I wear plaid. I'm a blogger.

This most recent weekend I decided to test my mettle by mashing mightily with my brother-in-law Gregg. We signed up to compete in a sprint triathlon in Miamisburg, OH. The course consisted of canoeing 2.2 miles, running 3.1, and biking 10.6 miles. We had both been training individually and it seemed like we would be able to keep a pretty even pace with each other throughout each section of the race. The 8am start time seemed pretty reasonable when we signed up. It seemed reasonable. That is, until we realized it was a 60 minute drive from either of our houses. Until we read the email that we should be there 60-90 minutes prior to the race start time in order to register, get our boat, and put our bikes on the racks. And until we realized that I would need to leave my house by about 5am to drive over to his house in order to make it on time. And once we got there, we realized there are only 150 people signed up to compete in this thing anyways. It turns out that we got there as th...

As I sit here experiencing post Independence Day depression (as if that were a thing), I am realizing what my last week consisted of, and it is shocking. Within the span of 6 days I experienced a birth, an adoption, a funeral, and a wedding. It seems as though I came upon many stages of monumental life activity all within the past week. -Birth of young My sister-in-law (Katie's brother DJ and Alyssa) gave birth naturally to a beautiful baby girl on Sunday morning. She is a real beauty and makes Isaiah's first cousin on the Ryan side of our family. -Adoption of old My sister and brother-in-law (Katie and Gregg) officially adopted Zahara, a 14 year old African. They celebrated the event at the courthouse with their whole family. -Wedding of old I got back in town from Tennessee just in time to play for Janet's wedding. Janet and Wayne are getting married after having lost both of their previous spouses. They are late in life and early in love with one another. It was...

I spent this past month challenging myself to love my wife better. There was a wonderful opportunity to do so too. This month, Katie turned 30 on the 30th, so I decided to give her a card each day and try to give her a gift each day as well (my natural love language is not giving gifts, so this would be a challenge, I knew). The first week went very well. It was easy to write down the things I had meant to tell Katie all along and I was way overdue in paying her compliments. Gift ideas were also fairly easy, as long as I actually entered a store. As it turns out, I can be quite the little shopper as long as I am in a location where things are sold! Week 2 also went fairly well. I had to start planning more creative gifts and extravagant ways of saying happy birthday. Most fell flat but a few were pretty clever! On week 3 we were away at a week of CIY Move so I knew that I needed to plan ahead and pack cards and gifts ahead of time. I snuck them in my juggling bag (which I anticip...