No, of course they are not REALLY twins, they just behave like they are.  And we are trying to get in all the time we can with them before Scott leaves for his duty station on Wednesday.  But as you can see, they hang out a bit, and here are sleeping together in what used to be THEIR old room before they split their two room “suite” with a bathroom in between into just two regular bedrooms.  Now this is Ben’s room and it is a mess, while Scotty’s room is clean.  But they are brothers and they have missed each other, so this was great to see.

In fact, they jammed a lot into the past couple of days.  Steph just left tonight for a trip to Europe with my dad, sister, and niece.  So the three of them did a bunch.  By the time Steph gets back, Scott will be gone.  So it was lots of eating and playing, and they also went to Ironman 3!  We then had a quick family birthday gathering tonight since Amanda’s birthday is Tuesday and my dad’s is June 3rd and they will be gone till June 12th…..and it was fun.

But we will miss having all three kids home, and now we are back to not knowing when that will happen again.  We are however very grateful for the time we have had and are grateful for the rest of the time Scotty will be home too.

Our children are a real blessing to us, even in transitional times.  And I am just blessed by any time I have with any of them!  What a great day!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Yes, today I got to go to bootcamp and take with me my college athlete daughter and my US Marine son.  It was a great opportunity to hang out with them and to get to see what I do to try and stay in shape!  It, bootcamp, is one of the most important things I do, and tonight’s picture is of Steph and Scott  after their hour under the tutelage of MY trainer Tod Esquivel who owns Indy Boot Camps.  Tod is in the center.

And I was glad they went with me as I consider Tod and the Bootcamp to literally be a lifesaver FOR me.  Post stroke my metabolism is pathetic and Tod and his instruction have been the ONLY THING that has been working for me for the past five years.  This month is the first month of 12 in a row for me, and I intend to make sure I am successful.  And it meant a lot for the kids to meet him and get a glimpse of how hard I work to make this happen.

And oh yes, they were faster than I was and in better shape, but Steph has 30 years on me and Scott 32, if you go in reverse….which is my preference as it doesn’t make me feel as old.  But I do pretty well for one of the oldest in the camps.  And in all honesty I enjoy it.  When I was young I was an athlete and in great shape, and I find in my own life that I do far better with a good coach at my back.  And I have seen the whole spectrum……Tod is among the best for me.

So it has been a great day and we had fun.  Tomorrow we will celebrate all the birthdays we will not be together for in the next weeks as Steph, my sister, my dad, and my niece are heading to Europe on Saturday for about 3 weeks, and then Scotty will be leaving next Wednesday for his duty station in California.  Amanda’s is May 28, dad’s is June 3, Scotty’s is June 16 (as is Father’s Day), mine is June 19, and Ben is June 30.  But we will have cake to distract from the chaos.

So at this point I can only do one day at a time.  But at least I am doing it in better shape each day.  And I am just thankful to find a great trainer and program that works.  And I would encourage you to give it a try if you too are looking for something that works

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

There is an old saying that if it were not for bad luck, I would have no luck at all……..I guess that makes me fortunate that I do not believe in luck.

But I HAVE BEEN living my life in the midst of a series of unfortunate events……the result of one of them was TWO blown computer routers and the need to do some skoolin on kumpuuters.   And I am proud to say that at least as of NOW, I have Internet and connectivity throughout my house and TO MY computer!  Thank God!

Today is also the first day of Scotty’s leave and we were to pick him up at the airport at 5:45PM.  His plane made it to the tarmac before heading back to the gate and was grounded.  My general belief is that there was not one thing wrong with that plane, but Delta just wanted to pile onto my bad day.  So the bad news is that Scotty was 2 hours late, but the good news is that he is HOME!  And as for me, that makes everything else just fade away in comparison.

So my whole family is home, my Internet and blog are back up, I am still breathing, and Viper the wonderdog is as happy as he can be with hos boy home.  Life is good……even with all its challenges.

Goodnight and God Bless!

Tommy+

Yes, this afternoon Stephanie returned from college.  She left a Junior and now will enjoy the last vacation before her Senior year.  It is hard to believe that time has flown by so quickly.

But of course Stephanie returning home means the every familiar faces of all our other “extended children” appearing here as well.  Tonight it was Molly and Celeste.  And although it makes Amanda and I happy to have them all here, it is Ben that is in total heaven.  He just thinks they are all here to see him…….he always has, and he always will.

But Steph’s return has made this a great day.  Scotty comes home on Wednesday, and it will be one of those now rare times we have all of us together.  It won’t last too long, or long enough in my humble opinion, but it will at least happen.  And that’s a pretty big blessing to me.

So things are pretty great today and I am very thankful.  Today has been a wonderful day!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Yes, I know Mother’s Day was LAST SUNDAY, but I could not post then.  But I can post this picture of part of our Mother’s Day celebration that WAS taken on Mother’s Day.  This was taken by Ben Tirman (as you can see by the fine centering) and is at the very same location Amanda and I got engaged AND where we renewed our vows in September.  And no, that is not a dead lion under the table, it is Scotty’s dog Viper who actually did walk from the truck to the table to take a nap and also walked back to the truck as well….to nap again.

From there we took her out to one of her favorite restaurants……..SONIC.  It was a good twenty mile drive through scenic Brown (and Jackson) counties, and as she will tell you…….it was well worth it.  She orders at Sonic like a native, including the “Route 44 Diet Cherry Lime Aide,” which to me is similar to chemotherapy.  I did try to order it in French “le large chair-eee aide le lime,” but she was not impressed.  But in the end it was her day, and she was happy……a win win for us all.

