Life Is Good Today!!!

Goooooooooood Morningggggg America!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. This was the last weekend before my kids went back to school so we tried to pack as much in as possible. I have been caught up in work and life for the past year and have really tried to take a step back and appreciate the important things in life; my family!!! Sometimes we all fall into the trap of working to get ahead, hobbies outside of our family, events or even bad influences that pull us away from what's most important. Keep it real, be honest to yourself and others and realize that the most important things in life are free!!!

Saturday my family and I made a trip down to visit my parents. We went to church on Kaskaskia Island. The mass is at 3:30 and over by 4:15. There is less than 100 people that live on this Island but people come from miles around to benefit from the early and short mass. :). We joined my parents for some incredible fried chicken in Ste. Genevieve, MO after church. Fried Chicken, mash potatoes and gravy, green beans, corn and who can forget the wonderful cherry cobbler with ice cream!! Did I mention that this was a buffet!! :)

Then the bottom fell out....My son Trent came back from the rest room at the restaurant and told us he had blood in the stool. Without going into graphics it brought up an immediate HUGE CONCERN. Apparently this had been going on for the last 3 days unbeknownst to my wife and I. Just that quick; how the world can stop and all these things start running through your head. We took grandma and grandpa back home and hurried back to St. Louis. After one phone call to the doctor, Trent and I were headed to the emergency room at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis. Blood in the stool is nothing to mess around with. After 3 hours at the emergency room we were headed back home. We are still awaiting the lab results. Please pray for my son Trent and our family that all results will come back just fine. I can't even tell you the things that run through your head when something like this happens. I will tell you that all of a sudden nothing is more important than the health and well being of your family. You think of the good the bad and what you wished you would have done differently. I pray to God that my son will be just fine. How precious life is and how we all take it for granted everyday. As I drove my son to the hospital that night I tried to get his mind off of what was happening. I told him we would go to the Cardinals game the next day if we didn't have to spend the night in the hospital. All of sudden you want to do everything humanely possible to make up for lost time. If only we could bottle that feeling and bestow it on our children everyday.

Sunday my wife went to a wedding shower and Katie, Trent and I headed downtown St. Louis to see if we could buy some Cardinal tickets off of a street vendor. As soon as we walked out of the garage there were 3 vendors right there willing to sell us tickets. We picked up some awesome seats 14 rows from the field and out of the sun!!!. As I sat there between my kids sharing a soda and peanuts with them I thought to myself how awesome sharing this experience with them really was. To see their smiles and their laughs was priceless!!!! There was a rain delay with some Dippin Dots Ice Cream and then we were back watching the game again. Then it started to get cloudy again and we could see the rain coming in the distance. Katie suggested we head to the car. It was the bottom of the 7th inning and the Cardinals were losing. We had almost given up hope. We saw the rain coming down on the other side of the stadium. We all got up and started running. There we were, Katie, Trent and I sprinting through the stadium and dodging people as we ran out the stadium and to the parking garage. We got in the elevator at the garage and the down pour started! Katie, Trent and I looked at each other in amazement. We had beaten the rain by literally one second. They laughed and giggled and talked about it all the way home. Out running the rain. They didn't care who won the game but they would remember our run through the stadium and to the car forever. An awesome memory that we will all have tucked away to share another day. Oh, by the way. We found out later that in the 9th inning Colby Rasmus of the Cardinals hit a 2 run homer to bring home a victory for the Cardinals!!! I think the Cardinals manager; Tony La Russa said it best, "It's a feel-good day. Enjoy the moment. There's so much ahead of us." I know he was talking about the Cardinals Team, but I will apply this to my life and my family!

One last thing in this lengthy blog. So much to say, not enough time to say it....:) If you haven't heard the song "Toes" by the Zac Brown Band, you need to check it out. It will bring a smile to your face and you may find yourself tapping your feet or even downloading it to your iPod!

Have a great day and don't take one second of your life for granted!!!

Life is a marathon...Run long and run smart and cross that incredible finish line!

KB