Let the adventure begin.

I've been threatening for years to write a book about the adventures of the Bailey family.  Two friends, Kent and Tre, have both urged me to start writing the stories down.  My wife, Lorraine, has pestered me for years to just start it.  My daughter, Rachel, has written a small installment to the book already and submitted it as a creative writing project to a prospective employer and it helped get her the job.  I'll share that sometime as well.  I've also suggested that Rachel and I collaberate on a book together.   Maybe I can convince her to contribue to this blog. 

Lorraine has instilled in me the perspective that life is an adventure.  A flat tire is an adventure.  A trip to the ER is an adventure.  Kids puking as they work through a stomach virus is an adventure.  While I'll admit this is a big stretch (especially the kids puking "adventure") when you're in the midst of the so called adventure, but it's not unusual for us to look back on the event and find at least some humor in it.   My goal is to make you smile and reflect on your lives and find the humor during those stressful times in your lives. 

As for the title, "... and then it died!," that comes from living on a farm for the last 15 years.  Through the years we've had a number of pets and many, many different farm animals.  One thing that you learn from life by living on a farm is the natural cycle of life and death.  Just like with people, death sometimes comes suddenly, head on with a car (poor Chuck), and sometimes age creeps up slowly and the body just wears out.  We've seen a wide gamut of death and, mercifully, we can celebrate the life of those animals and, somewhat morbidly, sometimes find the humor in it.

Our adventures are many and I have yet to sit down and list them.  That would probably make a lot of sense and at least allow me to share those stories chronologically.  But, the best stories didn't necessarily happen early on so why wait to tell the good ones later?  For now, I'll share them as I recall them.

For a final disclosure, the facts may be blurred by the years.  Lorraine and I have been married 25 years and have 8 kids so a lot has happened.  The events can certainly be blurred by perspective as I often remember events differently than Lorraine.  I will strive though to reconcile my version to hers as best I can and will defer to her when the facts are unclear since she's a woman and we men know that women have far better memories than us.

I hope you enjoy the events in our lives as much as we've enjoyed them.  First in line is our trip to the ER with Emma due to suspected poisoning from Children's Tylenol.