I am married with 3 kids and a dog.  I am an RN who works in the Healthcare IT field for a huge company.  I travel to different places and get to interact with many different people along the way.  I really enjoy my work, but the down side is that I don't get to spend as much time as I'd like with my family.  This is a trade off for a higher salary. I expect that this sacrifice will pan out to bigger local opportunities in the long run, so I suffer through it and hope that my family understands and is supportive. 

I'm lucky enough to have many friends whom I can count on anytime, anywhere.  Life in my 30's with school aged kids and seemingly overwhelming personal responsibilities doesn't allow me to talk with them face to face as often as I'd like, but I do get to have regular interactions with them on the Internet, so that is a great thing for me.

Being a parent is a tough thing... but I'm finding that just as my kids learn and grow, I too am learning and growing with them.  Although I've always tried as hard as I could, I've not always thought I was a great parent, but I think I'm doing pretty well and can see where I'm learning to do things differently and understand how and when to make adjustments to my methods.  I'm learning to be a little more lenient on myself for doing the wrong thing sometimes and staying aware of those things when similar situations arise.

I'm currently working through some stressful "opportunities" with my wife and I hope that we can sort things out and return to some common ground before its too late.  We've both got responsibility in the game and I'm trying to do everything that I can to make it right.  But, I realize that I cannot do this alone... 

I'm not one to look at my past with a magnifying glass and claim that because of all the bad shit thats happened to me in the past, I'm here, lying in a pile of victimhood.  But, I've had to at least recognize and give some credit that the tragedies of my past are revealed in who I am today.  This is tough for me to do sometimes.  I sometimes pride myself for being able to soldier on through the fires of Hell and never look back.  But part of me seems to think that I need to do this to re-evaluate those things from my new perspective in life (that of a more experienced, grown adult).  Its tough though... its easier for me to just face forward and power through anything that gets in my way.

I suspect that if I revisited some past experience and worked through them I would be better armed to handle things going forward in a more healthy way... but I'm a little slow to put this into motion.

My future.  I tend to section out things in my future and can say that most of the sections of my life are so bright that I have to wear shades!!  However, there are some that I want to be so bright, but my confidence is blunted because I cannot control everything that goes on in my life.  I can only control how I interpret and internalize them.  I'm a list guy, so here's a list of items that I'd like to achieve:

1.  Stay married and be happy with my wife

2.  Ensure that my kids grow up to be responsible, respectful, and self-sustaining citizens

3.  Be able to afford to finance my kids' college education and support them in whatever endeavor they choose (as long as its in line with #2.)

I thought I might have a longer list, but those 3 things seem heavy enough to start with, eh?  :)