Wow! Isn't this the greatest shirt ever! I have waited for 3 years to turn 1 Billion Seconds Old.....and I missed it. Stupid anniversary and Royals trip with my brothers distracted me. And what a birthday to miss! All I had to do was to concentrate and party for one second and I was done, but NOOOOO, I missed it and realized it well after my billionth second of life. Ho hum, my 2 Billion second birthday is coming up very soon (31.7 years), so I can party twice as hard on that one.
I know, seems silly to care about turning a billion seconds old, but most people only make it to 2 billion seconds, with a few making it to 3 billion seconds old. I am not sure if anyone ever turned 4 billion seconds old, maybe a tortoise, but probably not a person. But I was distracted with a big week. My wife and I celebrated our 7th anniversary this week, just not on the actual day. I actually agreed to travel with my brothers to KC to watch a Royals/Angels game (Doug's favorite team are the Angels). Instead, it rained hard for hours on end and then rained Rum and Cokes in the bar for hours on end. The next day seemed to be just pounding thunder, but turns out it was just a pounding headache! So, with my very understanding wife waiting patiently at home, I returned to the Des Moines area now a billion seconds old, feeling each and every one of those seconds with my hangover. We grabbed the kids and a nice hotel ($50 on priceline.com!) and enjoyed a night/morning away from home. Kids swam in the pool and Reagan ate out at the Outback (I tried to eat too... I really did...still too soon!). And then we all returned home for a nice day before family and work came back to visit. Wow....what a wife I have!
I suppose at this point, I should dish out some marital advice that I have learned the past 7 years. Many guys reading this might wonder what it was that I did to not get killed by spending my anniversary with my brothers drinking everything but the river in KC. Well, here is what I got:
1. Flowers, but not expensive flowers. Little did I know, mid-July is Hy-Vee's annual rose sale. So every year, Reagan gets tons of roses. She is not huge into flowers, but does like them. Getting flowers cheap, I think, is even something Reagan likes. So....study up and marry (or celebrate) during flower discount days!
2. Laughter. Man, do we laugh. I don't try to use humor to get out of an argument. I learned NOT to do that from Dad. His jokes would usually backfire and the next backfire we would hear was Mom peeling out of the driveway. Awesome...french toast for supper again, thanks Dad! But Reagan and I make each other laugh alot with silly faces, voices, and just plain stupid stuff. If you can't laugh, you can't stay in love. Simple as that.
3. This one is from Doug (yes, the Angel's fan): "Always tell your wife you will be home 15 minutes later than you plan to be. That way, you tend to be home 'early' all the time". I didn't do this early on in marriage, but now I try to. I still screw up, but when I do it right, Reagan always smiles and says "Wow, you're home early!". Bonus points.....
4. Just for fun, bring up this question: "Hon, what if you DID catch me having an affair sometime?" When she answers with this response "Well, I would be mad and hurt and our trust broken. Then I would take you for all you are worth and cut off your manhood, burn it, and spread the ashes in your mistress's beat up Honda civic....or do something in my clinic far more painful" and never once breaks a smile or stops what she is doing, you won't have an affair and will never risk losing that trust. (btw....could she really do something more painful?)
5. Learn from others. We both learned how to be in love from our parents and our siblings. With so many good examples, how could we go wrong. But the trick in this tip is that once you are married and in love, now others are watching you. We try to never forget that our love is partly because of the examples we had and now we could be setting examples for others. Probably why Jack sat up at our basement bar yesterday and said "Done with work Daddy. Long day. Get me a beer please." Maybe also why Abby likes to follow Jack and say "okay" and "yep" all the time and then when Jack's not looking, steal all of his toys.
Well....if Reagan reads this (she always does since I tell her she has too!) and I am around to write another blog, hopefully I will have some more wisdom for you. I am not sure the above is really wisdom, but really marriage doesn't take wisdom anyway. It takes love, laughter, faith, trust, and time....oh, and a whole lot of work. If you can do those "simple" things, than you will not only live to be 2 billion seconds old, you might even be married for 2 billion seconds! (that's 63 years for those who are dying to know!)
Love&Prayers,
Ben
3 Things to leave you with:
1) My big week sort of ends today with another milestone: My Dad is 61 today! Happy birthday Dad! Just 2 more years until you turn 2 Billion seconds old. If you don't plan on living until 95, better party hard when that event comes around. Until then, you rock and Happy birthday!
2) With school getting closer to starting, I have started another blog for our school counseling staff. Here is the website if you want to give it a look: www.carlislecounseling.blogspot.com
3) A big thank you to Larry and Donna King for all of their help with moving furniture and carpet back and forth and fixing some of our "farm items" since I don't have a ton of farm tools yet. If all goes well, I will be mowing and spraying up a storm this weekend. Well, hopefully no storms b/c then I wouldn't be able to mow and spray, but you know what I mean!
