Category Archives: Awesome

Still here…and running!

October 15, 2014Awesome, FamilyKids, Run Abigail Run!, Running hurts!, Sportswarren

The end of the sports seasons are near for us…We’ve been full-on since school started. I am the head coach for the boys soccer team at the local middle school. Isaac is in the high school band which plays at festivals around the area and at every football game, home or away. Abigail is running cross-country at the middle school. Needless to say, we have been running (he he, get it?) and are sort of ready for things to start to winding-up.

In fact, Abigail ran her final cross-country meet, the county championship race yesterday! Both the boys and girls teams at her middle school won 1st place! Abigail was not a medalist in the race, but completed a personal record on the course which was super exciting! I am super proud of her because she has never especially been a runner. It’s not that she wasn’t a runner…She has just not been a kid that needs to run.

In the weeks leading up to the season, she started to run a little according (sort of) to the schedule that her coach sent out to prepare the athletes. Mostly that didn’t work at all. She didn’t get that getting in shape was going to be hard and maybe even be a little uncomfortable. I ran with her a few times and sort of showed her that it’s ok to push and sweat and even be a little sore. I am no running coach but she sort of “clicked” once she got what it meant to really run and compete and be an athlete.

Cross-Country running — She raced this girls to the end and beat her…it was so exciting!

So, Abigail is a new runner and a lot less experienced than the older girls with whom she ran. We have decided, though, that she is a runner and that she and I are going to run together through out the year so that when next year’s season comes around, she will already be in a good spot and will be ready to roll!

I am super proud of all of the kids on her team and she has great coaches that are encouraging and genuinely nice and excited for the kids. So, while I am glad for the running season to be coming to an end, in a way I am sort of bummed too as it brings to an end the excitement of it all. I suppose Abigail and her middle-aged Dad can always continue to compete…it’s been nice knowing you my friends!

Kids these days

September 9, 2014Awesome, Family, ThoughtsFamily, Fun, Kids are sort of cool...even if they do eat all my food, Thoughtswarren

Kids these days…You know, kids these days are different than when I was a kid. I had good pals and best friends and we did a lot together and had a lot of fun and all that. Something about kids these days seems different though. I have noticed that these kids share more and better than I remember doing. Sure, we took turns drinking from the garden hose and maybe we traded cookies from our lunch boxes, but Isaac and many of his pals give things to each other freely…and not just little things. They share what’s important to them among each other. I have seen them share money and clothes and electronics and all sorts of things without hesitation. I don’t mean, “here, you can borrow my shirt” kind of stuff, but “here, you can have my shirt.”

I wonder if it comes down to economics of it or if it is a true change in how kids are these days. I grew up in an economically disadvantaged region of PA. Most people there worked very hard to get by and few had a life of plenty. Of course, I had plenty of love and support, but we didn’t have stuff in plenty. I am and was perfectly content with that life, but maybe my growing up was different because of that. Maybe I didn’t share as freely because I didn’t have as much to share or what I did have was a little more precious to me. Maybe it was the time and the world and all that. I don’t have any idea.

Last weekend, Abigail ran in a cross-country meet. She ran well and came in among the middle of the pack. I was very happy for her, especially considering she is a new runner and a 6th grader competing among 8th graders. As the last of the pack was coming in for one of the other races, one boy was obviously struggling to complete the race. I was so proud to see a number of other runners who had finished their race return back to the lone runner and encourage and support him. They ran beside him, encouraging him to keep going, that they were there to keep cheering him and that they were proud to run with him. I don’t know that everyone got a ribbon, but in my eyes, I saw a team of kids that, rather than teasing or bullying, or even just being indifferent, proved that they were champions and that they shared the joy together.

I hear people complain about how kids these days feel entitled because everyone gets a ribbon and everyone gets constant praise. Maybe that can be taken too far and maybe it is taken too far, too often, but honestly, I do not know that I have seen that problem. If that sort of thing breeds the kind of sharing and concern that I have seen among my kids’ friends, I am all for giving every kid I see a ribbon.

Maybe it’s a different time or maybe I was just a bad friend, but many kids these days simply make me proud and give me hope that it’s all going to be ok…

Math facts

August 19, 2014Awesome, FamilyGirls rock!, Math - taking men to the moon since 1969!, Math is coolwarren

Abigail is in middle school this year. Kids seem to get interesting starting in middle school. They think differently. Well, I guess most folks wonder if middle school kids think at all, but I like the way they think (mostly). It’s fun to watch as things dawn on the kids as they age…I guess I can almost see the world open up for them to all of the neat things that maybe I take for granted. But beyond that, they still have that spark where just enough is different and new for them. They aren’t yet jaded…naivete remains, at least a little.

