Writer's Blog

Okay so that is kind of a play on words.  Most of us in writing come up with a mental block known as  writers block.  For me this has come in a couple different forms.  Not having time to write, not knowing what to write about, or having to much to write about, but not sure if its worth stepping on toes.

I guess the best way to go about this is to just write and whatever comes out go with it.  So first and foremost, TGIS!!  Thank God Its Summer!!  Not that I love the Hot weather, (i prefer milder climates, only so many clothes I can take off in the summer before other people start getting uncomfortable).  It really is nice when you can spend long days in the neighborhood pool, and with the absolute loves of your life.

Being a father is one really awesome adventure.  Every day you learn something new or your kids say something you have not heard yet.  They are learning their colors and numbers. They love to see you and say "Dada Deuces" and I love you!  or to listen to them say their prayers at night.  It just warms your heart.

I really feel like this is all over the place and sometimes it has to be.  I enjoy writing and I enjoy watching my little "brother", excel in writing as well.  He is coming into his own as a writer and is really brilliant with the contexts of what he writes.  I hope that he continues to the point of getting his book published because there really is nothing else out there quite like what he is writing.

As far as my writings, i am much more comfortable blogging and writing what comes to mind, than writing novels.  I want to write books both novels and children's books.  It is my passion.  I am a dreamer!  I love to dream about what life would be like if I could write full time, where we would live, what my surroundings would be like.

The biggest thing is just seeing my name on a book, in print.  That would and will be a very momentous occasion.  I love to teach my kids in school, but I have a very sour taste in my mouth regarding the state of education especially in North Carolina right now.  As my back up plan I have to get into writing mode!  LOL

Goal Update

I blogged back at the beginning of the year that I had probably more than enough goals for the year.  I  have decided that as much as I love writing and the passion that I have for it, I wanted to put some of that fire in losing weight.  

I entered January of 2014 with a focus on losing 42 pounds in a year.  I really felt like that was a manageable number to obtain in a years time.  I think it averages out to somewhere close to three pounds a month.  I knew that the bulk of it needed to be lost in the first six months because when football season rolls around, my schedule and routine take a hit and I may not be able to focus on weight loss when the football team and myself will be focusing on winning a state title!!

I have been going since January 4 of this year.  As of my last weigh in yesterday March 15, I have lost a grand total of 27.2 pounds.  I am really kind of speechless.  I wanted to write a big long blog on how things are going and the struggles and the successes.

I just don't know exactly what to say.  I am a lot farther ahead than I thought I was going to be when I started this journey.  It really is much easier that I ever had imagined.  Again, once you get sick and tired of being sick and tired, you put your mind to it that you are going to do it and you go for it.  Do I fall of from time to time? Yes!  Just last week I weighed in and gained a pound and a half.  That is what crazy weather does to a person.  Instead of being in your routine, you are at home with easy access to the snacks and you don't move around much.  Its okay to fall off.  You recover from it.  Every once in a while I will treat myself to some killer frozen yogurt with the PB topping and some crunch cereal thrown in and a brownie and some peanut butter cups, i said ALL IN on the frozen yogurt.  But its a once in a while thing.  My weakness when I started this trip was wings!  LOVE THEM!  All of them, everyone of them!  I could not slow down if their were 20 in an order I would do everything I could to put away each of them, plus the loaded cheese fries I got with it.  Things are much slower and civil now.  I still treat myself to wings when someone invites me to.  I get a small order and a small order of a fried potato product and enjoy.  I find that my stomach feels smaller, like I ate 3 pieces of pizza a couple of weeks ago and I felt terrible.  I use to do that with my eyes closed and without thinking twice about it.  

It is okay to splurge from time to time.  You don't want to play the system.  Some people like to do "activity" and get activity points, and then add that to their points for the day.  I just go for the allotted  points for the day.  I don't want to beat the system.  Beating the system is what got me to, to close to 400 pounds.  It was a scary sight and feeling.  

