Mid-Week Mom (& Dad) Chat: Willie Powers.

adolescent phases where I was a hot mess. We could say, oh yeah, we could definitely say that Willie quarantine quarantining together for a long time. Willie has taught me why did you drop your diet coat? Everything's fine, Everything's fine. It's a fine um. When I was in the midst of I mean, what crisis is? Have you helped me navigate? You can be honest, I'm very real on this podcast. I mean, we rescued you from Spain. Oh god, it started back and you hated my guts. Oh I hated you.

Tell everyone how I hated you. I was such a little brat. Well it wasn't your fault. I mean your sister and I were that I was such a brat. Oh my god, puppy love. We were calling each other nicknames, and you just had like mad, I know you're you and will you and Kat were like, hey number one, Hey number one, there's my number one. Everyone was sick of it. Y'all were so goo goo gaga and love. I was like, I was anti love at that point too. I've never been in love, and I thought love was stupid.

And now all of a sudden, you, I think you were taking all of my attention from Catherine because used to dote on me, and now she could have given two cents about me. She is the ultimate caretaker, and I'm sure you had had um had the blessing of that. I'm sorry if I she only ruled my life. She made my college schedules for me. She cooked me every dinner I would take. When I went to Baylor for a year, I would take my laundry over there. She would do on my laundry. Haven't I came up? We're

now that we're quarantined together again. We shared laundry. We did all our laundry, and one she had everything folded up perfectly like it was on a display at buckle, dude, I mean that she she does it all day long. I don't know how she keeps up with it all. But anyway, yes, I'm sure I stole a little bit about from you. Back then, I was just jealous because y'all were cute. We were pretty cute. Anyway, that was fun.

We went and picked you up from Spain Compostella at San Jose, Santiago de Compostella, and you had been eating potato. What are those things called little sandwiches? So here's the thing in Spain, a sandwich they have espanola, was it? It's my favorite they have. They sell cookies everywhere you go with fiber in them because the food is so constipating in that country that you have to eat these fiber cookies just to process at all. But that was fun. We went and ran with the bulls. You ran with

the bulls, ran from the bulls. I wish I would have had more consciousness at this time of my life. I was so insane in my head. I didn't know how to think straight. I don't even know what I was trying to think about. So I don't everything's a big giant blurred Are you suggesting something's changed about this. I feel like I have much more focus now. Back then I probably was focused on like I was boy crazy.

Oh my god, I was so boy crazy. You have been through a lot of my boy craziness, all the boys. Willie's like a good judge of character. I always start trying to kind of date someone, especially when I was living in Austin, and he'd be like, m hm hmm, yeah, but you know, then you met a man. But you knew Michael first part time, the first halftime show and second halftime show. You've noticed the whole time I did. And he made a lot of sense to me the first time around, and made a lot of sense to

me the second time around. I think it's so great that you guys have ended up together. And uh, most notably because Sunny is so cute. She's really the reason. Back to running with the bulls, what was that experience? Like, it was really crazy. You know the year that we did that, um, so a lot of new laws went into effect. Your dad, this is a this is kind of a cutburst family thing. Before we went, your parents

had planned the trip. We were all going to go, but your parents had been on a bunch of trips and I think they'd had some some of your dad's dentistry courses back to back and they were blown out of traveling and they elected to let us go. Um, we were not married at this time. You and Kath were not married, and I was like twenty I wonder, wonder what year that was. You all got married with

Ka was twenty five, so y'all were probably twenty four. Yeah, we might have not even been engaged at No, y'all were just young love kids floating around the world together. It was me, the angry, grumpy sister, and two keep people madly loved sharing a hotel room in Spain, traveling around together. Oh, I could have just thrown up, Well, such a brat. I think I probably did throw us after drinking they had they sell that rio ha. It was like dr pepper and red wine mix together. I mean,

oh my gosh. But anyway, we had read your your dad had read this book. We're sitting around reading this book about how to Run with the bulls. He googles a guy's name and calls four one one, which probably none of your listeners even know what that is. But you can dial four one one on the phone and you could say, I need the phone number for x y Z person in x y Z City. We called the guy at his house and um, I'm getting instruction.

You know, we didn't. We just kind of this. I don't know how to do this, and we haven't talked about the safe word. What's the safe word? Um? What should it be? Well? I use the really offensive ones usually, I mean, we can go with mistletoe this time. Okay, we'll go with mistletoe. All right, I don't even know. We're really like, he's like, listen, what are we gonna talk about? Like, it's gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine, everything's gonna be fine. Well, it's fine so far. We

got missiletoe if we needed so. Anyway, he calls the guy. He tells us how to do it. But when we get there, they have changed the rules. Now they had you had to enter the street at one side and run all the way down to the Colosseum. And if you got to the Colisseum before the bulls, the locals would pelt you with rotten tomatoes for being a coward and because you need to hang with the bulls. That's right,

