The Kids are Going to Be Here
I got a call from my sister-in-law as I was driving to get some pizza, and she invited me over to her house because the 3rd of April is my great nieces birthday. We were going to have a makeshift birthday party at the house, and she said all the kids are going to be here, meaning my niece and her three kids (my other niece lives out of state).
I went over, and my great-niece has grown easily a foot and a half in the last three months. I can't remember the last time I saw her, but she's much taller. My great-nephew is taller than I am. It was one of those times when I knew to take a brain tattoo, meaning it's something that's not going to happen (so take a mental snap shot). I've been doing this a lot when the kids are together because the newphew is 18, and it's very weird that he's graduating from high school.
It was kind of a slap in my face that, "Hey, if you wanted to watch this kid play high school sports, you missed it," and it made me very sad. My mom attended everything; now moms always do that, because they had to drive you there, probably, but nonetheless it was one of those where I think I saw him play sports three times. I thought, "You suck as an Uncle," but it was great to have them all together. It was really weird that the baby of the family is now a teenager. The middle great-niece will soon be driving, and the oldest Nephew is off to Myrtle Beach with his buddies.
That phrase, "All the kids will be here," is something that, even before I got there, I realized is something that's going to be more and more special. Eventually we will blink, and someone will be married with a kid. The newphew has a girlfriend now who seems very sweet, and then the girls will go off. Who knows what will happen, right? Nonetheless, having everyone under the same roof will be harder and harder to do, because who knows, they might end up in other states, et cetera, et cetera.
I actually got a little emotional because I was watching him leave. Here he is, this 18-year-old kid, and about six feet in front of him was my niece (his Mom). I remember vividly watching her on a blanket at my brother's house in North Hill. She occasionally would say "buh," and we all thought that was hilarious. Here was my little "buh" baby, and her first kid is now a high school graduate, and it just happened so incredibly fast.
And faster it will go. If I'm going to see the great nieces, cheerleading or whatever they're doing, I'm going to have to step up my game as an Uncle.
Check Your Calendar
My niece had even sent a date and address to one of his last games. I remember thinking I need to check that and add it to my calendar, except he had already graduated and I had missed it. So check your calendar. I believe your calendar reflects your heart. Don't wait, as time is moving faster and faster. Get your prorities in place.
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And she said, "And all the kids will be here."
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Live from the basement, it's building a better Dave!
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Check us out at betterdave.com.
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Email us at Dave@betterdave.com
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Or, call in your comments, 888-563-3228.
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Now, here's your host, Dave Jackson.
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And I guess this is the part where I talk.
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Welcome to building a better Dave.
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I'm Dave.
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And it's weird, the older I get, there are phrases that come into my mind that didn't
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use to.
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Things like, if it's icy out and I'm taking the trash cans out, and my driveway is a steep
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hill, the voice in my head now says, "You better put your phone in your pocket in case
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you fall and break a hip."
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That is not something I ever thought about when I was 20.
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But my sister-in-law called me because I have two nieces and then I have three, a one great
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nephew and then two great nieces.
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And the baby of the family, the great niece, was having a birthday party at my brother's
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house.
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Her birthday was actually the day before, but this was kind of an impromptu kind of thing.
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And she said, "And all the kids will be here."
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And I was like, "You know, because the oldest one just graduated from high school."
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And I find that hard to believe because I swear like six months ago, I remember when he was
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a little kid, he was playing football and this is where, you know, there's no real uniform
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that fits because they're so little, but he was so fast, you would hand him the ball and
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just nobody could catch him.
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It was amazing.
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He eventually switched to baseball and that's the one where I've seen him play baseball,
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but on Facebook.
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I wasn't there.
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And that was something that kind of hit me because I always pictured myself as the uncle that
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was always there rooting them on and I have failed miserably at that because when I realized
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he had graduated, that voice in my head that was like, "Well, you know, I missed it this season,
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but I'll catch him next season."
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I was like, "There is no next season, like you missed all but like three games of his entire
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career in junior and, you know, senior high, all that stuff."
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And I was like, "As a uncle, you suck."
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Because in part of it is, I'm holding myself up to my mom's standard.
