Back again

Well I haven't written for quite some time now. Nor I have updated the photo album lately. Well I have done both now. Having a little kid sometimes allows for interesting and tense situations. Much like the time Asher saw a black person when he was a little boy visiting in Texas. He loudly said, pointing to the black man, "look a brown person". Then even more recently then that, I had the privilege of taking Ayden out to the hall because she was being loud in Stake Conference. We went over to a quite area over by some of the bishops office to sit down. There were two chairs, one was being occupied by a gentleman who was sitting there with his eyes closed appearing to be in heavy meditation. The other was available, so Ayden and I sat there. It was nice and quite, we were all just sitting there relaxed when Ayden suddenly let one rip. She followed that one promptly with another one. I was unsure what to say or do. I didn't look at the man on my right to see his reaction, I just hoped he didn't think it was me. Good times. Other than that things are going alright. We have a good deal of our Christmas shopping done so we are happy about that. We went to the Frisco Mall today and oddly enough the power was out in every single store except for the department stores. All the stores were closed, no one could buy anything because the credit card machines were all down.

I started running this week. I started the first time on Tuesday trying to run a 5k on the treadmill. But only made it about 3.5k. Today I ran the whole 5k and did alright all things considered. I ran it in 34 minutes and 30 seconds which is not real fast but not to bad for me at this time. It is about a 11 minute and 30 second pace per mile. I continue to do push-ups 3 days a week, 3 sets of 40 per day. So I am doing 360 push-ups a week and over 1200 per month. I know I am going to be eating more than I usually would during the holidays so hopefully the exercise will help eat up some of the additional calories. Ayden is rolling over all over the place now. She wants to crawl but hasn't figured it out yet. She can scoot herself a foot or two here and there but nothing with proper form yet. She talks constantly (she gets that from Tina :)) and she screams a very high pitch squeal quite often. We think we saw the first sign of teeth today in Ayden. Ayden is eating quite a bit of physical food now. She eats a lot of rice cereal, sweet potatoes, green beens, carrots and has just recently started eating fruit.

Asher seems to be doing alright. He is doing well in school. I recently got his report card from his teacher in Oregon and he is doing well, especially in Math and Science. When he visited for Thanksgiving, I asked him what he would like to be when he grew up. He told me he wants to be a Scientist. I was surprised and happy about that desire. He is a smart little boy, who is fascinated about ocean life and the titanic. It is one of his favorite things. He can tell you a lot of information about it. He has about 5 books on the subject and is looking for more. He learned to play chess while he was in the hospital in about a day and was playing me and others for about 20 minutes at a time before we beat him. He is competitive like me, he doesn't like to lose, but no one should.

Tina is enjoying being a mother. She is so good at it. She has a routine with Ayden that makes things so easy for everyone. Ayden eats at certain times and sleeps at certain times. Tina has one more day of work at the dental office she is working at. After that she will only have her Saturday morning job to do. She is the best mother and wife any child or man could ever hope for. Ayden and I are so lucky to have her.

Stuff

Well all is as well as can be expected in the Scott household. For those of you who haven’t heard my son Asher fell off of his bike, knocked himself out, and fractured his skull. That is the bad news, the good news is he is doing fine and back to normal activity. We had a nice thanksgiving, we got to spend some time with family and eat some good food. Asher got to come down to Texas for Thanksgiving which was great. Ayden is doing well, she is jabbering like crazy these days. She talks on some days nonstop all day long. I tell Tina she gets that from her. But I know she gets it from me. My weight is still coming along just fine, still making progress. To quote a line from the song “Living on a Prayer”, “we have each other and that’s enough…”. That is pretty much what are live is about. We don’t have much money, I can’t ever seem to find a job I like. I generally like them all at first, but that pretty much always ends after a few months. But at least I still have my wife and daughter and son and family. You know growing up and being successful in sports and not really ever having much trouble with grades and stuff it never crossed my mind that I wouldn’t be successful professionally. I didn’t know what I would do, but I thought I would be successful at something. It is a real slap in the face to have friends who are doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc… and for me to have accomplished nothing professionally in my life. I know I have no one to blame but myself. Maybe I just haven’t found the field I can be successful in yet. I don’t know. My personality is like that of an artist, or a musician. The problem is I can’t paint, draw or sculpt and I can’t play any instrument or sing well enough. I have read that like the majority of artists in the world have my same personality type. It would seem that Heavenly Father gave me a certain personality but forget to give me artist ability. Which means I don’t fit in business because I am to inquisitive and free spirited. So once you rule out business you really only have a few work sectors you can go to. You can do a social type of work, education, government, hospitality or medical I guess. I have tried many different areas of business now. I thought training might work for me even though it is in the business sector. It appears I was wrong. It is still business. So I am left to find or try to find something that is a good fit for me. I fear I will never find it and I will keep bouncing from job to job every year for the next 34 years. Ayden is now rolling all over the floor. She can’t crawl yet, but I can put her down on the floor and a short while later she will be on the other side of the room because she rolled all the way over there. She still doesn’t sit up on her own real well, she is still working on that. She is just the cutest though. She really melts my heart, she smiles at me all the time, she is just adorable. Some day she will complain that I don’t let her date or am to protective, so I will just enjoy the sweet times with her right now. If any of you have any thoughts for me I would like to hear them. We are going through a lot of stuff right now and are just trying to hang in there. But as long as I have my lovely wife and daughter and son and family, we will make it through. Anyway these are just some random thoughts for the most part, I haven’t written for a while because we have been busy dealing with other things. Take care.

Movie List

I wanted to take the time to name my top twenty. This list is probably fluid and is in no particular order except maybe the top two. You will notice some R rated movies in there from back when I used to watch them. I haven’t seen many R rated movies in the last 5 years so if there was something rated R in the last 5 years that was great, chances are I haven’t seen it.

Braveheart – My favorite movie of all time.
Shawshank Redemption – One of the most powerful movie I have ever seen.
Dumb and Dumber – One of the funniest movies of all time.
Airplane – A comedy classic
Meet the Parents – I love this one
Goonies – This is the one movie that really stands out from my childhood.
Tombstone – The best Wyatt Earp movie ever made
Presumed Innocent – This was a great legal thriller
Bruce Almighty – Love Jim
Liar Liar – Still love Jim
Along Came Polly – This movie not many people saw, but I love it.
The Usual Suspects – This was a great crime thriller
I Robot – I just like this movie
The Harry Potter Movies – Love the books and after some removal from the books love the movie.
The Lord of the Rings Movies – Great movies
Star Wars – Empire Strikes Back - Classic
Unforgiven – I had to throw in a great western
Glory – This is a great show with many good actors.
Superman – The one with the 3 bad guys from outer space. I think it was 3.
Rocky IV – The one with the Russian. Man this Rocky pumps me up.
The Matrix – Awesome show.

End of week 23

Well yet another week has gone by. Ayden is another week older, as is Asher, Tina and myself. Ayden dressed up as a bunny rabbit for Halloween and Asher went with the ninja outfit. I like to remind people that by clicking on the photo album link to your right you will be taken to all of our pictures. There is over 200 pictures up there for your viewing enjoyment. I only put a few pictures actually in the blog, there are many, many more in the photo album so check those out. If you haven’t noticed I haven’t spoken to much on my weight loss lately. It is still going well but it has become a little redundant for me to write and probably redundant for you all to read. My original purpose for starting this blog was for support from you all in helping me reach my goals. Those goals were important because as you can see from my picture at 276 lbs it was imperative that I took action to change some really bad habits. Well you guys have helped me do that. I can say positively that my eating habits have changed and they have changed forever. I don’t look at food in the same way anymore, I still love it, but I look at it as a number value. In other words, how many points does that food cost. Sure I will have a meal or two or maybe a weekend in which I may go a little crazy, but I am always back to normal soon thereafter. I weighed in this morning at 225 lbs. So doing the math I have lost 51 lbs. This is probably one of the lowest weights I have been at in 10 years. I am 6 lbs away from my weight when Tina and I started to date. I am 20 lbs away from what I was when I got back from my mission, and I am 35 lbs away from my goal of 185/190 lbs. There is no doubt in my mind I will get there. It is just a matter of time and I am not in a hurry to get there . The weight is going to come off. We are not looking forward to the teething period Ayden will soon go thru. She is doing really well. She started eating pureed green beans about a week ago which took her back a little bit initially, but we think she likes them. She has always been an angry eater for some reason. She is still an angry eater. Sometimes when Tina is feeding her green beans or rice cereal she will do this very loud, very violent, grunt. I would compare it to the sound a weight lifter might make when he is screaming to get that last bench press up. Now I know what you are thinking, she is pooping. Nope, she just makes these loud grunts and screams between bites, it is quite comical. I am going to try to capture it on video and put it on the photo album. I will let you know when I do. Work is work, it is going fine. I am still not a company type of guy, I really don’t know how far I am going to get in corporate America. More on that topic to come at a later date. We had some of Tina’s family over a few nights ago for barbq. We wanted to try and do something nice for Amy because she was moving and she was such a big help to us. (We thank you Amy!) Tina and I will miss her being around on Wednesday and Thursday and so will Ayden. I made the barbq and a pasta salad. I have a wonderful pasta salad recipe I created. Everyone seems to really like it. The chicken was fun, I made some homemade barbq sauce and grilled them outside. That day I had a bad day at work and it was nice to come home and do something I really love and that is cook. In other news I have been called into the Elders Quorum presidency. I am now the second counselor in the Elders Quorum presidency. It was really a surprise. I have had times in my life when I have been living well, doing most of the things I should in life and would have felt relatively worthy of such a calling. At the present I don’t feel worthy of it so I am surprised it came. I joked with Tina that I have been trying to fly under the radar so I never get called to presidency positions and Bishoprics and that stuff but after now getting called into this presidency I think I need to go the opposite way. I need to be the best member in the world, then I would never get called to anything. Maybe I will give that a try. But seriously it will be an interesting learning experience. I may post some pictures of me tonight. I will put some new ones of Ayden up tonight on the photo album. Oh and one more thing. We recently heard from some old acquaintances. One of them was the Craikers who moved to Tulsa for law school I wanted to give them a shout out. The other one was Mindy Dalton (don’t know her married name). Let me say something about Mindy real quick. Mindy is one of sweetest, kindest people I have ever got to associate with. After my mission I got to spend some time with her and it was time well spent. I was glad to hear from her and her family and I wish them all well. She is the salt of the earth. I value greatly past friendships. I don’t like to make new friends. I have a limited number of friends, unfortunately all of them live far away but they are my friends none the less and they are people I come to trust and love whether they realize that or not. I miss hanging out with Phil at his old house in Lander. I miss hanging with Anson sitting on a skateboard going to his old house in Duncanville to steal some of his Dads M&M’s. I miss hanging with Josh, trying to get him to watch real TV instead of the learning channel (it paid off, he is a lawyer). And I miss hanging out with Chris in our old flat in South Africa. Later.

Our trip to Silsbee - End of week 22

Well it was quite a weekend. This past weekend Tina, Ayden and I took a trip down to Silsbee, TX. Where you say? That’s right Silsbee, TX. That is where some of Tina’s family lives. We went down there for a surprise 80th birthday party for her grandmother. It was about a 5 hour drive down there. It is pretty much right on the edge of Texas and Louisiana. The drive down there was actually kind of pretty. There are many tall trees, much taller then we get in our neck of the woods it seems. Perhaps that is because it is much older and the trees have had years to grow. Ayden got to see a lot of her family she had never met before. The first night we stayed in a hotel called the Pinewood Inn. The pictures on the website brought to vision sandy beaches and palm trees. I thought, sweet, we are staying in a nice place. …..hold that thought. So Tina and I pulled into the parking lot and I asked worriedly “is this it”? It was it. To set the scene, it looked like a two story prison without the barbwire fence. But wait, the outside seemed like the Ritz Carleton compared to what terror lurked inside. “Be right back”, I said to Tina and Ayden as I closed the door to get our room. I was greeted as I entered the bathroom size guest check in area by a woman I could only describe as the long lost grandmother of Methuselah. She proved to not only be extremely old but also completely incapable of following any train of thought. After about 15 minutes in her presence I was ready to sleep in a cardboard box on the side of the road instead of deal with her. As it turned out we got our room, for $18 more than we were quoted. I didn’t mention that they lost our reservation we made a week prior to arriving there. Or more specifically the old woman didn’t know where to find our reservation. Once we got to our “suite” we noticed the state of our room. To set the scene, we had two holes in the wall by the bathroom sink where electrical plugs should have been. Instead there were simply rectangular holes in the walls with electrical wires showing. Looking up in the bathroom afforded you the view of a large square hole in the top where a bathroom fan should have been. The paint in the bathroom wasn’t finished. A little later in the evening after one of us went to the bathroom we heard the sound of running water from the toilet. We waited…waited…waited. The sound didn’t stop, so we ended up having to lift the toilet cover and adjust the big black ball looking thing so the water would stop incessantly filling up in the toilet. The next morning as Gabi was attempting to cook her oatmeal in the microwave a fuse was blown, causing the power to go out. It was not the greatest hotel stay in my life. Other than that we had a fun time. Tina’s grandmother was surprised and I think having everyone there made it a special time for her. My health and eating continue and are going well. I will update with pictures and stuff when I have made some more progress.

End of week 21

So life continues. All is well in the Scott household these days. Tina is doing well, Ayden is doing well and I am doing well. Ayden continues to grow and develop nicely. She still can make me smile and laugh anytime she wants to by looking at me with her big eyes and beautiful smile. Perhaps I am bias but she is so cute to me. She is a little shy. She will often stare at me, then I will look over at her and smile then she will smile and then shyly turn her head the other direction. She brings me such joy. We watched the movie “Meet the Robinsons” last night. We enjoyed it, it was a nice little movie. The movie that has the child genius in it always seems to be good, for example the Asian kid in Goonies …. I can’t think of any more at this moment. My co-owned fantasy football team finally got there first win yesterday. It came against the Hitmen owned by one Travis Scott. While it is nice to get a win, it is unlikely to mean anything unless we go on a good win streak. Even then it would be tough to make the playoffs. My health and weight are doing great. I eat the way I eat and it is habit at this point, so I don’t really worry about reverting back to my former weight or eating habits. I want to lose another 40 lb’s to get down to about 190 lb’s. I am thinking about beginning a running program. Although I hate running. I always have. I would rather play racquetball, basketball, football, tennis, etc… than run. We will see, but I am going to start doing something to accelerate my weight lose. I think it will take at least another 5 months to lose these last 40 lb’s, perhaps longer, unless I start exercising regularly. The only problem is when do I do it. When I get home every day at 5:45pm I would like to sit with my wife and daughter, relax, make dinner or help with it. I don’t want to get home, change clothes and take off for another hour. So really the choices are to get up early in the morning and run, or don’t run or workout at all. So far I have chosen the latter. My boy Asher seems to be doing fine. I booked his ticket the other day. He is going to be visiting us from December 26th to January 4th. He says he is enjoying school and meeting new friends. So I have some projects Tina has given me to do around the house. One of the things she would like me to do is build a headboard for our bed. Since I was only in my first house for about a month I have not really tackled any projects yet. In addition to the headboard I need to prepare my garden area for planting this spring, extend the back porch of our house and put up a few trellises on the side of the backyard. I don’t really have all the tools I need to accomplish this stuff. I know I don’t have the stuff to make a headboard at the moment. I don’t have a wheel barrel to mix and pour concrete. I don’t even have a ladder at the moment. I have to get used to being Tim “the tool man” Taylor (Home Improvement for those not in the know) around the house. I will enjoy doing these things around the house, but I am a perfectionist, so I hope I can satisfy myself with my level of work. I am excited about the holidays. I always love the Thanksgiving/Christmas season. I love the feel of it. The change of weather, the lights/decorations, the spirit of the season. It is a special time for me.

Aydens new roll

I wanted to let everyone know that Ayden had her first verified roll over from her stomach to her back yesterday. We suspect she has done this before in her crib because Tina has seen her on her stomach and then checks on her later and she is on her back, but no one has ever seen it happen. Well I had the pleasure of seeing her do this on the floor yesterday. I don’t think she remembers how she did it, but we know she is capable of doing it now. Anyway I thought I would let everyone know.

End of week 20

The acting God in Evan Almighty, Morgan Freeman, is right. When you pray for patience he doesn’t just give you an abundance of patience, he gives you circumstances and events that can promote growth of patience. I remember the last time I prayed for patience, it was about 2 or 3 years ago. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I woke up the next day to find that my truck had been smashed in and my nice cd player had been stolen… Advantage man upstairs. Not only did he win that point, he defeated me and I have not since prayed for patience. Quite frankly I am a little afraid to. Evan Almighty by the way is an underrated movie. I kind of enjoyed it. Things are great with us. My dear wife Tina just turned 31 yesterday. It is about time, I can’t stand her being able to act all young and stuff around me because I turned 31 five months before she did. She had a nice day I think, we went over to her parents house for a nice visit and stuff. She and Ayden are both doing well. Ayden I am sure will start teething anytime now, we aren’t really looking forward to that. Hey note to Cameron, Ayden has a very hard spot on the inside of her mouth, not where a tooth would be but on the roof/inside of her gum, any idea what that may be? Ayden is getting stronger all the time. She rolls over to her stomach all the time, much to her own dismay. She loves rolling over but hates being on her stomach for very long. So my question to her and her mother is why does she keep doing it? It is logical that if you know you don’t like being on you tummy why do you keep rolling over to it. I mean we can’t stop her. It is a constant cycle. She is happily on her back, then she rolls over to her stomach, then after a minute or two she starts whining. Then I get up and roll her back on her back. Then almost before I even sit down again she is back on her stomach. She is getting closer to rolling back over to her back but she is not quite there yet. My work is going well, I really enjoy what I do now and that is such a mental weight off of my shoulders. I am trying to decided if I should try to get a PhD in this field or if I should now pursue what I am really interested on the side and that is cooking. I wouldn’t be pursuing cooking to make a career change, it would be just to get better, it is basically my hobby. I want to make sure I have enough education to get where I want to be in training and development. I want to someday be a director or vice president of training and development or perhaps start my own training consulting company and I want to make sure my education is sufficient to accomplish those goals. I don’t know if a bachelors is enough. In weight loss news I got back on the good path and lost probably about 5 lbs or so. I weighed in this morning at 228.8 lb’s. For review I started this journey to better health 20 weeks or 5 months ago. At the time I started I weighed 276.6 lb’s and was wearing about size 43 pants. Today I am weighing 228.8 lb’s and am wearing size 36 pants. I would say I have made progress. I have lost 47.8 lb’s and 7 inches of my waist. I will have pictures tonight I think. Let me take a second to talk about my wife. She is very special and important to me. She is everything I always thought marriage would be and could be. So for my first marriage to be what is was, was really tough for me. We are taught that sometimes for us to understand the sweet we must experience the bitter. I have tasted more than enough bitter in my marriage life in the past so I can now understand and savor the sweet and forgive my language but damn is it sweet. I am going to be coming out with my top 20 movies of all time in the near future. You all are welcome to second guess my decisions and rankings all you want, but you will be wrong. Peace out.

End of Week 19

Well I missed last week as you all know. We have had a few things going on over the past couple of weeks. First let’s talk weight loss. The previous week I didn’t lose any weight and in fact gained a few pounds because I ate bad for about 2 days. It is really crazy. I can gain 4 lb’s in 2 days but it takes me 2 weeks to lose 4 lb’s typically. But that was just a mini blip on the radar and I got my eating back on track this past week. I still didn’t lose too much though. I don’t believe my weigh in this morning was accurate so I am going to weigh in again tomorrow morning. In other news, many of you have followed the saga that is my water bill. Last time I wrote about it I said we got about a $400 credit. Well let me update that number. After calibrating my water meter the county decided to not credit me $400. Instead they decided to credit me $900. So we owed nothing. Our meter is now fixed and our usage is well under average (we don’t bathe). Just kidding. But it looks like we may not have a legit irrigation leak. I am seeing moisture around some of my backyard sprinkler heads, and I haven’t watered back there for a week. Does anyone have any possible explanation as to why this would be other than a leak? In other news Ayden is doing well. We think she may be teething because her grumpy level has increased a bit lately. I have been working now as a full time Trainer for the past two weeks. I really enjoy it. I did my first client training session last week and it went pretty well all things considered. I have two more scheduled for later this week and I think I am going to be doing some onsite training at the end of this month in Pittsburg. I found out the other day that our company hit their bonus quota which is nice, we will be getting a little bonus at the end of this year. This past weekend I participate in the Richardson Corporate Challenge. My company had a basketball team that I played on. We got beat the first game 38 to 23. I scored 10 of those 23 points. That kind of tells you how bad our team was when I was the leading scorer. Actually I played pretty well. This is not breaking news, but my fantasy football team still sucks. I am not going to put up pictures of me this week because nothing has changed, but to give you some numbers on my progress thus far. When I started this eating lifestyle I weighed 276.6 lb’s and wore basically a size 43 pants. Today I weighed 234.2 lb’s and wear size 36 pants. So that is some nice progress. My weight goal is still about 185 lb’s so I still have around 50 lb’s I am going to try and loose. Anyway take care.

End of week 17

Well I weighed in at 231.6 lb's this morning. Down from 234 lb's last week. So I am down another 2.4 lb's which if my math is correct puts me at exactly 45 lb's lost in 17 weeks. I am pleased with it all. The other day I wore size 36 jeans. Granted they were a bit snug, but you couldn't count the quarters in my pocket so I didn't need to call a tailor. That was down from a very generous 42 pant size 17 weeks ago. So that is not to bad. I had my first day as a Trainer today. The training department and the company is about to explode. The opportunities for me in the training department are going to be great. I am really going to enjoy being a trainer and doing this for my career. I am really excited about it. My fantasy team is so bad and it is killing me. I hope to get the pictures up tonight for all of you.