that's right. The Wooseys are the ones who got to the colisseum first, and they would just rock you with with rotten fruit. So but I didn't care. I ran as fast as I have ever run in my life as soon as they let the bulls on the streets because the bulls buck people, they actually kill people. Yes, yeah, it's it's not safe. No, this is totally not safe. Locked into the streets, it's not like you can take

a lift if you get nervous. They have these huge barriers keeping you on the street and there are people above yelling at you. This isn't really insane thing. People's streets are slippery, it's wet and soggy, and everybody's drunk. It's just it's a lot of fun and leading up to this, Katherine Willie and I. You wear these white outfits, so you have like white pants and white shirt and

a red sash so you tire around your waist. Everyone in the entire city, what's the city called pop shoot mistletoe. So you're wearing these red sashes around this white Pamplona white outfits and everyone's drinking sangria and they're like there's like people just holding pictures in Sangrea. You walk by on those port in your mouth, like it was just wild on the streets. We were in this wild part, we would have all had coronavirus, oh for sure, for sure.

And then you wake up. You just drink all the time. Everyone's hanging out, and then the running of the bulls happened, so everyone's drunk, which is totally extra and safe. Man. Well, anyway, I got to the I've ran down that street, got

to the Colisseum. We're so happy to see you. I turned around because I wasn't going to run through that tunnel until there was bulls, and so I just waited and waited and waited until the first bull came around the corner and I started running, and so he and I entered the stadium simultaneously knocked me over on the ground. The bull knocked you over. Well, it's hard to explain, but it's just a massive human beings. There were forty or fifty people at that same time with the bull,

and so I don't know. Anyway, it was really fun and it was a great baptism into being a member of your family. Because since then I've done about seventy six other in the same things. But it's never thought I would do. I mean, we have hiked the We've hiked all over the place. I mean, my family does not get together wearing matching puffy jackets and matching hiking shoes and trudge over mountains, but your family does. And so we did in Milford Track in New Zealand. That

was beautiful. Um. We were talking, Katherine and I were talking about that yesterday, going to do that again at some point with Genevieve maybe. Um. And that's where we hacked like seven or eight miles a day, thirty five miles total. But it was really nice, Like the lawnmen flew helicopters up and down the trail keeping up with it. And you didn't have to pack water. You just had to pack a cup and you could scoop it out of the rivers. That was so cool. And then we

did the Inca Trail. That was a whole different story. Tell me about that one, Willie will This is in Peru. The Inca Trail was did not have a helicopter clad people. They were like, it was the rivers are dirty, the water is dangerous, the food is treacherous. And I think day three of that hike, I came down with the most awful stomach disorder that a human being can get

in the middle of nowhere. You cannot get out. We are in the we are three days in, so we're probably almost thirty miles into the middle of nowhere, way to Machu Picchu and halfway back home. There's no getting out, and there's nowhere to go to the bathroom, and you to keep going. You gotta walk the rest of the way. I was doing everything you can do when you have one of these stomach disorder, and to miss the top

of all. The first night it hit me, and I'm not going to go into any too many details, maybe a couple of details, but I'm in a tent on the mountain side and I go, oh, my goodness, us, I've got a problem. I ran out of the tent

to go to the bathroom. I get there, there's four of these, the porters that came along with us, who carried all the food and things like that, and they have this in the restroom they have it's just basically a room, and there's a hole in the middle of the room, and on either side of the hole they have salt saltillo tile floors. But the two holes next to the or the two tiles next to the hole have footprints in them to show you exactly where you're

supposed to stand. Oh my gosh. Anyway, it's just a hole in the ground to go to the bathroom and send some time in there. Well, there was five guys in front of me and I had to wait for them. It wasn't good. It was not good. I mean, I was throwing up. We had to go get some medicine from our guide in the middle of the night, and the next three days were really rough. Your dad came along, you know, like to get that. I think we were we were either and you were engaged at this point.

We weren't married. I don't think your dad came up to me and I was still like, he's doctor cut werth. You know, I've got a lot of respect for him. He is all my friends warn me when I started dating your sister. He is gonna climb up a tree you shoot you in the middle of the night. He's dangerous. Watch out for this guy. And he came up to me and he put his hand on my shoulder as I'm crouched throwing up over the side of this mountain, freezing cold, wet, sick. You know, this is my hundredth

mile to hike with your family. And he said, you are right, and I said, get your epping hand off of me, and he said I understood, and he kept walking. He just knew I needed some piece and quiet to just to be there on the side of the hill. But he really cleared the way from Michael. He has had it so much like I feel like you really had to break the ice of like coming into our family. And then Michael's just gotten to float right in. He owes me big time. He totally does. I really took

a lot of the took a lot of that. You're a good sport Willie. Yeah, And here I am. We still together. Fourteen years. You've been married to Catherine. You've been through the many phases of mind sanity. When you say, I've kind of started leveling up. You're awesome, You're not insane, You're not you are you are spirited than you. I think you've described yourself as somebody who has different versions of yourself. You know, when it comes to um emotions

and perception. You know, some days you wake up and it's you're rocking and rolling. Some days it's you know, you're looking at it a different way. But you have always been kind, You have always been sweet. Beginning been funny once I got to it. Even then, you know, that was that was explainable. It was understandable. I'm dating your older sister. Of course at point, well, it's okay, I was. I didn't take it that way. I just was.

