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.