The Least Read Blog In The World!

Closing Time

2012-09-12T06:31:00.000-05:00

This website has taken on many looks over the years. It has been a blog, a photo site, a blog/photo site and now back to a blog. It is where we posted the pictures the day Alexis was born.

SIDE NOTE: A fact that no one really knows, is back in 1998 I worked on creating a website that would allow people to search for baseball card shops by state and then by city. I had it built out, but I realized at the time that to make money (before Google Ads), I needed the shops to pay me to list on the site. Logistically impossible. But that was the 1st version of mikepeery.com.

Blogging is hard when all you really have to talk about is you and your life. You wonder if people really want to hear about you. Your triumphs. Your struggles. You don't want to let too many people in to all your hard times and you don't want to give away too much of what you fight hard to protect.

Then I think that maybe all my time and effort I put into it isn't really worth it. After all, it is my blog that I used as an outlet for my thoughts and a way to keep family updated on our lives. I felt like I ended up trying to make sure to be politically correct, include everything and everyone and it ended up not being an accurate representation of me. And it took time. Something that I seem to have less and less of these days.

I have seen a lot of blogs come and go over the years. I know I am not the only "frustrated blogger" out there. People start blogs and quit blogs for reasons all their own. Some of the reasons no one ever really knows.

That being said, I have decided that with Facebook and Twitter that there are plenty of ways for people to follow in our lives. Heather, Alexis and myself each have a page on both networking sites and a YouTube page for videos. Heck, Alexis even has TWO Twitter pages (@TheMunchkin and @AlexisPeery).

So as of today mikepeery.com will go silent and one day soon, dark. I have always owned this domain and will continue to as long as I am Mike Peery. I might do something else with it down the road, but for the time being this will be the last post.

I strongly encourage you to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. That is where we post all our pictures and updates on what we are doing.

If you dont follow us on either of the sites yet, I have included them ALL below. I want to thank all of you for following along with me over the years. It has been a lot of fun!

I speak for Heather and Alexis when I wish you all nothing but the best.

Mike

Facebook:
fb.com/mnpeery
fb.com/peeryhd
fb.com/alexispeery

Twitter:
@mike_peery
@peeryhd
@themunchkin
@alexispeery
@thepeerygirls
@teampeery

YouTube:
youtube.com/mikenpeery

Every new beginning is some other beginning's end...

My Valentines

2012-02-14T06:00:00.001-06:00

On this Valentines Day 2012 I wanted to take a moment and recognize my Valentine's! There have been a lot of ups and downs over the past year, but they have always been there. I am beyond thankful for them and love them each more than they will ever know!!

Peery Christmas 2011

2011-12-29T10:05:00.000-06:00

Christmas 2011 has come and gone so I thought I would share with you how our Christmas went.

This Christmas was different for us on a lot of levels. We did things we normally do, mixed them in with things we have never done in the past and had a great time.

I guess you can’t start any Christmas story off without talking about the tree. When Christmas 2010 was over, we decided that we were going to get rid of our tree. Now we had said this in the past but we never did. I figured the only way that we would get a new tree is if we didn't have one at all. So last year when Christmas was over, we threw away our tree. This sounded like a GREAT idea at the time.

So Christmas time rolls around this year and we realize we have no tree. Now that we are in an apartment, having a big/tall tree just isn’t an option. But we still needed a tree! We checked out the Black Friday ads and found a nice, small, cheap tree at Lowes. We think it did a great job!

Moving on to the Christmas cards. We always do a family picture card and it became quickly apparent that for some reason we only had one picture taken of the 3 of us in the past year to use on our card. Being that we needed to get them ordered and mailed we didn't really have time to get a picture taken, so we used one that our friend Katie took of us. Even though it was not my first choice, Heather thought it summed us up well since it was taken at the Ballpark. Looking back on it, she was right.

Now the budget this year was a lot tighter than in years past. The only thing Alexis wanted from Santa was a Barbie Dream House so we saved some money, shopped around and were able to locate one at a good price. But since I was a tad more than we wanted to spend, we were thankful that was all she really wanted.

We decided that we were going to do photo books for the family. They were “cost effective” and people always seem to like them. So we go through all the pictures, find the best ones and make the books. We confirmed our order and sent it off. We were pretty excited and couldn’t wait to get them.

When they did come, they came in one small box. I really was expecting something a tad bigger. But once we opened the box, we saw why all 9 were in a small box...because they were SMALL! They were about the size of a business card!! This was bad! How could we wrap these up and give them as gifts? Well, we couldn’t so we went with the not as creative Plan B. Problem solved.

One of the things that we did different this year was spending the night at my Dad’s and doing Christmas morning with him and my step mom. Looking back on it, I haven’t woke up on Christmas morning in the same house as my dad in almost 20 years. It was kind of nice!

On Christmas Eve, we opened presents with my brother, step-sisters, their husbands and our nephews. We had a great time! Thanks to my Dad and Beth, we all have waffle makers and Alexis has a very cool toy box!

However, we had a long night and a early morning. Santa stayed up until almost 1 putting a Dream House together. And then Lex woke up at 4 ready to get up. We fought with her off and on until about 5 when she fell back asleep with her and Heather in one room and me in another. Not quite the way we drew it up! But I never really did go back to sleep, so I was not off to a good start!

One Alexis woke up, we were eager for her to see what Santa had left her. I had placed a video camera inside her Dream House hoping to catch her reaction that would be a YouTube video hit. Instead this is what we got:

Yep, she had no interest in it what so ever. It took her almost 5 minutes to wake up and get in the spirit of the day I guess. But once she did, she loved it and had a blast.

For Heather, I was thankful that I had shopped for her back in July otherwise with our budget I wouldn't have been able to get what I got her. She loves Michael Young and I have gotten her a couple of his All-Star jerseys. As you can see, I was able to surprise her this year!

I was pretty easy. I didn’t want too much, but one thing I did want was Star Wars on Blu-Ray. So between Heather and my step sister I was able to get it! Heather also got me a nice pair of tennis shoes and renewed my SiriusXM radio in my car, which I love so that might have been the best gift!

We had breakfast, help clean up and headed back home to get some rest before dinner. We went back over to Dad’s around 4:30 for a great dinner! From there we went to Heather’s Grandmothers house and then over to our friends house for “drinks and desserts” at 7.

Now by this time in the day we were all pretty beat, but we thought Lex and Macie would have fun playing together for a bit. On the way to their house we had agreed that we would leave around 8:30 with a goal of being in our bed by like 9:30. We had a plan!! Well, the plan was shot out of the water pretty early on! We got over there, had a few drinks and some laughs and next thing you know it is 11:30. Whoops.

Getting Lex to leave her friend Macie at 11:30 after a LONG day with no nap just wasn’t an option so they were nice enough to let her spend the night.

We got home and crashed!! Looking back on it now that the Christmas is put away and New Years is around the corner, it really was a great couple of days. We had a lot of fun and Lex loved it. Everything we did, new and old, was a lot of fun!

As 2011 wraps up and the calendar turns to 2012, Heather, Lex and myself just wanted to take a second and wish all of our friends and family a Happy New Year. We hope that it is filled with many laughs and successes!

Waiting

2011-12-02T11:16:00.000-06:00

Probably one of the worst kept secrets in the world is I do not like to wait. I am not a huge fan of it. I don't like to stand in line at amusement parks (or ride the rides, but that is another blog), not a fan of long waits at restaurants, and if the drive through line is too long I will just go in.

DISCLAIMER: I have stood in line for 2 iPhones (below) and loved every minute of it.

I handle waiting better than most, I would like to think. I don't drive 100mph to go 10 miles. I don't huff and puff if I do get stuck in a long line. I don't berate people if dinner takes a little longer than it should to be served. But I know I should handle waiting better than I do.

But it seems here lately waiting is all I am doing. Not sure if this is God’s way of testing me or if I am just running through a stretch in life that requires waiting or both.

As I write this, I am currently waiting on carpet cleaners to call. In the past few days I have waited for possible interviews, for the State to respond to applications, people to get back with me and I even got stuck in an ungodly line at Starbucks that I couldn't get out of.

And almost on queue, I read an article this morning from a friend about taking things one step at a time and that a lot of the great things in life do require waiting. He talked about (and reminded me) that the design for the iPhone OS was actually created on the iPad. And for those of you that know about these products, the iPhone was released to the public 3 years BEFORE the iPad. But they waited until the time was right to release the iPad. Keyword...waited.

Side note: I strongly encourage you to subscribe to his blog

So whatever this is in my life right now, I accept the challenge and will keep waiting because eventually what I am waiting for has to show up...right?

Life and Perspective

2011-11-07T12:38:00.000-06:00

To say that life has been challenging over the past few years would be an understatement. It seems that every turn we have made there is something there to set us back.

I don’t say that to imply that there haven’t been good times or that we have it bad, because that is far from the truth. No matter what obstacles we face we are quickly reminded that there is someone that has greater obstacles. However, the struggles are always more grand in scale than the successes. And that becomes hard to face on a daily basis. Kind of like “what’s next?”.

But last night I realized something. I realized that maybe all the bad things that I thought were bad really weren’t. And that for every 10 things that I thought were bad, maybe only a handful are truly “bad”.