I laughed it off. I thought it was you know, it was a completely acceptable response to what you were dealing with. Well, And I used to be a lot more like angry and upset too, because I was so just lost and trying to navigate and find footing, as you do. Everyone does it in different ways. I was a little more like angsty. Isn't it surprising that you when you're a kid, you think, I can't wait to be an adult, so I'll have everything figured out. And

then you know, Bethan's figured out. It's all the same. You know, you're still you still have to wake up and work through you know, everything, work through challenges. What have you learned about life? Because I feel like you're someone who I always think is really wise, Like every time Michael and I are stressed, or like Michael's going through something, he's like I just gotta call Willie. I'm just gonna call Willie and get his opinion on this,

because he's got such a great opinion. And I feel that way about you. I feel like you always are able to have a good, clear, well rounded opinion. Well that's really sweet of you to say that. But I, um, I am human just like everybody else. You know, I have to think through things and find a way to I can't take a lot of credit for that. I think I was born naturally wanting to be happy. I wake up every day trying to find a way to

be happy. And I'm about logical and so I can use logic to get there and and leisure to get there. So I, you know, the logic side of me spends a lot of time wondering about the math that's going to take to where I don't wake up in a panic, you know, like during this this coronavirus thing. You know, how do you keep your house in order so that when I'm in the oil and gas. But this and it is very mercurial. I mean you We've had years

where we've made lots and lots of money. We have had years where we made zero money, and so the logic side of me says, the year the zero years are coming again and there lots of lots of years. Put it away and be ready for that. Um you know so I think there. I mean your question was what have I learned about life? Life is just going to be up and down and over. I mean, you just gotta be ready for the ups, have fun when it's up, rein it in when it's when it's down.

Like this week, we ain't ordering everything off Amazon this week. You know we're not. We did eat at the nicest takeaway from the nicest sushi places. We had to take advantage of the fact that they're offering take away. I'll pull in there. I pulled in there with a trailer and a lawnmower on the back of it side by side. Probably not their standard customer, but anyway, Yeah, I think you just uh if if you are finding yourself unhappy, for me, it's usually because I'm not doing something engaging

or I don't feel good. And so I would say when you're when you're in that state of mind, go for a walk. You don't have to lose twenty pounds today, just go for a walk. It's your blood moving. If you ate a bunch of cookies yesterday before you eat all the cookies today. We're having to do this in in Wuarrantine. By the way, we have so much good food here. Pepper for breakfast sharing is the world's most

wonderful um supplier and caretaker and quartermaster. This house has probably seventeen thousand rounds of ammumunition and a bunch of food. By the way, if you think about coming here to get any of that, you won't make it through the front gate. Very good with our rifles. Yeah, yeah, I have been hog hunting every night. Last night Michael and I go outside to sit on the front porch and Willie's out there on the side by side, which is full of inner tubes because they're floating down the river

like siding in a hog barefoot. Well, great, when they run past, that's when you got to shoot them. I know, um, but no, we uh, I think that, you know. I have had it made a conscious decision to eat some carrots before I eat some twigs. And that's too because I want to feel good, you know. And and so when you're feeling good, you can think good. When you think good, you can be emotionally good and so I don't know. That's I just try to stay feeling good

and and do things that don't get me in trouble. Yeah, you know that's I don't want to be in trouble. I don't want to boon in trouble. Where does that so from not wanting to be in trouble? I was born that way. I hated being in trouble when I was a like, you know, they would write your name on the chalkboard when you're in trouble. Oh man, just seeing my name on the board if that ever happened, and it was never my fault. Mom, uh, the other kids were talking to me. But um yeah, I just

never ever wanted to be in trouble. I don't like that. And it's probably, you know, the deeper side of that is an ego thing or you know, you just want to be looking like you're doing a good job. And it's uh, do you I mean, do we talk about the angiogram? I'm number seven? I don't. I've never read the book. I've just been diagnosed as this by you and your sister. Well know, we made you take a test.

Oh yeah, that's right out here. Actually, so my I mean, my pursuit is leisure, right, I'm always looking for a good time, and being in trouble is an interruption of that. And so I don't want to live in the dold rooms. I don't want your sister to be mad at me. I don't want my parents to be mad at me. I don't want my teachers to be mad at me. And do you just want to stay lighthearted? Yes? And you can't do that if you're if you're doing stupid suh.

