More Shameless Plugging

Why yes, we DID have an awesome time celebrating our anniversary this weekend! Thanks for asking!

Ah. I love Sunday mornings. Whether I'm going to church or not, there's something about them that just refreshes me. When I wake up, it seems like I retain the peace I have while sleeping, but I'm awake and enjoying being alive. Maybe I'm the only one who is so fond of these mornings, but they make life a little more worthwhile.

This beautiful Sunday morning, I want to share a few blogs with you that I love, mostly because I'm obliged to by some "blogger curse" that will fall on me if I don't pass on the award that I received this week from Heather at My Husband Ate All My Ice Cream. The award I originally received was "The Adorable Blog Award." However, I quickly protested the award, going on strike and insisting that my masculinity wouldn't allow for such nonsense. Heather, being the wonderful person that she is, altered the award for me, creating a badge for "The Handsome Blog Award."

Much better, Heather. We're making progress. Just kidding!

I'm actually very appreciative of the award, so I will take it with glad pleasure and follow the rules that come along with it... sort of. Here are the rules that Heather posted with the award:

• Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them in a post (Thanks, Heather!).
• Tell us 10 things about yourself.
• Nominate your bloggers.
• Contact these bloggers and let them know they they've received this award!

I'm definitely going to alter rule #2 here, because I don't have 10 interesting things to say about myself. Instead, I'm going to list 5 and hope you don't stop reading before then!

Everyday Heroes

Every Saturday, I want to feature posts from people like YOU about normal, everyday people that make a lasting difference in this world. If you would like to write something for the Everyday Heroes series, leave me a comment or shoot me an e-mail and I'll let you know what to do! And you don't need to be a blogger or a writer of any kind! You just need to have a hero that you want people to know about!


Today, I want to tell you about a hero that may seem a little odd.


This hero is small in stature, doesn't speak well, and can't really stand on his own two feet.


This hero can't take care of himself, let alone someone else.


Heck, this hero even pees his pants from time to time.


I know you're dying to know. Who on earth could be worthy of writing about that can't even control his own bladder?


The Everyday Hero that I'm writing about this week is...

On Forgetting

My beautiful wife and I are celebrating our 2 year anniversary (June 2nd is our actual date, in case you were wondering) this weekend. Epiiiiic!

Alright. Here's the deal, ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in between.

I have been intending to start a Friday series for the last few weeks. However, I kept forgetting, and this week was no exception. I got up, made my coffee, and went through my blogs that had updated so far this morning, trying to think of what I was going to write about today. And then it hit me as I stumbled over my last blog.

Duh! I wanted to start doing Five Minute Friday!

A New Perspective

Finally watched the finale of the Biggest Loser last night (while everyone else was watching American Idol). Now we have no shows left to watch for the summer. Sad, sad day.

Do you remember the day that you first got glasses?

That's a pretty big day if you've experienced it.

It's almost as if an entirely new world is opened up to you. You see things that were hidden before. Colors that didn't exist suddenly permeate your field of vision. The world became brighter, more beautiful. You can finally see what everyone else has always been excited about, those things you've just had to imagine with your mind.

When you get a new set of glasses or contacts, it's almost like you get a new lease on life. It's as if someone has been holding a plastic bag over your eyes your entire life, and they finally remove it. It's a feeling that can't be matched.

If you haven't had the experience of getting new glasses because you've always been able to see the world clearly, count yourself blessed. There are many people who would pay a lot of money to be able to see the things that you see effortlessly. Though we don't always see it, sight is a blessing.

Take, for instance, this photo to the right. If you use a little imagination, you can see that this is a set of bright pink flowers. And sure, they could look pretty if you squinted a little, tilt your head about 62.3 degrees, and hop on one foot, but really, it's just your imagination. These flowers aren't really that pretty because, frankly, you can't see them. You're missing out on their beauty because something is hindering your sight (in this case, my malicious photo editing).

A Time For Honesty: Sharing is Caring

Yesterday we had a 90% chance of a tornado hitting here, and somehow, the weathermen still managed to be wrong. It barely sprinkled!

It's Wednesday, which doesn't mean much to me, but might mean a lot to you. It's affectionately named "Hump Day" by many, as we fight to get over the hump of another week. It's also the least phonetic of any day of the week, which just makes it ridiculous. Ultimately, though, Wednesday has very little relevance to this blog... until now.

I have written a few posts in the past where I've spent time reflecting - check them out here, here, or here. Maybe I haven't elicited as many chuckles when I do that, but it's important to me that I remain transparent for you. How can I ever expect you to believe my words and listen to me if you can't trust me? And a huge part of trust is transparency. Therefore, I want to begin a weekly series here on Life Before the Bucket called "A Time for Honesty."

You don't wanna end up like this guy.

Honesty is important when it comes to achieving your dreams and living your life to the fullest. If you're not being honest with yourself and with others, you're lying. And if you're lying, you're not achieving your dreams (unless you dream of being a con artist). Therefore, it's important to spend some time each week reflecting. It's important to spend some time each week being real with yourself.

This week's Time for Honesty is definitely inspired by this post from Single Dad Laughing. In that post (which you should definitely read), Dan talked about deciding whether you truly believe what you believe, or whether you just believe certain things because you were raised that way or because you want to fit in with a certain group of someones, whether that's family or friends. Ultimately, his point was that if you aren't willing to give up everything for what you believe in, including the your own life, then you may need to reevaluate, because you may not be holding on to your own beliefs, but the beliefs of others.