OMG

There have been some big changes around here in the last couple of weeks.  Believe it or not, I am going to be a father in law.  I remember when I got married; my father in law told me that marriage was like rolling a snowball off the top of a mountain.  You kind of think you know where it is going, but there is absolutely no way to tell once it starts moving.  He was so right.  You get married, look forward to what you believe is the direction your life will go, and then bam - off you go in fifteen different directions, each of them with multiple downstream possibilities.  This includes children, job changes, geographical changes, health challenges, or any and all of the above at once.

The week before last, my son announced that he and his girlfriend of four years were going to get married.  First, let me say that we are excited about this.  We like Lyndsey a lot.  No, those words aren’t big enough.  More than a lot.  We are excited that she wants to become a member of our family.  We are excited that she and Andrew have worked together to keep a relationship going through four years of college, which is not easy by any means.

It is still a lot for this guy to think about though, a new member of the family, getting to know her on a completely different level, letting her get to know us.  Sounds like tough work all around.

But the really tough work is what Lyndsey and Andrew will face together.  They will face all of the questions that every generation before them has faced; everything from where to live and worship, to whether or not they will have children and how many there will be.  And hopefully, forty or fifty years from now, they will look back and say that most of the things they planned came out the way they expected.  If so, more power to them.  More likely, however, is that many really big questions will be answered without a great deal of thought; they will just kind of happen.  This is the way the real world seems to work.  By the time you recognize there is a big question to be answered, you have already moved in one direction or another and retracing your steps is almost impossible.  In the middle of all of that, it will be important to have the courage to be honest and open with each other, say what is really in your heart, and work through the challenges together.  If they can do this, starting now, they will build a great life together.

OK, enough of sappiness.  Let’s get to the really important issue here:  Lyndsey, my kids continue to fight over who “has” to take care of me when I get older.  It has been an ongoing battle for some time.  Neither has any issue with Sara, but where I am involved….hum.  So, I am hoping that you will choose to embrace not simply caring for Andrew, but you will also take care of me when I need it.  I am counting on you.

Seriously, I am very proud of both of you and I know you will work together to build a great life.  You have worked to build a solid foundation in the time that you have already spent together and continuing to build on those solid footings should make for a phenomenal life.  Congratulations to both of you.

Now, just in case you are curious - in the shop part of my life, I have blown up parts of the Toybox in order to reorganize.  I am sure you are the same in your workspace. After you work in a shop for a while, you get a much better sense for what will and will not work.  I have finally reached that time and I am taking a pause to get things better organized so I can be more efficient.  I have a kind of a Lean 5S project going on at the Toybox.  I need to get back to work though, as projects are piling up.  I have more to do right now than I can finish before the end of the year, and I really need to start thinking about what the kids could use as a wedding present.  Andrew and Lyndsey, this is your invitation to “hint” as to what would be helpful.

We are having a great time thinking about having a new member in the family.  Have a great week!