That's very true. So you kind of always just gravitated in that direction selfishly to keep the party going. I want everybody to be having fun, you know. In Michael's seven too, And I feel like y'all he'll get a little he doesn't care for people about us at at him a little bit less than you do. I say that, right, I mean he's a little he's a little more fine with He's a turist too, so he's a little more bullish sometimes. Oh oh wait a minute, we're going to

do that. But no, but y'all get oh yeah, what is your sign cancer? You you're a crap. No, I'm a that's for sure. Tiger tiger king, the lion king is everybody watching Tiger King. Oh my gosh, oh man, it is something else. Thank God for Tiger King. He really has has saved the world. Know, we've all got something to talk about, uh huh that we all can laugh about and relate to. So tell me about your childhood.

What how did you get shaped by your childhood? Because there's a bunch of y'all and y'all grew up on a farm and you did crazy things with like knives and things. Y'all were like always playing with dangerous tools. I mean I have lived a charmed lifestyle life. I mean as a kid, I had parents. I think this is this weighs into everything you know, because it shapes who you are. Eventually, he's going to give some parenting advice to all the dads there later on. I'm almost forty.

I'm not quite old enough to give advice. Your dad said fifty was the year you could start. When you're fifty, you can give advice. But then he turned sixty and he said you have to be sixty give advice. It's a rolling number. Um. Yeah, I know. I had a wonderful childhood. I have uh five great brothers and sisters who there was the older crop of four than there were nine years. Then I came along and then my

parents had Tim the play friend for me. So Tim and I kind of had our own thing going in childhood. That that age gap obviously has gone away at this point we're all in the stride of of life and working together on things. But the yeah, we had a cool Well you said I grew up on a farm. Really I we we have a family ranch. It's a ranch. Like, what's the difference in Texas between a farm and a ranch is a farm is where you grow crops and

a ranch is where you raise animals. Now there's there may be people who refute my definition on that, but um, we have a farm and a ranch. But but I was shaped by our time spent out there. We actually lived in the city in Corpus Christie Proper in a neighborhood, and we lived right across the street, directly across the street from my grandparents and down the street from my aunt and uncle, and so we were surrounded by family.

We were very family oriented. Coronavirus is going to cancel our family Easter party this year, which is um a great sadness because it's when we all get together. My grandmother's sisters families, there's a hundreds of us now were Catholics, so we have lots of babies up and yeah, we just we lived right across from Corpus Christy Bay, so we would get up on Saturday morning and walk over there and have go fishing for a few hours and go to the ranch. And my my parents were just

perfect parents and continue to be perfect parents. And your mom is so witty and funny, she's awesome. And your dad's just so chill and sweet. Yes, he's Papa Bear. You know that nobody's going hungry. As long as he's alive. He takes you know. I've always had that in the background, like I I don't have to worry about anything. He would come and save me. My mom would come and

save me. You know. I think that's that would be my parenting advice is if you can create a scenario like I had where you your kids know you're devoted to them at all costs. Uh, it really does create a sense of foundation that I've always had under my feet. And I felt it back then. It was so fun. We just I loved my childhood. I would go back to it. It just we had a ball. We were

always making things, tinkering with things, exploring. What's your favorite memory? Oh, um, gosh, this first one that comes to mind that doesn't do his favorite the first one that comes to mind. I'm trying to think of h or you can spice a few together. I mean, my my very favorite thing to do was to go to the ranch. We had a house there in a little swimming pool, and there was this bridge. I'll tell you this is a good one,

so you could walk to this bridge and go. We would go fishing and catch It was freshwater in salt water, so you could catch alligator, guards and redfish all in the same place, which was super cool. My little brother and I were fishing. I don't know how old I was, maybe seven, he was four. Um, and I got my hook stuck in the tree and I was yanking it trying to get it out of the tree, and it came flying back at me and stuck in my thumb, deep deep, deep in my thumb, and I cried. I said,

go get helped. You know, we were out there with my dad by himself and my This will show some good parenting too. So Tim sprints back to the house gets my dad. My Dad comes driving down and takes and cuts the string, takes me back to the house and sits me down on the back porch, and he says, all right, we've got two options here. You can I can pull this hook out and we can stay here

at the ranch for the rest of the weekend. Or I can take you into the hospital and they can wash it with some alcohol and and cut it open and pull it out the right way. I said, we'll just let's stay here. Let's stay here. Of course, I don't want to Hey, I don't want to interrupt my weekend and be exactly yeah, b I don't want to be cut open. And you know he stitched in that it was not going to be cool if we went

into the hospital. He goes over this pine tree in the yard, snaps off a limb, brings it over to me, gets a rusty pair of pliers. Um, My dad never had good tools. He always had just whatever was left over. He's he gives me a stick and he says, bite down on this stick, and he holds my He grabs my hand, grabs the hook with the plyers and pulled and it doesn't come out. And I snapped the stick in half. And I just had I mean my eyes were just red and watery and I'm trying not to cry.

