Self empowerment

That's to the "Challenge" that was made to me in an earlier post.  Pshhh I mean come on, why wouldn't you take a bet that is a guaranteed win.

On my first day of kindergarten I walked to school, since it was only a bloc and a half away from the first house of my childhood.  Since I was in the afternoon session, I came in about lunchtime for my brothers (both of them attending the same Lena Whitmore Elementary School.  I was excited to explore this great new world (I remember being twice as excited since I got out of school at the same time as my older brothers).  Was I out of my comfort zone?  Sure thing.  Did I LOVE my time there?  I look back at my years walking those halls and running on that playground fondly.  What am I getting at here?  People, I know for a fact I had some rough days, I remember getting sent to the principle's office on several occasions, walking home, hands shaking with fear because I KNEW I was in so much trouble with every adult in my life.  BUT that's not what matters most.  What matters most is what we've accomplished in our lives.

Why not be positive?  You've done so much already.  If you're reading this you have access to the internet, and the world is yours.  Feel empowered, because you have the ability to do great things.  From kindergarten to now, look at what you've done.  Leave a comment about something you did in your life.  From overcoming your fear and sharing something for show and tell in the first grade.  Or mustering the courage to raise your hand for the first time in class.  It's all about the little things here, and they all count.  Why am I so positive....why not?

Dating Advice From A Happily Married Guy

Ever since I got married I have had some very interesting interactions with single guys trying to attract and/or ask out single girls.  On more than one occasion I have literally found myself right in the middle of the line of fire when some poor sap is trying to ask out a girl who clearly (and unfortunately in most cases) is not interested.  One of those experiences happened today.

I had finally trudged my way up to the beautiful campus at Utah State University after locking my keys in my car (I guess it was just that kind of day) and was hopping in an elevator to head to my second class of the day.  Within seconds I was joined by a young man who was squarely in the middle of asking out the young lady who was entering the elevator with him.  After a fleeting look that clearly said, "Seriously?! In an elevator with a complete stranger standing RIGHT THERE?!?!?!"  I attempted to blend in, which, you may not be surprised to hear, is a difficult thing to do in an 8 foot by 8 foot metal box that is shockingly well lit.  The conversation ended something like this (my thoughts in italics):

"...yeah, so if you wanted to go with me that would be cool.  It should be pretty fun." he said, clearly proud of himself.

"Oh, yeah... Yes. That, uh... that sounds great. It... it sounds really fun." she said while simultaneously searching her excuses database.

"Seriously? Give this guy a break and just say 'no'!"

She continued, "Just, uh...let me check my schedule..."

"Sure. Check your schedule. Here, I'll check it for you. Oh! You're not available that night?! Shocker."

"...and then I'll call you." 

At this point the girl girl actually glanced over at me as if to ask for help.  The guy, on the other hand, could not have been more pleased with himself.

"Oh! Great! Yeah! Just let me know as soon as you know."

"Act more excited dude, seriously."

The elevator stopped and the three of us exited.  She gripped her books and took off down the right hallway. I smiled and then chuckled enough to be unintentionally noticed by the guy.  "What?  Is something funny?" he said, laughing a little himself.  "Oh, no... nope."  We started to walk.  

Now, for those of you that know me you know that I tend to keep to myself in most social situations.  I prefer to just sit back and watch.  After all, the more you talk the more likely you are to eventually stick your foot in your mouth and I am not particularly fond of the taste of feet; however, my lack of verbal interaction allows me to sit back and observe.  If you haven't already noticed what I had noticed, let me tell you.

It just so happened that this guy started walking in the same direction that I was walking.  The differences between this guy and myself continued to express themselves because he started talking to me as we walked.  Apparently my proximity to him during the most important interaction of his life made us fast friends. 

"So, where are you heading?" he asked, confident to start a new conversation.

"I'm just on my way to the Engineering Building."

"Me too.  I'm an engineering major.  Almost done.  What about you?"

At this point we had walked a fairly good distance from the business building and the young lady was long gone.

"Yeah, I'm almost done with Psychology."  I paused and stopped walking.  He stopped. "You didn't give that girl your phone number, did you?"

