Could I be the top Muskegon blogger?

Blogger has a cool feature whereby if you view a blogger’s profile, then click on his city (like Muskegon) you’ll find list of other people who use blogger in that city. When a person posts a new blog post or updates their profile, they move to the top of that list. So when I post this, I’m officially the Top Muskegon Blogger …. hehe

Other updates:

• Kelly is about a year away from being able to sit for her RN state exams. The classes are hard, but she’s gotten good comments from instructors and coworkers. She’s going to be a great nurse. She’s also started making fabric crafts and opened up a shop on Etsy where you can buy things. She’s really excited about it and wants to expand it further, but we’re waiting for her first sale. Stop by and let us know what you think! (the address is http://tennisoncreations.etsy.com/ if the link doesn’t work)
• Brooke finished up her girl scout events and meetings for the year. This was her first year and she really enjoyed it. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by it as well. It seems to be a really good group for her to be involved in. Next up is getting her involved in a sport or other activity. Sign-ups are happening this summer for cheerleading, but I have my reservations about that. Soccer and T-ball are also options we’re considering.
• Ethan is now, and potty training. Most of the time he’s good about telling us when he has to go, but some days he doesn’t at all. We’re also STILL waiting for him to tell us when he has to poop. He hasn’t done that on the potty at all yet (and we all know how much fun those pull-ups are to change). He’s also just seeming much older and more mature to me. It’s like he’s recently grown 4 inches and doubled his vocabulary and comprehension. Very cool, but makes me realize it’s going fast!
• I’m enjoying work more lately. I’m traveling during the day about 4 days a week and home every night. I work with customers and sales agents throughout the day and enjoy it. For a while I was doing sales trainings and I really enjoyed doing that, but I’d hate the regular overnight travel that being a trainer would come with. In my spare time I’ve learned quite a bit about creating websites using css. There was a lot about websites that I forgot, and much has changed too, but I’m fairly with it for now . I’m enjoying the summer, and bicycling, and being outside. It’s going too fast though! On top of its break-neck speed, all of my auxiliary interests get in the way of relaxing outside and enjoying it too…but it’s who I am.

So now you’re up-to-date on what’s going on with Muskegon’s Top Blogger ….hehe

Oh yeah, my sister is going to have a baby in December or January. It’ll be strange being an uncle, though my other brothers have had that title for 7 years now. She and the baby don’t have an easy road ahead, but with God’s grace they can make it through.

Things have been interesting lately for me. I turn to my blog for it’s original concept: a log on the web.

Yesterday I was tasked with training a new contracted employee at work. This required that we drive around to different sites, and he watch what I do, and ask questions. We had 6 sites on our plate, and everything was going pretty well…until….

We got to the fifth site, and as I drove down the street immediately preceding the site, I noticed a little noise, and a strange “feel” in the steering of my car. When I turned into the parking lot, the car made a very bad sound. Ever ride a roller-coaster run by a chain? It has that kind of “clink-clink-clink” sound as you approach the top of the hill? That’s what my car sounded like. Oi.

The car is a 1999, so it isn’t all that old, and it only has 130,000 miles on it. And I had the transmission replaced last year. But I think it’s something in the transmission making that noise, and I don’t like it.

Needless to say, I was somewhat embarrassed. Here I am training someone who works for me, and my car has a fairly significant failure out of the blue. Bummer. He got a ride home from his brother who lived in the area, and I had a couple great friends make the hour-long drive to pick me up. Oh yeah, I forgot to say I was an hour from home when this happened. So my car spent the night there, and I have to figure out how to get it home today, and what shop it is going to when it gets here.

This post is more for me than you I suppose. It helps me to lay everything out and organize it mentally. Last night when I got home I could barely function. It just kind of hit me with a disappointment about the whole thing. What a silly thing to be down about. It’s just a car. I’ll be able to get it fixed, and it will be back on the road soon. Maybe it was just one more thing at the end of a long day for me. So while I didn’t have the energy or motivation to even respond to emails or check the updates in my Google Reader, I was able to clean our family room, which was long overdue.

Do you ever notice that when things are stressful, sometimes the simple things are the best things you can do? Sometimes you just need to be able to clean, or read a book, or relax in a hammock. It gives you that small sense of control over your surroundings I think. It lets you know you can handle something at that moment, even though it isn’t the big problem. Sometimes cleaning (or reading or mowing the lawn, or, or, or…) can be therapeutic. Just those simple actions.

It actually makes me slow down just a bit, and maybe that’s why I’m going through this.I know things will get better, and the car will get fixed, and I’ll move beyond this moment (after all, it came to pass). I just pray that I learn what I am meant to learn through this, and that I don’t miss the message. I’m truly blessed to have my wife, and good friends to help me out in times like this though.

What the heck is a foible anyway? It just sounded right.