The Good, the Bad...and the Ugly......

So....Thanksgiving came and went.....Well, lets be honest here. I have had almost a week of pretty much eating whatever the heck I want! I have been bad about logging stuff, which is just bad! So, we will see what happens. I am still glad that I have joined Weight Watchers and I am glad that I joined right when the holidays have hit, otherwise I am sure I would have done a lot more damage! I have to remember that I have put this weight on over time, and in return, will take some time taking it back off.
This was the first Thanksgiving that I have actually made ALL of Thanksgiving dinner. I was up till 3am on Thanksgiving morning making homemade pies, rolls, and a fruit salad!  Went to bed around 3:30am and woke up at 6am to put the turkey in. Went back to bed around 6:30 and slept until about 8am when I was awoken to a phone call......
A little background first before I can continue on with my story:
During my first weigh in and meeting at Weight Watchers I had seen this very big young girl who had looked like she was about to cry.  I approached her and said, "Honey, do you need a hug?" She nodded her head and started to cry while I was hugging her. Meet Khendra. She is 21 years old, 5'2, and when she started (she is just a week ahead of me when I started...) she was about 420 lbs! I had given her my cell number that first meeting and told her if she ever needed someone to talk with about ANYTHING, to give me a call. She has called and text me in the past, I have kind of become a big sister of sorts.
So....back to the story. The phone rings on Thanksgiving morning and Khendra calls me at about 8am, in tears!  In a nutshell, she was interested in a guy, the guy had some other woman call Khendra, telling Khendra that it was his mom and telling Khendra that the guy had gotten into an accident. So what does my new found friend who likes a guy do?....she gets into her car, spends $50 on gas, travels about an hour each way to see this guy at the hospital. Come to find out the guy wasn't in an accident and just played a really mean trick on Khendra.  Is that rude and cruel or what?  So this poor girl calls me up to vent and I try to mend this poor girls heart!  The next thing I know, I am telling this girl how hard it is to be the age that she is in, and how having a broken heart is just part of life- to help us how to learn, grow and progress in life.  The next thing I know, I am teaching this girl how to pray and teach her the true order of prayer: Addressing Father in Heaven, thank him for things, ask him for things you may need or want, and then ending in the name of Jesus Christ. I am curious to see if she has been praying more, and I truly do hope she will learn things about herself and become strong and stick to Weight Watchers so she can gain more of her life back. I will see what happens.

Stupid Halloween!

So, last Tuesday was my first official weigh in at Weight Watchers, followed by my first meeting. It went rather well. I have lost about 8 lbs in a week! Although, the curses of being a girl....this week is turning out to be a crazy week. I thought I would go out for breakfast with Heidi at IHOP, afterwards I had gone on the computer to find out my country fried steak with eggs, hashbrowns, pancakes was a whopping 38 points! I have a daily allotment of 31 points. While I was eating my breakfast I was trying to be good by  dividing my portions into two servings so I would not be tempted in overeating. It worked out fine, I took the rest of my breakfast home and Bethany enjoyed my leftovers.
Then, I made a rookie mistake in buying Halloween candy....the chocolate kind. Bad, bad, bad idea! I weighed myself this morning and weighed a little more, but its not surprising due to "being a girl" this week.
I'm hoping I can redeem myself tomorrow by eating really clean and hoping to walk a lot with the girls tomorrow night, I really don't want to go to my next weigh in gaining weight instead of losing it.
I will keep you all posted!

About time.....

