The Domesticated Male

It's been quite a while since I last blogged. It's not that I haven't had quite a bit to talk about. It's not that I haven't wanted to share. Busy doesn't seem to be the appropriate word for the long delay either. Since I can't adequately explain my hiatus I will just begin again.... I have much to be thankful for this year. I have a new car. We were able to refinance our previous home. We completed our adoption of Brittany and Maddie Brooke. We are almost finished building our dream home. Life has been great in 2015 and as we near the end of this year my heart is full of blessings. None of these items have occurred in a vacuum or in singularity. Most of this has occurred in conjunction with each other and various normal life happenings. You could say that my family has been on a bit of a roller coaster this year. There have been moments when Lexi and I have had to stop for a 'breather' and there have been moments where our sanity and senility

Mother: a poem by: Jamie Tanner (Dedicated to my mom, grandmothers and my beautiful wife and all the wonderful moms in my life. I honor you.) Often the last to bed and at times the first to rise. A day full of worry, as each school drop rolls on by. Whether home or at work the day is ripe with chores. Making sure the family's needs are met with grace and charm. Her selfless acts are often done with no acknowledgement. Knowing things are finished,  all the thanks she often gets. She cares more for others, ensuring they have their wants as well as needs. She swells with pride when her children use ma'am and often please. She's a nurse for bumps and bruises. She's the biggest cheerleader for her team. She's everything that's needed when her kids come running. She's an adviser for all occasions, whether financial or personally. She's the one most of us run to when life is troubling. Mom is her title, but that thre

Lexi and I always wanted more than one child. When we found out we were pregnant with Claudia it was exciting, scary, overwhelming and all the other emotions you can imagine a relatively young couple would have when having a child. Fast-forward four years and we again started having the excitement over thinking about another baby. After many failed pregnancy tests and much discouragement and disappointment we decided that maybe we were not meant to have another child naturally but that there were lots of children who needed homes and adoption was our next option. We went through training and consultation with DFCS and decided ultimately that we would become a Foster home with the hopes of eventually adopting a child(ren) that were placed in our home. We were aware that most of these children come into care with a lot of emotional, mental, physical and historical baggage. With the background that Lexi and I had we were sure we could overcome whatever obstacle we encountered. There

May 2012, I was asked to apply for a new position as  HR Director. I had been very happy in the job I had but a new opportunity seemed promising. I talked with my wife, family, pastor and after much thought and prayer decided to apply. October 2012, I started in the new position. A few weeks into the new job it was apparent that commuting from our home in Valdosta was not going to be good for our family and so we decided to start looking in the Tifton area for a home. We soon realized that the housing market was not the best and chose to go to an apartment. My wife and I had not lived in an apartment since we were both in graduate school. Knowing that we needed to move made this choice for us. February, 2013, my family and I moved from Valdosta to Tifton. I moved to Valdosta when I began Graduate School. I lived there through many milestones of life. I was married there. I became a father there. I also found who I was in Christ and developed a relationship with Him. I didn't go to

My family and I had a family movie night last Sunday evening. We went to see Disney's  'Cinderella'. Since I have three girls I anticipate many ventures that involve princess movies and popcorn in my future. I was pleasantly surprised that I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It was refreshing to watch a movie without the requisite language issues, necessary nudity, or expansive technological special effects. It was just a great all around movie with a great storyline and pretty decent acting. At the end as we were about to exit the movie I had a great feeling of 'wowness'! What a great movie that I could feel great about bringing my children to see. The message of the movie also was one of morals and values that aligned with our family: Courage, Kindness and ultimately forgiveness. What is great now that I am thinking back to the movie is that there was loss and hard work. Ella had to endure quite a bit of tragedy and difficulty before she reached her ballroom m

http://oscar.go.com/ I have always had such an infatuation with movies. I can get lost for two hours in some science fiction future or some  period of the past. I can ride with Ms. Daisy and I can cry with Mr. Schindler. Whoopi and I have an annual date where I watch Shug whisk her away from Mister. There are movie after movie that I can recall and each has such an endearing quality in my mind. My wife, on more than one occasion, has told me that date night does not always have to include a movie. In my world it does! I can appreciate that she wants variety so I try to break out of my comfort zone and do other things but my heart will always belong to the theatre and if I am especially lucky there is a musical playing either on the big screen or off-broadway. Yes ... theatre is a second home for me. One of my favorite things each Christmas break is to take a day and see several movies. I can binge on 2-4 movies in a row and be quite happy. That may sound strange to some but I l