He stopped dead and his happy-go-lucky smile was betrayed by the frustrated "hand-through-the-hair" gesture.  He looked back down the now overcrowded walkway with a fanatic look in his eyes, then he looked back at me.

"Go get 'em." I said with a shadow of a wink before he bolted back through the crowd, "She's got a pretty good head start by now anyway."

The Soundtrack To Our Lives

I have always really enjoyed the idea of the "soundtrack to your life" - there is always a group of songs that seamlessly meshes with your current circumstances and can relate really well with your life at the time.  The soundtrack changes as we grow, gain new experiences, and shift from different life stages.  For example, when I was in high school playing basketball the soundtrack consisted mostly of Metallica songs (because that is what always got me pumped up for basketball), but when track season rolled around the soundtrack featured "Rebel Rouser" by Duane Eddy because, thanks to Forrest Gump, that is the song that gets me the most pumped up for running.

There have been times in our lives when The Baby and I have had similar soundtracks; however, I was thinking about this the other day and I do not think that there has ever been a time when our soundtracks have been as different as they are right now.  A brief overview is in order:  Dan is an early-20's single dude, so his life consists of girls, school, free time, frolicking, girls, free time, a large amount of "do-whatever-you-wantery", and girls.  I am a late-20's married dude with two daughters under the age of 3, so my life consists of school, work, girls (but not in the same way), work, school, cardboard Batman costumes, and poopy diapers.  Now let's consider our different soundtracks (for the sake of length, our soundtracks have been reduced from 15 tracks to 6 tracks each).  My soundtrack is currently called "Tranquility for the Soul" while Dan's is called "Yahoo! That's Right! Blikity-BLAM!"

Track 1

John's Soundtrack: 

"Hey Me, Hey Mama" Ray LaMontagne.  This is a fun little calming song when you are taking a break between writing people up for insubordination and 4.5 hours of upper-level Psychology classes.

Dan's Soundtrack:

"Don't Stop The Sandman" Rock Sugar.  A perfect blend of "Enter Sandman" and "Don't Stop Believin'" This song is fantastic.  Perfect song for someone who is a little bit classy and a little bit rock n' roll.

Track 2

John's Soundtrack:

"The Wheels on the Bus" Various Artists.  My oldest daughter loves this song.  If you sing it once, be prepared to sing it 1,000 times.

Dan's Soundtrack:

"Girls, Girls, Girls" Motley Crue.  "Friday night and I need a fight/ My motorcycle and a switchblade knife/ Handful of grease in my hair feels right/ But what I need to make me tight are/ (chorus) Girls, Girls, Girls/ Long legs and burgundy lips/ Girls, Girls, Girls/ Dancin' down on Sunset Strip/ Girls, Girls, Girls/ Red lips, fingertips."  That seems about right.

Track 3

John's Soundtrack:

"Patty Cake, Patty Cake, Baker's Man" Various Artists/ Versions.  This song is great because it can be tailored to be about anyone.  Simply throw your name in at the end and all of a sudden that baker is making a cake for YOU, my friend.

Dan's Soundtrack:

"Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums" A Perfect Circle.  Hardcore and edgy, this is the song that a Viking warrior listens to before filling his helmet with the blood of a fallen enemy, jamming the helmet on his head, and then charging onto the field of battle on a horse made of lightning.

Track 4

John's Soundtrack:

"I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song" Jim Croce.  After a stressful day of jumping through hoops (a.k.a. school) and work this song calms me down more than anything, and it is one of Aimee's favorites.

Dan's Soundtrack:

"Easy Skanking" Bob Marley. Just kidding. :)

"Riding With The King" B.B. King & Eric Clapton.  I imagine Dan taking girls on dates and this phrase inevitably escapes his lips: "Don't you know you're ridin' with The King?" Not as "uppity" as his other songs. This is Dan's "calm down" song... sort of.

Track 5

John's Soundtrack:

"Tootie" Hootie & The Blowfish.  For some inexplicable reason this song has the second-most plays on my itunes right now.  Is it the way Darius Rucker (he's such a nice guy!) often indistinguishably croons, or is it the overwhelmingly calm melody that makes me listen to it over and over?  Maybe we'll never know.  All I know is that this song is fantastic.

