I made this.

[codyweiland-blog]

Got it Right.

My first marriage was well, my first marriage. Any time you here that phrase you know that there are more to follow. However, when it happened to me I, of course, doubted. I definitely did not want to do anything anytime soon. But there she was. In my brother’s house, having dinner with an old friend of hers and I was invited because, well why not? “Hey here is my recently divorced brother, you should meet him.” Some serious match -making going here but, I obliged. Who was I to test fate? One thing I told myself was I was not going to shut down. If an opportunity arises, I will make myself do it. So, I got dressed, did my hair, made myself smell good and……ate dinner. Everyone else seemed to have someone to talk to. There I sat as, what felt like, the “of course this guy is divorced, he’s so quiet,” guy.

The visitors left and the four of us made small talk, kind of, and eventually I exchanged a few words with her. What a woman. She was kind, respectful and man was she fiiiiiine! In all seriousness I have not seen beauty done better. So, the internal struggle began. Why now? Isn’t it too soon? What will other people think?

I had only been officially divorced for a month and here I was feeling ready to jump back in. One problem, she lived in Utah. She is originally from central Illinois, but she had moved to Utah to seek better opportunities. Naturally, I went out there to visit her. In the few months between meeting her and going to visit her we had texted and talked quite a bit. Became good friends. Got used to each other’s sense of humor and laughed a lot. Going to see her seemed to bring a whole bunch of pressure. I decided that I didn’t care about pressure, I had to make her mine. I had to break down some walls, and take her to dinner, but before I left for home, I knew I would marry her. One move, one wedding, one reception, two kids and 6 years later, I got it right.

[codyweiland-blog]

Master Family

               There was blood everywhere. I was panting heavily. She was okay, just a few scratches. I was the good boy! SQUIRREL! Anyway, I knew if I had listened, she would have gotten hurt. Man, my ear itches. Girl Master keeps hugging me. I am the good boy! What did I do to be the good boy? Well, it all started with, HEY! BALL!

           Zeek is my name. I am a good bot who live with Master, Girl Master, Master Puppy and brand-new Bald Master Puppy. Today after the dark was over and Master was awake, I heard my call to go outside. Master always lets me out after my long dark rest. After my morning outside time Master and Master Puppy went outside to play. Master let me come out with them on my leash. After a while, Master let me off my leash to run with him and master puppy through the yard. Master Puppy found my ball and started to throw it for me. I would yell loud to her, “throw it, throw it, throw it!” Master said I did not need to yell, but I just wanted to run for the ball! Master Puppy did throw it and I did run for it. This time, though, something was not right. I did not here Master puppy laugh and scream for joy. Something was bad. When I tried to bring my ball back, Master was chasing Master Puppy, but he was yelling. It was not a good yell. I know those good yells. Like when Master yells to me, “Zeek, treat!”, it is amazing. I love treats…. but oh yeah, the story. Master Puppy had her hands on her face and was leaking water. That’s never good. When Master got her hands off her face, I could see what looked like a fuzzy squeak toy I once had when I was a puppy! Its mouth was locked on to her nose and it was hurting her, I had to do something. “GET IT, GET IT GET IT!” I yelled to master. He was trying but I couldn’t wait any longer I went for it, but I missed. Master said no, but I knew I could get it. Master Puppy needed me to. I crouched down and jumped like a good boy and snatched that squeaker toy off her face and shook it back and forth with all my might. Suddenly, I remembered that I had to get that squeaker how. As I went to look for the squeaker, I realized that this toy tasted delicious! Better than treats! I was confused why was there tasty red liquid on my nose and mouth? Why were there feathers everywhere? Why did Master wish that I did not bite it because then he could have had smoked duck? What is duck? I do not know but I know that I was a goo boy. Girl Master explained to me later that I had to get all the red liquid, which she called blood, off of me because it was gross. GROSS? I thought it was good! Master Puppy sure was grateful for pulling that weird toy off her nose. I felt bad for her nose. It had some scratches like I had left before. I love my Master Puppy. No squeaker toy will hurt my Master Family.

[codyweiland-blog]

The Top 5 Chris Stapleton Songs.

 We all have our favorite genre of music. We all have our favorite artist. Chris Stapleton check both boxes to me. His ability to sing smoothly through a song along with being able to have bit of a growl when the song dictates it. Chris Stapleton has been on the music scene for longer than people may know. Chris has been a song writer for a while now. He has written songs for the likes of Adele, Thomas Rhett, Kenny Chesney, Sheryl Crow and even legends Goerge Strait and Alan Jackson.       

For the purpose of the list, I left out any covers that Chris may have done in concerts. Recorded covers are fine for this list. Also, I did not include any songs that feature Chris. I felt that in order to make this list The artist voice should be the main thing you hear in the song, Which leads to my last criteria to this lists, these will be songs Chris only sang. This is not about him as a writer but as a singer. Without further adieu, here we go!

Number 5- Millionaire. This song is a great example of knowing what having love in your life really mean. How valuable is love? Can we really put a price on love? How much is love worth to you?