And he looked in my eyes and he said, I'm sorry. I promise I'm gonna get it next time, and he, I mean put all his My dad is this mighty guy, six ft three, huge, just like that unintentional muscle, you know, And he just jerked it out of there and it came free. I still have a scar on the thumb ringer. Did he cut? It made a crunching sound when it came out. No, that wasn't an option because it was a treble hook, which all the real fishermen are. They got three hooks on it and all the tremor gone

and what a chump. But anyway, um, wow, that was not comfortable, but got the weekend kept going and and so we had fun this day. We got a story and and a lot of our lives was like that. Just was the one with the parachute and Tim oh Man, Well, my brother Edmund had bought a parachute. Yeah, at a yard sale. Oh here's a parachute. We can think it's something fun to do with that. And so down on the Gulf coast where we were the ranches. It's windy all the time, and this was a particularly windy day.

We find this thing in the back of my brother's truck. We were probably teenagers at this point, and all we had for a rope was a lasso, and so we got a core piece of corrugated steel, basically a giant knife, and we were gonna sit on this thing like a sled and let the parachute pull us down the road. Well, we just put the lasso part around my brother's stomach like a loop a noose. Perfect, And I said, all right, great. He was always the guinea pig. Tim if you're listening,

I'm so sorry. I owe you whatever you need, just I'll give it to you. But anyway we go. He sits on this tin, He's got the loop around his stomach, around his waist, and I grabbed, I stretched the string out, grabbed the parachute, and I flap it up into the wind and it instantly goes and fills with air and sucks that cinches the rope down off his stomach. He looks like a cartoon character with his eyes bulging out of his face because he's now being cut in half

by this rope. And it goes and it's dragging him across the field and I'm running behind him, you know, probably barefooted through these thorns. We have these terrible thorns, called him skeet. He's getting killed billy thorns. And finally I catch up to him and I'll grab him. But all I'm doing is putting force in the other directions. So I had to run finally and run all the way and tackle that tackle a parachute and uh, we looked at each other like, well, we did it again,

survived another potential injury. So, oh my gosh, your mom is the saint for having all those kids. Don't know how she's still kicking because she's so Your mom has got such a spunky personality. I love your mom. She's a blast. She has been the perfect mom. We we talk at least once a week, um and and really more than that three or four times a week, and we just have very um similar you know, brains and y'all both enjoy humor a lot. Oh yeah, y'all are

good at make king. She's a little naughty, little edgy. Yeah, you are good at making situations feel find a humor in them even when things are sad. Like you, you'll be sad and you'll feel feelings, but yet you can always bounce out of it with some humor. And your mom does that really well too. Definitely, definitely, it's a great way to just get through things. You know, if you can't laugh at yourself, we are all going to die.

That is a guarantee. And if you can stitch that belief into your life, um, we're you can laugh off these things that happened, because things are gonna happen. Um. And I remember my grandmother. We had something happened in the family and my mom went to tell her. She was ninety one years old, and you know, she had to share some bad news with Granny and she said, Mom, I am, I am so sorry I have to tell you this. And she said, I'm the perfect person to

tell I'm ninety one years old. I've seen it all. I know these things happen. And that was a great perspective, and I think she you know, my my grandmother was very stoic. She never got worked up about anything. Stoic to the point of like almost emotionless and um, and we've kind of rebounded in the other direction in our generation. So but she was a wonderful you know, kind of give you that perspective, like you can tell a joke about this because tomorrow's coming and yesterday's over and let's

keep on going. So what has your perspective been now that your husband, your father of a nine year old, you're almost forty, what is your kind of life perspective? Like, how have you navigated these are chapters? Well, I love being a husband. Your sister, it is we are yin and yang as you know, your sister and I she is taype a, you know, very ducks in a row,

very organized. I am half the time she tells me something, she has to tell it to me again because my brain was thinking and I didn't even hear what she said, you know, like I am just distracted and I'm always thinking of new ideas, creating, and she's always organizing. So we have been a perfect match because she doesn't I think she would she would own this. She does not have a lot of novel ideas. She's not a creative

person by nature. She is a good organizer, but she doesn't have she's not making new things, organized things and get them like in perfect condition. Right, And so if which sounds terrible to someone who's always creating things. Yeah, I don't care, I want, I mean, but it's great you need that person. I am a tornado. I mean, I leave a pile of debris behind me everywhere I go. And but I'm also self aware and I try not

to be you know, problematic about it all. And she is also very self aware too, So we've been able to blend that. You know, we started a business together, and I can kind of see the future and she can take care of the present. She has been so so really, marriage is just great. I mean I'm married obviously really really well. Um and definitely I'm married above what I should have been able to expect. And so um,

I love marriage. And then fatherhood is just incredible. We have a nine year old daughter, Genevieve, who is um we call her the great enthusiast. Everything she does she does with gusto and she has been, uh, the perfect child, a real blessing, and so um, I have no complaint. So I couldn't have it couldn't have worked out better for me at this point, and so I love it. And I feel your your sister makes me feel the way my dad and my mom makes me feel, you know,

just very sturdy. I know that when you're when you are a man, when you're working, when you're trying to do a good job in the world, do a good job for your family, kill stuff and drag it back to the cave. You know, you have fear, you worry about not doing it that well. And anytime I feel that fear, I think about the reality of my life, which is if we went broke, your sister and Genevieve would help me start a taco stand. And you know they don't care. They love me, and so it does.

