I'm lazy!

It has been quite a while since I've had any REAL training plan that I followed. I did a 10k this spring but I just went out there an winged it.

Even though I've been doing a lot of work around the house and haven't just totally turned into a vegetable. I think I've watched less than 10 hours of TV in the past 2 months.

We have been in our new house for just under a month and with all the crazy things going on we've managed to find a kind of groove to make things work. One thing I cannot seem to get a handle on is training for something. Every night I see my dog looking at me with anticipation about our run and I cringe because I don't want to run. Sometimes I force myself to go out there and just get it over with and always I feel great afterward and wish I hadn't waited until so late because I might run longer. I can't get up earlier than 5am and really struggle to get up before 6am. It could be because I'm going to bed sometimes after midnight working on things around the house. I don't want to repeat my last house, where I said one day we'll do ______ and then we did that one thing to prepare to move. I can't remember the last time I've swam and I am afraid my bike has rusted in place.

So blog, and the two people reading it, Monday, June 28th starts an exercise routine. I will start running, riding or swimming every night. At lunch, I will no longer waste my time walking around Home Depot, Lowes, HEB or Best Buy. Instead, I will go to the gym and lift weights or run or ride the stationary. At night, after all the needs to be done is done, I will go to bed before 10pm. This will allow me to get up early enough to go swim. And since I work best when I have a goal, Austin Triathlon you are on my calendar.

It's been a while!

So many things have transpired since my last blog posting. Some I don't really want to talk about because they're still painful and I still have some work to do on those feelings.

One very big thing is that we've moved into our new house. We've been there almost one month now and I really like it. There are things I definitely miss about our old house but the new house is better for so many reasons that it is really hard to even try to compare them.

I've been working really hard to fix all the little things that houses need fixing. Patching singles the wind had lifted, chaulking joints, and holes on the side of the house. Fixing the garage door that made terrible screeching noises as it moved (amazing what some lubrication can fix.) I've built my raised bed garden and will be transplanting my plants in the next day or so. There are still several things that need to be done. One of the biggest is having a garage sale. We really need to get rid of some things. For now we've piled them in the garage but hopefully once my wife is done with a camp she runs we'll have a garage sale and give the rest to goodwill.

In a post to come I'll detail why a house is not a GOOD investment like everyone says, and it won't be just opinion it will be with math.

Lastly, I discovered something great that I think should revolutionize the way people do things. Yesterday on my way to work I realized my shirt was extremely wrinkled AND yesterday was my annual review!! So I stopped at HEB to see if they had something that could help and sure enough they had a Wrinkle Remover spray. Now the directions say to put the shirt on a hanger spray it and then smooth out the wrinkles with your hands. I sprayed it on me and smoothed out the wrinkles on my washboard abs and that did the trick!! All my wrinkles were gone, just like it had come out of the dryer. It was mind blowing!

I used to spend a lot of time ironing, my mother-in-law spends at least 10-15 minutes with the loudest steam iron I've ever heard ironing her close. This could save her SO much time. Unfortunately my mother-in-law would never dream of spraying something on her clothes, it's just not proper, but I'm hoping to save someone time by using this product. I ironed my clothes in the car in less than 1 minute. Amazing!!! Thanks Faultless® Wrinkle Remover!

Badass

Urban Dictionary defines badass like this:

The epitome of the American male. He radiates confidence in everything he does, whether it's ordering a drink, buying a set of wheels, or dealing with women. He's slow to anger, brutally efficient when fighting back.

The badass carves his own path. He wears, drives, drinks, watches, and listens to what he chooses, when he chooses, where he chooses, uninfluenced by fads or advertising campaigns. Badass style is understated but instantly recognizable. Like a chopped Harley or a good pair of sunglasses: simple, direct, and functional.

Yesterday, I was helping my father-in-law build a platform to protect storage items from moisture on the ground. When you're working with your hands there is a chance despite the best efforts for injury to occur. It happens to everyone who does work with their hands. Even office staff get paper cuts. However, when you're building things using tools the injuries can get a little more serious that a paper cut. My father-in-law fell victim twice to injury yesterday.

Now, I've hit my thumb with a hammer and I've gotten splinters handling wood, I've stepped on a nail and it went right into my foot, by the way I didn't bleed, it hurt. I stopped what I was doing, cursed my kicked or thrown the hammer or board or whatever I was working on. I failed at the Badass definition because I was quick to anger. Yesterday I saw how a Badass would handle that same situation.

My father-in-law shot himself with the nail gun yesterday. YOU know a construction nail gun! Luckily it wasn't in a place that would be likely to kill him, although if I had a choice I could think of several places I'd rather take a nail than where he took it. The crazy thing is he just kind of said, "huh" to which I responded in shocked fashion, "ya ight man?!" Now any person would think or expect his response to be something about the pain, but he said, "Yeah the nail hit a knot in the wood and bent out, just don't tell Terry."

I was floored, he kept working, didn't cuss, didn't stop and his biggest concern was his wife getting on to him, which she would have. I could hardly do anything because I was stunned. I like to think of myself as a badass, but I know I'm just a wanna be. My father-in-law took a nail in the finger... right under the nail. You know it hurts just when you cut your nails too short and this man took a nail from a nail gun under the finger nail. (Too many nails in that sentence)

He later said, after I asked him again if he was ok, "My daddy said shake it off" and I realized I'm not around enough men. Real men. I'm around a bunch of guys who've been left to themselves and have gotten the idea their badasses when we're not.

