Dear Friends,

Most of you already know that at the beginning of the school year one of Haley’s classmates called her weird. That event set off a spark and Haley with the help of Raye Lynn decided to write a book about Cerebral Palsy and explain what it is and how she is not weird. The book turned out to be wonderful so we decided to publish it.

The book is being published as an 8.5×8.5 hard cover.

The time has arrived and the publisher is ready to print. We are taking initial pre-orders for the book.

If you are interested in pre-ordering your copy the cost is $19.95. This is $5.00 off the cover price. We will be donating 10% of the proceeds of the sales of the book to the ALC. The (ALC) Adaptive Learning Center was instrumental in helping Haley achieve her current abilities and confidence and we love the program.

Haley, a first grader, never thought of herself as different because she has cerebral palsy. When a new classmate told her she was weird because she wore braces and walked funny, Haley was upset. She did not know what to do or what to say as a response. With help from her parents and grandmother Haley decided to write a book explaining that she was not weird-cerebral palsy is not weird. Haley tells what cerebral palsy means and tells all that she does, just like everyone else. Haley brought her book to school and it was read to the class to help the children understand. Haley is proud of herself and hopes her book will help others to understand about cerebral palsy

Haley is an incredible girl who’s just like anyone else except she walks differently. Haley’s writing guide is RayeRaye, her grandmother, the director of a pre-school where she helped to facilitate a model inclusionary pre-school in Atlanta. Haley lives in Marietta, Georgia with her parents and sister and brother.

If you live in the Atlanta area and we can hand deliver the books to you choose the local pay pal button. If you are not local, do not know us, and we will have to ship the books to you please choose the pay pal button labeled “With Shipping.” The shipping charges are $2.99 and we will send the book via USPS media mail.

With Shipping	Local

Please note book will be ordered on Monday. Delivery time will depend on how quickly the publisher is able to deliver.

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There are two blogs below. I initially wrote the fist blog, read it, and then re-wrote it in the second. Funny how a change in your point of view can really change how you feel about a topic. I hope you enjoy.

I apparently have set some pretty hefty goals for myself this year and at the beginning of March I’m feeling the pressure. If you read this blog you know I’m dedicated to the DADvocate project and while it’s going well I really thought I would have many more responses to the survey by now. As is I’m 10% of my way to the goal of 1000 participants. I feel like I probably should have had many more responses but the initial survey design which I pushed out to all my old friends was designed poorly and many of them thought they completed the entire survey even though they only answered the first page of questions. I suppose it’s time to reach out again and ask one more time. I’m just hesitant to appear as if I’m being too pushy.

My daughters book is being published. We are working with Publish America to bring “I’m Not Weird” to market and I’m very excited that the book should be available by the end of the month. However that book should be the biggest thing on this blog right now and because I started the DADvocate Project here I’m afraid that it will lose some of it’s impact. I’m working on designing a new blog for the The DADvocate Project but it seems to be taking a long time and I don’t seem to have all the time I need to get it done. I also want to do a strong media drive on Haley’s book but that takes time as well and I just don’t know where the time is coming from.

Finally I have been training hard for a 1/2 marathon that is scheduled for the end of April. This past week I’ve run a total of 14.5 miles. That is more than I’ve run in a single week ever but i’m still pretty far off schedule and to say I ran 14.5 miles is probably a bit of an untruth. Maybe it’s better to say I’ve traversed 14.5 miles this week most of it running, all of it breathing hard and hurting. I do feel good about the distance but my left leg hurts pretty badly after my runs and I just don’t see the end in sight.

Oh yeah some how I’m trying to maintain my relationship with my wife and kids, do well at work, pay bills, participate in a number of communities, and blogs, occasionally attend services, see my family, maintain friend ships and sometimes get a break and watch tv. Oh did I mention that I maintain another blog and guest post on DADomatic. I also have two dogs that are being neglected but still love me because I feed them. I wonder if I’m crazy?

On Saturday I did my first video interview of the DADvocate project. It was with the founder of “I’m Not A Famous Blogger” crew and BenSpark.com blog, Drew Bennett. The interview was great and I really look forward to the day I have the chance to meet Drew in person. As for the video I’ve had a space issue on my computer. I’ve spent a large part of yesterday and much of this afternoon and evening trying to get files moved to the correct places so I can actually edit the movie. It turns out I’ll probably have to use much of tomorrow evening to finish moving files, formatting drives, and making everything work the way it should. I’m hoping to have an edited video by Wednesday for publishing but it may be Friday depending on how tomorrow goes.

Now looking back at my complaining I’m going to re-write this post:

Wow! We are already 2 months into this year and things are going great. I’m finally getting into the swing of things at work after having been there for 9 months. I’ve been doing a good job of bringing my wife flowers regularly and the flow with 5 people in the family is starting to feel right. As you know I have a few huge goals this year and I’m really on target for achieving them.

