This summer has been a busy one. From Jacob attending 6 different camps (a mix of sports and church camps), Ethan attending 3 camps at his pre-school, Carrie running a swim school out of our backyard, to trying hard to spend some quality time as a family it has been quite the summer. With us being so busy, I made a lifestyle adjustment and have been walking 3-6 miles each morning. My longest walk was 8 miles, and I was told not to do that again because I was too grumpy the rest of the day…to be fair I was grumpy after that one. For the summer, I am averaging almost 25 miles per week.
 
With all this walking, I have had plenty of time to do something I never thought I would do…listen to audiobooks. So far, just this summer, I have completed 5 books. If you are looking for a new book, read along to see if any of these would be something that interests you. 

​Eric Davis is a retired Navy SEAL. He offers some insights into life lessons that he learned during his time as a Navy SEAL. He then took those life lessons and brought them into his life outside the Navy and applied them to his parenting. While it seems intense, at times it was, for the most part he took the core values and beliefs of the Navy SEAL life and used them to shape how he raised his sons. His goal was to raise men with discipline and leadership. By doing this he set a great example for his kids and helping them grow into strong, resilient, and independent adults.
 
It is not just about pushups and early morning runs, but more about teaching kids to have character, be responsible for their actions and face life head on. If you are a parent, especially a parent of young boys, this book is a great read.
 
A quote that stuck with me from the book: “It doesn’t take Navy SEAL training to be a great dad; it takes the drive and desire to want to better yourself on a daily basis. It takes showing up for your kids on your toughest days.” 

In this book, Brian Tracy lays out what he sees as the philosophy that success is not only for the extremely talented, but is deeply rooted in the everyday habits that people can build over time. Tracy lays out what he sees as the key habits that marked high levels of success. Some of the habits mentioned are:
​

1. Goal Setting: Successful people are clear about what they want. Setting specific goals and developing strategies to achieve these goals. If you have a goal to read every day, don’t simply say you have this goal, but make it very specific. Say instead, I will read for 30 minutes every morning while drinking a cup of coffee.
2. Planning and Prioritizing: It is not enough to just have goals, but you need a plan to achieve your goals.
3. Taking Initiative: Being proactive is a common trait among high achievers. You can’t sit back and expect to achieve your goals. You have to take charge of your life and go out and make things happen.
4. Continuous Learning: Adapting and growing are crucial. Whether it is reading, taking a continuing education course, or firing up YouTube and learning from YouTube University, successful people are always expanding their knowledge.
5. Self-Discipline: This is a cornerstone of successful people. Staying disciplined will be the driving force that gets you to your goals.
6. Financial Management: Good financial habits are vital for long-term success and security. Budgeting, saving, and investing are all things that need to be mastered to help you grow.
7. Health and Well-Being: Physical and mental health are a foundation. Regular exercise, a good diet, and an emphasis on your mental health keep successful people at their best.
8. Relationship Building: Success is also about fostering meaningful relationships. Networking, effective communication, and empathy play a huge role here.

 
A quote that stuck with me from the book: “Success is the ability to live your life the way you want to live it, doing what you most enjoy, surrounded by people you admire and respect.”
 

This book was amazing. All of these books are amazing in one way or another, but to read about David Goggins was fascinating. A guy who was the only minority in his community with a horrible home life all hidden behind the facade of love and success then to see where he took his life is just awe inspiring. Part of the first half of the book was hard to read as it was just so raw in his upbringing, the poverty, the racism, the abuse, everything he faced before even turning 10 years old will bring a tear to even the toughest person’s eye.
 
There were several things he laid out were his keys to life:

1. Overcoming limitations: Goggins laid out why he thinks people only tap into a fraction of their potential. There was a fascinating part where he broke down his process of losing 100 pounds in 90 days to meet the weight standards to get into Navy SEAL boot camp. 100 pounds in 3 months! Amazing. Will-power, self-discipline and a mind set that he would die before he ever gave up helped him along the way.
2. Calloused Mind: The was a huge theme of the book. By going through tough times and overcoming you will callous your mind. Along the way you will come across moments of extreme happiness. These moments are times you “fill your cookie jar.” When you are going through a tough time you go to your cookie jar to help get your through.
3. Embracing Suffering: Goggins introduced the idea that suffering can be a transformative experience. He was always the one that would take on the toughest challenges, like being a Navy SEAL and running ultramarathons, to harness pain as a tool for growth.
4. The 40% Rule: This was one of the key principles that was stated over and over again. Goggins argues that most people only use 40% of their potential. Whether it be mentally or physically, when we think we are at the end of our ability to go on…we are actually only 40% to our capacity. There is still 60% left in the tank.
5. Accountability Mirror: As Goggins was getting his life together as a teenager, he would use his mirror for accountability. Looking himself in the mirror and holding himself accountable for failures. It is a way to confront reality and commit to change.
6. Challenging Yourself: Goggins is a firm believer is challenging yourself. He lays this out in his experience in the Navy SEALS, his ultramarathons, world record attempts at pushups and pullups, running 10 miles to work wearing 4 sweat suits. He is endlessly challenging himself.

Of all the books are read this summer, this one has stuck with me more than any other. I highly recommend.
A quote that stuck with me from this book: “I thought I’d solved a problem when really I was creating new ones by taking the path of least resistance.”

​While listening to the David Goggins book, there is a section that he talks about Marcus Luttrell. Not the normal high praise and telling of his amazing story, but a personal story from their time in Navy SEAL training. This gave me the idea that this should be my next book.
I had seen the movie with Mark Wahlberg, but wow, listening to the book is a totally different experience. The book dives deep into the life of Marcus Luttrell, his upbringing, his brothers, his family like relationships with his fellow Navy SEALs, and the unfortunate events around Operation Redwing.
 
Operation Redwing was the name of the mission he and 3 other Navy SEALs were sent to take pictures of a high-level Taliban fighter named Ahmad Shah. This mission quickly went south when the SEALs were confronted goat herders. They were faced with the difficult choice of letting them go and risking that they are friends of the Taliban. They ultimately decided to let them go which ended up being the wrong decision.
 
Luttrell recounts the amazing battle that took place, which ended up taking the lives of 16 Special Operations fighters who died when their rescue helicopter was shot down by the Taliban.
 
Throughout the whole book, Luttrell grapples with the weight of his decisions, the loss of his SEAL brothers, and the broader implications of war and duty.
A quote that stuck with me from this book: “We all have our crosses to bear. We carry them heavily, out of love for our brothers in arms. But sometimes you have to let go of the idea that anyone down here is in control.”

I decided after reading 2 books about Navy SEALs it as time to change it up a bit.
​
In Red Notice, Bill Browder takes you through his transition from a successful investor in post-Soviet Russia to a vocal Kremlin critic. Browder started Hermitage Capital, a very successful investment firm with the majority of their investments tied to Russia. This all came to a head when Browder and Hermitage Capitol were caught up in a $230 million tax fraud scheme. Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky was arrested, tortured and killed in Russian custody. His death spurred Browder to campaign for justice, ending in the US Congress passing the Magnitsky Act in 2012, which sanctioned Russian officials responsible for human rights abuses.
 
All in all it was a fascinating book, even for somebody that is not well versed in investing, especially foreign investing. But the dive into the corruption, the fight for justice and the intense ups and downs all made it a very entertaining book.
 
A quote that stuck with me from this book: “Seventy years of communism had destroyed the work ethic of an entire nation. Millions of Russians had been sent to the gulags for showing the slightest hint of personal initiative. The Soviets severely penalized independent thinkers, so the natural self-preservation reaction was to do as little as possible and hope that nobody would notice you.”

​Bonus: I am about halfway through Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. This is one that I had remembered hearing about years ago, but in the book Red Notice, Bill Browder mentioned giving it to the girl he was courting, and it was this book he credits with getting him his first real date with who would ultimately become his wife. 

Near the end of 2022, Carrie and I decided to start a small side business and try to sell some of my woodworking crafts. After about 3 years of making things and selling them mainly on Facebook Marketplace we decided it was time to try and create our own website and try to sell through more avenues. Because of this, J + E Woodcrafts (JEwoodcrafts.com) was born. This is still extremely new but there are some things we have already learned. 

​To give a little background on how we got here, I think it would be good to give a brief background. For those that knew me in my younger years, I was always an athlete. I mainly played baseball but also loved playing basketball and tennis. I played on a club baseball team as well as 2 different softball teams while in college, so was always pretty active. A couple years after college I started having some major issues with my legs. I would go through times where I wouldn’t even be able to stand or walk without intense pain. I had to give up playing sports. Now, fast forward 10 years and thankfully we have figured out what was wrong with my legs, and I am now able to move around much easier and with much less pain. At one point a few years ago, I remember telling my wife and sister that it was the first time in probably 6 or 7 years I had no pain in my legs at all.
 
Now that I was able to stay on my feet for a much longer time, I needed something that wouldn’t be crazy taxing on my legs but also something somewhat active. For a long time, I had talked about trying to build something with wood. I got started with woodworking right before the pandemic. When the urge to start woodworking hit, I was on a walk with Carrie and the boys. We picked up 2 sticks that I had every intention of carving into walking sticks. I went to Scheels and got a pocketknife and would sit out on the front porch shaving off pieces of wood thinking Jacob would be thrilled to do this with me. Well, he wasn’t and soon I realized the knife I had was very dull and I wasn’t getting anywhere with this plan. 

​My next thought was trying to build a side table. At this point, I didn’t even have a basic hand saw. So I went to Home Depot and got one along with some 2x4s (the same things they use to build houses) and started looking on the internet for how to build a side table. I had no idea what I was doing but I was determined I was going to do it. I found a plan that looked easy enough and about 3 weeks and several more trips to Home Depot later we had a side table…that would go to my mom’s lake house. My mom has always been supportive of this journey, so that little wobbly, about to fall apart table is still at the lake house. After building that side table, I was hooked. I wanted to try and build other things. I have built so many small things and a few small tables since. It has been fun learning new techniques and seeing where I totally messed up previous projects. I think that learning will never end.

The first thing I ever sold vs how it is made now. Notice the rounded edges on the right and the stain is the same color on both but look completely different as I have learned a more proper way to apply it and finish it.

​Like I said earlier, we are still very early in this journey, but we have already learned so much.
 
Time
First, it is a huge time commitment. Building the projects takes time. Taking proper photos takes time. Building a website takes a ton of time. Social media takes a ton of time. Making sure you have some sort of SEO set up to try to get any kind of organic traffic takes time. Kids and life take TIME. Being a good spouse and caring for your spouses needs while trying to juggle all these things also takes time. There are so many things that you may not think about that all take time. Keep in mind, this is all done before 730am or after 430pm. Something about a day job and bills and what not make those hours pretty hard to get any woodworking done. It would be nice if days were longer, but we somehow have to cram everything into 24 hours.
 
Website Building
While I do have a long background in digital marketing, I don’t have a ton of experience building websites. And by me saying I don’t have a ton of experience I mean that I have built 1 website from scratch, and I don’t mean this blog. Doing research to find out which site will work best for our needs, deciding which items to build and sell, taking photos, writing item descriptions, researching pricing, figuring out all the kinks from the website and testing out new layouts and formats. This is just scratching the surface of all that is involved. Could we have made it easier and paid somebody to build a site for us? Of course, but if you know Carrie and I you know that was never going to happen. Honestly, I enjoy tinkering with websites and trying to figure out new features or areas we haven’t been using and trying them out.
 
Social Media
Another huge area that takes up a ton of time is social media. I say that knowing we have only created a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/JEwoodcrafts/). This means if we really want to get this area to grow and our business to grow, I’m fully aware I need to create an Instagram, Pintrest, and so many more. Being diverse in where we show our products, and our business is free and can help spread the word of what we do. The key is to not get discouraged. Right now, we have 57-page followers on our Facebook page. I’m 99% sure that at least 2/3s of those are friends and family. Which is great! Them seeing what we do and hopefully they will share our posts will only help to grow what we are doing. The best thing you can do for a small business like ours is to share our social media posts. That increases that net of people that see us by a huge amount and it didn’t cost either of us a dime.
 
Networking
This part is the hardest for me. I am horrible at networking. Most of the time I think what I build is pretty good but I also saw the whole process. I know where I messed up or where an imperfection may be so it is hard for me to look past that. I am happy to do all the behind-the-scenes networking from social media posts to writing blogs about the business to keeping the website up to date, but I am horrible at trying to grow our business in person. Carrie on the other hand is great at this. As much as she doesn’t want to admit it, she is a people person. She can tell people what we have and try to get them to buy without pressuring them. The time networking, just as much as the other aspects is well worth it. Networking and getting that word-of-mouth advertising is invaluable. Again, it is free, and people tend to trust those they know more than an ad they may see online.
 
Staying Disciplined
This part is also hard for me. Again, my background is in digital marketing so I know how much a solid website and marketing plan can help grow a business. Because of this, I want to throw what little budget we do have toward ads and totally ignore the advice I have given so many small business owners. If you don’t have the budget to run ads correctly, you are just throwing your money away. We may get a few more clicks to the website or to our Facebook page, but at what cost? Analyzing our cost per acquisition and not putting money where we are getting no sales or no new Facebook followers is just a waste and something that could eventually cause us to not be able to have this small business. Staying disciplined and realizing we are a very young and small business and accepting that is huge. Most people want to hit the ground running and expect to have $5,000 in sales a month from month 1. While that can happen, it is very rare. 

At the end of the day, are we happy we have started this small business? Absolutely! While there may be times of discouragement, we also hope there will be times when we are overwhelmed with orders. Want to help us grow? Share our Facebook posts. Share this blog post. Share the link to our website. These are all free and take less than a minute. 


​Happy 2023!

​Today is Halloween. A fun day where kids and adults get to dress up and have an excuse to eat way too much candy. Going Trick or Treating is one of those things that every kid looks forward to and every parent, especially on a school night, quietly dreads. Getting these kids to bed after eating 20 different kinds of candy is never easy. Waiting out that inevitable sugar crash is one of the ultimate tests of patients every parent must go through. Even with that, Halloween is such a fun day.
 
When I was a kid, there was a group of us from my school that would get together and go trick or treating together. My most successful year was the year I dressed up as a vampire. I had the fangs, the cape and the extra mask to cover it up so I could double up on houses. I came home with so much candy that night it was basically like Christmas came early.
 
As you get older and closer to your teen years you find yourself still getting excited about Halloween but wanting to dress up and go trick or treating less and less. You can’t be the only kid hitting puberty still trying to get some free candy by dressing up like Peter Pan. Man, the trash talk you would have to endure at school if that news got out.
 
Now that I am a parent, there are some years where we all dress up and some where just the kids dress up. This year we are going full baseball. Jacob and I love the Sandlot. The classic movie about a bunch of kids growing up and playing baseball on their neighborhood sandlot. As a chubby red head kid that was constantly around older baseball players, one of my childhood nicknames was Ham. While Jacob is far from a chubby kid (he loves talking about his 4 pack and how he’s working on his 6 pack) he will be Hamilton “The Great Hambino” Porter. Ethan will be Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez. Carrie naturally will be Wendy and I will be Squints. I am actually looking forward to this year’s costume more than some of the past. I would consider being Squints a much better option than being Ash from Pokémon, but I may be slightly biased. 

​Halloween also became a day quite opposite of its intended purpose for me and my family. 25 years ago, on Halloween night 1997 my dad was having a horrible headache and some chest pains. My mom took him to the hospital just to be safe. He never came home. While officially he passed on November 1st, we all consider October 31st as the day we lost him. 25 years. It almost doesn’t seem real to even say that number.
While 25 years is a very long time this year, I figured it was a time to reflect on one thing we both loved very much. It is something that fits with our family Halloween costume this year.
​
Anybody that knows me knows I am a baseball guy. I love the game. I love the game inside the game. I love when there is a runner on first base and the team is down by 1 and all the different scenarios that go into that situation. I am turning more and more into the older guy saying I miss the way the game used to be played when there were stolen bases and bunting, but it is still the greatest game ever created. My dad and I shared the same passion for the sport. He was always my coach, and I would ask him questions about the game and situations, and he would explain them in ways I didn’t understand as a 10-year-old but grew to understand as I got older. He had a funny way of teaching us how to properly field a ground ball. You are never supposed to bend at the waist. You should have your feet wider than your shoulders, but not too wide, keep your back straight, bending your knees with your glove open as wide as possible flat on the ground with your other hand right there just in case there is a bad hop. His way of teaching us how not to do it consisted of another coach rolling him grounders and him with his legs as straight as possible trying to reach his glove all the way to the ground. He wasn’t exactly flexible so the ball went right under his glove that couldn’t quite reach the ground. I tell you this to tell you that with him I had this passion for the game. After he was gone it was like a part of that passion I had for the game went with him. I still played but really didn’t want to. He was always the voice I would hear and the face I would look for when I was playing. When that left it almost didn’t feel right to be playing. It took me a couple years to get over that and realize we had this shared passion, and I can still go on with that love of the game even if he was gone. 

​I am very lucky that a year before my dad died, I made the decision to start attending Northland Christian School. Northland had a guy that would become my most positive male role model, other than my brother and brother-in-law. Coach Shelby was my baseball coach through high school. Since it was a small private school he was also a basketball coach and teacher. He is one of the people that helped reignite my love for baseball. If you know Coach, you know his loves and he is not shy about them. He loves God first and foremost. He loves his wife and his 3 sons. He also loves baseball. When I say he loves these things, it is not a passing love it is an intense and very personal love. If you talk with him about any of these things you can hear that passion instantly. Coach Shelby has had a huge influence on my life, and I am positive he was put in my life for a specific purpose, to be that role model when I desperately needed one.
 
