Archive for the 'Family' Category

Top Ten of Boston List

Published at March 4, 2010 in Personal Update, Manny Stuff, Marriage, Being a Man, Fun and Family. 3 Comments

Brooklynne & I are making preparations for her impending graduation in May. Anyone who has done this before knows that it can be a difficult process. However, it has given us the opportunity to see Boston again with fresh eyes. We have been upset by the cost of living, job market, relative unfriendliness of the citizens, living with no car, the healthcare system as a whole, & innumerable other little things. It was easy for us to be bogged down by all that negative energy for a year or so. Now that the end is in sight, we find ourselves making it a point to focus on the good things about Boston & resolving to take those memories with us when we go. So here is my top ten list, in no particular order, of things I will miss about Boston.

1. Our house church-

Love, love, love these people & they have made the last year much more bearable than the first one was.

2. The historical places you pass almost every other second-

You simply can’t walk 150 yards in Boston without passing another place of historical significance.

3. The skyline-

In my opinion, one of the best ever.

4. My current job-

Hands down, the most fun & emotionally & spiritually rewarding job I’ve ever had.

5. Darion & Jenny-

We met them when we were both young struggling couples in the North End. Our dogs are best friends, & they are just excellent, fun, giving, & lovely people.

6. The crazy people you encounter daily on the subway-

I think that the MBTA has an “at least one wild person per car” rule that seems to be strictly enforced. As an avid people watcher, I appreciate this policy.

7. The snow-

I know my wife won’t like this one, but I, for one, have enjoyed having a proper winter for at least a couple of years.

8. Walking with my wife through the city-

This is a good thing that has come from us not having cars for the past two years. We have to walk together a lot more & there’s no radio to get in the way of good old fashioned conversation.

9. The community of East Boston-

This is an amazing neighborhood, & if you’re moving up to Boston I’d highly recommend it to you. They are very well connected with one another & they step up to meet one another’s needs.

10. All the bad things I mentioned earlier-

Yeah, I know, they really are bad things. I guess it’s not so much the things themselves that I like. It’s the results of these things on our marriage. I can honestly say now that my wife & I have gone through Hell & high water this past couple of years. The result has been a daily confirmation that I married the most amazing woman in the world. No matter what kind of poo-poo we have or might encounter, my confidence in our relationship & love will not be shaken.

The Future

Published at November 27, 2009 in Personal Update, Church, Marriage, Being a Man, Family, Holidays and Spirituality. 1 Comment

I’ve been thinking & praying a great deal about it lately.  For the first time, it’s been so hard to see.  I’ve always known the next step, but that’s been easy. It’s only ever affected me.  Now I am part of a “we,” & “we” have to make a decision based on what’s the best thing for us.  Brooklynne is done with graduate school in May, & it is time to start figuring out where to go from there.  It’s easy to say that we should make this decision based on the most important things for us. Where can we find a community of believers to plug into that we can “jive” with?  Where can we begin putting down roots to build a family?  These & other things are our top priorities, but when we try to lay out possibilities to meet those questions, they are endless.  It’s hard to narrow down from endless possibilities.  I hate to make a life decision based on career opportunities, but what else is there to do when that is the only variable that can be known?  I hate being in places like this, where the questions are far more numerous than the answers.  Any advice from those further along the path of life is very welcome right now. 

 

On a side note, Thanksgiving has been wonderful.  I can’t even begin to express how thankful I am to have amazing in-laws that I truly feel like family around.  It has been a very welcomed break from all the pressures of Boston.  I am so thankful for a job that I love going to every single day.  I can’t wait to get back to see my little buddy.  I am unbelievably blessed to have such an amazing, beautiful, & gifted wife.  I love being here to spend time with her while she doesn’t have 20 thousand things on her schedule.  So anyway, please let me know if you have any wisdom to impart upon our decision making process for the future.

The Hard Way

Published at October 3, 2009 in Personal Update, Marriage, Being a Man, Family and Spirituality. 0 Comments

I’ve always been the type of person that has been able to learn things vicariously. I’m not sure why this is. I guess I’m just made that way. If I see or hear about someone making a big mistake in some way or another, I’m usually pretty good about recognizing where the breakdown occurred & avoiding it myself. However, in a break from what has been the norm in my life, I’ve been having to learn things the hard way over the past year or so. I really don’t like it at all, & I certainly don’t recommend it to anyone. It’s called “the hard way” for a very good reason. So, I’m hoping that with this post I can help someone out there to avoid learning the hard way & learn these things vicariously. Here are a few lessons, in no particular order, that I have learned over the past year or so the hard way;

1. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch-

In other words, don’t move to an apartment that costs $1700 dollars a month until you have secured a job that pays high enough to support that rent. No matter how much you may believe that you are warm poop, & can find a job whenever you want it, you may not be as valuable as you think.

2. When Mamma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy-

Don’t just tell your wife how amazing she is, show her. Treat her well no matter what. Don’t let stress, or a bad day, or a difficult situation, or anything else stop you. The minute you start thinking about your own issues & problems, start feeling sorry for yourself, & neglect to nurture her, that is the minute when you have made a grave mistake. If you thought things were tough before, you just try to make it through the same things without that amazing woman’s love & admiration, & you’ll see how bad things can really get. So, first & foremost, love & serve your wife. I’ve learned that if Brooklynne is sad, I feel it with her. Not because she is mean or angry at me, she is way too amazing for that, but because my happiness & success are completely interwoven with hers. It is impossible for me to be happy if she is not.

3. He that has will be given more-

Be grateful for all the things that you have that are good. When you focus on negatives & problems, you get down, & when you get down, you don’t do as well at the things you try to do, & when you don’t do well at the things you try to do, you will run into only more negatives & problems. Both failure & success are cycles that either begin or end based on where your focus is. Yes, crap happens. Sometimes HUGE crap happens, & that HUGE crap may very well be your fault, & it may be a very big deal. I’m not saying that you should ignore problems in your life. You can either learn from it or lose from it, & that decision is entirely up to you. The people that are truly successful & happy in life are the people that focus on what they have instead of what they don’t have. No matter what your situation is, make sure you spend more time giving God thanks & praise than you do asking for stuff. If you do, I think you’ll find that there’s not that much more that you really need.

That’s all for today class. Your assignment is to comment with either a lesson that you have had to learn the hard way or something that you have taken for granted that you commit to being thankful for in the future. Ready, go!

The Peters Came To Boston.

Published at August 10, 2009 in Personal Update, Fun and Family. 0 Comments

Mom & Dad came to visit us in Boston this week & we had a blast. If you’re friends with them on “the Facebook,” as Mom says, then you must check out the pictures. In particular the Harvard visit. I don’t know if I’ve ever laughed so hard in my life as when we posted those pictures. Just kidding, I do know, & I have laughed harder, but not many times. Anyway, it was so good to get a taste of home. They brought me BBQ & made me sweet tea & no-bake cookies. It was a really uplifting week for Brooklynne & I both. If anyone else from Little Rock wants to come up here before the summer is out, then do it. We can’t get enough of you folks! It is so good to spend time with family & friends.

Homesick

Published at July 14, 2009 in Personal Update, Marriage, Family and Humor. 0 Comments

I’ve never been the homesick type. Maybe I have, but I just didn’t know it. I was born & raised in Arkansas only leaving for a semester during my junior year of high school. I went to undergraduate & graduate school just an hour away from home. I guess since I never actually strayed very far from home, it was impossible for me to feel homesick. Well I’m away now. Far away. I feel it for the first time. My parents will be visiting in a little less than a month & that will be awesome. But I can’t help but realize that it will probably be well into the winter, at least in Boston, before I’m able to visit home again. Darn my family for making me love them so much! Why couldn’t you just be normal, disinterested, half-hearted, guilt-tripping, & annoying people like most people’s families?! Would that have been so hard to do?! Sheesh! It sure would have saved me a lot of heartache & depression. As if that weren’t enough, they also taught me to be grateful & content. I have an amazing wife who is amazing. Yeah, I know I doubled up on the “amazing,” but only because she does. Our dog is happy, healthy, & obedient. We are both employed. Brooklynne is getting a fabulous education. My two jobs are both fulfilling, fun, & financially adequate for our needs. We have some really great friends that we enjoy living life with. Our lives are truly blessed. So now, on top of everything else, I get to feel guilty about feeling bad about not being home! You really did a number on me Mom & Dad. I hope you’re pleased with yourselves.