Author: Luke

Taylor and I got to talking last night about our family trips and how they have changed over the years, and we tried to remember where we went each year and how lucky we are- so here is a list of our trips as a family of 4.

May, 2021: Charlotte White Water Center

This was our very first trip as a family of 4; we were just coming out of the throes of Covid, didnt have much money, but wanted to get out of the house. We did a day a the Whitewater Center, and a day in downtown Charlotte. Mercy was pretty small, and Rosie wanted to try a ton of things- and we found a great balance. Blog post here.

December 2021: Washington D.C.

Sorry, we dont have a ton of family pics from that trip, so here is a picture of us with a dinosaur. But, still coming out of Covid that year, D.C. was fun, and cold. Pushing the stroller in the subways for Mercy was a challenge- but we were seeing as a family we really valued these times together. The rooms seemed very expensive for us at the time, but they were a great location and made the visit special. The blog post for this trip is here.

February 2022: Colorado

Im reluctant to include this one because Mercy didnt come- she was a bit too young for skiing- but I still valued this trip. Jake turned 40, so we dug deep in our pockets and went to go see him for his birthday. Skiing out west was so fun. Im hoping we can have another fun trip with this crowd one day. Blog post

June 2022: Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Going to the beach with Taylor’s family is a blast, and we were seeing that we (our family of 4) enjoyed our trips, and wanted to do some family time at the beach on our own- so we got a condo in North Myrtle for a few days. Again, no good family pics of the 4 of us, but Myrtle Beach is a special place for kids this age. Post here.

July, 2023: Asheville NC.

On a map, there are lots of great places within a few hour drives of our place in North Carolina. Having seen the beach the previous summer, we wanted to show the kids the mountains and made a fun time of it. Tay was awesome at planning almost all of our family trips so far, and family trips were becoming the highlight of my year each year. Blog post here.

August 2024: Disney World.

Tay had been dreaming of Disney for years- literally- for reasons I won’t get into here, but after thinking of it for so long, and trying hard to convince me, we finally made the trip. I admit I dragged my feet a lot looking at the price tag, but I am so thankful we did it. This was a long trip, but Im glad we did it that way- we didnt miss a single ride, took our time and had a blast, and now I have no desire to return (again, just because we got to stay and do everything!). So, so fun.Blog Post here.

July, 2025: Merriewold

Again, not a ton of pics of the 4 of us, but here is a shot of the girls and I on the steps of the gate house at the entrance of the park. If Taylor had to spend time convincing me to go to Disney, I had to do the same to get her to drive 10 hours to a small town in upstate New York to spend a week at a lake. Mercy was old enough to swim, and Rosie was young enough to not be a teenager with an attitude, and I admit: this was my favorite family vacation of them all. When I asked Rosie what her favorite family trip was, she said Merriewold- but I think that is just because it was the most recent. Blog post here

Ok, so what?

I’m just grateful that we have gotten to share all of these experiences together. Who knew that when we spent what seemed like a ton of money in 2021 to go to Washington D.C, we would get a chance to travel to all of these great place in the next 5 years? It’s not cheap, and I am not 100% confident that we are being very wise when spending money this way instead of investing it for retirement, but each of these memories has been special.

It takes work to make these things happen- there were a few disagreements between Taylor and I as we planned many of these trips- and I was in the wrong about most of those disagreements and I am glad Taylor learned to value family trips as a child, and fought to make them a value in our house as well.

Taylor taught me that it is good for your mental health to have something to look forward to, so we like to have something on the calendar. And, I think these things give our kids a since of identity: these trips with our family show our value of just being together and trying new things, getting out of our routine and comfort zones, having patience with each other (I have the most room to grow in this area), and laughing.

Next time, I’ll share about our 2025 family trip to Cancun: one more for the books!

This weekend the original plan was for Taylor to host a murder-mystery party, something she has been hoping for for years. However, she was asked to be a mentor to someone going through confirmation, and had to go on a weekend beach retreat.

