The Usual Scotts

Very progressive!

2009-08-16T20:57:00.002-05:00

Jeremy and I took a mini getaway this weekend and stayed the night at the Nylo hotel.
This is one of those new modern hotels where the rooms are lofts. It's actually pretty nice, but not as nice as the Aloft. I knew the whole time Jeremy would point out all the weird stuff and say that it's very progressive!
It started with the Sangria waiting out in the lobby. It looked really good, too bad it was alcohol. There was this "chair" out in the hall that Jeremy tried. It was a square cement block with padding on the inside. I tried out one of those egg chairs that hang from the ceiling. You know the ones I'm talking about?
Our room was polished concrete from floor to ceiling. The bathroom door was a sliding one. The bed had these wooden wheel looking things holding it up and the two-piece headboard was held together with a latch. Two good things...a flat screen TV on a swivel arm and the rain forest shower head! It was all very progressive!
I again picked a restaurant that was too expensive. The food wasn't really worth it, but the dessert was! If you ever try Coast, get their lemon phyllo tart. Yumm!
I enjoy staying at these modern hotels. They are not cookie cutter and it's fun looking at all the weird furniture. I regret not sitting in the padded seating with the low table at breakfast. The kind where you would sit on the floor like in a Japanese place. We thought we would look funny sitting in the wall, so we chose the hay filled table instead! Very progressive!!

Being Frugal

2009-06-21T20:32:00.003-05:00

I saw some really good ideas for cutting down on your grocery bill on a blog I follow. It's called Momadvice.com and the post is 35 ways to cut down your grocery bill. I'm not as good as some of you bloggers out there and don't know how to set up a link in this post. I'm also too lazy and tired to try and figure it out :)
So I never knew you could rinse your ground beef and get a lower fat content. You can buy the cheapest ground beef, cook it, rinse it a certain way (site tells you how), and it's like you bought the more expensive lean beef! I'm actually excited to learn this and will be trying it!
I also liked the idea of having a price book. I've gotten good at knowing what the prices are at Walmart of the things we buy the most. Then when I check the circulars from other stores, I can tell if matching the price is worth it or not. I haven't done a scientific analysis or anything ,but I'm thinking this saves us money :)
I've also decided to try the make your own mixes route (like syrup, salad dressings, and spice mixes) and make your cleaning supplies. I was surprised how simple her cleaning supplies are. Do they really clean well?
Also, I was checking out a friend's favorite blogs and read a story that is amazing! This lady says she goes shopping twice a year!! And she spends $150 each time!! They grow all their own veggies and fruit, have all these livestock for meat, milk, and eggs. If you'd like to read the story the link is www.handprintsonthewall.org/2008/05/09/the-true-queen-of-frugal.
I thought Wow! I'd kind of like to try that, but then I thought would I really want to live like that? I told Jeremy about it and he doesn't think it's true (about the $150 for each shopping trip)!
How do you save on your grocery bill?

Birthdays

2009-06-09T20:45:00.007-05:00

We had two birthdays in our family, Jeremy and Ayden! (last month, May)
For Ayden's party we invited family over to eat cake and ice cream. Here's her cake...

She LOVES Oswald and Weinie!!!

This is everyone in our small living room! I was hoping we could have gone to the playground, but it had rained that day :( I was surprised we had enough chairs for everyone!

Ayden was really great about being excited to open every present! She said Wow! and Yeah! for everything. I was unsure if she would be ready for the bike we got her, but she loved it. We have gotten alot of use out of it. Her favorite thing to do is ride down our driveway. It's down hill so she goes really fast!!
Jeremy's birthday took a few days to do mainly because of his schedule. We did our date thing one night, cake and ice cream another night, and then presents on another night! Here's another great photo of him...

I feel bad that he was holding his own cake to blow out the candles, but I wanted pictures too!
I have to tell about the funny thing that Jeremy did the other day! We were at a pack meeting and he couldn't hear the prayer very good. When the boy said he was thankful for Jesus Christ Jeremy thought it was the end of the prayer and said Amen. It was so funny!!! I couldn't help but laugh! This picture is great! These are some of the "posters" Jeremy's students made to hang up around his room. They all say how Coach Scott is the best and he rocks your socks off and stuff like that! He tries to act embarrassed about it, but I know he enjoys it!

Also I could use some ideas for the summer!!! Especially from those who live around here. I am feeling guilty of letting Asher play video games and watch tv all day. I scoured the internet for cheap/free things to do and haven't come up with much. Any ideas? Maybe I'm worried for nothing. The kids would probably be happy with going to our neighborhood pool everyday, but I feel like I need to plan a variety of activities for the days. Does anyone else feel that way?
Other than that it's the same old stuff :) Hope everyone is doing well!!

Stuff

2009-04-19T15:26:00.006-05:00

For the past two weeks, I have been back at the school thing! Sort of! I am taking an online medical transcription program. I was nervous at first because it's been a while since I went to school, but it's been fun.
Sarah came over this past week and we did a glamour shots session :) Here are a few of my favorites....

Asher has been experimenting with his hair style...we call it the Edward Cullen look. For those of you who don't know that's a reference to the Twilight movie.

Here is Asher with the chicken nuggets he won for his gingerbread house last year. It fed our family for 4 days/two meals a day!

We had a wonderful Easter! We got to spend time with both sides of the family. And we were lucky enough or not to go to 4 egg hunts! I don't think that candy is ever going to get eaten. We are all tired of eating candy :) Never thought that would happen with 2 kids :)
Saturday, we went to visit Jeremy's family. The egg hunt was fun! Ayden really got the hang of it and we had to get a bigger basket. Then we hung out. We have played Rock Band everytime we visit, and I'm proud to say you know a medium level drum player :)
Sunday, we went to my family and had a great ham dinner. My mom makes the best ham, and if you don't believe me, ask Asher. He is the pickiest eater, but he looks forward to her ham! Ayden and Sofia started finding eggs even before we started the hunt. I guess they were a little too easy to find.
We also had our own egg hunt at home. I got 42 eggs because Jeremy thought we should have alot. I guess, Jeremy and I hid the eggs for Asher really well because we had to give him hints on where to find most of them. Ayden even found one of his! We may have an expert Easter hunter here :) I really like hiding eggs!!!

For my sis, Amy

2009-04-02T18:25:00.004-05:00

Amy has been bugging :) me to put up a new post, so here it is finally!
Things have been going well for us. Jeremy is enjoying school, but ready for the summer. He has been asked to come back next year!! They would have been crazy not to. By the way, the snow video was from last year :) Jeremy told his students he would let them see it and the only way we could figure out how to do it was to post it on the blog.
I got my hair cut about 6 weeks ago. I went to the salon and asked what would look good with my hair. Here's the result

The first is almost right after I got it cut and the second a few days ago.
Our Buick broke down about a month ago and decided it wasn't worth fixing, so we got a new car. New to us anyway! We have entered the minivan world! It's actually really nice to have one and Jeremy has been joking about turning in his truck for another one :)
We also got the place to give us money for our old car so we could buy Rock Band. We have had alot of fun playing!! I've even practiced on my own.
Our photo album has been updated too, and there's some really cute videos!!

For Coach Scott's class

2008-12-18T06:57:00.002-06:00

Ode to Dollar Tree

2008-09-20T11:12:00.004-05:00

I have to just say how much I love having a Dollar Tree close by! Everything in the store is a dollar! And it's not like those other dollar stores where the stuff looks cheap and you would never buy anything from there. This stuff is actually nice and I always feel like I get a great deal.
The other day, I went there looking for little snacks for Ayden. I didn't think I would find much. There was so much stuff! Name brand stuff! The treasures just kept coming!
I was really excited when Jeremy saw all the stuff I got! (Silly, I know!) And I was always proud to say, "Yep, that was only a dollar!"
So I just wanted to say THANKS! Dollar tree, for your great, cheap things!

Butterflies and Cookies

2008-09-14T18:25:00.003-05:00

This is a great post for guys, isn't it?!?
Decorating is a thing I love to do! I finally put up Ayden's butterfly pictures today.

I've had these wooden plaque things from Hobby Lobby forever. I bought them because they were on sale, and I thought I could think of something to use them for. (I do this often! Do you?)

I painted them myself and they weren't exactly what I imagined, but they turned out pretty good. The wall looks a little empty around them still. I was thinking flowers on the wall somehow. Any ideas? I'm set on her room theme being butterflies :) It was going to be sun, moon, and stars at first so that I would have neutral things for the next kid, but it's more fun to make things pretty and girly!
Yesterday was dessert day for us. What better thing to do then to make a bunch of desserts on a rainy day? There were brownies, rice krispy treats, and black and white cookies!

These are Jeremy's favorite! I always make them for his birthday, father's day, or whenever he requests them! After watching the Seinfeld episode about them so many times, Jeremy really wanted to try black and white cookies. I searched everywhere to find them, calling every bakery I could think of. A place in the Frisco mall said they had them, and I was so excited to surprise Jeremy! Turns out they just had cookies with chocolate and white chips. So we searched the internet and found this recipe. They are really good! And they turn out so pretty!

Game Day

2008-09-09T20:29:00.003-05:00

Jeremy had his first volleyball game on Thursday last week, and a second on Monday.

The first one I brought Ayden to. We ended up leaving because she was tired and crying. I rounded up a babysitter for the next one. Thanks mom!

It was fun to watch the games and watch Jeremy be a coach. I don't know what he was saying, but he looked great! I know it's alot of work, but I think it's happy work for him.

Watching all those middle school kids brought back a lot of memories. I wish I would have played sports in school. Now I think I would like to join a volleyball league for older adults who haven't played in years!

Movies!

2008-08-18T11:41:00.003-05:00

We love to go see movies! Pretty much all of our dates are dinner and a movie, but we don't mind at all. I love going out to eat and get pretty excited about it! I love to try new things and Jeremy too. Anyone know of a restaurant we just have to try?
We doubled with Jeremy's brother and his wife Saturday. Since they were going to see the Tropic thunder movie we went to a different one. The only one available around the same time was the Mummy 3. So we saw it against Amy's recommendation! It was ok. Not as bad as I was expecting, but not as good as the first two. I wish they would have had the same actress for his wife. Looks like Twilight will be coming out in a few months! I'm excited to see the movie, and I'm hoping I can drag Jeremy to see it with me. I would really like him to see it with me :) I was wondering what actor they would get to play Edward since he's suppose to be drop dead gorgeous. I'm curious who you all would pick? On one of our dates Jeremy asked me to pick my top 5 actors who I thought were really cute. I had a hard time thinking of any!

Jeremy takes the wheel for a moment

2008-08-03T01:02:00.003-05:00

I just wanted the opportunity to express a few thoughts. Recently Tina and I were able to get away for a few days without the kids for a little vacation. It was great. We stayed in a nice hotel in Irving and wined and dined ourselves for 3 nights. We saw 4 movies and ate some good food. We were able to see the best movie of the year so far in my opinion which is "The Dark Night". This was a sweet movie. Christian Bale is great. Michael Cain is greatness. Aaron Eckert is always good. But the movie was really stolen by Heath Ledger's performance. He was truly masterful in this movie. He was brilliant. The movie was fantastic. I think the direction and mood they have established in the first two Batman movies is intriguing, interesting, fascinating and brilliant. I am more cynical these days and don't just stamp my approval on every entertaining movie. But this was truly great. We also saw the new Hulk movie. This is an underrated movie as well. It cant be at exciting as Batman because of the general story line but it was a good show.

As Tina blogged previously, I have been hired to work for Princeton ISD in the Junior High. This district was in my top 5 to work for because I have done some volunteer work with them in the past and I am familiar with the administration. We feel very blessed to have this opportunity. Those of you who have known me for some time, know I have pondered on what my occupation should be for over 10 years. I have put the matter to prayer dozens and dozens of times. After I got laid off from EDS back in 2001 I prayed about what I should do. My answer was to go to school, get my degree and be a teacher/coach. Well with the signing of my contract last week the entire effort was culminated. I am excited to begin. I have to give a shout out to Tina. She is a wonderful woman. Not many woman could have put up with me over the past 5 years. When it comes to jobs and college majors I can be very frustrating. I have constantly switched jobs over the years. Sometimes I have just quit jobs because I could no longer stand them, with no fall back in place. I have changed college majors over the past 5 years probably 15 times (this is not an embellishment). I have been admitted to graduate programs in the following fields: Criminal Justice, Criminology, Speech Language Pathology, Kinesiology, MBA and Accounting to name a few. It has been a source of embarrassment to me that I couldn't find anything I truly liked. She has stuck with me, without complaint, over the past 5 years when I was delivering pizzas, working for grocery stores, etc... Tina is not a material girl, which is one of the things that makes her great. She is happy with what she has. That is the way she was raised. Her parents did a great job. Anyway, I will turn the keys to the blog back over to Tina. Peace out.

Asher's Baptism

2008-07-28T07:32:00.004-05:00

This past Saturday Asher was baptized! He looked so handsome in his tie, and was really excited!
We had lots of family come including Asher's grandparents from Oregon.

When Jeremy dunked Asher underwater, one little kid said Whoa! I think it was because Jeremy wanted to make sure he went under all the way and kind of dunked him deep.
After all the pictures (which Asher was ready to be done after the first one!), we headed to our house for refreshments. We had chocolate pudding pie, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate brownies, and pumpkin pie. Can you guess what Asher's favorite flavor is?
We are so proud of Asher and thankful that he chose to get baptized!

Coach Scott

2008-07-28T07:05:00.003-05:00

Jeremy is officially a teacher and coach!!! He signed a contract with Princeton ISD a few days ago! We are so proud of Jeremy! And we feel that we have been really blessed.
Jeremy has spent countless hours thinking and praying about what he should do for a career. We have thought of and tried almost everything, but Jeremy kept coming back to teaching and coaching. When he passed that social studies composite test that was a clear sign from Heavenly Father that hey you need to do this! And now He has blessed Jeremy with a great job!
He will be coaching girl's softball, volleyball, and track, and teaching Texas history!
We are so proud of you babe! I know what a difficult road this has been, and I am thankful that you won't have to worry about things anymore. I love you!

Back to good ol' Killeen!

2008-07-20T20:20:00.002-05:00

My mom, Ayden, and I went to visit Amy and Preston again this past week. Even though Amy said there wasn't a whole lot to do there we found some pretty cool things to do! We got in our shopping on the first day. The Walmart there was so busy!
They have a really nice bounce house place in Killeen that I really wish we had here! Kids under one get in free, and all other kids are $8. We were thinking of just saying Ayden was less then one (a lie! Shame!) to not pay the money, but I decided I'd feel too guilty. The girl let us in for free anyway! That's one reward for telling the truth!
Ayden was scared at first. She whined and just wanted to play with the toys. There was a toddler area with a small bounce house and some toys and a gate! We all tried to take her to some of the bigger bounce houses to show her how fun it was. Ok, so maybe we just wanted a chance to jump too!
Here's the first few jumps with me!

Here's with Aunt Amy in the cool sounding jungle bounce house, which turned out to be just a normal regular old bounce house.

My mom took her on one of the really tall slides. Ayden wasn't so sure about it, and seemed glad to be done when they got to the bottom! Here they are on the rocking horse in the toddler area.

It was looking like a wasted trip, so I was glad we got in for free! I got the idea to just lay down in the bounce house and hopefully Ayden would follow me in on her own. That did the trick!

No we're having fun! Ayden loves to bounce around and fall on our bed, so I knew she would love the bounce houses. She would have played all day if we could!
The next thing we did was visit the museum of Preston's unit ( I'm not sure what you call it!). I think it's called the 1st Calvary Division Museum. There are a bunch of tanks, helicopters, jeeps, and stuff outside. Asher would have loved this!
This is an old cannon thing!

Here's Amy and Ayden by a tank! It was so hot that we only spent 20 minutes or so there. I feel for those guys having to wear their full uniforms in that heat!

Our final outing was to Inner Cave Caverns in Georgetown. Here were these beautiful caverns just right under the freeway! Our poor tour guide had to deal with two whining little ones, Ayden and another little girl. After finding out she could walk around then it wasn't too bad!

There were some really cool cave drawings! Ok, they were ones that someone drew in 1966, but they were still pretty neat!

Here we all are in the last room of the tour.

I figured it was a good thing to do on a hot day because it would be cool in the caves, but we were stilling sweating up a storm! It was very humid and I would say cool/hot if that makes sense! I was blowing on Ayden to keep her cooler.

Then a quick visit to the gift shop for souvenirs. And a cute picture! Howdy ma'am!

We also went out to eat a few times. Amy said the food wasn't as good here and I have to admit she was right. Glad to say the biscuits at Red Lobster were still the best! Ayden would say the same, her belly was so full! I think she ate two biscuits on her own even after her regular meal! She's a little piglet!
I really enjoyed the visit! I hope when you guys move that I'll get to come visit there too! Thanks Amy and Preston!
And I have to agree with Preston. The night is good when you end it with Mike! (a reference to Dirty Jobs! Love that show!)

Family Fun!

2008-07-09T15:48:00.006-05:00

For the 4th of July we split the day and visited Jeremy's family and mine. We went to Jeremy's family first. We swam in the pool and ate. The fajitas were fantastic! Jeremy is so good on the grill and the marinade was really good! Jake did good grilling the veggies too!

