Searching....

Over the past few months life and the continual pursuit of meaningful balance has taken a hit.  I was lucky over the past couple of weeks to have some time off from work with which I was able to find some new perspective. 
    Starting in August work began to become more and more stressful.  Most of the time I am able to manage stress and I generally do well to keep in mind what is actually important in life.  I have been getting caught up in so much of the small meaningless stress that I let the bigger picture get out of focus.  Two weeks ago today my wife gave birth to our second daughter.  My wife going into labor is what finally slapped me back down to earth.  I was forced, by breaking water, to not even consider work for about a 48 hour period.  By the time we had things well under control I realized that the work that had been weighing on me and keeping me awake at night was still there and that it would either get done without me or it would be able to wait.  It made the remaining week and a half of 2011 more rewarding than many I have ever had.  I now am the proud father of two girls and am more in love with my wife than ever before.
    Going back to work today was strangely "ok".  I have finally come to the realization that no, I do not love what I do, and for now, that is ok because I can continue to the do it and do it well until I find something that drives and fulfills me.    Happy New year, here is to making 2012 incredible.

Inspired by a friend.

I thought about starting this thing last July and simply failed to follow through. At the time I was Thinking a lot about the balance in my life and how things had begun to shift. As with many life changing times the shift ended up being a much greater pendullum swing that I ever could have imagined. When I say swing I mean both good and bad. In summary, here are some of the things that have occured since the last post.

In July when I first posted our family had many changes happening. We had a brand new baby, I was freshly off of my most recent knee surgery, our upstairs was completely gutted, and the future was way more scattered than either of us ever expected. (as I am sure every new parent realizes once they have a kid.) Best advice I ever heard about having a child was from a man who had 4 of them, "don't listen to anyones advice as every kid is different, and you are not the same parent as anyone else". With the shear amount of advice you get when your wife is pregnant, it was MORE than refreshing to hear someone say that. In the end it is the one piece of advice I remember. So far, we have a healthy, happy 8+ month old who smiles alot, sleeps well, and seems to enjoy life. I hope I can keep her that way!

The upstairs is complete, our home is done, the destruction and construction is finished, and we are extremely happy with the results. Hopefully the neighborhood and surrounding area will stay wonderful as we would love to be able to stay here for a very very long time. The schools are good, the neighbors are great, and we feel good with the house we live in.

The knee....
The recovery from surgery took quite a bit longer this time around than did the recovery 13 years ago. It is amusing what age will do to slow you down. Along with just being older, the surgery was more extensive than expected. In the end, I probably could have/should have rehabed better. The motivation was just missing. I was able to resurrect the weekly running groups with some friends and we are now running together about 2-3 times a week. In addition to that, I decided to work on a more comprehensive workout program and decided to do P90X. After completing 3 weeks of it, I am happy with the results so far. I am happy with the approach the program takes but I am mostly just happy with getting back into a healthy routine. I have no set triathlon goals for this summer, but am toying with a number of different things. First I am looking at a half marathon in July that will be the first time any event has been allowed to Run over the Hoan Bridge. I think it will be a good time. I highly doubt I will set any personal records, but I am excited to see if I can at least get in good enough shape that I feel good about finishing. I would like to give the "Tough Mudder" a try. It is an obstacle event in late July. After that I would like to look at competing in a couple of small triathlons. We will see. My buddy Mitch is trying to convince me to do a half iron distance race. I am not usually too difficult to talk into such events.

The final Blurb for today is regarding the Political unrest in the lovely state I call home. I have my political views, and I won't go into specifics here as I am sure people will figure it out themselves. We are in a state of major change here in wiscsonsin. The pendulum has swung in a direction this state has not seen in quite some time, but the swing is the swing that the people wanted. The effects of that swing will be much discussed, much debated, and in many many instances, much argued about here. I have noticed the tension regarding this subject has left friends, family members, and loved ones angry, upset, and disappointed in one another. I was left thinking and saying to a friend yesterday, "when can we stop talking about this, and simply focus more on pie, and beer, and excercising". The individual I was talking too has a belief system just the on the other side of middle from me. He laughed, but agreed. Situations like these leave people arguing with individuals about specific subjects taht polarize their friendships. The shame is that most of these polarizing subjects have next to nothing to do with overall everyday life.

I hope everyone has a beautiful day!

A place for storage and review....

After reading a blog written by a good friend of mine, I decided this could be a good way for me to store thoughts, learnings, and general observations. I have always attempted to take calm and educated approaches to things I have done in my life. Why not start storing some of these experiences? If you happen to be reading this, I hope it gives you something you need, whether you know you need it or not. If not, I apologize, and hope it was at least worth a small bit of your time.

2010 has been a year of events for my wife (Amanda) and I. We have been married for 5 years and have been together for almost 8. In short I am lucky to have found and married my best friend. After years of trying we had our first child on June 24th. Nora is a healthy, happy, fantastic baby and has added a little more joy to our marriage.

June also became the starting point for a rather large remodeling project in our home. We have a 2 story house that has 3 bedrooms and one bath. The bath is on the first floor, and our bedroom was on the 2nd floor. We have decided to demolish the upstairs and turn our house into a 4 bedroom 2 bath home. The upstairs will have the master bed, a bathroom and a nursery. The timing of this project could not have been delayed into a worse time for now, but in the end, it will be fantastic.

I have been training for Ironman Wisconsin for the past 9 months. I have completed this race 2 previous times and have been working towards a lofty goal of going sub 11:30. That was until a week and a half ago when I had to have knee surgery due to some torn meniscus and a tear in my LCL. So, now I am have officially pulled out of the race, and am focused on the healing and rehab.

The events of the past couple months have been a number of things. There has been excitement, stress, joy, nervousness, uncertainty, pain, disappointment, elation, and pretty much any other emotion you can state. In the end, even with a knee brace, no upstairs, little sleep, my life is good. Frankly, my life is great. The task at hand, and going forward is going to be my attempt at finding and living a life of balance. A life where I can be a good husband, a good father, a good friend, and still find time to be the person that I have been. I have always strived to find balance in everything I do. I think this has lead me to happiness more than not, and I need to keep that balance going forward.