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.