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Back from their trip to Seattle and finally settled in. Today Im catching up with the kids on the podcast.

Its been a while. Welcome back to the Podcast

Today on the podcast I visit the “Straight From The Chest Podcast” studio for a recording with the man himself Justin a.k.a Fitness Extraordinaire. The pandemic is something that has kept some of us from seeing each other during this time. So it was defiantly a topic of discussion for us. How one might find motivation during these times and what we have to look forward to once the country begins to open up again. As always thank you guys for taking the time to listen to these podcasts. You can find Justins podcast just about anywhere you can listen to podcasts. The title again “Straight From The Chest”

Hope y’all are having a great three day weekend. Im enjoying time with my family and by the grill. This weekend I threw on a Try Tip and a rack of Beef Ribs. Went for that low and slow on the tri tip and finished it off with a reverse sear on my weber gas grill. I would have loved to fire up the charcoal kettle for that part but with the intense heat this weekend I took full advantage of the convenience of gas.

Life can be short for some of us. I would like to say we but the reality is we all have to do for ourselves. I will love those in my life and strive to be better than I was yesterday.

Todays title was decided by my son. We take some time to record what's going on in his life with school as well as go over some gifts he's been asking about for his upcoming birthday. The years have been flying by and as our boy continues to grow we are trying our best to document the milestones for ourselves via photos , video, and even audio so we can always look back on them.

After about a year of looking into the Traeger Grill I finally took the plunge and picked up my very own Ironwood 650. This grill is an amazing machine and at the time of posting this I have nothing but positive things to say about the grill. For those of you who know me I do not own a truck so when purchasing this grill I had to find one still in the box. Fortunately for me the folks down at Miners hardware had one left. It was super easy to build with minimal hardware needed. When building my Weber gas grill There was a ton of sheet metal and screws involved with that build. For my first cook I threw on two racks of baby backs using the Traeger gourmet blend of pellets (Hickory, Maple, and Cherry) and boy was it delicious. The meat was falling off the bone. The next day I figured out how to hook up my Traeger to the WiFi and I threw a Tri Tip on to see how a staple cut of meat in this house would come out on the smoker. Once again the Traeger did not disappoint. I could go on and on but there are many more Q’s to do before the verdicts out. As for now this smoker has replaced my gas grill as my daily driver.

What is up you guys and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. It has been a bit since Ive made the time to sit down on the mic. Ill say that this isn’t the first however and until I have my degree it will probably not be the last. Finals are upon us or me I should say. It has kept me very busy with studying as well as keeping up with the kids. They have been full of so much energy and really demand more attention each day. I will be happy once this semester is complete and I can spend more time focused on them as well as getting back to my usual recording routine. Thank you guys again for the continued support and until next time, see ya.

This documentary came out a while ago now. My wife and I were looking for a movie to watch for the evening when this one came up on recommended. Now I remember when this story broke and I was listening to Philip Defranco cover this on his YouTube channel. At the time my feelings were very much the same as they were when watching this documentary. I was disgusted with the way these kids were treated, angered with the people who were in charge and just as furious as the parents. At the time of this happening my wife and I had not yet had our daughter but watching this documentary as a father of a little girl made it a little more infuriating. As parents my wife and I strive to provide a safe environment for our little ones to grow up in. However there are predators everywhere. In an environment where something like this happens, and the parents of these athletes do the right thing like file a complaint. Some people are more concerned with how this will affect them vs. doing the right thing. The parents and kids voices should have been heard. Hundreds of young girls who would be added to the list of victims over decades could have been saved form this had the people in charge of the USA Gymnastics organization done the right thing.

Hope everyone had a great fathers day weekend. Ours was filled with family time and good food. On the grill this weekend was some steak and linguisa. Out of the oven was some delicious baked potatoes. But enough about food. In todays podcast Im talking about sharing. Teaching this lesson to the kids feels like it will be a continued topic for the foreseeable future. Our daughter has always been eager to share with her big brother however her position on this has changed recently. Her uncle got her some sweet my little pony toys for her birthday she’s quickly become more territorial of the things that are hers. The lessons now are more geared towards our son since we can converse with him. The goal would be for him to lead by example so that they both know that sharing is a good thing but also that its not required if they don’t feel like it.

This weekend we celebrated our daughters 2nd birthday. It was a weekend was full of emotions as friends kids graduated school, and we watched videos of our kids as babies. They have grown so fast over the years. I can say with 100% certainty that time does fly by. Once I was up at 2am cradling my little ones in the first weeks of their lives, and now I jump to attention as they yell out, "more water!!!, more snacks!!!”

Following the rules is something that I cannot pinpoint the age I learned to do. But as a parent I would love to know the answer. Our little one is at the age of questioning "why" This isn't to say that it's a bad thing but in some instances it can feel as if he is questioning our authority. Not taking this to heart every time it comes up we do like to set some rules that have no reason other than they are rules. One example is no toys on the table. This is something that really has no reason other than its a rule that we put in place for the kids to follow. We have to pick our battles though as they do like to test the world they are experiencing. As parents do you put rules in place for the sake of having rules or do you feel less is more. We don't lean towards micro managing our children. It would be too much I feel for us to have to keep up on a long list of things that are ok and not ok. However I feel that something simple like no toys on a table or maybe no shoes in the house (we allow shoes in the house) as an example can be a simple way of introducing them to rules. Im curious though. What rules if any do you have in place for your little one(s)?