I think that we have been hit upside the head with one thing after another that our perspective has become skewed. Somewhere along the way I lost confidence in myself and that has lead to this assumption that everything is “bad”.

Last night we met with some friends of ours that are working to start a church in New York. And as they are laying out their vision for the church and their future for their family, Heather and I were both struck by the passion that they have for this.

The reality of it is that churches in New York do not succeed. There is a list of reasons a mile long. Space, time, money, effort…the list goes on and on.

But this is when I realized MY perspective was off, not theirs…

Them: 48 people visited our website to get information on our Bible Study!!

Me: Why did only 48 people visit my website?

Them: We had someone from Russia check out our site!!!

Me: Why is someone from Russia even reading my blog?

Them: We sold a “brochure” to help us out and in turn there was a company that provided clean water to 29 people for an entire year!!!

Me: Just 29? There are 29 people at Starbucks…in the drive thru.

You get the picture?

But this is what astounded me the most…at the beginning of every month; they only have enough money that just 70% of their bills are paid. Think about that… on the first of every month they have NO IDEA how 30% of their bills will be paid.

This isn’t just a husband and wife. “winging it” through life like in the 60’s. They have an amazing daughter and another son/daughter on the way. This is a family.

I look at Team Peery and in the 10 years of our marriage we can count on one hand how many months this was an issue for us. And they are going through life monthly wondering where the other 30% will come from.

I am pretty sure you are thinking “that must suck” or looking down on them with pity. But here is the thing…they were EXCITED that 70% of their bills were paid.

There are 33 “individuals” and 5 churches that help them along the way, as well as an organization that “matches” donations to them. How cool is that?

Again, my perspective was way off!

Them: We have 33 “individuals” and 5 churches that help us along the way, as well as an organization that “matches” donations made to us!!

Me: Only 33?

That is when it hit me. Yeah, life has been tough. It has dealt us some crappy cards here lately. Not going to lie.

But here is a family that moved from Dallas/Fort Worth to Annapolis, Maryland to work towards starting a church in Manhattan where just 3% of the 1.7 MILLION people are Christians.

They are excited about reaching 48 people. They are excited about reaching someone from Russia. They are excited about 29 people having clean water for a year. And they are excited that 70% of their bills are paid.

Would they like to reach a thousand people in a thousand countries? You bet! Have 100% of their bills paid and provide clean water to a thousand people for a thousand years? Of course! It is all about perspective.

Heather and I learned a lot last night. And I can promise you that our friends had no intention of teaching us what they did. Until they read this, they really have no idea. But “thanks” for helping us!

In closing, I would ask that you check out their sites and keep them in your thoughts and prayers on their journey.

Eikon New York

Echoes Of Redemption

And in the mean time, since we all need a reminder now and then, here is our perspective:

20 Years Ago

2011-10-12T13:09:00.000-05:00

I always enjoy this time of the year. We have the baseball playoffs, my birthday, Halloween, the State Fair of Texas and the weather finally cools down!!

But one of the little known facts about why I like this time of the year is that it marks the time of the year when Heather and I first started dating our Sophomore year of High School…and this year it has been 20 years!

You can all read the entire story here, but it basically breaks down to two weekends in October of 1991.

The first weekend, we went to the State Fair with Heather’s Future Homemakers of America class. She invited me, so I went. We spent the day running around the Fair flirting and being 15. We had a great time and she slept on my shoulder all the way home.

Now I am notorious for remembering really small details about things and one thing that I remember is when her mom picked us up was the song that was playing was “Life is a Highway” by Tom Cochrane. I have no idea why I remember that, but I did and our life together has been a highway just like the song...kind of ironic.

The next weekend was a Friday before a football game. It was after school, we were talking on the phone and Heather was getting ready to head back up to school for Band. Right before we hung up I asked her to be my girlfriend and she said “yes”.

I remember thinking “Great! Now what?”. But I went to the game and after the game we went and got pizza with rest of the band and our relationship went on from there.

This picture was taken around that time as well. This was our first date as boyfriend/girlfriend…granted it was with my parents at my birthday dinner, but still.

Now I am pretty sure that you are thinking the exact same thing I am…what in the heck did she see in you? Believe me, I wonder the same thing. This is our first “date” and this is what I am wearing?

You can tell from Day 1 that I “married up” and this is the proof!!

While we were friends long before we ever started dating, those two weeks in October are two that I will never forget. It has lead us to where we are today and I couldn’t be more happy to have her by my side after all these years.

Love you babe!!!!

My 2011 MLB Postseason Picks

2011-09-29T15:13:00.000-05:00

My favorite time of the year is finally here…Major League Baseball Postseason! There is really nothing like it! If you say you love baseball, but you aren’t stoked about this postseason then you really don’t love baseball!

Now I get not all the games are dramatic! They don’t all have the bloody sock, Gibson’s blast, Luis Gonzales’ blooper, The Catch or The Shot Heard 'Round The World and I get that. But each game has the potential to be something that you will always talk about.

For me, it was attending Game 3 of the World Series last year…the only game of the series we won. The Cobra dealt and Mitch Moreland had the big home run! I honestly will never forget that game or anything about it.

Me, Heather and my Mom. Upper Homerun Porch.

Me and my sexy better half!

Every year I do this. I sit here and type who I think will win each series and ultimately win the World Series and each year it goes about as well as my Final Four bracket…not well!

So without further adieu, here are my picks:

ALDS

Rangers vs. Rays (Rangers pitching/offense is just too much)

Tigers vs. Yankees (Verlander 2 times is plenty)

ALCS

Rangers vs. Tigers (Rangers have 7 games worth of pitching.)

NLDS

Diamondbacks vs. Brewers (Dbacks have slightly better arms)

Cardinals vs. Phillies (Phills have pitching, Cards dont.)

NLCS

Diamondbacks vs. Phillies (Phillies are just too much)

Word Series

Rangers vs. Phillies

(Goes 7 games…CJ vs Lee in Game 7 and Hamilton has the big hit)

Winner:

TEXAS RANGERS

Now I get that it might be a “homer” pick…and you are right! But I think they have a great shot to make it!

So there you go. There are my picks! Who do you think will win? Leave a comment below and lets have some fun!

PLAY BALL!

The Gallbladder Story of 2011

2011-09-28T13:27:00.000-05:00

I have struggled for the past week or so to write a blog updating everyone on my gallbladder, or lack of one. I have started 3 or 4 blogs now and quit half way through…one I never even made it out of the first paragraph. And I never finish them mainly because I just hate talking about myself.

Want to talk about sports or Facebook or Alexis? Sure…all day! No problem! Talking about me? Not so much.

But a lot of you are still checking in with me so I figured I needed to update everyone and give you all “the scoop”. So here we go...

Saturday 2am: I woke up with what I thought was heartburn. In full disclosure, it has happened before, but usually after a big meal, a late meal or a greasy meal. This time was different…we had eaten early in the evening (like Senior Citizens discount early) and had something small and not greasy. So automatically I knew this was different.

Because I couldn’t get comfortable I just came in the living room and watched tv. By about 530 I realized that we were going to have to go to the ER.

6am: Finally woke up Heather and Lex and we made our way to the hospital. From the moment we got there, the lady at the check in desk with no medical degrees or college classes said it was my gallbladder.

7am: They get me processed and triaged and back to a room. First nurse comes in and says “pretty sure it is your gallbladder” followed by the doctor who says the same thing. At this point they hook me up to an IV and give me some morphine to help with the pain I was still in 5 hours later.

Note: Since they were pretty confident that it was my gallbladder and the only way to resolve the issue is to remove it, I was no longer allowed to eat or drink! Keep in mind, we ate with the Senior Citizens the night before.

730am: Finally started letting people know what was going on. We waited to wake people up mainly because until now we still weren’t 100% sure what was wrong. All though it was looking more and more like the lady behind the desk that checked us in had been brushing up on webMD and was right.

Another Note: Poor Alexis had a skating birthday party at 1 and her best friend in the whole wide world was supposed to spend the night Saturday night. To say that she was excited about this would be an understatement. This day was like her Christmas morning!! In the car on the way to the ER she even asked if it was time for the skating party yet! We knew this might be an issue today!

830am: My dad and step mom came up to keep us company (and entertain Lex) while we waited! Because as we soon learned, since I wasn’t dying I was no longer an emergency. If there were 20 rooms, I am pretty sure I was the 25^th important person there.

10am: They finally come in to do the blood work and take the sonogram. For some reason the sonogram aggravated my gallbladder so they brought more morphine. I was a happy camper at this point!

11am: The doctor comes back in to tell me that I have “gallstones and sludge” and they would like to admit me and have it removed. However, they didn’t have any rooms at the hospital since they are remodeling some floors so I had to wait in the ER room.

At this point since we didn’t have any idea when I would be moved or when surgery would be, Heather took Lex home and they got ready for the skating party and went to it. Lex had a blast, but all week she wanted me to teach her how to skate, so I was pretty bummed I had to miss out.

Thankfully my Dad and Beth hung out with me and watched football until he had to go to work at 1.

Note 3: I am beyond starving at this point and I have lost my voice since I cant drink either. But I am higher than a kite.

2pm: They come to move me into an actual hospital room. As I mentioned above, they are remodeling and the floor they would have normally moved me to was part of the remodel! So I got my own room downstairs! So I get settled in and watch more football! Thank goodness this was on a Saturday or I might have gone crazy!

430pm: Surgeon finally comes to meet with me and lets me know that we do need to take the gallbladder out and they would try and get me scheduled and he would “be back in 30 minutes or so” to let me know if they could get me in Saturday night or Sunday some time.

He did mention that this surgery is the most common surgery that he does! I really had no idea it was so common until after I had it. Seems like everyone I talk to has had theirs taken out. Crazy.

I texted Dad to let him know so he left work to come hang out with me some more and be there for the surgery.

Heather and Lex finally made it back to the hospital and I got to hear all about her party. She had a really good time!

Since the sleepover was the major event for Lex this day, we were so very thankful that Mike and ReJana Krause offered to have the sleepover at their house. This helped more than they will ever know. We knew that if Lex couldn’t have her sleepover that her hanging out in the hospital was going to be really rough!!!

615pm: (More than 30 minutes later, if you are keeping track) The nurse comes in to wheel me down to surgery. So this answered a lot of our questions…lol. Said the surgery would be about an hour long. The last thing I remember is the gas man saying “take one more deep breath of oxygen” and I was out! Guessing it wasn’t oxygen. Lol.

8ish (fuzzy): Wake up in the recovery room and I ask for pizza and if I can keep my gallbladder. Shockingly I was told “no” to both. Heather did let me know that the Rangers had won and the Angels had lost and I remember being really happy!

930pm: Finally back in my room. Dad and Beth headed home for the night and Heather headed over to see our friends Chris and Nick, who happened to be passing through town (Nick was passing through town). They were nice enough to feed her and give her a break while I was sleeping.

11pm: Woke up and I was HUNGRY! Been almost 30 hours since I had anything to eat or drink. They brought me pudding and graham crackers. In my eyes they looked like a 5 course meal from Al Biernet’s!

Heather got back around this time as well and settled in to spend the night with me.

5am: Since I had been sleeping for a while, I was ready to get up. Still being hungry I asked for some ice cream and watched a movie on my iPad while Heather slept.

The rest of the morning was spent trying to get up and move around. They brought me breakfast and I had lunch there. We were able to head home about 4 or so.

The first few days at home were pretty rough. I felt like I had done a million sit-ups. Took a lot of naps (and pain pills) and took it easy! They said it takes about a month to get back to normal. I can’t lift anything over 10lbs for 3 more weeks…which has made it tough. I can’t even take out the trash or pick Lex up.

I am still kind of sore and have issue sleeping at night…mainly when I roll over. I am off the pain meds during the day and just take them to help sleep at night. So all in all, I am doing pretty well.

I do have to stay away from spicy or fried foods. I guess the gallbladder is what processed those for your body. To be clear, I can have them, but the results wont be pretty.

I know that this has gotten long, but it is my blog. But I cant wrap it up with out thanking everyone for their support and concern. We got calls, texts, emails and all kinds of messages from everyone checking in on me and offering their support. It really did mean a lot and it was all greatly appreciated by myself and Heather.

Dad and Beth…thanks for staying with me and bringing us dinner when we got home. It meant a lot and it was good to have someone to watch football with!! Without you there, I know Heather wouldn’t have taken Lex to the skating party so Lex thanks you as well!

But I cant finish this without thanking my wonderful wife Heather. Team Peery has been playing a “man down” for 10 days now, but we haven’t missed a beat and it is because of her. I am so very thankful that she is my wife and my best friend. I couldn’t imagine going through life with anyone else. Love you babe.

So there you go. The great Gallbladder Story of 2011.

Caring About Shades of Yellow

2011-08-30T11:42:00.000-05:00

I always thought that “writers block” meant you had nothing to say and you didn’t know where to start. But I have come to realize that a form of writers block isn’t just that you don’t have anything to say, but it is also that you have so many small things to say that together they make no sense!

THAT IS ME! It is not that I don’t know what to say or where to start. I don’t stare at a blank page hoping something will just come to me. I do have lots to say and opinions on just about everything. But together they don’t make a best seller nor do they make much sense.

Want some examples? Here you go:

-There are two books coming out that I cant wait to get my hands on. And if you know anything at all about me, I haven’t read a book since college and that is not a lie. I will read newspapers, magazines and articles online all day long, but books have never been my thing. I will read the Wikipedia version before even thinking about getting the book.

But there is a book out next week by the founder of TOMS Shoes called START SOMETHING THAT MATTERS by Blake Mycoskie. It “tells the story of TOMS, one of the fastest-growing shoe companies in the world, and combines it with lessons learned from such other innovative organizations as method, charity: water, FEED Projects, and TerraCycle.”

The other comes on in late November and it is the authorized Steve Jobs bio. Now there have been a lot of books written about Steve, but not one of them has he authorized. It is said to include details about his resignation and I cant wait. It should be great!!!

-I am in need of a technology upgrade. My 2006 Black MacBook has finally died on me. Now, I could spend a couple hundred of dollars to upgrade the hard drive and memory and get another year or two out of it, but I would really like a new MacBook. Sadly the budget does not allow for it.

-I really would like a nice camera to take good pictures of things. However, this is a ”want” and right now we have so many “needs” we have to take care of first. But one day I would like to have a good camera and maybe create a coffee table book of some kind. I think it would be fun!

So there are some examples of what goes on in my mind but just wouldn’t make good blogs. But there are two more things that I have been kicking around in my head.

The first one is a story about Charity : Water and a girls birthday wish to raise $300 dollars to provide water to those in need. Her name was Rachel. Long story short, she ended up $20 short and then weeks later passed away in a car accident. Since then people have donated over $1.2 MILLION dollars! That is enough to provide water for over 61,000 people.

Check her Charity : Water page out HERE.

Here is her story:

The other one revolves around the resignation of Steve Jobs. In reading about him over the past week one of the things that stood out to me was that his name is on 313 patents and he is the lead designer on 33 of them! While he is not Thomas Edison, who has over 1,300 patents, Steve Jobs amassed over 300 patents in a time when so many things have already been created! Just unheard of.

But what caught my eye was a post by Vic Gundorta. I know most of you have no idea who this is, but he is the head of Google’s Mobility program and works really close with Steve Jobs and Apple on how Google essentially looks on the iPhone and iPad. And this was his post:

Icon Ambulance

One Sunday morning, January 6th, 2008 I was attending religious services when my cell phone vibrated. As discreetly as possible, I checked the phone and noticed that my phone said "Caller ID unknown". I choose to ignore.

After services, as I was walking to my car with my family, I checked my cell phone messages. The message left was from Steve Jobs. "Vic, can you call me at home? I have something urgent to discuss" it said.

Before I even reached my car, I called Steve Jobs back. I was responsible for all mobile applications at Google, and in that role, had regular dealings with Steve. It was one of the perks of the job.

"Hey Steve - this is Vic", I said. "I'm sorry I didn't answer your call earlier. I was in religious services, and the caller ID said unknown, so I didn't pick up".

Steve laughed. He said, "Vic, unless the Caller ID said 'GOD', you should never pick up during services".

I laughed nervously. After all, while it was customary for Steve to call during the week upset about something, it was unusual for him to call me on Sunday and ask me to call his home. I wondered what was so important?

"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve.

"I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"

Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject "Icon Ambulance". The email directed me to work with Greg Christie to fix the icon.

Since I was 11 years old and fell in love with an Apple II, I have dozens of stories to tell about Apple products. They have been a part of my life for decades. Even when I worked for 15 years for Bill Gates at Microsoft, I had a huge admiration for Steve and what Apple had produced.

But in the end, when I think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, I think back to the call I received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson I'll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.

To one of the greatest leaders I've ever met, my prayers and hopes are with you Steve.

Now I know I just made this post really long and I am sorry. (It is my blog after all). But the line that I have not been able to shake all week is this: CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.

That is what transforms good companies into great companies…good CEO’s into great CEO’s…but most importantly good people into great people.

So my goal is to care about shades of yellow even on a Sunday and I challenge you to make it your goal as well!

What If?

2011-08-17T11:27:00.000-05:00

What if you could go back in time? What if you could go back and “take the road less traveled”? What if you could go back and start all over? Would you?

I always see people talk about doing it over or if I could go back I would do it differently. But would you really?

I am a person that believes the series of choices you make puts you on a path to where you are today. I don’t regret choices I have made. Do I wish maybe I had handled some things differently? Sure, we all do. But saying you wish you could “do the whole thing over”? No thanks.

Looking back on life, no matter how old you are, it is easy to say “maybe if I had done this” or “maybe if I had done that” things would be different. But would that be a good thing?

Looking back at some of the major decisions in my life, I cant say I regret the choices that I made at the time…but I do I wish the outcome had been different, you bet!

For example, I always wished that I had just gone to college. It is easy to sit and say that I “regret” it because it has had an effect on my career. But I don’t. Why? Well, let’s take a look.

If I had gone to college, I probably would have went to one of the handful of colleges I was accepted to…all of which were out of Dallas/Ft. Worth. When I graduated, would I have moved back to D/FW? Who knows? I might have met someone in school and stayed there. I might have gotten a job that required me to move. Any of a number of things might have happened.

