Charge Forward Podcast

Real life, real work, and choosing each other (Part 2) with Emily B. Cripps

• Jim Cripps • Season 3 • Episode 13

Share episode

This episode continues our story as a family that’s far from perfect but fully committed. We love our life together. Yes, it’s work. Yes, some days are hard. But we’re a team: two adults, one kid, two pups, all charging forward.

We talk about raising confidence in a child through small wins, movement, sports, and showing up consistently. About finding community in unexpected places like CrossFit. About making thoughtful health decisions, from recovery tools at home to doing serious due diligence before stepping into regenerative medicine. No hype, just honest experience.

We also pull back the curtain on careers, purpose, and marriage. How clinical research really works. Why the people behind the data matter. How trust, communication, and choosing your spouse wisely changes everything. And how building a good life often looks quiet, unglamorous, and deeply rewarding.

If you’re building a family, a career, or a healthier version of yourself, this one’s for you.

Two adults. One child. Two dogs. One direction. Charging Forward.

*It is with great sorrow that we dedicate this episode to our sweet Sadie-Belle our beloved Frenchie that spent 5220 days with our family. She passed this week, we will forever be grateful as She was the one who took us from Couple to a Family. Our hearts are broken but we know that we will see her again. Rest in peace until we meet again, our sweet girl.

Hit follow, share it with someone who needs a push today, and drop a comment with the bold step you are taking next. 

Let’s charge forward together. 🚀🔥 

If one story, one insight, or one spark made you better this year—mission accomplished. 

New episodes every Thursday / Friday
Subscribe, review, and keep charging forward with us.

Follow & Subscribe to the Charge Forward Podcast:
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/chargeforwardpodcast 

Special Thanks to Our Sponsors: 

Charge Forward Solutions – Merchant Services
Sense Development – Executive & Data Services
HitLab Studios – Podcast Production
Rosemary Salazar – Virtual Assistant Services 

Emily Cripps:

I was like, um, thanks, but no thanks. I'm not gonna do this anymore. It wasn't anything you said. You were perfect. And I turned you down. About I had a hard time with the vision of exactly what this podcast would come to be.

Jim Cripps:

You know, one of the crazy adventures that we have is is raising an an amazing son.

Emily Cripps:

Yes, very much.

Jim Cripps:

And so what would if if I'm gonna say what is what is one of your favorite moments about raising castle or a story about castle, what would you say?

Emily Cripps:

Ooh, um, I think, well, I there's I have memories, so I just have these little flashes of memories of little things that he did um and little things that he would say. And so those those are just kind of on a on a revolving sort of film of all these little nuggets. But there's a there's a video, there's two videos that I'm so thank I it I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook, but I right now in this moment I'm thankful for Facebook because we would take these videos and we would post them and they're forever out well for as long as Facebook is out there. They will forever pop up as memories. So there's one where he your we your dad had gotten Alex and Avery or niece's four-wheelers, and Castle's not quite big enough for a four-wheeler, and he hops on the hops on it, and then he kicks one leg up and he comes down the side. And while he's saying that, he was like, Mama, I jump in full wheeler. And in my moment, in my heart, I kind of pals like this is the life that I'm going to have. I'm going to have a adventurous kid, and I do. I have an adventurous kid who is gonna ride razors and four-wheelers and dirt bikes, and he's gonna get in precarious situations, and because he's learned from his dad and his grandfather and his uncle Johnny of how to get out of those precarious situations. But that little squeaky voice of mama, I jump in four-wheeler, I'm like, oh my god. And he was what?

Jim Cripps:

Maybe two, two, yeah.

Emily Cripps:

And then the other one that I think of is, and I was, I think I was traveling this day, um, which was hard because I was traveling up to he to the point where he was 18 months old, traveling that crazy schedule. And then my travel schedule was about once a quarter or so. So I would get video, thankfully I'm getting videos and and pictures from you while I was traveling. But the garbage truck was out front, and that was uh the highlight of of entertainment was watching the the dump truck. So that little video with his little squeaky voice when you're asking him what's he doing. And I think we can all recite it, like we've watched it so many times of him saying, It's dumping. He's doing his little hand gestures to tell us what the the garbage truck is doing. That innocence of just being excited about seeing a garbage truck.