 I am so thankful that love of the game reignited in me as a teenager. I went on to play for Coach Shelby all through high school and for the Baylor club baseball team (a student run baseball team). That same love of the game has ignited in Jacob. This boy is so much like me at times it is scary. He asks questions about the game and is just trying to figure it all out. His grandpa would’ve loved teaching him all the ways of the old school baseball player. Since he is not here, I am lucky to get that job of passing on all that knowledge that was given to me. 
 
​
This Halloween I hope everybody eats way too much candy, you dress up as something ridiculous, and enjoy this time!

​Boredom. According to a quick Google search boredom is an adjective meaning “feeling weary because one is unoccupied or lacks interest in one’s current activity.” Most people don’t really like being bored. I think a much higher percentage of kids HATE being bored. I may be biased, but I am 100% positive our boys hate being bored more than anybody on the planet. 

​As a younger kid my house was always full. There were a lot of times where we had so many people in my house all I wanted was just a little time to myself. Sometimes that happened and sometimes it didn’t. That’s the way life goes. As the youngest of 4 with a sister that is a social butterfly people loved coming to our house. Granted we did have a pool and a basketball hoop and some cool parents, but as a kid that draw to alone time was strong. When I did get that time to myself, it always hit me that it would get boring really fast. One thing I was really good at was thinking up things to do on my own. This would become a handy skill as I grew into my teen years when all those people that were always in our house moved away, and it suddenly got quiet. 

So, what would I do to kill that boredom? I have never been a book reader so that was not in the cards. I was and still am an outdoor person. Not a nature person but a person that would rather be outside than inside. What would I do outside? Well, we had a brick house that had just enough room where I could stand in the front yard and throw tennis balls against the house. I would do this for hours each week. That is not me just saying hours. I would literally be out there for hours. I would create a whole baseball game in my head and play every single position in my head. I would call pitches like I was the catcher. I would be the pitcher shaking off the catcher and getting annoyed when the catcher kept calling the wrong pitches. I would be the shortstop or 3rd baseman fielding ground balls and throwing it to first base. I would be the outfielder making diving catches and throwing out the runner at home. I would even keep the game score in my head and be able to recite it if somebody asked what the heck I was doing. Don’t forget about batting. I would take a bat out in the front yard and act like I was batting. Our neighbor had a tree that had some low hanging moss which I would jump up and grab. This made the perfect make believe pine tar rag. I would go through the whole batting routine of all my favorite players. Tapping the bat and my helmet like Craig Biggio. Squatting down low like Jeff Bagwell. Even doing the whole bat wiggle and touching the front of home plate right before the pitch like Lance Berkman (and placing the bat down gently after hitting a home run). It was a never-ending game, and I made the rules and the players. It was great.
 
This house also had a long driveway. There was a small section of brick where I could work on fielding short hops. I would get on my knees. Have my glove on and a tennis ball. My goal was to throw the tennis ball at the wall, have it come back and bounce about 1 foot in front of my glove which is what is called a short hop. I would throw them and have them land right in front of me, a little to the left and a little to the right and when I was feeling brave, I would throw the tennis ball way out to the side and have to try and dive to get the ball. The driveway had a small area of dirt on the side that was the perfect size for me to dive. I just had to make sure there were no pinecones waiting for me to land on. That always hurt. 

​My brother and oldest sister were tennis players. This meant I would watch them play and being the little brother, I of course wanted to play tennis. I would go out to the same wall where I would throw short hops and have my tennis racket in hand and just hit short volleys to each side. I would shuffle my feet around trying my hardest to look exactly like Pete Sampras. Pete Sampras was the best player in the world for most of my childhood. I would even try to hit very light serves with as much spin as possible and get it to jump back at me.
 
Other times I would combine tennis and baseball. I would take my tennis racket and a ball into the street. Still wearing my glove, I would toss the ball and hit it as high in the air as I could. This was a bit tricky with all the large pine trees that lined our street. Most of the time I could hit it where I wanted and send the balls high into the air. At first my goal was just to catch the ball. As I got older, I would hit the ball in the air, close my eyes for 2 seconds then try to catch it. As I got even older, I got good enough that I would be able to hit the ball as high as I could and when it came down, I would catch it on my racket. I had some pretty good hand eye coordination back in the day. I tried this a few weeks ago when I took my boys to play tennis. Let’s just say I am VERY rusty. 

So why did I just tell you about my favorite things to do when I was bored? Simple! My kids are terrible at being bored. I feel like it is a constant thing in our house where they are asking us what they should do. Sometimes we throw them a bone and tell them some ideas. Other times we just say “use your imagination.” Then they get annoyed and want to watch TV or turn on a tablet. This is where I go full old man and Get Off My Law guy. What we are trying to teach our kids is it is ok to be bored. The kids growing up today have more stimulation in their face at any time of day than ever before. I know every generation will say that and I am sure it will be true from now until forever. Kids need that time where their brains aren’t stimulated by TV or video games. They need to be creative, they need to try things, and with boys, they need adventure. Ethan loves watching these videos on YouTube where this guy in some country on the other side of the world digs a hole on a beach and makes elephant toothpaste. I figured since Jacob is into making home videos, why not make our own elephant toothpaste. It won’t be as big or extravagant as what is on tv, but it is something we had to research to find out how to make then actually make it ourselves. Jacob put together a whole video of them making their own elephant toothpaste at home.

​To wrap this up, I did do a little research on Dr. Google and pretty much everywhere it says boredom is important for kids. It helps their brains develop and can even improve social connections. So just remember that next time your kid asks you what they can do…tell them to just be bored for a little while…and once the whining ends, they’ll be surprised what they actually think up.

With back to school a week away it got me to thinking what my favorite back to school movies were. These may or may not have anything to do with going back to school, but for one reason or another they remind me of getting back to school. Without further ado, here are my top 10 back to school movies:

​This movie was the pinnacle of high school sports movies during my high school days. I went to a small private Christian school where our baseball coach was also the basketball coach and taught a religion class. There was a little bit of religious teaching going on, but I can remember a couple times the week of big games we would have a movie day and Coach would play this movie instead of teaching class. It was great. We even watched it on the bus on the way to an out-of-town game to get us pumped.

If you haven’t seen it, Remember the Titans basically follows a school in the 60’s in the south that is desegregating and all the hate and vitriol that went along with it. It showed how this football team had to mix the teams from an all-white school and an all-black school and work together. Coach Hermon Boone, played by Denzel Washington, was tasked with bringing them all together. Fantastic movie that my 8-year-old has already seen. Also, I am told a young Ryan Gosling doesn’t hurt.

​Another classic on my list. Even though he is older and done some great movies, this has to be the first movie people think of when they think of Matthew Broderick. The story of Ferris skipping school with his friends and the adventures they go on while the principal and his sister try to prove that he is lying and not really sick is fantastic. From stealing their friend’s dad’s classic car, to going to a museum, to attending a Cubs game and somehow ending up in a parade singing on a float it is just a great movie all around. I still ask my brother if he wants some gummy bears to get him to crack up.

It is like the modern Animal House. This movie may not completely hold up today, but it is still a hilarious movie with Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and Luke Wilson all in their prime. Throw in Jeremy Piven as the authoritarian Dean Gordon Pritchard and you’ve got a pretty solid all-star comedy cast from the early 2000’s. I think I am about the age all of these guys were in when the movie came out which is hilarious because I am so not this guy any more…ask me 20 years ago and I would probably be all for these crazy parties and late night antics, but not now as I close in on 40. You're my boy Blue!

​I love Jack Black. He is just so goofy and doesn’t care and somehow life has just worked out for him…probably because he is uber talented and just likes to goof around. I used to listen to his music when I would study in college (Tribute) and saw several of his movies like High Fidelity and Nacho Libre. School of Rock is another of his greats. I don’t think it got great reviews when it came out but as time as passed it has gotten a more cult following. Basically Dewey Finn, played by Jack Black, is a struggling rock musician who can’t seem to stay in a band so is living with his friend. He fills in as an assistant teacher saying he is actually his friend and after a while takes a liking to the kids when he finds out they are decent musicians. With a little coaching by Dewey, they turn themselves into a legitimate rock band and hence the School of Rock was born. If you haven’t seen it, it really is a great one.

​The classic. I was just 1 when this movie came out, but with older siblings who were in their tweens when this came out, I got to see it at a young age. It was also one of those that always came on TBS during the day when I was a kid. With a young Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson all with vastly different backgrounds stuck in detention together they learn a lot from each other and find a way to bond over their hatred for the overbearing Vice Principal Vernon. It truly is a classic.

​Just nonstop chaos involving a bunch of not so popular high schoolers would probably be the best way to sum up this movie. The end of their senior year is coming to an end so a huge party is a must. There is one problem…no booze and they are all underage. Have no fear, McLovin is there to save the day. The 25-year-old organ donor from Hawaii. Just the sheer awkwardness of being in high school mixed with trying to be cool in front of a good-looking girl is so great in this movie. Definitely a must watch. 

Another classic high school sports movie. Billy Bob Thornton is fantastic in this based on a true story movie. Being a native Texan I know how insane people get with football so this one hit close to home. I didn’t grow up in a small town like this movie, but just the insanity that goes into the pride of your school or town’s football team runs deep in Texas. Tim McGraw also plays a great drunk father. Great great movie. Way better than the series that was on TV for a while.

​Everybody knew a Spicoli in high school. Just the kid that did not care at all and probably smoked a little too much weed and got picked on by the teachers but somehow today is uber successful. We also knew a Brad and a Stacy. Every character just seemed to be relatable, and you could picture somebody you knew that fit into that mold. The surprise of Nicolas Cage being a burger flipper was a nice addition as well. 

​The one darker comedy on this list is Rushmore. I know not everybody will enjoy this one, but if you enjoy Wes Anderson movies, this is one of his better ones. It isn’t quite as quirky as some of his other movies but just the right balance of odd, dry, hilarious, and well made. Bill Murray is amazing. Jason Schwartzman is hilarious. Their interactions and their competition to win over Rosemary is amazing. Definitely check out this movie if you are into the Wes Anderson style movies.

​This one has to be on here! I seem to really like Richard Linklater movies. School of Rock, Bernie, Fast Food Nation, and Boyhood are all great movies by Richard Linklater. This is another coming of age movie on my list, but this time in Austin in the 70’s. Should Randall skip the party to get ready for the championship football game (it is Texas!) or should he enjoy his youth? So many good scenes from this movie to name but remember this is where Matthew McConaughey got his start with his infamous “Alright, alright, alright” line. And yes, there is quite a bit of this movie that wouldn’t fly in today’s culture, but if you take it for what it is and enjoy it as how it was in the 70s it is a great movie worth 100 minutes of your time.

​The Summer of 2022 was shorter than ever, but it was filled to the brim with different camps for the boys. Believe it or not it was not all sports related, we even got them into a camp at our church, Saint Martin De Porres. 

​If you ask Jacob, right now his favorite sport is basketball. I am not sure how much I believe this since he mostly talks about baseball, but we will roll with it. A family from Jacob’s baseball team told us about a basketball team their son was on that was having a one day a week summer camp. I thought this would be perfect. This way it is not just a week of intense basketball and then nothing else, rather 3 hours each Wednesday night of basketball. I signed him up and though he was nervous the first couple week, Jacob dove right in. Since the camp was 3 hours and they served the kids dinner, I would just take him and drop him off the come back for the last 30 minutes when they typically played 5 on 5 games against others in their age group. This was Jacob’s favorite part. This kid loves to compete. It doesn’t matter if it is a race down the stairs, who can get changed the fastest or who can win a pickup game of basketball he just wants to compete. I think that is healthy as long as we are teaching him where the line of competition and fun should be drawn. Taking it too far can be pretty easy, so we have been working with him to teach him it is not always about winning. You can learn many lessons in defeat but as long as you are trying and building up your teammates and you don’t mope around after a loss then it is all good. You will win the next one! These 5 on 5 games were not meant to be ones where they kept score, but he would tell me at the end of each 7-minute period if his team won or lost.
 
I would take Ethan with me to drop off Jacob at the basketball camp. We would go inside for about 20 minutes while the camp goers warmed up, and Ethan would try so hard to shoot the ball at the basket. We would usually stay for the first 5 minutes of camp while they were doing plyometrics and stretching. Ethan would be on the sidelines copying everything they were doing. If they did high knees, Ethan did high knees. If they did 5 push ups then got up and sprinted to the opposite side of the court, Ethan would do his version of a push up then get up and start running. He wants to be big. It is coming fast…he just doesn’t know it yet. 

​Jacob had been asking if he could be on a soccer team this summer. He did a soccer camp when he was 3 and hated every minute of it. He was the kid that would stand on the sidelines and cry or just look at us like we were the meanest parents in the world. When he told us he wanted to play on a team we called a place to see if they had any openings. We aren’t soccer people; Carrie and I didn’t play growing up so we don’t know all the ins and outs of the sport. The soccer place told us it would be best if he did a camp since most of the kids on the 8- and 9-year-old teams had been playing for a few years already. So that is exactly what we did. Jacob started indoor soccer camp just to learn and see if this was actually something he wanted to do. He had a great instructor, but by the end of it I asked him again if he wanted to play soccer and he bluntly said “NO.” I am guessing this is the end of his soccer career.

​This soccer camp also had openings for 3-year-olds! Ethan finally got to be included in the sports camps. When I tell you these boys are completely different with their personalities all you have to do is look at how Ethan acted in his soccer camp. He marched right out onto the field and started talking to the other kids and took right to it. The camp was fantastic. The instructions were tailored perfectly to their young age, and they also made it fun for all the kids. The coach was so patient I feel like he deserves a medal. At the end of the camp, they would split into 2 teams and play a little pickup game. Ethan is also uber competitive. He did not want the other kids scoring goals. He wanted to be the one scoring the goals. There was one other kid that was scoring all the goals and you could see it in Ethan’s face…he was not going to let this continue. With a little sideline coaching from big brother Jacob, Ethan started to steal the ball from this other kid (who was playing on the opposing team) and scored 2 goals! He was so pumped. I just so happened to take a video right at the moment he got the ball and was on a breakaway and scored his first goal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BT69GGtZs4). It definitely looks like we are about to start carting around 2 little athletes.

​This summer, both boys got to attend Vacation Bible School at our Church, Saint Martin De Porres. Carrie also put on her volunteer hat and stepped up to help out as well. It was a great week that had Jacob coming home afterwards singing the songs he was learning and just good wholesome fun for each of them. Unfortunately I didn’t get to participate this year because of work, but maybe sometime in the future. 

This summer was filled with sports. Having boys we knew this would be our life, but man it got here fast. My brother-in-law used to call the preteen and teen phase of having kids the bus driver phase. Basically, we are the bus drivers for our kids making sure they get to all their activities on time. How accurate is that!

​We started the summer by ending the spring season of Jacobs baseball. His team had a rough regular season, finishing 1-9 but still squeaked into the playoffs (every team made the playoffs). I was the designated team pitcher for most of the season, so I can take a little of the blame for not throwing the ball exactly where their bats were swinging. I will take that one!
 
The best thing about sports is you may think you know how the games will go, but you never know till the last out is recorded. The playoffs were set up to allow the advancement of every team past the first round. If you lost the first round you were put into the consolation bracket. We lost that first game so were put into this bracket. Not going to lie, I wasn’t upset because if the Pirates would’ve won, we would have played the best team in the league. That one team that beat everybody by like 15 runs each game. We like to say there are no automatic losses, so I will just leave it at that and let you speculate what would’ve happened.
 
The next game of the playoffs put the Pirates against a team that had already beaten them twice that season. The first game was a complete blow out loss. The second game was a lot closer, but still a mercy rule loss. This game was different. All the boys were hitting and hustling and making plays in the field. They were encouraging each other and just seemed to be so much livelier in the dugout. It came down to the last inning with the Pirates in the lead. The boys were able to play some great defense and come away with the victory. On to the next round and the Pirates nemesis…the Marlins.

This team is the team that everybody loved to hate. The team that is trash talking and the parents are heckling and just overall forgetting this is a bunch of 8-year old’s playing in a city rec league. With that being said, there is one coach on their team that our family adores. He was Jacob’s coach for a couple seasons and is just a fantastic guy. That didn’t mean we weren’t out to try and send them home for the summer. This game was back and forth from the start. The Pirates started out hot scoring a lot of runs and holding the Marlins to just a couple runs in the first couple innings. Then we just stopped hitting and the Marlins started making fantastic plays in the field. It came down to the last inning. The Pirates up 16-13. The Marlins come out and score 2 runs pretty quick making it 16-15. Then the Pirates get 2 outs and are one out away from playing for the consolation bracket championship (A.K.A. 3rd place). The Marlins get one runner on…then another runner. The tying run is on 3rd base. The winning run is on 2nd base. Then it happened. The batter hits a high fly ball to the second baseman who catches it for the out! The Pirates are off to play for a RING. Oh, I forgot to mention that the winners of the winner’s bracket and the consolation bracket all get rings. ​

​After 2 great wins, the boys were at a point where nothing was going to stop them now. They went out and played amazing! They were winning from the first inning and never let up and took home the victory. Time to get the rings and celebrate.
 
Jacob had been talking about how his friend Kai won a ring in baseball and how he has not won one yet. Needless to say, he was very excited to get this. It is a pretty cool and very heavy ring. It is black and gold which is perfect for the Pirates.

On top of the end of season ring, Jacobs’s coach had a practice of giving out game balls after each game. By the end of the season Jacob had quite the collection with nowhere to put them. This gave me the opportunity to put my hobby to work to build him a baseball display to hang on his wall. I sent a picture of it to the team and ended up a few of his teammates wanted one as well. I think it turned out pretty good and Jacob proudly has all his game balls and homerun balls displayed in his room. ​

​Now that the season was over it was time to party. I took the liberty of volunteering our house (Carrie was so thrilled) to have 13 boys and their families over for a few hours of swimming and pizza. It truly was a great ending to a fun season of baseball. Now it is on to kid pitch. I can ice my arm for a few years until it is Ethan’s turn to take on coach pitch. 

