2nd Day, 2nd Entry

Well, two days in a row. I guess that I am officially a blogger now, although I just started looking at all the lists and link and pictures and "about me" things that i can include on my blog. I will figure them out later on.

Today, I am tired. It was a sleepover last night. Yes, we have had a sleepover before, but this was our first weeknight sleepover. It was our friends anniversary and they had plans to go away for the night. They asked if Andrew's friend Andrew could come over after school and spend the night. We said yes and Andrew has been counting down the days until this grand event for the last week. Andrew C. and Andrew H. have been in school together for two years as well as Cub Scouts. That is how they address each other when at school, soccer games, or playing lego in the basement. A normal conversation is
"Hey, Andrew C. do you want to build Legos?"
"Sure Andrew H." (They are 7 years old and live by the code of short sentences.)
"I'm going to build a boat, Andrew C."
"Cool! I'm going to build a bigger boat Andrew H."
"Well my boat will be faster than yours Andrew C"...

Anyway, they arrived on our doorstep after racing down the hill from the bus stop and announced they were thirsty and needed a snack. The afternoon was spent hunting frogs and tadpoles in the backyard, one of their favorite activities. My wife called me at work to brag that so far she was the only one to actually catch a frog and the boys thought she was very cool to help catch frogs. The rest of the afternoon was spent riding bikes and scooters, performing jumps and me averting my eyes as they came down the hill at speeds that I could only imagine would result in a trip to the emergency room, but thankfully they had fun, no major scrapes or bruises, or grand wipeouts for Youtube viewing.

Dinner was the traditional kid standby of pizza, followed by gameboy, and then the Star Wars DVD and a bowl of popcorn. It amazes me that they are still fascinated with a movie made 20 years before they were born and watched 20 times before in their lives.

My First Entry

My name is Mike. I am 41 years old, reasonably computer literate, but have never understood why anyone would have a blog. I hear news shows talk about checking the blogs to see what they are saying, but I wouldn't know how to do that. A few of my friends and my brother have blogs, but I haven't read more than the first entry or two after they called me really excitedly to say, "Dude, check out my blog!" I admit it, I just don't get what a blog is for or why anyone would have one. It just seems like one person's opinion or rambling with no accountability or responsibility for anything they say.

So then... why I am here today. I guess that I want to take the plunge like everyone else and have a group of people somewhere in the world say, I know how he feels. That is all. I am not out to support a political candidate or rant about the government. I have no interest in some charity or public service calling, and I promise that you will never see naked pictures of me taken from a webcam or cell phone cam. If I want a picture, I will use my camera, thank you very much.

Well, where to start? Let's begin with the title of my blog, "a wife, 2 kids, and a mortgage." All the blogs sites say to write about what you know. I am not a self help advice columnist, nor am I a get rich quick secret to investing stocks in just ten minutes a day type person. I am pretty average, I guess. When you are younger and dream of being an astronaut or movie star or professional baseball player and swear that you are never going to end up like your parents with a wife, 2 kids, and a mortgage. Well, like 99% of the rest of you, it is what I have become. I have a wife, two kids (boy-7 and girl-4), a dog, two cats, and a mortgage. Really there is nothing exciting or out of the ordinary about my life which is why I couldn't imagine anyone reading this blog, but here it is. Like the millions of other blogs, podcasts, websites, and other bits of data clogging the internet. Thanks for reading

Yesterday was my 8th wedding anniversary. I woke up in the morning and walked the dog, made school lunches, walked my son to the bus stop, said good-bye to my wife, and went on my way to work. I came home in the evening and my wife had already gone to work. I stayed home with the kids, made tacos for dinner, did homework, got them baths, read books before bedtime, and then watched TV until my wife came home. We talked about her work and my work and want we needed to do for the kids and school and soccer games this weekend. I walked the dog before bed and then went to sleep.

I am not complaining, but I find it interesting that in eight years we have gone from a dynamic couple who went out with friends (even on weeknights), had BBQs and parties, travelled, grand plans of future careers, and did adventurous things are now the same two people with a very set routine. Now when we go out on a weeknight it is to Cub Scouts or Back to School Night. Kids are fun, and I love my to the whole wide world, but they can also be fun sponges. And I know that as I grow up my priorities are supposed to change and I become more mature, more responsible, but do I need be be stiff and dead like people in British TV shows and Masterpiece Theater? Today, I will change. I read a saying once, "did you choose the life you're living - or just fall into it". Today, I am going to start making a choice.