Dan's Soundtrack:

"Everyday" Bon Jovi.  Incredibly, this is the only inside joke song on the list.  The very beginning of this song is perfect for Dan.  Just listen to the first 6 seconds.

Track 6

John's Soundtrack:

"Happy Trails" Van Halen.  Don't be fooled by the fact that this song is performed by Van Halen.  This is the best song to listen to right as you are leaving work.  Every day.  For the past two months.

Dan's Soundtrack:

"Shoot To Thrill" AC/DC (on repeat for most of the day).  Maybe it's because of the fact that if Dan were any superhero he would be Tony Stark/ Iron man, or maybe it's just because I picture Dan zipping around campus on his long board with this song blaring from the heavens and Dan screaming "YEEEE-OW!" right in the face of anyone in his proximity.  Take your pick.  This song has Dan's name plastered all over every note.

Most Difficult Omissions:

"Pusher Love Girl" Justin Timberlake

"I think It's Gonna Rain Today" Neil Diamond

"I Don't Want To Live On The Moon" Ernie from Sesame Street

"Shout" Disturbed

The Challenge...

This blog post is going to be a little bit out of the ordinary.  I am not going to write a whole lot about what is going on in my life right now.  I am here to issue a challenge to The Baby.

While Dan and I are united in the fact that we will both defend DC comics to the death against those sissies from Marvel, we share different views regarding who is the best Justice Leaguer.  Dan has always been a huge supporter of The Man of Steel while I have always backed The Dark Knight.  There is plenty of internet buzz right now concerning Batman and Superman with the summer 2015 movie on the distant horizon, so I thought that I would throw a little bit of fuel on the fire.

Here is the challenge: At some point before Halloween The Baby and I will duke it out as Batman and Superman and then we will post the video and pictures on this blog.  Our sister has volunteered to do all of the media coverage.

Does the Man of Steel dare test his fate against The Dark Knight?

School, school, school

While The Golden child has been receiving the glory and attention that comes from a beautiful addition to our ever-growing family.  I love my dear family, annnnd the girls keep coming.  I now have five BEAUTIFUL nieces.  For any of you who may have nephews from the age 0 to 5 years old...watch out for two reasons, 1) They are indeed beautiful. 2) I have a history of being VERY defensive of the women in my life.  That being said, I actually have some things to say about my life.

 I have started my Junior year at Utah State University, and I love it.  This school has so much to offer its students, I can hardly keep up with all the opportunities at my door.

For my whole life I have been one of those kids who has trouble sleeping before the first day of school from being so excited.  Although sleeping habits have changed now, I still enjoy school....except I can't seem to escape this conversation.  "Oh are you John Mosman's little brother?"  GAH!  I mean I expected it in Junior High, and High School, sure.  Hometown, siblings, same teachers, blah blah blah I get it.  But here?  Come on, 600 miles away from my beloved Moscow, Idaho and (I kid you not) TODAY a friend from John's mission stops me "Are you Dan?  John Mosman's little brother?"  Come on people.  But, in all honesty I invariably smile, and with pride answer, "Yes".  Welcome to another school year.

The Joys of Birth!

A lot of interesting things happen when you are having a new child.  I am not referring to the new family dynamics or the inevitable rivalry that arises between siblings (see this blog).  I am actually referring to the scene inside the delivery room.  My wife and I just had our second child (another little girl) and the delivery room this time around was a circus.

Our first child was born under relatively calm circumstances.  My wife was surrounded by an excellent supporting cast of nurses and our wonderful doctor while I lay on the nearby couch completely passed out (I do not do well in hospitals).  Boom!  Out came Brielle in all of her red-haired, blue-eyed, first child glory.  Some smelling salts and an orange juice later I was holding that precious little peanut and loving every minute.  Our second daughter, Mercedes Jane Mosman, came into this world under the watchful eye and pomp and circumstance of an entire room of people.  Imagine if the #1 college football team in the country had their starting quarterback go down the week before the national championship and had to start a wet-behind-the-ears freshman at quarterback for the BCS title.  Imagine if that quarterback was forcibly pushed out of the tunnel for player introductions.  The crowd is cheering, the eyes of the nation are on this poor guy, and then he looks down to find himself completely naked.  That is what I imagine it was like for little Sadie.