I don't think Jake and I have anybody really following this blog, not to mention I think the last update was in February, which is just awful!
If anything, I need to be held accountable so I thought I would take the time and get on here and let you know what is new.
In a short phrase....I'm getting fat again! AHhhhhh, I hate it! When Jake was deployed about 3 years ago I had joined a gym, found a personal trainer and lost 40lbs. I was looking good, feeling good, and had so much energy! Then, we moved to GA....off of two dirt roads, no gym, and visited a great Chinese buffet!  Gradually, with that recipe for success, the weight slowly but surely was coming back on.
Now, since Jake has been gone, I have vowed to go back to the gym and start working out and getting back on track. I would have the purest of intentions, but would be sidetracked so quickly.  I then started evaluating myself. I started reading a few books on nutrition and realized I am not a picky eater, I love food. I then realized that I never learned how to eat appropriately. I have always over eaten. I thought maybe I should learn some basics of learning how to eat.  After doing some research, I have decided since last Tuesday to join Weight Watchers. I didn't join lightly, I have been doing a lot of research on the topic. Well, since last Tueday I have already lost 6 lbs! I haven't worked out at all this week, just working on eating well and focusing on that this week, and you know what? I haven't felt deprived at all!

That Was a Lot Harder Then I Thought it Would Be

200 pushups with 5 Knees to Elbows on the minute every minute sure will take it out of you. Just for the record, Knees to Elbows are when you hang from the pull-up and lift your Knees up to your Elbows. Pretty simple huh? Well after about ten minutes it turned into knees to armpits. And yeah, I admit it, I had to drop to my knees after about 120 pushups. Tomorrow will be a break from Crossfit but I think I will go on a run or something.

Not Bad

I have to admit after yesterdays workout I really wanted to take it easy and have today as an off day. Then I saw the WOD and realized this was one of the first WOD's I had ever done. The first time I did this in Valdosta their was just myself and another female there. I think it took me 18 or 19 minutes, the female did it in about 5 minutes. It's a good thing I don't have much of an ego. At any rate here is the WOD for today:

SHOULDER PRESS

3,3,3,2,2,1,1,1 REPS TO WORK UP TO 1 REP MAX

THEN

"ANNIE"

50-40-30-20-10 REPS FOR TIME

DOUBLE UNDERS

SIT-UPS

A double under is jump roping and you jump high enough to have the rope go under you twice. The shoulder press was a strict press and I was able to get to 105lbs. Not bad but more then enough room for improvement. For the rest of the WOD I finished it in 14:02. Not great, but not bad. Certainly an improvement from last time. That's one of the things I love about Crossfit, I am only competing against myself.

What a Killer WOD

So the WOD today was:

SQUATS 80-40-20-40-80

KB SWINGS 40-20-10-20-40

PULL-UPS 20-10-5-10-20

FOR TIME

FIRST ROUND LOOKS LIKE: 80 SQUATS, 40 SWINGS, 20 PULL-UPS.

So I knew this was going to suck going into it and I tried coming up with every excuse not to go. It was a long day that started at 4 AM and after a crappy day at work I decided to go. Well, I blame my head cold on my 29:08 time but oh well. I did it and I finished it. Game on for tomorrow.

Finding motivation after our vacation.......

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind. Bethany being sick in the hospital, not to mention having a vacation right after that ordeal! Between snacking on hospital cafeteria food and car trip/junk food, a Vegas style buffet, a fried sandwich at Disneyland.....I am trying to get my game face on again with eating healthy and exercising, needless to say my motivation is lacking. Today I had a last meal: Chinese food and 1 chocolate chip cookie from a bakery. I'm feeling better now and I am planning on being back on the band wagon tomorrow so by Monday I will be at a 100% with my nutrition and fitness goals.


I started my weight loss journey in January and so far have lost 14 lbs. I need to lose 6 more lbs in the month of February to keep my goals in check. Hopefully, I will be able to reach those goals. We shall see.....

My WOD for Tonight

First off, when you see WOD, that stands for Workout of the Day. So tonight I will be doing the following:

FOR TIME

250 METER ROW

30 KB (KettleBell) CLEAN AND PRESS @35lbs (30 EACH ARM)

30 BOX JUMPS @24"

30 RING DIPS

30 DOUBLE UNDERS

30 OVERHEAD LUNGES @25lb PLATE

30 SIT UPS

250 METER ROW

I will post my time either tonight or tomorrow.

New Direction for my Blog

I doubt anybody even knows this Blog still exists. Since I don't do very good job of updating this anymore I am going to change it around so that this blog is more of a workout journal for both Katie and I. I think this is a good way to stay motivated and keep ourselves accountable. So if you have any questions or words of encouragement please do so.

Why I Have Been Quiet Lately

I haven't updated the blog in awhile for two reasons. The first reason is really not much has been going on. I have been living in a proverbial "Groundhog Day." I get up at 4:15 in the morning, leave the house at 4:45 to drive an hour to work and then hand out keys all day. At 4:45 in the afternoon I get out of work and drive the hour home. I try to be in bed between 8:30 and 9 and just do the same thing over and over.

The second reason I have been quiet is because I have been in the process of joining the military....again. This time I have opted to join the U.S. Army. I have been worried that something might go wrong and as such did not want to jinx anything by telling everyone I was joining.

After two years everything came together today. These last two years have been difficult. While being on Active Duty I was trying to complete my degree while going TDY for 30 days to Vegas, two weeks in Texas. I also had a 6 week long leadership school and exercises all thrown in while trying to graduate and finish my packet.

In June I made the tough decision to get out of the Air Force even though the economy was/is on a downward slope. I took a job to put food on the table and once we were settled resumed my application process. This has take a few months but this week everything came together. Monday was a Holiday so I was able to chill. On Tuesday I got up early and was at the Military Entry Processing Station (MEPS) by 6am to get a physical. Finally at 5:00pm I was home after completing the physical and finishing my packet. Only thing left was small details, you know, crossing the "T's" and dotting all the lower case "J's". Once the packet was complete a special board was scheduled for Wednesday just for me.

Today, (Wednesday), I got up and headed back to MEPS and was there at 9:30 am in suit all ready for the board. I just couldn't believe the day had actually come. Two years ago I never thought I was going to make it this far. My time in the Air Force was really helpful with board because I already was aware of proper reporting procedures and how to sit at the position of attention. The board was really friendly and asked a wide range of questions such as "Why would you get an accounting degree just to see combat?" and "What would does your wife think?" After the board I found out I scored 75/75 and came highly recommended by all three members. Talk about a relief. Afterwards, two of the board members (Captains) pulled me into an Office where we chatted and they gave some really good career advice. It was amazing to feel like I belong in their fraternity.

Tomorrow, I will go down and sign my contract. At that point I will be told when I will ship out for OCS. I will update any information as soon as I can.

I am excited for this new chapter in our lives. Everything I have done prior to now has led me to this point. From being a missionary and learning about service before self to being enlisted and understanding the vital role enlisted personnel have in the military. I feel all this has given me the experience to be a good leader. I am humbled to think that the lives of my fellow soldiers will one day rest on the decisions I make.

What's Happening?

After completly slacking off I thought I could at least give a short update on the blog. Bottom line, things have been pretty quiet. I have been working quite a bit out in Tooele and that takes up most of my time. I have to be at work at 5:45 in the morning so that requires me to leave the house at around 4:45. By the time I get home at 5:45pm I am pretty well spent. When faced with the option of spending time with the family or updating a blog I have been opting for the family.

We have also joined a Rec Center which is only 1.5 miles aways. For those who remember the St. Peters Rec Plex, this place is just like it. So we have been going swimming quite a bit. The girls love it and it always helps to burn off some extra energy at night.

Last night we went to the Greek Festival in Salt Lake City. I've been to a few, but this one was massive compared to all the others. We even splurged the 5 bucks and had valet parking. The line for the food was stupid long but we still managed to get some awesome lamb.

Hopefully I can do better about updating the blog.

Happiness

For My Sisters

Kind of an inside joke, Penny and Kitty did this routine and it was always funny. At least they thought it was funny.

Can anything else happen?

