Today we celebrate the 236th birthday of this great nation of ours.  Yet in my 51 years, I have not lived through a time such as this.  We as a people are more polarized than ever.  We speak about what separates us, rather than that Great Melting Pot we learned about as children in school where we come t realize we are all Americans first.

I am proud to be an American. Sure, I have a family heritage, but I am an American first.  I am blessed to live and to raise my family here, and I will dedicate today and every day to giving thanks for our Country.

God Bless these United States of America and Happy 236th!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Sometimes while making my way through life I look at Viper and think “wow, what a great life you live.”  He has very little stress or responsibility.  He is happy to see everyone and everyone is happy to see him (except 3 year old Jack next door who is afraid of dogs).  He hangs with his fake squirrel, satisfied that he will not be catching a real one (he will not take a part in fulfilling the Peter Principle). And he eats and sleeps when he wants…..which is pretty much all the time.

My life, on the other hand, is often chaotic.  It is quite regularly filled with stress, change, and uncertainty.  It is mired with too much responsibility, and as much as I would love it, not everyone is happy to see me…..although Jack and his family seem to like me!  I do feed all our squirrels, but do not have one of my own or even a fake one.  I am however considering buying Ben a “Secret Squirrel” costume so at least one will talk to me.  And of course I probably live my life as the poster child for the Peter Principle.

But no, I am not jealous, I just admire him.  He is a good and loyal friend (unless Scotty is around) who helps keep me sane and being able to do what I do.  And today, on a pretty rough day, I thank God for him.  Viper, you are one awesome dog!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Today Stephanie had her heart procedure performed and they felt it was a complete success.  She was nervous, as we all were, but fortunately everything went extremely well.  Steph is a very fine-tuned athlete, and that was well in her favor.  It just made my day to be able to bring her home with this all resolved.

AND here is some exciting news……Steph is now responsible for what has come to be known as “The Mystical Camel of Healing,” and as you can clearly see from the picture, she is TOTALLY THRILLED.

The camel made its original appearance in 2008 on the week that I had my stroke.  As the story goes, the kids were cracking up about it as it was for sale in the gift shop (St. Vincent’s Hospital….probably a remnant from a Nativity set) and just “had to buy it.”  That camel stared at me all through my hospital stay and recovery…..that is until my dad got sick and had surgery either last year or the year before.

Oh yes, he received the camel, not willingly but as a good sport……he himself waiting the day when he could unload, I mean pass it on.  He seemed a little too excited a few months ago when I had my knee problem.  Asking in a very concerned way if I was having surgery.  Of course we are all now on guard.    So when I hear the words, “I hear you may be having surgery,” what it translates to is “I am hoping to unload this stupid camel.”  Sadly for him I just needed my knee drained and shot up….and sadly again I forgot to mention that eye surgery I had in March.

But of course we are not nearly as pastoral to Stephanie, the co-originator of the camel tradition.  My dad was glad to give it up, and quite honestly there will be hell to pay when she finds out that Scotty reminded my dad and even went to pick it up.  He may be having a surgery of his own sometime within days.

But the camel is hers to worry about for now and she is waiting for one of us to need it.  I am sure it will not be hers for long.  But although it is just a stuffed camel, it has also meant a lot in terms of joy.  It made me laugh in quite a few tough times in my life, including today.  I am just glad she is okay.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Yeah, I don’t get it either.  Why a traveling circus would be sponsored by a hand cream I do not know. I was just blessed by the fact that my wife and mother-in-law went to the circus (escaping our own personal circus here) and they had a great time.  But if I want to see men in tights, I will watch Robin Hood.  It’s really not my thing, plus I am brand-loyal to the hand cream I buy at the Tractor Supply.

But my main request is not for this, but for my daughter Stephanie who will be in the hospital tomorrow for hopefully a successful procedure.  Steph’s heart goes into wildly fast rhythms off and on, and although she has worn a monitor for quite some time, they have yet to catch what they need to see for recording.  Tomorrow the doctors will attempt to make her heart go into those wild rhythms and then find the circuits causing them and permanently sever them if they can.  As regular readers will know, Steph is a pretty high level college lacrosse player, and she needs this to be resolved in order to keep playing.  (She is also a biochemistry major who would continue with that even if she is not allowed to play.) But to Steph, her passion is on the line and I can understand the anxiety.

She is a great kid and a wonderful daughter.  Hopefully tomorrow night’s post will have a very positive resolution.  Please just keep her in your prayers.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless.

Tommy+

Yep, today was Ben’s 5th birthday, something that he has been waiting all his life for, and thank goodness it arrived!  He spent the day having it be “all about him,” which is very different from most days……well, okay, it is not.  But the point is, he had a great time.

Quite a few months ago he said he wanted a Batman birthday party, and he wanted it at the pool…..which he did.  He had cake, presents, and family.  It was a great time.  And although we had lifeguards there on duty, I want to thank Scott, Steph, and Celeste for taking the brunt of the little kid-dom.  They had fun.

But now it is over and I am exhausted, but not as much as Amanda and her mom.  They did a LOT and Amanda had been working on this for months.  It was a real hit.

