Mud, St. Jude Warriors and the Importance of Sun Screen.

A few weeks ago I ran the Warrior Dash for the fourth time and this time is was a little bit more special than my previous ones for 2 reasons.  Number 1. This was the first time that my wife was going to run it with me. Number 2. I was running it as a St. Jude Warrior which meant that I was raising money for a great cause. With these two things going on for me, what could possible go wrong?

Using the Force to brush our teeth! FireFly Toothbrushes Review & Giveaway. #Sponsored

Ask a kid to go outside to play, they are out of the house before you finish the sentence. Ask a kid if they want dessert, they will scream yes, because as the saying goes "I scream, you scream. We all scream for ice cream". Now ask a kid to brush their teeth and they will be screaming alright, but not in the way you want them to. 

If the situation of brushing their teeth sounds familiar to you, well never fear because Firefly, the leader in children's oral care solutions, might just have what you need to change that...and if you already saw the picture at the top, it's Star Wars toothbrushes.

Half a Decade in Gaming

Five years. It seems like a healthy chunk of time but you'd be surprised just how fast it can go by. My oldest will be five years old this summer. It's a great milestone, she'll be entering Kindergarten in the fall and she's becoming her own independent person. Although it's sad to see your little babies grow up, one of the nice things is that you start to have a little more free time. They can sit and watch TV or read some books on their own. Or they can play with each other while you catch up on some work. (or Netflix, whatever)

SoFabU On The Road comes to Chicago #Sponsored

One of the great things about going to Dad 2.0 this year was meeting some of the members of Social Fabric. While hanging out with these guys I learned about how they work with brands and how Social Fabric connects bloggers to brands. After Dad 2.0 I signed up, was accepted and was excited to start working with all these great brands.

Five Photos, Five Days. (Day Two)

After two grueling years of blood, sweat, and tears, my oldest finally graduated last week. 

From preschool.

She was bouncing all over the place and couldn't contain her excitement. At first I thought the whole thing was a bit silly, I mean really, a preschool graduation ceremony? Isn't she going to graduate from Kindergarten in a year?

Well, when I saw how much she was looking forward to getting dressed up and how everyone was making it into an event, I started to change my mind. It's a milestone, not the biggest, but they should be celebrated nonetheless. We had dinner afterwards, hung out in the park, and I got her a gift. It was nice and I'm happy that we got to spend a good day with our family.

Fast-forward a week and now I'm looking at my eighth grade students getting ready for their graduation. I couldn't help but be reminded of my daughters. In only nine years I'll be watching my oldest get ready to go into high school. Goddamn it goes so fast. How is my little girl going to be five this summer? Nine years. It seems like a long time but if the last five have been any indication, it's not going to take too long at all. 

Soak it in.

-Gil

Five Photos, Five Stories. (Day One)

As many of you probably know by now, Victor and I have been fortunate enough to be involved with a great group of dad bloggers online. They've accepted us into their community and because of this we've met some great dads from all over the world. One of these guys is R.C. Liley. R.C. runs going-dad.com where he writes about being a dad, exercise, health and fitness among other things. Check out his site or follow him on twitter @going_dad.

Now, as many of you might not know, there's a Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge making the rounds on social media. R.C. nominated me and today's post will be my first entry. The way it works is you are to post a photo each day for five consecutive days (good luck with that Gil) and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction, non-fiction, a poem, a short paragraph, a villanelle, whatever.

That being said, I don't think I'm going to nominate anyone. R.C. was cool enough to ask a bunch of us before he nominated anyone, and I still took a week to post. I know some people might feel pressured to participate and/or annoyed so I'll just let you nominate yourself if you're interested.

Here we go. For my first photo I'm going way back to February 3rd of this year.

What a crappy day that was. It took me forever to get home. Now, the picture isn't all that interesting, actually it's pretty terrible unless you're into antennas. The real reason I'm selecting this photo is because it is the last picture that was backed up on my Google Drive or Photos or whatever.

It's actually a real bummer because about a month ago I was out of town and I lost all of the pictures on my phone. It may seem a bit silly, but I'm still really down about it. My birthday, Mother's day, soccer games, comic book conventions, happy accidents, a whole lot of moments just vanished. Gone.

I tried recovering them, and of course I tried my online back ups, no dice. Luckily some pictures are on Facebook, and I have some that were taken by other people, but there were a few that were irreplaceable. *sigh* What can you do? It sucks but I guess it's a lesson learned. The whole experience has turned me off from taking pictures in general. I'm sure I'll forget all about it soon enough, and one slight positive is that it has reminded me to live in the moment just a bit more. To really take everything in for a beat, to let it soak it in.

So is the moral of the story is to live a little more? Be more mindful? Stop and smell the roses? Or...don't be a dumb ass and either save your pics, print them, or make sure they're being backed up online? 

Thanks for reading.

The Fandads Father's Day Guide

It's that time of year again when Dads are celebrated and you start thinking about what you can get for the man that takes care of your boo-boos and fights off the monsters hiding under your bed.  

If you are not sure what to get the geeky dad in your life, have no fear because the Fandads are here to give you a short list of some cool things to get your super dad.  

Tell us what's on your list and you could win an $100 Amazon Gift Card? #Sponsored

It seems like every since I started working people would always ask me about my opinions on things.  When I worked at a grocery store, I would be asked about the foods that we would sell.  When I worked at a bookstore, I would be asked by customers which were my favorite books and which books I would recommend. Then when I worked at a video game store I would be asked about video games and my top ten games.

So it's kind of a no-brainer that I am a Shopswell Ambassador.  As an ambassador I am making lists of my favorite things and sharing them with all my friends. If you haven't heard of Shopswell let me tell you about it and how you could win something off of your list.

I have a new "Wingman" in my life thanks to Stouffers #FitKitchen meals. #Sponsored

Before I had my first child I would run about 3-4 miles everyday.  This was easy because I lived with my parents and they had a treadmill in the basement.  When I moved out and got married, my exercise was limited to walking my dog around the neighborhood, but I did manage to squeeze in running every now and then.

All aboard the #MilkDrive to Feeding America #Sponsored

Every morning in our houseshold there are three containers filled with milk: my son's sippy cup, my daughter's cup and my cup that I drink while getting her ready for school.  While this might seem like a normal occurrence in most households, the truth is that it is not.