Jim Cripps:

Yeah. Well, I think some other ones for me are, you know, I remember him riding, so we got him a little power wheels razor. Yeah. And whether he was intending to do it or not, you know, he's maybe two years old. He drives it off of the trailer and slides sideways up to the garage. And just that excited look on his face. And then I remember him, uh I think, I think he was actually in Carter's power wheel with his helmet on, no shirt. Yes, just terrorizing the neighborhood.

Emily Cripps:

Cheatham County, right?

Jim Cripps:

Exactly.

Emily Cripps:

Driving off the curbs, yes, you know, and he's got uh probably got a stuffed animal in the back, he does, and and just in all of those moments, just recognizing that he has and still does, this will continue, but he has those that self-confidence to be able to have an adventure. And yes, some of them can be a little daunting and a little crazy, but you know, how many 11-year-olds are sitting at car lunch? You know, how many 11-year-olds are learning how to drive a five-speed? And all those things build confidence. Every time you're on the basketball court, building confidence. Every time you get a good grade, you put your heart into it and you get a good grade school, it builds confidence. And all of that, all those experiences are saying are things that we have intentionally and unintentionally put him in so that he can build his confidence.

Jim Cripps:

Absolutely. Oh so what is your thoughts? Uh, because I know in the beginning you were like, oh my God, um on CrossFit.

Emily Cripps:

Oh gosh. For the the whole thing. The whole thing. Um I have seen how it has benefited you and Castle in your physical health and your mental health, your social health, all those kind of things. I think occasionally CrossFit can get a bad rap. I think it can get a bad rap of being this very intense, very potentially narrow-minded, very inclusive, no, exclusive, rather, exclusive group of people. And I don't see any of that at Wild Things. Um, that it, you know, you you can tell me stories of Miss Pam or tell me stories of I've nicknamed them the Golden Girls. I don't know what they're doing. That is what they call themselves. Yeah. The Golden Girls. Um, and I know we even talk about, you know, trying to get my mom, my parents to to do it. Where the flip side of that is it, I often say, it's not for me. And I I have experienced one CrossFit event, and you have been quick to tell me that is not a true representation of what CrossFit is about. Castle is agreeing with us in that statement.

Jim Cripps:

Well, you did so you went on a hero workout today. And to paint the picture, I was out of town, and um, so you took Castle and Jill. So Miles and Jill own own the CrossFit gym, and uh they're they're the parents of uh one of Castle's best friends branch, and Jill talked you into doing the workout with her.

Emily Cripps:

Well, Sylvia really taught us into it. Yeah, like I mean, let's let's include Sylvia in this as well because it was how fast do you run? And I was like, I don't really know. And she was like, I'm gonna pair you up with Jill. And it worked out great. I mean, I I think that there was a the whole idea is to pair you up with someone who is near your level, maybe a little bit above, a little bit below, so that you keep your rhythm together through this workout and through the routine because you're going in, I don't know, I'm calling it heats. You know, five people go and then the next five, the next five. We were in the light, we we might have been the last group. So I'm watching 25 people or more go through this routine and thinking, what is Jim Cripps not me up for? When I'm I'm taking one for the team Crips on this family. Um, I am I don't consider myself a very um athletic person by any means. So it it pushed, it pushed the envelope for me. I will say Miles and um Sylvia both were like there, like in and out of like, you know, coaching and encouraging and hey, do this, you know, try this, do it this way. This will be a little easier. Let's get you going. The toughest part about it, though, that that workout was the um like the I don't, I want to say the couple run. So we were like literally attached with a rope, not a rope, I don't remember a band. So there was something there was something that was holding us together as we're running up that you down that hill. And at that moment, I was like, I'm not doing this again.

Jim Cripps:

Well, I can tell you, Valerie's gonna try to talk you into it.

Emily Cripps:

I know, Valerie, and yeah, there's I get it. I've committed to doing a class. I think that's where I was. I committed to doing a class.

Jim Cripps:

So um, and you know, honestly, that's that's a that's a lot of our relationship. Is I I will get us into some crazy things and it you will you will begrudgingly, begrudgingly go along with it, but sometimes it turns out to be fantastic.

Emily Cripps:

Yes, yes.

Jim Cripps:

Um and so this was not really on the things I'd planned to talk about, but uh I do think it's a probably a fun story. What did you actually think when I decided to go to Honduras for stem cell therapy?