What would you do all by yourself?

Well that’s an easy question. Ever since last year when the girls watched Jaws, they have been itching to watch another scary movie.

So we went to the elementary school’s ice cream social, then grabbed Whataburger from the newest location here in town, and set up camp for a movie night. It was great, but I forgot how scary the movie was since seeing it in theaters. The crew of skeletons was too scary for Mercy, but Rosie and I had a good time- in the room with the loud subwoofer to really experience the whole thing.

Volunteer, obviously

Above is a picture of Rosie at a volunteer day in 2016- she has been doing them almost her whole life. Today was no exception- Rosie volunteered to help paint the building for kids, and I was asked to help lead a team in restoring the bee hives we will be using for bees over the coming weeks. Mice had taken up residence, so we had to scrape all the old stuff out, burn it with a torch to sterilize it, reassemble them, cut bottoms and tops for them, and this team of teens did an excellent job. And rosie eded up being quite the mess after painting- something I didnt think through before immediately dropping her off at Zippy’s house afterwards.

Obviously there was more to do. The girls spent the night at Grandmas house, and with the day alone, there were a million different options. If you had to take a guess about what came next, and you guessed “cleaning out the garage”, then you are exactly right!

In a perfect world, this would happen twice a year: moving summer stuff to the front, and winter stuff to the back and vice-versa, in spring and fall. That doesnt always happen, and Taylor, who appreciates order, is about to jump out of her skin because of the chaos. Anyways, here is a before and after:

In the midst of it, I put hands on the charcoal grill that has been sitting idle for a while, and got the itch to put it to work again- and since this weekend I answer to no one, this was the weekend to use it again.

The motion-activated flood light that went bust last year also needed some fixing, so that was replaced too. Climbing on a ladder to fix some electrical items when no one is home isnt THAT dumb of an idea, is it? Anyways, fixed it.

The cast iron skillets, some of which we got as wedding gifts, and others we acquired over the years also needed some seasoning, so took care of that too. In our 15 years of marriage, I must have used one of these pans each day we have been in town- but they say not to use it with tomato sauce. I do anyways, and this rust is the result.

Later buddy Leo came over with his kid, and we grilled some steaks, watched some games, and had a grand old time eating like kings: twice baked potatoes, ribeyes, and some grilled peppers.

Stephen and I went to Beekeeper Bootcamp this past weekend, and it was a good time. Allow me to explain.

What is beekeeper bootcamp?

It’s pretty much like what you expect- take a bunch of people, and teach them the basics in a crash course over a weekend at his home in middle Tennessee.

What we learned is that there are two ways to keep bees. The traditional method involves putting bee hive boxes one on top of the other, ordering some bees, keeping them in your hive and feeding them sugar water throughout the year to give them the energy they need. This can also mean inspecting the hives many, many times a year for the parasitic bugs called Varroa mites. Plastic honey comb, spraying to kill varroa mites, and generally pissing the bees off so they try and “swarm” (which means “run away”). The success rate of this approach by lasting through the winter is about 50%.

This bootcamp teaches another approach: beekeeping the natural way. This means catching a bee swarm locally instead of buying them online, not feeding them sugar water, not treating for verroa mites, and generally not messing with them nearly as much in horizontal beehive boxes instead of vertical boxes. There are no plastic honey combs for the bees to use. By using local bees, they are more evolved to survive the winter, already immune to verroa mites, and strong enough to not rely on being fed sugar water. In short, the goal is to reproduce the way bees live in the wild: they have good instincts that can be built upon. The success rate of this approach is 85%.

This natural approach has come with some serious drama in the beekeeping world that I won’t get into here, but the class is taught by Adam Martin, and he has written books on the topic.

This course taught us how to go through a bee hive and inspect it for a few things: if they are growing properly, if they have food, a queen, and it taught us about the different types of beehives.

The picture above is Adam, without the bee suit. You might think he has balls of steel for doing this, and maybe he does. But if the bees are treated kindly and you dont move fast, dont wear red, and dont kill any bees, they are generally pretty happy, and wont try and sting you. I picked up a bee frame with bare hands and didnt get stung.

We each got a chance to be hands-on. Adam was an awesome teacher on this- it is something he really cares about.

I don’t really know how to preface these pictures, but here are a few more of us in the class doing the hands-on part:

Adam built this niche world in apiary and sells beehives and focuses on the education aspect. He sells his honey for $40/quart, and champions the healthy aspects of local honey: he hasnt had a cold in 5 years.

His wife, Leslie, went to elementary school with my friend Steven back in California before they began their homesteading/beekeeping operation- which was a beautiful site to be see. I was intrigued and wanted to learn more, but time was short.

Besides Adam, there is another person in Missouri that also champions the natural approach to bees: Dr. Leo Sharashkin, a true Russian, who has been successful in his own rite. His focus was on horizontal hives (as opposed to vertical) because they are easier to handle than vertical hives, which can weight 85 pounds, and each need to be moved and rearranged several times a year. Bees are often killed in this process, which pisses them off, and they swarm and sting whenever this work is performed. The natural way (as seen in the pictures), means there is a good chance the bees wont get bothered at all.

But why did you do bee camp?

This, too, is a very good question to ask. Our church, an Anglican Church here in town, has a farm and several other ministries on site. The farm had bees a few years ago, but I hadn’t seen them in a while so I asked Steven, the farm director about them.

If you know Steven, you know he has a great deal of joy- so when asked about the bees, he responded with an immediate invitation to beekeeping bootcamp- and who says no to that? So, we registered, got a small airBnB, and went.

Where did you stay, and now what?

No, it didn’t make sense to do a drive like this- it was madness, but I really enjoyed spending time with Steven. We talked about every topic under the sun and are kindred spirits when talking politics, theology, parenting, and a whole lot of other stuff I wont get into here.

We stayed in a place a few minutes away- and I kid you not, out of all the places I have been in Costa Rica, upstate New York and Italy, no area had worse cell phone service for our Verizon phones than this area of Tennessee.

The little town just north, Columbia, was awesome- seems like it is the new town growing on the heels of Nashville’s success.

We made it home safe and sound after a unique weekend.

Now that Steven and I have done the course, the next goal is to catch a swarm over the next 10 days or so- which means putting a “trap” in a tree about 15-20 feet off the ground- which is great for a person who is still mildly afraid of bees and heights. Stay tuned!

The past several years Rosie’s school has done its regular talent show around this time. The night was always HOT- in a crowded cafeteria (her school didnt have an auditorium) with poor audio and about 20% longer than what we thought it should have been.

This year, they have an auditorium, and good sound system, but it was still about 20% longer than it should have been. Some of the acts included a pogo stick, a recorder, an electric guitar, several kids singing “Ophelia” by Taylor Swift, and more.

In years past, Rosie went as a good friend to support others- but this year, Rosie’s 5th grade year- she decided to do something. And you guessed it: a dance!

She took it pretty serious: had her friends over a few times to practice, her friend made a music mix, and they made some outfits that worked. So right after a nice little boy played “The Hokey Pokey”, Rosie shot back with this:

I don’t know whether to be proud or embarrassed of her song choice, but if the school allowed it, then I am ok with it.

Ice Skating for Gold

Rosie is in the midst of dance season- which means LONG days at dance competitions. Though we want to support her as a fam, it ain’t really fair to Mercy to spend so many Saturdays just waiting around watching her sister.

So we went ice skating. Also, we were very inspired Alysa Liu’s gold medal skating performance at the Olympics. She is a little punk rock, cussed a bit after she won, and smiled a lot. She kinda marches to the beat of her own drum, and it reminded me of Mercy.

We met up with one of Mercy’s BFFs, and after a few minutes, mercy was doing great. She went down pretty good a few times, but I am very proud of how quickly she jumps up and wants to keep going.

It was a blast, and I am curious if she should try Ice Skating as her thing next year instead of dance? She might be pretty good at it.

The Dog House

No, Im not in trouble with Tay. I just gave up my usual 4 or 5 drinks a week for Lent this year, and filled the time in a creative and practical way by building a dog house.

Rosie, Mercy and I scoured Pinterest for about 6 minutes before they lost attention, and I tried to find the best option that would be fairly simple for a newbie to build. I found this link on Pinterest- this link will take a minute to load because the site is from the internet archive, and doesnt exist anymore

This house, complete with a little bit of styrofoam insulation, is our way to fix the problem of those summertime thunderstorms when we leave the dog out, and realize there is no overhang in our yard for the dog to go to get out of the elements.

UNC had one of its top-10 buzzer beating games in a victory over Duke this past week, and I was so, so lucky to attend for my first UNC vs Duke game, and check off one of my life goals.

The game was thrilling. Duke lead the entire way with their top NBA draft pic, Cameron Boozer, up front. UNC had both Caleb Wilson and their tall man Henri Veesar beneath the rim. This was the 88th matchup where both teams were ranked. If you arent from the area, its just an incredible rivalry steeped in tradition here in North Carolina. They play twice a year, meaning I have watched around 50+ games between these two.

The day was spent listening to podcasts to help get HYPED for the game. Jay Bilas said in one pod, each team brings the best version of themselves to this game, and neither team would be as good as they are without the other team making them better. This year, for this matchup, Duke is looking like a top 4 team, and UNC is looking like a top 10 team, so the favor is slightly in Duke’s corner, but anything can happen.

I was invited to go with my lifelong friend, Charlie Hiser, and his parents, who are longtime UNC Ram’s club donors. You may be thinking, “But Luke, you just went a few weeks ago”, and you are right. But this was different- going as a Ram’s Club member is a different experience than going as a normal plebian. Here is one big difference: The parking.

Going as a normal fan meant using the general parking deck, a 0.8 mile walk, and 150 foot elevation difference. At this point in life, that walk is largely with a child on your shoulders, indicated by the line in red above.

As a guest of the Ram’s club, the parking was right next to the stadium, a largely flat walk, and complementary golf cart shuttles to get you inside quickly.

There was a quick burger and a beer, and as a very fortunate guest, we got to enter the stadium through the tunnel that the Duke team uses, passing by their locker room, and enter the stadium via the floor of the Roy Williams Court.

Regina showed me around the floor for a minute before getting to our seats. We almost wondered onto the set of College Gameday, but a kind but forceful lady named “Janice” yelled at us for our folly. We got to see Jay Bilas and some warmups up close before the game, which was really cool:

At halftime, there was a big moment to highlight how special “TV Magic” is when watching from home. On ESPN, the halftime show is great. In Real Life, this is what the announcers are up against:

UNC lost by a large margin the first half of the game. After halftime, UNC bigman Henri Veesar got some of his momentum back with a few rebounds, and UNC was off to the races. They chipped away at the lead. At 8 minutes left in the game, they were behind 8 minutes. “I Have seen bigger comebacks, but this might not go our way” I was bracing myself.

At 4 minutes left, they were around 4 points behind. And if you have seen the final minutes, the game was tied, Duke went in the paint for a shot, missed, and UNC got the ball with 11 seconds left and called timeout. They ran the ball to the corner, and Seth Trimble nailed a 3 with 0.4 seconds left to join a very small club of buzzer-beating ‘Heels over the Duke Blue Devils:

Remember how there were 0.4 seconds left? The refs did too- the clock stops when the ball passes the bottom of the net after a shot. Neither the players, coaches, and especially the student section understood there was time left on the clock, and chaos ensued:

If the court is not cleared and the players allowed to finish the game, the victory could be vacated. What you didn’t see on TV was this:

Against all odds, the court was cleared, and the final play by Duke was a long pass that wasn’t caught, passing the last 0.4 seconds, and opening the floodgates for a second rushing of the court

Of all the chances to see a DUKE vs UNC game, this was a pretty good one. Thanks SO MUCH Regina and Charlie for thinking of me.