Oh...and now anyone can comment since I made some changes to the settings. Enjoy and feel free to post your own marital advice!
I know, seems silly to care about turning a billion seconds old, but most people only make it to 2 billion seconds, with a few making it to 3 billion seconds old. I am not sure if anyone ever turned 4 billion seconds old, maybe a tortoise, but probably not a person. But I was distracted with a big week. My wife and I celebrated our 7th anniversary this week, just not on the actual day. I actually agreed to travel with my brothers to KC to watch a Royals/Angels game (Doug's favorite team are the Angels). Instead, it rained hard for hours on end and then rained Rum and Cokes in the bar for hours on end. The next day seemed to be just pounding thunder, but turns out it was just a pounding headache! So, with my very understanding wife waiting patiently at home, I returned to the Des Moines area now a billion seconds old, feeling each and every one of those seconds with my hangover. We grabbed the kids and a nice hotel ($50 on priceline.com!) and enjoyed a night/morning away from home. Kids swam in the pool and Reagan ate out at the Outback (I tried to eat too... I really did...still too soon!). And then we all returned home for a nice day before family and work came back to visit. Wow....what a wife I have!
I suppose at this point, I should dish out some marital advice that I have learned the past 7 years. Many guys reading this might wonder what it was that I did to not get killed by spending my anniversary with my brothers drinking everything but the river in KC. Well, here is what I got:
1. Flowers, but not expensive flowers. Little did I know, mid-July is Hy-Vee's annual rose sale. So every year, Reagan gets tons of roses. She is not huge into flowers, but does like them. Getting flowers cheap, I think, is even something Reagan likes. So....study up and marry (or celebrate) during flower discount days!
2. Laughter. Man, do we laugh. I don't try to use humor to get out of an argument. I learned NOT to do that from Dad. His jokes would usually backfire and the next backfire we would hear was Mom peeling out of the driveway. Awesome...french toast for supper again, thanks Dad! But Reagan and I make each other laugh alot with silly faces, voices, and just plain stupid stuff. If you can't laugh, you can't stay in love. Simple as that.
3. This one is from Doug (yes, the Angel's fan): "Always tell your wife you will be home 15 minutes later than you plan to be. That way, you tend to be home 'early' all the time". I didn't do this early on in marriage, but now I try to. I still screw up, but when I do it right, Reagan always smiles and says "Wow, you're home early!". Bonus points.....
4. Just for fun, bring up this question: "Hon, what if you DID catch me having an affair sometime?" When she answers with this response "Well, I would be mad and hurt and our trust broken. Then I would take you for all you are worth and cut off your manhood, burn it, and spread the ashes in your mistress's beat up Honda civic....or do something in my clinic far more painful" and never once breaks a smile or stops what she is doing, you won't have an affair and will never risk losing that trust. (btw....could she really do something more painful?)
5. Learn from others. We both learned how to be in love from our parents and our siblings. With so many good examples, how could we go wrong. But the trick in this tip is that once you are married and in love, now others are watching you. We try to never forget that our love is partly because of the examples we had and now we could be setting examples for others. Probably why Jack sat up at our basement bar yesterday and said "Done with work Daddy. Long day. Get me a beer please." Maybe also why Abby likes to follow Jack and say "okay" and "yep" all the time and then when Jack's not looking, steal all of his toys.
Well....if Reagan reads this (she always does since I tell her she has too!) and I am around to write another blog, hopefully I will have some more wisdom for you. I am not sure the above is really wisdom, but really marriage doesn't take wisdom anyway. It takes love, laughter, faith, trust, and time....oh, and a whole lot of work. If you can do those "simple" things, than you will not only live to be 2 billion seconds old, you might even be married for 2 billion seconds! (that's 63 years for those who are dying to know!)
Love&Prayers,
Ben
3 Things to leave you with:
1) My big week sort of ends today with another milestone: My Dad is 61 today! Happy birthday Dad! Just 2 more years until you turn 2 Billion seconds old. If you don't plan on living until 95, better party hard when that event comes around. Until then, you rock and Happy birthday!
2) With school getting closer to starting, I have started another blog for our school counseling staff. Here is the website if you want to give it a look: www.carlislecounseling.blogspot.com
3) A big thank you to Larry and Donna King for all of their help with moving furniture and carpet back and forth and fixing some of our "farm items" since I don't have a ton of farm tools yet. If all goes well, I will be mowing and spraying up a storm this weekend. Well, hopefully no storms b/c then I wouldn't be able to mow and spray, but you know what I mean!
Oh...and now anyone can comment since I made some changes to the settings. Enjoy and feel free to post your own marital advice!
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