I am transitioning my writing to a new blog which you can find at stephenuchacz.com. You may be asking yourself “Why?” and I applaud your curiosity! We will be moving to the new site for a few reasons, I am ready for a domain name change. I think using stephenuchacz.com much better represents the content compared to SMUtoday.ca.

Also, I am going to be re-focusing and making more directed content. Being a child and youth worker much of my job is focused on relationships and how people interact together. I want to help people to have better relationships and encourage and humour people through my perspectives on relationships. At stephenuchacz.com you will be able to hear the many funny stories about me fumbling my way through marriage and I hope to foster discussions about marriage and relationships.

Another major reason for the change, here comes the good news, I am wiritng a book! I am currently finalizing the content for the book, using some past blog posts that were pretty successful, I will be re-writing past content as well as creating some top-notch new content for your reading pleasure.

Why a book Stephen? Well, that answer is simple! I wanted a new challenge. I have been blogging for over two years now and I was looking at venturing into new areas, I have been putting out more video content on youtube and I thought it would be a great idea to challenge myself to create a book! I am very excited about my book and how it is turning out so far and I hope that you get excited about it as well! If you head over to stephenuchacz.com/offer you can find out how to get a free copy of the book for yourself!

I look forward to bring you fun, encouraging and hopefully funny content we will just be meeting at a new place! Thanks for reading, and why not take some time now to head on over to stephenuchacz.com and check it out for yourself!

Water gun battles were a staple of my childhood and I am sure they played a part in yours as well! At different points of my childhood though, my water gun was broken and my parents would not go out and buy me a new one. (What kind of parenting is that?!?!?) As I was between weapons, was I just going to let the battles go by? Not a chance! It was time to think of alternative weapons.

I could grab some balloons but the amount of time it took to prepare water balloons severely outweighed the benefits of actually using the water balloons in battle. Thus, I was left with an empty Ketchup bottle. Rinse it out, fill ‘er up and you are ready for battle! You always wanted to make sure it was fully rinsed out so nobody got shot in the eye with diluted ketchup, which burns!

It worked petty good, when it was full. You could get some good distance, but you had a limited supply of water and no way of pressurizing the bottle. In a pinch, however, it did the trick and was a part of many water battles in my childhood.

What are some ways you had to be creative as a child?
(Let me know in the comments below!)

Jen, Sarah and I went for a quick ski trip to finish off March Break! It was great to get back on the hill, it had been 6 years since I had last been on skis!

In a week where they announced the death of Google Reader, Googlers like myself needed something to brighten our spirits! Finally there is a solution like Evernote and Springpad which fits nicely into the Google ecosystem. Obviously, being the first release there are going to be many things people complain about but the app will change and grow over time. All in all I like where this is headed! Thanks Google!

Will you be using this latest service provided by Google?
(Let me know in the comments below!)

Jen gave me a gift certificate to Niagara Freefall Indoor Sky Diving for Christmas, I got to fly for 6 minutes! Here is my flight video I put together, Jen recorded it!

I got to meet Tim Tebow! It was great to be able to hear his story and learn about things that most people would never know.

Tim shared with me about growing up on a farm, and playing sports in the back yard with his brothers, he also shared about his family dog Otis. He still got emotional when talking about Otis, who passed away a few years ago.

Tim recounted his love for the game of football and the tough decisions he had to make about which team to play for, even way back in high school, as well as into his college years. Tim shared his life story with such deep honesty and humility.

As I was listening though, one theme kept returning. Work ethic. Much of Tim’s story is a result of his work ethic. If he didn’t train and continually work hard, he would have never made it as far as he has in football.

Tim’s message is encouraging and inspiring, he loves to share his love for God and his love of children. His is an ordinary person God is using to accomplish extraordinary things.

If you haven’t already guessed, I didn’t actually meet Tim, I just read his book Through My Eyes, it was a Christmas present and an excellent one at that! It read as though I was actually sitting in a room with Tim listening to him share his stories. I recommend you read it for yourself. If you are not a football fan it may be difficult to get through some of the chapters that are specifically about football games but the message of the book is very powerful!

If you click the picture of the book above you can get yourself a copy and help support my site!

What book are you currently reading/looking forward to reading?
(Let me know in the comments below!)

Photo Courtesy MorBCN via flckr

Have some errands to do? Don’t want to cook tonight? Add one flower and you have the makings for a great date night! This is the next great post in my Marriage Advice Series, and I already shared how to stay healthy when you spouse has fallen ill, as well as some specific advice about the different rooms in your house. Since I am such a nice guy I figured I would also share how to turn boring errands and a lack of a desire to cook into a fun date night.

It was a snowy evening and as I was driving home from work I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that I did not want to cook anything for supper. As I thought further into the evening, I knew that I had to run out and get a new pair of snow pants because we are going tubing this weekend. I was driving into the blinding sun, which was sitting in the spot right between the two sun visors and rear view mirror, I realized if I stopped and picked up a flower I could turn this into a fun date night!