Well, it has been an eventful week. It has been the first week where I have actually felt like myself....(the past two weeks I have had bronchitis). So, just when I start to get back in the swing of things we noticed something peculiar. In our checking account we noticed an odd transaction. Jake being curious, was wondering if I had a little bit of fun and had forgotten to tell him. To make a long story short.... a man named, Ki Ki, had bought a one-way ticket from Montreal to Quebec City through Air Canada for $134. Of course, it had to happen a day before a car insurance were to come out....luckily, Geico was very nice to work with us. However, we have to wait about 10 days to get our money back, which STINKS! To make it worst, what ever little funds we have we cannot use because we are waiting for new debit cards since our info has been compromised. It's nice to know that our bank can't even show us the decency to overnight cards to us.... we have to wait 5-7 business days. Not to mention Jake at the moment is at an Urgent Care facility, taking Bethany to get a popcorn kernal out of her ear! What is with our girls and popcorn kernals? So, needless to say, I think popcorn is going to be completely banished from our house forever.

Ronaldus Magnus

On this Fourth of July I was reflecting on how great our country is and those individuals who were instrumental in its greatness. People like George Washington, John Adams, Bob Hope and of course Ronald Reagan.

For Father's Day Katie got me the Reagan Diaries and I have enjoyed reading the thoughts of Ronaldus. These were his personal feelings not a P.R. stunt. He was not writing his journal with the intent to increase his approval ratings. With that in mind here is an excerpt from his journal, this was written March 30, 1981.

"My day to address the Bldg. & Const. Trades Nat. Conf. A.F.L.-C.I.O at the Hilton Ballroom---2 P.M. Was all dressed to go & for some reason at the last. min took off my really good wrist watch and wore an older one.

Speech not riotously received--still it was successful.

Left the hotel at the usual side entrance and headed for the car--suddenly there was a burst of gun fire from the left. S.S. Agent pushed me onto the floor of the car & jumped on top. I felt a blow in my upper back that was unbelievably painful. I was sure he'd broken my rib. The car took off. I sat up on the edge of the seat almost paralyzed by pain. Then I began coughing up blood which made both of us think--yes I had a broken & it had punctured a lung. He switched orders from W.H. to Geo. Wash. U. Hosp.

By the time we arrived I was having a great trouble getting enough air. We did not know that Tim McCarthy (S.S.) had been shot in the chest, Jim Brady in the head & a policeman Tom Delahanty in the neck.

I walked into the emergency room and was hoisted onto a cart where I was stripped of my clothes. It was then we learned I'd been shot & had a bullet in my lung.

Getting shot hurts. Still my fear was growing because no matter how hard I tried to breathe it seemed I was getting less and less air. I focused on that tiled ceiling and prayed. But I realized I couldn't ask for Gods help while at the same time I felt hatred for the mixed up young man who had shot me. Isn't that the meaning of the lost sheep? We are all Gods children and therefore equally beloved by him. I began to pray for his soul and that he would find his way back to the fold.

I opened my eyes once to find Nancy there. I pray I'll never face a day when she isn't there. Of all the ways God has blessed me giving her to me is the greatest beyond anything I can ever hope to deserve.

....Whatever happens now I owe my life to God and will try to serve him in every way I can."

I feel this is a wonderful insight to Reagans true character. What made Reagan so great? I feel it was his love of God, Country and his family. He had a desire to do good and not worry about his legacy. Remember our politicians receive their authority from us, the people. We have the duty to find out if our politicians are seeking to serve our country or to satisfy their need for power.

Our country is great and will remain so as long as the government understands that our greatness is with the individual.

Are You the Gate Keeper?

I am the Key Master. At least at work anyway. I started my job on the 15th of June and shortly thereafter discovered I am the Key Master of the Tooele Army Depot. Let me explain, the Depot is a weapons storage facility which supports the entire Department of Defense. My primary duty is handling the 3,000+ keys to pretty much the entire Depot. When I am not dealing with keys I work on tracking ammunition movements and classifications. This is a fancy way of saying "Data Entry." That is my job in a nutshell. The job is not bad and I really can't complain. I must admit the transition to civilian life has been awkward. Showing up to work in blue jeans and a t-shirt is nice and I didn't even shave on Thursday and Friday and nobody said a thing. Another tidbit about the job is the pay. I must confess I was a little worried about the pay. But I figured since the Depot works 4 ten hour shifts, I could always find a side job on the weekend. Little did I know that since my position supports the entire depot I am guaranteed 30 minutes of O.T. everyday and 10.5 hours of O.T. every Friday. With the O.T. I just got myself a hefty little raise.

