So today is my birthday.....

For quite a few years now, my birthday has always made me reflect on where I am in life - and where I think I should be. At 43, I'm firmly in the "middle-age" zone but now it's time to reset things. I've been thinking about this for a few months and it's time to take action.

At this point: I'm a husband to a wonderful wife, a dad to three awesome kids, a church and political volunteer, and now I'm ready to add another role: student. I've enrolled in college only
23 1/2 years after I left Winona State with a vow "to get that degree someday."

When I met with the counselor at the college, I thought out loud "I'm not going to graduate until I'm 48." Her response was "You're going to be 48 anyways." Good point. I might be 50
before I graduate, but I'll still have many years to put that the degree to work. There's even a chance I'll go right for my MBA.

Part of me feels selfish for going back to school. We can't afford it, and we are still paying for my wives Master Degree. But I have to do something, after 13 years in the retail auto business, I'm now underemployed and bored. My first class starts at the end of June - part of it is online which will be a new experience.

I'm still not sure "what I want to be when I grow up" my 10 yr old knows, but I don't. For a long time I felt like I wanted to own my own business, now I have an idea that I think will work. The only problem is, like most people how do I fund it ? How do I start ? The house needs plenty of repairs, we have no savings, and each month is a struggle just to make bills. Thank god we don't have a ton of debt (besides the house) we still have plenty, but there are many people with so much more debt.

I've been listening to Dave Ramsey for quite a while and really like what he has to say, but we still haven't bit the bullet and done a budget. Now we have to sit down and really do it. I might be able to start the business part-time, but then that cuts into family time. It's tough, but in the long run, I think I'd rather work for myself.

One of the things that Dave says is have a garage sale - probably do that in the fall, in the meantime I'm going to dust off my ebay selling skills, try craigslist, and some other online places for selling CD's, books, audiobooks etc. The combination of getting things out of the house, and turning them into cash is very appealing. I am part pack-rat, I need to get over that.

Less stuff = less clutter = less stress. At least in a perfect world.


So, I'm resetting life in those ways, but there are other ways too.

My health. Men in my family have high cholesterol, it comes with the name. I finally went to have a physical and get tested. (I was tested years ago, found out it was high, and did nothing)
Bad cholesterol is too high, good cholesterol too low. At one point the doc thought I might be pre-diabetic, thankfully the second blood test looked better.

It's simple, eat better, exercise more. I think we've all been told that since kindergarten.

A few years ago I did lose 64 pounds. Yes, I did find them all again. So I know it can be done.
I now have a bike to ride and plan on golfing ten times this year. I know once I start it will
be okay, but the inertia not to start is strong. Just like Yoda says "Do or not do, there is no try" only do" So I will do.


I want to read more, develop more friendships, learn how cook more things, get closer to God, have more fun with my kids, and about a million other things............



Hopefully this blog will help make myself accountable. I don't know if anyone will find it, not sure if I want them to. There are many other things I have in mind for "hitting the reset button" I'll share them as time goes on.


For now, Happy Birthday to me - yippee skippee