Making a difference

Often times when I tell people what I do for a living, I first tell them my official title, School-Age Director, which often gets the strange looks that scream, "What does a School-Age Director do?", but I have always been able to identify these looks and know how to respond with a half-joking, "I make a difference in the lives of kids." While that isn't the only thing I do, but in reality this is a true statement.

I realized this as I was helping out with the season opener of the Miracle Field at our Onalaska location. The Miracle Field is a special rubberized baseball diamond that is designed to allow children with disabilities to play baseball. This was truly a great experience for not only me, but all the people that are involved in this cause. It was amazing to see the joy on these kid's face when they hit the ball, just run around the bases, or just spend time with other children who have disabilities and play a sport together. While I didn't get to see this, I heard that there weren't too many dry eyes in the crowd either. Here is some video from two local newscasts with some of the highlights. If you look closely you can see me in the background...you may not recognize me, but I am the mascot. This was amazing because I have always wanted to be a mascot, and because I was able to be on the field for this experience and was able to see first hand the joy that all participants had.

Yep, just me making a difference.

Stay classy!

New Challenges, new goals, new heights

In previous blogs, I talked about doing the indoor ironman at work, which was a great motivator for me to work out on a regular basis. Since finishing that in February, Cassandra has been asking me what my next goal would be, and until this past Sunday I kept giving her the clearly indecisive answer of "I don't know."
Now it wasn't that I didn't want to have a goal, but lots of things that I thought would be a good motivator would just fizzle out and I would lose interest in a matter of days. This was tough for me because when I was younger I trained for some bike rides, (two time finisher of the Tour de Cure: A Ride for Diabetes right here), but I wasn't really feeling like doing bike rides again (keep it up AJ, I look forward to hearing about how your riding is going), I really don't like running so setting a goal of completing a long distance run didn't interest me, I think that triathletes are a little crazy (I just want to congratulate Miller on closing in on completing your first tri...and I am sure that you can read about it here, but you'll have to wait until next week) and just working out in the wellness center was getting a little stale.
So this last weekend, Rudy and I went for a hike because it was an amazing day and we had no reason not to. While on this hike I had my "Aha" moment that helped me decide what I my next goal will be, I want to backpack down the Grand Canyon camp out for a few nights and hike back out.

Now some of you might be wondering why I chose this as my next goal, and I have lots of reasons why:

1. I have never been to Arizona and therefore never seen the Grand Canyon.
2. In college, Cassandra and I took a backpacking class, and I have always wanted to do more of it, but I made excuses (I know, I know I am always the one telling others to "Make plays and not excuses.") for not getting in to it more.
3. Since graduating college, I have realized that I have become more stagnant then I should, and because of that I have slowing been gaining weight.
4. I want to lose this weight that I have gained over the last couple of years (ok, it has really been since high school, closing in on 7 years now).
5. I just want to be more healthy (I was already working on this and have currently lost 6 pounds).
6. I live in an area where training for this hike is good because cause of all the bluffs around me.
7. Since I've start to work full time, I found that I am "losing" my camping ideals...meaning I remember not too long ago when I was content just looking up at the stars, staring at a camp fire, or just going hiking, I found that I keep staying inside watching TV or facebooking or anything else. Basically making excuses to keep myself inside. And I've missed the outdoors.

I am sure that there are other reasons that I've missed but as you can see there are lots of good reasons why this will be a great motivation for me to be active again.

Since this is not a goal I can achieve over night, I am planning on taking my trek either in the fall of 2011 or spring of 2012. Why so long you might be asking? First I need to get in shape, second I am going to need some equipment, third I am going to need to save up some money in order to make it down to Arizona. Since this is a very large goal, I will be setting some smaller more easily attainable goals that will help me get to Arizona, I'll keep you posted on those once I figure out what they are.

I know that I won't be able to do this journey along, my good friend, Andy Miller who has an awesome goal of seeing all of the National Parks in the US has also never been to the Grand Canyon has already agreed to do this with me. I will also need prayers and encouragement from all the readers of "From the River" please check in with me once in a while to see where I am on things. Also, for those of you who live in Arizona, or have already hiked the Grand Canyon, or know a lot about buying backpacking equipment, or know of a good way to train for this hike, I am all ears and I welcome your advice. If some of you are interested in joining Andy and I please let me know.

I can't wait to smell a rose like this first hand.

Stay Classy!

House Repairs

I tell you, I really enjoy owning a home. Part of it is that we aren't spending all of our Sundays driving around to open houses, trying to figure out what we would like in a house or trying to figure out what we can afford. It is really great to have these days back. Actually I often find myself not knowing what to do on Sundays because first it was football season so the majority of the day was taking up watching football, and this time last year we would be out of the house all day looking at different houses. It is great to have this extra free time, and we've enjoyed taking the time to go for bike rides, long walks or just hang out at home.

Now that we have been here since the end of July, things have finally settled in a little bit, and we survived our first winter, without too many worries. We have undertaken a few projects like reroofing the entire house, hanging gutters, replacing soffit and fascias, fixing a leaky shower valve and caulking the shower. Now I have never really done a whole lot of this kind of stuff, but I am finding that I really enjoy working on things. I don't know if it is the smell of sawdust, or the sound of the drill, or the satisfaction of getting something accomplished. But I really enjoy this part of owning a house.

