So I’m writing this post in an effort to get my butt in gear.  I’m running my first triathlon ever in two weeks (April 11th to be exact).  I ran long distance in High School and haven’t really done much since.  Luckily I have my grandfathers metabolism.  So I’m not really overweight, but I’m definitely not in shape.

So to get myself motivated to be more healthy and be able to be around to be grandfather myself some day, I decided I needed something to motivate myself to work out.  So when several friends announced a few months ago that they were deciding to run a triathlon, I decided to sign up.  I determined that the competition and the distance wold require me to work out.

Now the past several months have been the most active in recent years.  From running long distance in high school, I have a natural level of conditioning built in already.   But I haven’t been training as much as I need to be for this triathlon.  For example, the total amount of training I did for last week was running 4 miles.  I say this as a sort of confession and hope for accountability and motivation.

So with two weeks left before the tri, I’m throwing out a life line.  What suggestions do you guys have for me?  Have you been in this situation before?  Any tips from you athletes out there?  What goals should I set for the next two weeks?  Should wear business socks and put tassels on my handlebars?  Does my swimming suit make me look fat?

As you know, we moved into our house back in Dec and have to make a lot of renovations. So Shannon and I  took this week off to try and get everything done. Here is our to do list for the week.

- turn half wall into full wall in master bedroom (frame, drywall, and mud)
- tear down fake brick chimney
- paint living room
- paint bedroom
- finish paint cabinets
- finish painting guest bath
- install bucket lights in kitchen

Shannon and I are trying to get this all done by Wednesday, because we head out on Thursday for our 5 year anniversary. Hopefully I won’t die by then.  My hands hurt so bad right now from swinging a sledge hammer yesterday.  It’s a lot of fun swinging a sledge hammer while you’re doing it, but you have a price to pay the next day for all the fun.

We finally closed on our new house last Thursday and moved in on Saturday. I wish I could say things have been all sunshine and lollipops, but I can’t. This is the ninth time Shannon and I have moved since we’ve known each other. I have to say in general moving sucks.

We closed a week later than we planned. So we only had 48 hours to try to get the house ready for move in.
The walls are half painted (literally the top half).
The paint sprayer caused more of a mess than help (user error).
Due to a busy schedule, we didn’t have the house completely packed when friends showed up to move us.
Due to a misscommunication, we don’t have the gas hooked up. So we don’t have a heater or hot water or a way to cook food or a way to clean Asa’s bottles.
All our stuff is in boxes and we can’t unpack until we’re done painting.
We don’t have Internet (so I’m writting this on my phone).
We don’t have cable (I would have to find the reciever anyways).
And Shannon and I think we’re coming down with a cold.
MOVING SUCKS!

But God is better than all this. He has constantly provided for us throughout this move and given us peace beyond what we could have imagine.

He provided friends to help us move (close to like 20+ people).
He provided heat for our house (wood burning stove and a stack of wood).
He provided the refrigerator of my wive’s dreams in our price range (clearance baby!).
He has provided strength and rest for me as I’ve been doing 20 hour days.
He has provided grace and forgiveness for me as I’ve been cranky and a jerk.
He has provided food.
He has provided us with a new place to call home.
He has provided us a new neighborhood to minister in.
He has provided.

Moving might suck, but God is good.

So I’m following Brook’s footsteps and taking over a month to do this.  I was tagged…the idea is this:

1. Post these rules on your blog
2. Write 6 random things about yourself.
3. Tag 6 people at the end of you post
4. If you tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag.

So here I go….

1. I can wiggle my ears…independently.  I can wiggle just my right ear, or I can wiggle just my left ear.  This is what happens when you have no life.
2. I had a dog named Vern when I was growing up.  It was so dumb that it would run into the fence when you would call it from the other side….needless to say this would happen often.
3. In Jr. High I was the stinky kid.  I hit puberty and no one really told me that I needed to take a bath more than once a week.  I’ve gotten better though.
4. I was a die hard anti-Apple until about 2 years ago.  I saw the errors of my ways and converted to the one true computer…and I’ll never go back.
5. I have a tattoo on my back of a cross with tribal print behind it.  I would get two sleeves too if UPS and my wife would let me.
6. I’m my own uncle….yep…try to figure that one out.  Just so you know…there was no incest involved and everything was legal.

So there you go….now here are my six.

Shannon, Dustin, Brad, CJ, Clayton, and BK

We took this one last week after Asa got done with a bath.  He’s slowly getting better at being on his stomach.

He is a total rock star!

Asa turned three months old this last thursday.  The boy is really starting to grow fast.  He has already doubled his birth weight and is over 12 lbs.  All his clothes were starting to get tight on him.  So, we had to pull out all of his 3-6 month clothes that we had stored for just this day.

I can’t remember if we bought this Rock Star outfit for him or not, but we just had to share the picture with everyone.

He is really starting to show his personality.  He is a morning person (unfortunatly for mom and dad).  Afte we feed him in the morning he loves to smile and play.  Most morning he actually greats me with a smile as I come into his nursery.  Oh and he is sleeping through the night now.  Every now and then we’ll have to change his diaper at 4 am, but that’s about it.

Asa practicing for his graduation pictures.

He isn’t enjoying tummy time to much, but we keep working with him.  He does love his Bumbo though.  For those of you that don’t know a Bumbo is a special chair that lets pre-sitters be able to sit up.  He’ll sit in his for hours if you let him.

He is also starting to eat a lot more.  The boy puts down 6 oz easily every feeding.  Mom and Dad didn’t realize if for about a week, but he was really fussy because we hadn’t been feeding him enough (you couldn’t tell from all the baby chub he has).  But we uped his formula and the boy is happy now.

Well that is just about it for now.  We’ll try to keep this site updated as much as possible.  Hope you enjoy.

Today Shannon and I went to the doctor to have Shannon’s check up for the month of January. Before I tell you about the appointment, I must say that I love our Nurses Midwife. She has this quirky Doogie Howser feel about her. You can also tell that she really loves what she does. I just love people who are passionate about what they do (she seems as excited about finding out the baby’s gender as we are). She is also so nice about listening to all of Shannon’s and my questions and answering them. She’s just top notch.Now back to the baby. Shannon is currently in her 19th week. The baby is doing fine and growing at a normal rate. We got to hear his or her heart beat and it’s beating strong. We have an appointment to get an ultrasound on the 25th (we’re trying to get it scheduled earlier). We should be able to find out the baby’s gender at this time.Don’t give me the whole “Don’t you want to be surprised?!” bit. Here’s the deal. We don’t know what the baby is right now. So at any point that we find out the gender of the baby next week or in June, it will then be a surprise.Incase you are wondering, Shannon really thinks that it is a girl. We’ve kinda got our hearts set on it being a girl now because of that. But if we have a boy, I think we’ll be just as happy. As long as it’s not a donkey, I’m ok.