The Three Year Checkup

There is nothing better than only having to visit the doctor for well care visits. I have been loving the fact that Evie has been so healthy lately. It has been a great year for her. Today, it was time to visit our pediatrician one more time.

Evie was a super trooper as usual for the doctor. She was excited to see Dr. Baer and I couldn't wait to see some official numbers on how she was doing. After what seemed like a long wait, we went in for the measurements... Height, 36.5"... Weight, 29.5 lbs... A very decent set of numbers for a three year old. Not the biggest kid on the block, but far from the smallest.

Overall, she is a happy, healthy baby girl who is quickly growing into a preschooler. We'll get more into that later, but for now, enjoy the shot of the kiddo that I snagged while we were in the office.

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No Longer Two

Three years ago, today, we were blessed to have a little baby girl enter our lives. I like to think that the world is a better place because she is in it. Our baby girl just brings sunshine into any place she goes. She's not perfect, but she is happy.

Today, we celebrated her 3rd birthday with family and a few friends. It was amazing to see such a wonderful support group turn out for her today. She has been so blessed to have such wonderful grandparents, stellar friends and good people to learn from. The difference in those people will also help our girl grow into an amazing woman later in life.

For all of you that are a part of Evie's life, thank you. For those that aren't yet, we can't wait for to meet her and see what a joy our little baby is. Well, maybe not such a little girl anymore...

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I Love Sentimental Times

I love it when the wifey gets sentimental. She gets creative and comes up with all sorts of beautiful art. This was a simple doodle that she jotted out one night. It was one of those completely random things that she just did. I loved it. I doubt she even knew I took this, but I did.

It was originally done on a green stenographer notebook. I took a quick picture of it and edited it up in Fhotoroom for Windows Phone. After throwing a few fun effects on it, I came up with the image above. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

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Wasteful Society, Wasteful Coffee Place

On an otherwise normal Sunday morning, we made our normal 10:00 stop at the Monroe Starbucks. While waiting in line at the drive though, I was checking in on my Windows Phone with 4th and Mayor. I looked up to see the image above. Garbage stacked as high as you can imagine, and all of it was milk containers.

Now, I'm sure that Starbucks is an environmentally friendly company, but this image just says it all... With nearly 20,000 locations worldwide, this mound of plastic bottles would stack up high enough to reach the moon in no time at all. Perhaps the coffee giant should rethink how they get their products delivered.

This plus a few other interesting tidbits that I have learned recently have made me decide that I am done with Starbucks and their lines of products. Hopefully they will have enough people do the same and start to change their corporate behavior.

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Terrible Morning...

Today just sucked. I was up most of the night enjoying a beautiful lightning storm, woke up cranky, and arrived at work to find a fried computer. Fortunately, my Focus S was still pulling my shur-loc emails so I didn't lose much in the communication department, but I did lose a ton of data.

The things that got lost were things that just can't be replaced. Flyers, software, design work, and a billion other files and email lists are gone forever.

I'll rebuild them, slowly for the time being, but I will enjoy my new monster HP 520xt touch screen when it arrives in a week or so. For now, I'll just be grateful that the storm didn't destroy more.

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Project Chicken Coop

We were able to finish the small chicken coop today. It was great to get the area cleared and the coop in place. We moved 4 chickens in tonight and we will have to wait and see if they make it through the predator filled night.

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Recovering Nicely, But Still Behind

So my dieting drama got even worse yesterday, but at least while I was at work I was able to do a dent in the old calorie count for the day. After a 4lb gain over the weekend, which launched me back into single digits for week one, I made it through the day with very little intake. That was my first mistake. It ended up being compounded by the fact that we ended up having dinner extremely late. By the time that the burgers were done on the grill, I was starving and ended up eating 2 burgers, a handful of chips and downed about 2 cups of ice cream for dessert.

That said, somehow with only my 2 little rides back and forth to work, I am down a pound today. I need to be a bit more assertive about dinner and just go with my gut for what works. I am out of shakes at work, didn't bring a lunch and not sure what I am going to do today. I think I need to stock a 2 week supply of shakes instead of one and really try to reign in my horrible dinner habits if I am going to have any chance of making this happen.

Now, with that out of the way, it's time to get some serious gym time scheduled as well. I know that life is becoming a bit chaotic, but without that extra burn, I need to cut quite a few more calories from my intake if this is going to happen... Time for potatoes and shrimp for a few weeks I guess.

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A Great Week One, Destroyed

If any of you are following this blog daily, you'll know that I am one week in to my 30 lbs in 30 days weight loss plan. I was off to a roaring start hitting 11 lbs on Friday. Then the weekend arrived and a the destruction began.

Going into the weekend I had a brilliant 11 pound loss. Saturday was going to be tough since we were headed to a party mid-afternoon. Fortunately, I did well at the party, only splurging on chips. Dinner, was were the weekend officially fell apart. We drove out to Duvall from Bellevue to meet Steve and Jeanie who were going to be dropping off some shelving. By the time that wrapped up, we were staring 8:00 in the face and "starvation" had set in. It was a fast food night. Although my Doritos Taco was awesome, I knew it was a bad idea.

