Happy MLK Day

Seriously though, MLK was one of the first biographies I read when I first started reading back in elementary school. Today he remains one of my favorite people to ever walk the earth. Truly a leader and visionary.

“I submit to you that if a man hasn’t discovered something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” —Martin Luther King Jr., June 23, 1963

Filed under: Holidays, Jr., Leadership, Martin Luther King, MLK, Quotes, The Office, Visionaries

I Killed Santa & I’m Back At Work

Most of my readers are probably still sleeping now, but I’m one of the few working class hero’s strapped to my desk this morning. I’m taking one for the team. You’re welcome.

I didn’t really kill santa, but I got close. Last year Tonia and I thought Tanner had way too much of a whirlwind of presents and parties, and we had to change something. So this year we started the slow process of weaning ourselves from certain traditions that we’ve come accustomed to.

Tradition 1 — Santa Is Everywhere!
Every year we would spend the night at my parents house, and wake up and do Christmas. And then the next day we would do the same thing at Tonia’s parents house. For starters, this gets really confusing to Tanner as to where santa is, and was, and will be. Secondly, it really gives him no opportunity to thank the people that are showering him with gifts. So we have stopped spending the night anywhere, and now only wake up at our own house on Christmas day. This is so much more relaxing and easier to explain.

Tradition 2 — Santa’s Not Rich.
Besides both sets of grandparents, Tanner also has great grandparents and at least 5 sets of aunts and uncles living within 10 miles of us. All of that adds up to Tanner having a small ownership stake in Toys R Us. So Tonia and I have decided to scale back his expectations from Santa. This year his favorite gift cost us nothing—a set of Star Wars characters I collected in college.

Tradition 3 — Jesus Who?
Our church’s theme this Christmas was Radical Christmas. It was radical in that we were focusing on giving presents to Jesus this year. Our mission was to scale back our gifts to others, perhaps even making something with our hands to save money, and then use what we would have spent on a present to Jesus. We based our gift on the scripture that Jesus said if you give a gift of water in his name, you are giving it to him. So we partnered with Children with Hope, and 100% of our offerings will go toward building a well for an orphanage in Africa. This will become a tradition in our house. It might be some other way each year, but we will definitely be adding Jesus to the gift list each year.

Believe it or not, we took some slack for some of our ideas. Traditions can be deep rooted, and we understand that. We can’t expect everyone to change their ideas the same time we do. Shoot, it took us this long ourselves. But we hope to continue revising our focus, and hopefully shaking free from more consumer driven, and busy-body Christmas holidays.

Filed under: Africa, Christmas, Consumerism, Giving, Holidays, Jesus

Best. Thanksgiving. Ever.

There was nothing different or extraordinary about the food this year compared to previous years. That was all as tasty as ever. No, it really had to do with all the time off, and the lack of a crazy schedules. This year I had Wednesday through Sunday off, and I seemed to have made the most of it.

Wednesday — Tonia had to work, so it was just Tanner and me again. We decided to check out Darth Vaders early years on Naboo. Later we went to a few stores to see if there were any Star Wars items that Tanner could put on his Christmas list. We came home and took a nap until mom got home.

Thursday — Got up relatively late and vegged on the couch a bit, watching a combination of Dumbo and the Macy’s Day Parade. The first Thanksgiving meal was lunch at Tonia’s parents house with some Lion’s football thrown in for good measure. The second meal was dinner at my parents house. Both had awesome food and tons of family. Later that evening I went to see The Mist with my brother-in-law. Because everyone was already sleeping I stopped by and watched another movie with my brother on the way home. Good times!

Friday — Tonia got up at 3am for her annual shopping marathon with her mom and sisters. So again, Tanner and I had the day to ourselves. We slept in again. We finally got ourselves together about Noon and headed off to do some shopping ourselves at Cabela’s. Tanner choose Arby’s for lunch. After that we headed home and watched half of The Goonies before falling asleep. I only dozed for 15 minutes, then woke up and watched the rest of the LSU game. What an amazing game! I had my first Turkey sandwich leftover meal and it was delicious. After Tonia came home we got settled in our pajama’s and watched the rest of The Goonies.

Saturday — Woke up late again (seems to be a theme). Tonia, Tanner and I enjoyed the first real time to ourselves all weekend. Mid-afternoon I went and hung out with a friend. We saw American Gangster and then went to Fricker’s and watched the first quarter of the Missouri / Kansas game. When I got home Tonia and Tanner had all the Christmas stuff out and had rearranged the living room already. That happened fast! Time to break out the Christmas tunes I guess.