First and most exciting – Haley’s book “I’m Not Weird” should be going to print this week! It’s extremely exciting. I’ll post a button for sale on the blog as soon as I have firm dates. I’m also excited b/c she is already lined up for an interview with Deb Ingino from MyWiredStyle.com who has created a wonderful program that helps families learn all the personalities and how to interact. We also have some hopeful meetings set up to publicize the book which really is a must read for every 4-8 year old. The book helps children understand Cerebral Palsy specifically and differences in general. I’m very excited for where this book will go. I’m creating a mailing list for when the book is finally launched. If your interested in joining please complete the following form.

Secondly, I can’t believe I’ve run 14.5 miles this past week. I ran 6 miles last Saturday, 3 miles on Wednesday and then 5.5 miles on Sunday. That’s 14.5 miles in a week. I still have a long way to go before my 1/2 marathon at the end of April but I just might be able to make it there. By the way you can read about my training on the comments at Intrepid Runner.

Finally the DADvocate Project! What an exciting project. We’ve had 100 people complete the survey which means we are 10% of the way there on the survey. This weekend I completed my first video interview. The interview was with Drew Bennett of BenSpark.com and founder of “I’m Not a Famous Blogger” fame. Drew is truly awesome and I really enjoyed the interview. I hope I have the opportunity to meet him in person some time soon. On top of this exciting news I will also be interviewed by the Geek Dads Weekly and Cast of Dad’s pod casts in the next few weeks. Things are going awesomely and after completing The DADvocate Project blog redesign I’ll be making my next moves reaching out for sponsors, and trying to do some traditional PR. I’m also thinking about asking the mommy blogger’s to mention my work in their circles.

I have had a technical set back this week which will hopefully be fully resolved by tomorrow. In the meantime it is pushing back my ability to publish the interview with Drew. Look for it sometime between Wednesday and Friday. Sorry I can’t be more exact but I’m not out of the woods yet with my tech issue.

Thanks for reading this blog and following our progress on the DADvocate project. We appreciate your input and feedback and love your comments. Feel free to post here or on any article on this blog. I do my best to respond to all comments so thanks again for reading and participating.

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Last night we, Haley and I, had the opportunity to interview the Army’s Disabled person of the year. Brook Larabee is an awesome person and was a true joy to get to know. We had quite a bit of additional conversation after the camera was off. She travels regularly, is very active and a genuinely great person. I hope you enjoy the video.

Army Disabled Employee of the Year from Kevin Metzger on Vimeo.

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Check out my most recent post on Goal Setting over at Dad-O-Matic.com. It was posted last night.
Goal Setting

I talk about the use of goal setting in raising children. There are already some very interesting comments.

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I’ve done a pretty good job of doing and getting what I want in and out of life. It didn’t start out that way but after practicing for 10 years and finally learning how to read in my eleventh and twelfth year I learned that I really could do almost anything I put my mind to. Unfortunately I think I let others define what was okay and what I should do for most of my life. But once I decide there was something I wanted, even if it was defined by others I generally did it.

About three years ago I was doing a job I thought I hated, I was smoking, and I generally was not as happy as I should have been. After all I was employed at a nice salary, I had a beautiful family, and I was living the dream as defined by so many. The problem was that it wasn’t my dream. But that wasn’t the only problem, actually it was really just a small part of the problem. I didn’t realize it then because I thought I knew what I wanted and thought I had it all, well almost. I was pretty depressed and a friend at work noticed. He handed me Tony Robbins cd program Personal Power II. I told him I thought the guy was a flake, but agreed to listen to the cd’s.

The CD’s were incredible and inspirational. I already understood that you could set and achieve goals but I hadn’t really done it previously for myself. I also hadn’t really thought about who I was or wanted to be. The biggest gift the cd’s gave me was that I realized that I really didn’t know what I wanted out of life. So I’ve since spent the last three years figuring it out.

This is who I am:

I am a nice, honest and straight forward and spiritual guy. I care about people deeply and want the best for them. I know that anyone can do just about anything they set their mind to including my wife, my kids, and myself. I am an incredible husband and dad and I will work my rear off to get better every day. I love business, technology and writing and I do it often. I live a healthy life style so I can get the most out of life. I do my best to give back to the community locally, nationally and internationally. I motivate people through writing, speaking, interacting and connecting on a deep personal level. I have no use for superficial relationships and I don’t care if I’m judged by others because I know who I am.

Knowing this about myself allows me to set goals and achieve them. Here are some of my big Goals for next year. Although I have been working on them for a while already and I don’t consider them New Year’s resolutions.

