Team Gleason - No White Flags

"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day."

The above quote is from Jimmy V's infamous ESPY's speech given just months before cancer took his life. I could listen to that speech every morning, and it would fire me up every time.

I was moved to tears last fall. Not just teary eyed, but actual crying. I was watching ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown when they previewed a segment featuring my all-time favorite band, Pearl Jam, that caught my attention.

The beauty of this post is that I don't have to write much. Watch the clip. It speaks volumes.

Nothing is promised to anyone. Someone is going to tell your story. I want to be the narrator of my story.

This blog is for my children. I love them so much.

Time is Running Out

I've been putting this off for a long time now. The new baby is less than five months from being here!

It was last fall. Amy had told me that she was...we were pregnant. I was training for my half-marathon, and therefore going on long runs where I have nothing but time to reflect and think. It was during a run that went into double digit miles where I had almost an epiphany of all of these briliant ideas worth writing about. As soon as I got home, I grabbed some paper and a pen and started to get my thoughts onto paper. I'm working "late" tonight...translate to I have a meeting later, and I don't want to spend the gas money and/or time to drive home only to turn around to come back...and we just found out the new baby's gender (it's a girl!)...so now seems like an opportune time to begin crafting some of these thoughts into writing worth publishing.

Throughout Ryne's arrival into our world I devoted the time to write about it. I don't think that it is justifiable for our second child not to get that same treatment. Yeah, I'm busier now than I was while Amy was pregnant with Ryne, but busy is a horrible excuse. I was busy then. Everyone is busy. We make time for what we value. I value this baby's arrival. I'm still no good at telling people how I feel so I'm going to write about it. I think that it is important. I'm making time.

I just mentioned that I'm still not very good at telling people how I feel. Expressing myself through this avenue is much more comfortable for me. Up until yesterday, prior to finding out the new baby's gender, the pregnancy still didn't feel very real to me. Nothing had changed for me. That feels different now that we know that we are expecting a girl. All of a sudden it feels real. Let me spell this out for you, I am excited about this addition to our family!

Earlier today I sent Amy a Tweet talking about a father/daughter dance that was being advertised in the corridor. She mentioned that she was excited to see 'a whole new me.' This is unchartered territory for me; nonetheless, I'm excited. I have no idea what to expect; however, I can't wait to experience all of it.

There are a couple of things that I can say with certainty at this point in time upon the new baby's arrival: this baby will be perfect, she will be loved, and I'm going to need more coffee.