Before I start, just to let you know, I might put up a podcast today or tomorrow or both so be looking for that.

Sorry for not blogging yesterday. It was my wife's b-day and a crazy day at work and with all the excitement, it just did not happen. I do hope you enjoyed the funny video though...btw, no reflection on my day; I do not think I would ever destroy a computer just for the heck of it. I have been tempted though. :)

So today, I've been thinking a lot about family and the biggest thought that I have right now is that the relationship you have with your family, in particular to the one that you marry into, is just plain weird. For instance, last night at my wife's b-day party, some jokes were made at my expense. To be honest, they were jokes that I did not really appreciate. In particular, they were jokes regarding our financial state. That's a pretty sensitive subject with me right now and frankly, I was hoping that most of my family understood that and would not bring it up, but I guess I was wrong. Honestly, it bothered me, but I recognize that I am a sensitive guy and I did my best to let it roll off my back. To be honest, it wasn't easy though. I did that typical hypocritical thing that I hate that I do and put on a smile and laughed through it while inside it felt like my heart was ripping out...not to be overly dramatic, but it did suck. Part of me wanted to just simply tell them that I did not appreciate the jokes, but really, what would it have mattered? It probably would have simply made things worse. Perhaps next time I should just make a point and walk away, but I did not and here I sit writing.

Anyway, I digress. For those of you who are single, remember: When you marry your wife, you also marry their family, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Now, God knows my family is not perfect and He also knows that I am not, but regardless, there will always be things about your family, be they blood or not, that will bother you. However, somehow, these people end up endearing themselves to you in a way that can only be explained by love. Slowly, but surely, you end up loving people despite the flaws that you can see and despite the fact that there is so much about them that you want to change. I can honestly say that I love my in-laws dearly, but living with them is definitely not supposed to be a permanet thing and as my wife pointed out to me once, it is not supposed to feel good; it is supposed to feel uncomfortable.

So with all that being said, your family becomes part of your life and as you step back and look at them, you see that in so many ways, they are so much like you. In fact, maybe that is why those flaws bother you sometimes because those flaws are the exact ones you see in yourself. It is true that life is beautiful in weird ways and my life, just like my family's lives, often looks like a beatiful disaster. I am learning that accepting my family, the good, the bad, and the ugly, is a part of life, just like accepting yourself. In yourself, you accept the good and you try and change the bad and the ugly, if you can, and learn to live with it if you cannot. The same is with your family. You easily accept the good parts, you want to reject the bad and the ugly, but you cannot. You find that just like yourself, you can only change what you can change, and for the rest, you learn to live with it.

It seems to me that it is all just becomes part of this kaleidoscope we call life...