Emily Cripps:

Oh gosh. I mean, much like the bulldozer, I was like, he's crazy. That one felt even riskier, and I think it felt risky because of my profession. My profession is very much steeped in the FDA is the one who is making the decisions. And so, in that sense, if the FDA is the one who's making the decisions, then the FDA must be correct. They must be the one who has all the information, all the knowledge. I can say that now and quickly say that's a bit of a naive way to be thinking about a government agency, especially even the FDA. For all the wonderful things that the FDA does, there is a plethora of things that they don't know. And you have introduced me to there are some things that the FDA doesn't know because they are a government-regulated agency. There are other ways to be looking at health and wellness. So, my first thought when you said you're going to Honduras, I was like, I need to know everything. Are they certified? Are they qualified? Are they clean? Is it healthy? What about your physical safety? Um, and we had to have a lot of conversation. I had to have more conversations to get to a comfort level. In the back of my mind, I always think Jim knows what he's doing. Like he knows the risk. He has weighed the risk and the benefit in this. And again, take comfort in knowing that you're going to do your homework. You're, you are going to jump head first to things, but for the most part, you still do your homework and say the risk-benefit ratio is we keep teach that to Castle as well. Like, what's our risk-benefit ratio to making these decisions? And that one felt from the get-go very risky. And I think it felt it felt very risky because it was a foreign country to get a medical procedure. And that in and of itself, like the infographics in the statement, I'm sure if you use that clip on your podcast, is like, you know, fireworks, right? And you don't, you know, foreign country, because you just have this connotation that it's back alley and it's gross and it's dirty and it's not clean and it's not safe. And what kind of other diseases are you going to pick up there? And so then we had to have this conversation about you got to give me some comfort level. And I don't think you were ever asking for my permission, but you needed my support in that. Um, and it turned out that everything was great. And it was a very valuable experience for your health. It was a valuable experience for your knowledge about that procedure. So that then, and here's the other thing about Jim Crips is now you're going to tell people this is the experience I had. If you want to go to Curacao, this is experience I had. If you want to go to St. Louis and buy a razor, secure, this is experience I've had. Do you want to go to a foreign country and get stem cell? This is the experience that I've had.

Jim Cripps:

Well, then you've even had friends since then that have stem cell therapy.

Emily Cripps:

Yes, yes. So I had a friend and she was in the one in Tijuana that is CPI. Thank you.

Jim Cripps:

Owned by um Ed Clay, here in Nashville.

Emily Cripps:

Yes, yeah, and had an amazing experience, sent me pictures, the location beautiful, the facility clean, nice, the people, the food. She said it was just, she had a couple of add-on um treatments as well. So she it wasn't just stem cell and had a phenomenal experience and speaks very highly of it. And for her, in her, you know, we work together, but her side job, I don't even think it's really a side job, but she has a um a passion for powerlifting, I think is what she does. And so she's very conscious about what goes into her body. So here she is. She did when I when she said something, I was like, My husband did stem cells. She's like, Where did he go? And I was like, Honduras, I know about that place. And I was like, Where are you going? And she was like, Tijuana. And I was like, this doesn't make me feel better.

Jim Cripps:

Well, you know, and it think about when you say Honduras, when you say Tijuana, they both elicit this, like, oh my gosh.

Emily Cripps:

Yes.

Jim Cripps:

But it's because it's less restricted. Um, it's really on the island of Roatan, where I went, which is where the cruise ships stop. And, you know, to add a little more color to it. And yes, I went by myself, so I'm, you know, I'm there by myself. Just so happens some friends from bowling happen to be on the other side of the island at the same time. I see their posting pictures. I'm like, where are you guys at? Um so very safe, very clean. In fact, uh, shout out to the GARM clinic and Dr. Terry in that, you know, Dr. Terry is 80 now. He was 78 when he did my stem cell therapy. When I met with them, you know, my knees, they were saying, you know, you're 18 to 24 months from needing double knee replacement. Uh, for anybody that doesn't know, I was over 300 pounds for like 20 years and had gotten healthy, but my knees were destroyed. And I go to meet with Dr. Terry. They just happen to be in Atlanta at their home there, and they have a three-story home. And we're going up stairs, and he's going upstairs at 78 years old, faster than I am at at that time, like 45, 46 years old. And I said, Whatever it is that you do, that's what I want. And he said, Well, we can do that. And so go to Honduras, everything was good experience. Um, I will say at day 60, I wonder if I had lost, I had kind of wasted my money. By day 75, I had days with no pain. By March of that year, I had a hundred days of no pain, which was something I hadn't experienced in in years. Tijuana it licens that same response, um, but it's owned by Ed Clay, who's here from here in Nashville. In fact, he's been in this studio before uh on Nick Hyder's podcast. And Ed and his his group, they bought a hospital in Tijuana, built a hotel onto the side of it. So you go to California, they put you on a luxury bus, and they take the 20 of you or whatever that's going in that week. They have and in fact, uh CPI, I think, has actually the exclusive contract with um the UFC. So you go over there, you get your treatment, you're there four or five days, then they bus you back over uh to California, and you fly home. And it's this I'm I don't know if I can say it's a five-star experience, but it's probably close to that. And and really in the world of regenerative medicine, you're talking about people who are willing to spend money to live longer and to live healthier lives. And so it has been this bit of a rabbit hole for me, but I I gotta say, uh I'm so thankful that you've kind of been willing to go down this rabbit hole with me. And you know, we've done other things like um cryotherapy, cryotherapy, we have a sauna, red light therapy, red light therapy, grounding sheets. Please share grounding sheets.

Emily Cripps:

I didn't so grounding sheets you plug in, get it's a it's a um a fitted sheet that plugs into an outlet, which sounds crazy. And your experience was instant, like pretty quickly after sleeping on the grounding sheets, which was a recommendation through a friend. He was like, You gotta get these. Okay, let's try it. Um and I I didn't, I don't know that I necessarily felt anything like straight away. It's supposed to give you a restful sleep. It's supposed to kind of, I know for people who have like restless leg syndrome, it's supposed to ease those symptoms, if not completely eliminate them while you're sleeping. Um, it's supposed to give you a deeper sleep. Um, and I I was skeptical. I was like, all right, we'll put grounding sheets on the bed. Sure, do they match close enough? And but I think it's great because my mom, we ended up putting them on our guest room bed and on Castle's bed. And when my mom slept on them, she was like, I had the best sleep ever.

Jim Cripps:

And she didn't know anything about it. She just right.

Emily Cripps:

She was like, But that the bed is so comfortable. And I was like, Well, it's got grounding sheets. What are those? And I was like, it's literally plugged in to the outlet and it's grounded, kind of like the the other idea is when you wake up first thing in the morning, you go outside, touch grass. So you go outside and you ground. So it's removing the electromagnetic charges. Also, if you have an animal, you can do that as well. But it's just supposed to eliminate that from your body. And I I think it's one of those things for me where skeptical, yes. Um, do I believe in them? Yes. Do they always work for me? I don't know. There are some days that I think I get phenomenal sleep, and then there are days where it's questionable, but I don't know that that's necessarily from not having or having the grinding sheets. I know they help you, I know they help castle, I know they help my mother. And so to me, that's a win.

Jim Cripps:

By default, they probably help you.

Emily Cripps:

They probably do, and I just don't realize it.

Jim Cripps:

Um kind of backing up to a little bit of business, like you were introduced to your field through a family friend.

Emily Cripps:

Yes.

Jim Cripps:

So somewhere out there right now, there is somebody watching this that has a son or a daughter that is, you know, about to go to college, maybe about to graduate college, and they know nothing about this field. Um if you will kind of tell the story.

Emily Cripps:

