In the big picture of our lives, time goes so fast. I'm living proof. Because with three little kids there are countless aspects of life where my concept of time seemingly to comes to a daily crawl. Doing homework with Jimmy as his mind drifts away mid letter -- time never went so slow even in Einstein's best calculations. Wondering when Anna's latest temper tantrum might come to an end -- that second hand up there is barely moving. Standing at the checkout holding Joe ever so tightly in order to protect the store's candy inventory -- when will the stares mercifully come to an end?!?!

Those moments probably have happened a few dozen times in this partial year alone. There's no way to estimate how many times they've occurred in the past five years where taking care of the kids has dominated my life. And yet, it feels like just yesterday that Dana and I were married about 3:20pm on April 10, 2004 at the Wedding Chapel in the Glades. It was an overcast day high in the Smoky Mountains of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I've been told the fact that it rained was good luck and I certainly wouldn't argue with that.

I remember every little detail, and each accompanying emotion too, even though I was dealing with a pretty good hangover from my all-night bachelor party the night before. And despite a less-than-stellar memory recall for which I tease her constantly, I know Dana does too.

So 5 years was pretty special for us. We've been through a lot in that time, with some ups, some downs, and a lot of mere ordinary time together too. And that has proven just fine by us. Especially for the marriage that nobody said would last -- including most friends and all family members!

So we celebrated the actual day with a late night BBQ dinner out with the little 'uns. That was only fitting in every single way possible. However, in order to properly celebrate, we pinched our pennies and left all 3 kids with a babysitter three days later when scheduling allowed for a whopping 8 hours for a whopping $100. Though it wasn't enough time to make it back to Gatlinburg, we managed to have some fun. And thankfully everyone survived too.

Here's to the next 5 and way beyond!

One final note: the baseball season has begun and I've blogging about my experiences listening to MLB radio broadcasts from around the league over the internet. Check it out at: