Graduation Day

It seems nearly impossible, but today is the last day of kindergarten for Ally and Ty. It sounds cliche, I know, but it truly does seem like yesterday we were agonizing over whether to put them into separate classrooms, getting them ready for their first bus ride, etc, and now, we are an hour from first grade. Even Ally, somehow wise beyond her years at 6, noted over breakfast that it felt like only a few days since the bus picked her up for the first time last fall.

This has been such a cool year for them. They have learned to make friends, play and learn separately from one another, which is a big deal for twins. You can't really understand unless you have a matched pair, but they become very dependent on each other for everything. They are so alike in so many ways that they tend to be on the same page pretty much all the time. And at first, I think it was a bit of a harsh reality for them to realize that not everyone at school would automatically be on the same wavelength with them. But they adjusted quickly, and to look at them now, I am just amazed at how well and how quickly they integrate themselves into social situations. And while they have made lots of new friends, they might be closer to each other than they ever have been. Absence may indeed make the heart grow fonder.

This year has been good for Lauren and I, too. Coming into the 2009 t-ball season, we really hadn't made too many connections in our town. We had a great circle of friends from before we moved here, and honestly didn't go out of our way to involve ourselves locally. But we met some really cool families over baseball last spring, met a bunch more through kindergarten and expanded again with baseball this year. Turns out you really can't put a cap on your friend list, and that's a good thing.

So, by my watch, Ally and Ty's kindergarten careers just came to a close. On to first grade. Full days at school. Hard to believe that it goes by as fast as it does.

Motivation

Kind of proud of myself today. Since March, I have dropped 16 pounds, worked out at least four days a week, run a personal record half marathon and have consumed less than a 12 pack of beer. Why the fitness charge? Proper motivation.

There are lots of sources of motivation to do lots of different things. Some people find religion, some people find a cause, and some people get it from the people around them. And that's where I fit in.

I started paying attention to my fitness level a couple of years ago. My grandfather passed away when I was 35, and I didn't own a decent suit, so I went to get fitted and was shocked to find that I was in need of 38" waist pants. My whole adult life had been in the 32-34" range, so this came as a big surprise. Things sneak up on you like that. A couple of pounds a year since college isn't much until you realize its been 15 years since college. Anyway, that spring and summer I started working it off, and dropped from 220 to about 180. Good stuff.

But a funny thing happened over the last couple of years. I'm not really sure why I was motivated to lose that weight -- I just started running with Lauren and it came off, but somehow I lost my way over the past year or two, and this winter, tipped the scales back up close to 200 again. I had hoped to be in the best shape of my life at 40, and instead, had done a full 180 back to my old ways. I don't know why it happened, and it took me quite a while to get it turned around this time, but I'm moving in the right direction again.

And this time, I don't think there will be another case of scale-creep. I've got the right motivation now, and I know why I am doing it. The first reason is easy. I live in a household where I could wake up on a Sunday morning, knock out 100 crunches and 100 push ups, run 6 miles and feel like a slacker. Because I know that later that day, I'll ask Lauren about her workout, and realize that I basically accomplished her "cool down". Not that she would ever put it that way, but being married to someone who has essentially transformed herself into an elite athlete at 40 gives you a new sense of self-awareness. I guess I want to keep up.

The second reason is the big one though. I just watched my dad travel through hell and back to put his cancer into remission (more on that journey soon). And his doctors hammered him. Like no one I've ever seen. Days after days of treatments to stop the disease. And do you know why he could take all that at 65? Because they told him right up front he was strong enough to handle it. And not only did he handle it, but he took it with a smile. He told them to bring it on and make him whole. And every day in the hospital, he did 40-something laps around the nurse's station, because they had that measured out to a mile and told him the walk would be good for him. If he could do that, how hard can it be for me to get out of my chair and run a few unencumbered miles?

I'm good at math. And I've always liked statistics. And my odds are not the kind you might bet on in Vegas. My family tree has lost a lot of branches to cancer. My family tree has a lot of scarred bark from those that were strong enough to beat it. And I need to look no farther than my parents to see two that have been strong enough to fight and win. If my number gets called, I'm going to be the guy they say is strong enough to fight. And if my number doesn't get called, then I'm going to be the guy who honored everyone else who has been through this by doing everything I could to prevent it. I get to keep my dad. And I have an awesome young family who needs to keep theirs. I can't ask for a clearer sign than that.

If you are reading this, I'm going to keep calling you for donations to support our Team in Training events. And I'm hoping that you'll help fight not only with donations but by finding the proper motivation to keep yourself as healthy as you can be, too. I need all of you to stick around for a long time with me.