Steve Ledlow

From: Steve Ledlow
To: Jarrod Blundy
Subject: July PenPal Kick-off!
Date: July 1, 2024

Hey Jarrod - I realized after our last exchange that I was the one that had missed the kick-off step around the first of the month.  I hope you’re in a better position to use July for our exchanges.  Let me know if that isn’t the case.

So how has life been?  We’ve been super busy with the kids all being out of school and tons of family time, which is both draining and recharging all at the same time.  I’m just back from a couple of days on a trip to St. Augustine, FL with my wife.  We rarely get away just the two of us, but it was a lovely 3 days of peace and reminding each other what we’re like without the kids.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Steve

From: Jarrod Blundy
To: Steve Ledlow
Subject: Re: July PenPal Kick-off!
Date: July 14, 2024

Hey Steve,

I must, once again, hang my head in shame for letting two weeks go by without responding to a PenPal. My apologies for doing a terrible job at hosting this exchange! That said, I’m doing pretty well, all things considered. (I’ve been laid up a bit with an ankle sprain and a separate knee sprain. But things finally seem to be on the mend, so I’m trying to stay positive there. 🙂)

When I was young, I never considered what summer break from school would be like for parents. Suddenly their schedules are disrupted and they’ve got to fill, or at least be more hands-on with filling, many more hours in the day for their kids. Kudos to you for making it work! What kinds of things are you doing as a family this summer?

A couple’s getaway sounds wonderful. I’m glad you were able to do that with your wife. Was it a beachside vacation? For our vacations, my wife and I tend to take turns in scheduling our activities. For one vacation, we’ll go somewhere adventurous and active for me. The next would be more relaxing and probably poolside for her. It works pretty well! Just tonight we were discussing what we’ll do for our anniversary this September. We’re thinking about making a trip up to Montreal in Canada, which would be a first for us and probably offer opportunities for both of our interests.

Do you have a favorite anniversary memory?

Hope you’re well. Take care.

Jarrod

From: Steve Ledlow
To: Jarrod Blundy
Subject: Re: July PenPal Kick-off!
Date: July 17, 2024

Hey Jarrod - No apologies needed.  I know how life can get in the way of writing all too well.  Glad to hear you’re on the mend, keep your head up.

I agree that summer takes on a whole new perspective once you have a large family like ours.  I actually find it to be way more relaxed than the school year.  There’s less pressure for assignments and journals to sign and waking up early to make breakfasts, and drop offs etc.  While there are lots of other things, they’re somehow more flexible than the daily grind of school, at least from my perspective.  So far, we’ve been involved in a few dance competitions for my daughters.  We usually hang out at the hotel or resorts during those and take advantage of the pools, etc.  We’ve spent some time in Cocoa Beach and now my wife and oldest daughter are in Texas for a dance event and most of the rest of the family is in Puerto Rico visiting family and having fun.  I stayed home to work and take care of the dog and cat.  Any cool stories from your summer months so far?

Our getaway was mostly doing tourist things in St. Augustine.  We’ve done them before, but we just enjoy hearing the history and learning new stuff since each tour guide gives the train ride around the city their own flavor.  We had some amazing local spot meals and then hit the beach on the last day before heading back home.  We were supposed to do a sunset kayaking thing, but thunderstorms forced us to wait for another time on that.  I think your alternating scheduling with your wife sounds like a cool way to have both types of experiences.  What has been your most adventurous one vs. your most relaxing one to date?

My wife and I align on many things, but one of my favorite things has to be our feeling on almost every form of “holiday” other than birthdays.  They’re not really a big deal to us.  We don’t exchange gifts.  We don’t make Valentine’s, or Mother’s Day/Father’s Day or anniversaries a big deal.  Our anniversary just passed at the end of June and I was in St. Louis for one day for work.  We didn’t even remember that it was that day until someone reached out because it was a “memory” in their social media.  We just celebrate life every day, and attempt to celebrate one another the same.  It’s refreshing in a way that I can’t describe.  No obligation.  No expectations.  It only works because we both feel this way, otherwise it would be a complete fail.