So I was um, this was my between my sophomore and my junior year of college, started out thinking that I was gonna go into mass communication. So I was going to write for a newspaper, do the, you know, be behind the scenes at CNN, something like that. And I took a mass communication class, my freshman year of college, and realized, nope, that is not for me. And I did not know what I wanted to do. Um, so I was in this in like, I don't know what I want to be when I grow up stage that a lot of people do. And you're exactly right. There's a friend of dad's who had a um release of information business. Now I'm really dating myself, so 20 more plus years ago. Um, and he was talking about that there is a program of um at at the time it's called Medical College of Georgia, Health Information Management. It's a smaller program. You should look into it. And I kind of like latched onto it pretty quickly. Frankly, I was kind of desperate. I was like, I need to do something. Healthcare field interested me, but I knew I didn't want to be a nurse, not be a doctor. And so I was like, I've got to figure out how to get into this. This. So, you know, go through school, graduate. I did an internship. Part of my graduation requirement was an internship. That's how I ended up in Nashville. I knew I didn't want to do my internship in Georgia. I was ready to bolt. I was ready to leave, uh, leave Georgia. So the easiest place was Nashville. We have family here, so we could come and visit. Did an internship. Thankfully, that turned into a job. So I'd been working as an outpatient and ER medical coder, which is not as magical as it sounds. Um uh, but it was steady and it was a job and it paid well. And I had a 401k. That's what you know that, you know, as soon as you get you get your real job and it has a 401k, put money in it. And I'm please say that again. As soon as you get your real job and they offer a 401k 401k, put your money in it and don't look back. And I did that from day one. And Jim will tell you that every job I've had since we've been together, which have been a few, I've had a 401k. And the fun part is consolidating those every time I leave a company and go somewhere else. But I, you know, it that was what was told to me, and that's what I did. So um getting into actually the world of research, I really did kind of stumble into it. I'm gonna date myself because it was an ad in the newspaper, and they were looking for someone with medical record experience. Since that time, there's been such an evolution of the world of clinical research. And so people who have biology or some kind of science degree can fall into this. Some people who have previously a nursing degree can fall into this. I have health information management, which is 50% like health care, like managing healthcare, finance and HR and statistics, and 50% medical knowledge. So medical terminology and transcription and coding. So I had this kind of varied background, educational background, that really kind of opened the door to clinical research. But the thing is, is it's it's a bit of a double-edged sword because it's it's one of those, it's tough to get in to the to the business. Um, but once you're it's tough to get in because oftentimes it's like they're not, you're not going to be given those opportunities unless you're already in the business somehow. You're in you're working in clinical research somehow. But once you're in, it's a huge environment that have so many different opportunities. So a lot of times you'll see people who start out working at a clinic who have a research program as a study coordinator. Um, there are pharmaceutical companies that offer training programs. Now, I'll I'll preface all this to say with the change with the FDA and the NIH and the changes within their those two organizations, it's even more difficult now because that's where a lot of the money comes from, are those NIH grants that allow programs to do that. But even in the hospital setting, there's opportunities. So it is kind of a it, it was not something that I necessarily was seeking out. When I was in college, I took one medical ethics class, and that's all I knew about research was about the ethical and their history of ethical and non-ethical treatment of individuals.

Jim Cripps:

Well, I think back in that, I think one of the great things about your career, one, you've had a couple of great mentors. Uh, I think Heather Neal uh just right off the bat kind of scooped you up and said, I'm taking you with me. Yeah. Um, but several times you've had uh great leaders that you've worked with, and when they went somewhere else, they're like, hey, you come on, come on, come on. And so I th I think that absolutely speaks to your career and how you do great work where you're at, but also some of the projects you've worked on. I mean, you've been, you know, I I really kind of water it down a little bit when I say you've been in cancer research for the last 25 years, but some of the products that you guys have brought to market have been game changers and saved so many lives. Yeah. Or improved lives.

Emily Cripps:

And that's it's it's it's both kind of a you forget, there are moments where you forget that. Like I think about working on there was one that was a leukemia treatment. And oftentimes you get so in the weeds of this report, this spreadsheet, this timeline, this invoice, um, this particular set of information, this data set, that we forget that behind all that is Mr. Smith or Miss Jones or someone that is going to, when we get that FDA approval, and then your drug is manufactured and labeled for commercial use, and your physics, there's a physician who is writing a prescription for that drug and handing it to Mr. Wilson or Mr. Jones or Miss Smith, that it's it is, it's truly a game changer. I feel that more in this company now, because it is a smaller company and it's a very small, it's a very small but powerful community that these parents, because we're talking about pediatric boys, which tugs on your heart screens no matter what, the project I'm on is for boys age seven to 27. And those parents, like you would expect to, like we would be as parents, like I will do anything for my child. Period, full stop, end of story.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep.

