Dear Jack: Your 1st Football Game This Week

13 years, 9 months.

Dear Jack,

There is a saying: “Well that escalated quickly!”

That is exactly how I feel about you playing football: Just a couple of weeks ago, you started a brand-new school in Alabama; to which you were quickly recruited by your new friends and the coach.

Last week, I started picking you up everyday after school from football practice.

And now, this week, you played your first game?!

Uh… what?

That’s you- number 37 out there.

I would have never guessed this. But the reality is…

You play football and you love it.

This is totally your thing. Out of nowhere, with no previous consideration before moving to Alabama.

But this is you now.

Love,

Daddy

Dear Holly: Picture Day for 3rd Grade

8 years, 3 months.

Dear Holly,

Last week Mommy had to spend a few days working in Nashville, which meant it was just you and me and your brother here at the house.

We managed fine, until realizing Friday was picture day at school.

Fortunately, Aunt Dana volunteered to get you all fixed up; in addition to taking you and your brother to school each day.

I just dropped you off at her house about 15 minutes early and she gave you what I call “the beauty pageant treatment”.

That’s one of the many benefits of living 0.2 miles from family.

We are definitely not used to that. We used to be nearly 3 hours away from family.

Now we live on the same street!

Love

Daddy

Dear Jack: Lawnmower Man

13 years, 9 months.

Dear Jack,

Having a lawn to mow is a new experience for our family. For the nearly decade Mommy and I lived in our townhouse, there was no lawn to mow. Then, at our house we lived in for nearly a decade before moving here to Alabama, the HOA paid a company to do that for all the residents in our neighborhood.

But now, we officially live on nearly an acre of land which we are responsible for mowing.

I personally have plenty of experience mowing the lawn while growing up as a kid. In college, I made money in the summers mowing lawns for people.

While I was definitely willing to get starting again by mowing our lawn, I’ve yet to have that opportunity, as you have so far proactively done it yourself each week… for ten bucks a pop.

I predict that next spring, we will invest in a riding mower. I’m guessing you’ll still get 10 dollars each time, even though the job will be a lot easier then!

 

Love,

Daddy

Dear Jack: You’ve Decided to Play Football

13 years, 8 months.

Dear Jack,

Within the first couple of days of 8th grade at your new school in Alabama, you were approached by some of your new friends, as well as the coach, to play on the football team.

You instantly decided that is what you are going to do.

So I took you to Hibbett Sports to let you pick out some cleats and a solid mouth guard.

Naturally, for the mouth guard, you chose one that is sour watermelon Warheads flavored.

(Because that is a thing that actually exists.)

I did my best to turn you into a guitar-playing songwriter like me.

It just didn’t stick.

Sure, play football instead.

 

Love,

Daddy

On My Wife’s 43rd Birthday, Looking Back on When We Were in Our 20s

As we still continue to “pare down” our belongings from the move to Alabama, I came across a stack of the customized calendars I would make for my wife and I each month to keep at our desks at work, back during the first decade of the 2000’s.

It’s funny to think that there were a couple of years before we were married, before I started blogging, running my YouTube channel, and regularly writing new songs, that I would instead use my creativity to craft monthly calendars featuring pictures of what we had done together the month before.

Today my wife joins me in turning 43 years old. (I’m 113 days older than her.)

It has been interesting to look back through these now “old” photos of us when we were in our 20s! I was 27 and she was about to turn 27 when we got married in 2008.

These calendars stopped before we ever reached our 30s; in the 2010s. Two reasons: One is because we became parents at age 29. The other is that I began focusing on my role as Parents magazine’s daddy blogger.

So much has happened in our lives since I stopped making these calendars. We lived through our entire 30s- and as of today, we are a third of our way through our 40s.

Through all the stress that came with putting our Tennessee home on the market this year, finding a new home in Alabama, and making the move across state lines, it’s really rewarding to be able to stop for a minute and look through these old pictures of us.

It’s like I’m able to see our lives together from a 3rd party’s perspective looking in:

“Wow, we’ve shared an amazing life together so far. This is really nice. We both made a really good choice when we chose each other back in 2007.”

Happy Birthday Jill!