But I can tell you what wouldn’t have happened…

Eleven year ago I wouldn’t have run into a buddy from High School (Chris Childress) and swapped phone numbers. And Heather wouldn’t have run into him a few weeks after that and got my number from him. And ten years later, I wouldn’t be married to my best friend with an amazing daughter living this thing called life.

Every decision you made impacts where you are today.

Sounds simple, but have you embraced that?

Or do you wonder ‘What If’ all the time?

Here We Go Again...

2011-08-09T17:45:00.000-05:00

I really haven't felt like writing a blog here lately, so I thought we would have some more fun with some pictures of me when I was a kid!

This is me back in 1976 enjoying my first birthday. Love how the high chair matched the wall.

Here I am at the age of 2...I matched the rug.

My best guess is I am 7 in this picture. Rockin the knee highs.

More soccer...I think I am 8.

And since the back of the card tells me I am 9, that is how I guessed on the other ones!

This was 1986. I was 10.

My best guess has me at 12 in this pic...mainly because I know I am 13 in the next one!

And here I am at 13...I met Heather at the beginning of this school year. :)

Like I mentioned, I know this isn't an exciting blog, but I have a had a really good time going through all these old pics. I promise this is all of them of me. I can't promise I won't find some of Heather. Remember peeps, we grew up in Texas in the 1980's...lots of BIG hair!!!

Hope life is treating you all fair and you are surviving the heat of the summer!!!

The Way Back Machine

2011-07-25T13:31:00.000-05:00

Today we are going to jump in the DeLorean, hit 88mph and go back in time!

A few months I ran across a couple of boxes of OLD pictures that my Mom and Dad had taken. I got pretty excited about it, not going to lie. I think of all the pictures that Heather and I take of Alexis, different events and just random things and I figured that I would find all kinds of neat things.

I learned a lot looking through the pictures and truth of the mater is that was a different time! Now a days we have a camera and/or camera phone every where we go. We don't have to get pictures developed if we don't want to either!

Back then, the only way to see the pictures you took was to head to the store and pay money to get them developed. Then and only then do you realize taking a picture from 30 yards away with a point and shoot camera wasn't a good idea!

It seemed that pictures were only taken at events like birthdays or holidays. Not many random pictures taken. The other thing that kind of surprised me was that my parents were at just about all of our sporting events growing up...and there were a lot of them. But I ran across very few pictures of either of us playing sports.

But I digress and will give you all what you came here to see!

First up is a baby picture of me at about 5 months old. Funny looking back at Lex’s pictures, she has my nose. And just like today, I don’t have any hair! Lol.

I am throwing this one in mainly because Lex just wrapped up TBall. I am about 5, so 1980ish, in this pictures I think. Boy could I rock the knee high socks!!

Look, I have hair! Probably the last time I ever had that much hair. And no, I have no idea why my name is on my shirt. Need to check with Mom and Dad about that one. Was “Mike” not easy enough for people to remember? Were they just helping me get something right on a test? Who knows...

The last one is probably one of my favorites. It is Sam and I with our Grandfather...my Dad’s Dad. My Grandfather, like my Father, was not very photogenic and I ran across very few pictures of him, much less pictures of him with either one of us. So this one stood out.

I found a lot of other pictures, some were great and brought back a lot of memories and others I had no idea why the film was even wasted on! Hope you enjoyed the pictures! I will try to post more later!!!

My dog ate my homework!

2011-07-21T14:57:00.000-05:00

“My dog ate my homework!” Whatever age this phrase was uttered, this is when we started blaming other people instead of looking in the mirror and accepting responsibility for not completing our “homework”.

I got to thinking about this today because I read that Tiger Woods fired his caddie. Stevie, his best friend, best man at his wedding, the man that has been on his bag for 13 years helping Tiger win over $100 million in winnings during that time. When Tiger hit the fire hydrant and we all discovered what really happened, it was Stevie who kept his mouth shut and stayed loyal to Tiger.

But the more I looked at it; I realized Tiger has “fired” everyone around him since then. Fired his caddie, two swing coaches, “fired” his wife and his putter. That’s right…he even switched putters! Tiger fired everyone except the person actually responsible for hitting the shots and putting himself in those situations…TIGER!

At what point do people quit blaming others and look in the mirror?

I personally love the people that blame their parents for their lot in life. Really? Your parents caused you to spend all your money on frivolous things and now you are broke? Mad at your Mom and/or Dad because of where you are today? Really?

Looking back at the past 5 years for Heather and I, it would be really easy to blame others for things that have happened to us and around us, but why?

Could we blame Wells Fargo for the issues with our house? Sure.

Could we blame others for Heather losing her job? I mean, the company did go out of business so it really wasn’t her fault, right?

But what good does it do? Blaming Wells Fargo or Heather’s old bosses get us nowhere. We still have to get up in the morning and deal with it.

Any time Heather and I are faced with a tough situation and we think it cant get it worse, we are very quickly reminded that it could be much worse! Be thankful for what you have and where you are and work to make it better! Sitting around blaming others will only make things worse…for you and for those around you!

I will end with a phrase I will borrower from a co-worker: It’s not the nuts and bolts in life that matter. What matters is how you show up in the face of those nuts and bolts.

Are you quick to blame others and sulk or do you accept it and try to make the best out of it?

Life is short! Let's make the best of it!!

My Review of Google+

2011-07-18T06:00:00.002-05:00

Unless you were living under a rock, most of you know that I searched high and low for a Google+ invite! I was finally able to get one and since I have been using it for about a week now, I figured I would let you know my thoughts.

The first feature I really like is call Circles. This is just what it sounds like. You can add your friends to circles you create. What’s the point you ask? Well when you post something to your wall, you can choose what Circles will see your post.

You want to post something that you know all your friends in your Work Circle will love but your Family Circle would care less about, this is the answer! I love this feature. I know my work peeps, for the most part, could care less about pics I post of Lex that are really meant for my family and close friends. You can also add multiple people to multiple circles.

You can share your content with specific Circles, all your Circles or you can make your content public and anyone on the Internet can see it. Very simple concept.

Now finding friends is still pretty difficult since Google+ is still in Beta. Not nearly as many people are on here as on Facebook, but give it time. For the most part, most people have anywhere between 5 and 30 friends in their circles. Obviously people like Mark Cuban have a few more. This will get better with time.

The next feature is the Stream. Think your Facebook wall. Ciricles are integrated here too, so if you only want to see posts from your Work Circle, you can. Easy to use and very simplistic. You can +1 something to “like” it and comment just like you would on FB.

Adding video and pictures is extremely easy. You can drag and drop your pictures and adding your YouTube videos is probably the easiest thing I have ever done. Now I know you are thinking that adding videos on FB with YouTube “share” button is easy…but what if you didn’t have to go to YouTube to find your video? That is what Google+ does! You can search YouTube videos from within Google+!

Two features with good potential that I think will go under used until there are more people on Google+ are Sparks and Hangouts.

Sparks are like keyword searches about your interests. So if you are interested in Social Media, you can “Spark It” and you get a news feed with Social Media articles. Interesting concept to incorporate into your social media. I could see this morphing into an actual news/sports/entertainment feed.

Hangouts are group video chats. The main issue that there is right now with this is that there are not many people on here yet and some of those people don’t have webcams to take advantage of it. But when it works, you and 9 of your friends can “Hangout” and chat. Cool idea, will take some time to get some traction.

A few other quick thoughts…I really like the integrated “tool bar” within Gmail. You can see if you have any Google+ notifications and even post to Google+ from Gmail! Very handy to use without even having to go into Google+.

Currently the only mobile app is the Android app, naturally. The iPhone app is in development, so hopefully I can get my hands on it soon. However, I have heard good things about the Android app and the ease of use. I hear the picture feature is especially cool! Cant wait.

Probably the biggest plus for me (not sure if this is plus or minus for you) is there are no apps in Google+, which means no stupid Farmville or Mafia Wars or anything of the like. Personally I hope this stays this way. It makes things much cleaner. Plus I don’t have people asking me for a pig farm.

Overall I am very pleased with Google+. I still have no idea where this fits in with my Facebook and Twitter usage. I don’t see myself leaving Facebook or Twitter and I don’t see myself using 3 mediums for Social Media. And will people really care if I post the same thing in 3 different places?

I think it has some cool features and I really appreciate the easy of use, but more than anything I hope Facebook is paying attention and incorporates some of the bigger features (like Circles) into their application.

So tell me what you think. Will Google+ replace Facebook? Will you use it along with Facebook? Any features you would like to see?

If you read this and want to know what all the fuss is about, let me know and I will send you an invitation to join the madness!

I want to be @mike!

2011-07-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

I know I wasn’t the first one on Twitter so I didn’t get a cool username or anything, but now I want one.

The one I really want is @mike, but that is taken. Being somewhat in the loop, I know that @mike either has worked at Twitter or knows the guys that do since most all of them have those “cool” usernames, while the rest of us get @mike123x or something of the like. I could be wrong though.

Now I am not mad at @mike, just jealous. He actually is actively using his account, has followers, follows people and even has a picture. He is account is “protected” so I am fairly confident this is a legit account.

In full disclosure, I will say my username of @mike_peery isn’t bad. It could be a lot worse. When I first signed up, I even had @mnpeery, which I use for a lot of other things and was happy with it. But I quickly realized people were using their names, hence why I changed.

But the “underscore” in my username is really starting to bug me! I started digging around last night to see what is available and what isn’t. What I found I think frustrated me even more. So here are three of the usernames I looked at and what I found:

@mike – Already mentioned. Account is being actively used. No complaints here.

@peery – Being used by someone name Peer Desilva. Not even named “Peery”! To top it off, they have NO tweets, NO profile picture, NO followers and they are only following ONE person! Big time squatter.

@mikepeery – This account is interesting. Looks to be a real person. He is a “Husband & Dad, Catholic, CFD and Scientific Viz.” He is following several dozen people, has people following him, but he has ONE tweet…back in March!

I started digging around to see what I could do to maybe acquire either @peery or @mikepeery since it seemed pretty obvious that these two accounts were not being used. It appears that unless I trademark “peery” or “mikepeery” I really don’t have a claim to either of them.

But it got me to thinking…should I try and trademark and/or copyright “mike peery”? I have a website (www.mikepeery.com) that I post pics and blogs to and it is my brand. I have a very active Facebook page, Twitter account and a YouTube account I post a lot of videos to…I would say that I have an Internet presence. It might not be as big as others, but I am out there.

So those of you with blogs and an “internet presence”, have you ever thought about doing this? Let me know your thoughts! Oh, and if you know how I can get @mikepeery or @peery, let me know that too!!!

The Week Inbetween

2011-07-07T14:58:00.000-05:00

The title says it all…this is the week between Alexis’ birthday and her actual party.

There are a lot of people out there that plan when they will have kids so they don’t fall around other kids birthdays or around holidays. We are NOT those people. It is a story for another day, but just the fact that we were pregnant was a miracle so when she would be born didn’t really matter. So on July 3, 2007 we had our Munchkin.

At the time we really didn’t think much of it, but now that she has parties for her birthday, it is really a pain to invite people to. Most everyone is either out of town or has plans on the 3^rd so we have tried to do her birthday the weekend after the 4^th…which with the way the days fell this year gave us an entire week between her birthday and her party! Try explaining that to a 4 year old! Wow!

But the week has not been without issue! No, see that would be too easy! So lets recap, shall we?

So Friday afternoon we went to pick out her birthday present. We figured that she would get all kinds of dolls and clothes from people, so we didn’t something different…we got her 2 hermit crabs. She is very excited and has named them Mac and Cheese. They sit in a little “box” in her bedroom and she really does like them.

That night we went to dinner with some friends and then over to 31 Flavors for some ice cream. Nice night! As we were walking back to the car, Lex mentioned that her foot itched. So scratch it we told her. Not rocket science here. Lol.

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast and in the process of getting ready to go to Build A Bear to get her a Bear, she mentioned her foot itched again. Once again, we told her to scratch it. But as Heather told her to scratch it, she turned around to look at it. That is when we noticed that she had been bit by something and her foot was red and very swollen!! We gave her some Benadryl and off we went!

Went to Build A Bear and she got a stuffed puppy, which she named Susie. Susie has roller skates and shoes to go with her collar and leash. $75 later we headed home to get ready to meet my parents for dinner at Joe T Garcia’s.

While at dinner, my dad saw her foot and remarked that it looked really bad and we needed to take her to the CareNow clinic or the hospital. Now we had a few people tell us through the day we needed to go, but when your Dad tells you to take your kid in, you take your kid in.

So off to CareNow we go. Sure enough, it was a bite that had been infected and required a shot as well as antibiotics. She did not like this too much! The doctor drew on her foot and told us if the swelling/redness got outside the marker to bring her back.

So we woke up on her birthday and got ready head to church. We checked out her foot and sure enough, it looked worse!! We went to church and debated on what to do most of the morning. Once church was out, we figured it was just best to take her in and let them look at it. How bad could it be? We just thought maybe the meds hadn’t kicked in yet. Nope! Still infected and required ANOTHER shot.

However, this time she knew it was coming and for 20 minutes she just cried and cried. Not much fun and no one should have to do that on their birthday. Especially when you are 4. She we get the shot and head home.

Up until this point she had been having a pretty crappy birthday, so we invited our friends Tim and Katie over for burgers and some swimming. Since her birthday hadn’t been going well, we asked if TJ could spend the night! We figured it was the least we could do for her! Those two had a blast and hopefully it made her actual birthday worth it!

The 4^th was a pretty lazy day!! We went over to some friends’ house and went swimming and then went over to my Dad’s house for dinner, a movie and some fireworks! So it turned out pretty well!

All in all her foot is doing much better! As the swelling went down you could see where a fire ant had lunch on her poor foot. She had 5 bites and I guess that was 5 to many for her little foot.

And that brings us to today and the middle of the two weekends. We have the Dora cake ordered and will be working on the goodie bags tomorrow night. Most all of her friends have RSVP’d and her cousin Harley will make it so all is right with the world!!

I hope this finds all of you well and you all had a great 4^th!

Take care!

Happy Birthday Alexis Noelle!

2011-07-03T06:00:00.003-05:00

Four years ago today, you were born. The four years have flown by faster than we could have ever imagined. When we brought you home we had no idea you would be the amazing little girl that you are today.

The first night we had you at home, we were so worried we were going to mess up...but you handled it like a pro! I know along the way you haven't always agreed with what we have said and you have had your fair share of accidents, but always know that your mom and I are beyond proud of you and we could not have asked for more from you!

This picture of you above is by far my favorite. It was taken just a few hours after you were born. You are so peaceful.

Since it is your birthday and birthdays are for celebrating, I wanted to share with everyone a couple of videos that I don't think everyone has seen.

The first one is Alexis crawling. She had just figured it out about 12 hours before I recorded this. When she first started to crawl, she would only crawl to something. And in this video, it is a comb.

The next video is of Alexis walking. When I took this video, she had only been walking a day or two, as you can tell by the wobbles. This was the beginning of the end! It wasn't long before she was running all over the place and she hasn't stopped since!

So Happy Birthday Munchkin! Mommy and Daddy love you very much and we are so proud of you!

What Would You Do?

2011-06-29T15:02:00.000-05:00

Anyone that knows anything about me will tell you I love technology. I one day hope to have a solar powered house that I can control with my iPhone if that tells you anything.

But it is not just the technology that interests me. It is the people behind it. I love learning about the Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg’s of the world. I like to know what they did before they made it big and what they are doing now.

Two of the guys I have been following for a few months now are Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey. While their names might not sound familiar, what they created will…Twitter.

Now they weren’t the only two involved and their amount of involvement is different, but in the grand scheme of things they were both there in the beginning and help get it to where it is today.

But once again, it is not what they are currently doing that I am interested in, it is where they started and what they are doing now that I like.

For Evan Williams, this wasn’t his first company. Not by far. He has created several other start ups, including a little one called Blogger that he sold to Google. For those of you that don’t know, Blogger is a “template based” website that allows you to post your blog. It is what I use mainly because it is simple! Anyone can do it!

Jack was a little bit different. For him, Twitter was his first successful startup. And for him, it is what he is doing now that is interesting. While he still has a role at Twitter day to day, he founded another startup called Sqaure.

As a side note, I am a huge fan of Square. I loved the concept and the ease of use.

From squareup.com: Square is the simplest way to accept credit cards. It’s easy to use and comes with a free credit card reader for your phone or iPad. Sign-up is quick. No complicated contracts, monthly fees, or merchant account. When you swipe cards with Square there is just one fee: 2.75%.

Now, the main reason I am fascinated with this is because my wife sells Mary Kay and taking credit cards has always be a challenge and expensive for her. Not anymore! If you have a small business or sell something on the side and you want to take credit cards, check them out!

OK, sorry about that!

My point is, Jack moved on and did something else that he was passionate about with his time and his money.

And it was just announced yesterday that Evan (along with 2 other guys he started Twitter with) has moved on and created another start up company. The name of the company is TheObvious Corporation. The Obvious Corporation makes systems that help people work together to improve the world.

So that brings me to you and my question. If money was no object and you could start a startup or start a non-profit, what would you do? Would you tackle AIDS like Bono? Would you battle disease in third world countries like Bill Gates? Improve schools like Mark Zuckerberg? Or would you continue to find niches in technology where you could make a difference like Jack and Evan?

What would it be?

What would it look like?

What would you do?

Burgers, Beef and Security

2011-06-27T12:38:00.000-05:00

So with our 10-year wedding anniversary behind us and Alexis’ birthday just a few days away, I thought I would recap our weekend for everyone!

It started on Saturday morning with us taking Alexis to see Cars 2 with TJ and rest of The Leckie family. Since this is my blog, I will give you my review…it was NOT as good as the first one. Way too much action for my liking. It was the characters that made the first one and they seemed to get away from them in this one. But I digress. The kids loved it and that is all that mattered.

After the movie, we took Lex over to my Dad and Stepmom’s for the day/night. I thought since we had time before check in at the hotel, we would hit one of the new In-N-Out burgers in D/FW. I will blog about this later, but we LOVE In-N-Out. Great food. We waited in the drive thru for about 20 minutes and then sat under a tree in our car to devour it. Man, it was worth the wait!

From there we headed to the Hyatt Regency in Dallas for the night! We got checked in and hit the “pool”. I use the quotes, because it was like a large hot tub. It was BAD. This is a 4 star hotel with a 0.5 star pool. It was about 15 foot wide and about 25 foot long and only held about 10 people comfortably. No swimming could be done unless you were the only one in the pool. Really disappointing. BUT we were at the pool with no kid and it was nice!

