Mike’s Points

For most people, this is a short week, but also a bit hectic. Have to finish up projects, meet early deadlines and possibly sneak out early Wednesday or even just take Wednesday off and enjoy five days away from the office — wherever and whatever your office is.

While I still am pursuing freelance opportunities (hint!) and full-time employment (hint! hint! ), there’s plenty to be thankful for this week — and every day of the year. Let me list five things and see if I can start a meme (or, duplicate one if it’s already been started):

For starters, let me combine #1 and #2 into my family. While my wife and I have a lot in common (which can cause, um, issues), we also complement each other in many ways (which also can cause issues — but more often than not, results in family balance).  I am very thankful for her support, love and the fantastic mother she is. She is a major reason why I am who I am, and who I will become.

I’m also thankful for — blessed with — our four children. As I’m sure most every parent believes of their own children, we have four great children — each with their own special talents (even our 16-month-old daughter) and personalities, and sound character.

For #3, I’m thankful for the personal friends I have begun to know and those I am getting to know better. Surprisingly, one of the best things to happen to our social life is having children — and getting to know the parents of their friends.

For #4, I’m thankful for the many people I know professionally and have come in contact with — and have learned so much from. From your own posts to links to other great information, I’ve learned a lot.

While I am thankful for God and my faith in him (which has substantially grown since November 2006, but still needs to be so much stronger), let me finish with something different and a bit trivial for #5: I’m glad that my mom saved a lot of my childhood toys and such. I smile when I see my youngest daughter pushing one of the two Pinewood Derby cars around (I brought both home after my youngest son started Scouts this year). And, the old Fisher-Price airport and gas station have provided my kids with plenty of fun when we visit. It’s something my wife and I already are thinking about — what toys of our kids should we save for our grandchildren to play with?

Okay, now that I’m done, I wonder what Ike is thankful for, or even Kami, Kevin, Chris or Christine?

Take care, and of course, THANK YOU!

-Mike

12/18/06, approx. 1 p.m. ET: Okay, now that I’m back up, I’m posting here my 5 Things meme I posted the other day. Don’t mean to spam-ping anyone (though another link can’t hurt?), just keeping myself organized, and duplicating what I did before.
thanks to Kami Huyse, APR. (For the next couple days, my main PR blogging site will be down due to server issues, so I’m posting here at my “back up” blog for now.) So, the game is for me to state five things you don’t know about me? I could go with Todd’s “five things” approach, but . . . . well, maybe I might. So, here we go:

1. My wife and I are expecting our fourth child. We thought we were done with three — two boys and a girl, ages 8, 5 and 3 — but guess God had other plans. (Okay, we were involved with the outcome as well, but there’s more to it than that. And, it’s stuff you probably don’t want to know.)
2. In high school, among the flattering and not-so-flattering nicknames I had were Larry Bird (I was much blonder then; but didn’t have any nears the basketball talent) and Shaggy.
3. I’ve seen The Wiggles live in concert at least four times . . . can sing a pretty mean (and awful) “fruit salad.” Before my daughter was born, my wife and our two sons even dressed like the Wiggles for one concert trip. (I was Murray.)
4. I’m balding (but at least I have more hair at this age than my older brother did!).
5. I was a newspaper journalist for the first four plus years of my working career.

Now, let’s see if Peter Shankman, Bob LeDrew, John Guifoil, the good folks at BlogWorks and Sherrilynne Starkie have played this game yet?