Sunday — Another great time with the Body. Derek and I decided to organize an impromptu touch football game that was well-received and ended up being a tackle football game. I won’t go into it too much, but I am either getting older, or just unlucky because I am more than sore in many places. Later that evening we went with the in-laws to see Bee Movie (second time for me and Tanner, but we both loved it). Tanner went home and spent the night with grandma and grandpa, so Tonia and I went home and watched a double-header (Just Like Heaven + Memento).

Seriously, I’m having a hard time moving this morning. I can’t even figure out why I’m not able to lift my right shoulder. Surely it can’t be because of throwing a football. Anyway, I had a great weekend. I personally didn’t get too involved with Black Friday, but I sure will be taking part in Cyber Monday!

How was your holiday?

Filed under: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Family, Holidays, Movies, Thanksgiving

Day of Conception

Never felt like living in Russia… until now.

MOSCOW — A Russian region best known as the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin has found a novel way to fight the nation’s birthrate crisis: It has declared Sept. 12 the Day of Conception and for the third year running is giving couples time off from work to procreate.

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Filed under: Conception, Holidays, Procreation, Russia

Talk Soup

Today is the last day of work for me this week. Going to spend some quality down time at home, with the family, eating like a mad man. Of course this means I’ll be working the rest of the year, save Christmas day, but that’s fine with me. With that said, I am not scheduling any more new posts until Monday, but I figure I’d throw a post together with enough nuggets to last you through the holiday.

Is it coincidental that this week I am a big Notre Dame fan and just yesterday somebody said I looked like a leprechaun. Speaking of leprechauns, did you know there was an actual sighting in Mobile, AL recently? While we’re on the topic of sports, my favorite team has been busy during the off-season, picking up Alfonso Soriano for 8 years. What I would give for a Tigers / Cubs World Series. You know, there’s only a short time until Christmas is here. Have you received any Christmas cards yet? I know the music is out in full force. That doesn’t bother me so much, it’s relaxing. It’s just that it starts earlier every year. I fully expect it to begin in October soon. Speaking of Christmas, Walmart is bringing back the words ‘Merry Christmas’ to their advertising this year. Christmas is a time when people contemplate the world as a whole. I found a great video recently called Waiting for the World to Change. It’s made to the song by John Mayer. Great stuff. You know what’s funny, I used the term Christianese last week and yesterday I get an email from Church Marketing Sucks .com (great site) telling me about their new tshirts. Have I mentioned that Tanner is in school now? Crazy.

Alright, I’ll end with a hot new blog game. It’s called Soundtrack To Your Life. Here’s how it works:

1. Open your music library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, etc).
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press Play.
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing.
5. When you go to a new question, press the Next button.
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool.
7. Don’t skip songs.

There are currently 3833 songs in my iTunes. Without further ado, here is the Soundtrack To My Life:

1. Opening Credits: No Leaf Clover – Metallica
2. Waking Up: What’s Goin’ Down – Toby Mac
3. First Day at School: Mary’s Place – Bruce Springsteen
4. Fight Song: Enough – Passion Worship Band
5. Breaking Up: Awesome Is The Lord Most High – Chris Tomlin
6. Happiness: The Greatest – Planet Asia
7. Life’s OK: Hindu Times – Oasis
8. Mental Breakdown: Walk By Faith – Jeremy Camp
9. Driving: While You Were Sleeping – Casting Crowns
10. Flashback: So Much To Say – Dave Matthews Band
11. Getting Back Together: Sunshine of Your Love – Living Color
12. Wedding: The Impression That I Get – Mighty Mighty Bosstones
13. Birth of a Child: Don’t Be Cruel – Bobby Brown
14. Final Battle: Thinking About You – London Beat
15. Death Scene: You Never Can Tell – Chuck Berry
16. Funeral Song: Obscured – Smashing Pumpkins
17. End Credits: Both Sides of the Story – Phil Collins

Happy Thanksgiving!

Filed under: Baseball, Community, Fun, Games, Holidays, Music, News, Sports, Vacation, YouTube

Cinco de Mayo

Happy Fifth of May! How are you going to enjoy the holiday? We’re heading to the local bar at lunch for nacho’s and chalupas. Isn’t it funny that American’s celebrate this day more than they do in Mexico? It seems to me that the illegal immigrants would have used this day to do their protest. I wonder why they choose not to do that? Anyway, have a margarita on me!

Filed under: Holidays, Mexico