Monthly Archives: July 2017

One year later: moving

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It was one year ago today I moved my family from Lawrence, KS to Kansas City, MO.

If I am completely honest, I spent the first six months feeling like I was living in exile. I was born in Kansas, and had lived there most of my life. I lived in Lawrence for 16 years before the move last year. It was both easy to do because of my daily commute, and incredibly difficult.

The hard part was in the beginning. I was afraid we made the wrong decision. We didn’t know anyone. The kids had no friends, and my wife was in completely new surroundings. Nothing was familiar. Actually, that’s not entirely true. Nothing much changed for me except going from a 50-minute commute down to 15 minutes. I still worked with the same people, I know my way around the city pretty well, and I blend into new environments with ease. I thrive on change and unfamiliarity, and my wanderlust had been in overdrive for awhile before we left.

Most of my family seemed a little in shock at first. Little by little, we started exploring our new surroundings. We’ve found new favorite places. We met new people. We learned how “these people” (Kansas Citians) are, culturally. We probed, we absorbed, and we adapted.

I can’t pinpoint an exact time when I realized things were going to be OK, and that there was no looking back, but I can remember some events. It was little things, really. Like when my wife said, “I got to the store without using my phone!” It was when my daughters found new friends in the neighborhood. It was pictures of my son playing in a stream during homeschool outings.

It was when I saw smiles. Smiles were a good indicator that things were going OK. Smiles put me at ease.

A friend of mine recently mentioned that he perceived I had some animosity for Lawrence and/or Kansas. I played it off a little, stating my position. I made some justifications. And then, I thought about that statement for the rest of the day.

He’s right; I have given off that vibe. I realize now my feelings since moving were a little misguided. It’s classic “Who Moved My Cheese?” and I got sucked right up in it. You see, I didn’t want to move. I love Lawrence, and it was a fantastic home. I got married there, and my three children were born there. My current career path was born there. In many ways, I truly became a man there.

I just wasn’t meant to stay there, and it’s taken me some time to reconcile that. I believe I have.

Sometimes when we’re coming back to our place after a family outing, my son (currently two years old) will begin to notice familiar surroundings. I am not sure what he sees. Is it the trees? Is it the street signs? I have no idea.

But when those items come into focus to his little eyes, and the mood hits him just right, he will perk up and exclaim, “It’s home!”

It sure is.

Wrap-up: June 2017

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The year is half over, and here’s my June 2017 wrap-up:

  • To start the month off, I shaved my beard off completely clean. Thus, I revealed to the world my baby face, and was asked by a couple of people to never do it again.
  • June 8 was my birthday. I turned 41. Honestly, just another day in my book although we took the kids to Worlds of Fun (season passes are great) and I had a funnel cake. I felt sick awardwards, but it was so worth it.
  • I “ran” over the distance of a 5k after work one Friday. My work happens to be located at a small airport, and the distance around the tarmac is a little over a 5k. It was hot, brutal, and quite the challenge. I should note my “run” is more of a jog/walk/jog/walk until I get it done. I took a nap afterwards. I was beat.
  • The girls and I went to a daddy-daughter dance at a nearby community center. I always wanted to do that when I lived in Lawrence but never did. I’m glad I finally made the time.
  • Date night with the woman was watching Wonder Woman at the theatre. It was a good night, and a great movie.
  • With some of my birthday cash, I purchased a mic stand and a pop filter for some possible podcasting and/or screencasting experiments. We’ll see how that goes.
  • Decided to go ahead and join the gym I was trialing. It’s a nice gym that suits my needs. Although, my weight loss has totally flattened. That’s expected, even if it’s difficult to keep pushing so hard when there’s no weight losses at the moment. Still, I am getting stronger and I feel very good. I have found that it’s important to keep exercise in my life or I just don’t function well in all the other aspects. Now I just need to keep it up and not falter like I typically do when I plateau.
  • Lastly, one of my kids was baptized. It’s interesting to see how children treat faith and spirituality versus adults. There’s a lot of lessons to be learned from the younger generation; maybe adults could learn to treat others with more dignity and respect even if we don’t share the same beliefs.

Author’s note: The May and June wrap-ups were written in July because life was crazy the last few months; now to get back on schedule!

Wrap up: May 2017

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May was an active month. Here’s the wrap-up:

  • Transitioned my youngest from a crib to a toddler bed. It might not sound like much, but knowing that you’ll never be in this phase again as a dad is a little sad.
  • Went on a camping trip with some friends from Lawrence at Clinton Lake in Douglas County, Kansas. We had a great time; we’ll do it again in the fall.
  • Had not one, but two date nights with the wife in May. One of them was our regularly planned monthly date, but then my parents took all the kids for the weekend a week later. We hadn’t been away from the children together for three years before that night. We went to Worlds of Fun and rode a bunch of big-kid rides.
  • Started a 30-day trial at a local gym. Since I’m on a health kick (again) this year, I wanted to start throwing resistance training into the mix. It’s been a long time (more than a year), and getting back to a routine wasn’t easy by a long shot. Since starting on April 1, I am down 16 lbs. and feeling better than I have in a long time.

On to June!