I turned off the highway two exits early so I could hit the grocery store on the way home, (quick tip: you can get great flowers at the grocery store for much less than flowers at a florist!) and I picked up a small Gerbera Daisy plant, her favourite flower (quick tip: KNOW YOUR SPOUSE’S FAVOURITE FLOWER). (Another quick tip: if you buy a potted plant usually you can get one that has hardly opened, or has a few heads that have yet to open, the flower will last much longer and your wife will have a constant reminder of how awesome you are!) Along with the plant I bought a pack of seeds, they are extremely cheap, and when you plant them in your garden in spring it will serve as another constant reminder to your wife just how awesome you are!

Once Jen got home, I gave her the flower and asked if she wanted to change before we left. The key is keeping everything a surprise until the last possible second. We headed out and we soon on our way. First, we went to the sports store so I could buy my new snow pants, and there we tons of great deals which made the trip less expensive than I thought it would be. After a little bit of shopping, which was just the boring errands I had to do, we were ready for supper, luckily I already had a place in mind.

We went to a family-style restaurant, Fireside, which was on the way to our next stop. We have been there before and really enjoyed it so it was the perfect spot to stop for supper! (Yet another quick tip: finding family-style restaurants is great for date nights because they are affordable, have big portions and they usually have rice pudding on the dessert menu, and rice pudding is simply the best dessert!) It did not disappoint. After supper, we finished off the night at one of our favourite spots, Chapters! I had a gift-card leftover from Christmas so this was the perfect excuse to use it. Even if you don’t spend any money, a book store is always a great addition to any date night! You can quote me on that!

Just like that, a few errands, a lack of wanting to cook and a flower turned what would have been a normal evening into a fun date night!

What are some of your favourite date night spots?
(Let me know in the comments below)

New Year’s Update

- Jen and I went deer hunting
- We took a road trip to Atlanta, Georgia
- A visit to the Georgia Aquarium
- We attended the Passion 2013 conference

Bunny in the Sunny

This was going to be a delightful lawn ornament for Easter, you would simply place a chocolate bunny outside and they would prepare your yard for Easter Eggs to be dropped of by the Easter Bunny, after initial test they quickly realized the chocolate just melted and attracted wild animals.

Leprechaun on the Fawn on the Lawn

They were really just grasping straws with that idea, and couldn’t think of a catchy name!

Easter on your Kiester

This is where you would get an Easter themed tattoo on your kiester. It has no practical application, so it didn’t make it through the selection process.

Witches in your Britches

This Halloween idea had a lot of promise, but once the investors got wind of it they decided to back out because they did not want any part of people britches during the holidays!

Pancakes in the Pantry

This was the lone Shrove Tuesday idea, an often forgotten holiday, this product was going to launch in the year 2015 you could have bought a stack of pancakes to display in your pantry to prepare yourself for Shrove Tuesday, but this unfortunately was the idea that got beat by Elf on the Shelf.

Lovers Under the Covers

This Valentines idea was too risqué, for the market, and the company wanted to avoid any major PR issues so it was canned!

Perky Turkey on a Shelf

The Perky Turkey was meant to be used for Thanksgiving, but received a lot of backlash from animal rights activists, so again the company had to can the idea to avoid PR issues.

Claus on your Schnoz

The Claus on your Schnoz would have been a little elf the rests upon the bridge of your nose. This seemed like a good idea until to prototypes caused testers depth perception to be grossly altered causing many injuries!

Jen and I had a ton of fun coming up with these ideas, we hope you had a very Merry Christmas and that your Elf on the Shelf treated you well this year!

What are some other failed pitches?
(Let me know in the comments below)

I have a new video out for you all, you can watch it above, or read it below!

Thanks!

————

I made this video because only a few days from now something very exciting is happening! It is something that children all over the world are preparing for and it has been a while since the last one rolled around! 

It’s the end of the world!

Now I know what you are thinking, and you are wrong, but that is besides the point!

The end of the world is this coming friday! December 21st, 2012!

You probably heard the world was going to end:

• October 2011
• May 2011
• Y2K
• and many more! (according to Wikipedia)

But it is actually, maybe, going to happen this time!

Here is what you need to do!

• Find your Y2K emergency kit, replace anything that has expired!
• Tell your boss, you won’t be at work on Friday
• List everything you own on Kijiji or eBay
• Use the money you make to buy an asteroid shelter (they are much more reliable than bomb shelters)
• Find your gameboy from the 90’s
• Wait in your asteroid shelter until Saturday (this is the perfect time to play your gameboy)
• On saturday come out of your shelter and shout HA, I told you so!

I think you will be sufficiently prepared! If you follow my directions carefully we should be able to see each other on Saturday!

How are you preparing for the end of the world?
(Let me know in the comments below)