It has happened. Right before my very eyes, my baby girl has started school. Now I get to worry about how the real world is treating her outside of the protection of her mother and father. Is she making friends? Are her friends being good friends to her? Is she learning anything? Does she miss her mom? dad? little brother?

Well, after the first two days of school, those worries are still there; however, she absolutely loves school and looks forward to going each day. Andrea is doing ok, not great, but better than I expected. There isn’t much we can do about the fact that our kids are growing up, except embrace this stage the same way we have every other stage.

Enjoy the photos.

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While ringing in the new year with some family and friends (and a great cigar), I started to think about the close of the decade and all that I’ve been through in that time.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized its been one wild ride – and probably the greatest decade ever.  Let me explain below with a few of the things that took place this past decade….

1) Graduated High School

2) Graduated College

3) Bought My First House (and then 2 more)

4) Got Married

5) Got my first full time job

6) Got my first promotion

7) Bought my first Car (all by myself)

8) Had two beautiful kids

9) Vacationed in beautiful places with family and friends

10) Was stretched, tested, challenged and made it through it all

11) Took my son to his first baseball game

12) Took Jadyn on her first Roller Coaster (well, Andrea did)

13) Connected with many new friends through social media.

14) Experienced one of the greatest college football games of all time.

15) Made it through 7 years of marriage with my best friend.

The above list is a brief sampling of things that have happened over the last 10 years.  I could easily come up with more, but I think you all get the point.  Now it all hasn’t been a nice downhill run – there have been obvious road bumps and hurdles, but I made it, and I’m better off because of it.

Here’s to another great 10 years for us all!

When Asher was born, I joked about calling him Ashtray, but Andrea wasn’t a big fan.  The other day, I caught myself actually calling him that and began to think about all the weird/strange/bad nicknames I had.  Probably the best worst nickname I could remember was during elementary school.  One of my friends would sometimes call me “Turdus” (you know, Turd and Curtis mixed) just to get a rise out of me.  It wasn’t much later that I started to go by “CJ”…. coincidence?  Maybe….*sigh*

How about you, what is your best worst nickname?  What is the best worst nickname you have heard?  Let me hear it!