The Daddy Daughter Dance

ALSO this weekend, and not to be forgotten, was the Daddy Daughter dance at Westover Church (not our home church, but an awesome church in the area). This is our 3rd year going, Mercy’s first year, and a tradition I really enjoy. Here is a shot of us 3 years ago, and again this year. Bear in mind in 2023 there was not ice on the ground, so the pictures were outside.

The dance was EPIC as always. The event capped at 800 invitations, and sold out again this year. Our pre-dance dinner at the restaurant our dates got to choose was Moe’s, and the chips with queso really prepped us for a night of dancing.

There are lots of ways to do this kind of event wrong, but Westover Church does an awesome job. It is a hit with the dads from around the neighborhood I see throughout the year and for good reason. The songs are great, the food makes the kids feel special, and Rosie loves seeing all of her friends there.

We danced HARD- for 2+ hours, and I don’t regret it. Mercy had a blast, and we made it pretty late, but not til closing time on the very-packed dance floor.

Loved it.

We last left off evacuating town due to the threat of bad weather. There was a bit of guilt on this decision- Rosie really wanted to go sledding with her friends. I get it, this is important. Luckily, the layer of ice that fell was so intense, it didnt melt: and we made it home in time to go sledding with friends before all the fun melted away.

Luckily our driveway faces north, doesnt melt easily, and since we were out of town and didnt get a chance to shovel, this was the state of our driveway 4 days after the storm.

Rosie and her friends had a blast, they stayed for dinner and a movie, mercy’s friend had a wipeout but she was tough and stuck through it. It was great!

We got home on wednesday, but there was no school on Thursday or Friday- a whole week!

Date night was a great relief. As a sidenote, Taylor and I have season tickets to the Tanger Center- which gives us tickets to 6 shows a year (or so?). We usually sell 1 or 2, and it ends up being a pretty good deal. But, we got a chance to have a date night at a local restaurant, Pangea:

Dinner was great, so was the show:

You might be wondering, so what? That sounds great- and it was. However, right on the heels of this fun date night was another 11″ of snow- and a little more madness.

We didnt leave the house on Saturday. It was cold as crap- 20-30mph winds, and 25 degrees. We dont love that here in NC, so I figured to try something for the second time and grill some babyback ribs. This was my second attempt, and I learned a lot from the first time. With a grill that ties into the natural gas line (so the tank will never go empty, ever!) I could grill on low all day. This was a great idea- nothing could go wrong. The thermometer was set- all I had to do was take it off when it reached the magic temperature of 203 degrees, while it was 18 degrees outside. All the recipes said 5-6 hours.

In the meantime, a neighbor invited us to have a special bottle of wine, so of course we took them up on it. What could go wrong, that sounds nice? I know, I thought that too.

Sometimes the pipes that supply water from the city freeze. This was our front yard. We were excited to be out of the house during the bulk of that time, and it was nice- the threat of living 24 hours without water went away while we were at our neighbors house enjoying a fancy bottle of Chardonnay. We made it home from our neighbors, the water was fixed, and I know what your thinking: “that sounds nice, what could go wrong?”

Remember how there was two inches of ice on the ground? Then 11″ of snow on top? That is hard to walk up, and even though the ring camera couldnt catch it because of that light, you can hear when I wipe out and fall on my back. volume on for this video above. “Ahhh geez- that really hurt!” I groan. Mercy walks past and says, “What is happening?”. The city trucks are still in the road fixing the water.

We made it home- safe and sound. What. Could. Go. Wrong.

