Four Oranges

What is up peeps? I thought about asking how you have been the past week, but then I realized you wouldn’t be able to respond to me (since only one of you has figured out how to leave a comment at the bottom of the blog – thank you Scott Family).  Don’t you all realize that I don’t have much going on in life besides checking my blog to see how many page views I have and who has left a comment? Just kidding (kind of – please don’t ask Holly to confirm or deny this statement). Anyway, now that I’ve gotten all my bitterness out…er, I mean…all of my “made up stories” out, let’s make like my favorite dirt-band and get to the nitty gritty (<--- Click) #fishin’inthedark

As mentioned in my last blog post, we were blessed to have gotten so many gifts for Baby Tayn at the baby shower! We spent the first part of the week going through all the gifts and assembling them where required. This brings me to my second tangent – owner’s manuals and instructions. Just because I am putting together baby furniture, a stroller and a pack-and-play, it doesn’t mean that the owner’s manual and assembly instructions should look like they are written by or for a baby! Some of the things I put together didn’t even have words. It just had pictures with numbers, as if to assume that just because there is a drawing with a huge arrow pointing a certain direction, I’m supposed to understand what it means. Or other items will have the directions typed out in great detail. It actually has so much detail, that if you get bored and want to know how to put the dresser or stroller together in Spanish or French, it gives you those instructions too! Then other directions and manuals explain things like they are talking to a child with ADD (sorry Anthony, I know it’s not funny to make fun of people who—HEY LOOK OVER THERE AT THAT SHINY OBJECT!!!). Those directions will remind you at every step that if you “Don’t know how to properly apply the cam-lock, please revert back to page 3.” #handyman

This past weekend was definitely the highlight of the past week! After work on Friday, Holly and I drove down to Louisville, KY for a leadership conference. As many of you know, we are Independent Business Owners through the $9.4 billion/year Amway Corporation.  Without going into great detail in this blog, on one side of most businesses, there is a good or service. Our “good or service” we get through access to Amway. On the other side of our business is a support system. Our support system is a team of entrepreneurs called Leadership Team Development, or LTD for short. A few times a year, LTD will put on a conference or leadership that is apart from the Amway Corporation. Here, they highlight success stories, provide motivation, training and knowledge, as well as invite many popular key-note speakers. In the past, they have invited speakers such as Oliver North (retired US Marine Corp officer and host of the Fox News Channel show called War Stories with Oliver North), Chris Gardner (the man who Will Smith played in the movie The Pursuit of Happyness), David Barton (American History guru and founder of WallBuilders), Jerry Lucas (former OSU basketball player and NBA All-Star), and have recently made a partnership with the word doctor himself, Frank Luntz, as well as John Maxwell (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week bestselling author who has sold more than 20 million books on leadership and success principles). This past weekend, it was John Maxwell who we got to hear from for over an hour! He spoke on his new book entitled The 5 Levels of Leadership.  He explained in great detail the five levels of leadership, which include: Position, Permission, Production, People Development and finally, the Pinnacle. I’ve just started reading the book and love it so far! From the looks of all the notes I took in just one hour of hearing him speak, I know it is a phenomenal book and I highly recommend it to anyone in any type of leadership position (no, being the owner of a fantasy football league does not count as a leadership position, but I still recommend the book to you)! #successprinciplesdontchange

Also this weekend, we had our first of four baby classes. It’s just a basic course given at St. Ann’s that is either split up into four classes or one eight hour class. This was a decision that was harder to make than you think. At first, I thought the idea of having just one class on one day and getting it out of the way sounded nice. Then I realized that I’m a Bengals fan and they play on Sunday afternoons, so if I (we/Holly) chose to split it up, then I (we/Holly) got to miss four loses instead of just one! The irony is that the Bengals won Sunday, so they are currently 1-0 during baby classes!  #WhoDey

The baby class was quite interesting. I learned many things about babies, pregnant women and the female body that I didn’t know prior to attending. Here is a quick recap of some of the many things I learned.

Lesson #1 – The day before the baby class, one of our friends, and mother of two, used the term, “I went 4 to 10 in (such-and-such time)…” . Right away I thought (and said – that seems to happen a lot with me), “Hold the phone, what did you just say!?” Well, Sunday, I learned that during labor, your cervix dilates in three phases. During early labor, it is 0-3 cm. Active labor is 4-7 cm. Transition is anywhere from 7-10 cm. 10cm is considered fully dilated! So, going from 4 to 10 is completing the labor cycle! (Sorry if I made you single guys a little queasy-- man up!)

Lesson #2 – I learned about warning signs of going into labor. This also included lessons on “True Labor” and “False Labor.” I also learned about contractions (who knew, this isn’t a term used to describe negotiations between a team and a free-agent), how to time them and what those timings mean. I also learned about things that help with coping with contractions and other things that actually help speed-up the labor process (which include taking long walks and having…well, to keep it family-friendly, let’s just say I was excited about the second option ;) )

Lesson #3 – I learned that in week four of our baby classes, I will have to partake in an activity called “Empathy Belly.” When I first read this, I thought us dad’s were going to learn techniques on how to make your wife feel better about having a huge belly. Then I quickly discovered that it was a device used to put on the husbands to simulate a real breast and belly of a pregnant lady. Our instructor said this would help me have empathy for our wives and a way for us to feel how they feel being pregnant (I thought about saying, “Oh, trust me, I already feel those effects loud and clear!” Then I wisely let that joke go like a silent passage of gas). Before any of you get any crazy ideas, I want you to know once and for all, no – there will be no pictures, videos or images of any kind from the empathy baby experiment (do I make myself clear!?).

These are just a few of the many things that I learned from just one week of the baby classes.  Other things include (warning, I’m about to get emotional on you) being reminded of who my best friend in life is – and that is my amazing wife! Sometimes it is easy to take things for granted in this life. We are given so many things and opportunities and blessings that often times we over-look huge opportunities and blessings in and around our life that are placed there with and for a purpose. We get so caught up in everyday life that we downplay these blessings and miracles and turn them into mundane, boring or menial things. I realized, once again, that there may be people who don’t agree with everything I say or do, who bad-mouth me, criticize me or tell me that I can’t do something; but one person who will not do any of the above is Holly. She is an absolute angel and blessing and I will never take that for granted. I have her back and I know that she has mine. She has done so much good in my life and helped better me and lead me down a different path in life; a narrow road who so few go down. She is not my rock, but daily leads me to my rock and I’m so blessed that we have our foundation set in Jesus Christ! I love her with everything and more (ok, ok…why don’t we just go get a room and speed up the labor process already?) #winkwink #nottryingforbrowniepoints #truth

I’ll leave you with some closing stats on Baby Tayn:

Week: 31

Weeks to go: 9

Weight: Approx 3.3lbs – equivalent to holding four oranges

Gender: haha nice try – still waiting!

Movements: tons of them daily/hourly

Well, that’s about it for now. So, until next time, keep smiling, stay positive, and everything will be ok! #moretocome

"Success demands more than most people are willing to offer, but not more than they are capable of giving. The thing that often makes the difference is good leadership." -John Maxwell