Tid Bits

It is unusual for me these days to blog on a day other than Monday. But I just have some thoughts I wanted to express. First of all I am at peace these days. It has been a hard thing for me to come to grips with. I am not 16 anymore, I cant play video games and sports all day long. I can no longer not work and hope to get money from my parents to go out at night (although if you are offering we could discuss it). It is a realization that I have never wanted to come to. I would prefer to do those other things all day everyday. Or just go to school and come home everyday. But it has taken me 13 years to come to grips that at some time I had to face life as it is and will be. For 13 years I have literaly agonized over what I should do with my professional life. There wasnt a day that passed by that I didnt think about it. Not a evening that passed by that I didnt spend hours late into the night researching different paths and their fit for me. My lovely wife has done the same for me on many occasions. We had prayed about the topic tons and tons of times. We had chosen paths that we thought were good paths only to see something spoil them. Our most recent thought was for me to get a Masters degree in Speech Pathology. Which I think would have been a good fit, but it is a 2 1/2 year pursuit. So I had to decided if I wanted to keep up this charade of trying to chase education and happiness (professionaly) in yet another avenue. In the end I decided to take and go for something I have been interested in and something I think is a good fit for me as well. I expressed interest to my company that I would be interested in coming back full time for this position only. I told them I would not come back full time for any other position. I spoke with the manager of the department, interviewed the next day and was hired that same day. I even got a slight raise, all of my stock options back, as well as my bonus structure, so it was a nice deal. Most would be surprised to hear the position is in corporate America. I believe it is the only position/field in corporate America I could ever excel at. The position is in the Training and Development department. I am a Trainer. I start full time on Monday in that position. My job is to train the companies employees on our software products and also train our external clients on our software products. I feel at peace with this decision. I know it is in the best interest of the family and it is a position that is a good fit for my personality. I am going to start a graduate online program at UNT in the spring. The degree will be in Applied Technology and Performance Improvement. I will be seeking a masters and hopefully some day a PhD in this field. I like this because it will help me accomplish my goal of becoming a director of training and development for a company, but also help me some day be able to teach the subject in a college someday. So it feels nice for the first time in my life to be settled. To feel like I am not anticipating a change or looking for something else. It feels nice to not worry about it anymore. This is the bed I have chosen to lye in.

I feel so blessed to have a wonderful wife and two wonderful, healthy children. There is a co-worker whose wife had a baby a few months after Ayden was born. The baby has had serious health problems from the minute it was born. The most recent news I heard this morning is that the baby has a disease that has only been seen in like 10 other babies before and none of them ended well. The baby is having seizures and is on heavy medication and is probably mentally retarded to some extent. It has been difficult for him and his wife. They are a very young couple. I think his wife is like 20. I feel for them. I dont know why some babies have the challenges they do. A few years ago a gentleman came to speak at the Mckinney Stake Center. He had written a book called "One Tattered Angel" and he was speaking to the stake about it. It was one of the more memorable speeches I have ever heard. One of his daughters was born in severely bad shape. She defied all the doctors odds and went on to live her life (although still a brief one). He talked about the impact she had on the family and how it changed and helped them all. Anyway, I dont know how Heavenly Father picks and chooses what families will get these special children. I know I am not knocking on the door to get one because I dont know how well I would hold up. Anyway just some thoughts I have had. Take care.

End of week 16

Well 4 months has passed amazingly. I know my weekly goals are falling a little behind but progress continues to be made. I weighed in at 234 lb's today. So I lost another 4 ounces, but that is not bad considering I had a binge day. In total I have lost 42.6 lb's thus far. This week is the first week I have ever gone over my allotted points in a week. I binged yesterday, mostly out of depression for my fantasy football team. It dropped to 0 and 3 yesterday. But I got up this morning and got on the exercise bike for 45 minutes. I am going to try and do that about 5 days a week from now on. My weight loss should start picking up again. I am excited to get into the 220's.

In other news my dad, my grandma scott and my sister emma came and visited us yesterday. They came down from Wyoming to bring a horse to my Aunt Jennifer. It was good to see them. None of them had ever met Ayden so it was nice for them to be able to see her.

Ayden just a few days ago rolled over from her back to her stomach for the first time. She is still not able to roll over from her stomach to her back.

I won my fight with the fresh water district. For those of you who haven't heard we were getting $200+ water bills every month, and our most recent one was almost $500. Well we have been fighting with the water management company for months now and then they threatened to turn off our water. So I had to go to the county offices and go on a 3 hour goose chase to try and find someone who had the power to make things right. I finally found myself on the 4th floor of the county offices speaking with the director of human resources for denton county. She was nice enough to give me a list of names over our fresh water district. After calling several names on that list I finally got in touch with the general manager for our district. He said our water definitely would not be turned off and that things would get fixed. Indeed they were. Our outstanding balance at this point was about $750. We got that marked down to $350 and the water issue is fixed from this time forth. What a beating that was for us.

End of week 15

Well yet another week in life has come and gone. All is well in the world. In weight loss news I weighed in this morning at 234.4 lbs. Last week I weighed in at 237.2 lbs, so I lost 2.8 lbs this past week. I told Tina today that I am only about 17 lbs heavier now than when her and I met, so I am getting done there. I was 217 lbs when Tina and I met. I haven't been that low for 5 years now and about 5 years before that. Ayden is doing really well. I have posted a bunch of pictures of here and stuff on the photo album since we didn't put any up there last week. I took some lessons from Rocky Balboa when we watched it the other night. It was a pretty good movie. The part where he is talking with his son and telling him about life and how it hits you and hits you and you either keep going or you fall down. I know there have been times and things in my life that have almost made me stay down and not get back up. But I have a wonderful wife and son and daughter and they encourage me and keep me going.

Even though professionally I feel like a failure, I feel successful in my family life. I feel like I am a good husband and father. I just don't know if those things are enough for me, I know they should be and I am happy about those things, but being unhappy for 2000 hours a year is depressing to me. I always expected way more out of myself. Maybe that is because I am competitive and never envisioned being at the bottom of the economic food chain. But at the same time money only matters to me to the extent we have enough. I want to enjoy my work or more directly put I need to enjoy my work. I have an odd personality type and the types of jobs I could do and be successful I would most likely never enjoy. In other news Ayden is doing very well. She is just so cute and makes me smile every time I look at here. Tina is a wonderful mom and takes very good care of her. Here are a few pictures of me and make sure to check out the photo album. There are a couple of new videos up there of Ayden as well. Me and Chris's fantasy football team sucks right now.

End of week 14

Well nothing gained, nothing lost this past week. I still weight exactly the same. I am going to have to start doing some consistent cardio now I think to loose the amount of weight I want to loose every week. Thus far I have lost 39 while doing pretty much no cardio. Other than that all is well. We finally got our water usage straightened out. Now we just have to get our bill past bill straightened out. Imagine water bills as high as $500 dollars. The meter was screwed up. For example from the 2nd of August till the 17th of August we supposedly used 32,000 gallons. In the 17th they changed our meter for the 3rd time. Since the 17th till today which is about 23 days we have only used 3,000 gallons. So it was majorly screwed up. Ayden is doing well. She is a bit harder to put down for naps now. She doesn't really go quietly into the night anymore. In other news, my joint venture fantasy football team just got the crap kicked out of them this past weekend. Hopefully things are going to get better or it is going to be a long season. It is a slap in the face as you get older and you suddenly realize that you are not going to be a big league baseball player or a FBI agent or a Spy or a doctor etc... You are most likely going to work at a Corporation, doing your 8-5 shift every day for 40 years. That is a depressing notion for me. But it is one that I have finally come to grips with. It doesn't mean I like it but I know at some point I have to establish myself in a career to make a good living for my family. I just have to hope that somewhere along the way i find something that I enjoy or at least develop some of my side interests and hobbies.

