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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That’s my little boy – Asher James Mills – just minutes after coming into this world 10 weeks early. Man he gave us a scare. He gave LOTS of us a scare. I was happy, sad, optimistic, terrified, pissed, blessed and calm all at the same time. It was a bizarre feeling that I hope I never have to feel again. The first few weeks were pretty crazy, and you can read about much of it here, but today I focus on the now. I focus on how far my little guy has come and how much he has helped so many people grow – including me.

Happy Birthday Asher.

We decided to buy the new Super Mario Bros Wii game recently.  Andrea isn’t one for video games and all of Jadyn’s games are terribly boring for me, so I figured this would give us an opportunity to all play – and I was right.  Jadyn is an absolute riot while playing this game, and is so excited to play with mom and dad every night.  In fact, she called me on the way home running errands with Andrea and asked if I was excited to play with wii tonight.

As the weather gets nicer out, I’m sure we’ll divert to other things, but it sure feels great to spend more time with her.  My travel schedule has been so crazy that I feel like I’ve missed out on a lot – and I think Jade feels the same way.  In fact, when I got home from 6 days on the road, she followed me around the house.  She helped me unpack my bag, and when I told Andrea that I was heading out to return my tux, she asked if she could go with me.  On the drive over, she asked if we could go out on a special date!  SHE ASKED!

If nothing else, I’ve learned that I can’t take any time I get with my kids for granted.  And in a way, I’m thankful that, while its been one hell of a star to the year, it opened Jadyn’s eyes as much as mine.

I love being a dad.

Jadyn had an accident at Kroger, hitting her head on a shopping cart requiring 6 stitches. As I’ve outlined once before, watching your child fearfully looking on as the Doctor walks into the room, ready to stitch her up is not easy, but at least it was easier the second time around.

Jadyn is doing fine (and so are mom and dad for that matter), but is tired and has told me multiple times that she doesn’t want to hit her head ever again.

…and I thought Asher was going to be trouble for us….

I’ll be honest, I’m wicked tired.

Having been on the road all last week, playing catch up most of this week, full day of meetings on Wednesday and more catch up on Thursday has led me to utter exhaustion. I’ve been so tired that I’ve gone to bed around 10:30 and for those of you that know me, that’s crazy early. So today, Friday, I am energized and ready for two days of solid rest ahead of me. I’m slowly learning that it is important for us to slow down and find some time to rest.  And for those of you with kids, you know how hard it is to truly find rest – you really have to search it out and be intentional about it.

So yes, I am getting older and this post is proof of it – however, I will say that being away all last week in Texas did have its benefits…..

As cool as traveling is (take this week alone – I’ll be taking in an NBA game, a rodeo and one of the greatest steak places in all of the land), the actual TRAVEL part of traveling sucks.  Being away from my kids is getting harder and harder and my wife, unfortunately, gets the shaft as she has to battle the kids alone – multiple weeks out of the year.

I love my job.  And I’m fortunate – no blessed – to have a job that takes care of my family, and allows me to see some pretty cool places.  This is just one part of my job that is never easy….

As a side note, you may notice that I try and post a lot of photos to my twitter account when I’m traveling. The reason? So my little girl can see what her daddy is doing (see, I’m not trying to rub it in your faces!) I got the idea from this commercial – one of my favorites.

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!

We make this look good!

Check out this little guy rock this song. Love the moves and especially the facial expression as pictured above! Enjoy the video…

Unfortunate banner-ad placement can happen on any site, but Wikipedia seems to be asking for trouble with its new fund-raising campaign. The massive ads across the top of each Wikipedia entry feature large quotes about donating to the crowdsourced encyclopedia. These motivational quotes take on whole new meanings, though, when they’re viewed directly over some topics. They probably should have seen this coming.

(post from here)

First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by.

Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn’t realize that it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of the many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn’t take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard.”

Edit: As much as I would love to say this was my creation, it is not. I recieved this in an email and obviously did not explain that well (or at all). The genius behind this beautiful creation is unknown; however, my wife was telling me how our house lacked Christmas decor outside….hmmmm…..

The little boy, that is…

The above was taken during my video chat date with my little girl.  It was the first time I’ve spoken with her in nearly two weeks.  She was pretty excited and told me about her time at Chick-Play (translated Chik-fil-a).  It was a cool moment to connect with my baby girl and hear her ask “Daddy, can you come home now?”  Talking with her on the phone is fun, but watching her talk to me as nearly 1700 miles separate us.  Technology is pretty cool, isn’t it?

Check out her smile….

Shortly after I turned 20, I was lucky enough to “lock in” the girl of my dreams. As two newly weds under the legal drinking age, we couldn’t rent a car so that really limited where we could go, so we went to Gatlinburg, stayed in the mountains and tried to figure out if we were crazy, stupid, ambitions, smart (or all of the above) for getting married so early.

Fast forward 7 years and two kids later, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

There is a theory out there that after 7 years people tend to re-evaluate their relationship. I’m pretty sure that number has shrunk a bit, but just go with me for a bit….

Andrea and I have not had extended time away, just the two of us, since our honeymoon 7 years ago. I feel we do a pretty good job finding time for ourselves, but going away, for more than a few days, without the kids, was long overdue. We did a lot of re-evaluation this week and came to the same conclusion – we are two very lucky people who love each other now more than we did when we first got married.

I don’t pretend to know everything there is to know about marriage or parenting; heck, most of the time I’m learning from mistakes – but at least I learn and progress. It took me 7 years to realize how important it was to get away with my bride. We both love our kids, and missed them while away, but we also have missed each other a lot the past 7 years.

I don’t plan on making that mistake again.

When was the last time you went away with just your signification other?

I am now in the the 2nd week of a 3 week stint away from home.  Last week had me in Vegas on business.  This week I’m in Florida enjoying a second honeymoon with my bride (no kids) and next week, I’ll be back in Vegas on business.

On Saturday, we drove to ATL to visit Andy.  We spent both Saturday and Sunday with him, and took off for Florida early Monday morning.  On our way out of Atlanta, an SUV ran a red light and I subsequently ran into him – hard.  We t-boned the drivers side of the car so bad that both windows blew out and a firetruck had to cut him out of the car.  Andrea and I are ok (both a little sore in the back and neck region), but our vehicle was still drivable, so we continued on our way.

It is pretty evident that we can’t have a simple vacation.  Last year, it was Asher’s birth.  This year, a freaking car accident on our way to the beach.  Oh well, at least we keep things exciting…

On our way to FLA, we were able to connect with Clayton Bell, a church planter that we connected with through Asher’s birth.  It was so great to finally “meet” Clayton in person and I’m excited for him and his ministry at TNLC.

The last few hours of the drive to our destination here on Fort Myers Beach finally started to feel like vacation.  After a quick stop at WalMart for groceries, we arrived at the condo and settled in.  The photo below was taken during sunset on Tuesday.  It was great to just be able to sit on the beach and talk.  We both were able to read books, nap and get up and walk whenever we wanted – something we haven’t been able to do for a very long time as parents of young kids.

Today it is rainy, so a trip to the outlet mall is in order.  It looks like the weather should clear up tomorrow so we’ll be back on the beach in no time!

Its been long overdue.  With the move to a .me domain, I needed to change the style and feel of the blog.  As you can tell, life has been owning me lately, so time ti blog has been few and far between.  In the next three weeks, that won’t change either.  I’ll be spending two weeks out of town on business with one week on a 2nd honeymoon with my wife.  I’m going to try my best to leave my phone in the home while spending time on the beach with my wife.  I’m looking forward to a much needed break.

While traveling, I’ll have another chance to meet up with a blogging friend – Clayton Bell.  Clayton is in the process of launching a church plant outside of Tampa.  It should be good to meet another great blogging friend.

Probably the coolest part of this new design is the comment section as it pertains to Brook Sarver.  Check out what it looks like when he leaves a comment:

Almost like he is yelling it out, right?

The top of the blog will show the featured posts.  Probably the most recent blog post along with a few that I’ve enjoyed or have been met with a great deal of comments and interaction.

The content will remain the same – an honest look into my life and walk.  I’m not changing up the focus or content in anyway, just felt a new look was needed (plus I was not able to sleep last night…)