I remember back a few years ago I was watching the Biggest Loser sitting their watching it with a gallon of Moose Tracks Ice Cream eating it by the scoop fool.   That thought afterwards has stayed with me to this day.  Watching a Weight Loss show while Gaining weight in the process.  Think about that for a second.

Okay I feel like I have babbled enough today, so I will let you guys get back to better things like watching for the upcoming Ice Storms headed are way!

Peace, Love and Wrigley!  I love you guys, thanks for the hits...

  I love this pretty lady!  One of my all time favorite pictures of me and my beautiful wife!  Trenton, the sweatshirt has been spotted.

Time Flies....Just like Superdad

Well it has been awhile, and to be honest with you its been to long.  I love writing, I know I have said this countless times, but it is true.  I just got really busy really quick!  So what is going on in the great big world of Winston Salem and the Vogel House hold?

BABIES!!  Lots and lots of babies!  I know when you read that your first thought is Michael and Nissa have more than 2?  Well in a way we kind of do.  Nissa has a "Sisterhood" if i can use that as a term, that have all had babies around the same time as both of ours.  Finn's was more spread out from the other babies that came that same year, but Lil Ms. Eleanor?  Hers all came around the exact same time. One even came on the same day!

Visitors?  Well she was born in the great Blizzard of '14 so the visitors that we did get, came by foot.  Her Aunt Booka and Uncle Tooka braved the elements and walked to the hospital to see their new niece.  Not sure Eleanor realized what great lengths they came.  If she knew that her Aunt Booka freezes when its 78* outside, let alone blizzard like conditions.  She did venture out of the room on the second day to go visit her newest boyfriend, we will call him Mr. UNC!  Not that I am a UNC or Duke or NC State fan by any stretch of the imagination, but his daddy IS a die hard fan!  UNC born and bread.

It really was quite comical.  Nissa allowed me to leave the hospital as the snow storm started (now before you going and getting upset with me about leaving my beautiful bride at the hospital with our second born by herself, we live a whopping 1 mile from the hospital, and plus her best friend was literally right down the hall) again we live roughly a mile from the hospital.  It took me close to 40 minutes to get home with all of the people leaving work to get home.   I got home and got a nice HOT shower and clean clothes.  On my way back was the crazier scene.  I left and took some roads less traveled because I know how to drive in snow unlike anybody in the south.  There were cars stranded on the ramp ways and as I approached the stoplight by the mall/hospital there were people deserting their cars and heading for higher/dryer ground.

Superdad?  Well I feel like it anyway.  Not that I am superhuman by any stretch and I don't do super things but Finn just makes me feel that way.  He yells out for me when I am getting home for work, or he will go in the bathroom and clime in the window to waive at me and blow kisses at me as I leave for work.  We have our own unique sign language just the two of us that we are helping mommy with so she understands, it took her forever to figure out what GUP was?  Ummm Hello Garbage Trucks!

I don't feel like a Super Dad so mad as Super Blessed.  I have been blessed with an amazing wife, an amazing son and daughter.  My family in Indiana is pretty special and amazing themselves.  I miss them and wish they had the ability to see my kids more.  I keep telling them that they won't get all of that nasty weather in North Carolina like the 100 plus inches Indiana has been hit with this year.  Somebody will take me up on it sooner than later I am hoping.  Thank you guys again for taking the time and reading my work and blogs. I enjoy it.

Weight what?

What's up my peeps?  Well I wanted to report back on one of my goals in the new year.  My biggest goal is to lose 42 pounds this year and I am well on my way.  I am not saying that it has been easy at all.  I just got to the point where I was sick and tired, of being really sick and tired.  I hated looking at myself in the mirror with my shirt off.  It was disgusting!  Embarassing. 

I set on January 4, 2014 to lose weight this year.  My wonderful mother-in-law and I started a conversation on New Years Eve about Weight Watchers and the amount of success that she had.  I knew that the time was now, with Finn roaming freely and a baby to enter this world litterally any second, that I needed to do something to be able to keep up with my kids.  Weight Watchers has been the perfect tool for me at the right time. 