So Abigail had a task to use mathy stuff to describe a few things about herself in her math class. I think this project was sort of fun for her, but she didn’t mention a thing about it until Emily discovered it during open house (yes, we are already in school and have already done open house). I love how she loves PI stuff. I love how she drew her brother ~~as tall as~~ taller than me and bald. I love how she drew our 3 cats and 5 chickens as our pets. This is no artistic masterpiece, but, like most parents, I couldn’t be happier with the result of what comes from my own kids!

First day of school – 2014

August 11, 2014Awesome, Family, ThoughtsFirst say of school, Mah babies!warren

I can’t believe Summer is over! Well, school has started anyhow…so Summer might as well be over. Since almost everything is about me, I have to lament that now, with the start of school, I have to start getting up earlier and fight traffic around the schools that I must pass to get to work in the morning.

Well, I guess it isn’t really all about me. The early-morning-rise is more drastic for the kids who have been sleeping in until 10 am. They have to do homework each night and dress in…well…clothes each day as opposed to sleep-wear. I think both kids were excited mostly and were ready to go back to school though going back this early does feel a little like we truncated our Summer. Mostly, though, I was more wound up than either of them. I had butterflies last night and this morning as we waited for the bus. I ran through my checklist of stuff…pencils and paper, lunch, coonskin hat, binders, agenda, phone…it takes a lot to be a kid in school these days.

This is Isaac’s first year in high school and Abigail’s first year in middle school. Both are significant changes which scares the daylights out of me. How can it be that my sweet little children are becoming people…er…I mean how can it be that they are growing up?! Isaac is taller than me and Abigail is nearly as tall as Emily. They have grown-up voices and wear grown-up sized clothes. They watch The Daily Show and understand it. They are starting to think about what they want to do for a living and where they might go to college. It’s scary! I think that means I must be a grown-up too! Terrifying!

It’s true you know…one day you are holding your newborn baby, the next day they are shaving eating two full helpings and casting a shadow bigger than mine…don’t blink!

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Ab Challenge

July 29, 2014Awesome, FunExercise sucks...but abs are cool, Funwarren

Back in May, a friend of mine posted a “30 day ab challenge” event on her facebook. Isaac and I decided to give it a go. After losing a bunch of weight, I decided it was time to get back into guided activity, just to see what would happen. Here is the schedule we tackled:

It started off pretty easy and neither Isaac nor I had any trouble keeping up with the program…we pretty easily sailed through the routine until somewhere around Day 22 or so. It got to the point where just sheer number of movements got tiring…I know that sort of makes sense…it is exercise after all. But it was more in our heads than anything. On the last day, we did 200 crunches. What gets in your head is when we hit 100, we are only half way done. It’s hard physically too of course but working our way into it made it doable. Since we completed the challenge, we have decided to just keep doing it. Three days a week, we just do Day 30 again. It’s not easy, but it is definitely easier than when we first got to day 30. We added push-ups to it too, just to add a little something outside of the ab part. It’s been a really cool workout for us and only takes a little time each week to get it done. I know you may be wondering…did it work? The answer is yes, it definitely did. I think it is probably best that I do not post pics of my abs on here, but you’ll have to try it for yourself and see!

It’s a little late for this year, but start now and get ready for Beach 2015!

20 Years Strong!

July 23, 2014Awesome, FamilyLove...true love is what bwings us togetherwarren

Today Emily and I celebrate our 20 year wedding anniversary! It’s cliche I suppose, but time has flown and I cannot be any happier to have spent this time with Emily. She is the best of everything I am and I couldn’t be happier (although I wouldn’t be opposed to hitting the Powerball to verify whether that might make me just a little happier).

We are going to go out somewhere nice to eat tonight and spend a nice relaxing evening enjoying our happy life together!

The surfer look?

July 17, 2014Adventure, Awesome, Family, FunBeach, Family, Fun, Gnarly dude, Life's a beachwarren

We’ve been back from the beach for a few days, but my head is sort of still halfway between home and the ocean. I was looking back over the pics I took and there are far too many of the pier. The other trend I think I found were of the four of us looking like wannabe surfers.

Really, it is more of a matter of wearing rashguard shirts so we don’t get sunburned, but that’s not too sexy so we will go with the surfer look.

Abigail in particular, is the water-dog when it comes to body-surfing. We had several days of pretty rough waves and she didn’t seem to even notice. I was getting beat to death, but she kept going out into the surf. Of course, she, too, was getting beat up, but it just didn’t seem to bother her. And heck, scars and scabs on my little girl’s knees and feet are kind of cool.