Now you may be wondering what will the next project be, well hopefully later this summer we will be able to tackle residing. Again (like all the other projects) I have no idea about where to start, but fortunately we have family that knowledgeable and willing to help us out. I can't wait, until then I'll just enjoy what we have and work on the little things like hanging up photos. Don't worry AJ, pictures will be coming soon.

I AM IRONMAN!!!

Well folks I did it. It took me five fewer days then I had predicted, but I was successfully able to complete all 140.6 miles of the indoor ironman. As Brian Collins (fast forward to the 2:28 mark for the trademark line) would say, "Boom goes the dynamite!" It was great to have a goal to accomplish again. I was very surprised with how quickly my biking legs came back...I believe that I will be back on the two wheels this summer quite a bit, and maybe even do a race next summer. We'll see how that goes.

Now in a previous post I talked about what I liked about fall and how I would continue you that on for all the seasons, well now that it is almost spring, I better talk about winter.

Things I like about winter:

• the snow
• seeing the snow fall (as long as you are able to be at home and watch it come down)
• driving during a snowfall (it seems like you are driving at warp speed)
• skiing
• sledding
• snowshoeing (we had some good times this year)
• shoveling (I actually don't mind the shoveling as long as it isn't a wet heavy snow)
• watching Rudy bound through the snow
• every four years watching the Winter Olympics (nice job USA!)

That's all that I can think of for right now. Stay Classy!

How did another month fly by?!?!

Man I am just awful at being consistent with posting here. I keep hoping that I will get better, but I'll be honest I won't believe it until I see it. Anywho, here is just a short list of things of note since Christmas:

1. Held our second annual Winter Cookout/celebrated New Year's with friends that have started to spread out over this great country. Starting to get ready for next years too!
2. Cassandra and I celebrated out 2nd wedding anniversary...We have made so much further than many Hollywood couples.
3. We've been snowshoeing a few times (I'll be honest, I kinda wish we were living on the East Coast right now and would be able to enjoy all this fresh snow).
4. Cassandra and I have now been in our house just over 6 months, being a homeowner is way better than having to pay rent! (Thanks Obama for the first time home buyers tax credit...without you this part of the entry wouldn't have been possible).
5. Cassandra celebrated her 25th birthday!
6. I have started the journey to become an Ironman, while it is going to take me a month to complete it (currently I have just over 2/9 of the way completed. At the YMCA where I work, every February they put on the Indoor Ironman, where you complete 140.6 miles (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 run) and give you until the end of the month to complete it. Stay tuned for more updates. This came at the right time where I needed something new to do, and I am looking forward to finishing it to see what my next challenge will be.

Tonight I am looking forward to watching one of the best Super Bowl matchups that I can remember in a long time. As great as it would be for the city of New Orleans to win this game, I believe that the Colts will win. I just hope the game is as exciting as they are making it out to be.

Stay Classy!

Merry Christmas!

From all of us here at "From the River", we wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Enjoy the time that you have with your family, and don't forget the real meaning of Christmas.

What is your favorite Christmas movie or movie that really only plays around this time of the year?

Mine would be Elf.

Stay Classy!

Here comes the snow (do do do do)

Most of the time I don't trust meteorologists.
I mean besides playing baseball (really hitting the ball 1/3 of the time is considered good) what other job can you have the luxury of being wrong some of the time (or most of the time). Doctors, auto mechanics, teachers, pilots, chefs, police officers, school-age directors, assistant to directors, the list goes on and on. All these jobs require you to be right/correct at all times. Unlike meteorologists really the only thing that they can do to mess up is have it be sunny on a day that it is supposed to rain (or the other way around) and all they do is mess up people's plans for the day. How nice must that be? Notice how the two scenarios below are different:

Weather person: "Pack your picnic baskets and make your tee times, it is going to be 75 and sunny all day"
The next day as it rains and pours all day....
Same weather person: "Sorry about the wrong info folks, maybe tomorrow will be better!"

or

Auto mechanic: "Yep, it looks like you just need to top off your brake light fluid, check the specs on your rotator grirder, and we should have you back on the road tomorrow.

Guess who will still have a job tomorrow. Yep nothing says job security like a meteorologist.

To be honest, you are best just going to the window and looking outside.

Now having said that, I liked what I heard last night and all through out the day regarding the weather. They said we have a 100% chance of having snow tomorrow with between 8-12 inches of snow with most of it falling between 10pm and 6am. Even without many years of training I think it know that that means...SNOW DAY!!!

As I write this there are already 37 districts closed.

Now even though I am not in school anymore, snow days are still very exciting and I am excited for those kids to stay home and have an extra day to be kids. Plus work for me will be a little more relaxed because my programs won't be running. High Five to that!

When I was growing up snow days were very rare, so my mom would make homemade doughnuts. Rumor has it that she had to go shopping recently to make sure that she had the supplies. Hopefully a few will make their way up to La Crosse (hand clap and point).

Now I recently saw on a friend blog that he ends each time with a question, and I wanted to do this as well. I won't do it every time, but every once in a while will be good. So, If you grew up in an area where you could have snow days, what was your favorite thing to do while at home?

Enjoy the snow, I know I will just as soon as I dust off my snowshoes!

Stay Classy!