TV Show

I find myself thinking about what this upcoming week will bring.  I must say to be honest I really am nervous to say the least.  On the 29^th  our family will be on a TV show talking about what for a long time has been a something that we have really keep quiet about and only to ourselves.  For this reason I think it was exceptionally hard for us to open up and share our story.  It is really scary for us to think that your story will be viewed on major network TV.  We don’t know how people with react to seeing our story, and how this could affect our family.  However we felt that sharing our story with the public about our lives could help other families deal with a situation like ours as well maybe inform people as well.

We want people to know that our family is no different than anyone else’s family out there.  We face the same problem and have the same dreams and hopes. Being transgender doesn’t have to mean the end of your marriage or the end of your family.  For us we see it as just one of many hurdles in life that need to be faced and overcome.  Over the 19 years Tina and I have been married we have struggled with many things over the course of the years.  In the last four years we have had to really work hard in dealing with these hurdles, milestones and finalities of my gender identity.   In dealing with these issues it has made our family and especially our marriage so much stronger than we ever thought that it could be.  

Here is a link to the promo for the show.     Dr. Oz Show March 29th

Second Home

Well I am back to my usual traveling schedule.   I have really enjoyed being able to be work from home for the last two months.  I was able to spend so much quality time with my spouse Tina and the girls, and we had a great time together.  Being home so long does make it hard for me to leave them, but as I am traveling it gives me something to look forward to as well.

I did have an interesting experience the other night.  When I travel up to cover do coverage at the McGuire AFB  like always like to stay at this nice B&B.   I got in pretty late and carried some of my luggage to the room, and laid down of the bed and it just felt like my 2^nd home.  I do stay a lot here and usually in the same room, but it still surprised me though.  I love the staff and they feel like a extended family to me.  

Spring time

When I was walking last night, I think that this is my favorite time of the year is spring.  The temperature is just right, the mornings are cool and the days don’t get too hot either. 

I love that all the plants and animals seem to have this sense that the winter is over and everything is turning fresh and new.  The grass is turning a nice shade of green and the trees are budding out and blossoming.  The flowers are showing off their beautiful colors giving off great scents for everyone to smell.

In life we all go through the winter blues, some winters longer are longer than others.  Then we hit the spring time of things and start off new again.   In lots of ways I see our family as well as myself hitting a spring time.  This spring I don’t want to take it for granted like I have in the past, and want to enjoy it before life takes us into the summer.

Trip to NYC

The last few days have been crazy for our family. Tuesday we got up very early and caught a plane to New York City.  We were greeted at the airport by a driver that took us to our hotel.  Then we dropped our bags off and decided to take a walk to visit Rockefeller Plaza. It was cool because we got to see the cast filming the Today show and we stood at the corner and waved at the cameras through the windows. The girls and I had such a great time hitting all the stores.  I think our favorites were American Girl, Dylan’s Candy Bar and the Lego store.  Tina and I got a kick out of how our girls sat glued to the window in our hotel room, people watching for hours.  They really loved the big city atmosphere!

Wednesday we all got up early again, the driver met us downstairs at our hotel at 7am to take us to the studio.  We were all as nervous as could be; I think we were 100% more nervous than when the film crew came to interview us at our house.  They brought us to the green room to drop off our bags and try to relax.  It wasn’t long and we were taken to get our makeup and hair done, we felt so pampered!  We all looked so pretty being all dolled up.  Soon after that, we were being escorted to the set for our interviews.  I am so proud of our girls and Tina; they did such a great job. 

We loved our stay in New York City; everyone was nice to us.  We look forward to planning another trip up there when we can spend more time.

Opening up

Sunday was a very stressful day for our family.  We opened our house to a film crew to record our family for an upcoming TV show.  We had the usual stresses: is our house clean enough, does the yard look good, are we wearing the right clothes, etc.   What really made the whole experience stressful and emotionally draining was that we opened up our hearts to a subject that we rarely discuss outside of our family.  I think the hardest part was for us to share our stories with someone because we are a very private family.  I think what we really fear is the possibility of rejection.   We will be off to New York to finish with an interview in studio.  We are in hopes that us being on this show will show that we are like any other family.

Birthday Girl

Yesterday was our little ones birthday.  Well Christa really isn’t little any more, she is 11 now. WOW!    Tina and I were reflecting yesterday over coffee, these last 11 years have really gone by so fast.

This year we have really been feeling old because Brenna is graduating high school this year and Christa finishing 5th grade and heading to middle school next year.  We are truly blessed to have such wonderful and healthy children.

Coffee Time

Tina and I have found a new hang out.  We have been going to a place called the Single Smile Café.  We just love this cute little coffee shop.  I get my new usual a large coffee and a plane bagel with peanut butter on it.  Tina is the more adventurous and tries new things there. We love the atmosphere,  we also like that they have a piano playing music.  We find that the piano music is really relaxing to us. I think for me the best part of going there is spending the time with Tina though.

The Single Smile Café reminds us of when Tina and I were going to Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, AK.  Tina worked at this place called Coffee Express.  She was always so good to me; she would make me these triple sized turkey or ham sandwiches.  We were just young college students madly in love with each other.  At that time we lived just right around the corner in this place we called “Crack Alley”.  Because we were poor college students it was all we could really afford, but it was our own and we were off campus J

Crack Alley sure left us with all kinds of great memories, mostly because of the characters that lived in the units around us.  We had names for all of them, the walls were paper thin so their names would represent what we would could hear about them through the walls.    My parents were so worried about Tina and I getting a apartment together, in their eyes we were living in sin.  Of course they didn’t know about the last few semesters prior to that of the "co-habitation" that I did in her dorm room.  One of my best memories though about this place was the day that we went to the justice of peace a few blocks away and got married.  It sure was one of the best things we have done as a couple.

Temptation

Well today I almost fell to temptation L. 

 About 5 weeks ago I decided to start eating a vegetarian diet.  It isn’t how I was brought up for sure. I really don’t prescribe to the view of how most vegetarians feel on how eating meat is cruel to animals and is bad for you.  Growing up I was always taught that a meal needed to include some kind of meat.  It is kind of weird how I came to decide on trying the whole vegetarian diet.  My journey all started in October when I unexpectedly had my gallbladder removed when I was working in PA.  After having it out I sure did feel better, however I was having issues when I ate meals.  It took me a while to figure out what was causing the issues and it seemed to be meat.  After stopping eating meats all has been well and I feel great.  It really has been a eye opening experience in learning and trying new and different foods that I would have never tried before.  I love to cooks so it has been a challenge as well trying new cook new foods that I have never cooked.  Anyway I kind of got off track here on the story, so Tina and Christa and I were stopping to get some lunch.  We pulled into one of the girl’s favorite places to eat and Tina started to egg me on to get some meat instead of the usual salad that I get.  It sounded so good so as I place the orders for the girls I ordered the number 1 combo and supersized itJ.  All the way home I was thinking that is going to taste so good.  We got home and I was ready to get into the meat Zen, I ate the fries and just couldn’t make myself eat the sandwich.  I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t want to let myself down or what the reasoning is.  But in the end it just shows that life is full of temptations from the small things of not eating meat to an endless amount of larger things.  It seems that this is going to be a  conviction that I am going to stand strong on.