The ribs were still short of the ideal temp. Taylor went to bed, but I was determined to see this $14 purchase of meat cooked to perfection. All the recipes said 5-6 hours (if you dont wrap in foil). After about 10 hours, still short of 203 degrees, I pulled em off: they were WAY over cooked. Edible, a solid 5 out of 10.

The car couldnt make it up the driveway. And we couldnt safely walk down. It was slick as crap. We couldnt drive up. And taylor was set to leave on a work trip at 11 am on Sunday. There was no way to carry luggage down the driveway to the car- the car had to get up the driveway. With a fire in my heart, I got a spade and just hacked “X” marks into the ice, and got pretty aggressive hitting the gas to try and make it up the drive:

This was more of a proud moment than what the video indicates. Anyways, Taylor made her flight to New Orleans after rescheduling a few things. Some great friends were out sledding and we met with them for a pretty great run on the sleds; Mercy and Rosie are tough, and I am proud of how well they played together.

I was talking with my friends for a few minutes, and realized Mercy and her friend disappeared near the teenagers, who were busy making a ramp. Since dad wasnt there to say no, I guess the answer was “Yes, you can go over that ramp!”. So, before I could even get there, off she went:

Sledding was a blast. Mom came over for dinner. Taylor is gone for 3 or 4 days- I dont even know what day it is any more. There is a crazy amount of snow outside. The temps wont be above freezing for days. The car might not make it up the driveway next time. Kids wont go back to school until who knows when. What. Could. Go. Wrong.

After Christmas there is always a bit of a “lull” in the year. The joy of Christmas is gone, but the short days and cold weather remain. I always say it is good to look forward to things, and at this point, we have a few traditions that I look forward to each year after Christmas:

• The Oyster roast at Robert Core’s house
• A UNC game with Patrick Lineberry and all of our kids
• The Father Daughter dance
• My Birthday

The Oyster Roast was also this past weekend, but I didn’t get any pictures and its not a great blog post. But I did get pictures of our annual trip to a UNC game. This was a picture of our first year, in 2022 after COVID. We watched UNC vs Syracuse, and I tried my best to explain why they were called the “Orange” and nothing more, when they do not grow oranges in their area:

We have been every year since, but we did miss last year because there was a lot going on. This year, Mercy (5) got to join us for the first time and she had a blast. She held on to Rosies hand almost the entire night, and Rosie was so excited to share everything with her, tell her how the game works, and get Mercy excited and focused on the game, with moderate success.

This year went a lot better for this simple reason: I researched where to park before going to the game. Oh man did that save us some time.

We had a quick dinner beforehand. Though Taylor and I have been eating the Mediterranean diet at home as a new year’s resolution, that burger went down mighty easy.

Rosie did have the flu the day before. However, the doc said that if her fever broke for 24 hours, she would no longer be contagious. This warning was shared with Patrick, and he was still ok with his kids being in the car for the 1 hr drive to the game.

Rosie and Mercy wanted Dipping Dots for their special concession, so we waited in line for a bit, and came back to our seats in triumph. For some reason, both Mercy and Rosie dropped their spoons on the floor, and ended up eating their desserts by licking, which was unsuccessful, so they switched to EATING THE ICE CREAM WITH THEIR FINGERS. I was disgusted, but they are only kids once, right?

The Lineberry boys were great, and we all had a ton of fun.

Extreme Weather for January Birthdays

The whole country has been talking about this massive storm that was set to bring absolute ruin on everyone it encountered. The weather models were absolutely out of their minds saying there would be over 20″ of snow in our area of North Carolina, and these models kept it up for most of the week.

Our local weather people kept reiterating the high chances of large amounts of power outages for us, possibly for days. Also, quite cold temperatures after the weather was to stop. We knew that the school systems would cancel school at the drop of a hat, and didnt want to be stuck at home, when Taylor and I both had to work, possibly without power.