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Well, my mom was at everything because, you know, she drove me there.
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But nonetheless, I know how cool it is to look at into an audience and see your family there.
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And I learned that even more when I was married because my stepkids, their actual father probably
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was not going to be there.
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And even though they blew it off, I knew that kind of bothered them.
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And so what was interesting about this whole thing is when the oldest again, now 18 graduating
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from high school, and he's getting ready to leave.
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And so we're moving cars around in the driveway.
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And he steps out of the car to kind of wave at everybody and say, "Goodbye.
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He's got his new girlfriend who seems very sweet."
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And then if you go up about six feet, so between me and him in the middle is my niece, his
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mom.
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And it was kind of weird just realizing how fast time goes because I was looking at my niece.
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And I remember vividly, she was our entertainment.
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The oldest she was the first, and we would just put a blanket on the floor and watch her roll
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around.
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And I remember when she started making noise, I have videos of her somewhere where she would
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just occasionally just go, "Buh."
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And we would go, "Buh!" at her and then she'd go, "Buh!" and we would all say, "I mean,
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this was more entertaining than anything on TV."
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And so I was sitting there thinking of, "Here's my little Bob baby watching her little
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baby who is now 18 and taller than I am, get ready to go with his bros to Myrtle Beach."
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And I was like, "That happened so incredibly fast."
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And I've kind of known this.
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I remember last year at Christmas, we had all of us together and I remember thinking,
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we're not going to have that many more of those together because we're going to blink.
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And that's all it takes is a blink.
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And who knows what's going to happen with my nephew and his new girlfriend?
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And that's always fun, right?
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Do you remember your first real girlfriend?
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That was just like, you could not breathe without them.
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And that means it holidays now, right?
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He's got to do the tour because he's got to spend Christmas with mom.
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But what if mom is different than grandpa's?
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It just gets complicated.
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When I was married to my first wife, she had her biological father and then she had her first
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stepfather who actually adopted her and so we would have and then there was her mom and
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then there was my family.
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So if you've ever seen the show for Christmas's, yeah, we've done that with each one going
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here, eat some ham and we're like, we seriously, we're not hungry.
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And that phrase jumped out at me at the phone as I was talking with my sister-in-law, hey,
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all the kids are going to be here.
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And I just realize that that is going to very quickly be a situation that may not be happening
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as much as it used to in the past.
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It's already a case where the middle great niece is going to be getting her license.
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So there you go.
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And I think my favorite line was we were playing cards because that's what you do when family
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gets together in the Jackson family.
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And it might have been because it was a birthday, who knows, but it was a funny line.
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And we said, hey, why don't you help us and take that last chair back to the basement.
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And she said, I'm thinking I don't feel like it, which was such a 13 year old reply, you
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know, like she had to think about it.
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Let me think about it.
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No, I'm thinking I don't want to, which I think she did anyway, but I thought that was a
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very funny answer.
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So the, I think this is going to be my next presentation for church is your heart, like
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you can see your heart on your calendar.
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Because for me, if it's not on my calendar, it doesn't happen.
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And that's the one that got me because my niece texted me the address to, I believe, one
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of my great nephews last game.
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And I didn't put it on the calendar because I remember thinking, hey, I remember I got
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that.
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I should figure out when that is and put it on the calendar.
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And that's when I heard, oh, by the way, he's graduated.
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And I was like, but wait, because I knew that meant I missed that game.
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And so if you want to know where your priorities are, at least for me, look at your calendar.
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And so I'm trying to do some things a little differently.
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I'm exercising more now because it used to be I would get fat in the winter and I would
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work it off in the summer.
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And I've not done that for many moons.
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And so I am putting some things on the back burner because I just got to drop this weight.
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It's been around way too long.
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And as I said, time is flying by here in the older you get, not only just time go faster,
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but it's harder to lose weight.
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So with that, the next time you sit down at a computer, if you have your schedule on your
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computer, maybe switch to that month view and see how much of that is dedicated to family.
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And maybe you just might need to bump it up.
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Thanks for listening.
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And keep in mind, if you want it, it can get better.
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[MUSIC]