End of week 13

Well after taking the week to recover from my previous weekend of hiking I lost 2 lb's. I have now lost a total of 39.4 lb's in 13 weeks. I currently weigh 237.2 lb's. I am making good progress every week and still haven't added exercise as part of my regular schedule. School started this past week. Looks like it is not going to be to bad. I am taking 2 graduate courses and 2 undergraduate courses. All is well with Ayden and Tina, nothing really new to report. I havent put pictures up for a while but I have them up there now, there are some new ones of Ayden and me and stuff. Sorry I dont have a lot to write at the moment. Take care, thanks to all of you who have helped me in my weight loss efforts, it has been a big help.

End of week 12

Well I have finally completed the elusive 3 month mark. It should be no surprise to those of you who knew I was going backpacking in the mountains of Wyoming that I lost a few pounds. In the 3 days we spent in the mountains I walked an estimated 20 miles. For me that is a lot, especially uphill, in rocky terrain and at 10,000 feet of elevation compared to my normal 700 feet. I did pretty well all things considered. The first day I was fine. The second day I was walking all over the several different lakes without a backpack and for some reason thought I was going to die. I simply had no energy. Then the hike out was not to bad. I caught 8 fish. The fishing wasn't bad, they were just smaller then we would have preferred. But it was real nice to get back up in the mountains. It was a beautiful place and the weather was great, except for our first night up there, where I was told the temperature got down to 20 degrees. I had left my socks outside the tent that evening and in the morning the socks were able to stand up by themselves. I was sleeping in my sister Emma's sleeping bag, so it wasn't big enough for me so the first night was kind of cold. Other than that we saw some deer, but no bears or elk or moose. It was a fun trip but very tiring. It is good to be back home with the wife and kiddo. So I lost 5.4 lb's this past week bringing my 12 week total to 37.4 lb's lost. I am pleased with the results and progress at this point. It is nice to have the clothes fitting better these days. Well school starts today and I am off to buy my books. I will get pictures of me up today and hopefully some of Ayden and the mountains. It just depends on how quick I can get Travis to send me the pictures he took. Take care.

End of week 11

Well to much partying for me this week. I gained 1.8 lb's this week. So i have lost exactly 32 lb's through 11 weeks. As I was mentioning to someone the other day, this way of eating is a lifetime effort for me. It is not something I am doing for a temporary period of time until I loose the weight I am trying to loose. I realize this is a life long pursuit and that it has to be for me. I weigh 244.6 lb's. I played some basketball the other day with some of my brothers, I suck. I am currently burnt, lacerated on my arm (my arm looks like I had a fight with X-Men's Wolverine), lacerated on my leg, cut on my thumb, a jammed thumb and muscle soreness everywhere. I am getting old and it really sucks.

I am going on my fishing trip with my dad and travis this coming weekend. It is going to be a ton of walking for me and hopefully in the process I will loose some good weight. I am looking forward to getting to the mountains.

Ayden is doing wonderfully. She is such a joy to me, she can always make me smile when she smiles or stares at me which she often does. Even though life can be frustrating to me at times and difficult when I am at home with Tina and Ayden everything is good. I suspect that when i weigh in next monday I will be about 4 lb's lighter than I was today. Probably closer to 240. We will see. Take care.

End of week 10

Well I have completed week 10 now. I weighed in this morning at 242.8 lb's. So I lost 3.8 lb's this past week and a total of 33.8 lbs in 10 weeks. I am pleased with my progress and know that it is only a matter of time before I loose all the weight I set out to loose. My eating patterns are set and habit now, they are not going to change. I am up against a deadline at work so I cant type much right now. But everything is good. I will write more next week when stuff at work slows down. And there will be more pictures up next week.

I heard my sister Sarah was in the Hospital. Sarah when you read this blog I hope you are doing better. Take care

End of week 9

Well another week has come and gone. My pursuit of looking like a Greek God is still ongoing. I have some work to do but I am making progress. I believe I came into this week weighing 247.7 lb's. When I weighed in this morning I weighed in at 246.6 lb's. So a weight loss of 1.1 lb's. Which is below the weekly goal but is progress. I think that amount of weight loss dawns in comparison to how many inches I am loosing of my waist. My suit pants this week have never been looser. I have gone from using the very last belt loop on my belt to now using the 4th from the last. So I know I have lost considerable inches. I am feeling good having lost a total of exactly 30 lb's in 9 weeks.

We had a great visit with Asher over the 5 weeks he was here. He is a sweet boy with a kind heart. I so much want him to be a good person and make good decisions in his life.

We got the pleasure of blessing Ayden in church yesterday. It was a special day, the family that was able to come was there. We wish everyone could have made it but certainly the distance is rather prohibitive for many of you. But it was a special day. She looked so beautiful in her little dress. There will pictures up tonight of her in that dress in the photo album. She really has been a blessing in our lives. She has the cutest little smile which just melts my heart and cheers me up when I am down.

I really struggle in this world. It seems the world revolves around business and I could not be a worse fit for business and corporations. Let me list the top 10 reasons why I can never succeed in business.

1)I don't like other people telling me what to do if I deem them to be unqualified to do so.
2)I hate the policies companies use that don't make sense from any standpoint.
3)Instead of paying people what they are worth they pay them as little as they can get away with.
4)They are close minded. They have no desire to listen to what their employees have to say.
5)They don't like to be questioned or second guessed.
6)They do not hold themselves accountable for their own stupid decisions.
7)Managers fire their employees to protect their own jobs, even if those employees are capable.
8)Companies promote butt kissers who are incompetent.
9)They fire good workers who perhaps struggle on some projects instead of moving them to a place where they can excel again. (My company fired 5 people today. All working on a huge project. They were good at their jobs which is why they were put on the project in the first place. They will loose all of their stock options they have been sitting on for years. They had been putting in 12 hour days and this is what they have to show for it.)
10)It is all about the bottom line and the stock price. Little else matters. Don't ever buy that they care about you or your family. The minute you couldn't produce you would be out the door regardless of circumstance or reason.
11)I wont treat anyone different than I treat anyone else. In other words the COO I treat the same as my friends. The President of the company gets the same treatment from me. I am not going to throw him a party, email him when he is sick or kiss his behind, unless I would do that to everyone else. They are no more important to me than anyone else. They will get no more respect from me than does anyone else. Respect and Trust have to be earned from me. They don't get it based on title or status.


Those are just a few of my thoughts. I will never advance in business. As you can imagine my views in business are not appreciated. Anyway I hope you are all doing well. I struggle everyday with my career. I truly dislike what I do professionally, but am very blessed to have a wonderful family outside of my career.

End of week 8

It has been a solid 2 months for me diet wise. I weighed in at 247.7 lb's this morning so this past week I lost 1.8 lb's. Below my weekly goal but still not to bad. So in two months of healthy eating and occasional exercise I lost 29.2 lb's. I cant ever really see myself going back to eating the way I used to eat. When you do something multiple times a day for 2 months it kind of forms a habit.

I mentioned in a comment that I would blog on my degree plans. I am going to study Criminology. My plan is to complete this PhD degree and then ultimately be a professor in college. This is as close to a dream job from me as I can attain, since it doesn't look like a Major League Baseball career is going to work out for me. I have always had great interest in this field. It is really one of the very few subjects I have great interest in. The degree will most likely take around 4 years. I will be diminishing my work schedule a bit while I do this program and we will get by as best we can over the next 4 years.

We have had a good time with Asher visiting us. He really is a well behaved little guy. I fear at times I am to hard on him. I think I am hard on him because I want him to be a good person and since I have some experience with what he possibly could be if he takes after his mother I am doing everything I can think of to prevent certain characteristics.

Ayden is a delight. She is just such a beautiful little girl who loves to smile. Tina thinks she laughed for the first time the other day, but to me it sounded to me more like a cough laugh. She is 3 months old today.

Tina and Asher and I went fishing at a private pond this past weekend. I wanted to take them to a place where I was fairly certain we would all catch some fish. Well that didn't work out. Asher and Tina got several bites but never got one in the boat. I was able to get and keep one on the hook but it was embarrassing how small it was. It was probably about a 4 ounce fish. We also went to a little animal museum this past weekend. We got to see alot of snakes and some spiders. Asher seemed to enjoy it.

I will finish Harry Potter today, I stayed up till 2:30am trying to get as close to finished as I could. I will try to get the pictures up this evening. After watching Karate Kid 2 last night Asher is excited to see one, so I have to try and find that. For those of you who dint know Asher does Tai Kwon Do. I need a vacation.

End of week 7

It was a pretty tiring week. I am not sure why. My weight loss continues. This blog has been the best thing to happen to my health so far. It provides a way for some accountability of my health. I weighed in this morning at 249.2 lb's. That equals a 5.2 lb weight loss this past week. So after 7 complete weeks of eating healthy and occasionally working out I have lost 27.4 lb's. Not to bad. I am still on my goal of loosing 3 lb's a week. So needless to say I was pleased. I am accustomed to eating to way I eat now. It doesn't seem like a diet anymore. It is just how I eat.

In other news Tina and I went on another date this past weekend. This time we went and saw "I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry". It was pretty good, probably not quite as good as I hoped it would be but we liked it. Sure you have to endure many, many, innuendo's and a lot of straight forward raunchiness but Sandler generally has a way to end with a positive message in his movies. I love Kevin James. For a while I think I was trying to be him. I am big like him, I love to eat. He worked for IPS on his show "The King of Queens", I worked for UPS. He was a sports fan and I am a sports fan. He had a hot wife and I have a hot wife. His wife in real life is of Asian decent mine is of German decent. You see the similarities are scary.... Anyway if you can handle Sandler's humor you will probably like this movie. Meanwhile I purchased the new Harry Potter book and have been trying to read it as quickly as I can. I am not disclosing any information on the book as of yet. I will give a full book report on it in a couple of weeks.



Ayden and Asher are doing well. Asher made a friend at church that is coming over to play today. I am glad he is going to have a friend to play with. Ayden is doing good as always. We loaded about 20 pictures yesterday up on the photo album. We have some of her in baby sunglasses, they are pretty cool. We took Ayden swimming the other day, but we couldn't find a hat for her head, so I told Tina to just gob sunblock on her head. She did that and all was well. Except now we are having trouble getting the sunblock of her head. We have tried wiping it of, we have tried giving her a bath with soap and it still doesn't come of. She looks like the baby of that boy "Powder" from the movie. I am going to be going fishing in Wyoming about a month from now. I am so looking forward to that. I have very much missed the mountains and good fishing. Tina and I have spent hours fishing at various lakes in Texas only to catch nothing. I am excited to actually catch fish.

Thanks for taking the poll. It looks like most of you see in some type of teaching capacity either as a high school teacher and a coach or as a professor. That is cool because I am going to do just that. I am not going to coach, at least not for pay. I am sure at some point I will coach little league but I am not going to coach for a living. I am going to teach but not in high school. I have been accepted into a PhD program that starts in about 3 weeks. I am excited about it, it is one of the few subjects I have ever had interest in. All other majors or subjects I have pursued in the past have been monetary based. This is not monetary based. Sure I hope to make a good living at some point, but I have legitimate interest in the field. Peace out. Sorry I didn't get the pictures up last week. I will get some out there tonight of me. You should start to see a difference in me now.

End of week 6

Well today marks the longest I have ever been able to stay on an organized diet ever. I am still having no trouble. I am kind of getting used to the foods I eat. My weight this morning was 254.4 lb's. Which equates to a weight loss of 2.2 lb's this past week. Not to bad, a little below the average weekly goal I am shooting for but not bad. That brings my overall weight loss to 22.2 lb's so far in 6 weeks. Which is still an average of 3.7 lb's a week, so in total I am hitting my weekly goal. I got to do a little exercise but not to much. I am hoping to hit the exercise trail much more this week. It is weird because yesterday morning I stepped on the scale and I weighed 251.4 lb's. So I am not sure what happened in one day. I always weigh myself on the same scale at pretty much the same time every day. I think I weighed in a little higher this morning because I ate a large dinner last night and it hasn't had sufficient time to work its way through me if you know what i mean.

We are all doing well. Asher is having a good time swimming and playing with the dog and everyone. Ayden is doing great. She is smiling often now and I think will soon be laughing as well. Tina is just doing her mom thing and doing it very well. She is a great mother and we are all lucky to have her.

In other news, Tina and I went on a date on Saturday night. I treated her to the new Harry Potter movie which was good, followed by the 2 star cuisine that is Subway. We took our Subway sandwiches and parked at a place with a great view were we could eat them. The view was a straight on view of one of the elementary schools in McKinney. It was special. The movie was good. I am pumped about the final book coming out this weekend. I already have my copy on reserve. I will be giving a full book report after I finish it which shouldn't be to long after I purchase it.

I think I am going to put another poll on this blog. I believe now I can have an actual poll though through this site. The poll is about how others see me as far as profession is concerned. I see myself in a specific way but I would like to see how others see me as it relates to occupation. You know there are some people who you look at and say, "he looks like a dentist" or "he is a typical accountant". What do you look at me and think? The poll is on the right hand side of the page. If you dont see me as any of the occupations above then feel free to do a write in vote by clicking the comments link below this posting. I am interested in seeing the results. Take care. The pictures will be coming tonight and there are some new pictures of Ayden in the photo album in baby sunglasses.

End of week 5

Some things are a mystery to me. For example why do pet owners with miniature poodles name their dogs "killer" or "fang"? Why do guys who become gay suddenly start talking with a lisp? Why did Julia Roberts marry Lyle Lofitz? Why was it called the black plague when not one black person died from it? (Editorial note: I made this last one up, it made for a better blog.) Why sometimes when a team looses their best player do they suddenly become a better team? Why can our bodies repair certain tissue/organs via cellular mitosis but then not repair other vital tissue/organs such as the heart? Why is Rosie O'Donnell famous? Why would anyone like the movie Pulp Fiction? And finally why did I GAIN 4 ounces this week. These things are unexplained to me. I ate fine, I had some activity. I would like to play the "gained some muscle this week" card but I didn't really do anything. I weighed in this morning at 256.6 lb's. I am assuming it is a plateau or sorts. I will push through it. In the past I have thrown up my hands when this happened and gone back to my old ways. Not this time. I will push through it and keep going.

In other news, Ayden and Asher and Tina are doing well. We had the rain stop long enough for Asher and I to go for a swim. He has been working on his math problems. He was awarded in school the award of Math Fact Champion for addition. He does pretty well with his addition. I have been teaching him some tricks for addition and subtraction and multiplication and division. He had a good time at church yesterday. At first he didnt want to go into his class so I had to sit with him for a while. But he warmed up and eventually started playing with a gal. Thata boy!