Home Stretch

Well today looks like it might be the day, we make an offer on a house. We found two houses that pretty much have everything we like/want in a house.

Oddly enough they are just a few houses from each other and one is literally 3 houses away from parks, pools and an elementary school. One is a foreclosure that is in great condition as far as foreclosures go. The other is a nice house and would be move-in ready. It also is in more of a cul-de-sac type street with a large green area directly in front of the houses. It has a long driveway and a nice backyard. It also has a very nice front porch. Its only draw back is that it is more expensive than we were hoping, but we aren't sacrificing anything or taking any steps backward. It is a step or two forward.

All of this is going on while we are closely following the heart surgery for a little girl in our church. I don't know what God has in store for us, and I know that an expectation of a long life and good-health is only something that has been around for less than 100 years and mostly in developed countries, but I find myself praying or almost begging that my faith not be tested like theirs. I find myself praying or pretty much begging that my children are not the way people's faith is challenged or the reason they come to believe. It brings me to tears to acknowledge that my life, they're lives are not our own and I trust in the promise of eternity. No wonder this is non-sense to people who don't believe.

KFC Double Down

I've been hearing a lot of negative press about the Double Down. You know the KFC sandwich were the bread is actually two pieces of fried chicken and between is two slices of bacon, and two slices of pepper jack cheese with some Colonel Sauce. Everyone has been pointing out how it is 540kcal and 32g of fat with 1380g of Sodium. The question always asked is why or who would ever eat one of these things!!

Before I had the kidney stone issue, I had rounded up a couple of co-workers to go try it with me. I ended up being the only one who tried it and my initial reaction was, "It isn't that bad!"

No it wasn't good, but really I was expecting it to taste disgusting, but I ate about 90% of it. Now I did feel disgustingly out of shape and fat after I ate it. In fact I had an overwhelming craving for water after eating this sandwich. I would never eat it again, especially at $4.99 for just the sandwich!! But I'm glad I tried it, and would say if you're interested you should too, it really doesn't taste that bad.

Kidney Stone

Well I have some good news! Right now, we are in the 2nd day of the option period in our contract. Contract on the HOUSE!! It was on the market exactly 1 week when we got the offer. We countered and they accepted our offer. It was a good offer and really the best case scenario for us in selling the house. The only real unexpected part was closing on May12th!! THAT IS REALLY SOON!! So we're in a hunt for a house or at least a place to live. I'm trying not to buy the egg crates before our chickens lay eggs (e.g. count your chickens before their hatched) because the inspection could always bring up something we weren't expecting, BUT we have fixed a lot of the things we knew about and we know about a few things so we're not expecting any surprises. We'll find out Saturday!!

The crazy part is we had already planned for my mom to come over and take care of the baby while we went to dinner. It happened to be good timing and we had something to celebrate. It probably would have been a great evening, except for I wasn't feeling well. I thought I might be experiencing a urinary tract infection, but as the pain grew exponentially worse the Doctor informed me it was probably a kidney stone.

I will spare you all the details, but you can ask me in person and I'll tell you but it was REALLY REALLY painful. It was one of those things that you don't understand unless you go through it, pray you don't.

The Baby's Language

For a while now Mayzie has shown that she understands a few things. If you say, "Come Here" she will crawl over to you. She understands words like, clap, wave bye bye and her name.

The past few weeks she has consistently made sounds that sound similar to words and some that don't. She says, geesh (sounds like quiche with a G sound) and sometimes she points to something and says, "geesh." We have no idea what geesh is but she says it all the time. If I walk into a room and wave, she might wave and say something that sounds like, "Hi." I've been waving and saying hi to her for months now every time I see her whether I've been gone all day or a few minutes. She does this about 6-7 out of 10 times. The rest of the time she just smiles real big and starts crawling toward me.

BUT in the last week she's really been saying something consistently that could be her first word. I'm going to let her say it 2 or 3 more time before I'm ready to call it her first word. Because like the skeptical scientist I am, I don't take anyone's word for it and I don't want to assume only to find out later I'm wrong.

She's been saying, "dadada", "bababa", etc, etc for months. But over the past several days, when I would walk by or through a room she would smile and say, "dada." I didn't really put a lot of stock into until this weekend. Every time she would see me, she would say, "dada." Being the skeptical, but admittedly bias, person I would chalk it up to, the "oh that's cute" thought. I would respond and say, "yes this is daddy" and usually get down and kiss her or pick her up for a quick hug while I worked on the house. I figured it was just a fluke, but all day Saturday and Sunday she did it, and other people made notice that she did it. Then Monday came (I was home from work) and she would see me and say, "dada" not every time but frequent enough. Tuesday, I was again home and again she would say, "dada" not every time but most of the time.

THEN... Wednesday came. I was gone all day to work. I hadn't seen her since Tuesday night. Right as I arrived home we got into the car to go to eat and that's when she saw me and with a clear look me dead in the eyes (I don't think she ever blinks) look she said, "Dada" and smiled big. I was floored.

I really don't want to be one of those parents that, "oh look at what my kid is doing." Then everyone looks and it is a stretch of the imagination to see what the parent sees. After the past 4 days, capped with last night's incident I was 99% convinced she knew both how to say, "dada" and the context in which to say it. But I still am waiting for more independent verification from some of our friends to make it official.

Either way, I'm starting to think that Dada is going to be her first word.