My wife was induced, so it's not like we weren't prepared for the actual birth of the child.  We had plenty of time to prepare and I can tell you that we were ready, but because of the previous fainting episode (I am told that I can thank my great-grandpa for that) my wife decided that she wanted to have more people in the room for delivery.  By the time my wife was ready to start pushing we had a whole mess of nurses, our excellent doctor, my mother-in-law, my mother, my wife's grandmother, and a random male intern who apparently wandered in to see what the fuss was about.  I took up my reserved spot on the couch, layed down, and tried not to let my curiosity get the best of me (one quick glance of blood or even thinking about blood and I would have been akl;hgophhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhbn... sorry, I passed out on the keyboard).

It has been said many times that opposites attract.  I am not sure that that is true in every case, but I can say with confidence that the differences between Aimee and I were very apparent in the mannerisms of our mothers for the duration of the birth.  I want to keep this post relatively short, and since pictures say 1,000 words I am choosing to illustrate the differences between my mom and Aimee's mom during the birth with the following pictures:

My mom:

                            

   

Aimee's mom:

                                

While my mom thankfully looks nothing like Gregg Popovich and she is a wonderful and pleasant woman, this picture perfectly portrays her mannerisms during the delivery.  While Aimee's mom cheered, laughed, bounced around the room like a pin ball, and set a new world record for "Longest 10-Count In Human History" my mom stood right behind the doctor with her arms folded and just observed the proceedings.  You know the look on your face when you are sitting at your computer reading through the 10-page terms of agreement for your newly updated version of itunes?  That was my mom.

Contractions start to pick up a little bit and it's time to start pushing.  Aimee's mom is up by Aimee's head, so the nurse instructs her to count to ten while Aimee pushes.  The nurse tells Aimee to push and my mother-in-law starts to count.  I think that most of us have counted to ten "Mississippi-ly", but this was my first experience with someone counting to ten "Every-State-East-of-the-Mississippi-ly" because, by the time I'd reached the number 10 counting in my head, I heard my mother-in-law say, "...Two!"  After the second interval of pushing for "ten seconds" Aimee had spent roughly 20 minutes pushing and I think the nurse noticed that she was getting a little tired and turned to my mother-in-law and kindly said, "We need to speed up the counting." :)

The next contributor to the maddness was our amazing doctor.  Aimee and I LOVE this guy.  To be perfectly honest, one of the reasons that we decided to be induced on the due date was because this doctor had informed us the he would be going out of town for the weekend and we did not want to have the baby without him on the receiving end.  He really is that good.  So, we made sure that everything would be fine and we decided to be induced.  One of the things that really impresses us about this particular doctor is his calming presence.  He walks into the room and everything is going to be fine.  Another thing that we love about him is the fact that he has a story for every situation.  Aimee had been pushing for a little while now and our new daughter was beginning to, uh, make her way out.  She, Aimee, had pushed until the baby's head had cleared and that apparently was the end of that session of pushing because our doctor announced that the baby's head was here and then he folded his arms, sat back in his chair, and started to tell a story.  The guy looked like he was at a family BBQ or something.  Leaning back in his chair, smile on his face, humorous anecdote escaping his lips while my wife lays back on the elevated hospital bed with my brand new daughter's head just hangin' out!  Awesome.

We were very fortunate and happy to have so many people come and support us in this beautiful life event.

                     

 

Late Night Poetry

Lately I just have not been able to sleep.  I don't know why!  It is driving me nuts.  So, in an effort to outlet some creativity I wrote this poem last night:

One night as I lie awake in my bed, 

I could not get the worry out of my head!

I tossed and turned and flipped and flopped, 

but that little old worry just never stopped

filling up the space in my head.

I sat and I stewed and I lost all my sleep,

Just sitting wide awake I started to weep.

I bit off my nails and scratched my head

and worried that I'd never get back to bed

with all the worry filling the space in my head.

And then in that moment when I felt so tattered

I thought of all the people that really mattered

And all of their love, Oh what a blessing!

When you sit and you wonder and  think and ponder

And realize you had all the right worries about all the wrong things.