Ayden is doing well. She is about to undergo some shots. Hopefully those will go well and have no effect on her. Tina is doing well, she has got this whole mother thing down. She still questions her mothering ability at times but she really is great at it.

I saw Transformers last week. It was good. It was cool to be taken back 20 years to the days when I watched the cartoon every day and had a lot of the toys. Best movie I have seen this year. Hopefully Harry Potter will have something to say about that this week. I am excited for the book. I have it reserved. Oh and I have gotten some feedback on some different ways I could take pictures to show my weight progress. So in addition to the pictures I currently take, I am going to take a picture of me in some jeans. At first these jeans are going to be like spandex on me, but over time they will fit and most likely be to big for me. At least that is the goal. Peace. The pictures will be coming later tonight.

End of week 4

Well, so far the short term goals I set out to accomplish every week have been reached. I started this whole healthy thing 4 weeks ago to the day. This morning I weighed in at 256.2 lb's. So I lost exactly 3 lb's this week and a total loss of 20.4 lb's in 4 weeks. Not to bad. I am feeling good, the clothes are getting looser and I am getting more energy I think.



Asher arrived at the airport on Friday evening. He had a nice flight and said everyone treated him nicely. He looks like he has grown a foot since we last saw him in December. He is as skinny as a preying mantis. As my father in law likes to say "he could walk through a picket fence sideways." Asher and I had a hellacious dual of super soakers yesterday. He got 2 super soakers for his birthday. One of them was advertised as the ice blast. The idea is to fill up the container with ice, then water, then unload on your enemy. Now not only can you shoot a steady stream but there is this other soaker blast you can do which will shoot a ton of water in one shot. It would be equivalent to taking a pitcher and slinging it at your opponent. It was a good time. Needless to say, I dominated.



We are doing well. Ayden is growing and is 2 months old today. She is smiling and is so very beautiful. I thank her mom for that. She is a joy and is sleeping most of the night now which has been a blessing.

Due to my exercise the previous week I had to go to the doctor due to my knee popping every step I took. I was diagnosed with patella bursitis which is not really that big of a deal just an overuse injury. Also I had some ankle problem, but am not sure what the problem with that is. I get some blood work done later this week and then next week I will be violated by my doctor. I have to have a physical performed and as a precautionary measure I have to have the finger test to check for cancer. Not looking forward to that one. For those of you men laughing right now, just wait, your time is fast approaching. To you women reading this, you guys have been through much worse. Anyway enjoy the pictures, as always there are new Ayden pictures and some Asher pictures updated today. Take care.

Happy Birthday Asher!

It was 7 years ago today that my son Asher was born. It is hard to believe he is 7 years old already. His main interests these days are spy stuff, pirates, music, and martial arts. He has been taking tai kwan do lessons for a couple of years now. I don't remember what color belt he is but if you ask him he will tell you. I know for one of the belts he had to break a board like Danielson. I think he is going to be a tall kid.

Certainly when he was born I didn't envision living over a thousand miles away from him and only seeing him 2 months of the year. I have learned from life that you have to roll with the punches. Sometimes you get the crap kicked out of you in life and you just have to keep getting up even though sometimes you just don't want to anymore. But persistence has a way of leading to a better paved road. A road with less potholes, a smoother road, a road with a beautiful view. That is where persistence has lead me. It has led me to a better life, with a wonderful wife, a beautiful daughter and a great little son. I am pleased with my life and feel blessed. Other than dissatisfaction with my current career path I have no complaints. It seems at times like I have been through hell and back but I have few regrets. I don't think you can live a happy life if you hold on to regrets.

I remember looking Asher in the face when he was very young and crying, because I knew the marriage was not going to work out, and I didn't know what would become of us all. Well while not an ideal situation we have tried to make it all work out for everyone the best we could. Asher is doing well, he seem to be doing well in school and seems to be cared for and loved and that is a relief to me. Happy Birthday Asher. He is coming for his summer visit this Friday. I will take a picture then and post it with this blog. Take care

End of week 3

Well we have arrived at the end of the third week. The progress is coming along smoothly so far. I have entered into the 250's. I weighed in this morning at
259.2 lbs. So this week I lost 3.4 lbs for a total of 17.4 lbs in the last 3 weeks.



Not to bad. I am hitting my every week goal of loosing 3 lbs a week. I stepped up my workouts this week. I walked/ran about 6 miles or so this week. I also did some swimming. I am most likely going to have to increase my swimming and cut back on my running. There is a reason elephants are not long distance runners/walkers. They got to much weight to carry around.



You dont see many fat New Yorkers running in the Boston Marathon. I have a history of plantar fascitis and any time I run or walk to much I start to feel pain in my feet. I kind of took it easy but they are still bothering me a little. So it was a good week.

Ayden actualy slept for 8 straight hours last night. It was the first time she has ever done that. We are hoping it was not an anomaly. Check out the photo album we got some pictures of her smiling, she is 7 weeks old today. My son Asher comes to visit this Friday for the month of July. I am excited to see him. He did good in the first grade and was recognized at the end of the school year for doing well in reading and math so I was pretty pleased with that. He continues to be very interested in martial arts and pirate stuff and spy stuff. We are going to do a lot of swimming and playing during the month of July. Anyway, I told Tina I have been having bloggers block. I think I have a few anecdotes to pass on a little later this week. Oh and Anj, the reflux stuff Ayden is taking I believe is called Axid. It seems to be helping quite a bit. Take care.

Stuff

I am starting to feel the pressure of having a Pulitzer prize blog. I am starting to feel the pressure to produce on a regular basis the kind of cutting edge, news breaking, hypothetical thoughts and anecdotes that have gotten me where I am in life. I will continue my best, "fans", to provide you with entertainment in every blog.

I have contemplated lately about working a little blue. The problem is I don't know who all reads this blog. Some of my family and friends may not like blue work. I have considered putting a warning message at the beginning of the blog so those opposed to bathroom stories and the like can look away so to speak. You all let me know what you would like by leaving comments on this post. I have some stories that would singe your nose hairs and reverberate your vocal cords with laughter.

A few thoughts....

Robert Hanssen, ever heard of him. Ever seen the movie "Breach"? Pretty good/interesting movie. Based on a true story of what is considered to be the greatest spy against the United States in history. He was a double agent for the Russians for many years and the results and damage he has caused the United States is still not completely known. After reading a little bit about him, his biggest concern was being caught by a double agent for the United States. In other words some agent employed by the KGB but secretly worked for the United States. He used dead-drops to supply the information, never really coming into contact or revealing his identity to the Russians. It is a good watch, slow, but interesting and true.

Continuing on the movie theme is the movie "Big Fish". I know, it is kind of weird isn't it? But at the same time there is something kind of cool about it. We have all known people who told tall tales. Who when you said you mounted Everest would tell you that they did it barefoot in a wheelchair. The person I grew up with like this was Jeff Ramey. If you listened to that guy he would tell you he could have created the world in 4 days and then he water skied the last 3. I consulted my brother about his tales because he was Travis's age. These are a few of the tales he used to tell us. Jeff Ramey's family seemed to have some money, they had a nice boat and were avid water skiers. He said they were rich due to his cousin's finding a gold nugget in a beach ball. Ummmm, possible, highly unlikely. He also told a story about being at a Ranger game in the broadcast booth when suddenly a fall ball broke the glass in the broadcast booth. Amid the may lay and the undoubted sharded glass he was able to catch and secure the baseball. Yeah, probably not. Back to "Big Fish". The movie was kind of cool the way the stories helped this man deal with his life. It was like he had wild fantasy's but instead of just dreaming about them he would tell them as true stories to others. I don't know for sure if he really believed them or not.

