I am a:

Christian - and proud of it.  Just look around you.  None of this happened by accident.  And yes, there's a lot of ugliness in the world, but if you're willing to look closely, there's a whole lot more beauty.  And while I am a big believer in science and yes, evolution, I also believe that all this beauty required divine intervention to bring it to fruition.

The beauty of living in America is that we have freedom of religion.  My definition of being a Christian might not be the same as someone else's.  For example, I don't believe every word of the Bible is fact.  I believe it's God's story interpreted and documented by humans, and humans are imperfect.  That's why there are discrepencies in the four gospels, for example.  And the story of creation, I believe, is a human interpretation of how our universe came to be.  But since there are scientific facts to prove that the exact story of creation isn't true, perhaps it says that maybe religion in general is a matter of interpretation and, of course, faith.  Me... I have faith that creation is a high-level story that things like the big bang and evolution provide the detail for.  Is that wrong?  Nope, because it's my interpretation, and I am allowed that freedom.

One thing that's non-negotiable for me.  Jesus was brought to us to save our sins, because God knew that the world would end up having it's share of problems... over and over.  So he wanted to give all of us a way to live within and deal with all of these problem and still find our way home in the end.  Jesus is that way!

'nuff said!

Husband - I've been one twice.  First time around didn't go as well as I would have hoped.  I chalk it up to getting married too early.  I was 23, fresh out of college, full of ideals, and maybe just a little bit stupid in the ways of the world.  So, maybe my eyes weren't really open to the realities of marriage, and perhaps I didn't give myself the chance to come into my own; to mature a bit and discover life.  But as they say, for everything there is a purpose, and my first marriage produced three amazing kids.  No matter how that marriage turned out, I wouldn't trade my kids for anything.  It's as simple as that.

Now, I am a husband again, and this time around, I did things right.  I took six+ years after my divorce to get my crap together.  I went through the usual rebound relationship thing (it's therapeutic for sure, maybe even necessary, but almost always needs to end), I got my spiritual house in order, I learned to be single, got all my confidence back, I made up for a little lost time by jumping feet-first into the dating scene (yeah, I kinda became a serial dater, but heck, I had a lot of ground to make  up), and along the way, I think kind of serendipitiously, I met my wife.  It was not love at first sight for either of us.  As a matter of fact, both of us were in pursuit of, or being pursued by other people at the time and so didn't give our first meeting a great deal of thought.  But over time, we kept in touch, meeting here and there, and forming a true friendship.  It took a friend of my wife's, who we happened to be hanging out with one night to ask, "what's up with you two, anyway".  So we asked that same question of each other, and two years later, voila, we put an exclamation mark on "what's up with the two of us" by getting married.  We are best friends.  We tend to finish each other's sentences.  We both like to cook and she tolerates me in the kitchen... especially when I am her sous chef!  And we are both Christians with the same views on life and religion.  It's an excellent match!  I'd like to say that's how it should have been the first time around, but like I said... for everything, a purpose.

Father - 3+1=4.  Yup, I have four kids.  Three from marriage # one and one that was included with marriage # two.  And the age range is pretty broad.  25, 22, 20 and seven. 

The 25 year old has a masters in biology, lives in Colorado and is hoping to get into land preservation after completing a one year position with the university doing research and publishing papers.  Needless to say, I'm a proud dad!

The 22 year old has a bachelor of science in information technology (following in dad's footsteps) and just got his first full time job in his field (what I like to call a "big boy job).  Again, a proud dad.

The 20 year old is in the midst of a degree, likely biology, and hoping to transfer to Michigan State University (GO GREEN, GO WHITE) in the winter term, 2012 to finish out the bachelor degree and perhaps move on to a masters.  Actually thre's not much you can do with a bachelor in biology, so the advanced degree is pretty likely.  I can see great things for this 20 year old... he just needs to kick things into gear and make it happen.  But he's got the potential, I know that.

Finally, there's the seven year old.  So unlike the other three in that she is very stong willed and precocious!  But she's quite smart, and has a real flair for the drama.  Hmm... I wonder where she got THAT trait from?  She's another one that I expect great things from as long as she can keep her little temper under control.  Oh, to be seven again!

IT Professional - I have been at Steelcase for almost 17 years (as of this writing in July, 2011) and it's a great company to work for.  Not only does the work that I do make a difference to the company, but the people I work for, and with are some of the best I've met.  And from a community perspective, you can't find a better place to work.  Steelcase is environmentally conscious, and very generous to many organizations worldwide, such as United Way.  Steelcase has left a big footprint on the world, but it's all a positive and beneficial one, including our ever-shrinking carbon footprint!

You can get more info on my professional life by clicking the "Professional" menu on the left, but in a quick summary, I am the group manager of an organization called Personal Computing and Collaboration Solutions.  My teams are responsible for things like our global personal computing deployment, mobile applicaiton development, cloud computing, social networking, IT asset management, and management of the Microsoft platforms that we own, such as Sharepoint, Exchange, Office, Active Directory and ISA.

Prior to working for Steelcase, I worked for a company called Digital Equipment Corporation, aka DEC.  I worked for them for 10 years, directly out of graduate school, and was a technical sales consultant.  I also very much enjoyed that job and the company because they had a bunch of cutting-edge computing technology that customers demanded (including Steelcase, by the way), but Digital had a tough time deciding what it wanted to be to its customers, and ultimately, that led to its demise.  I was sad to see it go.

Before Digital, it's all the usual suspects: paper boy, dishwasher, cook, factory worker and self employed landscaper.  Oh, and between Digital and Steelcase, I owned my own consulting and hardware sales business called New Technology Solutions, Inc.  It actually was a pretty good business, but I had mouths to feed and bills to pay, and conservative as I am, I needed the stability of a full time job, so I went to work for Steelcase.  No regrets, but someday, when I can afford a bit more financial flexibility, I might try it again!

Runner - I used to run when I was young.  Then I started getting older and figured that running was a bad idea and too hard on my body, so I stopped.  Back surgery in 2004 was the biggest catalyst for stopping.  But a few years prior to my 50th birthday, I made a commitment to myself that I was going to go into my second half century in the best health and physical shape of my life, so I started running again, as well as working out.  And for me, I found that the combination of 12 miles per week, plus 180 pushups per day is ideal.  I really do believe I have met my commitment to myself as I feel great and I have better muscle tone than I ever have.  I'm looking forward the the next 50 years :)

One thing to note: it can't all be about exercise.  Diet is a critical part of health, so I try to be very careful what I put into my digestive system.  Having some diet limitations due to Crohn's Disease actually helps, because the things I can't eat are bad for me anyway, like fried foods, caffeine, refined sugar and alcohol.  And I also stay away from processed foods... because after all, when it contains more chemicals than actual food, should we be eating it?

There are some excellent organic foods out there, and if you eat whole, raw organic food, you can't imagine how much better you feel!  Give it a try!

Fly Fisherman - I love it, but I don't do it enough.  There's nothing like standing in the middle of a stream, with the thigh-high water moving past you... nobody around, looking for the perfect little seam in the water where you know a trout is hanging out waiting for a bug to float by.  And there's nothing like the feeling of watching your dry fly drifting right through that little seam, and a Rainbow or Brook Trout surfacing to take hold of the fly and make a run for it.  Peaceful, and yet exhilerating.  It's most awesome!

Poet - I love to write pretty much anything, and one of these days, I intend to write a novel when my schedule allows it, but in the meantime, I like to dabble in writing poetry.  Not saying any of it's good, but it has some pretty good therapeutic value.  I tend to write only when I have some sort of conflict in my life, rather than when things are good... which is why I haven't written lately.  Anyway, here are a couple of poems I've written in the past.

Eastie - What's an Eastie you ask?  Well, it's someone that lives in East Grand Rapids, MI.  Prior to moving here, I kind of scoffed at this community because I thought it was full of a bunch of stuck up, snobby rich white people.  And while there's some truth to that original opinion, the reality is, it's a great community to live in.  The school system is excellent, there's are two beautiful little lakes, excellent resttaurants, and vital and active downtown called Gaslight Village, and beautiful old homes on tree-lined streets.  The neighborhoods are safe and active with kids of all ages, as well as people jogging, bike riding and all forms of physical fitness.  It's a great place to live

So this is just a sample of all the things I have to be thankful for.  God and provided me with a wonderful life, great friends, an excellent career and the best family a guy could ask for.  So I just wanted to create a web site to honor and celebrate everything that has made this life of mine so beautiful!

Thanks for taking the time to visit my site!