If you're listening, do that for your for your significant other, Let them know that no matter what happens, that you'll be right there, and that that's the greatest thing in the world is to know that you'll always have companionship. No one's gonna abandon you. You know your parents have done a good job making that a mantra of their lives. Your dad has always said, Sharon, you can leave me, but I'm coming with you. Yeah, you know he's just trying to divorce me. I'm going to pitch it in

the front yard. I'm never leaving well. And what he's saying is I need to know that you're not going anywhere, and I know that and it's just great. So um so yeah, marriage to Catherine has been a continuation of that, that foundational feeling I've always had. It's fun and we have a lot of fun together. I mean, we backing an rv R. We travel, we go all over travel with your rabbit, your hamster, and your dogs. So one of the things that that your sister's type a personality

cannot stand as a blank calendar. So she she sees a box on her calendar that doesn't have something to do in it. She's got a She fills our dance card pretty good. She keeps me going, which is good because I would be a homebody without her, and I never would have seen the things that we've seen or done the things we've done. And so yeah, we bought an RV. I mentioned it, that's joke to use it as a ranch house, and uh, we bought it. Put it at the ranch to have a place to sleep

out there. And finally she said, you know this thing has wheels on it. Should we go up pull it around? And so yeah, we've we've been doing that. The last few years are like looking up r V parks all over America, like, oh, this will people well where we will RV this year. I love it And now I want to buy on Harvy Park or build one. I've got that in my mind. You know, Michael's aunt owns an RV park right outside of Charleston. It's called Tacha.

I think she'd sell it. It is truly heaven't Like I had never been to an RV park and we went and stay it out there with an RV man. There's a little store. Everyone's so nice. It's so fun. Like some people live there full time. Other people just visit. R V parks are where it's at. It's the soft underbelly of the United States that you know, you drive past these things, your whole life going on. You know, RV park right, you pull in there and and it's

this whole little microcosm of life and awesome. We love it. We love it. So that's been fun. We go all over the place. We go to the Bahamas together every year a couple of times. Um, it's fun. Tell me when Michael and I were first parents, we set out by the fire actually here at holl Creek. Thing was ever Christmas, drinking some wine me having full blown anxiety attacks and Michael being calm, and you're giving us parenting advice. And you gave us some really good parenting advice. And

I would like you to share that with us here. Um, do you remember it, because I don't. One time you said always smile, that's definitely tell me about that. Well, when you have a baby, if it sees you smile every time you see it, it's gonna smile back. If you're frowning at it every time you frown, it's gonna be one of those frownie kids. And I wanted a smiley kid again, going back to desiring everything to be happy and being a party. And so if you smile at your baby every time you see it, it will

smile back at you. And if you surround yourself with smiley people, you're gonna be smiley. So better start with your kids. Um. And so yeah, just we did that as we were intentional about that, although that wasn't hard because if you can't look at a baby and smile, you know they wear you out. It is it is mind boggs. Yes, um, she she she was not a good sleeper. And Um, when you don't get enough sleep, here's another piece of advice. If you're not sleeping, you're

not thinking right. If you are worried all the time, man, you need some sleep. Because I started thinking the sky was gonna fall, you know. I was standing over her, worrying about things in my business, worrying. You know. I just had these irrational fears. But I think that's really normal. I had like panic attacks. I've always been kind of anxious, but like they went to a new level in pregnancy and having a baby. Well, now because you've got somebody

is responsible for you. The scariest day of my life was the day that I found out Catherine was pregnant with gene View. We had come home from a weekend at the ranch and I heard her scream in the bathroom. I went in there with my flip flop over my head because I thought there was a scorpion or something I was gonna go kill it, and she was holding a pregnancy test. I fell back on the bed and the ceiling was spinning because I realized in that moment I had done everything I could do to control the

outcome of the situation. I can't pick the gender, can't pick what kind of kids you're gonna get You can't make it healthy, you can't give it ten toes you are. You've lost control, and being out of control is an uncomfortable feeling. And kids take over a huge part of your life because they want to be fed, like almost every day. Yeah, and so you really I had this this crazy thought that I when I when we had a baby, we gonna hold it with one hand and

do the rest of my life with the other hand. Yeah, that's false, That is stupid. They need a hundred percent of your attention. And so um yeah, I mean it's just so heavy. It's so but it's so amazing. I get now why everybody says it's the greatest thing you'll ever do. But it's also like the hardest and scariest thing. It's totally all those things. It is. And as your kids because get older, it it finally starts to get

back to you. You know. I can remember the first time I woke up and Genevieve was on the couch eating a waffle that she had toasted for herself, and I thought, oh my gosh, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it's not an oncoming train. Um, we are going to get out of this. You know, she she eventually will take care of herself, and boy has she? Um? So yeah, it's but kids make you better.

