June......

My apologies up front if this post seems a little scatterbrained.  I'm under the weather but determined to meet my self imposed deadline.........This will most likely not be my best work, but life is like that sometimes.


June.....June was the big baseball/softball month that, when we were both working, used to nearly drive Karla and I into the ground.  June was an incredibly odd month in that it would blow by yet simultaneously drag on forever.

June was when you ran from one practice/game to another, pulling into one fast food drive through after another along the way, burning through your savings to purchase empty calories, copious amounts of grease and God knows what else.

We rack up more miles on our vehicles in June than in any other month and the money we spend on gas is slightly outrageous.

June was the month your brain went on auto pilot due to lack of sleep. The month when exercise and a healthy diet went straight out the window...... The month when the bags under your eyes become a little more pronounced and you just couldn't get enough caffeine into your system to keep you going.

(As a result I have developed a fondness for Monster drinks.  So much so that it was suggested that I could perhaps get the softball team a sponsorship from them.......I'll get to work on that. Hell, I wonder if they would pay me a monthly stipend to have MONSTER tattooed on my arm. Hmm.....)

June was the month when you're heart sank as you looked at your calendar and realized that you did not have a single day off. Even worse most of those days would begin at 6 am and end around 10pm or later.  I believe Karla rips June out of the calendar every year and stores it away so that, twenty years from now, we can pull it out and look back on the insanity that was our lives.  We can also look at it and be thankful that we didn't have more than two kids.  I don't think we would survive.

June was four weeks of absolute hell for our poor dogs.  God love 'em, they tried, but twelve plus hours without a bathroom break is just too much to ask.

Wrigley:  Dude, I am in so much pain.....I swear my eyes are floating....

Mario: (involuntarily shaking)  Hang in there man....We can make it.....WE CAN MAKE IT!!!

Wrigley:  You know there's a throw rug in Tera's room....

Mario:  Shit on it....Let's go.

Wrigley:  Right....It was a noble effort, man...

Mario:  Dude, just shut up and get the hell out of my way.

And through all that Karla never wanted to fence in part of the yard.  It's ok....The work around is to let the kids in the front door first and make them collect the "finders fee".  I honestly think they were just too tired to catch on to this tactic. Or perhaps too tired to care.

Your friends soon learned that in June it's not even worth bothering to ask you if you wanted to take a trip. go to a party, watch a movie or do anything that didn't involve a ball field.  (Unless your wife mistakenly (on purpose?) planned a cruise in June......She will never live that one down -- but I will save that story for another day....It actually turned out ok -- near blindness and motion sickness withstanding)

June was the month when you had more dishes and silverware piled up in the sink and counter than in the cupboards.

June was the month when things died in the trash and the refrigerator only to be discovered when you opened the front door late, late, late, in the evening.

Between the funky smells coming out of our trash and produced by our dogs I had once seriously considered a gas mask or perhaps a hazmat suit.  Maybe even pitch a tent in the yard.

Or better yet just blow up the house and start over....We have insurance, right?



Before I became a stay at home dad June.....was......Hell......



But since I have jumped out of the rat race?  Now that I home?  Well, it's still a bit of a grind, but it's a whole lot better than it used to be.

1.  The house is clean (ahem, by man standards.....Really? What the hell?).....that never used to happen in June.

2.  The food we have eaten, for the most part, has been cooked and did not come out of a bag or box.  As a result we all feel better.  I've even managed to drop a few pounds.....

3.  I'm not sure how this happened but we have more money in savings this year than we did at this time last year.  Really?  I gave up a full time job and we are ahead of where we were last year?  That's incredible.  Well, actually it's incredibly depressing to think of how much money we wasted.  But, that isn't just a June thing.  A lifestyle change forced us to become more financially responsible.  Once again, thanks to Dave Ramsey for the valuable lessons we have learned.

4. Our dog is happy.  He has still had a few challenging days, but nowhere near what it used to be.  As a result we have only had one accident in the house this ball season, to which I gladly (ok, that's exaggerating a bit) collected the finders fee.

(Notice I said dog -- singular.  Sadly, Wrigley is no longer with us.  However, when I soon discovered that I could sit on my couch without getting hair all over me all thoughts of getting another dog went out the window.  I'm sure the kids will break us down at some point, but if we do get another dog it will be just like Mario --- a low to the ground pooch with no hops.)


5....and most importantly.....We have energy!!!!

I am proud to say that I have gone the entire month of June without a cup of coffee......Well, ok, I'm still downing Monsters drinks on the weekends but, as I stated earlier, I have developed a fondness for them.  I should probably start thinking about kicking the Monster habit.  I'm sure my heart will thank me.

 Last July I did nothing but sleep and lay around the house.  This July I have already made plans to fire up the grill, pitch some horseshoes, and down a few White Russians.

I'm taking the kids fishing and we are going to hike those trails that I have been meaning to get to for the past few years.

I'm going to catch up with family and friends.


Gas is still outrageous and friends still know not to bother asking us to do anything in June.  But, that's alright; you can't have everything.


June.....this year the Meyer family took your best shot and came out of it ok.


Occasionally, I will ask Karla if she thinks I should go back to work.  Her answer after June has been an emphatic "HELL NO".  So, cleaning like a man aside, I'd say I'm doing ok.

June....you don't have shit on us now.....Bring it on!!!!!