Family Archives - Page 5 of 11

Personal Development, Business, Family, Finance, Fitness

2019 – My Goals, Dreams, and Aspirations for “The Year of Change”

December 31, 2018 No Comments

2018 was busy… We moved our fledgling dental office, MikedUp Blog kinda-sorta exploded (positively), I worked 3 jobs for a while, got too stressed out, then rebounded again, we took on a ton of debt (willingly), our business grew, and (most importantly) – we found out that my wife is pregnant (with #2)!! Whew… I’m tired just from typing out that sentence. While all of those things are amazing (except for the stress – but that ended up being positive in the end), I knew that 2019 would need to be different if I plan to keep up at this pace. So in this post, I will introduce you to my goals, dreams, and aspirations for 2019 – “The Year of Change” (YOC). Why am I branding 2019 as the Year of Change? Well, because of a few things. Some big announcements and some smaller ones – some […]

Family, Business, Finance, Personal Development

2018 – The Year and My Goals in Review

December 26, 2018 No Comments

Well, hot diggity… Time flies. Way back in January (2018) I was inspired by a fellow blogger’s post in which he outlined his goals for the year ahead. I had vague visions of what goals I hoped to accomplish this year, but in early January – these aspirations weren’t documented. So, in essence, they had a worse chance of becoming realized. With the winds of inspiration at my back, I set out to outline and describe my goals for 2018 (the title picture of this post is worth the click…). I even went so far as to create a spreadsheet for these goals, where I would record values, pass/fail marks, and leave notes about experiences had. For the first 4-5 months of the year, I killed it with the goals, writing on the spreadsheet included. And over the summer, I published my mid-year recap of the 2018 goals with my […]

Fitness, Family, Personal Development

How To Minimize Your Future Healthcare Costs

December 19, 2018 No Comments

I don’t know about you, but I’m constantly grinding to improve my current positions… Physically, financially, spiritually, etc… But, in an honest moment, I would admit that I don’t focus too much on my distant future self. In fact, I know that I need to do what I can now to reduce my family’s future healthcare costs – but I haven’t taken direct action toward this pursuit. Thankfully, I have Kristen here to help us get started! Kristen Edens’ writing began at age 6. Lovingly advised to pursue something more financially stable, she earned her masters degree in exercise physiology. By 2009, she cycled out of the corporate setting to build her own business as a content developer where she helps businesses boost their brand through effective content marketing strategies and services. Kristen is also the founder of the Managing Midlife, a blog about entrepreneurship, family, and finance […]

Family

The 41 Best Christmas Songs of All Time – Definitively Ranked

December 12, 2018 No Comments

When it comes to the best Christmas songs of all time – we all have our favorites… Some are a little ‘poppy’ while others may lean a bit ‘classical’ but no matter the situation (in Q4 of any year and part of Q1…) – there’s a Christmas song for that! Every year (for the past 3 years) my wife and I throw a grande ‘ole bash on Christmas Eve (a real rockin’ holiday party) where we invite over family and some friends for a great night of food, festivities, fun, and … you guessed it – Christmas music! But inevitably, there’s always debate about which Christmas songs are the best (read: worth our precious dance party time). So… I’ve searched high and low for an authority on the matter. And I’m stoked to report that I have found the high power of all Christmas music rankers!! This […]

Finance, Family

I Cry Actual Tears Every Time I Shop at Aldi…

November 21, 2018 No Comments

After decades of shopping at other stores that we don’t need to mention here, about 2 years ago my wife and I decided to shop at Aldi – exclusively – and we haven’t looked back! In this post, I’ll give you all the reasons why we chose Aldi in the first place, why we stick around, and what the few things are that we would change if we could. But before that, a little background: There I was for THIRTY WHOLE YEARS! A sucker. Mark. Pawn. Call me what you want, but I was definitely spending so much more money on groceries every month than what was necessary. Do you want to know the worst part…? I didn’t even know the difference!! Aldi hadn’t entered my mental space. I was gleefully oblivious and didn’t see the lead weight forming that would eventually drag our monthly […]

Personal Development, Family

Generational Differences – A Poor Excuse for An Argument

November 14, 2018 No Comments

Generational differences have caused more arguments at more family gatherings and company Christmas parties than my research capabilities can count. “Millennials are killing ____” “Boomers left our castle in ruins…” Yes – I’ve heard both of these from multiple folks on either side of this… “argument”. I even went so far as writing a post on the subject: I Hate Avocados… But Call Me a ‘Snowflake’ Millennial Any Day! I actually started that post cautioning the use of stereotypes and ultimately said we can all do better. Well, it turns out that my hot take on generational differences enticed a few responses… And honestly – I’m thrilled that it did. Because Rosie from Cash Crone had a few insightful things to say on the matter, and I think we’d all be better off hearing from someone a little ‘wiser’ than me. (Photo courtesy of […]

Finance, Family, Personal Development

When Quitting Your Passion Might Be the Best Option

November 12, 2018 No Comments

Quitting Your passion is a process I’ve struggled with in the past… And one I’m also wrestling with at the present (more on that… in time). But no matter what your passion or your specific situation, quitting can be so… shameful. But I’ve recently come to know another great blogger, SC from MissFunctional Money (I know, great blog name, right??) who has also had some intimate experience with quitting something that was her life – for nearly all her life. And news flash – it wasn’t easy for her to make that decision. And because SC has been so open and honest in her post below, I think we’ve been given the fortunate opportunity to see when quitting the thing you love – may be the best thing that could’ve happened to you. I’ll let SC take it from here: “What are you going to be when you […]

Family

Today’s Veteran – This Hero’s Fight After Leaving the War

November 11, 2018 No Comments

Standing on the platform of a 34 foot tower he adjusts his harness, creeps toward the edge, and thinks, “What in the hell have I gotten myself into?” There are still two trainees in front of him so there’s some time to make last minute checks. Carabiner secure? Check. Attached to the overhead cable? Check. Only one in front now and it’s not the screams of the grown men before him that elicit terror, it’s the logic in his mind. “This cable will actually hold me? I’m not the lightest guy here… I’m not the heaviest either so we should be good. Maybe the cable’s been worn down by all the guys before me? Is my harness secure?…” Private First Class (PFC) Drew Mullee is 2 days into US Army Airborne School and he’s sufficiently out of his element as he toes the edge of the platform. […]

Family, Fitness, Personal Development

Hey Cancer – You Picked the Wrong Bitch (Part 2)

October 31, 2018 No Comments

This is the second and final portion of a story from Jen – a wife, mother, daughter, …, a breast cancer survivor, and a badass. Please click here to read Part 1 of Jen’s story and then come back here for the ending. As I said in the first half of Jen’s story – this is quite possibly the most important post that has been published on MikedUp Blog. Thank you so much for reading… Here’s Jen picking up where she left off: August 4, 2017 Exchange day. I was so excited about this surgery! This was supposed to be the end of this journey for me, and because the exchange is a far less complicated procedure than a mastectomy, I was optimistic about the road ahead. The surgeons simply open you up, remove the expanders, tweak the pockets that will hold the […]

Family, Fitness, Personal Development

Hey, Cancer – You Picked the Wrong Bitch…

October 29, 2018 No Comments

This post will be unlike most things you can find on MikedUp Blog. Normally, I will help to solve a pain point in your life in some aspect of fitness, finance, business, or personal relationships… But not today. Today, I am humbled and grateful to bring you the ultra-personal story of a breast cancer survivor – from life before cancer all the way through to present day… But this isn’t just any story from some random person… Much like the story I wrote about in 2016 – where a man deployed to Afghanistan away from his wife and child to wage war who ended up returning home in critical condition, not knowing if he would survive the multiple surgeries ahead of him… I too know the key character in this story pretty well. Jen (as you will read below) is a wife, mother, scientist, … a little OCD (her own […]