Scrabble

I wanted to play Scrabble for some reason today so I am, right now.  I texted Dave and he gave me the address to the site he uses, and so far so good.  I lost the first game pretty badly after having been ahead at the beginning and now I am dead even with a guy that is likely going to lose due to a lack of time. I keep checking to see if he is done, and he never is. Not in the sense that Jonny's roommate Jesse will never get a card game, which is the actual never, he just takes a long, long time.  His slow response is putting a damper on our game, but at least it gave me time to write in my blog. If he doesn't take the spot I am thinking about playing, which he will, I will be able to play a seven letter word which at this point in the game is pretty good for me.  He is probably off doing something else or using a scrabble dictionary or something that is making him take forever. I still need to write down some goals and to dos.  For some reason, I never follow up on the things I want to do. I wish I practiced an instrument every day. I wish I practiced Italian every day.  I wish I worked out every day. I want to memorize things and strengthen my brain.  I suppose that is a lot I want to do and for some reason, when the day is young, I don't make the time to do any of it.  Again, if I had someone who would hold me accountable...in addition to myself.  Well, he is about to lose or something depending on what the time does.

Incognito

I think I am doing this mostly for me.  I don't anticipate anyone reading it, except Sarah, who probably hasn't read it for a while since she might think I don't use it anymore.  I wanted to write about Erica.  She is constantly asking Sarah and I to "hold me."  I almost always stop what I am doing and hold her close for a few moments.  She usually wants it to last longer than I feel I can as I am trying to balance breakfast and Pamela and wanting to read the paper, but I always cuddle her for a minute or two.  The other day we were at home and she looked up at the picture of Jesus and said that she loved Jesus, and that Jesus loved her.  Then she said that she wanted Jesus to hold her.  I understand how she feels.  It was quite cute and made me realize how pure and clean and close to God our kids are.  On a totally unrelated note, I just checked the Eve6 site for some reason and I want to go to one of their concerts again.  I am sure I will be disappointed, but I think I will check back and try to do it, with Sarah, if at all possible.

Habits

I have this fear that someday they will look back on these posts and someone is going to think that I have a focus disorder.  I had an idea today that I thought would give me something to write about more often while also improving some things.  Habits.  I am going to do a personal experiment with habits.  I am sure I will lose interest in this too, but I am going to try.  I am going to try to start one good habit or end one bad habit each month.  Tom was saying how he never would keep a log with regards to writing down miles because it was always a pain.  I don't think it is that difficult, but I have been doing it for 2 years now and it is such a habit, that I don't ever think twice and it never seems hard.  I suppose everything is like that.  Once we have done something for while and it is habit, it comes easy.  Whether it is good or bad.  I have decided to track a few things this month which includes July.  My weight after breakfast.  My resting heart rate in the afternoon and my body fat percentage before bed after I have gone potty.  Once I am in the habit of doing this for a whole month, maybe I will learn more about my health just as I have my car by keeping track of the miles.  I am also going to track time spent working out.  That might be the most difficult, but once I am in the habit...I will try to think of a bad habit I want to break for the month of July as well.  The first one that popped in my head was pulling out my neck hairs.  Who knows why I do that and if I can stop, but I am sure Sarah would love if I stopped.  Here goes.  Two habits.  One to start and one to break.  Going forward, just so I don't lose my focus, I will just try one or the other.  Ce La Faccio!!

Teaching

I had the opportunity to teach preisthood this week.  Wayne came to ask who the instructor was and when I mentioned that he was conducting this month and responsible for the lessons, he then said, "well, you're the group leader and you haven't called anyone."  That was an obnoxious comment.  Nevertheless, I stood up to teach the lesson with President Thomas there and it actually went pretty well.  We have a great quorum for that with regards to participation and I enjoyed discussing talents with them.  Which leads me to my point, I wish I had developed more talents at a younger age.  I don't want to be one of those parents, but I am going to encourage my children to develop their talents as much as I can without becoming one of those parents.  I guess I better figure out who is teaching this week.  Pamela will be 4 weeks this month.  She is a pretty good baby.  She is not sleeping well and gets pretty grumpy at night, but I really like her. 