Here's Travis, Asher, and Gavin playing with the remote control helicopter. It was really cute to watch Gavin fly it! He already knows how to use the controls! The boys played their pool baseball game, and Asher was really proud that his team won! He hit the ball pretty good, oh and so did Jeremy :) I took Ayden for a swim, but as always she would rather walk around the pool.
Then it was off to Josef and Jenny's house for more grilling and visiting!

This is the backyard. They bought one of the patio furniture sets I was interesting in from Walmart! It is really nice! Ayden and Asher had alot of fun playing in the backyard! It makes me really want to get ours the way we want it, but that will take a little time.

We didn't go anywhere to see fireworks, but I think we saw all the ones from every city around us on the way home. There were about five shows we could see! Since we weren't allow to do real fireworks this year, I bought some poppers. Asher got scared last year when Jeremy threw a smoke bomb thing into the truck where he was sitting. This year he burned his hand a little bit when he did a popper. So he probably won't want to do any kind of firework type thing next year! We had a busy, but fun day! Hope you did too!

Happy Birthday Asher!

2008-07-03T11:32:00.006-05:00

Ok, so we really celebrated Asher's birthday last weekend, but I'm just now getting time to write about it! Friday the 28th was his real birthday, so we ate cupcakes real fast before he went to spend the night at a friends house.

I started on the cake a few days before the party, so I wouldn't have to make it all in one day! That would be a really big project! Here it is, the famous castle cake!

The color scheme was Asher's request! I had to change a few of the candies because Asher doesn't like white chocolate or gum drops :) I think it turned out really good!
We invited 7 boys to the party, and had it at our neighborhood pool! It was really alot of fun! The boys mainly played their favorite pool game, king of the mountain! I think Jeremy only had to break up one fight. Boys!! I also had some pool games to play and candy prizes to win. The rest was swimming and fun!

Those kids can't get enough of that pool! Even when we were done with the party, Asher stayed with a friend and swam some more! I thought the party lasted for about 3 or 4 hours, but when I settled into the car it had only been 2 hours and 20 minutes! It certainly felt alot longer to Jeremy and I! We are glad everyone (friends and family) could come! I think Asher really enjoyed his party! And even though it took some work, it was alot of fun to plan!!

Dollar Dollar Bill Ya'll

2008-06-27T11:37:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I went to Walmart to get a few things and do a little looking around. Jeremy is so sweet to give me a break and let me just go take off and get away for awhile. I've found out about a few websites that tell you about coupons and free stuff. I actually got a box of cereal for free!
So after I got all the stuff and was about to leave the store, I passed by the book section. Usually I don't stop there, but I've been wanting to get a book to read, so I figured I'd see what they got. As I was leaving the aisle, I saw a folded dollar bill on the floor! As I looked closer, I saw that it was a twenty!! Some people were passing by in the main aisle after I saw it, so I waited for them to pass and hoped they wouldn't see it. They didn't. I picked it up and immediately called Jeremy. I didn't know exactly what to do. I wanted to keep it, but I felt like the right thing was to give it to Customer Service and have them try and find the owner. When I have a conflict like that - what I want vs. what I think I should do - I ask Jeremy! I do it hoping he'll tell me to do the thing I want to do :) It makes me feel better about it if he says it's OK. He told me if there wasn't anyone around which there wasn't, then take the money and run! Just kidding. He did tell me to keep it, so I did. We'll use that money for a date!
I'm curious as to what everyone else would have done!
As I left the store, I was thinking watch me end up on one of those secret videos. The news station will do a piece on dishonest people and there I'll be picking up the $20.

Cuties!

2008-06-24T11:56:00.006-05:00

I realized I didn't post anything for Father's Day, so I just wanted to share some pictures of Jeremy!

Jeremy always makes the greatest faces for pictures! Asher helped me wrap the gifts. One I showed him just to make sure it was something that he liked. The other (a BBQ mop thing) was a surprise! I'm still waiting on those BBQ ribs babe :)

We are so blessed to have Jeremy! He is a wonderful husband and father! He gets up some mornings at 5am to go to work just so we will have the things we need. We love you sweetie!
Our dads are great too! They are always there to love, help, and support us. Thanks dads!
Yesterday Jenny, Josef, and Sofia came over for dinner. I had to snap a picture of the two girls!

The cutest little girls!

No boys allowed!

2008-06-20T11:45:00.006-05:00

This week Ayden and I were able to visit my sister Amy with my mom and Sarah. It was alot of fun! I wasn't ready to come back home!

Here we all are! We did alot of shopping. In fact, we were all shopped out after the second day. When I was in high school, I used to go shopping at the mall every weekend, but now I can only take so much. I'd probably do it more if I could find cute things at the price I want! (I love finding bargains.) I finally found Ayden a nice pair of sandals. Payless was having a buy one get one half off sale, so I had to get me a pair of flip flops!
We only went out to eat one time at TGIFridays. I have been wanting to see and taste something from their cheap menu. Their parmesan chicken dish is delicious! The balloon lady there saw Ayden and came over to make her a balloon.

It's a heart with a bear around it. Very cute! I should have given her a tip, but I thought I only had change. I would feel even worse if I only gave her 50 cents. It was funny because her tip jar suggested a tip of $2,345.45 or something like that :) I'd like that tip too!
We also watched a couple of girly movies. There just happened to be the same actor in both movies! I guess I can add an underrated movie to my list...Step Up! I don't know why, but I really like that movie. I always have a hard time not dancing around while watching it!
Amy and I also made some picture matte things to go around the Living Christ. It turned out really good.

The last day we were there, we went swimming at one of the base pools. It brought back alot of memories of when my mom use to take us when we lived on base. They still have adult swim! For those who don't know, about every 15 min. they have the kids get out of the pool so the adults can swim laps or whatever they want! As a kid you don't like it, but now that I'm an adult, it was great! Before we left, Amy made Ayden a cute hat out of the swim diaper!

Too cute! Thanks Amy for getting the pictures to me! I thought I was doing real good and had packed everything! Unfortunately, I did forget the camera. It's amazing how much stuff you need for a little girl! It's all the just-in-case stuff! Thanks to mom, Sarah, and Amy for help during feeding time and all the time! They all stood in for the highchair :) Amy also had to entertain sometimes with her awesome dance moves and singing! I also got to take a shower without keeping an eye on a baby! Not that Ayden is difficult at all. But it's just nice you know?
I'm still in the glad to be home, but wish I was still on vacation mode. It's nice to have days where you can just do whatever you want whenever you want. Don't have to clean the house, do the laundry or anything like that! Plus you can just do girl things without worrying if the guys want to! I can't wait until the next visit! Thanks for having us Amy!

Birthdays, Bouts, and Babes

2008-06-12T14:15:00.005-05:00

Last Saturday we had a little birthday celebration for my Mom!

We made pasta salads for dinner. I chose to try one called the best pasta salad. That's right, it wasn't! It's actually still sitting in our fridge! No one wants to touch it :) Ok it wasn't that bad...
I made Jeremy's famous pasta salad this time and to everyone's delight it tasted like he made it! My mom made broccoli and artichoke salads which were both delicious. My mom's favorite cake is cheesecake, so I made one from scratch. I have the clueless baker cookbook and most every recipe I've tried has been really good. I made the cheesecake, and it turned out really good! Thanks Clueless Baker :) After we ate, it was off to the pool. The boys played and the girls chased after Ayden! She goes non stop, and she prefers to walk around the swimming pool then being in it. It was nice to have family over. I hope your birthday was wonderful mom! I love you!
I was a little disappointed that Josef, Jenny, and Sofia couldn't come. Ayden caught hand, foot, and mouth disease! Yikes! It sounds awful, but it's actually just a little viral infection. After almost week of total grumpiness and screaming and crying, Jeremy told me to take her to the doctor to see if he knew what was wrong. I tried to rack my brain trying to think of all the things that happened and could possibly be wrong. I don't know about you, but I tend to ramble when I'm trying to explain what's wrong. I have no idea what details are important to the doctor, so I tell them everything! I've even had an optometrist tell me to be quiet! (I didn't go to him anymore!) Anyway, he said Ayden looked like she was nearing the end of the infection and just to give Tylenol if she was gruumpy. I felt really bad! With this disease the baby's mouth gets painful and sore from little blisters inside. I was putting salt in her food (like normal), and almost forcing her to eat her food. I felt so bad! I wish I would have known what was wrong sooner, so I could have alleviated the pain! I still feel horrible! Thankfully Ayden is pretty much back to normal now! Here's a picture of her in her Elmo chair.

I finally got to watch the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants! My mother-in-law took Asher out for the day, Ayden was sleeping, and Jeremy was working. It was the perfect time for me to watch my girl movie! Jeremy will not watch it with me! I thought it was very good! I was thinking it would be more teenage girl type stuff, which was in the movie, but they also all learned important lessons. So anyway, I really liked it! If anyone has any suggestions of other I should watch, I would love to hear them!