And tonight is my 1700th post for this blog!  Yes, a few months back they were consecutive as I had not missed a day.  But getting here is pretty impressive to me.  No, I am not looking for accolades from others, I am just proud of myself.  This blog was my post-stroke therapy and it still is.  AND, I know it has and is helping me to this day.  I appreciate the opportunity it provides me more than you could know.

But for now I will sign off and get back to my sermon.  I preach and celebrate tomorrow in Noblesville and Anderson.  It is the Day of Pentecost too.  It should be a great day, and one that I will look forward to a little bit more if I can just wrap up what I am going to say!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Yes, this is not Viper’s usual spot, but when Amanda is in my truck, she takes his seat and he is relegated to the backseat, which as you can see does not bother me in the least.

What I want to share with you this evening is that although my computer was gone and I was not posting entries, our life was still going on and I was still taking pictures.  I cannot say when this one was taken, (although Viper might remember) but we have been all over the place in the past few weeks dropping off computers, picking them up, helping Scotty to find a car (he bought one and will pick it up on leave), and of course the ever-popular work.  So I have plenty of pictures (no not the vacationing ones that are in that lab in California, but the local ones), I just don’t have all the content to go along with them…..yet.

But tonight’s picture is from my truck, somewhere here in the US.  And Ben is in his usual position, as he always has been, is now, and hopefully will not forever more be, on his booster seat, in the backseat, giving never ending advice and direction connected to how he knows far more than me.

After all, he is now a “white belt with TWO yellow tips”, a superhero, and now a SUPER microbiologist scientist, as his mom is just a microbiologist and his sister almost just a scientist.  And yes, he feels all that trumps being a US Marine as well.

And I do notice that he never says anything about what I do………..he probably passed me before preschool.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

I don’t know why I am using a horse analogy as I have never had a horse in my life, although at one time I confess that I thought Sarah Jessica Parker was attractive.  BUT, I am using one anyway because I now have my computer back and I am in the slow and tedious process of loading all the stuff I need back onto it to make my life function to the smoothest extent it can.

It however has been a disaster.  My hard drive FAILED.  AND, it was not able to be restored locally.  YES…..I had back up, for MAC but what I have discovered is that although Mozy backs up everyday and you THINK you are safe, in fact the Iphoto program (where all your PICTURES of let’s say your kids, your family, your life are) apparently does not back up or restore correctly, let alone well…..and that is something that Mozy fails to share with you.
Mozy

Needless to say, I have a new hard drive and my computer back, where my old hard drive has taken a trip to CALIFORNIA (just weeks before Scotty gets stationed there) and is sitting in a “clean room” with some engineers (not the train kind) where the meter is ticking to recover the ONLY copies we have of very momentous moments in our lives.  It is pricey, but it is our only option.  And quite honestly I am mad as a snake at the supposed back up we have had for so long.  We hopefully will get our stuff recovered (we will know by the end of the month) and we have made other plans for securing our future.  Ironically, it did back up all my work files……that I CAN replace.

But tonight I post a picture that will never go to Mozy, a picture of Ben’s music program at school.  We had the pleasure of being there tonight.  Being there was far better than a picture, but pictures are important, because in time we forget the details.  I am happy to have both……and intend to do my best to make sure this disaster does not happen again.

And yes, I mean the loss of files, not Ben’s singing.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Forgive Father, for it has been 3 days (NO NOW 4 DAYS!) since my last blog post, and I am truly sorry and I humbly repent. I am just adjusting to the changes going on in my life and apparently not adjusting very well.

Yes, I rejoined BOOTCAMP on Monday, and I am in for an ENTIRE YEAR.  I also started Taekwondo with my family, and intend to go until they through me out or I injure myself irreparably.  Both things could happen at any time.  AND of course I have that whole I am a priest and the head of a Holy Order thing going on, which keeps me busy by itself.  It was a lot to do in one week.

Oh yes, but there is MORE.  Our waterproofing company, that took A LOT of moola from us and tore the hell out of our basement and left it a MESS (AND we now get a LOT of H2O down there which is what we in the old days called WATER) came back after firing the foreman on our job and told me that they could not fix what had been done that day (Friday) as the ENTIRE JOB was done WRONG and they would need to come BACK OUT (NEXT Thursday and Friday).  They are starting over!!!!

But it is all good, seeing as I am clearly just sitting on my butt and not doing anything these days!! (Yes, there is just a slight bit of SARCASM is that!!!)

But I am working hard and so will they be.  I am cleaning up my life, they will be (fixing first) then cleaning up my basement, and Viper (in the picture) is cleaning up the scraps of the steak I grilled my bride.

Life is good, but I clearly do not understand it.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+


AND A BIG PS……..after writing this my computer (a MAC) DIED……no luck fixing it and I will be taking it in to be repaired tomorrow.

Well I was doing fine tonight at my second class of Taekwondo when the bus pulled in.  They said they heard that I was there.  Yes, suddenly we were overtaken by a sea of little old ladies in the building running up to me, pushing me in the tummy and saying things like “I just love your crescent rolls.”  Obviously the white belt and whit TKD uniform looks funny and my diet still has a way to go.

But on the upside, I survived yet another class.  It can be rough, as you get kicked and you fall, but I always get back up.  In fact, I LOVE the contact!  And for the most part my body seems to remember it and is not screaming back at me.

So my post tonight is finished….and it was shorter than a toddler at a NBA game, but it is in the books as we say…….okay, I never say that, but really, for tonight I am done.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+