Then Sunday rolled in and the day started out bad with a late start. We made it out to the farm with only a quick stop by Starbucks for a coffee and lunch. The fact that I was up too long already made me hungrier than I should have been and I ended up with 1100 calories going in for lunch. Bad start to the day there. Then even after telling myself not to be bad when we went to Denny's with Mom and Dad for dinner, I ended up ordering another horrid meal, the Lumberjack Slam. Then to make it even worse, i got stuck in the ice cream aisle at 8:00 last night. Bad place to be when the, "I already blew the weekend" feeling hits.

I have got to get this under control if I am going to be successful with this loss. I am still at a ver strong 8 lbs for week one, but i should be at 10+ easily. I'll start plugging away again this week and try to have a better weekend next time. For now, I'll be happy, just because I have to be, with my 8 pounds and move on.

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A Year Later...

Today was the start of the 2012 Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic. Part of me really wishes that I was on it right now instead of sitting on the couch watching Phineas and Ferb, but I know it wouldn't have been the best fiscal move for us. I do miss riding though. I really should take mornings like this and head out on the bike, but I just never know if it's going to be a hurry up and go day, or one like this.

I never thought of riding as a getting in shape thing, but I did have to get in shape to ride. I'm already back to the weight I was when I rode last year, so that's a bonus. I'm also a bit stronger from the gym and feel like I have more energy. About the only piece I didn't have this year was the seat time. Which is easy enough to get.

Oh well, maybe I just need to plan a bit better and make a bit more of a schedule so I can get some of the stuff I want to do worked into the day. For now I'll just go back to the cartoons and enjoy the quiet.

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A Whine Session: Just No Me Time...

I have to admit that I am feeling selfish today. I realized that I haven't had any me time in quite a long time. I haven't done any of the activities that I like to do for one reason or another in almost a year. Even that time was more about something someone else wanted to do and I got roped into it.

I don't have the time to do the things I want. I don't have the spare funds to enjoy the activities that I love. I guess I'm just feeling a bit put out right now. I try and cover my feelings, put on a happy face, and just pretend I don't miss things, but I do.

I miss playing golf. I missing playing the drums. I miss spending hours playing Warcraft or Stronghold Crusaders. I miss going to baseball games. I miss shooting darts at the bar, even after I stopped drinking like it was going out of style. I just miss...

So there's my mini-rant for the day. Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone! We'll see you on Monday.

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30lbs in 30 Days...

Some of you may have noticed that the weight loss ticker on my page has reset. This is because I reached my 20 pound goal - step one - and have started moving towards my next big step - 50 by my birthday. This means that I am starting my aggressive 30lbs in 30 Days diet. It will be back to SlimFast and "trying really hard" to curb the late night snacking. I might have to short side some time with the wife in the evenings just to get past that hurdle, but it should be good once I'm in the swing of things.

As you can see, day one yielded a 2lb loss, so with that as my average, I'll be down 60 in 30 with no problems at all. Now if I can just get back on a schedule to get to the gym daily, I'll have this whipped in no time.

PS - If you are looking for a great App for calorie and workout tracking, I highly recommend myFitnessPal.com. It's available for all the major platforms and is online as well.

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A Perfect Day At The Zoo

Sunday we headed over to Woodland Park Zoo for the first time in a while. The weather was gorgeous, the zoo wasn't crowded and we had a wonderful afternoon wandering around looking at all the animals.

It was a pretty special day at the zoo. The Seattle Firefighters were having a special picnic at the zoo. That meant a ton of those special presentations and all the animals were wandering around their pens. It was the most enjoyable zoo trip we've had in quite a while.

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A Fruitcake Everyone Loves

There is a dessert that comes around the holidays called fruitcake. It is one of those slightly weird things that some people love, and others despise. For our god-daughter's birthday, Ara created a Pinterest special, a fruit cake.

The cake is mostly comprised of melons, but has strawberries, pineapple and a few other toppings on it. With some cookie cutter shapes, you can decorate them up quickly and easily.

Everyone loved the idea, but unfortunately, they only ate the decorations. Maybe we learned something from this one... Cut a piece of the cake out when it is presented so they get the idea, you know, to eat it.

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Happy 4th of July

Today is a good morning, but a sad one at the same time. It is good because we got to spend an amazing 4th of July with a great family. It's sad because in a few hours, that great family will be hopping a plane home to London. I have to say it's really strange having a bond of sorts with people that I've met twice, but the Temple family is just good people.

Enough about them for a few minutes and back to the 4th. We ended up making it down to the Symetra Family Fourth at Bellevue Park. Parking was a breeze and we found a great spot. Ara and Evie got to wander through playland with the bouncy houses, face painters and the big slide.  After their first run through, the Temple's arrived and the party continued.

The music was going, our picnic was perfect and the chats were even better. The night seemed to pass quickly and before we knew it, it was cold and dark and ready for the fireworks. The display was nice and the symphony played beautifully. Overall, it was a great way to celebrate the end of a trip together.

I know that there is a plan for Ara's best friend to come home in the next few years. Actually, as much as I like the idea of having that happen sooner than later, the extra time for us to get our lives going forward and to have Evie get into school should be a blessing. In 2 years, Jozy will be pushing 7 and Evie will be 5. That extra time might mean a nicer place to live, some old/new hobbies and even some changes in ourselves.

We will see though, as we never know what tomorrow will bring. Maybe a couple of years longer apart is what two best friends need to appreciate what they have even more.

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