After the pool, we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. But because we are “Peery’s” things didn’t go as planned. There was a horrible noise in our room…our room with a king size bed and great view of downtown. It sounded like someone was dragging cables through the wall. Really annoying and no way we wanted to spend our one night away from Lex listening to the noise!!

I got ready and went downstairs to see if we could switch rooms and the hotel was booked except for one room with double beds. Not ideal, but we still had our good view and we didn’t have to listen to the crazy noise!! We finished getting ready and took all our stuff to our new room and headed to dinner.

Dinner was at Al Biernat’s. I have heard about this place for a while, but we hadn’t had the chance to go until now. Two or three times a year we try to go to a nice restaurant so we save our pennies so we can get what we want. There are 4 parts to dinner…cars, food, security and atmosphere…so I am going to break them down for you.

Cars: We pull into the parking lot and there are 2 Maserati’s parked next to some really nice Mercedes and a Range Rover. Being a car fan, I just wanted to go over and look at them all. I quickly remembered that we were eating dinner and not at a car show!

Thinking that it couldn’t get any better, we walk outside to leave and parked on either side of one of the Maserati’s were two Rolls Royce Phantom’s. If you don’t know what these are, google them! They are $450,000 each!!! I was looking at over a million dollars in 3 cars!!! It was crazy!!! So when they pulled our Ford Fusion around from the auxiliary lot (you didn’t think they would park us with the nice cars, did you?) we jumped in as fast as we good and left!! This is where having our Lexus would have been nice! We wouldn’t have seemed so out of place!

Food: One word…amazing! We spilt the calamari that came with two sauces (for which there are fancy French names for) and each had a Caesar salad. I had the dry aged 16oz NY Strip and Heather had the 8oz filet. We split mushroom risotto and creamed corn. While the steaks were great, the risotto was unbelievable. So good! For dessert we split a chocolate cake with a scoop of ice cream. We were stuffed!!

Security: As we were wrapping up, the owner comes over to the table next to us and tells the guy setting up that this table will be “security for table 12”. Next thing we knew, they were setting up the table behind us for “security” as well! We were intrigued. This place was the hottest ticket in town for the Super Bowl where you couldn’t get a table no matter who you were! Not only that, but President Bush lives in the neighborhood. All the local athletes eat here too. Who could it be? Who is that big that they need two tables for security? I was really thinking it might be the President!

Well, to this day we have no idea who it was! It was a Hispanic family that was not dressed to go out or they just had so much money they didn’t care what they had on. But they came with a “security detail/entourage” of 5. We were slightly disappointed.

Atmosphere: This place really was nice! It was in an area of Dallas were all the “money” is. This is old Dallas money. This isn’t money that a rapper gets for selling records or a reality tv star gets…this was old Dallas oil money. The cars in the parking lot were not rentals or leases or loaners. These people were the real deal.

As a side note, we were wished Happy Anniversary no less than 5 times by the staff. There was a good chance we were the poorest people in the restaurant that night, but they all made us feel like a million bucks. If you ever have a chance to go, save your pennies and go! It really is worth it all!!

So that was our weekend! Picked up Alexis Sunday afternoon and back to the real world! It is always nice to get away, even if we only went 20 minutes away for 2 days!!

All You Need Is Love

2011-06-25T06:00:00.002-05:00

Back in 1967, four lads from over the pond told us that all we needed was love. The premise behind it was pretty simple.

John Lennon said that “There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done, Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung, Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game, Its easy…All you need is love.”

While it is a great song, and one of my favorites by The Beatles, I am here to tell you that you do need love, but in a relationship you need so much more. You need a best friend.

Ten years ago today Heather and I were married in a chapel in Las Vegas where the temperatures were in the 100’s and we literally felt like we were going to melt. We were surrounded by our best friends, Nick and Kim, as well as other family members. But our relationship started long before that day ten years ago.

It actually started over 20 years ago in 7^th grade in Mrs. Morrow’s English class. (Apparently she liked the fact that I smelled like Downy soap.) We became great friends.

But Heather was popular and always dated the older boys. And I was doing good to look ANY girl in the eyes and not freak out. Pretty sure looking back on it that I was a lot like Raj on Big Bang Theory…didn’t talk to girls too much! So I thought I was doing pretty good that one actually talked to me AND wanted to be my friend! Jackpot!!

All through Junior High we were the best of friends. Always laughed and had a great time together.

High School rolled around and at the start of the 10^th grade year we were attached at the hip. It was after a trip to the State Fair and before a Friday Night football game that we decided to date. (As a side note, I should have taken this as a sign of things to come, but she fell asleep on the bus coming back. Ironically she still falls asleep in cars, buses, tanning beds, airplanes and any where else she can get a nap. Haha…)

Life was good. We got to see each other at school and then after the Friday Night football games we would go get pizza with the band. She celebrated my 16^th birthday with my family and me and in turn I celebrated her 16^th birthday with her and her family. To this day it is some of the best pics we have together.

Like most high school relationships, it didn’t last. We had a lot of great moments together and a lot of firsts that we both still remember to this day. We stayed “friends” through most of High School. To say things were great would be stretching it. We tried to date again our Senior Year, but things just never were the same.

Life after High School wasn't perfect for either of us and we made some mistakes. We both had our struggles and life was hard. We didn’t see each other much, if at all after High School. I think we only crossed paths once or twice. Nothing to really write home about.

Then one night in March 2001, as I was sitting on my couch, she called…and I was excited and surprised. She wanted to know if I wanted to get together for drinks. I said “sure, when?” and she said “how about now?” It was late, but I lived on my own, so why not?

We met at the Embassy Suites in Grapevine and had drinks and caught up. It was great to see her. She looked great. Like nothing had changed. We laughed like we in the 7^th grade all over again and got caught up on the past 7 years.

I like to tell the story that she “stalked me” mainly because I think it sounds better. But truth is she just happened to run across a mutual friend that I had just seen a couple weeks before and we had exchanged numbers. Remember, this was before Facebook and cell phones, so she did some great detective work! Lol…

We hung out a lot over the next few weeks and things were great. But truth of the matter was even though she wasn’t the only person I had ever loved, she was the only person that I loved and loved being with.

So one night in April, I suggested that we get married. Now the details on all this are a tad “R-Rated”, but even though alcohol was involved, I did know what I was doing. However, I think Heather thought I was just kidding and probably hoped I had forgotten when we sobered up.

This is the other part of the story I like to embellish on and tell people that she was homeless and I took her in. Granted she didn’t have electricity and she was a few days away from being evicted, she did have a place to stay. Just sounds better when I tell people she was homeless. :)

I had planned to go to California and see my brother in June so we decided we would drive to Vegas and get married. We were really excited! Heather moved in (and cleaned up after me) and we were on our way.

Now to stay our parents were surprised and supportive would be a stretch. They all got a call along these lines:

Us: Hi! Do you remember Mike/Heather from High School?

Parents: Yes

Us: Well we reconnected the other night.

Parents: OK

Us: And guess what? We are living together and getting married next month!

Now, we were excited about this, but the parents not so much. They might lie 10 years later, but we are pretty sure they ALL thought Heather was pregnant! Lol.

So we got married on June 25, 2001. To say the first 12-18 months were “easy” or “fun” would be an understatement and flat out lie. We were married and really hadn’t been around each other for 7 years and that was just in High School.

It was hard. But see, this is where The Beatles don’t have it 100% accurate, because at the heart of our relationship was our friendship. One night we made a pact that divorce just wasn’t an option. Since then our relationship has flourished. It hasn’t all been roses and we have had our issues, but we have always worked through them and remain committed to each other.

So on our 10 year anniversary I want to let you all know that I love Heather Danee’ Peery and she is my best friend in the whole wide world.

In the last decade I have laughed more and shared some of the best things in life with you. You have given me the most amazing daughter in the world and for that I can never thank you enough.

We have shared some of the neatest things that would have never happened without you in my life. I am proud to say I shared all those things with you and proud to know at the end of the day you are standing by my side.

You make me a better person everyday because the last thing I ever want to do is hurt you or make you sad in any way. So every day I wake up, I want to be better for you.

You are my best friend in the world and I don’t want to do life without you. I am excited to know that when we are old and gray that it will be you that is on the swing next to me.

I am extremely proud of you and all that you have accomplished. I know that our current place in life isn’t where either of us thought we would be 10 years later, but we are doing it together and that is all that matters. We are Team Peery and I am so happy you are on my team.

So happy 10 year anniversary to my wife…my best friend.

Love,

Peanut Butter and Toaster

2011-06-08T14:37:00.000-05:00

So the great Peery Move of 2011 is almost over! I wish I could say it went off without a hitch, but that would mean that it wasn’t a Peery Move!

I guess it all starts with the apartment complex, which gave us the wrong apartment number a few weeks back…2101 instead of 2102. I know it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but try telling that to AT&T and our electric company. Apparently you cant just “change the number from a 1 to a 2”. There are processes involved and work orders and other technical stuff that has to be done! It all worked out on the end…but not before I had to work one afternoon from a McDonalds and the poor person/people in 2101 had their power shut off.