Hope to hear back from you soon and thanks for this awesome format,

Steve

From: Jarrod Blundy
To: Steve Ledlow
Subject: Re: July PenPal Kick-off!
Date: July 24, 2024

Hey Steve, thanks for your understanding.

I suppose I can see the flexibility in the summer schedule. At least you’re making and keeping plans on your own terms, rather than fitting your life around the school schedule. Sounds like your family has plenty going on either way!

I’m curious about your daughters’ dance competitions. What style do they do? And how does scoring work for a competitive event like that? For sports where objective things like distance and speed don’t apply, I’m always curious to know what aspects are deemed most important, and if there are ways that they can be objectified, or if it comes down to a panel of judges and an average of their subjective opinions on the performance.

The most exciting thing from my summer so far has been my niece (age 4) and nephew (age 7) (and sister and brother-in-law) coming from Michigan to visit me and my wife for a week in New York. It was their first out-of-state trip that they’ve ever taken as a family. My nephew, Ian, has spina bifida, which makes travel more challenging considering all the extra medical equipment he uses, lining up overnight nurses willing to travel, and just generally being out of their comfort zone with medical providers nearby who know his condition and history. But I’m thrilled to say that the trip was a roaring success. We took them hiking to a mountaintop, swimming in lakes, along nature trails by waterfalls, and — my personal highlight — rock climbing. It was everyone’s first time climbing, and everyone exceeded their own expectations by reaching the top. It was a moving experience for me, too, to share my favorite activity with them all. My niece was so proud of herself and couldn’t wait to tell her friends. And for my nephew, who uses a wheelchair most of the time, it was just the best to see his face light up at literally reaching new heights. It was one of the best days ever, not just the best of the summer.

I can appreciate your enthusiasm for doing redoing toursity things in St. Augustine. Living near Lake Placid, which is very touristy, I have the opportunity to do a bunch of stuff over and over that most visitors only ever do once. And you’re right, each time has its own flavor, mostly influenced by the people with whom you do it. Sunset kayking sounds so fun! I hope you get another opportunity to try that out.

Our most adventurous vacation together was also one of our first. While still in college, and only a year into dating, we took a two-weeklong road trip to Colorado to do a bunch of hiking and backpacking. We didn’t acclimatize that well, nor did we anticipate how much snow would be left in the mountains in June, so the trip took a few real left turns. But we exited the road trip a much stronger couple with lots of great stories to tell. The most relaxing one was probably a trip down to Sanibel Island in Florida. We spent so much time lazing around on the beach and exploring the island by bike. Oh, and we took a day trip to Harry Potter World, which was a dream come true. Do you have a favorite trip that you’d do again in a heartbeat?

It warms my heart to hear about your alignment with your wife on celebrating each other every day rather than for holidays. My natural tendency is toward grand gestures, often surprises, for my wife. Her primary love language, on the other hand, is smaller, more frequent words of affection. Meeting each other in the middle is something we still strive toward. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t just a little envious of your harmony and ambivalence to dates on a calendar, but we all “hike our own hike”.

Hope you have a great week!

Jarrod

From: Steve Ledlow
To: Jarrod Blundy
Subject: Re: July PenPal Kick-off!
Date: August 4, 2024

Hey Jarrod!  Sorry I’m a couple days past end of July with this reply.  I hope it’s still eligible to be included in the post of our July back and forths.  Also, how often do you keep the thread going with pen pals after the month exercise is done, out of curiosity?  I wouldn’t mind keeping it going, obviously not for blog content purposes, if you don’t.

Hike your own hike is such a great mantra.  I totally respect the fact that you know your wife’s love language and you acclimate to what works for both of you.  That’s how it SHOULD be.  My wife and I just happened to align on the fact that it was such a laborious thing in our previous relationships and we sort of stumbled into the fact that we are exactly the same.  How refreshing when you learn something about someone so core to their personality in a completely organic way, right?