They make you a better version of yourself because you know, if you just try to live a life of m h, you just can't be selfish when you're keeping another human being alive. I mean, who when do you have the opportunity to stand over a crib looking at something's little chest going up and down, realizing you're responsible for keeping that life going. It's scary, and it it forms you into a better version of yourself after time. UM, I love it. I love being a dad. It's really cool.

You're a really great dad. You had a really good We've learned a lot from y'all. You are really good at letting Genevieve figure things out on her own, and like she you let her lead with her curiosity a lot. And y'all don't ever like yell at her, get or get frustrated with her. You always are good at explaining the situation like it's making her a really great thinker. You well, you know, when it comes to like the safety aspect or letting letting her do things, we didn't

really have any control over that. We went. We took her to visit my parents when she was very young, and came back in the room and my mom had her cutting paper with scissors, like sharp fiskers scissors. And it was a test. I think mom wasn't a test um. It was a test to see if Catherine would let my mom you know, my mom. That's how we ran

our childhood. We just there. We wanted a lot of rules, you know, they didn't With six kids, you don't have time to administer all those rules, and so you can't police and six kids, you just have to trust them and let them get hurt and all those kind of things. And so anyway, it started early, and I was the same way my you know, same philosophy, like let her run down the driveway. She's gonna smash her face, you know,

it's not gonna be the end of the world. And she did smash her face, which she does have a toneil that's messed up because it got smashed um under a skateboard that I was sitting on. And I mean, talk about responsibility, I mean just that those things happen, and but you just gotta you know, scars or not. The end of the world getting hurt, it's good for you. Um any kind of experience that lets you know you're gonna make it is great. I remember when we walked

to the Milford Track in New Zealand. I had never done anything like that. Your family is good about you know these adventures. Dad wants to be dropped off on the side of the mountain and survived for the rest of our three You your little butts off a roof when you were kids, and taught you how to hit role. He read a newspaper article about these kids who had perished in the fire because they were too afraid to jump off of a roof of a burning house. I

was not going to happen to his kids. So he took a ladder out, made you climb up on the roof, jump off and hit and roll. And that's one thing about Dad I will always give him credit for he always was he let us have total freedom and like pursue or whatever. It was a heart desire, but he was like, we're going to know how to survive and we are going to know how to think for ourselves. Well,

you know, there are two two parenting styles. One you can work really hard to protect your children from everything that might happen to them, or you can give them the tools to um deal with the things that are going to happen to them. Kids are going to get hurt. Um Trying to protect them from every injury isn't realistic. It burdens you unfairly as a parent, and it runs the risk of leaving them ill prepared for for dealing

with hardship as they grow up. So it's your kind of opportunity to let them crash and burn a little bit. But it is scary. I mean, Jenevy broke her arm last year. Scared the heck out of me. You know. It just you don't want your children to get hurt, especially an injury that you know that we see people having to deal with. You know, there are injuries that you can't recover from and they can happen to anyone. Yeah,

there's no there's no protecting yourself. You just have That's the part that I struggled with so much for a long time of having It's like terrible anxiety with that it can happen to anyone. It happens to the best people. It's like that's the part of being a parent. But how did your faith come into play with that? Well, of course, of course, I mean that is the foundation of my life, a belief in God and a belief that, you know, kind of my grandmother's philosophy, like, look, you

live enough life, you're gonna see some stuff. You're gonna lose people who are important to you. You are going to lose things that are important to you, abilities that are important to you, you know, And um, so definitely, I mean, if you, if you, you've got to have faith, and that faith is a really challenging thing. As if you're if you're mildly intelligent, it's hard to believe in

something you can't see. Period. If you if you know science, if you know the way the world turns, believing in God is a challenge and so you have to have a capacity for mystery to get there. Um. I am tempted all the time by my own knowledge base to say it's not possible. We're just a little twitching bag of chemicals. And the reason I believe in God is that my you know, the the ancestors who believed in this stuff also formed themselves into little groups and they

were successful, they lived, and now I'm still here. You know you can, you can get real smart and talk yourself out of out of belief. But I pent of the time, I'm a firm, firm believer in a God who loves me. What has that felt like in your life? I always like to talk to people about feeling God actually like personally because we all have different experiences than I think. Whenever you actually do feel God for yourself is when it makes it easier to believe in God.