And speaking of hits, I intend now to “hit” the bed.  I am pretty well spent, and I have a busy day on tap for tomorrow.  But the big guy is 5!!!  What a great way to end the day!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

I was going to post tonight about how my youngest, Ben, was spending his last night as a 4 year old…..it is a pretty unique thing, but then again, so is what happened this afternoon.

Yes, as amazing as it may seem to share, TODAY it RAINED!  And, it rained hard and long.  I was actually at the Wal-Mart when it started and as I went to the car it was really coming down.  In fact, I got CLOCKED by some hail right into my eye (my right eye, the bad one) but who am I to complain…it was RAINING!!!!

And it was a pretty good storm too.  The picture shows how it ripped off the bottom of one of the Mike’s Express flags in Anderson, and I was detoured a few times on the way home due to fallen trees. (Yes we have stuff in our yard down, particularly as I paid for stuff to be removed last week) BUT IT RAINED!!!  YEE HA!

The other picture is from the house behind us…..the storm snapped a big tree in half.  You can see from the guy in the picture that the snap was at least 50 ft high.  These are BIG trees!  It’s a mess, but it rained…..and ultimately, today, that’s what we are thankful for the most!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

It has been an interesting day, as I joined my daughter and mother-in-law in their supervision of Ben in swimming lessons and Kid’s Zumba.  It was a pretty cool day!

And although I took a TON of pictures of Ben swimming and jumping off the side and the diving board, the funniest part was his attempts at rhythm as a member of the kid’s Zumba class.  The class is taught by Jett, Amanda’s personal trainer, so I KNOW she knows Ben well……but he has the rhythm of   a dead animal.  Lord knows he tries, but he just cannot seem to get it right.  But fortunately Jett is the mom of young children, so her class is a labor of love.

But Ben loves it, just like he loves swimming.  It was a great day to get to be a part, and for it I am thankful.  He is swimming, he is working out, yet he is still as bizzarre as ever.  But he is more so Jett’s problem than mine.

All and all however, it was just cool to see…..

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

I would love to think that I could say something witty or even deep this evening, but in all honesty, that will not be the case.  I am totally pooped from today, and although  I accomplished a great deal, I am also very far behind.

Fortunately for me, the high is going to be 106 tomorrow, meaning that I will not be highly motivated to leave the house and therefore can make a dent in all the stuff I intended to do today.  I will confess though that I had hoped to be caught up already.  Perhaps it is because I am now 51, or perhaps that it is because I did not estimate things right…..but it is what it is and regardless of the reasons, I need to get at it.

As a reflection on my life, today finds me older than I have ever been, over weight, a bit depressed about both those things, and needing to move ahead to fix them.  So tomorrow I have decided to begin to lie about my age, but the weight still presents a problem.  We will see…..but if I cannot get a handle on this (read my prior posts about my doctor speaking about my stroke and metabolism) I will be actually sitting WITH my mom and sisters rather than hanging out for lunch at their graves.  Listen, I get it.  I have to beat it, and I am certainly trying.  Just keep me in your prayers.

So it is off to bed for me….tomorrow will be a hot one, yet I intend to make a few things happen.  Keep me in your prayers….Lord knows I need them.  I really do want to live long enough to be a long term burden to both my wife and children.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Honestly I was ready to kill him, not in a literal sense, but I am of the school that when a parent or authority figure asks you something and you CLEARLY HEAR it, that you also CLEARLY ANSWER it too.  So when we were driving to the Mounds State Park with his grandma, sister, and dog and he wasn’t answering me, I was none too pleased.

But now I understand, as this is who was in the car seat in the back when I turned around t complain……so I asked my question in a different way, addressing Captain America instead of my son Ben.  And not surprisingly I got an immediate answer.

I wish I could say that he was just staying in character, but I am afraid it is far deeper than that.  You see, he really does believe he is Captain America, or any of the other superheroes he loves when he is in their costumes.  He will not answer to his name, but to the costume’s.  And in all honesty I am tickled by it all.  I must have great DNA because my youngest child is about 10 different superheroes and he alone holds the key to keeping the world safe, today from “Red Skull.”

So our hike was a success.  The evil squirrels and the evil birds, as well as any of the other evil wildlife, kept their distance……for justice was at hand.  Captain America, with shield and all, is on the prowl.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

I am now home after 5 days of travel and 1800+ miles…….. It has been a whirlwind of sorts, but I am taking tomorrow off to process it all through my mind and to get some things done around here that I am responsible for that were neglected due to my absence.

BUT, I thought I would post this picture tonight.  I took it yesterday, and it is a picture of downtown Montgomery………..INDIANA.  It actually cracked me up, as I left Montgomery, Alabama on Saturday and it was just a bit more congested.  Montgomery, Indiana is really what you see.  This may have been a traffic jam there too, but I am not sure.  Indiana is just a bit different, and that’s why I love it here.  In truth there is no place to me like home.

So here I am, safe and sound, and thankful for a very blessed journey.  I am also thankful that I need not worry about getting up at 5, or driving anywhere unless there is some sort of emergency.  I actually dreamed about this moment days ago, and I am happy to be able to say……

Goodnight my friends and God Bless…….from HOME!

Tommy+