The morning of the move went OK. The movers showed up 2 hours late and moved slower than molasses. I guess they were going to ensure that the move took as long as possible on a 100 degree day. Well, mission accomplished fellas!

They completed the move in just under 4 hours while breaking a glass, fire place tools and our washer…which slipped off the dolly coming up the stairs. They seemed shocked when the amount I gave them didn’t include a tip. Well, it did…they got $20 (total) and only because they didn’t have change. Sure hope they each enjoyed their $6.67...it will cost me $150 to get my washer fixed.

We almost have all our boxes unpacked. Going from 1900sqft to 900sqft has been a challenge. We went from having a lot of kitchen space to having NO kitchen space. Our bedroom furniture takes up the whole room. We have a flat screen tv hanging on a wall that makes us look like bachelors that bought the biggest tv for sale regardless of the size of the wall we had to put it on.

It hasn’t been all bad. Heather is 7 minutes from work and it only takes me 8 minutes to take Lex to school. We spent time at the pool last night and Lex had a ball. We are going to be saving money in a lot of areas, so that is exciting to think about.

However, we still have not found my peanut butter and our toaster! I am not making this up! We have NO idea where they are! We have unpacked all the kitchen boxes and they weren’t in them.

This is a common theme for us though. We have lost spoons (4), a vegetable chopper, forks (4) and a plate in other moves. For some reason the kitchen stuff just gets lost. It is the craziest thing. No idea what happens to it. Just thought it was funny that it was the peanut butter and toaster. Didn’t know they liked each other.

Before wrapping up, I do have to thank those of you that helped us with the move! I know your parts might have seemed small to you, but to us they were monumental and we couldn’t have completed the move without you! So THANK YOU!!

The American Nightmare

2011-05-24T10:32:00.000-05:00

This is the true story of our first home. I am telling this story out of great frustration and also hope that some part of this might help others.

So I guess some “background” on why we chose this house and the events leading up to it.

At the beginning of 2007 we were ready to buy our first house. We had worked really hard to get our credit up so we could get a good rate, however the reality of it was that we only had a certain amount of money we could spend. Based on that amount, it put us in some seedy areas of HEB (yes HEB does have seedy areas), in some really scary parts of Fort Worth, out in the middle of no where or in South Arlington…which according some friend and family is the same as “out in the middle of no where.”

One other tidbit of information is that Heather was 3 months pregnant at the time, so we needed to take into consideration that we were going to be having a new addition really soon.

We decided on South Arlington. It was only 20 minutes away from where we worked and the area that we wanted to live in had a lot of new up and coming shopping areas that were nice. We set out and looked at 14 houses in one day. Wish I was kidding. We had our poor nephew with us and it is a miracle he still talks to us! We looked at home houses that it looked like actual murders had taken place. We looked at another one that had 3 foot of mold along every wall from where it was flooded out. It was bad!!

Literally the last house we saw that day we both loved. It was really “open”, had new carpet and tile in the kitchen and bathroom. Yeah, there were some drawbacks and it needed some work, but we really liked it and we figured it would cost us the least to fix up and it was move in ready.

The house passed inspection, we got a “good deal” on the house, family signed off on it and so we closed on it the last day in March 2007.

And then it started…we started noticing cracks in the house. You know, those cracks that you get when the house settles. The thing in, they were above every door way and every window. We have a running joke now that we try and find a wall WITHOUT a crack! It is pretty hard to do.

Anyways, we were concerned about this being first time homeowners. Then we remembered there was foundation work done on the house and it came with a lifetime warranty. Now, we weren’t too sure what was under warranty, but we were about to find out!!

We made several calls, but couldn’t ever get anyone to call us back…and for good reason! The company was long out of business and had been for awhile. So let that be a lesson. If you are buying a home and there is a warranty on the foundation, find out what the warranty covers and most importantly IF THEY ARE STILL IN BUSINESS!!!!!

Crushed is the only way to describe how we felt. Our first home and there were cracks everywhere. I honestly thought that we would come home one day and the house would just be split in two down the middle.

So we researched our options. The first thing we did is have someone come and look at our foundation. Turns out it needed about $8,000 in work and we did not have that money. We thought about suing the guy that sold us the house and everyone we talked to told us it would cost us more to sue the guy than just fix the foundation. No bueno because we didn’t have the money for either option.

There really wasn’t anything we could do so we just got soaker hoses and ran them around the house. None of the cracks got any bigger, but they didn’t get any smaller either.

Fast forward to June 2010. Heather finds out that the company she is working for is closing down and she got a 2-day notice. Now Heather will argue that what happens next is all her fault, but it isn’t. We are a team and we work through things together.

It took her about 2 months to find a job and when she did, it came with a pay cut. It was still more than the unemployment checks, but less than what she was making. Looking back on it now, we are both very thankful she found this job because the people are amazing!

But the unemployment started us down a path of maxing out our credit cards and using what little we had in savings. A horrible by product of the credit card balances going up, was the payments went up…and once we were late on a payment the interest rates went up and forced the payments up again. It got really ugly really quick. We did not hide from anyone and let all our creditors know of our situation.

As crazy as this sounds (and it is still true almost a year later) no one could help us because we were not late on our payments.

Go back and read that last sentence…they could NOT help us because we were good customers. This went for our credit cards AND our mortgage! The only way we could get help was to not make our payments. It really floored us.

We fought and fought and fought until October when we realized it was not worth the fight anymore. Gas prices were going up and we were making no head way on our credit cards making the minimum payments so we made the tough decision to put our house on the market.

We had mixed feelings about this. On one hand it really felt like we failed. But on the other, we felt like it would give us a clean slate to start over with.

We had our family realtor come out and put the house on the market. We told him all along that we were not looking to make money on the deal; we just wanted to break even and get out. There were some homes in the area that sold for more than $120,000, so we put ours on the market for $116,000…$1,000 less than what it had appraised for almost 4 years ago and more than the $105,000 that we owed. We figured this was a good deal and we would be out by Christmas. As of today, we have only had 2 people look at our house…

The next set of events all kind of happened around the same time and their order isn’t too terribly important.

One thing that happened the first part of 2011 is our tax appraised value went down! This is the same value that had been the same since the early 1990’s. I knew this was not good! The county loves to get their money and if they think my house is worth less, it means less money in their pockets! Not good! The tax value dropped right at $10,000. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot, but that is almost 10% the value of our house! Imagine if your house lost 10% of its value.

Another thing that happened is that it became apparent that financially we were not going to be able to hang on to the house much longer. The budget was becoming a battle and like most Americans the term “paycheck to paycheck” was applicable to us as well. We contacted our mortgage company and once again were told that there was nothing they could do since we were not behind on any payments.

This is where morally we had some issues. Do we not pay our mortgage so they will help us? Do we just walk away from the house? Do we stay and continue to dig a hole that we will never be able to get out of? Will any of these options not just totally kill what little credit score we have left?

Compounding our issues was the fact that property values in our neighborhood were dropping…fast! In our immediate area, there were several houses that are being foreclosed on or being sold WAY below market value. When we went back to our realtor and looked at the numbers, we would need to price our house at $84,000…that is $20,000 LESS than what we owe and almost $30,000 less than the appraised value when we bought it. On top of that, the house still needs $8,000 in foundation work!!!!!

We have gone back to our mortgage company trying to work through any program they have. It seems like we have to ask them about programs instead of them telling us what is available. VERY frustrating since we don’t know what is out there.

It turns out that you can’t “apply” for more than one program at a time because to do one program, you house has to be listed above what you owe. To do another program, your house has to be listed below what you owe. Doesn’t take a genius to realize that isn’t going to work.

On top of ALL that, we were told that our application on one of the programs was canceled by them because they didn’t have the man power to help those people with offers on their houses, much less people like us with no offers on our house. Crushed.

All we get from our mortgage company are letters telling us to take action. But we have been taking action for almost a year now and all we keep hitting are brick walls…once again because our house payment is current.

We have thought about a lot of other options. We have thought about taking Lex out of her private school and putting her in “babysitting daycare”. But then she comes in and counts to 20 in Spanish or sings one of the songs she learned in chapel and we realize how much it would set her back.

We have thought about putting her in early morning care so we could park one of our cars to save on gas, but we would only be saving $50 a month. Is that really worth waking her up at 6:30 in the morning and her being in school for 10 hours? We don’t think so.

People have asked us why we don’t borrow money from family. What for? We are current on everything.

We have thought about getting part time jobs, but at what cost? Neither of us are too keen on giving up our family weekends and spending time away from Lex. And once again, we need long-term solutions.

We aren’t the people that complain about not having money and we aren’t the people that are going to blame anyone else for our lot in life. This is our situation and we have to handle it the best we see fit.

And to clarify for everyone…we are not broke. Our monthly expenses are really very low and our credit card debt is so low it would probably shock you. We don’t blow money on nice things. The last “luxury” item we bought for ourselves was the iPhone4. However, we don’t really count that because we sold our old iPhones on eBay to cover the cost (and then some). Yes, we could probably stay home and eat 1 or 2 more nights a week, but in the grand scheme of things $25 at On The Border isn’t the issue.

We have garage sales and buy clothes for Lex at the resale shops. We are just at a point that we are in a losing battle with our house and moving to an apartment would save us almost $1,000 in gas and rent a month as well as rest of our utilities will go down as well.

