While I’m out here in Minneapolis away from my family, some may think that I’m living the good life: no pestering kids, no nagging wife (sorry Fefe), limited responsibilities. You would think that for a guy who’s been tied to a ball & chain for a few years that a bit of “me” time would be well welcomed. You’d be wrong!!! Yeah, I do get to hang out til the wee hours of the night, I get to go to a restaurant without feeling as though I’m plopping down a mortgage payment to cover dinner, and I get unlimited uninterrupted nights of sleep. All that’s fine and dandy, but you guys are forgetting a few very important things. Things that no man should be forced to deal with, things that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy! Have I built up the suspense enough?
Today is my first day of work, which means I’ve been in Minneapolis a little under a week now. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks (okay, maybe it’s not that prolific), then you know that I had to leave my family behind while I sorted out our living situation. Doing so has made these past 5 days feel like an eternity, but we’ve been managing fairly well so far & I’ve even wrangled a few funny tales concerning the kids and their “unique” ways of dealing with my departure. We’ve got betrayal, deceit, jealousy, and even murder people. Oh yes, a lot has gone on since I departed from my family, and if you thought that Daddy’s Fish Bowl was going to be any less spectacular than it’s been throughout the last year, then you are sorely mistaken. So go ahead, get your popcorn ready & sit back while I take you on this journey through the life of the family-less family man.
On this day, 2 years ago, I began serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. A life sentence is pretty harsh and is typically reserved for very heinous crimes, such as murder, etc. I’m no murderer though, and yet here I am 2 yrs in to a life sentence. What could I have done to deserve such harsh punishment? My only crime was that I fell in LOVE, and because of it, I have been stripped of my basic freedoms. But unlike most inmates, I’m not protesting my verdict, not searching for a plea bargain, and show no remorse for my actions.
I love being married to Fefe, the love we share is quite honestly one of the best things to happen to me and I wouldn’t trade it in for anything in the world. Since getting married, we have grown stronger as a couple and our bond has strengthened tenfold. I’m happy that we made it over the 2 yr hurdle, (did you know that 1 in 12 marriages fail after only 2yrs?) but we aren’t out of the woods yet. They say 7 years is the magic number, if you make it that long you’re pretty much in the clear. I say screw them, our magic number is March 21, 2009, the day we got married. Like I said, I’m serving a life sentence WITHOUT the possibility of parole, and there’s no one else I’d rather spend it with.
There is only one week separating my departure from NC and my arrival in Minnesota. Notice “I” said my and not “our”, that’s because I’m going up there ahead of the family to scope out the lay of the laid and get things situated in our new location. Upon arrival, I’ll be staying with one of my best friends, which eliminates the burden of paying rent & a mortgage. This gift is also a curse however, as bringing my entire clan into my friend’s home for an undetermined amount of time is something that doesn’t sit very well with me. My buddy loves my kids and is all for it, but until I know that an end is in sight (buyer or renter for our home), I cannot in good conscious subject him to a never-ending wrath of the terrible two, otherwise known as Tre & Ty.
Have you heard the news??? If you follow my Twitter or Facebook, then no doubt, you probably have. If not, then start following, so that you aren’t the last to the party next time. Okay, time to fill you in: We’re moving!!!!!! No, not the Daddy’s Fish Bowl site, but our actual residence. Our family is packing up and high tailing it from the great state of North Carolina all the way across the country to the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Well I guess that isn’t all away across the country (I was never good in geography), but hey you get the point.
Okay DFB family, time for a serious topic here at the bowl. As I write this, I have my vodka & cranberry sitting next to the computer; attempting to recover from the events that just took place in my household. Timeout, I know you may be thinking how dare he bring up a serious topic while under the influence? My response: some of the greatest ideas known to man were created while in a bar & written on a cocktail napkin! I’ve even included a reference. (editor’s note: the events actually took place 2 nights ago. I guess there was more vodka than cranberry in that drink and I didn’t get a chance to finish the post).
Since this is the last day of the first week of the New Year (wow, that’s a mouthful), I figured, that it’s the last opportunity to share a quick holiday re-cap with you guys. I didn’t blog much over the holidays and during that time we had Christmas, Tre’s Birthday, and New Years. I wouldn’t be much of a Daddy Blogger if I didn’t share the share a few highlights from these events. Of the three holidays that occurred during my vacation, I’d have to say Christmas was my favorite. We had a ball celebrating each of the days, but for some reason Christmas was pure comedy from start to finish, so let’s start there.
Yesterday was very interesting to say the least. I tried to do something nice for my loving wife and ended up paying the price. I decided to take the boys for a little outing after work to give her a break and some well deserved “Fefe” time. I should have known better, taking those two brats lovely children out after a hard day of work is just asking for trouble. Feelings were hurt, stomachs were upset and lessons were learned. Three lessons were learned in fact, lessons that will change the nature of family ice cream outings nationwide!
Happy New Year!!!!! I hope you all enjoyed your holidays and vacation time. It’s the first day back to work for me, so that means a fresh new blog post for you. I planned on doing a really big post to mark the “100th post at Daddy’s Fish Bowl” but, I miscalculated and this is actually the 101st post. I’ll blame it on the egg nog. But since this is a new year, I wanted to mark it with a quick recap of 2010. So today, I’m bringing to you, the top 10 Daddy’s Fish Bowl blog posts of 2010. We’ll countdown to the number one spot, do you think you know which post will be given the 2010 crown? Take a guess and leave it in the comments section, no cheating!!!! Feel free to click the links to revisit any of the top 10 stories of last year, enjoy.
Welcome back for day two of Daddy’s Fish Bowl’s Holiday Tradition Extravaganza!!! I always wanted to throw my own extravaganza; it’s such an awesome word. Today’s tradition is family Christmas photos. With the age of digital photography becoming more and more important in our society, I’ve found it difficult to maintain paper copies of our pictures. Just yesterday, I found a family photo album that had not been updated in almost 3 years. Since paper photos have become such a burden, we’ve always made a point to take family pictures around Christmas time to ensure that we have something tangible to pass out to family and friends. This practice works out pretty well and even though it’s a bit outdated, I think we’ll keep it going for quite some time.