Well, beach time is over I guess so I will have to get back into real life mode I suppose. Really though, I suppose I will have enough sand it my delicate parts to be reminded of the beach for some time to come!

Pier pressure

July 10, 2014AwesomeBeach, Did you get that...pier pressure? Oh I kill me sometimeswarren

I mentioned that we are at the beach and are lucky enough to have a house pretty near to one of the piers in the Topsail Island area. I have this thing for structures I guess. Every time I see a cool bridge, I pretty much take a picture of it. It drives Emily nuts a little. In a way, I guess I get a little satisfaction from that alone, but I digress. I like bridges and stuff like that.

On this trip, I have identified the fact that I also like piers. Every day I walk at least one time to the pier, just so I can look up its skirt as it were. I am fascinated by how it is built and how it stands the constant bashing of the waves and even the occasional hurricane.

From a distance, and even close up in many cases, piers are just amazing works of art! I don’t think I am ready to change careers, but if I were, I think I might consider being a bridge or pier architect…or maybe just a critic…or maybe a hotdog vendor so I can walk on the pier all of the time.

Most days, I have seen cool pools formed by the turbulence generated by the pilings of the pier. There are all sorts of fish and birds that seem to accumulate around the pier. People are drawn to the pier too. Of course, people fish from it, but I think I have seen more people resting under the pier than ever before…it is a great shade and wind break…or maybe people are just hanging out there waiting to greet me as I walk by.

Anyhow, I love the pier and I feel pier pressure to take a picture of it just about every time I walk by!

Beach 2014

July 9, 2014Adventure, Awesome, Family, FunAdventure, Family, Fun, I look killer in a bikini, Life's a beach, The ocean is huge!warren

We go to the beach every other year or so and this is our year. This is weird I know, especially since I never went to the beach as a kid, but it truly doesn’t feel like Summer to me on beach years, until we actually go to the beach. Of course, this year we have had screwed up weather so it really hasn’t felt like Summer until now anyhow.

I am not sure why I need to go to the beach to feel Summery but I am definitely on holiday and enjoying my most favoritest season – Summer! We have been to Topsail Island, NC the last few beach trips and I think it has become our new favorite place. When we do the beach, we do the beach and nothing else. Topsail is mostly houses on the beach and not much touristy stuff to do. It’s mostly not crowded and suits perfectly my need to lay on the sand in earshot of waves crashing so I can sleep properly. It’s perfect!

As the kids get older, I think that we have found that it is as much fun to watch them at the beach as any other thing. They like to people watch and body surf and read and all the stuff we do. It’s just total fun! It is contagious and we all just relax and kick back. We are here this year with Emily’s family and it’s a great opportunity to spend time with cousins and stay up late and eat too much rich food. I used to be able to add “get sunburned” to that list but we have taken that out of the mix…we are very diligent about keeping everyone slathered in sunblock…funny how times change and we get smarter.

Anyhow, I love the beach and need to re-charge every couple of years. And like they say, even a bad day at the beach beats a great day at work!

The Greenbrier and the bunker tour

July 3, 2014Awesome, WVGreenbrier is an amazing place!, Lifestyles of the not so rich and famous, Who the heck lives like this?, WVwarren

Where did the last 10 days go? It seems like we just got back from the trip we took to Lewisburg, but it’s been a while now! So, it turns out, the Greenbrier resort is in White Sulphur Springs, WV, a few miles from Lewisburg. The Greenbrier is one of those pretty high-end resorts that reminds me of where Daddy tried to put Baby in the Corner. It’s not a place I really understand, but they have really pretty grass, so why not?

Emily and I decided to go and walk around the place and enjoy the beautiful views and take a tour of the declassified bunker that was built into the mountain during the Cold War. The bunker was called Project Greek Island and was built to allow government to continue to exist in the event of nuclear war.

The ugly wall paper false wall hiding the blast door of the Greenbrier bunker

The bunker itself is not all that notable, but the tour given by staff is well worth the cost of the tickets. There was so much secrecy and Cold War intrigue in its construction that simply seeing the structure without the story would be to miss the real gem.

We had a lot of fun walking around the grounds as the staff prepared for the Greenbrier Classic. We spend a few moments indulging our fantasies of wealth and importance and the state of the world during the Cold War. I think the Greenbrier is exactly built for that…a place to get away from reality and ponder things. The cool part for us, at least, is that we didn’t have to pay to stay in the hotel or eat at the restaurants. We were able to escape for a few bucks for the cost of the bunker tour. And even better was leaving with my savings in my pocket, my wife at my side and a reservation back in Lewisburg!

My Home Among The Hills

Life in WV!