We always knew going into the adoption process would be difficult. We knew as parents it would be hard going from one child to three and we knew there would be adjustment issues for our only child of 5 years to now be a big sister to two other girls. Claudia met the challenge like a champ and has adjusted well. Now to say the adjustment period for parents and for big sister has been rough would be grossly underestimating the full effect. There have been many tears on the part of everyone at various times over various issues. As parents there were tears over attachment issues and behavioral issues related to coming into a new home with a new mom and dad and a new big sister. I am sure for the two 'littles' there have been many issues related to their introduction into the DFCS world and then being placed into two foster homes. We were the second placement for them and are planning for it to be their last. Finally there have been tears from Claudia related, of course, from havi

I created this new shake with several superfoods. It taste good but I don't think I would put all of these ingredients into another shake unless I am needing extreme energy and want to see just how healthy a shake I can create. I think I achieved that goal here... Directions: Blend the following: Kale, Spinach, Coconut Water, Water (1 cup), Flax Seeds, Chia Seeds, Goji Berries , Mulberry Berries and the Vega One Nutritional Shake Mix . Then add the following: Kiwi, Mango, Oranges, Strawberries , Watermelon and Agave. Blend and then add two cups of ice and blend again and serve. All ingredients not highlighted are in the last smoothie recipe with links. Enjoy. jamie

I really like pop music and top 40. Unlike many people I listen to the lyrics of songs and that can be distressing when I know kids are repeating the words. Most kids don't pay attention to the words. They like the music and the beat and how catchy it is. As I was listening to the top hits today I heard a song by Usher called 'I Don't Mind'. Here are the lyrics: Shawty, I don’t mind If you dance on a pole That don’t make you a ho Shawty, I don’t mind when you work until three If you’re leaving with me Go make that money, money, money Your money, money, money Cause I know how it is, go and handle your biz And get that money, money, money Your money, money, money You can take off your clothes Long as you coming home, girl, I don’t mind Verse 1: The ballers in here tonight, they gon’ buy a hundred bottles As soon as you shake it I know they gon’ make it colossal in here Cause shawty you thinkin’ them tricks that you do with your body Got all of these nig

Many friends have asked about my smoothie recipes and their content. I will begin posting my recipes on here along with the pics. I never thought I could drink the 'green' smoothies. They look disgusting and in my mind they had to taste terrible if they looked that bad. I could not have been more ill-informed. Over the Christmas break my sister-in-law noted their great health benefits and that the taste was good regardless of the color. My wife then began discussing buying a blender and as we looked at prices we found a very good Ninja Blender for a super great price and thus my blending began. I will say that most of my first recipes came from a website: http://www.simplegreensmoothies.com/. You can sign up for a 30 day challenge and they send you new recipes each Thursday. I have only utilized a couple of the recipes but they all sound great. With the help of this website and in discussion with my sister-in-law and others I have crafted my own smoothie recipes. Since carb

I've always heard the phrase 'confession is good for the soul'. If that statement is true then this blog should be great for my soul! Over the past few months I have been sharing my excitement over my weight loss. I have so many great friends and family that have been super supportive and I want to give a huge thank you to anyone who has 'liked' a status update or has commented and given me positive feedback. I know to some it's over-sharing but to me support is paramount to success. I am a  people person and having such a great 'support group' in all the various social media arenas has really bolstered my resolve in maintaining my decision to live a healthier lifestyle. I will admit that over the past 40 years food had become my addiction. Growing up in a very conservative Christian home meant that we didn't believe in smoking, drinking, dipping, cussing, listening to 'devil' music (honestly didn't know there were genres of music until