1. Publish Haley’s book “I’m Not Weird” – It’s still waiting for the formating at the publisher. I hope they move quickly so it can be published before the end of this school year.
2. Complete and publish The DADvocate Project. – I’m very excited about this project. It’s going a bit slowly right now but starting next week we’ll put the full force of a concentrated effort behind it. I’m writing out specific steps to ensure we reach the 1000 dad’s quickly. But if you are a blogger or have influence over Dads please send them over to The DADvocate Project I appreciate the help.
3. Running – I’ve started training for the Nashville 1/2 marathon in April. You can follow my progress over at my friend Todd Schnick’s blog Intrepid Runner
4. Bring my wife flowers every Friday. I love her very much and want to express it. I will also be planning a big anniversary present for in 2011 for our 10 years.
5. Have Haley kick ass leading up to and through the operation. She has a long road that will be difficult to travel but I know she will Kick ass this year. – Don’t tell her I said ass or else I’ll owe her a daddy dollar. If you want to learn more about daddy dollar’s check out Cast of Dad’s Episode 3.

I have a number of other goals but this post is getting way too long. So what are your goals? Who are you?
Do you know?

I attribute this post to 1) The new year, 2) Seth Godin Seven Years Gone 3) Drew @ Benspark.com’s post Looking back looking ahead 4) Buck Daddy’s post Closing out 2009 and looking ahead to 2010.

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If you haven’t read the book “Crush It” yet you need to. Gary Vaynerchuk started the Wine Library four years ago and built it into a $64 million dollar business using social media and connecting with his audience. In the book Crush It he talks about how you have to be willing to “bleed out you eye’s,” quoted from his speech the other day, to succeed.

I went to Gary’s book signing in Atlanta on Monday and stayed for his question and answer session. I had to oportunity to ask how his experience has been being a dad. Check it out.

By the way if your a Dad and haven’t completed the DADvocate project Survey yet, don’t forget to do it now!

I also want to credit @MaritzaParra and @JeffHerring from http://OnLineBizShow.com for providing the video clip.

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I realize that I had a question that should have been published on the DADvocate survey. It was essay form so I removed it to make the survey easier to complete and I added it to the interview questions. The thing is I really wanted to get the story about how you approach parenting even as a survey participant. I guess I feel like I made the right discision to remove it but I’m impatient so if your a dad and reading this please leave a comment telling us about your approach to parenting.

Here’s mine -

First I love being a dad. I don’t think there is anything much more fun then playing with my kids as it gives me permission to act like the kid I really still am, but try to hide in professional situations. I think a lot of my parenting philosphy comes from my first child who does have CP, you can read about her elsewhere on this site. I can really sum it up in a single line “You need to get back up. I know you fall but get back up. I know it hurts but get back up. I know you think no one else falls but get back up. I know it’s hard but get back up. OH LOOK YOU’RE DOING IT! YOU’RE DOING IT!! YOU’RE DOING IT!!!! YES!!!!” Then its time to celebrate and know you can always do it. This philosphy can be expressed in so many scenarios and so many ways. If you’ed like to read more about how I apply it look at some of my other posts, here are a few that I think describe it well:

Video Interview of Haley about her book “I’m Not Weird”

Bris – Prayer for Isaac

What to do when they just smile at you

New Talent

Was I a good girl today after my rough morning

Father of the Year – This isn’t just braging I’m actually interviewed in this post.

Setting her own goals

Seven Years

The Race!

Saturday Mornings

pregnancy – In the waiting room of the hospital NOW!

Please leave a comment and let me know what your philosphy is.
Oh yeah don’t forget to complete The DADvocate Project Survey

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I’m very excited. I have the opportunity to interview a very special person on December 17, 2009 18:00 or 6:00 PM ET. The person is the Army’s employee of the year. She lives here in Ga and her sister lives in our neighborhood. So not only will we get to interview her but she is going to come to the house and my daughter will get to meet this wonderful person who has not let her disability get in her way. I’m very excited and I can’t wait to meet Brooke Larrabee. I’ll be broadcasting live on Ustream. We’ll send the details soon.

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I’m excited because the publisher for I’m Not Weird reached out today and said they have everything they need to move the book to the next stage of production. That means we have gathered all the releases they need and they now have all the materials. The next step for them is to layout the book. I’ve been told that this process along with cover design will take about 2 months. Then the book will be ready to go to production. Very excited for Haley.

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A few days ago I met a new friend online over at Copyblogger. His name is Josh Hanagarne and he had written a post - What I Learned From Writing 42 Guest Posts in 7 Weeks. In the blog Josh reveals he has Tourette’s and he basically took on the challenge to help him focus outside himself for a while. From what I understood changing focus helps him to alleviate symptoms. His candid writing style got me interested and I hoped over to his blog World’s Strongest Librarian. While there learning about Josh I decided to ask if he would post a gust blog here on MySpellingSuck. I sent an email and less than 10 minutes later I had a positive response via email. All this gave me a warm feeling towards Josh but then on the next day he posted a video to his blog and I realized that we are kindred spirts. I hope you’ll go visit his site and enjoy his writing and view on the world.

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