Week 2

We are 11 days into Pamela's life.  It is a bit of an adjustment having three kids.  About 5 days into her life, I looked at Sarah and felt like we hadn't spoken in days.  We are so wrapped up in her diapers and feedings, Michael and Erica's needs that we hadn't had much of a conversation.  My back has been hurting now for a few days, and I attribute that to her also.  She is a cute little girl though.  I will have to get back in the habit of writing again because Michael and Erica have been saying some cute things lately and now I can't remember them.  I am going back to work, and not a moment too late as we are running low on money.  I have not really done much since Pamela was born.  Sarah just reminded me of an observation that Erica makes when she sees Sarah nursing, "Pamela eats you."  That is sort of funny.  I also start soccer again this summer this coming Saturday.  I told Tyler that I have never really scored in a game and he said it will be his goal to get me a goal. I hope at least that day I remember to write and record it so I can remember it.  Short and sweet tonight with out much of a purpose.

We're having a baby

At least I finally have a ready made subject for a blog.  This evening, after receiving 3 reminder calls about donating blood, I donated blood.  It only took five minutes and thirty-one seconds to fill the bag, which I take pride in for some reason.  Of all the silly things to give yourself credit for.  Tonight/today Sarah and I are having baby number three.  Sarah is trying to sleep after getting her epidural and I took a 10 minute power nap and am dreading what the next 24 hour period looks like.  I think I will be enjoying some Dr. Pepper.  Prior to coming here I was sitting at our desk looking to see who won the game and talking to Sarah when she sneezed.  I then think, though it could have been a sound from the sneeze, that I heard a pop followed by looking up and seeing fluids running down her leg and here we are.  So that is it for now.  I think I am going to lay down and try to rest, but if I know our kids, she will decide she is ready to come and I will just feel even worse.  Due to the blood donation and subsequent eating of all the snacks, I had another bad day on my improved diet.  Not to mention the sushi at lunch with John and James.  My goal will be to get back on it quickly so as to not undo the work I have done.  I was curious to learn that my heart rate was 52 this evening.  The blood donor lady said that I must be active, which I am not so now I am wondering if my diet is also helping me have a lower resting heart rate, which might be good too.  Having kids is the strangest, weirdest, awesomest, scariest thing that two humans can do.  Nothing compares.  Maybe it would be like falling off a very high cliff to your certain death during the scariest part of the scariest movie ever while taking a free kick from 40 yards out and bending it into the back of the net while hitting a 35 foot game winner while catching a fifty-five yard touchdown pass while hitting a game winning home run while kissing your wife on your wedding day while visiting your favorite foreign country while driving 235 mph on a race track while making your first million dollars while listening to your favorite band at their best concert while taking a long overdue nap.  That is what it is like to have a baby.  There, I found something to compare it to.

Nothing to say

I have been finding it hard to think up interesting topics for my blog/journal/diary.  I think I need a cause or something.  Mark Sisson has his cause, sports bloggers have their causes and even Jonny has the messed up cause of finding a diet that might work rather than eating healthily.  Maybe I should choose a cause....The other morning, while wearing my retainer for the first time in many years, I was awakened by Sarah climbing over me.  I think it had to do with the amount of pain that my teeth were in because normally nothing will wake me up.  I feel like my teeth have been spreading some so I decided to start wearing it more faithfully and see if they tighten up.  Anyway, after Sarah got back in bed it was obvious I was awake and she told me this hilarious story.  Erica had been crying for her blanket and when Sarah gave it to her, she argued (something she does a lot of lately) that it wasn't her blanket.  Sarah then told her it was, she grabbed the side where she runs her fingers in some form of primal identification (it was still dark) and said, "oh yeah."  She said it so matter of fact and because I could hear her saying it exactly as Sarah told me she said it, we had a nice laugh.  On a totally related topic, I sure wish Erica would start sleeping through the night.  (Just ran the spellcheck and I can't believe healthily is a word.)

Post

I haven't posted for a while, but I suppose I haven't had a lot on my mind, or something.  Yet, there is a lot going on.  My wife is 9 months pregnant, my job is always an adventure, my hair is really long, my kids are awesome.  This evening I was reading books with them for just a few minutes, and it occurred to me that they will not want to sit on my lap and have me read to them for very long, so I better enjoy it.  Though selfishly, I hate reading long and boring books to them, preferring the easy books.  My weight this evening was 187.4.  That is pretty good.  I have been experimenting with dark chocolate and stevia to make carb free candy.  So far, so bad.  Stevia isn't quite as strong as the HMFB guys seemed to indicate.  I am up to a full teaspoon of stevia and I still haven't had the chocolate taste very sweet.  I am going to try it with some powdered milk.  That will add some carbs, but it will still be low carb and perhaps even edible.  Since the recipes I found online are so vague, if I do find something that is reasonable, I am going to post it in my blog and maybe my blog will get a hit from someone other than my beautiful, awesome, pregnant wife.  I am planning on getting up in the morning and lifting weights...I hope that happens. 

My project

I am finally caught up to the present day with my HMFB podcast so I was looking around, briefly, for a new podcast and I was unable, in three or four minutes, to find anything interesting.  I figured I have a health podcast, a sports podcast and a trivia podcast.  I thought I should listen to a financial type podcast and I could not find anything that was interesting.  As I may have mentioned, I didn't spend a lot of time looking, but I have advice for anyone who is interested, including me, in making a podcast that might be interesting to others.
1.  No podcast should ever go over 15 minutes.  As I have said before (and I can credit Glenn Beck for this line of thinking) if a movie director can't tell his story in less than two hours, the director isn't powerful enough.  If you can't cut out the fluff, your podcast needs help.  Case in point, HMFB is constantly catching us up on their lives, their feelings, their most recent meals, their religious views, their toothpaste brand, the sharpness of their razors and their political views.  Nobody cares.  I repeat, nobody cares.  Give us our weekly dose of health info and get out.
2.  Be educational while providing your opinion, or at least being funny.  I like when the HMFB folks take a pertinent article and share their opinions and make comments on the subject.  The education piece adds value, and that makes the podcast interesting. 
I guess that is all I've got.  Two little things that could improve HMFB.  I have often thought that it would be fun to make a podcast.  I don't know what the subject would be, or how I could even fill 15 minutes in one podcast.  It just seems fun.   So, my project is to find a podcast that is brief, educational and interesting.  I am going to try to use podcasts to become knowledgeable and more educated.  I will report back.

It's bedtime

Quick post tonight because I haven't written in so long.  I did not get up and exercise, I shot my carb diet to heck over the last 2 days, I made my wife laugh when I mentioned that my dad punched me in the face while I was in the womb while giving my mom the Heimlich maneuver, Erica looked so cute today for church, Michael is such a good little boy, I have an amazing mother and an amazing wife.  You don't get to choose your mom and I couldn't have been sent to a better mom (in spite of her own crazy mom...) and I did choose my wife.  And really, that is sort of a crap shoot.  You can fall in love with anyone if you spend enough time and money on them and they are super hot.   The one I fell in love with also turned out to be one awesome, awesome, awesome woman that is perfect for me.  I am glad she has bad eyesight and convinced herself I was worth marrying.  It is sad that men and women fall in love and get married and over time things evolve for the worse.  For me, as Timbuk 3 once crooned, things are only getting better.

I don't care what the date says.

I wonder if we will one day know why we react/behave in certain ways?  I have some nasty behaviors that I would like to change.  For example, our neighbors family member was allowing their dog to do his business on the grass around the walks. I had seen this before and had been irritated by it.  I opened the door and in a very snooty way, asked him to take the dog around the house and not have it pee where my kids play.  His response was humble and polite when he said, "I'm sorry."  I then told him it was fine and I walked in the house.  He seemed genuinely sorry and I would bet he had not thought about it.  It would have been better to go out and very politely request that he take the dog around the house without that irritated tone.  I could then explain that the kids run around there, that I like dogs and even introduce myself and treat him like Jesus would.  Example 2: When I play sports (basketball, frisbee, soccer, etc.) I act like a wiener.  I don't really talk to anyone unless I am mouthing off.  My interactions are brief and cold.  I don't encourage others or thank those who are encouraging.  Ultimately(ha), I don't act like much of a teammate.  I want my children to be like Dave when it comes to sports and not like me...which means that I need to improve things now because their little brains are growing and they observe everything.  I am going to make a goal.  At my Frisbee game next week, I am going to act like Dave, or in other words, be vocal, encourage, learn everybody's name and otherwise fix how I have been acting now since high school.  I am even going to do the gay cheers. (Whether or not I happily participate doesn't mean they aren't gay because they are.)  The other one will have to wait for an opportunity, but hopefully writing about it will help me to do better.  As Michael Stemkowski said, "What ever gave us the crazy idea that to make someone do better first we have to make them feel worse?  People do better when they feel better." 

HMFB

During the holiday season I was weighing in at about 205 pounds. During the month of December, Scott blew out his knee playing basketball. My weight got me to thinking that my knees are probably designed to hold up a man that weighs between 175 and 185 pounds. It seems obvious that if a knee is designed to hold up to a certain amount of weight, any additional weight probably means that your chances of injury go up. Because I do a lot of driving, I decided to find a pod-cast that spoke to health and fitness, hoping I would get inspired. I ended up choosing Healthy Mind, Fit Body, for no particular reason. It started off slow and became more and more interesting with regards to carbs(sugar), fat and weight. I slowly started making some changes. I didn't go on a diet in the common sense of the word, I just changed my diet. As of this morning, after breakfast I weighed 186 pounds. Tonight before bed I weigh 188. I think I want to be 183 in the morning and 185 at night. I am almost there. Kevin and Wes always say that our weight is 80% what we eat and 20% exercise and fitness. I have a frisbee game tomorrow that should allow for running and raising of my heart rate. Goal: Get up at 6:30 Thursday and Friday and to work out with some weights, push-ups, and stretching Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

OBL

September 11, 2001 will always be a day where you remember where you were. I woke up really late for work. I was going to work at 4:00 am at the time with Troy. Because I didn't wake up until 6:00, I decided to call in sick. I let Daniel know I wouldn't be coming in and he was fine with it, then asked if I had heard that a plane had crashed into a building in NYC. I then went into Scott's room and started watching footage of what was going on that morning. Within just a few minutes of me turning on the TV, the second plane flew into the other tower. What a weird day that turned out to be. Scott and I (I seem to have not had any classes that day) watched footage of the attack for 8 or 10 straight hours. I saw the second plane hit and both buildings fall on live television. We learned over the next few days and weeks that close to 3000 people died as a result of that attack and it was eventually credited to Osama bin Laden and his terrorist group al-queda. Last night our military killed OBL in his compound in some large city of Pakistan...uh, sorry about that Afghanistan. Today's news has irritated me. I don't know what it was like to lose a loved one that day, but I feel sorry for those who have not been able to experience closure up until now. Or the huge crowds that gathered at ground zero or chanted "USA" at some baseball game. I feel like they are saying that OBL and his band of robbers have maintained some level of control over us for the last 10 years. What a bunch of crap. I think the ultimate slap in the face to them would to be that despite their deplorable actions, we are stronger and have moved on and improved our lives and the lives of those around us. That no matter what they have done or will do, we will continue to love our freedom and our nation, our military and our families and their pathetic efforts to scare us, or exercise control over us will not last because we are children of God and citizens of the United States of America. I am thrilled we got him. I am thrilled that we didn't quit. And I don't think I will bother remembering where I was when OBL was killed. I think we beat OBL on September 12th, and every day we've lived our lives well since.

Pet food

My mom told Sarah something that she used to do for us. All kids love froot loops, and we were no exception. Froot loops are more expensive and my parents, wanting to give us some, used to buy a bag of malt-o-meal froot loops (or marshmallow mateys) and a bag of malt-o-meal cheerios and mix them together in a big storage bucket and that was our cold cereal. When Sarah reminded me of that I thought about something my mother-in-law taught us to do. When she buys pet food, she buys the higher quality stuff as well as some cheap stuff and mixes them together. Like my mom, this gives the pet some of what they really need, while controlling the higher cost of the good stuff. On a totally unrelated note, my pet Michael learned about the restoration today in church. When we got home Sarah told him to take off his church clothes to keep them nice and clean. He then said, "Oh, so Jesus won't take the church away again?" Sarah asked him what he meant: "You know, Jesus took the church away and then brought it back." I am happy that he is learning and retaining. Now I just need to wean him off of froot loops.

Mission Story

I still have not been writing down ideas for this blog, but I will continue to try and think of things. I will rewrite some mission stories. Rewrite because I did keep a reasonable journal throughout most of my mission. I doubt I wrote this one though because it was so humiliating. One evening Elder Perry and I were out and about and it was getting close to time to go home. All of the sudden he starts acting weird and looking over his shoulder and saying that he had a bad feeling about something. I didn't feel it and was not that scared, but he insisted we go home. At one point we were running and he was really spooked. (I was still not scared...unlike when I met Satan's spawn a few months later with E. Anderson) We got home and he immediately wanted to pray for protection and offer up gratitude for getting home safe. Well, I had to pee. I had to pee badly. He started praying and would not stop. I was trying to be reverent and not get up during the prayer and I ended up peeing my pants. After a long, long time his prayer ended and I ran to the bathroom with the front of my pants wet. I didn't "empty out," but it was obvious. After I cleaned up, I came out of the bathroom. Trying to get the wet elephant out of the room, I said, "I peed my pants." He said that he saw and was sorry he scared me. I then explained that it didn't have anything to do with being scared and everything to do with his long, long, long prayer. I then said next time I would get up in the middle of his "Enos" prayer and go to the bathroom. He said that would be fine.

Goal for April 30, 2011

Do some form of strenuous exercise.
This was completed. I ran 5 wind sprints the length of the grass and back in a 14 minute period. My heart rate was at 180 bpm, roughly. Awesome.

I did it (said by Erica)

I successfully made it to the end of the day without eating any more Easter candy. I suppose it could be gone, but I never checked so I would not be tempted. Yesterday was our first Ultimate Frisbee game of 2011. I am happy to have improved my diet and I am happy that my weight is down, but I could not be more out of shape. I have been stretching less as the HMFB guys read an article about stretching before exercise is unnecessary. So I threw the disc with Sarah for about 25 seconds and I ran in. I was aptly punished quickly thereafter. I ran up the field to play defense and already felt winded. By the time I made it to my guy, I thought my heart might check out. After my guy got the disc and I hand blocked (and probably fouled) him, I ran to the end zone. We did score and I did stay on the field but I would have probably thrown up if I had any food in me. However, not to let my body get the best of me, I stayed in. After a couple of trips up and down the field I decided I better come off, though not before getting another hand block (and probably foul, again). When I went back in after half-time and prior to leaving for Michael's soccer game, I did get my legs under me and I believe that my heart remembered that it could pump enough blood to allow for competitive sports. I was able to run and had one final defensive play (not an illegal hand block).

Ideas?

While I am not in front of the computer thinking about things I can write about, I have tons of ideas. Then, as humans are apt to do, I don't write it down so by the time I do sit down, I've got nothing. As I was going to bed last night I thought about things I could write about that might offend someone. I suppose when I want to go off on something, I will write it in italian. Then I only have to be careful around those who can read italian. Thankfully, after almost 13 years of not using italian, I doubt whatever I do write will be legible. Goal for tomorrow: make a note in my phone when I have an idea for a subject that I can write about.

If I were to rank my biggest food weaknesses I would have to put Donuts at the top followed very closely by candy from Easter 2011. I did so well all day and then I failed miserably when I got home. I spent my evening "watching" (thanks for nothing CONCACAF TV) Real Salt Lake lose to Monterrey in the CONCACAF final. As with all sports at this stage in my life, I am over it.

April 26th, 2011- Off the wagon

My family and I returned from Panguitch or Penguin, depending on who you ask. The trip was brief and we were safe and all went pretty well. I have aspirations to write daily, with exceptions for when I am in some tiny town in Southern Utah without an internet connection. The McMahan's made us breakfast this morning and it has become abundantly clear that once I eat a carb, I eat a lot of carbs. The pancakes were delicious as was the giant Mr. Pibb when I got tired driving as was the candy I ate this evening. I am back on tomorrow. I had lost about 15 pounds eating a low carb diet and I am planning on continuing the diet for the time being while maitaining a healthy weight of 185 pounds. My next step is to start exercising. I have wanted to do some sprints and lift a few weights here and there. I also would like to start waking up earlier. Last week I got up by 6:30 each morning and will begin that tomorrow as well. I notice that when I am on low-carb I wake up rather easily. I went out and sprinted with Michael and Erica this evening. I sure love those little buddies and the woman who bore them. There are certainly folks out there that need a lot of friends and a large social circle. I need my wife and kids. Maybe that is a subject for a post down the road.

I am going to start writing entries in my blog that may include but are not limited to goals, ideas, thoughts and theories that I expect very few people will find interesting. I am doing this for me, mostly, but on the off chance that I get a follower, and I start receiving add revenue, I will be ok with that too.