Number 4- “Broken Halos”. Written for a friend who had suffered cancer, this song talks about the lives of people that we no longer get to personally enjoy. There is a point in the song where Chris sings, “Don’t go looking, for the reasons, don’t go asking Jesus why? We’re not meant to know the answers, they belong to the by and by.” This powerful statement reminds us that trying to understand everything about unfortunate happenings may not be the best for us. Sometimes that is life. 

Number 3- “Nobody To Blame.” This catchy tune about an angered woman, after something had clearly gone wrong in the relationship, going through the place where they live and ruining all his stuff. She even put “sugar in my John Deere, I can’t even mow my lawn”. To this man’s credit, he seems to take the blame.

Number 2- “Whisky and You”- This song was sang by Tim McGraw first, However written by Chris Stapleton. Timmy is good, a legend even, but when Stapleton sings this, you can hear the struggle. You can understand and he gets you thinking that he really cannot tell the difference between hoe whisky makes him feel and how this woman makes him feel. 

Number 1- “Tennessee Whisky”- This should come as no surprise to Stapleton-ites. The great George Jones may have sang this first, but Chris has taken this song over. No previews here, just listen and enjoy! You’re welcome.

[codyweiland-blog]

The Person That Has Influenced My Life, Whom I Have Never Met.

We all have people in our life that we look up to, that influence our lives. Parents, coaches, teachers, even employers can fit this category. Clearly, the people that we meet and spend time with influence our lives. But what about the heroes we don’t meet? What about those famous people that are out of reach to us? How do they influence us? Can they influence us? 

Since I was a child I have loved sports and in particular basketball. I was young, but I remember the 90′s Chicago Bulls. They were led by Micheal Jeffery Jordan. Widely considered the greatest of all time, Jordan had (and still does) a swagger about him. He was supremely confident in himself because he put in the work. There are so many stories of Micheal’s work ethic. From the quote above, you can see his philosophy of how he went about his craft. Failures happen, but not trying is unacceptable. As I watched Jordan play, and as I learned more about him, Failure is something Jordan talks about a lot. He embraced it. What he could not embrace is not trying to overcome the failure. Micheal Jordan’s influence can be seen in my life as recent as yesterday. I have a three year old who is awesome. She is also very spunky and a little spitfire. Many times I have failed in getting my message across to her to help her listen to her Mom and I. Without fail, every time I try a different approach she understands and listens. Triumph! But I did not give up! That may seem small or insignificant, but as a parent there is no better peace of mind than knowing your child respects what you say. This comes only from trying over and over. 

Another way Jordan has influenced my life is to not be afraid to say something, even if it is unpopular or self-boosting. Truth is truth. Micheal is The GOAT (Greatest Of All Time). Other players come and go but there are only a few players all time that have a legitimate case to be the GOAT.  Jordan knows he’s the GOAT, but will let other say it. Soon after Lebron James was being criticized for the way he left Cleveland and joined a loaded Miami Heat team, Jordan responded with this commercial. This was also in response to a commercial made buy Lebron James, where he states he is not a role model and whines about a laundry list of other bogus points. This, ultimately, is my favorite way MJ influences me.

[codyweiland-blog]

Funniest Video on the Internet.

In search for the funniest video on the internet, there must be criteria. My first criteria is someone has to be doing something they are not suppose to be doing. This may sound as an odd requirement but think about the tines in your life when you have laughed the hardest. These times usually begin with someone doing some mischievous work. Number two criteria, has to be a kid or an animal. Kids and animals are just funnier than adults. This is mainly because they do and say exactly whats on their mind.Third and last criteria is had had to laugh for the majority of the video. This kid here, dancing to this bike alarm, so creative and clearly not the first time he has done this. The movements he comes up with for the different alarm noises are priceless. Welcome to the funniest video on the internet.

[codyweiland-blog]

Why College for me?

Why the heck am in college? 

Well, in life, sometimes you hit walls, when you hit those walls you can go right through those walls, you can climb over the wall or you can do a complete 180°. I had a fine career going. I worked for Walgreens as an Assistant store manager. One more promotion and I would have reached my main goal. As I was pursuing this goal, something happened. The drive was fading. The overall want to go to work was gone. The company was making a lot of changes and so was my family. We had moved from Bloomington, Illinois to Poplar grove, Illinois. This was to expand my options and opportunity to be a store manager. When we got here, something was wrong. Something was different about Walgreens up here. Bosses seemed motivated by power and recognition instead of being the best you can for the community.  People in power up here gave me a gross feeling and i had to get out. I was transferred to a new store and that was the final straw. In was done. The store further from my house with a store manager who was an egotistical micro-manager. I looked for alternative jobs to support my family but nothing sounded or looked promising. Then one night as my wife and i talked we brought up going back to school. All of the sudden I was very motivated to go! I wanted to do homework! We worked out a plan and the money and here I am, smack dab in the middle of my communications/public relations program and I am loving the challenge. I still do work full time , but now for a pharmaceutical repackaging plant so that I could have set hours to work around my schedule. I tell you all that to answer the question, “Why?” I went back to school not only for me but for my family. We all know the stats about how education leads to income. However, What I was ,most concerned about was who I was at home. I want to do something i enjoy so that I am a better person at home. I want to show my kids that you can accomplish difficult things with hard work. I want my wife to know that she means the world to me enough that I would stop dead in my tracks and better myself to better our family for her and us. This is why the heck I am in College.