Ayden is doing well. We recently got some Reflux medicine for her and it seems to be helping. If you look at the photo album there are some new pictures of her. Sorry they are all in the same swing and in the same seat, but when she starts doing something new we will have different pictures.

I wanted to poll my audience. Would you rather go through life getting by financially, never having an abundance but just enough to pay the bills, or would you rather live in relative hardship for 3 years but after those 3 years never worry about finances again? What do you guys thinks. Leave your comments. Take care.

End of week 2.

Well I have arrived at the end of week 2.



The week went just fine from a diet standpoint. I dont really have any struggles with food. For me it is really a mindset. Once I establish a mindset everything else is pretty easy. Sure I get tempted at times but not very often. I have a certain grouping of foods I eat every day that I really enjoy. Stuff like pickles, tomatos, celery, carrots, egg salad sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, salad, soup, green beans, brocolli, baked lays, bite size 3 muskateers (these are a necessity) and little 1/2 cup size chocolate ice creams and popcorn. I eat these types of things every day.



My weight this morning was 262.6 lb's. So I lost 2.8 lb's this week, overall I am down exactly 14 lbs's in 2 weeks. Not to bad, I cant really complain about that progress. I was able to work out once this week. I ran for about 2 minutes at a very fast pace, but then my heart almost blew up so I stopped and got on the elliptical for 10 minutes. Well then I was watching the calories burned in that 10 minutes and I said "this sucks, I am hardly burning anything off", so I got back on the treadmill determined to run for 5 straight minutes at as fast a pace as I could. I made it the 5 minutes with a 2 minutes cool down, so all in all I worked out about 19 minutes or so. You know I used to run the 400 meter in about 58 seconds or so, which is quick but not trackster quick. Now it takes me like 170 seconds. I am slow. Anyway the diet is coming along well. I am going to hit my goal it is just a matter of time. Thanks for all you comments and support. Peace out.

Thoughts over John

Tell me, am I the only one in the world to notice the curious configuration of public restrooms. Specifically the toilets. Often as I am sitting on the porcelain I feel the toilet give way a little bit. I am speaking about the toilets that are bolted to the wall and don’t actually contact the ground. Then at other times I feel the toilet actually rise up a little bit. It is a weird phenomenon. Here is my theory. On the other side of the wall, in the ladies restroom, there is a toilet that is actually attached/bolted to the very one I am sitting on. So when I am sitting on one all is good and level. But then some gal in the ladies restroom comes and sits on the toilet and I get that sea-saw sensation. I got to believe that when a girl is sitting on the toilet in the ladies room and I sit on the adjacent toilet in the men’s room she suddenly flies up in the air because my weight sends her flying thru the air, when she eventually lands she is probably using the toilet at a 45 degree angle because of course I weigh more than she does. Then when I get of the toilet first, it sends her sprawling toward the floor like a person would when a fat guy suddenly jumps of the sea-saw, sending the little person plummeting toward earth at 2000 feet per second. Just an interesting observation.

After 1 week

Well I am one week into this thing now. It was a good week. No problems staying within my daily portions for the day and week. When I started one week ago I weighed 276.6 lb's. When I weighed in this morning I weighed in at 265.4 lb's so if you do the math I lost 11.2 lb's this week.


I am sure most of it was water weight. I would expect the loose around 7 lbs this coming week and then for the weekly number to be around 3 lb's a week. I didnt get to exercise at all this week. I was hoping to exercise at least an hour a day, but with the baby and all we havent really been able to do anything lately.


Anyway enjoy the pictures. I am sure you will not be able to tell a difference in the look of my gut till I reach about 240 lb's. Take care, I will update the progress again next monday.

Hugh??

The title of this blog sums up my thoughts of the Pirates 3 movie. You know I consider myself relatively intelligent. I consider my wife intelligent. We are both closer to genuises than inbred hillbillies. But I gotta tell you. I was lost throughout this entire movie. Jack Sparrow is seeing himself, some black girl who I thought was some kind of fighting ship in human form turns out to be just a very large black chick. Davie Jones's job is to do something. Jack Sparrow wants the job I think to live forever. What?!!?? Anyway, it didnt fit. It never seemed to gel together. The girl seems to like Jack, then she seems to like the Lord of the Rings guy. The Lord of the Rings guy is making side deals with the Armada guy, then he isnt, then the girl is, then Jack is, Barbosa is taking the ship, they are gathering the pirates elders together..... What??!!?? The movie blew. Spiderman 3 blew and this blew. So far the two big summer flicks have blew. Hopefully my boy Harry Potter can pull this thing out this summer. Pictures of my slightly less fat body and how the week went diet wise to come tonight. Peace out.

Hot Date!

Well tonight I have a hot date. I asked Tina out and luckily she agreed to go out with me this evening. We are planning on going to see Pirates 3. I have heard some mixed reviews about it. I will be giving my review of it in a few days from now. I hope it is better than Spiderman 3 was. That was most disappointing. If you saw the trailer for the movie it was much better than the actual movie so dont be fooled. I just dont know how many bad guys can appear in one movie. It was just not good. Sure it had its entertaining parts but overall it was average at best.

Ayden is doing very well. She is in the 50-60%ile for weight, head size etc.. She is sleeping for about 5 hours a stretch at night which we think is pretty good by comparison to how she was doing. She is a joy in our lives for sure and we are very happy to have her.

Anyway I am excited about my date tonight. It is nice to get some alone time together and it is really nice to have a lot of family around to help babysit when we want to go out. Man I had a lot of things I was going to write about but I have writers block at the moment, so I will have to get that stuff in at a later post.

The Plan

The goal is simple. My plan is to loose 91 lb's in 7 months. Bringing my overall weight to 185 lb's. That is a little over 3 lb's a week, 13 lb's a month for 7 months. Doable? I think so. The longest I have been able to diet in the past is a month and a half. So I am going to have to go considerably longer to accomplish this goal. Truth is though, for me to stay at this weight and stay in shape this type of eating will have to continue for the rest of my life.

The time has come..... It's on!

The time has come for a new plan. This blog, even though no one really reads it, has been very therapeutic for me. Introspective if you will. I have decided to use this blog to track my journey through weight loss. I will now write, in addition to blogging about whatever I want whenever I want, once a week on my current weight loss progress. The goal is to get myself around 200lb's and then to re asses things from there. Having stepped on the scale this morning, I am pretty much exactly 276lb's. Or roughly the size of an NFL defensive tackle, or Shaq when he first came into the NBA, or a Sumo wrestler or about 3 Asian men combined. You get the point. It time to make permanent changes. I love to eat. I love to cook. It is tough from me to change my eating habits one because I love food but also I find that when I change my diet, I loose some of my desire to cook. So in a couple of days I am going to post a starting picture of myself which lets face it no one wants to see. But you are going to see it. Then every week I will post a new picture and give you the numbers from the week and chart my progress. So this is a new feature to the Scott blog and hopefully it will only be about a 7 month feature, never to return again. So enjoy the visual delight that are my pictures and step aside Jared from Subway, there is a new sheriff in town.