Emily Cripps:

And so on the days when you're wanting to pull your hair out because that spreadsheet's not working, the days you want to pull your hair out because one of the vendors that you're working with is just making a mess of the project. You have to remind yourself that there's a little boy out there who is like, can we speed this up? Yeah. Because I really need for this to work for me. I really want to go out and ride my bike. I want to make it up these stairs and not have to grab onto someone for support.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

Emily Cripps:

And we can't, we're seeing that. I can only say so much because confidentiality, but there are huge improvements in in what we're able to do for these boys. And that's not the only thing my company does, but that's my bubble.

Jim Cripps:

Yeah. Well, and I think you're I think you're in a great space these days, uh, working with a great company and and you like the people that you work with. And and you're working on a project that really matters, and you are making great strides. Um, so I'm proud of you in so many different ways. Um, I asked this question, and it was not originally part of the charge forward podcast questions. You've heard me ask it over and over and over. Uh so it's just natural that I that I ask it here. Um what or what is the impact or how important is spouse selection to your overall happiness and success in life?

Emily Cripps:

Was that like a on a scale of one to ten?

Jim Cripps:

It's however you want to say it. And I I will I will uh I will follow you by I will I will spouse selection on overall success and happiness and happiness.

Emily Cripps:

I think I mean the easy way to say is well, yeah, it's hugely important. It's hugely important to have someone who's in your corner that is a cheerleader. Um, but it's also hugely important to have someone in your corner who can recognize maybe you don't need a cheerleader right now. Maybe you need just a support system. And it's hard in when you first get to know someone to know everything about that individual because you don't have every experience to know, you know, what's it gonna be like with this potential partner if one of us loses a job? How is this person going to react if one of us has a significant illness? And you don't know those things until you experience them. But what you do know, what I think back to is that moment where I agreed to get on the back of your motorcycle. I was like, I can trust this person, right? I can, I know I can trust this person to get on the back of this motorcycle. And he's not gonna act a fool, he may act a fool, but he's not gonna act a crazy fool and do something that would physically harm me, that would put either one of us in jeopardy, maybe because he loves his bike a whole lot, he doesn't quite know me, but one way or the other, I knew that. And I think you have that foundation and you build from it so that if you do have a spouse, you have a situation where, you know, heaven forbid one of us were to lose our jobs or or have a significant life change that impacted our health, our wealth, our our our safety, then those building blocks, those foundations are already there. It's gonna be a bumpy, there's gonna be a bumpy ride no matter what, whatever it is. But if you can always kind of circle back to where that foundation is, and you know that when you meet that person, and maybe it takes a little while to get to know that person to know is this, is this guy really or girl? You know, is this is this somebody who there's trust, there's mutual respect. I think for me, one of the other things that was uh pretty obvious was when I saw you with your friends. I was like, a guy who's got friends that he's had since middle school, as an A plus in my category. Not that everybody has to, but but you see how your spouse treats their friends, that thing says a lot about the character. And again, to know that if we're in a situation where something serious is happening, which is inevitable because we're human and something serious could happen, that you've got that a supportive spouse.

Jim Cripps:

Sure. Well, and I will say, I'm uh I feel incredibly blessed uh that that we met and then we got married and and all I didn't totally blow you off. Well, you know, you you really made it, you you you made a good effort at it. Um but uh but no, I I really do think that we uh we find what we're looking for when we decide that we are worth it or we decide that it's important. And um yeah. I and for anybody out there to to paint this picture for you, I felt like I was going to get married to Emily when I read her profile. Period. Um match? On match.

Emily Cripps:

Wow, okay.

Jim Cripps:

And it was in fact I I paid the money in order to talk to her to talk to her, not to talk to other girls, but to talk to her. And uh it said something like she's the type of girl that goes out for a run and has her headphones cranked up too high and ends up dancing uh in the street and then realizes that other people might be watching. And I thought, you know what? I I I could I could date that girl. And uh and here we are, um 16 years later, 17 years later.

Emily Cripps:

Yeah, say an 15-year anniversary is in September. Right. Wedding anniversary. And our first date anniversary was depends on what you say, because I thought it was July 21st. Oh, I see. I think I see it keeps thinking it's July 19th.

Jim Cripps:

It's 21st.

Emily Cripps:

Yeah, I was close.

Jim Cripps:

Um so just just a couple weeks ago. Yeah, it was 17 years ago.

Emily Cripps:

Happy anniversary to you.

