My First Appearance

Well, its finally here. My first blog post. Truth be told I have had this blog for almost a month now just sitting here with no posts, no nothing. I don't know if it was the pressure to have sudden words of wisdom (which I can assure you will be few and far between) or the fact that my eloquent girlfriend was quickly becoming a blogging sensation among our family and friends with the creativity and intelligence that she put into her posts. Either way, it was like I ran to jump into the water and stopped, too afraid to get my feet wet. But here goes nothing. Cannon ball.

I suppose I will start off with an update for you guys as to whats going on in my life. I am now nearing the end of my first semester as a sophomore here at Iowa, and its definitely been a fun, FAST semester. The last couple of months have been pretty crazy, to say the least. To start things off, I received a phone call from my Mom on a Friday afternoon in late October to hear some terrible news that my Dad had been admitted to CICU at Lutheran Hospital in Des Moines and was scheduled to undergo emergency double bypass open heart surgery. I rushed home and later that night my Dad was taken into surgery. I honestly cannot tell you everything that went through my head that week. I am lucky enough to have a terrific father that also is a great friend of mine, as well as my hero. I cannot even begin to imagine the pain and stress he has gone through since being surprised with the news of surgery on that lazy fall Friday afternoon, but one thing is for sure...he is strong. Although there were some bumps in the road, he is recovering extremely well, and I have to say the moments I spend with him will no longer be taken for granted. Its nice to know that God will only give us challenges that we can handle, and my Dad handled his situation with the courage, strength, and perseverance that I can only one day dream to possess. Honestly, I cannot thank everyone enough for their prayers and sympathy that helped get my family and I through all of this. I want to particularly thank my Mom for being a rock through this whole thing and staying strong. I also want to thank Jenni for being by my side every step of the way...I thank God you were there with me. Lastly, I want to thank Missy, J, Brian, Danielle, and Uncle Terry for teaching me how to handle a tough situation like this one. I wish my Dad a full, speedy recovery.

After such an unfortunate event as my Dad's surgery, I was so incredibly happy to soon be blessed with another cute niece. Camden Shea Starr was born on November 12. She is as good as a baby can be: Cute, calm and happy. She is lucky to have wonderful parents, siblings, grandparents, and uncles and aunts that will be able to love her to pieces.

Thanksgiving break was awesome. I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to Rosemount, Minnesota and visit my Dad's twin brother and his family. It was a fun time, with lots of great food. The one downer of Thanksgiving break was that Jenni was very, very sick. She caught a bad case of the flu and unfortunately had to take up temporary residence on the couch. I know she is upset that she missed a delicious thanksgiving meal at her Dad's house. Luckily, she has made a full recovery as we enter into the home stretch of first semester.

As far as things that I have been doing lately, here goes:

I was able to fortunately invest some money into the stock market with my brother-in-law, J. We are having fun tracking our progress and continually reading about how we can make more great investments. Jenni's brother Michael came into town from Arizona to watch the Iowa vs. Penn State game, and although he left early because he was too cold (Weakling, haha) we were still able to have a great time with him, his girlfriend, Beth, Jenni's other brother Brandon, and his girlfriend Katie. Tonight, Jenni and I registered to become a part of the largest student organization on campus. Its called Dance Marathon. It sounds like a  lot of fun, with a great cause. Check out this video:

Anyways, I think that about does it for me. There will definitely be more posts to come. Although I am not a great writer (my sister definitely is, check out her blog), I will do my best to at least entertain you guys and let you know whats going on in my life. I tend to find a lot of articles online that I find interesting, and I will be sure to share those with you. I will leave you with a couple pictures: