Under 200

Today, after a few weeks off a scale, weighed myself at the gym and the magic number was 199.

For the first time in over a decade I weigh less than 200 lbs. Wow, that's good and bad. Good that it's coming down, bad that it has been up that high for so long.

I think at my biggest I weighed 217, and now I'm down to under 200! Sweet!

It started a while back, my back was hurting, my cholestrol was high, my triglycerides were high and just always tired.

Well, I started going to the gym regularly and then I made a concerted effort to eat better. Still struggle with how much I eat, but I am eating better.

When I'm on my trips, now that I have a regular schedule I only eat fast food typically once a week. When I do grab some fast food I only grab one burger instead of two and get the small fries instead of the large. I take more to drink with me so I'm not buying a soda and a coffee every trip. Instead of junk food I bring extra fruit and veggies with me to munch.

Haven't been to the gym regularly as I'd like lately, but still playing racquetball pretty regularly. When I get tired on a trip instead of buying junk food to munch, I'll stop at a truck stop and walk around the entire lot - and some of those are pretty big. Gets the blood pumpin and invigorates me to drive longer.

I was pretty excited to see that 199 come up on the screen.

Now if I can just keep it up, going down! :)

Fall Fotos

I'm gettin' Doreen trained in to snap all sorts of pics, especially when I'm not around. She took these two of Natalie, Joelle and Mocha one fall afternoon. I really liked this one of my youngest daughter.







She also took a nice portrait of my oldest daughter, however that nasty old ball in Mocha's mouth kinda ruins the pic. Oh well. Still like havin' pics of the family to share!

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving day was a lot of fun. Before going over to my in-laws for lunch, we stopped by a local hospital to see our friends who had a new baby. She was Natalie's kindergarden teacher and now stay at home mom. Seeing their precious little son was so sweet.












Thanksgiving day was also my mother-in-law's birthday, so we took over some flowers to celebrate and Joelle and Natalie picked out the color of baloons they wanted to have around the house. I had to crack up as we watched them blow those things up! Too cute!














Natalie's eyes buggin' out of her head as she blew up that baloon was hilarious to observe!

Later we had an awesome meal and then got to watch football and later a movie.

I'm thankful for Thanksgiving!

Christmas Decorating 2008

Today, we put up our Christmas decorations. Doreen and I were talking and last year, we just put up the minimal stuff of what we had. This year - we got past the lazy part and put all our stuff up! Here's Natalie working away at getting the ornaments on the tree.













Here's Joelle stretching as high as she can (plus standing on a stool) to put an ornament up.
















Took a pic of the kids and the flash washed out the lights, then found another setting that left the lights and looked really cool! My precious little girls.



















Another shot of my kiddos and the decorations we have up through the kitchen and into the back.

















Couldn't pass this one up either and just had to share with you how cute my two favorite girls are!

Fall Fun

Last Sunday when I was on my trip, Natalie got invited over to a friends house. So for fun Doreen and Joelle went out to 'play' with/in the leaves. They spent some time at the beginning raking them up.











After they had a good pile, Joelle started to climb into this tree.

















BANZAI!!! She jumps down and lands in the big pile of leaves. Man that looks like lots of fun! :)

Good memeories for her!!!

(P.S. Kuddos to Doreen for snapping some awesome pictures - especially the last one - that day! When they do stuff and I'm gone, I enjoy hearing the tale of the day, but LOVE seeing of the activity documented on digital chip! Thanks sweetie!)

Thanksgiving Simulation

Every year at the school my kids go to they have a Thanksgiving Simulation. Which means the kids in grades K - 4 get to dress up as a Pilgrim or Indian for the day and then go around to different stations around the school and do different things like the Pilgrims and Indians did so long ago. They ground corn, made candles and corn-husk dolls. They played pilgrim games and indian games as well as much more. Then we all meet in the fellowship hall for a great 'feast,' just like the one so long ago - only it was vegetarian and not as much food and didn't last as long - so we had one in spirit. But it was still yummy!

Here are my two precious girls as a Pilgrim and Indian.



I was invited to teach the kids Indian games, so I agreed and started growing my hair for the express purpose of being an indian and having an actual mowhawk. Well it worked. Here are Natalie and I at the beginning of the day. I really like this picture of the two of us!













See, proof years later that a Pilgrim and an Indian can get along! Here's Joelle and I. By the way, I gave myself that mowhawk, wanted Doreen to, but got home too late from my trip and she had to get to school, so I took an extra mirror the clippers and zipped all that 'shag' right off my head. It was kinda fun! The teachers and kids all got a big kick out of it and a number of times people wanted to give my hair a 'tug' to see if was really real. (Course after the day was over I had to blitz home and shave it off and get to work! GRIN - it was definetly worth it!)







Here I am with a small group telling them why indians played games, what kind of games and then we'd actually try playing some. Not always successful, but we had fun!













Here's my Natalie after she visited the 'face' painting station. PRECIOUS!


















And of course after lunch we got a shot of all the dressed up adults, who were intersted, together for a group pic. Not sure what the 'indians' on the back row were up to - but it sure was fun! Then check out the Principal of the school (front row, 3rd person from the right) She was a Pildian. Half Pilgrim and half Indian.

The kids, I believe, all had a ball and so did I. Can't wait for next year!

Family

Just takin' a few pics for the fun of it yesterday. We all just got our "Have Mercy" shirts and wore them for a pic or two.

They say "Have Mercy" because our newest pastor when he is cracked up by something he says, "Have Mercy."

Pastor F did Week of Prayer for our kids school this past Fall and on Friday they gave every kid one to wear the day he came in to give them the last message - his words out of his mouth when he saw everyone was, yup - you got it, "Have Mercy!"

They added a Bible verse to it to make it really good...

"Have Mercy, upon my soul, Oh Lord, according to your loving kindness..." Ps 51:1

Nice!

Casserole Competition

Doreen and I had a casserole competition today.

Here's the full story.

Yesterday evening we were reminded that today was the Thanksgiving potluck at church today. We forgot about it and didn't plan for it on our menu. So we thought about it for a sec and I said, "we've got numerous boxes of macaroni - why not make a casserole."

The reply from Doreen was, "No way, I'm not taking boxed macaroni to a potluck, that's icky and everyone will know and you can ask anyone and they wouldn't do the same."

Well - we decided to make a spaghetti casserole and take it. This morning at breakfast though, the topic was again brought up and I said that I could make a macaroni casserole that no one would realize was boxed and Doreen said no way.

I took that challenge. After we finished eating I grabbed a couple of boxes of macaroni and got 'em going to make the casserole. So it was on, one spaghetti marizetti and one cheese macaroni casserole.

Well - I'm not gonna anounce the winner, but since this is my journal and I write it, I will tell ya that the macaroni casserole was gone! Hummmm!

It was funny at potluck, two friends - ladies, were giving me a hard time about bringing boxed macaroni to a potluck. Hummm, funny, wonder how they knew about it? Course both of them copped to being told about it - plus - one made a potato salad out of leftover potatos and the other brought a ready made cheesecake - so humpf! :)

One friend at our table ate it and she loved it - and was then told the story and got a huge kick out of it!

One just has to make it right! :)

It was fun having our own Food Network type throwdown! :)

PS - In the pic, the macaroni is on the right!

My Girls - Misc Photos

Love taking pics of my girls, especially when they are photos that I can use later for blackmail! Waaa ha, ha, ha!

A while back we went to a new food-joint in the area, FireHouse Subs. Good grub!

Anyway with the kids meal, they get a free firehat - so Joelle got home, found her black boots and red outfit and became my firegirl! :)









One afternoon at a Burger King playplace, Natalie wanted me to take a picture of her climbing ability. Love her 'proud' "look daddy, I did it" smile!












One day after picking them up from school, they both said they were tired and lay down like this as I drove home. Precious!











One evening, these two were hyper, so to get some of the wiggles out, we put on some music and had 'em dance some of those wiggles out! Very, VERY Cute!

I love my girls!

Front Yard Landscaping Project - Fall Work - Completed!

We've had a project we've been wanting to get completed for about a year. Well - last month I finally started it and worked on it on and off and finally finished most of it today.

We wanted to take this NASTY gravel sidewalk out, move the mailbox...








to this side of our driveway so rude people parking vehicles on the road will be less likely to park in front of the mailbox and prevent the postal worker to deliver out mail. Then we also wanted to mulch this side of the driveway in and plant some Iris bulbs around the tree and 4 Azalia plants we have.






Here's the start with some of the black weed-proof paper












Here's our new mailbox post in place.















Pickin up some topsoil to fill in the old sidewalk I dug out all the gravel.












Spreadin the dirt.













Now with grass seed and hay down, we're just gonna wait for it to grow and then the whole icky sidewalk, outta site outta mind!












Here's the mulch pit on the left of the driveway with the 4 Azalia plants and 7 Iris bulbs planted around the tree. Just gonna cross our fingers and hope they all grow exceptionally well! Then it will be all worth it!

Sure glad to have that project done - now on to the next one! :)

Seeds or Hay - Hummmm! How 'bout both!

We've had a project working on the landscaping of our front yard. (I'll post some before/after pics when the job's completed!) Anyway, we got Phase 2 of 3 done today. I got some help from my little girls putting down some grass seed. We were 'Sowin' the seed of green.'






Then the girls friends came over and helped spread some hay over the seeds.


Good day - I really like it when things get accomplished!

Denver Bronco Jokes

Just looking at all things Denver Broncos on-line this morning and found these jokes that cracked me up. Yeah - they are my team, but that doesn't mean I can't laugh a a funny joke too! :)

Enjoy!




Q: What do you call 53 millionaires around a TV watching the Super Bowl?
A: The Denver Broncos.

Q: What do the Denver Broncos and Billy Graham have in common?
A: They both can make 70,000 people stand up and yell "Jesus Christ."

Q: How do you keep the Denver Broncos out of your yard?
A: Paint it like an endzone.

Q: Where do you go in Denver in case of a tornado?
A: To Invesco Field- they never get a touchdown there.

Q: What do you call a Denver Bronco with a Super Bowl ring?
A: John Elway.

Q: What's the difference between the Denver Broncos and a dollar bill?
A: You can still get four quarters out of a dollar bill.

Q: How many Denver Broncos does it take to win a Super Bowl?
A: Only one (# 7) and he is retired.

Q: What do the Denver Broncos and possums have in common?
A: Both play dead at home and get killed on the road


NFL Team Lame Names: AFC West

Denver Broncos - Denver Donkeys

Kansas City Chiefs - Kansas City Griefs

Los Angeles Raiders - Los Angeles Faders

San Diego Chargers - San Diego Rechargers

Are You Ready for Some Football? Denver Broncos at Atlanta Falcons

Sunday, Nov 16 was an awesome day. Joelle and I, along with other friends and family went to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, GA to watch the visiting Denver Broncos play the Atlanta Falcons!

I saw this game come out on the schedule and cleared it through the boss, then requested the weekend off at work. When my vacation time was approved, I went to StubHub to search for some tickets. I found 10 for a pretty decent deal, ordered them - then waited!








Yesterday finally arrived. Joelle and I were ready to go, even anxious! :) (We asked Natalie if she wanted to go a number of times and she said "No" every time. She has NO interest in football. That's OK. Doreen was planning on going, but has 4 exams in next 7 days and plus a Mock Board Exam on Thursday and didn't feel like she could take the time to go. She needed some SERIOUS study time.)









