JOHN.

Life has had me in a choke-hold the past month. The type where I'm getting somewhat drug around uncomfortably, still laughing, wondering "when is this guy going to let go?!" 

I took a few conscientious steps this week that have caused some very noticeable ease + sunshine, and it all has to do with John.

If any of you follow me on Instagram you may have seen my post about Remi, the ninja turtles, and accentuating the positive. We were listing the names of all the ninja turtles and for some reason got stumped on the last one. Remi assigned him the name John and it was obviously too late because we found it hilarious! Throughout the week she turns to me and says, "john..." with this smug look on her face and then we laugh. There is some serious truth in laughter being the best medicine.

I snagged some presets for my photos this week from a guy whose name was John. Surprise, surprise! I love taking photos but lately they force me to get outside and remain sane by creating. All around a huge + .

After work on Wednesday, Jason took Remi to read while I finished preparing dinner. They read a church magazine and without fully understanding our humor for John, they read this article about John the Baptist. Pshhh what are the chances?! Rem beams when she now tells us the story of Jesus getting baptized by John and still turns and randomly blurts out the word in the middle of the day.

Jason is away on scout camp this weekend and so this morning Remi and I were kind of bored of each other. I decided to pack up Remi and hit the pool. While we were there we hung out in Remi's favorite area, the hot tub. (her daddy's girl for sure!) There was a man in the pool who found Remi pretty entertaining so he came up and started chatting with us. He asked her age and she blabbed about being 2 1/2, that she is turning 3 in April, and that Ollie had his birthday yesterday -- you know, the important stuff! That's when our conversation took flight. This guy was a walking motivational seminar but I'll do my best to sum it up!

Convo with Mr. Chatty Hot Tub Guy:

• ages 3-16 being the ones that fly by the quickest!
• kids are impacted most by what they learn between the ages 1-6.
• he told me he hoped I was taking a bunch of pictures and remembering to document, to which I explained that I probably take too many! People get after me for it most of the time but I'm a huge fan of documenting.
• he reassured me by saying my future self with be super pumped about my photo obsession and I should never feel like I have to apologize. 
• you do what's best for you.
• if you concern yourself with what people don't like or don't appreciate, you will forget to live and you will lose who you are as an individual.
• stay different.
• look at your sweet little girl, you are living for her too so have fun with it and you do your own thing. (uhhh... amen! All the prayer/praise hands for this guy hey?!)
• when he and his 3 sons were travelling when they were young, they stopped at a gas station. A homeless man crawled out from a dumpster near their car and instead of thinking that's gross, or he's creepy, they asked their dad if they could use their toonies and loonies to buy him some food. That's when he knew he was doing something right.
• he told me that his wife had unfortunately left him not too long ago, that she had decided to stop working as a team.
• he felt like a failure and that he had been shoved into the 50% stat of people getting divorced these days.
• you go home and decide with your partner that you're going to risk it all together and be different.
• BE ALL IN.
• apparently President Bush sky dived at age 84 -- that's too late to live but it's still living.
• some rambling about Trump being considerate to some kids. He might be crazy but he's got soul and tries his best.
• I bring this up with you because you're young + you look like an involved mother, and that combination alone means you can make a difference.
• Attitude is everything.
• Don't be afraid to take some risks to be yourself.
• I wish you the best! I really really do!

He kept dipping his thick navy Ray Bans in the pool because they kept fogging up, but I couldn't help but feel weird and happy I ran into this guy today. 

The lifeguard whistled that the pool was closing so I picked Remi up, shook his hand, said thanks for the chat and that I hope he has a nice day. He agreed and said, "I'm John by the way" (not to be confused with John Bytheway haha) but Remi looked at me in complete amusement and laughed the word John the whole way home. If we ever have a little boy, I'm probably going to have to name him John.