The Mediocre Bob's Steak and Chophouse??

2008-06-08T14:50:00.003-05:00

Tina and I had the pleasure of going out with some family to celebrate mine and my brother Travis's birthdays since they are close together. We elected to go to Bob's Steak and Chophouse. I have for the past 12 years listened to Sportsradio 1310 The Ticket. A sports radio show. One of the hosts, Norm Hitzges has for years been doing commercial endorsements for it and I have heard wonderful praise about it. So I was very excited to be going to this place. According to most sources, "Bob's Steak and Chophouse" is consistently ranked as one of the best steakhouses in the country. When we got there the lighting was nice and moody and looked pleasant inside. We were brought out a round loaf of bread to start out with which was nice and flaky. We ordered some appetizers which consisted of calamari and different types of shrimp. The calamari was probably some of the best I have ever had. It was almost not chewy at all which is tough to do when eating calamari. The shrimp was also nice. After perusing the menu I went for the 22oz bone in rib eye. Of course all of the beef in the restaurant was of Prime cut. I ordered the steak to be cooked medium. Tina went with the shrimp scampi. The steak came with two side items. One was a whole signature glazed carrot. The other was a choice of mashed potatoes, cut fried potatoes with onions and gravy on top of them, or a baked potato. Tina and I both went with the cut fried ones with stuff over them. When our food arrived it all looked pretty good. My steak looked wonderful and upon first bite was as tender as a sponge. The first bite was the best. The look of the carrot was cool. The potatoes however looked like something I have made in the past. They looked like they were sliced potato chip style and shallow fried in a skillet till partly light brown. Then gravy and sauteed onions were put over them. My first thought upon looking at them was, this looks like something I made. That is not completely bad. I think I am a good cook. But I don't go to a place that is supposed to be one of the best in the country to eat something that looks and tastes like I made it. The carrot was also not my cup of tea. It had a strong ginger or nutmeg or allspice taste to it that I just didn't really like. The steak tasted good and I know a rib eye is supposed to have nice marbling throughout which causes the great tenderness, but it was full of fat all over the steak. Way too much fat I thought. So all in all I would have to say I was a bit disappointed. I had built this place up in my mind for 12 years or so and it couldn't live up to my mental expectation. Is it a good? Yeah it is. Is it one of the best steakhouses in the country? I would have to say at this point, I hope not. I would hope their are some better places out there that serve a great menu from top to bottom. Out of 4 stars, I would give it 3.

Jeremy

Underated Movies in Jeremy's Opinion ( Tina would disagree)

2008-05-30T10:36:00.002-05:00

These are in no particular order. I just happen to like these movies a lot more than mainstream America.

1. Employee of the Month - Jessica Simpson gives a memorable performance (Ok even I cant say that with a straight face.)
2. Sky High
3. Zoolander
4. 50 First Dates - This is funny and touching (in a non gay way)
5. Click - Strikes a cord with me.
6. The Saint
7. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - A classic comedy. If you havent seen it, you need to.

These are just a few off the top of my head. Tina, I give you back the con.

Jeremy

Tribute

2008-05-28T12:17:00.004-05:00

Along with Memorial Day, we celebrated Jeremy's Birthday! I won't say how old he is because he's a little sensitive about that stuff. (just kidding!) Plus I'd like to keep my age a little bit of a secret :)
Jeremy is such a wonderful husband and father! I feel so blessed to have him for my husband. He is exactly what I needed and dreamed my husband would be. Sweet, funny, patient with me, cute, strong, and many more things! I love you babe!

I told Jeremy I would post this picture! You see sausage on a stick at baseball games and state fairs, but I've never seen anyone do it at home. I had to take a picture! What are some funny things your husbands have done?
We really had a fun Memorial Day visiting family, swimming, and eating! Hope you all did too!

Field Day!

2008-05-24T16:10:00.006-05:00

Do you remember field day when you were in elementary school?
Asher's Field day was this past Friday! He had a whole cheering section show up with Me, Jeremy, Ayden, Grandma, Grandpa Dave, and Poppy.

This is Asher when he was doing the obstacle course. He was so fast, he caught up to the kid that was in front of him! He really is fast! He still tells the story of how he raced all the grown-ups at Jeremy's parents house and won. Wonder how that happened? :) He and I had made little trophies out of plastic cups and painted them yellow. He was excited to win the trophy! And guess who got second?!?

Each kid was timed to see how fast they could run around the bases. Asher again was pretty fast. I don't know the offical time! Asher's guess was maybe 15 or 25 seconds!

Ayden also had alot of fun running around! She loves watching all those kids and trying to keep up with them. We had to leave a little early because she was getting grumpy. It was really hot out there, and there was hardly any shade! One good thing is my legs aren't so white anymore!
I felt like a real loser when I went to go get something to eat. Apparently they only served the food at a certain time. So they pulled out a couple of hot dogs and opened a new bag of chips just for me! The lunch lady was really nice and trying to keep the conversation going while I sat there like a dork! Oh well! That's another memory I'll have from Field Day!

Don't know what to call this post...

2008-05-18T11:08:00.004-05:00

Jeremy and I were trying to decide which of our Netflix movies to watch. We had I am Legend and P.S. I love you. There was a time when I would have picked the girly movie, but I really didn't care to see that movie. (It's probably because I thought it would be depressing since her husband dies.) Jeremy actually wanted to see it more then me! So we were a little backwards! He just puts any new movie on our queue so we can keep the movies coming.
Has anyone else found themselves liking chick flicks less and less? When I was in high school (not too long ago!) I couldn't wait to see all those romantic movies. Now I can take them or leave them. Although, I do still want to see the sisterhood of the traveling pants. For those of you who have seen it, is it good? I'd rather watch a comedy or action movie. Maybe it's because the chick flicks are just so predictable. And I guess Jeremy has rubbed off on me more and more over the years! He has "taught" me many things! For example, I now use the passenger side floor in the car as my trash can. Thanks babe! One thing that hasn't rubbed off on me is sports. I use to watch all the games with Jeremy while we were dating, but I've just never have gotten into them. I do know alot more about the players and how the games are played though!
By the way, we both thought P.S. I love you wasn't that great of a movie! It left us with little jewels of wisdom like "I don't want to make any mistakes." "Then you're in the wrong species, love. Be a dog." Did anyone else think Harry Conick Jr.'s character was really weird!?!

Ayden's First Birthday

2008-05-13T11:14:00.009-05:00

So we celebrated Ayden's birthday last week. She got two parties! We had a family party on her actual birthday, which was Wednesday, May 7th. I made cupcakes and she opened her first birthday present.

Ayden likes to splash water, even in Homer's water bowl, so we thought she might enjoy this pool! She had a lot of fun in it! Of course, as soon as I put her in the pool she peed!
I was really surprised that Ayden ate her cake so cleanly. Both times she only had frosting on her hands and face, and then some crumbs in her lap! I thought I would be giving a her a bath each time.

I decided to go with a butterfly cake this year. I made two because I thought we'd need the cake. I made the frosting and it was really good. Jeremy even said it tasted like buttercream only better! (I LOVE when people like my food.)

Here's Jeremy helping Ayden open her presents. She was very interested in playing with the tissue paper! But she also liked her presents!
I can't believe a year has gone by. Everyone always says kids grow up fast, and they do! Ayden is a wonderful, sweet little girl and I am thankful to be her mother! I'd also like to give a shout out to Asher! (just kidding) He is a good, and sweet boy and we are happy to have him in our home living with us!

Asher asked me to delete this picture, but I couldn't. It's just too funny! And now it's up for everyone to see!
I'd like to also thank Jeremy (this is starting to sound like a Oscar speech!). He made Mother's Day very special for me! He made me breakfast and dinner! I also appreciate all the hard work he does, and the hours he worries about us, and the effort he puts into being a good father and husband.
Here's a little video of Ayden to enjoy! She loves playing with our cell phones, so Jeremy got her a phone to play with!

Mother and Wife = Mess Cleaner-upper

2008-05-06T10:47:00.004-05:00

I went to check on Ayden this morning, and this is what I found...

There's a video of her in our photo album! Ever since she started moving, I go from place to place cleaning up her messes!
Being a seven year old boy, Asher leaves messes everywhere too. He usually leaves a trail of crumbs wherever he eats! This is his room at the moment...

At least with him, I just have to tell him (most of the time!) to clean up after himself. He doesn't think it's fair that Ayden doesn't have clean up after herself. I don't either! I tried to have Ayden sit in my lap while I put all the diapers away. She didn't really like that!
With Jeremy, I usually end up throwing wrappers away from the night before. It's funny because they are only a few feet from the garbage can. And part of his closet extends out into our bedroom.
For me, Jeremy will tell you I am one of the messiest cooks, which is true! I am also guilty of using our room as a second closet. (Why is it so hard to hang up your clothes?) I told Asher one day that he only has to clean up after himself, me...I clean up after everyone! But that's part of being a mom and wife. In a strange way, it makes me feel like I'm doing my job. Keeping everything clean = being a good wife and mother. Is that weird?

When it rains it pours

2008-05-02T12:25:00.007-05:00

Jeremy and I (Tina) have decided to collaborate on the blog now, so I decided to girly it up for everyone!
I had one of those days yesterday. One where it starts out great, and even gets better, then everything seems to fall apart. I just wanted to go to Hobby Lobby and look around. The great thing was I found a pattern for Jeremy's pullover sweater thing (he wants me to make one for his birthday) for 99 cents! They are usually $16! That made my day. After that I just walked around the store and took a leisurely look at things. When I got to the cash register, I figured I'd better look at the time to make sure I was home in time for Asher. It was 3:40!!! He gets home about that time. So I payed for my stuff, and got out of there as fast as I could. I was just about to turn into our neighborhood when I heard a police siren and looked up to see the flashing lights. Oh great! It seems I didn't stop completely at the sign, so he gave me a ticket. (Anyone else ever automatically say Thanks! when they hand you the ticket?) When I got home Asher was nice enough to remind me that he waited 7 minutes!
Inside I fixed Ayden a drink because it had been really hot outside. I was just about to give her a drink when she slipped and hit her mouth with the pacifier in, on the chair she was standing by. Ouch! I picked her up to see her mouth was full of blood! Of course, I was worried! I couldn't see what was bleeding. I thought that we'd probably have to go to the ER or something because she knocked a tooth out of place. After the bleeding and crying! stopped, I saw that Ayden had tore that little muscle that attaches to your lip and gums. My poor little girl! I really felt bad!
After that I just wanted the day to end. Anyone ever have one of those days?
On a happier note, here are some pictures of us at the Rough Riders game!

Hurting your kids and other interesting things.

2008-04-23T14:33:00.004-05:00

We have all done it right. One minute we are throwing our kids up in the air or swirling around and around and they are laughing and giggling and we are laughing at their laughter and then suddenly your grip slips and they go flying. Jubilation turns to tears for them and total guilt for you. That was the way I felt when I banged my little daughters head on the ceiling the other day. I was at my in-laws place with family. I was throwing Ayden in the air, she was laughing and then all of a sudden I heard the "bonk" and saw her face change from happiness to a blank stare and then a look of pain. While my face changed to sorrow. I thought I had way more room before I hit the ceiling but I happened to be standing in the entrance of the kitchen and the dining room which has about a 6 inch wide down drop that is only about 7 feet high. It is the lowest part of the entire area and unfortunately I managed to find Ayden's head with it. I felt so bad but she survived. I am sure all of you out there have done things to accidentally hurt your kids. If you do then tell them to me in the comment area.

Ayden is walking now to a slight extent. She stands up, takes about 6 steps and then falls. Then she gets right back up and tries again. She will be walking efficiently in a couple of weeks I think. She is a true joy to me.

Asher went on a field trip yesterday to a dinosaur museum. He said he had lots of fun. He is doing really well. He plays daily with about 4 other next door neighbor kids. He is doing well in school. He is trying to get straight A's so he can reap the money we told him we would give him if he did. He really likes money.

Tina is doing great. I keep telling her to write some blog entries so people can have some different perspectives but she just hasn't gotten around to it yet. We are approaching Ayden's 1st birthday in a couple of weeks. We are in the planning phase for it. Tina recently got done putting into practice all of the home improvement shows she has watched over the years. She bought a headboard for our bed that needed to be sanded and refinished which she did a wonderful job on and we installed it on our bed this past weekend. She really did a great job, it looks great.

I am subbing for Frisco ISD these days including right now. I am currently at a middle school subbing for a 8th grade social studies class. They are studying for state wide test next week and I am just kicken it.

Tonight Tina, Ayden, Asher, Little Dave and I are going to a Frisco Rough Riders game. Also I have a interview with the city of Addison for a Summer Camp Counselor position. I am still searching for a teaching/coaching job for the fall. So far nothing has happened but it is still a bit early in the process. The answer to the last poll question was "I know who killed me". It starred Lyndsey Lohan who was up for worst actress. Congrats on the person who got it correct.

I am thinking about getting into to guns. I went shooting as part of an elders quorum activity this past weekend. I got to shoot my 12 gauge at some clay pigeons. I did pretty well. I am thinking about purchasing a Glock 19 and getting my concealed license in the near future. I need a hobby and enjoy shooting so I am going to look into it.

Spitting off the Balcony

2008-04-01T08:35:00.002-05:00

First things first. For those who took on the poll question, the correct answer was the Inland Tiapan snake. One person got it correct, if that was you, pat yourself on the back.

So let me try to get you caught up on what has been going on with us for the last two weeks.

Asher got his first report card a week ago and came home with A's and B's so we were happy with that. He is doing well in school. He was wanting to play baseball this season but decided he would rather wait till next season or perhaps play basketball. I think he just likes coming home and hanging out, which is fine.

Ayden is doing good. She is pulling up on everything and anything she can touch or grab. She is able to stand and balance herself now for about 15 seconds or so. She is starting to move around a little bit while she is holding on.

Tina is doing her normal mom thing. She has been hanging out with the kids by herself on most nights since I have been working most nights these days. She found a headboard for our bed on craigslist and bought it for $50. It is a nice heavy wood frame. It needs some sanding and staining but Tina is excited to put into application all the decorating and home improvement shows she watches on DIY and HGTV.

I have been sick for the past couple of days. I can't really talk and my ears are all pressurized so I can't really hear either. I am still at Market Street right now. Still like doing what I am doing, but the hours are wearing me out. On most days I don't get home till 7:30pm on others it is closer to 11pm. I have started the process of applying to school districts. I have applied to about 16 districts so far I believe. Most of which are relatively close to where we live. It is still a bit premature to start getting calls from them, but it shouldn't be very long.

We got a visit from my sister Sarah and her little one Anna this past weekend. Sarah was in town to attend a function and stopped by for a visit. It was nice to visit with them. I have only really seen Sarah twice in the past 4 years probably. She seems to be doing well and Ayden had a nice time staring at Anna. For those of you who don't know Sarah lives in Iowa while her husband finishes up medical school.

I PASSED!!!!!!

2008-03-15T08:58:00.006-05:00

I am reminded of the scene in Legally Blonde when El Woods was walking up to the posted list of those who were chosen for the prestigious legal internship. Upon seeing her name on that very small list of names she shouted,

"ME!"

That is the way I felt yesterday after finding out I passed the teachers exam. I wish I could say I knew I would pass it or it was easy and stuff. The truth is I was shocked. I had no business passing that exam. I wasn't positive I had one answer right until I reached a question somewhere in the 80's. Prior to the exam I had asked/told Heavenly Father that if this was the way I was supposed to go in life then please help me pass this test. I know without a doubt, without His help I would have never passed this test. I can now start looking for a teaching job and go to all of the job fairs. I broke down in tears when I saw that I has passed I think for a couple of reasons. Those who know me know I have struggled with the decision of what I should do professionally for that last 11 years. It was a decision that haunted me daily and I never could seem to get a confirmation from above on the matter. It has been a constant source of frustration for me. So getting such a straight up confirmation of my direction and as I see it purpose for my career was special to me. The other reason was because it was semi-miraculous. I am not humble when it comes to taking tests. I am not the smartest person in the world and and I am not the dumbest. But I am good at taking tests and I like taking them. I like analyzing them and seeing if I can break them down. I did do some deduction while taking the teaching test but honestly felt I had no chance of passing it because the material I studied did not help with a single question. I just wanted to let everyone know the good news.

Happy 5th Anniversary!!!

2008-03-07T10:05:00.006-06:00

After waiting for many, many months for my divorce from a completely miserable, nightmarish marriage to come to an end I decided to attend the local institute in McKinney. My sister Sarah had been going to it and I had asked her on a few occasions about the local "talent" at the female position. I remember her telling me about this one girl that was cute and sweet. Sarah never officially introduced me to her so I never knew which girl she was referring to when I attended institute. There were a few cute girls at institute, three for sure that had some interest in me but known of those three I had any interest in. One evening I decided to attend a young singles activity in Frisco at a sand volleyball court. I attended with a couple of friends who were girls. During that evening I got to throw the football for a few minutes with a delightful young woman named Tina. I had seen her around and I knew she was dating someone. I found her personality appealing and she was cute. Over the next several months I watched her and talked with her when I could. I went with my friends and her and her boyfriend to the Renaissance Fair where I watched her some more (I have pictures with my spy equipment to prove it! J/K). I watched her at the dances. Over that period of time I had spoken with my friends about her on several occasions. They were good friends with Tina so they knew a little about her. They and others had given me the impression that Tina and her boyfriend were for sure going to get married, it was just a matter of time. I don't remember the exact moment I knew Tina and I would be a perfect couple, but it was not very long after I first met her. After a few months passed since I first met her and knowing she and I would be absolutely perfect for each other, I decided I better let her know I was out there and interested in her when/if she became available. So one day after an activity I told her exactly that. I wanted to plant a seed. I wanted to let her know there was a better option out there. I think it was only a few weeks after I told her I was interested in her that she and her boyfriend broke up. The underlying story of all of this stuff going on was my two friends who were girls, who were part of the 3 girls that liked me in the beginning wanted me for themselves. So they were feeding me bad information. When Tina and her boyfriend broke up they kept it from me because they knew I liked her. They pressured Tina not to date me because they liked me. I on several occasions made it clear to my two friends that we were only that and nothing ever more, but they still schemed and planned all the while. My first "date" with Tina was a trip to the local golf driving range. It was on the eve of my sister Angela's wedding reception. We had a real good time hitting golf balls, neither of us was very good at it though, but we had nice, natural conversation and I think an instant comfort level. We had never been alone before, so we never really had the freedom to speak freely together. At each table for Ang's reception there was a vase that had a beta fish in it. I remembered from our first date her telling me she liked animals and stuff. So I grabbed one of them and took it out to her house the next day. After that I asked her on a real official date and I think we went ice skating at the Frisco mall where we both fell on our butt's once or twice. A day or so after that I received a voice message from Tina saying she couldn't date me because her friend (and my friend) liked me and didn't want her to date me. Well we got through all that soap opera bs and the rest is history. I just thought I would tell the story for those of you who have never heard it before. I knew Tina and I were perfect for each other shortly after we met. I then spent the next 4 months trying to convince Tina of that fact. The truth is Heavenly Father answered my prayers and blessed me with the sweet after going through so very very much of the bitter in my previous marriage. She is a blessing and we will be together for ever. After knowing each other for 6 years and being married for 5 of those we have still never raised our voices to each other. We are truly happy and blessed to be together. I love her very much.

In other news I am still working at Market Street and really loving every minute of it. I like this job more than any job I have ever had. I am happier with this company than any company I can ever imagine. I will get the results of my school teacher test I think in one week. I don't think I am going to pass the test, but who knows. I do know I enjoy this job and have a lot of opportunities with this company.

Tina is getting better from her sickness. We are going out tomorrow to celebrate our anniversary since I work this evening. Ayden and Asher are doing well. I think maybe for the first time I can remember, it snowed twice in Texas in one Winter where I live. Asher and I played out in the snow last night for about 30 minutes. We were having a snow ball fight, then we made a little snow man. There was probably 6 inches of snow in our backyard which is a lot for Texas. I have included all those pictures either on this blog or on the photo album. It was a lot of fun and really cool to see.

For those of you who took the poll question on the blog from the last post that answered Manchego, you were correct. Manchego is a Spanish cheese made from Ewe's milk.

Greetings

2008-03-02T10:06:00.005-06:00

Man I enjoy watching SpongeBob with Asher. I just heard a vocal exchange between SpongeBob and Plankton. SpongeBob said, "You can't have that crabby patty Plankton, its for the customer." To which Plankton replied, "Customer? Why I'll boil the customer in hot oil..." Plankton is truly funny on that show. The Scott family for the past few days have all been added to the disabled list (for my women readers this is a sports term). Tina is out with a cold/flu. She has had a sore throat, body ache, cough, etc... Asher has had a cough for the past couple of days. I woke up with a headache and Ayden is teething. Other than that we are doing great.

Ayden's front teeth are coming in now. You can just see her right front tooth about to poke through the gum. We think it has been contributing to her evening grumpiness. She continues to struggle trying to pull herself up. She usually ends up busting her face on something. She is almost totally of the boob now. I think she only boob feeds once or maybe twice a day now. It is fun to watch her crawl all over the place. Thank heaven for little girls.

Asher continues to do well in school. His highest grade right now is in science which is also his favorite subject. He went to a kids b-day party the other night at a game center and had lots of fun. He has met some of the other neighbor kids and has started to play basketball with them next door. Baseball is coming up in April and he is getting excited for that.

Tina is sick as I mentioned above. But other than that she is doing well.

Meanwhile, the store has opened. Last you heard from me I had 3 job possibilities. It turns out I chose the one I had from the very beginning. I was offered the library job at CCCCD. I was invited to interview for a library job with the City of Little Elm, o I could substitute teach. After weighing all of my present options I decided to keep the full time Market Street job and the benefits that come with it. The store opened this past Friday to a abundant crowd. I got to the store at 8am. After placing some grated Grana Pandana on a display section I was returning to my cheese section when I looked up and saw a person that looked familiar. This was a person I have seen on TV hundreds of times. This person was the great, 3 time Super Bowl champion and Hall of Famer, Troy Aikman. He was talking to someone but as I walked by him I said, "Holy smokes its Troy Aikman" and I patted him on the back as I walked by. Needless to say we are now best buddies. I worked a 10 hour day that day, hard work but lots of fun. The store was packed to the max. I got to meet one of the co-owners of the company. He seems like a very good person and I can tell that the feel of family that permeates throughout the company comes from him. I am learning my cheeses these days, so if any of you have any questions about cheese then holler at me. We have 300 different cheeses in the store. I have tried many of them and have learned a lot about them so far. I am currently reading a book about cheese to better familiarize myself with the many, many cheeses of the world. It is really quite interesting. I won't get the results of my teaching social studies test until the 14th of March. I don't expect it will be a good result. I studies a good amount but evidently didn't study the right stuff because I guessed on almost every answer choice. So if HF wants me to teach he would have to have blessed me with a lot of help. I will let you know when I know. Please, take the poll to the right.

"F is for fire that burns down the whole town, U is for uranium, bomb, N is for no survivors."

- Plankton

Happy Valentines Day to you and yours.

2008-02-15T16:28:00.004-06:00

All is well in the Scott domicile these days. Asher is doing well in school. He recently got an award at school called the Rucker Rocks award. It goes to students who help make the school a better place by treating people nice and making good grades. Asher is making friends church and school and is a very good boy. We got to see the Chipmunk movie the other day. Asher liked it and so did Tina and I. It was a pretty good movie. We have been watching some of the old Star Trek movies since Asher is so interested in Astronomy. He is enjoying them. So far he has only seen "Star Trek:Insurrection" but he wants to see some of the others. Baseball season is coming up in April and he is excited to play.

Ayden is crawling all over the place now. She has pretty much got the crawling thing down and is ready to start pulling herself up on objects and walking. She tries to pull herself up but hasn't quite mastered the technique. She usually ends up slipping and hitting her face on something. I just laugh and laugh. J/K! She is nearly weaned off the boob now (sorry I am not a p.c. guy). She can say "Momma" and "Dadda" now and that is about it, but that doesn't stop her from gibber jabbering nonstop. I tell Tina she gets that from her, but we all know it is from me.

In other news I was very sad to hear the news that Postum is no longer in production. After many decades it has been discontinued due to lack of demand. So I have made the shift to really the only other naturally decaffeinated coffee like drink, Pero. It was hard to find. I like it, but Postum is my preference.

It is kind of weird. I went about 27 years of my life really never reading a book except church books. In fact the only book I remember reading growing up was a few Jack London books. My favorite was "White Fang". I had trouble finding books that could hold my attention. After getting into the Harry Potter books a few years ago it has really opened up a love of reading for me. Since then my brother and dad have introduced me to several Fantasy writers and I have really enjoyed them. I now have a line of about 10 books I am looking forward to reading. If any of you have any suggestions for books you have read please let me know about them in the comments section. In job news, I didn't get the Tech job but that was good because I have been there and done that and I didn't want to go back to it. I did get the part time Library job at Collin College so that was nice. I was also hired at Market Street a few weeks back and have done some training with them over the past couple of weeks. Market Street is really the first company I have experienced that did things right in my opinion. They treat people right, they promote from within and are friendly and kind. I am going to try and work there part time in addition to the library. Also I have been trying to substitute teach in a very large district and couldn't figure out why there was no jobs. Well after talking to the district they had messed up my login so I couldn't see any jobs. Well they fixed it, so now there are tons of jobs out there. So I am going to try and do all 3 of these jobs in addition to my 6 credit online graduate hours. I take my Social Studies exam one week from tomorrow. If I pass it I will be qualified to teach Economics, Government, History, Civics, etc.. in grades 7 -12. If I don't pass it my plans might possibly be delayed by quite a bit. So I need to pass it the first time. My knee is still screwed up. I have had an X-ray, I have had it checked out by a orthopedic surgeon and tonight I am getting an MRI on it. Problem is I don't have insurance so if surgery is required I might have to wait a while to get it fixed. It has been jacked up now for almost 2 months. It is a little depressing because I would like to be playing softball and basketball for the church and the city. Also I can't go out and play with Asher very much.