We are just tired…tired of paying $400 for gas a month, tired of fighting with Wells Fargo, tired of spending almost 3 hours total in a car per day, tired of not being able to take a family vacation…just tired.

This house will always have good memories for us. It is the house we brought Alexis home to, where Casper is buried in the backyard, where we watched the Rangers clinch their first ever AL pennant, where Santa first came to visit Lex and so many other little things that we will never forget.

So there you have it…how the American Dream turned into the American Nightmare for us. I know we are not alone in this. We see it everyday on the news. But in the end, it does feel like we failed and that is a crappy feeling.

All this to let everyone know we are moving…in two weeks! One of the other by products of the housing market being what it is, most apartment complexes are FULL! We were able to locate one, but to get it we had to move in on the first of June. So we are!

I hope someone can learn something from this. I know we have…

What To Do

2011-04-28T14:31:00.000-05:00

I am really not too sure why, but here lately I have been drawn to causes and people’s journey’s.

Let me just say, this has always been the case for me. As an example, back in 2000, there was a man that legally changed his name to “DotComGuy” and for a year he had to live in a house and had to order everything online, including his food and groceries. That fascinated me. Back in my bachelor days I would have been all over that!

So my fascination with causes and journey’s really isn’t anything new, but the focus of those causes and journey’s is what has been intriguing me. Since this was on my mind, I figured I would share a few of them with you.

The first one is charity : water. (www.charitywater.org). Now, I know I am probably late to the party on this one, but they are doing some amazing things. For a $20 donation, they can provide water to a person. To expand a bit on that, the average water project costs $5,000 and can serve 250 people…so $20. There are some great videos on how water is tied to so many issues in the world. I highly encourage you to check them out!!

The next one is TOMS shoes. (www.toms.com) Yep, shoes. Now I know you are thinking “how is this special”? But the genius isn’t in the shoes…it is in the concept. For every pair of TOMS shoes you buy, they give a pair to someone without shoes. One for One. I have heard Blake (founder and chief shoe giver) talk several times about how this came about and it is a great story. I highly encourage you reading about it and buying a pair of shoes!

The One for One concept has really taken off. I was recently made aware of a charity that does the same thing for eyeglasses that TOMS does for shoes. It is called Warby Parker. (www.warbyparker.com). So if you need a pair of designer glasses, you know where to go!

On top of that, TOMS has actually become the “One For One” company and they will be releasing their next project later this year, so stay tuned!

The last one isn’t a cause, but a journey. And it is the journey of Steven, Emily and Eden Dilla. (www.echoesofredemption.com) Steven and Emily have decided with their one year old daughter Eden to leave D/FW and start a church in New York.

I have honestly been fascinated with their journey since the day I found out about it. Here are two people that both had great jobs at a large local church here (which is where we met them) and lived comfortable lives. To quickly summarize, they quit their jobs at the church, got odd jobs to make ends meet, sold their house and moved to Annapolis, MD to start the process of planting a church in New York. (Please note this was all calculated and it isn’t like they just woke up and moved the next day…lol.)

They stepped out of their comfortable lives and financial security to go live in an 800sqft apartment in Maryland with the goal of starting a church in the city of New York all the while depending on others for their expenses. Heather and I wish them nothing but success and we highly encourage you to help them in their journey if you can. Click HERE.

Heather and her friend Angie are always helping people find clothes for people in need. Heck, she even rounded up bottles of laundry soap for The Ronald McDonald House not too long ago. And even this week has helped another of our friends find clothes for foster children who had nothing. What she has shown me is that people will give what and when they can.

So that brings this all back to me and what I want to do. Truth is, I don’t know.

Do I want to donate my time and social media skills to churches and non-profits to help them spread the word about what they are doing? Who knows? I know there is something out there with my name on it; I just need to figure out what it is!!!

Facebook and Security

2011-04-26T11:12:00.001-05:00

Those are two words you hear a lot about these days. I see article after article about it online and how people are upset with Facebook that their account got hacked. Or how they are suing so and so because private pictures of them got out. I get phishing emails all the time from my friends whose pages were hacked and since I am in social media for a living, I figured I would try and help some of you out with some tips.

DON’T BLAME FACEBOOK – I love it when people’s accounts get hacked and the first thing people do is blame Facebook for their “lack of security” when the truth is, you should be blamed for your lack of knowledge.

Yes, Facebook defaults their security on accounts very low and it will default to exposing more information than needs to be exposed. But you are in control of this! You can share as much information or as little information as you would like! My rule of thumb and very high recommendation is LOCK IT DOWN. Only share information to those that are your FRIENDS. Not “Friends of Friends”…just Friends!

Here is the link to Facebook’s Privacy Help Page. Educate yourself…today!

Facebook Privacy

CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD – This one sounds really simple, but you would be shocked. I read an article the other day that a hacker, who was recently busted, used the email addresses found on Facebook (see first tip) and was able to guess their password based on comments left on posts, etc. Once he was able to log in, he would change the password, locking the owner out, and would use the account to chat with their friends and get answers to the questions needed to change the password…like Mothers Maiden Name. All he needed was one email address and it got him access to 1,000’s of accounts. So change your password today and make it something other than your cat’s name. If you are worried you will forget it, then you are on the right track!!! :)

CHANGE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS – I know this one sounds funny, but let me ask you this…is your email account password the same as your Facebook password? Over 80% of people who use Facebook use the same password that they use for their email account. I am pretty sure you see where I am going, but if your Facebook account is compromised, so is your email account. Email addresses are free. Go to gmail or yahoo today and get one and start using it today! I have one I use for all my online accounts so if it does get compromised, the damage is minimal.

KNOW WHO YOU ARE CHATTING WITH – Along the lines of the previous two tips, make sure you know who you are chatting with if you get an IM or a message from someone within Facebook. Trust your instincts! If you get a IM asking about your mother or your first boyfriend, keep in mind those are two of the security questions that are asked to retrieve your password if you “forget” it. If you get an IM from some one you haven’t talked to in a long time, be cautious. If it is someone you talk to all the time and all of a sudden they are asking those types of questions, shoot them a text and make sure it is them you are talking to.

KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ‘FRIENDS’ AND ‘FRIENDS OF FRIENDS’ – One of the security settings you can set your account to is “Friends of Friends”. And while this seems harmless, it isn’t. Here is an example of how this works. Lets say you post a picture and you share it with Friends of Friends so Friend A is able is to see it, but so are ALL of Friend A’s friends.

While on the surface this doesn’t sound bad, you have no idea who are Friends with Friend A and did you just post a pic of you on vacation, making it known to them that you were not at home?

KNOW YOUR FRIENDS – Once you get your page locked down, for people to follow you and what you post you have to approve them. Do not take this lightly. Do not just approve anyone because they want to be your friend. Keep in mind, once you let them in, they can see ALL your posts and your information.

DON’T GIVE AWAY THE FARM – While Facebook allows you to post as much information as you want in their “Info” section, this is not the best idea. You need to keep some information close to the vest.

Putting your phone number, for example, is NOT recommended in any scenario. If someone wants your number, let him or her ask. Remember, if you have changed your email address and they email you, they are emailing you to a safe email address so if anything goes wrong it doesn’t compromise your personal email account.

The bottom line to all is this to educate yourself, be smart and use common sense. Facebook catches a lot of flack for their default settings, but no one ever talks about the resources they have available to help you get your settings right!!

Hope that helps!!

Later

Opening Day 2011

2011-04-04T14:05:00.000-05:00

For the first time ever on Opening Day, the Texas Rangers had something to defend! If you look at the picture above, what we are defending is that blue AL Champions banner on the left meaning we were in the World Series.

Side note: I will never forget waking up on my birthday and the headline of the paper being HELLO WORLD SERIES! One of the coolest days of my life!

But since the Rangers had something to defend the bandwagon was really starting to fill up and getting our normal Opening Day tickets was a tad more difficult than it had been in years past. We were finally able to secure some tickets so we were all set.

This was also the first year that we decided to take Alexis. We did this for a few reasons...one being that the game was at 3 and her school would be out before the game was over. But the other one was that she was really excited to go (she wanted to see "the horse and the dots") and we figured why not.

The parking lots opened at 10am and for so many years I have wanted to tailgate before the game and we decided with the late first pitch that this was the year. We got a lot of our friends together that were going and tailgated. It was a blast. It will be a new tradition going forward!

Considering how difficult it was to get tickets this year, our seats were really good and I am not going to complain one bit.

View from our seats!

The game was awesome (we won!) and did not disappoint. The crowd was into it from the first pitch to the last and Lex had an amazing time! However, the Rangers have replaced her "dots" in the dot race with Texas Legends (Davey Crockett, Sam Houston, etc) and she was NOT happy about that. Try explaining to a 3 year old where her dots are! haha...

I was able to get a couple of decent videos. Here is one of the flyover by a B-52 and then one of the final pitch:

And here are a few pics from the game/tailgating. You can see the rest of them on my Facebook page, so head on over!

Lex w/her antlers! (Thx Aunt Gina!)

Note: I would feel really bad if I didn't point out that Nick was just holding my next beer for me and was not drinking two beers. LOL!

Lex was already for the game!! Here we are walking towards the stadium!