Jim Cripps:

I know, right? Happy anniversary. Um But it's been fun. It has absolutely been just, I mean, not that every moment has been fun, but uh, you know, I was looking for, and I think I was able to put it into words maybe better than you were, but I was looking for someone to be a great teammate with me, to, you know, lead when I was unable to lead, or for me to lead when when I was, you know, when they were unable to lead, somebody to walk with, not somebody to drag me along, or not somebody to drag along. And I really got that from my parents because they, you know, um, from an outsider looking in, they would say that my dad is in in control. And the reality is they're really pretty well 50-50 because there's just this um almost harmony of uh of how they work together. Um that just it works. So um what are you excited about?

Emily Cripps:

Um I have a couple of things. So I'm excited I'm I'm excited for Castle to start sixth grade. I think that's gonna be an adventure. Probably ups and downs. I'm excited about that. I'm excited for some big things happening at work, some big timelines and some big um big things, that's all I can say, that are happening at work. Um I think I'm just you know, I'm I don't know if there's one particular thing that I'm I can say I'm excited about.

Jim Cripps:

Okay. Um and then we've got uh um just right around the corner, we've got uh potentially a trip up to Indianapolis for fall break. Yes. Um that's a just an exciting trip, but that that place is fantastic.

Emily Cripps:

It's a lot of fun. It was it's like a little bit of a sleeper agent. I don't think we were expecting to have as much fun there as we did, either at the children's museum, which was phenomenal. We had a great place we went bowling and met that lovely lady. Um we had good food. That was that fun restaurant that I can't think of the name of that was a recommendation.

Jim Cripps:

Oh, um Izzy and Harry and Izzy's? I think so.

Emily Cripps:

Yeah, yeah. That was great. Um, all around, I think we were like this, we had no idea that this was gonna be this little what we thought was gonna be just sort of a ho-hum kind of getaway ended up being a really significant memory for us.

Jim Cripps:

Yeah. Um it made me think about this. Um, so what did you think when I suggested that we live in Pleasant View?

Emily Cripps:

Um, I was at that time, I was I was hesitant to do it. I I was hesitant to do it because I thought that's gonna be in the middle of nowhere, with nothing around, with nobody around, with nothing to do. Because I had been living in Bellevue. Right. So here I was, single lady, doing all the things in Bellevue in my little area, and with an easy commute to work or to the airport, whichever one I had to go to. And I think I was a little like, okay, maybe I'll give this a try. I think you know, I was like, how how close am I gonna be the airport? Because I was traveling. That was an easy one. But I was also having to drive down here to Cool Springs, drive to Cool Springs sometimes, and I wasn't looking forward to that. But I really thought we're just gonna be in the middle of nowhere, and we're just like, there's no restaurants, there's no friends, there's no people. I hate those words. I ate those words like a chant once we moved into our neighborhood, which ended up being the right place, the right place. It was it was the right place, it was the right place before we had castle, it was the right place for castle, it was convenient to a lot of things. It was a I mean it it really was, it was not the perfect scenario, but it was the right scenario for what we needed at that time.

Jim Cripps:

Yeah. Um, all right. So because I ask every guest this question, who's on your bowling team?

Emily Cripps:

All right, you ready?

Jim Cripps:

I'm ready.

Emily Cripps:

So I'm gonna start that my hype man is Kevin Hart.

Jim Cripps:

Okay.

Emily Cripps:

Kevin Hart, definitely gotta be my hype man. I'm stealing Bob Learn from Castle's team. Okay, because let's be honest. Bob's a rock star. Bob's kind of awesome. Um, Justin Timberlake.

Jim Cripps:

Okay.

Emily Cripps:

Um, okay. I need two more. Um I'll do the rock. I think he would be probably maybe a good bowler. I have no idea. Maybe not. Um, and just to add some flavor, I'm gonna throw in a little Caitlin Clark.

Jim Cripps:

Okay, all right.

Emily Cripps:

I'm just gonna I'm gonna jazz it up a little bit.

Jim Cripps:

So we got Caitlin Clark, the rock, uh Justin Timberlake, Justin Timberlake, Bob Larn, and then your hype man is Kevin Hart. Kevin Hart. Okay, I like him. That's that's uh an eclectic lineup.

Emily Cripps:

I'm real sorry you're not on that team.

Jim Cripps:

Hey, it's all right. It's uh no worries at all.

Emily Cripps:

I think you probably would be a great bowler to add to the team, you know, but this is for entertainment purposes.