Tina is doing great as always. She is loving being a mom and is very good at it. She and I went to Red Lobster for Valentines day. I don't really know what else to say about Tina. She always makes fun of me because I never write much about her. But I don't know what to say about her, she is just great.

I should be cained for my neglect of this blog.

2008-02-01T12:14:00.000-06:00

Hello again fans and media to The Usual Scott's blog. I wanted to pose the following question: Isn't it curious sometimes, how we don't see the signs that are right in front of our eyes? No I mean literally right in front of your eyes. Seriously, right in front of our eyes. Look at the picture at the bottom of this post and you will see what I mean. This morning for the second time Ayden and I were awakened to the sound of our intruder alarm. Did we have a break-in you ask? Maybe. But as it turned out Tina just forgot to disable the alarm before she opened the back door to let Homer (our dog) outside. Hey it happens. You know what we should do; we should put up a sign on the back door reminding everyone to check the alarm before opening the door. Oh wait, we did. Of course I say this tongue-in-cheek, I very much love my little wolf crier. Another deep question for you: How come canned soup never tastes the same as the real thing? (Tina just asked me this question as I was writing this blog, so I wanted to give you a peak at our deep, intellectual conversations. This is the type of stuff you can't get anywhere else. Thought provoking questions, hard hitting news, sports talk, job grumbling. This blog is gold. If it is not one of your links or bookmarks then you are missing out on my random, infrequent, sporadic posts of grandeur).

Ayden has begun her movement. I use the word movement because she can get from one side of the room to the other, but it is not always crawling. She likes to roll over and then do her little lean pose to check things out. I tell Tina that Ayden is just lazy. If there is something on the floor she wants, she will legitimately crawl to it and get it. If not, she is content with just leaning and rolling around. So she can crawl, she just chooses to do it sparingly. Her second bottom tooth has broken through the gum. I have taught her how to make noises with her mouth by saying "ahhh" and then she puts her fist back and forth to her mouth.

Asher is doing well. He has been making a lot of parachutes with paper towels and yarn the last couple of days. He also likes making a variety of things out of paper; as a result I need to buy more printer paper. Asher won a little experiment at school in his science class, so that was cool. He is excited to play baseball but that doesn't start until April. Meanwhile we are going to try and get him in the Chess club that goes on after school. He likes Chess and does pretty well in it. He has been a pleasure to have in our home.

Meanwhile last and deservedly so is me. I am doing well. I am taking two graduate courses online. I have come to the conclusion that as much as I enjoy school, I can't stand night school and I am burnt out of going to classes in person. Maybe some day that will change but for the time being that is the way it is. That being said I am enjoying taking my classes in my own home at my own leisure. I was hired at a specialty grocery store a week ago called Market Street. I would be working in the cheese and deli section. My plan to work as a sub teacher didn't work because teachers decided not to miss any work, so there was no work for me. While I did accept this job, I still continue to look for one that is better for the family and our future. I had two interviews this week. One was a library position with Collin College. The other was a Technical Specialist position with a local software security company. I think I will get them both and will thus have a decision to make. Don't know what it would be. As far as my weight loss effort is concerned it is coming along. It hit a little bump during the holidays but I am back on regular track toward the sexiest man alive award. I will inform you of the statistical progress in the near future. Peace out.

Winds of change

2008-01-09T20:04:00.000-06:00

Well a lot has transpired since my last blog. For those of you who haven't heard we are trying to get full custody of Asher after learning some of the things he had been going through over the years. We won emergency custody over the Christmas holidays so Asher did not have to go back to Oregon and started school with us here in Prosper. He is doing well. We have been playing baseball and football almost every day. I am going to try and get him into a basketball league starting pretty soon. He seems to be enjoying his school here so far. He is getting used to his new home here and we are getting used to having a 7 year old boy in our house. The decibel level changed when he arrived but it has been great, just takes some time to get used to it. The whole situation could be resolved in a week or two or might drag on for months depending on what the other side does.

In other news we had a nice Christmas and New Years spending and visiting with a lot of family. I took Microeconomics over the Christmas holiday since it was a class I needed for teacher certification. I am going to take the Social Studies composite test for 7-12 grades in February. That way I will be ready to get a job during the heavy teacher job fairs in March and April. I have interviewed for a computer tech job with the local school district hoping to get to know some people. I am set up to sub for Frisco ISD.

Ayden is doing well. She has been a bit crankier of late. Her one tooth is coming up and the other one is on the way and I think that has got her grumpy. She gets in the crawling position all the time but still hasn't figured out how to coordinate her movements to crawl yet.

Tina is doing fine as always.

In weight loss news, I let go during the holidays and probably gained about 13lb's. But the other day when I got on the scale I was back to 230lb's so I am only about 7lb's heavier than I was before the holidays. I am back to normal eating again and the weight is coming of again. The goal is still the same and I will get there but I am going to have to start doing some exercise. My playing with my brothers over the holidays has really hosed up my knee so I am unable to exercise at the moment, but Asher is keeping me active (which is probably also not allowing my knee to heal).

The Scott's are doing well, we are grateful for what we have and each other.

Back again

2007-12-14T20:36:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-28T14:14:00.001-06:00

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

2007-11-12T16:13:00.001-06:00

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

2007-11-12T10:34:00.001-06:00

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

2007-11-05T18:47:00.000-06:00

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

2007-10-29T11:18:00.001-05:00

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

2007-10-24T16:11:00.001-05:00

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

2007-10-22T10:41:00.001-05:00

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

2007-10-15T09:48:00.001-05:00

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

2007-10-01T19:29:00.001-05:00

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

2007-09-28T11:02:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-24T13:48:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-17T15:45:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-11T21:12:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-03T23:02:00.001-05:00

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

2007-08-27T08:36:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-20T11:31:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-13T07:57:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-06T08:12:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-30T08:36:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-23T08:40:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-16T08:10:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-02T08:11:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-06-27T08:16:00.001-05:00

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

2007-06-25T08:10:00.000-05:00

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

2007-06-19T09:53:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-06-18T08:02:00.000-05:00

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

2007-06-12T08:55:00.001-05:00

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

2007-06-11T23:03:00.000-05:00

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??

2007-06-11T08:08:00.001-05:00

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!

2007-06-08T16:14:00.000-05:00

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

2007-06-05T08:43:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-05-30T11:34:00.000-05:00

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.

Oh to be 31

2007-05-29T09:47:00.000-05:00

I recently remarked to Tina that my 31st birthday was my most uneventful one ever. Not because we didnt have a party or get great gifts but because the number 31 itself is insignificant. At least 30 ushered me into a new era of ages.

At home with my wife and kids I couldnt be more happy. Generally speaking at work I could'nt be more unhappy. Perhaps I will never be happy at work. Maybe that is just something I will have to try to learn to deal with. Most people see work as a means to a paycheck and that is enough for them. I have never been able to see things in that manner. Granted with the birth of my daughter I have been more apt to look at a job in that way, but that point of view doesnt last long for me.

I am not sure where this outlook came for me. It is not that I am opposed to work. My parents made me work all the time growing up. I did regular chores with no allowance all the time. I am sure I did more than most kids grow up doing. So it is not that I never learned to work.

In other news, little Ayden has gained 7 oz since birth and is doing very well. She has been a little grumpy the last couple of days. We think she may be having some stomach issues.

I became handy man the other day when I installed a peep hole in my front door. I was pretty proud of myself.

I think I am a modern day renisannce man. I told Tina the other day if I was wealthy I would just go from one school program to the next. I have so many interests that I am afraid I will never be able to learn. For example, I want to learn to totaly rebuild a car. I want to be able to do body work and engine work and restore a car from scrap. I want to learn to play the piano. I want to learn to paint. I would like to learn to write a original movie script for which I have an idea. I would like to obtain a PhD, I dont know what in but in something.

Thus ends this diatribe. All of the above grumblings aside, I am very blessed with a great son, daughter and wife.

Kids, you gotta love'em.

2007-05-23T13:51:00.001-05:00

Isnt having children great? You get to enjoy so many new experiences that you otherwise would not get. Like little hugs from little hands. Smiles that could be gas but we prefer to think of them as chosen responses. Cute little shrieks and cries that tickle our ears. Oh yeah and who could forget when you go to give your kids a kiss on the mouth and right as your open mouth touches their lips they spit up projecting regurgitated breast milk in your mouth and down your face. Good times. And who could forget the time I was changing my sons diaper over 5 years ago and he let out a cannon shot of excrement that splattered on the wall about 2 feet away. Good times. Life changing experiences. I will never forget them.

100 things about me.

2007-05-21T23:14:00.000-05:00

My friend Chris recently did a blog like this and it got me thinking about it, so I decided to do this.

1) I lived in South Africa for two years.
2) When I go and get fast food I cant just go to one place. I go to Jack in the Box for tacos, Mcdonalds chicken sandwiches, Arby's curly fries, etc....
3) I love movies
4) I like the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes".
5) I will typically cry or at least tear up during romantic comedies.
6) I like Justin Timberlake.
7) I have 4 real friends in this world: Chris P, Anson L, Phil G and Josh S.
8) I love sports.
9) I hate corporate america.
10) I dont like policies that dont make sense, for example at UPS I couldnt have a goatee.
11) I secretly want to deliver packages for UPS.
12) I somewhat secretly want to be the "King of Queens".
13) I am trying to mold my body after the King of Queens and P.S. I think I am just about there.
14) I love buying new cars.
15) I love to fish in good fishing places.
16) I cant stand rude people.
17) I hate the New York Yankees.
18) I hate Yankees (Definition, people from the Northeast US.)
19) I very much dislike the French.
20) I can juggle three balls.
21) I am a great whistler.
22) I once got licks in Elementary School for writing on the sidewalk with a chalk rock after I was told not to.
23) When I was 14 I took of in my parents car and drove 10 miles away to my baseball game because my ride forgot to pick me up.
24) The once won a hierogliphics contest in 10th grade.
25) The only raffle I have ever won scored me a new set of elementary school shoe laces.
26) The decision to marry my wife Tina was and is the best decision I have ever made.
27) I am afraid of spiders.
28) I am afraid of sharks.
29) I got a 19 on my ACT's.
30) I got a 1150 on my GRE's.
31) After my first semester of college I had a .90 GPA
32) I take enjoyment from asthetic beauty and art.
33) The majority of the reading I have done in my life has been done in the bathroom. (Including this blog.)
34) When I was young I tried to play Superman and jumped of the bed and landed on my face and knocked out my front tooth.
35) When I was 6 years old my family was hit from behind by a Semi and we were lucky to have survived it.
36) I got my appendix removed in South Africa.
37) I have never broken a bone.
38) I have never had a cavity.
39) I love to cook and one day will go to culinary arts school if for no other reason because I want to.
40) I have never been in a car accident while I was driving.
41) I love baseball hats.
42) I love the movie "Sky High". Not sure why.
43) I have always wanted to learn to play the piano.
44) My favorite calling of all time in the church was working with the Young Men.
45) I have a bachelor degree in Kinesiology
46) I have changed my major in the past at least 20 times.
47) I am addicted to salt and probably eat at least 3 times what the normal person does.
48) I dont like going to the movie unless I can eat buttered popcorn.
49) I love doritos.
50) My favorite pizza in the world is St Elmos pizza in South Africa.
51) I havent owned a cell phone in 5 years.
52) I like snakes.
53) I have a scar on my hand from getting bit by a penguin.
54) I love squirrels.
55) I have a Welsh Pembroke Corgi named "Homer".
56) For lunch I just ate 3 tacos, 1 burrito, 3 egg rolls and a large size portion of Pepper Steak with Fried Rice. (I am still working on that King of Queens figure).
57) I am obsessive compulsive about my hands. I wash them probably at least a dozen times a day.
58) When I was about 12 I was almost killed by my brother in the mountains when he pushed a tree in my direction almost knocking me into a fast moving river with a 80 foot drop just 20 yards away.
59) I have knocked myself out with a water hose with a sprinkler on the end of it.
60) I chew my finger nails.
61) I got my left ear pierced when I was 16 years old.
62) I once tried out at a professional baseball camp.
63) I tried to walk on at the University of Wyomings' baseball team. Didnt make it.
64) I have been the starting point guard for a basketball team that played in the state championship.
65) I am a huge Cowboy, Maverick and Texas Ranger fan. It is not a good time to be however.
66) My favorite meal is Chicken Fried Steak with Mashed Potatos and gravy.
67) Every time I see a pretty grass field I just want to go and throw the football around in it with friends.
68) When I was young I loved GI Joe, Transformers, He-Man and Muscles.
69) I dont like scary movies.
70) I have 20/20 vision.
71) I had braces for a year and a half.
72) I have two nicknames: General and Ed.
73) I have a 2 week old daughter and a 6 year old son.
74) We live about 3 miles from Deon Sanders house.
75) I hate Kansas more than any state in the union. But probably not as bad as the Yankee states so maybe I should change this one.
76) I could loose 80lb's and still be considered overweight according to the weight charts.
77) I have held cobra's, python's and boa's.
78) I would have riden an Ostrich but I was to fat, the Ostrich couldnt hold me.
79) I have never cheated on anyone in any relationship ever.
80) I have learned by experience that spinning a motorcycle around in the loose gravel is not as easy as the movies make it out to be. I had to walk home bloody on the entire right side of my body.
81) I have been to Montana where they have the annual testicle festival. True story.
82) No matter what I seem to accomplish personaly I still feel like I have accomplished nothing.
83) I have plantar fascitis from trying to finish and graduate with my bachelors degree during a past summer. I needed 4 PE classes. So I took Swimming, Soccer, Tennis and Aerobic Dance (Yeah I said it Aerobic Dance). I took them all back to back to back to back. It was about 6 straight hours every single day for 2 months.
84) I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
85) I am naturaly warm blooded.
86) One of my younger brothers pitches for the BYU baseball team.
87) When I was young I used to break dance and perfomed in some school competitions.
88) I dont listen to music on the radio. I listed to sports talk radio all day long at work.
89) When I was 13 I saw our family dog Erica get run over by a Mack Truck.
90) I used to catch lizards when I was a kid.
91) I onced scored 7 goals in a soccer game.
92) I used to play indoor soccer.
93) I have never caught a foul ball at a baseball game. I have dodged one though.
94) I cant light a match with my beard.
95) The best sandwich I have ever paid for was at Quiznos and was the Prime Rib Sandwich on Garlic Bread.
96) One of the greatest sports moments of my life was when the RedSox came back to beat the Yankees in 3 straight games. Not because I like Boston but because I hate the Yankees.
97) I love cricket.
98) I love rugby.
99) Sister Meyer in South Africa is still one of the best cooks I have ever seen.
100) Once a person has truly gained my love and trust they can do nothing to loose it unless they betray that trust or screw me over. As long as they dont do that I will defend them to the death.

Back to work I go.

2007-05-21T14:11:00.000-05:00

Today is my first day back at work. Yippee. No really I wish I could stay home with Tina and Ayden. Like my dad has said many times when I ask him about his job, he says "I would rather be out searching for the lost ark, but it is ok." Well to that dad I echo your sentiment, but it is my goal to do exactly that. I turn 31 in 5 days and dont want to be doing this line of work when I am 40, or 32 for that matter. I am blessed to have a job and a I certainly recognized that, I just always thought I would be doing something else. Rather then looking for the lost ark, I think I would prefer combing thru forest areas looking for cool animals and plants. Although looking for the ark would be bad either.

Our little girl is doing well. She had her first doctor appointment today, I havent heard how it went yet. She is sleeping in about 4 hour blocks right now. Which makes Tina happy, but Tina is still getting used to the broken sleep. Anyway that is all I got right now.

One week into life

2007-05-15T16:19:00.000-05:00

Well we are one week into the life of Ayden. We are trying to help her get her night and day straight. As opposed to the Draculinian lifestyle she has lived thus far. Last night was really the first night we were able to get her to sleep a decent amount. We had to mess with her all day to keep her awake. We were successful. Tina is still trying to get used to her new schedule. I am still working at home this week so I can help out when needed and we have had an abundance of family help us with everything, which we probably could not live without. Ayden is doing well, we picked up some eye drops for her today because she has a slight infection in her right eye. She is adorable and we are loving every minute with her. Other than that everything is going just fine with us.

New Addition

2007-05-12T12:33:00.000-05:00

Well, it has been an eventfull last 5 days for us. On Sunday morning Tina began to have contractions. We timed them all day, waiting for the contractions to get close enough together to go to the hospital. Finally we reached that point at about 11pm on Sunday evening. So we took of toward the hospital. It was nice for once to have carte blanche on how fast I could drive and whether or not I wanted to wait for stop lights. Some I did and some I didnt. She was dialated to 6 cm when we got there and Ayden Mckenzie Scott was born around 6 hours later at about 5:36 am on Monday the 7th. She was 7 lbs 6 oz's and 21 inches long. She was born with a decent amount of black hair. She had swallowed alot of fluid during delivery and had some breathing issues for about a day before she was cleared to be ok. She is doing great now as is Tina, we are just a little tired these days. We just got home from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon and have not had time to call anyone and let them know. So if you did'nt get called then dont fret, we didnt really call anybody. We are very happy for the new addition, it has been a blessing in our lives. We will be posting more pictures as we get them, we have more in the can but have not been able to get them uploaded as of yet. Click the Scotts Photo Album link at the top of the page to see the rest of the pictures.