We looked at our options: what if we went up to the mountains and got an AirBnb and just skiied and enjoyed the weather? What if we drove to Charleston? What if we flew to Orlando for a few days? The forecast was ice for the mountains (not snow), Charleston still wouldnt have childcare, and Orlando would end up being quite an expensive trip.

Taylor’s parents did have the beach house this week (they have it 1 out of 3 weeks during the off season), and opened their doors to us. The day before the weather was to start, the forecast was still quite extreme, so we took Hazy to the kennel, and headed east, 3.5 hours out of harms way.

Rosie was a bit sad to miss the chance to sled with her friends, and we knew that if the power went out, we would be justified in our decision. I watched from our Ring camera as the weather came in, thinking out neighbor’s magnolia tree would be the first to come down:

We watched in anticipation. It was fine here at the beach in North Carolina. As the hours went on, I didn’t watch the weather forecast, I watched the power outage map because of how widespread images of the utility companies were preparing for the storm:

After all of the weather was passed, this was the updated power outage:

During all of this, it happened to be my birthday- a very unimportant milestone this year. About every 5 years there is some funky weather around my birthday, and it has made it really hard at times to plan too far ahead of time for anything fun because it can always be cancelled.

But, birthdays are important to Taylor, and she really wanted to honor me, so we made the best of our day while it was quite cold at the beach:

After some fun at home, we had more moderate fun at Planet Fun:

This was a special milestone because Rosie was as good as me, or a bit better, at every single game we played. Except air hockey, where I dominated 8 to 1.

Somehow I was convinced to do this for about 15 minutes:

We made it home after killing some time, and the major plot twist: Papa Pack (Taylor’s dad’s self given grandfather name), asked Rosie if she was too chicken to go do a polar plunge while it was 40 degrees outside. He knows how she will not turn down something if it sounds like a challenge, so before there was a chance to say no to this idea, they hopped in the golf cart and drove the 150 yards to the sand.

For dinner, Ted made his famous steaks, I got to pick out dessert from the store, and we watched the last 2 NFL playoff games to end the day.

It may have been my birthday, but hats off to Ted yesterday: doing a dance party game and doing a polar plunge with his granddaughter really sets the bar pretty high. Thanks for all the ways you love on my kids, keep it up!

Ever since we moved into our house 6 years ago, our books have been in a “temporary” storage condition. Meaning, they were in my closet. Or Taylors closet. Or a basket. Or this old thing that was falling apart and in danger of falling over.

We need a place to put them. We need bookshelves, and this decision was kicked down the road a bit. The ideal solution would be to get som custom built-ins in the upstairs part of our house (Sorry, this is one of the only pictures I could find:

Built-ins are expensive. Like, very expensive. Is there any other solution? Taylor looks around Greensboro a bit for something nice that could match (She is really good at styling and making things look good). But, to no avail. I pushed for Ikea- an hour and fifteen minutes away in Charlotte. They should have any sort of option to help fit that space. With many, many measurements ready and an empty agenda for Saturday, we all got in the car and went.
Sad to say for the blog that I didnt get any pictures of Ikea- I didnt think of it at the time. But we did get the perfect set.

It took 6 boxes. Each box weighs about 60 pounds- and the quality was far better than what I was expecting. No particle board here, this was 3/4″ high quality wood from what I could tell.

Also, putting together the first piece (the tv stand) was much, much harder than expected. Sure, Ikea furniture does have a reputation for being difficult to assemble, but I like to think I am pretty good at that kind of thing. The difference between assembling toys before Christmas and assembling Ikea furniture is that the Ikea furniture has absolutely no markings of any kind on any of the 100 pieces. The best I can figure is that because their furniture is shipped all around the works, there is not even a common alphabet to use in order to label the parts. So, all of the instructions, with very unusual fasteners and self assembly pieces, are done via diagram, pointing out very, very small things like a pinhole in the wood in order to identify the correct piece.

After the first part was assembled, it got a lot easier. Most of the time was spent trying to identify exactly what it was that needed to be used, but each piece of furniture uses similar fasteners and screws, so it became much quicker.

