

I noticed in my blog that I spend alot of time being frustrated about raising kids. Overall, I am blessed to have them and they are truly a great bunch of humans. Here are some recent events that I'm thankful for:

Natalie (11) is truly a daddy's girl right now. She was only 2' 12" when she was born and has gone through 3 broken bones over her life, the last one a devastating elbow injury that needed reconstructive surgery and therapy. So, Rina tends to be super protective with her. She doesn't want her to play sports or do anything "dangerous". Nat wants to play softball this year with her friends, and I have Rina talked into it. Nat asked "Dad, do you think you can talk Mom into letting me play softball?". As she asked, she pretended she was holding a bat and shook her hips and pretend swung...how can you resist that cuteness?

I was explaining to the kids the law that you can drop newborns at a hospital or fire station without penalty, but how the law has been twisted to allow older kids to be dropped off. Cooincidently, we have a fire station across the road from our house, so when Nat was teasing me about something the other day I told her to pack her stuff, I was taking her to the fire station to drop her off. She said. "Oh, Daddy, quit being such a grouch. You know you can't live without me". Heart melting!!!

One of my twins, Alex, struggles a little in school, especially with math and speed drills. We are having him tested for dyslexia, he gets so frustrated, especially when Benny is the achiever in his class and his main competition. The othe day Alex got 100% on speed drills for the first time...the class stood up and clapped for him!! That's so funny! He's so non-chalant, we asked him if it made him feel good and he said "Not really."

Rina was talking to the kids about the economy and told them I was a little worried about work and maybe losing my job. She checked herself quickly as we don't ever want to burden them with worrying about that kind of stuff. Benny piped up and said "Don't worry, Mom, Dad is really good at what he does. Whatever that is." Haaaa!!!

And Ryan....my frustrating 13 year old....I have actively engaged with him and we are managing his homework and getting him back in line. During a break I let him listen to my iPod. I listen to alot of early punk and alternative, and he is just now getting into music. To see him listen to The Ramones and get a huge smile on his face was priceless. He apologized for messing up lately, but overall he's a phenomenal kid. He's not a very good athlete, but he still plays. Last year he got the Attitude Award, not just for his team but for the school for all teams. What more can you ask for?

Anyway...I'm blessed. I haven't even touched on my wife yet!! We'll cover that later....
 

Bad night in the household last night. Ryan again is missing assignments. I looked over all of his grades for the semester and he is pulling a 95+ on all tests and quizzes, about 60% on homework assignments. He dropped to a D in science. So....had to pull him out of basketball. I feel bad, but I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't give him that structure now. Did I just liken parenting to a job? Sure feels like it sometimes...

Georgia has a program called the Hope Scholarship. If you have a B average in high school and maintain it in college it pays for your tuition at any Georgia public college. I would really like to not have to pay for tuition if I can get away with it. Ryan is in 9th grade next year, so it starts to count. I tried that argument but think I lost him when I told him he was out of bball. Heartbreaking!!!
 

OK, it's 33 degrees and I'm freezing my butt off. I blame this on living in Florida for a couple of years. We moved from Chicago to Florida about 3 years ago. I liked the cold weather in Chicago, and we were there for 5 years so I was acclimated. I'll never forget the time it got down to about 58 in Florida and my daughter stated that she was pretty sure it was going to snow. HA!! Anyway, need to get acclimated here as well....
 

My son is 13 and an addict. He is addicted to stupid. I swear I can tell that kid to do 3 things, have him repeat the 3 things back to me, and within 2 minutes he forgets at least 2 and sometimes all of them. Lately he has been "forgetting" to do his homework. Now understand, this is a kid that made a sweep of all the academic awards for his private school just a couple of years ago. He pulled a D+ in history and a C in math this last grading period. He hasn't been turning in any of his project assignments and most of his homework. I had a "come to Jesus" breakfast with him last weekend. I was calm and reasonable, laid out the consequences of further inactions and we walked away with him feeling like he was lucky to be alive. I threatened to ground him from everything including breathing if he continued.

And then I find out that he missed two assignments this week. Now I am faced with having to take away the two things that I didn't ground him from - his guitar and extracurricular activities. I think being involved at school is important, so I really don't want to take him out of sports. He is fairly talented musically, so I'm reluctant there as well. But he just doesn't get it.

Wow...what a rant! Now I'm tired from even thinking about it. That boy will waltz his way downstairs any minute now and come over and give me a big good morning hug. He's almost as tall as I am and his voice sounds like mine now. He's a sensitive, caring kid that loves his parents and siblings. I think I just have to get used to the idea of supporting him for the rest of his life because of his addiction to stupid. I just hope he doesn't get the others hooked....
 

I have never been inspired to write anything based upon a dream I had. It happened last night. I woke up from a dream and was literally in tears. I just wrote a story based upon the subject of my dream called "The Christmas Dance". Check it out if you want...

ID: 1495870 Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. by Not Available.

What a night! I've been on the road for almost two weeks straight, with last Saturday being my only full day home. I love being home, so when I get here I feel like my body and mind takes a big dive. I was so exhausted last night I fell asleep at 8:30 and slept almost straight through until 4:30. I usually only get 4-5 hours of sleep, so 8 is pretty rare.

My wife is talking one of her friends through a divorce. Her husband was served yesterday, so her friend calls Rina and leaves the phone on the counter so she can listen to this asswipe continue to alternately beg and plead for his wife to stay and then berate her and tell her she doesn't know what she's doing. This guy has made her feel like a second citizen for 13 years and he doesn't get that she's completely done, she hates him! Anyway, I have kind of a sick sense of humor and get tremendous pleasure sneaking up on Rina when she's up late gabbing on the phone and scaring the bodily waste out of her. I got within 3 feet last night before she saw me. She accused me of relations with my mom and swore that she was going to carry a gun and kill me one day. She watches alot of those forensic science shows so she'd probably get away with it.
 

Hey!! Welcome to my first blog. If you are reading this you are likely bored to death or suffering from insomnia. Hopefully I can give you a few minutes of entertainment and laughs.

Why a blog? Well, why not? I have always dreamed of writing, and recently started to out of necessity. I started going to college 3 years ago at the ripe old age of 38. School = papers, so I began writing and realized that I enjoy it and am not bad. I took a semester off this fall and decided to get a little more serious. This blog will help me to write a little more frequently without having to worry about plot and character development.

A little about me, my life and some of the subject matter that will inevitably come out of this. My name is Mike. I am a 41 yo male living near Atlanta, GA. I have been married to Rina for 14 years. We have 4 children: Ryan, 14; Natalie, 11; Alex and Ben, 9. We picked up Turbo last year, he's a Yorkie-Poo and one of the best dogs I have ever known.

I am a Regional Manager for one of the largest companies in the world. At least I was until today, my boss called and informed me this afternoon that I have been pulled out of my position for a special project. That should make my Monday a little more interesting than usual.

Thanks for reading, I promise more and hope that this first entry is as boring as it gets. I have tons to share about work, life and marriage. Thanks for hanging out!!

**************************
"You deserve what you accept"