Whew it has been a minute since I have uploaded a blog entry. Summer has been so busy with the kids being home, summer sports camps for both kids, out of town family visiting, Jacob started a YouTube channel (which means I have been in charge of some crappy editing and uploading the videos), a vacation to south of Austin and now getting ready for back to school.  I plan to get more into our summer in future blogs, but for now just a quick update.

​School starts earlier than ever this year, so that means the prep to get ready for Jacob to be back in school started earlier than ever. Last year we waited till the last minute to go and find all of the school supplies, so we had a hard time finding everything. We were scrambling to find the notebook paper and the right pencils but ended up finding them at the very last minute. This year I went early to make sure I could get it all knocked out in one trip! No need for unnecessary trips to the store to try and find pencils or binders or whatever is needed for school these days.
 
Jacob is headed into the 3rd grade which is really about where I start having more vivid memories of my early school days. You can ask Carrie, my memory from my youth is awful. She has a memory like a steal trap, and I can’t remember anything except the really big stuff. 3rd grade for me was the first year we had more than 1 teacher. I had Mrs. Spivey during the morning, who I remember not being terrified of because she was nice. In the afternoon we went to Mrs. Holt’s class. She was terrifying. I am sure if I were to meet her now as an adult, she would be just a sweet 3rd grade teacher, but as an 8-year-old she terrified me. I think the main reason was whenever somebody in the class had a loose tooth, she would get a tissue and pull that tooth out. TERRIFYING!
 
3rd grade was also the year of the big ice storm in Houston. Besides a vacation to Colorado, I didn’t see any snow as a kid. Living in Houston we get hot and muggy for 9 months, then mild and muggy for 2.5 months then 2 weeks of amazing weather…snow and ice were never in the forecast. I was the kid that would be outside playing with my toys on Christmas morning in shorts and no shoes. The winter I was in 3rd grade was different. I don’t remember how much it actually iced, but the schools didn’t close the morning of the ice storm. This was a big mistake. By midday the ice has started, and they were scrambling to get all the kids back home before the roads were undriveable. If I remember right, my brother picked me up and we were sliding all over the road the whole 1.5 miles back to our house. We played in the ice-covered front yard after getting home and thought how amazing it would be to have snow on Christmas. I don’t think it ever happened. With in a couple days all the ice was gone, and I would bet a lot of money it was back in the mid-70s with the ice being just a memory.
 
All of these memories make me hope that Jacob has a great school year. A bunch of his friends are moving to a new school that is opening this year so he is sad about that, but I know his personality and he should have no trouble finding a new group of great kids at school.
 
Ethan started attending a pre school late last school year and loved it. He has moved up to 3 days a week and will start back in September. He has grown so much over the summer and has us laughing and cursing every single day!

We got a GoPro at the beginning of summer and my thought was we would use it to live stream his baseball games for the family members that are not in town so they would be able to watch his games. That never happened, but he did take a liking to making videos and asked if he could start putting them on YouTube. We agreed on one condition. It has to be family oriented (for the most part) and it has to be positive. We settled on a channel that he can show off his Pokémon cards, video games, playing with his friends and his bond with his brother. And with that Texas Brothers | A Texas Family Blog was born. Check it out and as Jacob would say, be sure to like and subscribe.

​Gluten. Gluten is delicious. Gluten makes break and pasta and pizza taste amazing. Gluten is also banned in our house. Carrie is gluten intolerant. Not because she is following some fad, or she is on a diet. She is literally allergic to gluten. If you have been around her when she has accidentally eaten gluten you know this to be true. She is the most beautiful woman in the world…except when she has gluten. I may get in trouble for telling this short story, but one Thanksgiving we were at my sisters brand new house that was a very nice house. Everything was brand new and Carrie wasn’t quite a member of the family just yet. This was pre–Carrie Ball days when my family was still getting to know her. Well, we typically have a huge family gathering but this year was very different. My mom and youngest sister were in Costa Rica and Brian, Leslie, and their kids were at Leslie’s parents house in Tulsa. So, it was just Jenn, Ron, their boys, Carrie and I. As Jenn always does, she prepared all these amazing appetizers and made sure to separate the gluten free from the non-gluten free items because she truly is a great host. 

Jenn’s boys were still young, and they didn’t know they were supposed to dip their non-gluten free items in the gluten free bowl. Let’s just say there was some cross contamination. Jenn felt so bad, but when she realized this, she told us. Carrie was so scared about what was coming. The gluten demon was about to strike, and my sister’s family was about to get to know her really well. Well Carrie decided to beat the gluten at its own game and went up stairs away from everybody and got that gluten out the only was you can. She only told me, so I don’t think Jenn and Ron knew at the time what she was doing until a while later when we finally told them. Carrie powered on and played it off like a champ and we all had a great Thanksgiving dinner. 

All this to say, Carrie does not eat gluten…EVER! This means she misses out on a lot of her old favorites. This industry has come a long was in the 12 years since she has had to give up gluten, but there are still certain things you can’t buy at stores or restaurants. One of those is fried chicken. Pre-gluten intolerant Carrie loved fried chicken. Who doesn’t love fried chicken!?! While we were out on a date last weekend (I ordered the Penang Curry pictured above), we were talking about things we should try to make at home. One of the first things she said was fried chicken. I figured that would be something I could actually do, and we already had chicken in the fridge that needed to be cooked.
 
I found an article online that gave a rough estimate for how long to cook the chicken in the air fryer and decided to give it a try. Carrie and the boys had gone bowling so last night was the perfect night to give it a go. 