At least for me, that was how it went. Well. You know, like I said, I've lived a wonderful life and I've always felt hashtag blessed, you know, like I so, but that's not real. But you also it's your perception because you've had heart to happen to you. Yeah, um, I choose happiness that we talked about that, but I think, um, you know, God doesn't promise you sunshine and rainbows. That's not the promise of God. The promise is that he loves you and he'll take care of you in his

own way. And I think the very best thing that has happened for my walk with faith is becoming a father. Because you hear about God the Father, he is our father right in in the Christian Bible, and I you know, I never really focused on that side of God. He was more like God the ruler and or God the creator.

Once you become a father or a parent, a mother, you understand what that means to be to be a parent, you know, like your child is safe, they can do no wrong, they can you'll the story of the prodigal Son. I was revisiting that last week, and you know, you're always wanted, You're always welcome back home, like come on home. And I think that that is the joy of God, like that no matter what's going on in my life, he wants me. He wants me. I am desired to

buy him. And that's a what a great thing, you know, what a cool concept that there's some this you know, huge being that wants me. I mean, that's cool, and that everything that's happening is for your greatest good ultimately, even if it doesn't feel like that. Yeah, I mean, well, you know, if you believe in if you believe in heaven, if you believe in the Bible, the world is not where we're headed. This is a place for us to

be challenged. This is a place for us to choose um and so he's not promising You're not gonna getience. There is no faith, no healthy faith, no healthy religion in this world that says if you do everything, your life is going to be perfect. That's not that, that's not his promise. And no life. Have you look at any life out there? No life is perfect. And there's been stuff happening in the world for as long as it's been around. That's it. Yeah, they're famine. I mean,

look what's happening right now. You cannot control these things, and we choose to believe in a god who allows these things to happen. We can't understand why, you know, you, um, you don't know why children are allowed to get cancer. You don't know why young people are allowed to die. We have that That goes back to the capacity for mystery. You know, you have to be open to understanding that he loves you and all of this is part of it, you know. Um. Yeah, I love feeling sturdy in my faith.

I love feeling loved and protected and and knowing that there is this great thing waiting for me if if he lets me in. Fingers crossed, I think you're going to get in, Willie. Oh man, I don't know. Okay, so we're gonna wrap up. This is really fun talking to you. Documented this conversation too well. We always have these conversations by the way, sometimes by the fire. We had a little uh late night glass of wine. Man, I drank a whole bottle by myself. Well, you don't

have to admit to volume. You know, I'm not going to tell how much purple teeth in the morning. Yeah, that's strong because I'm sharing a room with Sunny. So I came in there with my purple teeth and I'm like, I'm not going to go brush them away with purple teeth. And also I probably just was really ready to go to bed. Yeah, you always give me good brotherly advice. I never had a brother. You give me a good sister leaveing. I love your perspective of the world. Taught

me the younger sister version. You know, had a younger sister sister never did. Never did. You got two wonderful older sisters who are awesome. I talked to with them yesterday. But um, yeah, it's uh. You have been a wonderful little sister. It's been fun. And even when you didn't like me in Spain, I knew you'd come around. So I always end with leave your light and it's really wide open. What do you want people to know? Just

very wide open. Just the first thing that comes to mind. Man, UM, just find the best way to be happy in your own version of that. Find a way to feel safe and happy and to also, UM, one of the best ways to get there is to provide that feeling for somebody else, whether it's a parent or a sibling, or an old neighbor or a child. UM, find a way. If you can find a way to give that away, you'll feel it yourself just in doing that. So man, just be happy, smile, smile today. This is a fun time,

what a crazy time to be alive. And know what are your thoughts about navigating this in the world. I don't have a care in the world, you know. I think it's UM, I'm gonna be smart. I'm sitting here with you and Michael in the middle of the country, and we're doing our best too. I don't want to get sick. Mostly from the functional standpoint, I don't believe

that I would die if I got coronavirus. But UM, I don't want to be trapped in some hospital that they're not letting me out of or something like that. So we're trying to stay healthy. Um, but I don't I don't fear this at all. I've lived through h one in one stars, bird flu, swine flu, y two K. I mean there's always some thing coming at you. So it's just wild. Just it's just as a wild time. Yes, yes, these times. Come pay off your debt, y'all, hear me.

Go look at Dave Ramsey. I mean I love Dave Ramsey. You love Dave Ramsey, and uh yeah, I go. If you don't know who Dave mv is, go find him because when if you if you don't have those pressures, if you can find a way to get your financial financial house in order, um, everything else becomes easier everything. Buying a new tahoe will not make you happy. Having the money you spent on that tahoe in your bank can because it keeps you safe in these times. You

don't have to uh to worry. So that's it. There's my light. Stay financially strong, because that's kind of a that's a thing in this in this world, money can't buy you happiness, but it sure is fun to cry in a ferrari um stay happy. Just stay happy. Yeah, go make somebody else happy and it will make you happy. I love that. Thank Bro for recording your life with me on my podcast. Didn't even have to use a safe word. Oh yes, love you to