We are no stranger to the ER in this house. Today was no exception. When I got in from work my wife told me not to be alarmed, and to ask my son what happened. Already thinking what could it have been I asked my son. He said, "Nothing." To that I asked again well how was your day? Did anything interesting happen? "Meh." he replied. So my wife then informed me that he had taken a small pice of string and put it up his nose. Now we would have brushed it off and figured it would pass but out curious minds led us to the internet where we were flooded with all of the what ifs. So my wife called the nurse line and shortly after she and our son were on their way to the hospital. The dr wasn't too worried and just told us to monitor him and his breathing. Should things change we will head on back. Spoiler alert things are fine and our son had no further issues with the inhaled string. In todays podcast I'd like to talk about re-homing adopted children and Myka Sauffer. This woman went through the adoption process and after some time had passed she and her husband decided that it would be in the best interest of the child to find them a new “Forever Family”

My wife and I always talk about the hypotheticals in life. What would happen if we did this, would you feel this way if something like that happened? The questions go on. I was wondering who our kids would grow up to be? The world is full of so many options for them and I am excited at the thought because I have not even the slightest guess at this time. Im sure as the years go by I will have a general feel for who they will develop into as young adults. However at this time they are still so young and the future is still off in the distant horizon. My wife and I hope to be in a position to help with whatever their endeavors are as they come to find them.

Its finals week in this course and the kids are just as amped as ever. My wife tried to take a test while they were both preoccupied but as soon as the timer started its as if their spider sense tingled and they knew mom wasn't paying attention to them. We also recently took some time this week to take the kids out for a nice little drive. It has been a long time since out daughter was out of the house. Thought we didn't get out of the car it was nice to at least get out of the house. Not much in our area looks to have changed but we did notice some new homes going up in some places.

Taking a look back in the archives with todays podcast. In October of last year I had got to pick up my son from school. It was there that his teacher informed me that he had made an attempt to cut another kids hair. Now this could have very well been the early signs of what may be his calling. However I can’t condone the practicing of cutting hair on a random classmate. Adults leaning the craft spend long hours training for their license to practice the art of cutting hair in a professional setting. They then go on for years to hone their craft. Am I to think that my son with a pair of safety scissors and no formal training would have been capable of providing this little one with the cleanest cut he will probably ever receive? No. So when we got home I fired up the recorder and figured I’d ask about his day. I wanted to see what he would share. Spoiler warning it wasn’t much lol. But please enjoy this snippet of some father son time talking on the microphones.

Sometimes it feels like it’s in one ear, and out the other when talking to the kids. Parenting is never advertised as being an easy job. Anyone who says they had a laid back experience is either part of the exception group or blocked out the challenging times. On today’s podcast I share one of the challenges we are experiencing. Also I share an approach I am currently trying to implement. Parenting doesn’t come with any instructions. There are so many ways we can try to improve and if my experience helps you than I’m glad to have added to the parenting pot. If you guys have any book recommendations, suggestions, or stories leave a comment. It might be something someone including myself has yet to try. Also if your watching this on YouTube please forgive the trailing audio. It syncs up later and is something I’m am still working on fixing when live-streaming.

Online apps have made things like online shopping a breeze as well as added some much need convenience. However in light of the new way of life we are all living while sheltering in place things like ordering food via app have become a real game changer. I am a sit in drive through wait in line kinda guy but a co-worker of mine introduced me to ordering chipotle via the app and after that i’ve been sold on this new no line waiting lifestyle. Recently with the number of cases rising in the country my wife and I looked to what we could further do to lessen out contact with the public. Grocery shopping is still something we all need to do and so we looked into using the app instacart to facilitate our grocery shopping needs. In this episode I share my thought about using the app as well as provide some further context to what ultimately led us to make this decision. As always thank you guys for listening and stay safe.

Sheltering in place has definitely increased our time seeking out other forms of entertainment to pass the time. One has been an increase in the content we have been streaming online. With streaming services like YouTube, Disney+, Hulu, and Amazon Prime taking the top spots in our home. Renting movies has also increased. We have almost constantly rented one movie per weekend. Maybe this is in part to the fact that we can't go out and see a movie in the theaters or maybe it's that the kids have become tired of some of the shows they have been watching. What have you guys been streaming. Any good movie or show recommendations? Leave a comment I am always on the lookout for a new series or movie.

Today on the podcast Chris stops by to share a little on his time taking the pre birthing course. This is offered at the hospital that his wife and he will bye delivering their son. For the longest time I was always under the impression that it was called lamaze but as Chris explains so delicately I was 100% wrong. Also covered in the podcast is time travel, betting on sports, computer coding, and my son who was also with us injures his finger while playing in the background. Enjoy.