In fact, this is how long it took to assemble each piece:

• TV stand (the first item): 1:41
• Base 1: 1:00
• Base 2 (the same thing): :42
• Top Shelf 1: :40
• Top shelf 2: :17

Now, the books are off the floor of my office, out of my closet, and it looks a lot better:

How popular are new years resolutions? Sometimes it is hard to tell if everyone does some kind of resolution based on the number of opinion type of news articles that I see, or if it is just a small group of dedicated people who make absurd attempts each year.

This year, I made two resolutions:

• run a half marathon.
• eat “The mediterranean diet”.

The first one I actually started back in December because I wanted to get a head start. Using my garmin watch, it can create a custom plan, so I just do what it tells me to do each day and try not to think or rationalize it- otherwise it is too easy to just not run each day.

Instead of thinking about how fast I am going, or how many miles I need to run, I am doing it just based on TIME, thinking “I just have to run 30 minutes today, it doesnt matter how fast.” Somehow, I am now running faster and farther than I have before. This running plan says to walk/run a few minutes at first to warm up, and a few minutes at the end to cool-down. Since I am not as young as I once was, this I can easily do, along with anything else that will prevent an injury. Right now I am up to 10 mile runs, and feeling pretty good about it!

Taylor and I are also doing the mediterranean diet. What is it? A pretty flexible diet where fruits and veggies are the bulk of the meal, and carbs and protein become a smaller portion. It doesnt call for no dairy, but we have cut in goat cheese, and a bit of mozzarella. For proteins, it calls for less beef and chicken, and more fish. Its only been 2 weeks, but last night we had an amazing shrimp, tomato, and spinach meal:

Between the running and the change in the diet, I feel great! Some pounds are down (thats not the major motivator for me, but it is neat to see), blood pressure is down (an issue in my family), sleeping way better, and the biggest part: my mind feels more clear. It would be easy to go down the road of my armchair based opinions about why, but I will spare you that talk for now…

Mercy

Can I just take a moment to share how fun this kid has been? The moments during a normal week have been so, so special:

1. When she wakes up, she runs out of her room, and find the first parent, and gives a gigantic hug.
2. At church, she loves to be held when we sing the songs. She is getting a tad heavy (or I need to workout), but this can slide for as long as possible.
3. Rosie was at a sleepover, and I asked: “Mercy, when Rosie is gone, do you miss her?” Mercy replied, “Daddy, I miss her so, so, so much everytime she is gone.”
4. When I carried out the garbage, she wanted to “surprise” me by putting a new trash bag in the can before I got back inside.
5. When I was cleaning the house, it got quiet and she disappeared. I found her cleaning her room to surprise me.
6. Even though she annoys Rosie often, she simply will not go to bed without a hug from Rosie first. She will get out of her bed and find Rosie, and take a hug from her before her day is complete.
7. She cried the other day because her hair isnt as long as Rosies. I just picked her up, and asked her about her baby dolls in an effort to change the topic.

This year, Mercy is big enough to join Rosie for two of our favorite January traditions: the daddy-daughter dance, AND our annual trip to a UNC game in Chapel Hill with the Lineberrys (we missed last year, but have a good streak going besides that!)

I cut my finger

One of the first of the healthy meals this year ended up with some particularly nasty results- my first really good cooking accident. I was making a healthy meal and it called for putting some greens in a food processor to make a sauce. We dont have a food processor, so I was using our “immersion blender”. Some of the thick sauce was on the blade, so I was getting it out with my finger, and my palm hit the sensitive power button. Taylor likes some things that make me squeamish, so I am going to share:

It doesnt look like much, but as far as I can tell, the blade went 1/4 through my finger 6 times. When taking the princess bandage off the next morning,the pain was incredibly intense. I saw an urgent care doc the next day who cleaned it well, and told me to keep it clean and change the bandages regularly for a week to keep it from getting infected.