We headed down to Atlanta with my in-laws and Kalvin, Nathan, Tracy, Cheryl, Cliff and Bonnie. Parking around the Georgia dome is like $30, so we parked just inside the city limits of ATL and took the MARTA - subway - into the stadium. A new experience for my kiddo.







It was wild going into the stadium - we had to line up in front of the doors with the men and women segregated and everyone was 'patted' down before entering the building. Interesting. Climbed up 3 levels and found our section, row and specific seats.






Section 331, row 9 seats 8&9. Fortunately we had some other Bronco fans seated right behind us and we were surrounded by a sea of Black and Red! Would have liked to been closer to the field, but that was too expensive. We had a really good view of the field and game though.






Game time was 1p, so we left home just before 10a, so we got there and in the first quarter went to grab a couple personal pizzas and a soda for Joelle and me. Each pizza $7 - OUCH. That's getting crazy expensive, but worth it for JP to have the full game experience!







It was a very good game. The Broncos eventually beat the Falcon 24 to 20. It was back and forth the whole game. Made for an exciting game. The crowd was absolutely into it and at points it was deafeningly (is that a word? GRIN) loud in there. Cool! Of course - it was awesome the Broncos pulled out the win!






Here's Joelle sitting with her grandparents who went with us as we waited for the MARTA to take us back to our vehicle. We stopped at Taco bell (Where we got more food for the both of us and spent less than we did at the game) and headed home to end an excellent day!

Just a few observations to add here at the end. Part of the fun of going to a game is to people watch. That was almost as fun at times!

Joelle had a ball pointing out all the Bronco fans we saw in the stadium and walking to and from the game and in the subway. A couple of times she hi-fived another Bronco fan. Cute!

We had some SERIOUS Falcon fans in our area. One fella, who had a number of drinks, almost spent more time turned around yelling at the people around him to stand up and make some noise to help their defense. Akwaaaard! :)

Another fella about 4 rows in front of us realized I was a Bronco fan. (It may have been because of my cheering when the Broncos did something good! GRIN) This guy throughout the game had at least 7 beers. (At $7 a pop) He was feeling NO pain! :) Every time the Falcons would do something good he had to turn around and point it out to me - like I wasn't watching the game! Too funny.

Then we had a couple behind us, probably about 3 rows that were intense. He taught me I'd been saying the words wrong in my vocabulary. I thought it was Offense and Defense. He kept saying, "Come on offent, let's go offent." "Okay defent, let's stop 'em here defent." Glad I got that straight now! :)

And the lady sitting next to him - OH MY Goodness! She was screaming bloody murder. It was literally like someone was coming after her with a knife. It scared me to death the first time she started hollering! She'd scream at the top of her lungs when the Broncos would get a good run, "Stop him, get him, GET HIM!" He, he, he - it was hilarious!

Man - yesterday was an awesome day!!!

Artsy Fartsy - Power Pole Graveyard

You ever wonder where the old power-poles go?

A while back a friend needed some poles to build a barn, so he called the local power company who said he could have all he wanted provided he'd come pick them up. So we did and boy are those things HEAVY!

Anyway, I was putting in a new mailbox and needed a post, so I went back to the electrical pole graveyard and took 5 feet off the top of a pole to give it a new life.

Learn new things all the time!

Big Bikin'

Joelle's been wanting to ride my bike recently for some reason. So we gave it a shot and well, it's just too tall. So I suggested that she try Doreen's. It was a challenge to get going. In fact - she couldn't until I held the bike so she could get both feet on the pedals and then she did just fine. The hand-brakes were a new experience for her, but she did ok with it.

That's my precious little girl!

The Feast

Monday night before my trip we were getting ready to put the girls to bed, but first we had to take part in a 'feast' they prepared for us in Joelle's room.










Usually we don't like to eat late, but this 'meal' was definetly worth it!












Here's Natalie pouring us a "soup."


















Joelle's pouring us some 'peach' flavored tea.

















Doreen's enjoying the tea!

Yummy! :)