​We had a whole chicken, so I cut it down in to the 2 breasts, 2 thighs and 2 wings. We have some gluten free all-purpose flour, which is basically a combination of different rice flours, tapioca flour and xanthan gum. I mixed the flour with some salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika as the dredge. I then mixed up 4 eggs with some milk and the same spices. I had some of the spice mix left over so I went ahead and put some on the chicken before breading it. I dipped each piece in the eggs, then in the flour, back in the egg and again in the flour. Once they were all thoroughly covered but not too caked on I set them aside to rest while I heated up the air fryer.
 
I pre-heated the air fryer to 390 degrees and put half the chicken in, because that is all I could fit without them touching each other. I left them in for 28 minutes, checking the temperature at 20 minutes to make sure I was not burning them.
 
While the chicken was cooking, Carrie had also requested mashed potatoes, so I got those ready. Those are very easy, just boil the peeled and cut up potatoes in some salted water, drain once soft, add some butter, salt, pepper, a ton of garlic, and some milk. Mash it all together and it is ready. I figured we should have something somewhat healthy, so I got some green beans to go with it all. It also went with the southern dinner style we were already having. 

Don't let the picture fool you, the chicken actually turned out pretty good. You can definitely tell it is not the same, but the flavor was great. Since it was in the air fryer it was not as crispy, but the batter was tasty, and the chicken was tender and flavorful. I think this is one we will try again and maybe try to add some more seasonings to the chicken before dredging it in the eggs and flour.
 
I even got the approval from one of the kids. Jacob enjoyed it. I think Ethan was just too tired and didn’t want any part of sitting and eating anything. Maybe next time. 

We would love to hear some of your favorite gluten free favorites.

​March is birthday month for our Texas family. Altogether between my siblings, and their kids we have 5 birthdays. There are 19 of us that currently live in either DFW or Waco, so we still have a ton of birthday’s the rest of the year, but 20% of them are in March.

​Brittany is the oldest of the “kids” even though she is far from a kid any longer. She turned 22 on March 3rd and is getting ready to graduate with a business degree from the best university in the world, Baylor University. I may be a little biased, but I am 100% positive we are about to take home the next NCAA Men’s and Women’s championships, then bring home the College World Series title and just carry it over into next season and win a football National Championship.
Brittany is Jacob and Ethan’s oldest cousin, and she has always been very sweet with them. It is wild to think she is just about done with college. I remember being in the hospital when she was born. We were waiting in the waiting room for what seemed like days waiting for her to get here. Leslie’s family was in town as well because it was the first grand baby on both sides. This was back in 2000 when Bill Self was the head coach at Tulsa, the city where Leslie grew up and where her parents still live. It was the start of March Madness, so we parked ourselves in front of a TV in the waiting room and got lucky that Tulsa just so happened to be playing while we were there. I also went with my brother-in-law, Ron, to let their dogs out and tried so hard to get him to let me drive his truck. I was 15 and already driving on my own, but this truck was very nice, and I didn’t have a drivers license so no luck.
After we got back and waiting a while longer, we finally looked over and Brian had stuck his head around the door with this grin on his face that only a new dad can do. Brittany was here and everybody was so excited! Now she is 22…what in the world happened!?!

​March 11th is my sister Jennifer’s birthday. She turned 29 this year and doesn’t look a day over it. Jenn is the type of person that is quiet but is very good at carrying on a quality conversation with anybody whether she knows them or not. She is a lover of God, her kids and baseball. I am pretty sure she would say in that order as well…depending on the day if baseball and the kids are switched.
Jenn has this passion for Jesus that is so genuine and not at all fake or put on. I hope I don’t ruffle any feathers but living where we live there are a lot of people that say or act like they are Godly people but then leverage that to benefit themselves. Jenn loves the Lord, and she strives every day to achieve her purpose for being here on earth and raising her boys to do the same. She could care less if anybody sees her reading the bible or praying. She is honing that relationship she has with Him that I hope I have one day.

My favorite brother has to be Brian. He is my only brother by blood, so I guess I have to say that. I am pretty sure he turned 60 this year but I can’t remember. Brian is the epitome of discipline. He is amazing. A 2-time Iron Man finisher (Lake Placid and Boulder) and a Registered Dietician. There was a point where he could just go out and run 10 miles like it was nothing then just go about his day like he didn’t just run 10 MILES! I don’t know about you, but if I ran 10 miles I would be in the hospital.
Brian has always been a great big brother. Not only a great example of discipline but always so patient and encouraging with pretty much anybody he comes across. He is the type that will never talk bad about anybody and generally finds the bright side in most situations. I would consider myself lucky in the little brother department. "Brother's don't shake hands...brother's gotta hug!"

​Brian and Leslie are married, they were born 1 day apart, and their parents have the same names (Mike and Cheryl). She also didn’t have to change her initials when she got married. Leslie has been in my life since I was 7 years old…that is when she and Brian started dating when they were both freshman at Baylor. I used to love letting her know that because she was so old…but as I have gotten older, I mention it way less often. Although, I was 7…30 YEARS AGO. I also have a child that is older than 7. But anyways, enough of that.
Leslie is another on of those that just about anybody would be fortunate to have in their life. She was the party girl that has transitioned into the God loving but will party every now and then as long as I get home at a reasonable hour person. She used to pride herself on being able to function on 2 hours of sleep then get up and go to work and act like she got a full night’s sleep. I have no idea how she did that. 

​Joshua
Joshua is my sister Brooke’s second son. You know how every family that has 3 or 4 kids, especially boys had that one that will do anything, eat anything, never turn down any dare? Well, that is Joshua. He is the daredevil of the group and is scared of nobody. Joshua is still in middle school, but already has his sights set on a football scholarship. A lot of people comment that Joshua is the smallest of my sisters kids, but to be fair the others are all giants. It isn’t fair that his older brother will most likely be 6’4 and his younger brothers will be even taller than that. Joshua is a great kid that we have gotten to spend a little more time with since they all moved to Texas and every time we do see them he makes a point to say hi to the boys and pick up Ethan.
 
With all these birthday’s it means that we do get together and celebrate each of them. It is usually done all at once because we are all busy, but we always make a point to celebrate each one of them.
 
Oh and if I remember right, April will be a big month for at least 1 person in the family…I think a 40th birthday is about to happen!?!