My First Blog Post

Well, here goes nothing!  This is my first attempt at blogging.  I have read many blogs and decided the world needed one more.  Whether it will be worth anything or if I can keep up with it, is yet to be determined.  The first and foremost item is that I am not a very good/grammatical/creative writer.  As you have already probably figured out!  Anyway, I am going to blog because of many different reasons, but most importantly, because I want to keep account of what I am doing in life and what I am learning.  The main reason being what "I CAN" do in life.
I am a 39 year old middle school science teacher in Bettendorf, Iowa.  I am surrounding by many people who I consider awesome!  The first being my family.  It would be hard to imagine what life would be like without them.  Mary, my wife, is awesome.  She is an outstanding mother in so many ways.  She is also very supportive of me and my determinations (This is what I call, she may call them crazy ideas).  Then I have my two daughters, seven and four,  they are the center of my life.  I can't imagine a day without them.  Even though they make life hectic, it is worth every second to watch them learn and grow.
Second, I have my exercise community.  Over the last couple of years, I have be introduced to many people in the realm of exercise.  I have found that surrounding myself with people of the same goals, it makes my goals much easier to achieve.  Those people range from heavy lifting partners to running marathons and other crazy races.  I will mention these people much more as I talk about my journey on achieving things I CAN do.
So the main reason I am on here is to focus on the positive side of life.  I am always ready to jump on new aspects of life and blogging is one of them.  One of my biggest adversaries in life is getting down on life itself and letting little things bother me.  So, instead of being negative and getting grouchy, I want to remain with one focus, stay positive, no matter what is thrown at me.  I am hoping by blogging and getting my thoughts on paper (or digitally), I will be able to keep this focus straight ahead of me.  I will focus on what "I CAN" do instead of the other side.
For example, for many years, I have said I am not a runner.  In the past years, with help of many other people, I have found "I CAN" run.  I completed a few 5k's last year and the peak of my year last year was a 1/2 marathon that I feel I ran quite well, but could do better.  This year I have a few other goals such as completing a sprint triathlon and completing a few more running races...another half for sure and I am thinking "I CAN" do a marathon.
I think another aspect of me, that is important to know, is that I am a ex-football player and wrestler (just high school) that had great aspirations to play football in college until my knees decided to go on the fritz.  Since being a junior in high school, I have had four knee surgeries, most being scopes.  I wish I would have had the "I CAN"  attitude in high school and persevered in football.  That is behind me now and I will take on these new challenges in life.
Now that I have entered the blogging life, this is also a new challenge.  As I mentioned before, I am not a writer but I have decided "I CAN" put my thoughts on paper.  So this will be another challenge in 2012.
I will probably be posting a lot from http://www.dailymile.com as well, this is where I post a lot of my workouts.  Daily mile serves as an accountability piece for me, so sorry if you get annoyed by it, but it helps me.
I also started my "I CAN" bulletin board at home so I can remind myself everyday that "I CAN" do ANYTHING I set my mind out to do.

There is one thing that I did not add to my board yet, due to need to print pictures, is my joining of the Backwater Gamblers Water Ski Show Team.  My daughter and I did this in 2010 and so far it has been one of the best things a father/daughter could do.  We were able to ski in shows together last year and it was awesome.  This year my other daughter and wife will join and I am looking forward to that.  Last was our first year and I was able to accomplish quite a few things.  One of the biggest being able to deepwater barefoot.  I love bare footing, although it came with a few injuries, it was one of the best experiences I have had.  Cruising 42 mph, across the top of the water, on nothing but your god given feet, AWESOME!  I will keep posts on here about BWG as well.

Now you know a little bit about me and I will try and keep this blog going and keep you  up to date on what I CAN do and hopefully motivate you on what YOU CAN do!  Hopefully you will have an GREAT weekend!