This made the weekend all better for me: "Hoyas Climb Out of Hole, Hammer Heels in OT" :-)

Don't know if I'll ever get over Roy skipping town on us.

Well, I'm heartbroken tonight. I sat down to watch my beloved Jayhawks silence the critics (at least around here) who kept saying they would find their end with UCLA. I wound up fast-forwarding through most of the second half (thankfully with TiVo I didn't have to sit through the entire game gut-wrenched) and turned the game off altogether with a little more than 3 minutes left to go and the point margin with UCLA up by 8.

I didn't know if they had it in them to pull it off and dig themselves out of the hole. I knew they were talented enough. I just couldn't sit through it. Thursday night's game was too intense as it was.

Continue reading "The Run is Over" »

Well, the week flew by quick with Lisa & the boys here. I think everyone had a great time. I don't feel like I got to see everyone near as much as I would have liked since I couldn't take any time off from work while they were here. The kids (Josiah, Micah & Emerie) definitely had a great time with their cousins. We took a lot of pictures which I'm still hoping to get up on our Flickr site soon (I'm a few months behind as it is, so I'll have to get some other photos up first).

The left after lunch today & are on their way to Arkansas, where they'll spend the night. Our kids are just hanging out now. Emerie watched some cartoons. Josiah played quietly on the computer. Micah & I built some stuff with his K'Nex sets. I could tell he was a little down because of his cousins leaving.

Things don't slow down too much, as we have soccer practice in a couple of hours, then we're off to a friends house for the evening. Micah is attending a sleepover for one of his friend's birthdays and we're going to spend some time with his parents/our friends.

Watching the NCAA Tournament when you're team is already out is a heartbreak, but much easier to take, in my opinion. I bet it took be 20-30 minutes for my heart to slow down after the Jayhawks beat Southern Illinois to advance to the Elite Eight last night!

We were forced to take in the Texas A&M vs. Memphis game since it was on at the same time. So, while my trusty TiVo was recording that game for me, I was sitting in our front room upstairs, laptop in front of me, watching the KU game on the Internet. You gotta' love technology! Thanks to the NCAA & CBS for broadcasting all of the game over the net for free as well!

Stressful, but thankful that we made it through. A little confident, as well, because I know that KU can play with anybody that is left after showing the grit & fortitude to win last night.

Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk! UCLA is next!

It's Friday again! I have to say that this week felt more difficult than usual to keep on task with my weight loss. With Lisa & the boys being here we were less strict with what we ate - not that we were eating incredibly unhealthy food, or anything, just that we weren't fixing our normal "this is a lowfat meal that I know how many points it's worth" kind of stuff.

To compensate I worked out everyday at the Y except for yesterday. By the time Thursday rolled around I felt pretty exhausted with the prospect of heading over to the Y again during lunch and my tired legs (from running on the treadmill) didn't seem to be too excited as well. So, I took a day off from working out (which was good since I had a lunch meeting I had forgotten about anyhow). The boys have soccer practice at the Y tonight, so I'll probably do a lighter workout as we have somewhere to go right after practices.

Continue reading "Weigh-In Time" »

This has been a great week thus far. Lisa (my big sis) and her boys arrived Monday afternoon to spend their spring break week with us. Our kids have been counting down the days to when their cousins arrived and we've had a great time already with still two complete days ahead (which was a good consolation to Emerie when she went to bed wanting to know when 'tomorrow' would be here).

We had been doing some yard work over the weekend, so we had a good stockpile of sticks & leaves to build a campfire with. Our neighbor had also cut down his probably 300+ yr old beech tree down the week before (it's been slowly dying) - so we had plenty of wood to build with as well. We built a fire & roasted hot dogs & s'mores on Monday. It was supposed to rain today, but we were pleasantly surprised that the weather was pretty mild & overcast, but with little to no rain. The girls (Andrea, Lisa, and, I suppose, Emerie as well) & the (rest of the) kids took advantage and spent some time playing at a local park before stopping by Dairy Queen for some ice cream treats.

We've been snapping some good pictures that I hope to get posted on our Flickr page before the week ends.

PS - We had fun watching American Idol with Lisa tonight (her first time). Blogged about it on my Gladeville blog here if you want to read: American Idol Newbie & Elliott's New CD

My sister and her boys are in town visiting this week for spring break. We've literally been counting down the days for months until they got here (especially our kids). It's been a lot of fun!

One thing we did tonight after the kids went to bed was to sit down for our weekly dose of American Idol. My sister had actually never seen the show, so it was fun to watch it with her for the first time & a little insightful. We had to set up each singer in the competition so she would know a little history of who they were, how they were doing, how much we hate Sanjaya, etc.

It's interesting to hear someone's take on performances when they don't have any attachment to any of the competitors. Melinda did a great job, as usual, but there were others of our favorites who didn't have a stellar night, necessarily. I found myself wanting to defend them, "They're usually a lot better than this," "It must have been the song," etc.

Reminds me how much American Idol really is so much more than a singing competition. You get attached so your favorites and I find myself voting for some of them (like Chris tonight) who don't have as good of a week just because I want them to be around another week.

On a side, but related, note - Elliott Yamin released his new self-titled debut CD today. I've had a chance to listen to several of the tracks & I'm really liking it! I can't remember the last time I bought an R&B album, but I may have to get this one. Andrea & I are definitely Elliott fans :-) AOL has the entire CD streaming from there site here if you want to take a listen: Elliott Yamin - Listen to the CD.

I'm going on record... we will win our first round game tonight. :-)

It's really interesting. I'm running three separate pools for March Madness: one for LifeWay (about 36 people involved), one for up/rooted (16 people involved), and one for our friends & family (24 people involved). Overwhelmingly, people in our friends/family pool picked Kansas to win it all. People around here averaged them winning a couple of games & getting beat, at least by UCLA - and they picked Florida by & large to win it all again.

Here's a little bit to get you in the mood...

Rock Chalk Chant:


Download It Here (1.08mb MP3)


ESPN Bracketology KU Reel:

Lisa & the boys are coming to visit for their spring break next week! The kids are so excited! Josiah emailed his cousins last night (his first email). They've been counting down the days!

Weigh-in day again! I like weighing in at the end of the week for two reasons:

1. I get busy throughout the first part of each week. By weighing in at the end of the week it kind of 'sneaks up' on me. When you're losing weight pretty much each week this is exciting!
2. I like having the weekend ahead to start the week. The way Weight Watchers works, you have a certain amount of 'points' (found by using calories, fat grams & dietary fiber) you have to eat each day. You also get an extra 'bank' of points that you can use to go over your daily allotment - useful when you want to have dinner out on a weekend night.

Okay, blah blah blah - the weigh-in...

Continue reading "Weigh-In Time" »

The brackets have been announced and the NCAA Tourney is right around the corner! We're hosting an online up/rooted picks pool for the tournament. Join in the fun, even if you don't know much about basketball! Every year there are one or two people who do really well who did nothing more than make their picks based on uniform color, which mascot they liked better, etc.!

Hop over to MarchManiac.com & click on the "up/rooted Pool" tab to begin! The entry form will be available until game time on Thursday (approx. 11am). Then, come back to the site throughout the tournament to see how you are doing!

The brackets have been announced, my beloved Jayhawks have been awarded a #1 seed & the Tourney is now right around the corner! Could it get any better than this? I guess if KU wins it all, it could - they have to actually start by making it out of the first round, though :-)

We want you to be a part of our Friends/Family online pick pool! Head over to MarchManiac.com and select the "Family & Friends Pool" tab at the top. You have until game time on Thursday to make your picks (approx. 11am).

Go Jayhawks!

Just an update on my weight loss progress. I weighed in last Friday. Doesn't sound too complicated, but we actually replaced our scales and things were off for some reason. We weighed on both the old & new and they gave different read-outs (hence the reason we were replacing the old one).

Anyhow - my old scale weighed me at 200 lbs. The new one had me at 201, I think. So, I'm going with the new one, but I'm going to adjust where I started from as it looks like the old scale was off a little. That puts me at 210 as my start weight, which means I've lost 9 lbs so far.

I went ahead & dropped to the next point range within Weight Watchers to hopefully 'kick-start' the next week. I plan on weighing in again on Friday.

It's almost here... I can feel it creeping up in the bones... My heart is beginning to race a little faster... It's... It's...

Continue reading "Foaming at the Mouth" »

Okay, so I'm sitting here looking at my schedule for the week & it includes two lunch meetings. Not a big deal (or extremely rare) - but it does present a challenge for me. Ever since I began watching what I eat it seems like there have been more ample opportunities to 'cheat' here and there in my efforts. Now I'm sure it is nothing out of the ordinary - very similar, I'm sure, to the fact that when you buy a new car (or new 'used' car) you all of a sudden begin recognizing the same make/model of that car all around you.

So I'm sitting here trying to figure out how to keep within my WW points ranges while taking in two lunch meetings. And it's not like restaurants make it extremely easy to figure out how healthy their food is (apart from a little symbol next to some menu items that are supposed to alert you that those items are health-ier than their counterparts - which really doesn't tell you a whole lot since their neighbors on the menu might be really bad for you).

So I guess I'll grab a salad or two, drink water & hope it doesn't break my points for the week. We'll see come Friday...

Andrea & I have begun Weight Watchers again. It seems like everytime WW works great... I lose a lot of weight, feel healthier & better about myself, and then I don't pay attention & put most of it back on. I know - "you guys don't need to lose any weight" - isn't that what every except your own mind always says? :-)

So, I thought I'd check in here every week or so. It would be good for me to have a quick place to look back & be encouraged at the progress.

So, here goes [gulp]...

Continue reading "Weigh-In Time" »

There's nothing like sleeping in a little, putting off a shower until later in the day, catching up on some news, listening to some music & playing with your kids. Of course sleeping in for me would be anytime after 7am because of my normal 5am wake time during the week :-)

I don't take these times for granted any longer. Last fall was so crazy schedule-wise that I'm a little skiddish when it comes to commiting our time to anything right now. I think at one point last year we only had perhaps two nights free out of the week. Between dual soccer practices, soccer games, Community Group, kids choir, & Wednesday night kids programs - we were stretched pretty thin.

That changed when winter hit.

Continue reading "Lazy Saturday Morning" »