It Will Never Change

To my wife, Meghan, the love of my life:

You mean everything to me. Despite when I was younger, and often feeling like I would never find you, it happened. Maybe it was excellent timing, or we were just fortunate to have great friends that allowed us to get together on a fun, Wilmington Beach trip; granted, the first hotel and my sun burn did not forecast our inevitable pairing, but perhaps it explains the years in-between; it just took my skin that long to heal.

Our life together is amazing. I love you and I love that you love me. I believe our relationship is what has made two amazing kids (so far ;-D). They love each of us so much and they adore each other. It's what makes our lives exciting and new every day; we get to watch them grow and become who they will be with our guidance to make sure they understand right and wrong, to treat each other (and everyone else) well, and to let them know it's okay to be silly when they're happy or retreat when they're angry.

Being a parent isn't easy, and I'm glad that it isn't. I need to know that we're doing it right and I can't imagine doing anything less than taking the time to teach them how to be truly wonderful people. And maybe along the way, they'll pick up your wonderful smile, maybe a mix of our height, and my glorious eyebrows that need to be trimmed because boy! can they go in every direction, much like my hair when I wake up in the morning.

I guess the point of this is to tell you that everything was, is, and will be worth being with you. You are the moon to my night, the shade to the sun, and everything else that can possibly express how much you mean to me and will always mean to me. It will never change.

And maybe things will seem like they're tough all of the time, because the kids get sick, or the house needs repairing, or sometimes it's just a bad day; but I know, with everything in me, every single day will be easy in some way. It will be looking at you. It will be us looking at our kids. That's the easiest part. Loving each other will never waver and loving each other will be what gives us relief every day, because how can we not look at our kids at some point and just hold our breath while thinking, "They are amazing, and I didn't think it was possible to love anything more." And it's the same comfort I find when I look at you.

Our relationship grows each and every day as they grow, and we will adapt to what comes our way. We will smile, cry (because I am that funny), and we will enjoy each other's company and laughter. I know it will be worthwhile, because the years with you and the years with our kids have made it all so exciting and I'm so looking forward to more of it in the years to come.

I love you so much! I love Adelaide and Marshall so much! That's what matters.

The Start of Something Fun

As some of you may know, my wife Meghan is a teacher. She loves seeing her school kids' progress throughout the year, and it's great to listen to her talk about it because she gets so happy. Now that summer is approaching, she wanted to do something different to try and earn more money over that time. Seeing as she loves to teach, and she love love loves our two kiddos, she thought about becoming an Independent Consultant for Usborne Books.

I LOVE this idea! We wanted to get new books for the kids anyway, and this was the perfect opportunity to do that. We already had a couple of Usborne books, and the opportunity to do this seemed like perfect timing.

Meghan is very excited about doing this, because not only does it allow us to get some amazing books for our kids, we get to offer these books to our friends, family, and everyone else connected down the line. This seems like a really fun way to try and earn extra income for our family.

We have a site for people to search through our catalogue and order, but we also get to host parties. So you're saying we get to have fun hosting book parties with friends, family members, and anyone else that wants to attend, and this is part of the business?

And that's part of the reason why Meghan is so excited; we're starting our own business venture together. It didn't even occur to me until she mentioned it, and that's really cool. This adventure seems like a fun opportunity to share books with other people and offer some pretty cool discounts while we're at it. Plus, others can host book parties too.

Again, planning a party isn't necessarily easy, but I find it very entertaining. I like the idea of getting all of the little details together and seeing friends and family have fun together. Maybe we'll have a potluck dinner and door prize book party. Maybe we'll have a dessert and wine book party with episodes of "Friends" playing in the background. Maybe, just maybe, we'll have a book party wrapped around a game night.

Yes! Meghan has come up with a great idea for us to try and earn some extra cash, because overall we're really excited about getting to interact more with our friends all while sharing our favorite books. It sounds like a pretty sweet deal. Granted, this will take a lot of work, but that's not something we've really second-guessed. We'll try to put as much time and effort into this like any other thing we want to do well at; so here we are at the start of our very own business.

We're excited. We hope to earn some free books along the way; plus, we're thrilled that others have already offered to host, because hosting a party can get you free books and other special offers too.

Oh yeah, we had our first online book party tonight!



Usborne Publishing Ltd. has no connection with these pages and does not sponsor or support its content.

Follow the Laughter

Our son has taken a few steps here and there on his own over the past week (holy cow!), but cruises like he's got roller skates on. Recently, while he was cruising the couch, I made a noise so he would know I was behind him. He turned his head and instantly smiled, before turning back around to make a mad dash for it. Now imagine me slowly crawling on my knees as I watch my 10 month old son get a kick out of just being there. Each little section he would stop to turn, and rush forward again, all while laughing, giggling, and snorting as his daddy followed him on his trip.