Jim Cripps:

This is for entertainment purposes, and you've seen me bowl, so it's all good. It's all good. Um, all right, last question. It gets a little serious is how do you want to be remembered?

Emily Cripps:

Ooh, uh the first thing that comes to mind, which I can I can picture Anna DeCarlo kind of giving me that I would like just go with what it is, is just someone that has been a good friend, whether that's two friends to my husband, to my family, someone that has been a good friend, and and that may be someone that you call and I answer, you need help and I help, you need a laugh, whatever it is. That's the first thing that that comes to mind. Someone that you know is has that respect, that support, that honesty, that humor, all those kind of things that you have in a friend.

Jim Cripps:

Yeah. I love that. I love that. Well, honey, thank you so much for spending some time with me. I know uh this is outside of your comfort zone.

Emily Cripps:

So outside of my comfort zone.

Jim Cripps:

It is, it really is. Um, and I and I want to I want to kind of end with just a couple little stories. So uh for any of you who have not met my lovely wife, uh, she is an absolute rock star, and she is uh whether she would say this about herself or not, it she is the epitome of what it is to charge forward. Uh a couple little stories along the way. I can remember that so the the night that I proposed. Um so my wife does not like cold weather. She does not like being in the cold, but for some crazy reason, she was willing to be in a golf cart with me in a parade. And um the previous year my golf cart had broken down, so it was not outside the realm of reason for the golf cart to break down. So I pretended that the golf cart broke down and uh knelt down beside the the golf cart as if I was working on it and asked her to shine the light. Well, when she shined the light, I was holding the ring. And um that was my my proposal. And I said, if you're crazy enough to be out here in six degree weather in a parade because it's something I need to do, well then you're crazy enough to spend the rest of my rest of your life with me.

Emily Cripps:

My favorite part of that story though, too, is I couldn't I even I couldn't remember anything that you said. You had a beautiful speech. There was a whole thing, and I was then later on after I got over like the shock of everything, I was like, What was it that you said? And you're like, I don't remember. I was like, me neither.

Jim Cripps:

Oh yeah. Well, and my parents were in the parade as well. So literally they they all got to sharing the experience just a a few minutes like two minutes later. Yeah. And then uh oddly enough, the golf cart did break down uh directly in front of our house. We lived on Main Street, so uh I I think I gave it one push and we rolled into the driveway. So it was that was Totally fine because Emily got to get warm quicker.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

Jim Cripps:

And then uh um the the other the other story is is has has left me at this moment uh that I was going to tell. But uh it's just been an absolutely fantastic uh experience with you. Um not that we haven't had our ups and downs, not that there haven't been challenges, but um you absolutely uh just are the epitome of charging forward, um, whether that is in the support that you give uh to me and our family, whether that is uh to yourself, um you're just fantastic. And I I love spending my life with you.

Emily Cripps:

Oh thanks, love.

Jim Cripps:

So, team, uh, you heard it here on the Charge Forward Podcast. I hope you enjoyed spending some time with the love of my life, um, because I absolutely enjoy her. And um yeah, I hope that you have somebody out there in your life or that I hope you are looking for someone out there in your life that that it is that for you. Um, because it absolutely makes the days better, it makes the years more enjoyable, and it absolutely allows you to think down the road and and envision what you hope the future looks like. And that's what I'm excited for. I'm excited for all of our wonderful memories over the last uh 17 years, as well as the uh the days to come. And I hope that you have that or I hope that you get that in your life. Uh again, coming to you from the HitLab Studios here in Nashville, Tennessee. Uh, you should absolutely check them out. They do amazing work. Uh, our wonderful sponsors, sense custom development and charge forward solutions. Until next time, I'm Jim Cripps. We'll see you later. Team is Jim Cripps here with the Charge Forward Podcast. I just want to tell you, I love you. I appreciate you listening. I appreciate you for subscribing and sharing the Charge Forward Podcast with people you know and you love because that's what we're here for. We are here to share the amazing stories, the things that people have been through, the ways that they were able to improve their life so that you can take little nuggets from theirs and help improve your story and be better tomorrow than you were today. I hope that this is the tool you needed at the right time and that you find value in the amazing guests that we bring each and every week. Thanks so much, and don't forget new episodes drop every Thursday.