The Love Dare

As part of our Lenten experience, Christine had a wonderful idea of incorporating a new book into our lives. Some of you may have heard of already; it is called The Love Dare, and it is written by Stephen and Alex Kendrick. The idea behind it is a faith-based, forty day journey of transforming (or refining) who you are as a partner in your relationship.

Now, some, such as myself, might say, "why would we need that? We're already a sweet couple," and you might be right. However, what is there to lose? The timeline of the book aligns perfectly with the 46 days of Lent, and I personally have already drank the Kool-Aid regarding its message. I highly recommend it for any couples out there.

And now for something completely different

When I was growing up, I always wanted to be a doctor. From the time I learned to write, the documented history of my elementary school essays detail my ambition of practicing medicine. One of the interesting things about this ambition was how the functional area evolved over time, but the "doctor" part never did.

For example, the first record of my medical interest came in a second grade biography. My life would go like this: college football, pro football, med school, apparent Nobel Laureate in Medicine (discovering a cure for warts). Further socialization helped me realize warts are not cool, and thus my practice area changed from dermatology to neurology. Realizing how complex, financially rewarding, and prestigious neurosurgery was, it seemed like a cool part of the body to focus on until I really got into sports and decided on being an orthopedic surgeon.

Then became a software developer. Now I will be a consultant. Go watch Office Space.

The joys of modeling

Well, I have certainly been able to find new satisfaction in my life before Texas with this gig at Sageworks. While it has meant staying up for a few extra hours a night, it's always nice to know Christine's daily excursions with Siobhan can be reconciled at the end of the month when the credit card bill comes :) (just kidding honey)

However, getting paid for work, a novel idea for a business school student, has certainly limited my emotional investment in my last few courses at Fuqua. As such, being locked-up in a team room for hours at a time, working on the most complex model I have ever created, has been wearing on me.

In fact, you could say school work has worn on me so much over the past week, that I have completely lost my sense of humor, which is why my blogging output has diminished exponentially.

Fortunately Christine is making up for lost time by upgrading her blog to something quite spiffy (martinblessings.blogspot.com).

I am sure I will be back and better-than-ever later this week.

Up all night

So I had forgotten how much fun it is to work for Sageworks. After enjoying a few hours of TV with Christine last night after Faith went down, I decided I was going to hammer out a sizeable chunk of a project I'm working on. Six short hours later, I was climbing into bed at 5:00 AM.

When the alarm went off at 6:30, I somehow slid on a pair of shorts and laced up my running shoes as if in a drunken stupor. I'm still not sure I got to the fitness center, or what motivated my legs to continue to run for 5.5 miles, but I feel much better.

Now if only I had some coffee... oh toodles!

(Anyone who watches Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse should enjoy that. Everyone else just thinks I'm weird; I blame lack of sleep.)

It's NOT Peanut Butter Jelly time!

If you don't know me or my family, our lunch eating habits can be summarized as follows:

1. Pack lunch, eat the same thing every day
2. Go out to a familiar restaurant and eat the same thing (i.e., Chipotle chicken burrito)

In this aspect, my daily peanut butter sandwich is to me as Wapner is to Rain Man.

With that understanding, it should come as no surprise that when my sandwich fell out of my bag early this morning on the way to school, followed by my subsequent running it over with my car (take that sandwich!), I am in shambles.

Taking the lead of Ray, I might just have to go knock on a neighbor's door near school and ask if they will let me come in and make a sandwich. We shall see.

Work day

Well, the weekend's honeymoon is over, and it is time to work all day. Class starts in a few minutes, and then I have projects to work on for the rest of my Monday. I'm excited that the work I'd most like to be doing is for Sageworks, and I can't wait to see my girls tonight.

Krispy Kreme Challenge

Today was the 6th-annual (2nd for the Martin family) Krispy Kreme Challenge. It is a race held on NC State's campus in Raleigh, and travels 2 miles to a local Krispy Kreme, where participants must gobble down a dozen donuts as fast as possible, and then run the 2 miles back. If you complete the event in under an hour, you are labeled a success in life.

Last year I vividly remember the race. Well, at least the first half. After eating the donuts, I slipped into an altered state of conciousness and blacked-out through the run back. It all took about forty minutes. When I finished, I promptly felt the need to vomit (though I held it back at first) and instructed Christine if I ever tried to compete again, punch me in the face.

Obviously that advice was not heeded, and not only did I compete this year, but Christine and Faith were active participants as well.

Out of the 5,000 participants, I believe my time of 34:30 put me in roughly the top 20 or 30, which was exciting. Best of all, the early finish allowed me to be fully rested when Christine and Faith crossed the finish line a few minutes later. Christine was obviously the picture of perfect Fitness Queen, but you should have seen Faith. What began with Faith being bundled in a blanket with hat and glove, concluded with a messy-haired (no hat), 1.5 year-old munchkin with donut all over her face and a delighted smile.

After a much more pleasant experience this year, I am wondering if the whole family will fly back next year for some more fun.

Grateful as always

As anyone who has spoken to me in the last month -including strangers on the street or random first-years who have had the unfortunate experience of being tutored by me - would know, this whole house thing has consumed my life.

Are we going to get a loan, how much will we pay down, can I get a temporary job until I start at BCG, etc.

It's been fun, but God has decided to put an end to the uncertainty, at the great satisfaction of Christine. On Wednesday, Sageworks, my former employer, called me asking me to work for them on a few side projects. Hearing I will be available full-time in a few weeks, they've decided to pair my new MBA skillz with my old software development skillz and hammer out some cool work.

What's best is I get to do all of this from our lovely new house in Texas, and the lenders can come flocking to us for our business :)

What a wonderful week. As I was telling Christine earlier on the way to the Krispy Kreme Challenge, my stress level's standard deviation this past month has been twice its mean (I had to sneak that in there somewhere).

Looking forward to next week.

The light at the end of the tunnel

As Big Tom Callahan once said, "you're either growing or your dying, there ain't no third direction", and never has that message rung more true in my life than it does now as our family prepares for an approaching move and the beginning of a new chapter in our lives.

As always, Christine has been a fortress of support and encouragement. I have never known anyone so caring, loving, giving, and steadfast. She is an amazing mother to Faith and the perfect wife. It has been wonderful to watch her this year, as she has molded the Elon Dance Team more and more to her vision. She has changed the expectations for the whole program, both in how the administration views the role of the Dance Team, as well as the level of excellence the girls demand from themselves; and it shows.

In her free time, she has been teaching Faith hundreds of words and skills (check out the babysite to see all of the cool stuff our daughter does), and preparing our apartment for a monstrous move.

As for me, I've been busy finishing up school and trying to find a job for the time between now and when I start at BCG. Thanks to the grace of God, it seems as though I will be going back to Sageworks for that period, which is thrilling to Christine and me. It will allow me to work from home in Texas while the house comes together, and it ensures the Europe trip and finances can coexist, which is great.

I guess life isn't so bad after all :0