Overall, the job is going good. We are still trying to get settled in which has been difficult with the kids getting sick and Katie getting bronchitis (one week prior to our health insurance kicking in, Murphy sucks). On a political side note, even though we didn't have Health Insurance Katie still was able to see a Doc for a reasonable price. I thought people without health insurance were having a crisis?

From the West Coast

I have actually been in bed about to fall asleep when I will be thinking of some really funny or even inspirational thoughts. However, when I sit down to update the blog I can't think of anything from the night before and usually just post a weird video.

For this update, I will attempt to describe the events over the last few weeks.

As most people know my tenure in the Air Force has come to an end. With the end near I began looking for any line of work possible. Starting in March I applied at so many different companies ranging from Pixar to Boeing. The first call I recieved was around the middle of April from the Tooele Army Depot. We did a phone interview (that I did not feel good about until after they called me back to offer me more details on the position) and shortly thereafter I recieved a tentative offer. The tentaive offer was based on a drug screen, physical and security. Since I already have a security clearance that part went smoothly. The physical however, was a pain. Not because of any medical issues, but because I was already on terminal leave (paid time off for those of you in Rio Linda). The medical clinic on base was giving me the run around, local docs were being stupid and trying to set me up as a "new patient" even though all I needed was a physical. To make a long story short, I managed to get into a canceled appointment on base and the Doc signed off on the 15 pages of forms I had recieved.

I faxed the physical (which included the drug screen) off to Tooele,UT then began the process of moving. By the end of May the movers had loaded the truck and on May 29th we left in two cars, one of which was pulling a trailer, to drive the 2100 miles from Southern Georgia to Tooele,UT.

I had the trip planned out, if we could average 12 hour days we could have done the trip in 3 days and 2 nights. The girls had different plans. After 4 days and 3 nights we pulled into my mom's in Tooele.

Once arriving we went to check out our house and assess the amount of cleanup and repairs required before moving in. The house needed a little TLC and not to mention some plumbing work. The plumbing needed to be completed prior to moving in and finally on Thursday the plumbers came out and most importantly the internet got hooked up. With the house ready, we cleaned out of my Moms on Friday morning and last night we spent our first night in Bountiful, UT.

Which brings me back to the job. After faxing all my stuff off I hadn't heard from the HR guy. I'm beginning to wonder if I still even had a job. Finally, last Tuesday I get a call from the guy informing me the Doc in Georgia didn't sign in all the required places and they did not want to medically clear me. Luckily, since I was here I was able to go see the Doctor at the Depot and he cleared me. I left the clinic, called the guy and got a start date of Monday. I'm excited about this job especially since they work 4 ten hour shifts. Every week is a three day weekend. What exactly I'll be doing I am not to certain, I know that I will be tracking munitions among my responsabilities

That kind of sums up what I have been doing for the last little while and why I hadn't posted. We are now just trying to unpack and work on the yard while adjusting to life in Utah. I will be certain to update on how the job goes.

Farewell Georgia

After spending 6 years in the South we are heading West in about 30 minutes. Having been planning on leaving for the last couple of days we were delayed waiting for a piece of mail that never came. So now we are loading the kids up and getting ready to make the 2100 mile trek. I will keep everyone updated of our progress just as soon as I can. This is Georgia, signing off.

Enjoy....or not

Two Little Bears

One just has to love the imagination of children. Whether the imagination leads to some level of household property destruction or pretending to be a bear, kids never will let you down. Last night we had a little "Wild Thursday" in which we just played and wrestled around. The girls ended up putting on a towel thingy with a bears head and pretended to be a bear while chasing me around. Bethany was a doll, when she had the bear thing on Katie and I called for Bethany (as if we did not know where she was), Bethany then removed the bear head and matter of fact stated "It's me Mama!"

I guess "Wild Thursday" worked because after the kids calmed down and got their PJ's on Bethany sat down on the love seat and just passed out.