Just Livin' The Dream

Isn’t life grand? I mean, one day you’re in high school planning your inevitable take over of the world and then, in the blink of an eye, you’re watching a rerun of COPS in your underwear at two in the morning while feeding your newborn a warm bottle of milk, trying your hardest not to wake your sweet wife or the other two kids who are sleeping peacefully in their respective rooms.

In one of my all-time favorite movies from the 90’s, KUFFS, a young Christian Slater passes by a wall that reads: “Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.”

I kind of understood the concept the first time I saw the movie in high school, but mostly, I was just trying to figure out how long it would take me to grow my hair out a la Christian Slater slick-do and how much gel I would need to get it to stay put.

Well, the hairdo never happened (though I haven’t entirely given up on it) but I do understand the quote now, for I have lived it. To be clear, life is great in ways I couldn’t even have imagined but my rapid climb to world dominance seems to have been put on hold. My dreams have certainly changed over the years but I still dare to have them.

The legendary Garth Brooks echoes this concept a bit more eloquently in his song, “The River” when he says:

“A dream is like a river, ever-changing as it flows,,,
and the dreamer’s just a vessel that must follow where it goes.
Trying to learn from what’s behind him and never knowing what’s in store…
makes each day a constant battle just to stay between the shores.”

Now, I know Garth wears freakishly tight jeans and is secretly balding underneath his oversized cowboy hat, but really, does that make him any less right? I think not.

After more than nine years of marriage and almost six years of parenthood, Megan and I decided to take a trip ALONE to the Florida Keys for a few days in an attempt to re-introduce ourselves, re-discover our dreams and get some sleep. We knew if the next ten years go by as quickly as the last ten years, we needed to regroup and re-commit.

Holy Schnikees, are we ever glad we took the time. The Keys were exactly what we needed. It turns out, we remembered that we actually have a lot in common (outside of the children we share) and we concluded that we really like each other. During our wonderfully uninterrupted, borderline adult conversations we found ourselves returning to three themes over and over again:

We have the coolest kids in the world and we are having so much fun watching them grow.
Our dreams may not have played out exactly the way we would have liked, but we sure are enjoying the ride.
We’re going to keep on Livin’ the Dream together, because, let’s face it, we’re meant for each other.

So, we decided, we need to do a better job of recording our experiences with our sweet kids, Skylar (5), Ronan (2.5), and Whitton (4 months). We’re serious about this people. We have no time to lose. As I write this, we are heading up I-95 away from the Florida Keys and back to Jacksonville where are little monsters await our triumphant return. It’s dark out and Meg is starting to nod away at the wheel so I apologize if some of my thoughts seem distracted or fragmented. My point is, we’re committed.

We’ve decided we’re going to use this blog as clearinghouse of sorts for all of our adventures, mishaps, ramblings, and complaints. We hope you enjoy it.

With that said, please read the following disclaimer before proceeding any further:

All individuals represented in this blog are real living people who have kind of given their permission to have their experiences documented and, in some cases filmed. No children were seriously harmed or psychologically damaged (for the most part) in the making of this blog. If something seems funny, that’s because it is, if it’s not funny, it’s probably because you’re just in a bad mood. Please do not call Child Protective Services on us. The folks at CPS are aware of us and have given us the thumbs-up to proceed with our cutting-edge, albeit highly unorthodox, style of parenting. Enjoy!