If you don't think this is one of the most amazing moments of my life, that just means you haven't met me yet.

Parenting Time

In the past few months, there's been less and less time during the week to see my kids. Baby moby goes to bed between 5:30pm and 6pm each night, so most nights he's hit the sack by the time I get home. Usually, I can see big girl, but the past few weeks even she's been avoiding naps which means she's exhausted before I get home.

Even though I get sad when I don't see them, days like today make up for the lost time. I left work early, stopped by my local comic book store, picked up dinner, and met the wife and kids at home around the same time. During the few hours I got to spend with them, I watched little guy laugh up a storm as Meghan hopped up and down in front of him. Little girl ran back and forth in the living room, talked to me about her day, and read some books with us. All of this was mixed around both kids eating a TON of food for dinner.

I understand that there are times when I don't get home from work soon enough to see the little ones, but days like today put a wide smile on my face. It definitely helps that my wife is an excellent mother and talks about dadda when I'm not home in time. On a side note, when Meghan was on the way to drop off the kids at daycare yesterday, baby moby was saying "dadda dadda dadda." Apparently, little girl's response was, "Marshall said 'da da da.' No Marsh, say 'ma ma ma.' Do it Marsh. Do it, do it, do it."

It's these moments that I get to share with my wife, even when I'm not there, which makes me feel like I am there. It's not easy being away from the kiddos, but taking advantage of every other second is what I try to do.

Go-to for Comic Books and Enthusiasm for Me: Amy Dallen

My nephew recently asked for help with finding comic books for him. This was HUGE for me. I grew up with comic books in my early-to-mid teen years. My knowledge of comic books used to be decent, but after many, many years, my time and desire to keep up dwindled. Recently (the past five years or so), I've decided what I want to be when I grow up; that's a writer. In loving to write and read and watch many things on the creative side, this obviously led me back to the wonderful world of comic books. And this world is ENORMOUS! I love the artistry, amazing colors, and storylines.

So, after collecting comic books again for the past few years (and a few Comic-Cons under my belt), this ask for help from my nephew should be a breeze, right? I am absolutely thrilled that he asked for my help, and I'm absolutely excited to have done some research and purchased a few (dozen) comic books for him. However, I must admit that my enthusiasm for comic books has been reinforced by an individual that I really enjoy following through social media. Her online presence with her love of comic books and everything tangled in-between makes me feel like I'm watching a best friend tell me about herself.

Amy Dallen is FANTASTIC! Her love and enthusiasm for comic books is so evident on her Geek & Sundry vlog, "Talkin' Comics." Let me get something straight, my knowledge of comic books is probably less than 1% of the overall scope of everything that is available. She seems to be on top of everything and perhaps that's why she's employed at House of Secrets. Anyone that comes into this shop and has a question, she can probably answer it without any hesitation whatsoever.



One of her most recent vlogs discusses comic books suitable for all ages. Wait, that's what I'm looking for with my nephew! Exactly. Amy knows the world of comic books and shares that knowledge so everyone can enjoy them; she might even sing a song here and there to express her excitement even more so.

Amy Dallen is a member of the Geek & Sundry Vlog family, and has been featured on the main channel too. She has produced over 50 of her wonderfully fun and informative episodes and it has become a must-see show for my online viewing.

Here is one of my favorite episodes when she interviewed stars at the Captain America: The Winter Soldier World Premiere. I had fun watching this, because you could see how much fun she was having at this event.



If I have to recommend comic books to anyone, I will tell them about Amy Dallen and her hit vlog series. Her knowledge and enthusiasm makes me want to be equally informed about the comic world, and it also keeps me excited with what I do. I love to write and create new characters and storylines, and a person like Amy keeps that love of writing alive, because when I see her excitement, it makes me realize I have the same excitement for writing books, blogs, and everything else associated with putting pen to paper (eh, or fingers to keyboard). @Enthusiamy's personality radiates and I only hope I can express the same enthusiasm with everything I do.



If you're looking for other avenues to follow Amy Dallen online, check out the following sites:

Twitter
YouTube
Google+
Talkin' Comics Weekly (via Geek & Sundry)
Talkin' Comics (via Geek & Sundry Vlogs)


For some clarification, Geek & Sundry has a main channel that includes shows like TableTop, Space Janitors, Caper, and many other programs, while Geek & Sundry Vlogs presents a ton of people that produce their own video blogs on a variety of topics. Amy Dallen's Talkin' Comics was popular enough to land her spots on both channels. Yeah, that's pretty cool.