I tipped or should I say cracked the scales at a mind numbing 333 pounds on January 4.  I had a funeral for that number that day.  I do not want to see that number ever again!!  Every week this month I have made some positive gains, (by gains I mean loss of weight). I have successfully lost 14.8 pounds so far this month. Wow, how I feel much better and even look a little thinner.  It is very enspiring for me to be able to see weight loss weekly, but also see that I am not filling my body with the constant crap I did before.

My constant morning routine would include a nice large diet coke and inhaling of one of many different peanut butter and chocolate options.  Not the regular size, No I needed KING SIZE.  You know that is what they call us chubby fluffy bunnies these days, King Size!  You know so as to not and hurt your feelings! Yeah well those king sized candies were crippling my diabetes.  I still have a thing for diet coke.  It is my one vise that I have not been able to slim down on.  I like it, it costs me zero points, so I still drink it. 

My point system tabulations have kept me away of fast food.  I often opted for a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit from Hardees, because, why not it is the best on the planet, once a week as my treat to myself for being so damn loveable.  I would try and get my coaching buddies to go out weekly for Wings and things.  Namely potato wedges, buffalo chips and wings wings wings.  Now I have been less tempted by the wonderful fried wings slapped in yummy buffalo sauces of all heat seaking levels (ok so mine did not ever get much hotter that Azian Zing) and that is a good thing.  I am less tempted to go out routinely.  But hear what I am saying. Less tempted to go weekly!  I did not say all together.  You better believe that is the food item I crave, I will go all out that night, and fill the belly with the yummy morsels. 

But that is where I leave it.  Blow out once a month, twice at the most, get back on the clydesdale and lets get rolling.  You can do it.  Its a mind set.  I have had more success in this one month, than any other diet/work out routine I have EVER done in the past.  I still try and put in a couple miles a week around the neighborhood, when I am not wiping out and setting off earthquakes across the Piedmont Triad.  Its a mind set!! I am SICK AND TIRED!! of being  SICK AND TIRED of being SICK AND TIRED!!

The misconception about Weight Watchers is that you do not have to wear a pigs snout if you are off a week and gain weight, as I thought in my younger years, when my mom was a part of weight watchers.  I am pretty sure she told me that. I believe anything, Vici tells me because she is ALWAYS right!

Hey I love you guys!  My little Peepulation! You guys are awesome and stay motivated!  Let 2014 be your year of fulfilling your dreams!!

Peace, Love and Jeeps.....

Dad Li...uch cough cough sneeze...

Whats up peeps?  Hows life?  Dad life is the bomb diggity!  I love it, everything about it, I love it!!  My little buddy wakes up in the morning with his roll call:  mama, dada, meow meow, booka, tooka....bright shiny little face. 

All is good!  a few bounces in the crib and a flop or two on the mattress...repeat.  Then mama changes the diaper (because he has to have just the right amount of mama time, before we can have daddy interacation time).  We grab the bottle and chill in the Snoogle while we take in our 8 oz of whole foods whole milk, and then lets get down and do the dang thing!!

Now though for the last day or two its waking up very early crying or whimpering for mama.  We open the door and he is curled up or on his knees laying on top of Fluffs, Blue Bear and a few other stuffed animals and a few of his favorite books all nestled in his crib.  Pitiful as can be.  It really breaks your heart, when you have to watch your child feel as miserable as he does. 

As for daddy, there is little I can do, other than retrieve his bottle in the morning.  He's a mama's boy, much like his daddy.  Yep EXACTLY like his daddy!  I feel for the little guy.  Getting daily pictures from grampy showing his little pitiful self laying on the floor with his little cuddle buddies, or in grampys lap completely passed out.

These are the days that I wish I could stay home all day and just hold him, its days like today that I am HAPPY to be a daddy, and I am HAPPY that I have a son to come home to.  I miss him when I am at work, but I love that he misses me. 

My Path to Teaching...

So I started out many many years ago as a junior in high school.  One of the guys that I went to church with, Tad, took his artistic talents to Indy to attend the University of Indianapolis.  I found soon after that and a few visits that I also wanted to attend the great U of I!  

I had considered journalism early on and really thought that writing is the direction I wanted, but I had always been intrigued by Elementary Education.  So I decided early that this is the route that I wanted to go.  So I changed my major halfway into my freshman year to be an Elementary Education major.  So for two more years I took classes and put in the hours that you are supposed to do with an elementary school that the university was affiliated with.  I always struggled with the academic portion of things, just barely scraping by.  I always performed better in the school and classroom.  I found out the second semester of my junior year, that I was not eligible to continue to do my grades not being good enough.  You were required a 2.5 to get into the actual student teaching part of the program.  My GPA was 2.49.  I petitioned a couple of times arguing that i felt my field experience should count for something.  My petition was of course denied for the final time.  That day would be the lowest day to date in my life.  I sprinted across campus, balling my eyes out, calling my mom and wanting to be at home in Elkhart with my family.  As the ole adage says, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.  

I finished out my college career as a PE non-teaching major, which basically meant that I could work at a day camp of some kind.  Not really what I had planned for, so I moved back to Elkhart, with mom and dad, and I tried to figure out a way to STILL get into teaching.  I prayed daily and leaned on my relationship with God, to help me through those days that I questioned a lot.  

I was fortunate that an old childhood friend, Matt Vogelzang, hired me to work for his families company working with van conversion parts and RV windshields.  My ear was tied to a phone for 9 hours a day, and trying to talk down irate customers because they could not tell the difference between a short wheel base and a regular wheel base on a conversion van and some how it was our fault that they were sent the wrong side boards.  One of our ladies in the computer technology division was talking with me about what I wanted to do in life.  I said working at a 24 hr camp of some kind would be cool.

I went to work the next day with a list of camps, and this is how I came about Eckerd Youth Alternatives.  It was a job interview in the woods in the mountains of NC in the middle of a snow storm living in the woods with the campers, that my next job came available.  I was not really digging the weather, because I reasoned with myself as I was packing that NC had beaches and they don't get snow, so I brought NO winter gear with me.  It was a 72 hour visit. So for the first 71 and a half hours into the visit after having to sleep inside because the weather was so bad waking up with an eye swollen shut by a spider bite, that I was pretty much done.  Not doing this, you can take this job and shove it.  Then Ch. Jeremy Sheridan (Mr. SEC, Alabama guy) came to pull me out of group and take me back to the airport.  As i was getting ready to walk out of group one of the campers said, and I quote, "You aint taking the job you fucking fat ass, your a pussy" and as I was walking away, i turned and kindly told the young lad,  "Your on!  I will see your ass, in two weeks!" (Yeah I know, I did not always have the best tact when dealing with campers, Nissa has told me that many of times when she dealt with me as a family worker.)

So once again, my teaching life was put on hold to do something I had never imagined.  Packing up shop and heading to Lowgap NC, for training then on to Wilkesboro NC to work and back to Lowgap NC.  So from 2000 to 2008, when I found my future wife, I lived in the woods working with at risk youth, getting cussed out 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  I found that I was really good at working with at risk youth.  It just felt natural for me.  I lived in the woods and moved up though the ranks to become a Program Director, and if camp were still camp I would maybe still be there.  However, the wusification of America has put a stop to camps saying that young teenage boys living in wood structures in the winter that they built themselves was inhumane and they started closing them down one by one, until camp pretty much evaporated.

Nissa gave me an ultimatum, that if I were going to date her long term that I needed to find a job that gave me a little more freedom that being on call 24-7.  So we packed our bags and moved to Beverly- Salem that is Winston-Salem, NC.  I knew that it was now my time to move on to the actual school teaching portion of life.  I had an excellent partner that new how to motivate me.  I applied at two high schools for assistant positions while I went BACK to school to get my teaching certification.  I was actually looking to get into EC to work with At risk youth with behavioral and emotional issues. My first interview coincidently enough was at Southwest High School where I applied for an Occupational Course of Study assistant.  The interview went well, but was told that she needed to interview more people to get the right fit.  So the next day I interviewed at Eastern Guilford High School as a Life Skills class assistant.  This is where I got my introduction to working with students with special needs.  Can we say that this was the greatest decision of my life!  It was working with this population for three years that I knew that, this was the position I wanted to land as a teacher.  In June of 2011 I met up with the same supervisor at Southwest to interview for the open Life Skills position.  I had completed all course work, but still did not have all my Praxis tests done and passed, but the interview went really well, because she called me the next day and offered me the job.  

Of course there was set backs in this process, but every day I continued to pray about my situation.  I knew that eventually God would lead me home.  I am not claiming to be the greatest Christian in the world, but I rely on my strong relationship with God to get me through the valleys.  It is at Southwest that I found the most amazing teaching family, lead by an extremely supportive and amazing administration.  

There really is so much more to it, but I gave myself the time frame of Nissa watching Downtown Abby to complete this blog post, but I hit the good stuff.  Thanks for reading!!  Peace Love and Jeeps!!

Test of Manhood?

Okay so I was overwhelmed in a good way at the amount of feedback and suggestions on blog suggestions.  So some of these will be easier than others and I should have said that I stay away from politics.  Not my strong suit.  I will leave that for the more opinionated  people for the time being.

So this is how I think this is going to roll.  I will write a blog for each of the suggestions as a way to keep my writing rolling (No not like the Alabama rolling, they can roll in mud for all I care).  Some of these suggestions are for sports, past trip experiences from Eckerd, Coaching and so on.  I hope that some are funny and enjoyable.  Please feel free to leave comments as a way of critiquing if you like, it just makes me better.  I will also tag you in the post so you know that your suggestion is being written about.  Enjoy!!

I started at Eckerd Youth Alternatives back in February of 2000.  Shortly after my training ( a month long training, in the fun and sun of Florida aka Catatoga) one of our MC's at the camp I was working at, asked me to go on  a 3 week river trip with a group of 10 boys on the Suwannee River in Georgia and Florida.  In this environment we had to make menus for three weeks that we carried in dry bags and dry boxes.  These bags and boxes were made so that if your canoe tipped over (mine had a habit of tipping a few times, more on that in a later blog) the food and tents and such would stay dry and would not sink.

We spent on average a month and a half planning, routing, re-routing, making connections and so on, to pull off a trip on the Suwannee.  If you have never been, the Suwannee was sprinkled with several natural springs along the way.  These made for some nice swimming holes, with the exception of sulfur springs which smelled like?  Use your problem decoding skills like 007, and you get what?  Yep you are correct, Sulfur!

So most everything you need you bring with you, including your porta-john, but now named ETOOL!  No sorry folks, no actual ports-john on the back of a skid or floating along the boats.  Once campsite was located we had an outside crew that would go search the most pristine toileting area, where we dug a nice hole where you "did the business" wiped threw it in the hole and then you either burned the TP or you buried it just enough for the next person to use. Right before we moved on to the next leg of our trip you would completely bury it, leave the campsite better than we found it with no trace of us being there.

Now for the ladies out there, that love to shower daily, yeah not so much on river trips.  Every once in a great while we would be able to stay at a state park or camp ground that would have access to public washrooms and toilets.

So it is at this public campground that we were staying at.  I was a part of the outside crew where we went and scouted a bathroom, in this case an actual bathroom.  So I took my crew of 6 with me looking for that sweet spot, to use the restroom and get the legs back under us after 6 hours of paddling.  I myself used these newly found pristine facilities and as I came out to my amazement and astonishment, finding several of my kids sticking their hands in a fire ant hill to see who was the "Manliest" of the group.

People, not an ant hill, a FIRE ANT HILL!!  We will call this young buck, Chet Black.   I guess you would have to say that Chet was the "winner" if you can call a hand the size of an elephant foot a winner.  Not just for two seconds or five seconds, but for like two  to three minutes, Ole Chet finally pulled his hand out of the hole, not OFF of the hole, OUT of the hole!  He dug into the ant hill to make sure he got in the deepest of the hole and fired up the ants even more.  As he pulled out his elephant foot of a hand, there were no less that 150 ants crawling and biting his poor hand.

So here I am less than a month and a half on the job, and NO emergency room within miles and driving vehicles of where we were staying, and I had to go back to my supervisor, to report that I just witnessed several of the campers do this and that ole Chet took it to the next level.  I thought for sure, Dan was going to call camp and tell them I was being let go, right there on the side of the river, to fend for myself.  We were lucky that we had plenty of Benadryl on hand.

As the trip flowed on (river reference) we had to make it a rolling joke.  My name is Chet Black and I am a fire fighter!  Just because I put out fires for a living, doesn't mean fires are friendly.  Unlike Firemen, Fire ants are NOT friendly...

The World According to 2014

Whats up Peeps?  Hey welcome to 2014.  We are off to an amazing start to the year.  How time flies when you are working on goals and life.  I hate to admit that the last two weeks have flown by, and I have been very lackadaisical in everything over the course of winter break.  No I am not ready to go back to school yet, but come Monday I will be teaching them right, Come Monday.

Oh yeah so this is the blog where you get to find out my New Years resolutions.  Well little old Vogie has a lot going on in this year. Immediately, I resolve to be the best dad ever for a second time, as the last nine months have whipped by, and baby Vogel will be making her self known soon enough.  What have we gotten ourselves into?   Wow how exciting!  Number 2! Honestly I can't wait.  This should make for a very fun year.

I am taking on more of a mentor/big brother to someone that is very close and dear to my heart.  He has had a rough go so far in life, in time you will get to know him better.  He has started a cause to put an end to bullying and self harm.  If you are a twitter tweep, as they  call it, please fallow @S_s_f_o.  He has started this twitter account to bring awareness to childhood bullying and self harm.  Stay Strong Fight On, is a movement that needs to be spread nationally and hopefully world wide.  We would like to see this thing hit nationally, to hopefully help people see the importance in another day of life.  We believe in this cause 110%, and we would like it to go nationwide.  We hope that by word of mouth at the end of 2014, we will have a national following, and are making a positive impact in the lives of these victims.

I am in the year of making my dream come true of writing my first book of hopefully many to come. My wonderful wife has shown encouragement with this project, by supplying me with writing tools for Christmas!  Well done dear!!   I have a wonderful mentor who is very inspiring, and accountable to help me through those difficult days.  

I have a fondness of the banjo and it really is my favorite instrument to listen to, and I am going to attempt to learn to play this year.  I don't know if I will ever be on the level of Scott or Seth Avett, but hey its a start.

This is the year, hopefully sooner than later, (speaking of sooner, how a bout the Oklahoma Sooners completely dismantling of the Alabama Crimson Tide yesterday), that we will be able to get a dog.  The last couple of months have been very difficult for Nissa and I, but there are a few things that should take precedent, but I am not a very patient.  We loved her so much!

And now for the real reason I am writing this today.  This is finally the year to battle the bulge!  I have to put this on line for accountability reasons.  My goal is to drop 42 pounds this year, one pound for every day of life.  I can't really remember ever being under 300 pounds and to hit that mark alone would be incredibly awesome!  It has been to long and to many excuses for not doing it.  Depending on how well the weight starts coming off and how light I feel on my feet, that I might actually be able to run a 5k and just maybe hit a 10k.  You marathoners are a breed all your own and I will leave that to you.  So these are my goals that I have laid out for me.  I hope that you will continue to read my blog, if for no other reason to inspire you and others.

I love you all!  Thank you for reading, your accountability, and your friendship!  Peace Love and Jeeps!!