Dance comps for my older two girls are pretty competitive, but each one has some common measurement aspects.  Usually, they are doing both solos and duets, as well as some group numbers for their company dance group.  The ratings are usually done by a group of judges, and the styles range from lyrical, contemporary, tap, hip-hop, jazz, musical theatre, ballet and some that blend those.  It’s really an amazing world to have fallen into because of their passion for it.  I could never have imagined knowing so much about a world I’d never been exposed to in any form before them.  They have both done well, earning convention scholarships and some cash prizes when they place in the top few spots for their respective age groups and level of performance.  I’m so proud of them and watching them on stage these last few years is like nothing else.  Even when I’m unable to attend the events live, they usually have a stream and I’ll even pull over on the road on the way to something else to watch their performances via live stream.  There’s an overused and cliche phrase in the dance world of “my heart is on the stage”, but it is the truth when I’m watching them do their thing.

I do have a bit of a random question for you at the end of this letter.  How did you go about getting approved for your Cotton Bureau listings?  I’ve submitted several designs and been rejected for all of them.  I even went so far as trying to reach out to ask since 10 had been rejected back to back.  I got a thoughtful response that I think will help me get the first one over the finish line.  I made the mistake of doing some “text only” submissions, which are apparently an automatic reject for initial submissions.  I respect the quality of what they do, so I really hope I’m able to get some of my designs there for sale at some point in the near future.  Has it been a good experience for you so far with your product offerings?

Talk soon!

Steve

From: Jarrod Blundy
To: Steve Ledlow
Subject: Re: July PenPal Kick-off!
Date: August 22, 2024

Hey Steve!

You scoundrel, how dare you apologize for being a few days past July when I made you wait early on, and now again for this conclusion?! 😉 Of course I’ll still publish the end of our conversation here. I’m looking forward to seeing how you format it on your site. And I’ve kept the thread going privately with a few of my penpals, just on a(n even less) frequent timeframe. I’d be delighted to keep chatting with you.

I’m so excited for your kids to have found something that they’re passionate about. Sounds like there’s a lot of complexity to it — just like everything when you go deep enough, I suppose. It’s cool that there are many different styles to try in dance, though. Lots of room to grow and new things to try! It reminds me a bit of the variety in rock climbing — there’s bouldering, slab climbing, face climbing, crack climbing, indoor gyms, and speed climbing. As you mentioned with dance, there is often overlap, but each kind requires specific skill and practice. But you won’t see me out there competing in climbing!

It’s very cool the support you show for their interest too. I’m sure they appreciate you watching and cheering them on, along with all the logistics and direct ways you make it possible for them to pursue dance. That they’re earning prize money and scholarships is awesome. Hopefully, that opens up new possibilities for them, and it’s gotta be exciting for them to be recognized for the hard work they put in. I hope they stick with it!

As for my products with Cotton Bureau, it sounds like I just got lucky when I applied a few years ago. It really wasn’t any hassle to get started. I think I first uploaded my site’s logo for a shirt design and it was approved within a day or so. Then everything I’ve submitted after that has been an automatic approval. Maybe they’re getting a lot more volume of submissions these days and are becoming more selective. I hope you can get in, though! It’s a revelation to have an idea for a design one minute and have it available on the web for anyone to purchase the next.

But yeah, my experience with CB has been really good, even though it’s rare that I make a sale. I’ve definitely made things that I’m the only buyer, but that’s okay too. I have a long list of ideas that I’ll get to designing one day and maybe one will take off. 🤞 Let me know if you get anything up with them!

And I think that brings our “month” of being penpals to a close. Thanks so much, Steve, for agreeing to be a part of this. It’s a joy to get to connect with new internet friends in this long-form way. I’ve enjoyed getting a peek into your life, and learning bits about your family — they sound lovely. Let’s keep in touch!

Take care,

Jarrod