Weighter Matters

I've posted about reaching my weight goal (215 lbs for a month), but in the month or so since then, the lbs. have started inching up again (and my waist has begun to centimeter out again). Partly this was because of a sever foot injury (requiring my first X-rays!) preventing me from running for awhile, but mostly it was just not having a goal.



It was hard thinking of another sufficiently motivating goal, the Wii was a really good one (even if I never have time to play) and I struggled to come up with something else that would entice me to drop another 20-25 lbs or so (5-10 of those being ones I had already lost this year). Then I had it. I'm going to run a marathon!



I know, suffering both mind and body for 4-6 hours doesn't sound like much of a reward for getting in shape, especially when compared to a Wii (note how there's no "Wii Marathon" game), but I know myself and a little reverse psychology* is just what I need right now. The other thing I need is support. I have my eye on the Logan Marathon in September which does give much time for dilly-dallying as they say. If I tell a lot of people, especially in writing, like now, then that'll help motivate me, because you all can keep me honest. So if you chat with me before September, ask how the training's going. The first two weeks have been impressive, although my 10 mile run yesterday was more of a shuffle, still I'm getting faster and more consistent in my running.



*I'm also using some regular old psychology to buy myself some books on Amazon a certain running sub-goals.

Surprised by surprise

There's one thing you should know about my dear sweet wonderful wife. She cannot, for the life of her, pull of a surprise. She's horrible at being sneaky and inevitably drops hints and teases that give things away. Contrast this with my family growing up. One summer day my mom and aunt tell me and my brothers "Let's go to the beach." We all piled in the car, but two hours later we were still on the highway... "Oh, we're going to a different beach than usual," they said (we could reach the beach in an hour and a half from our house normally).



About halfway down the New Jersey Turnpike, they put in a tape that had been put together by a DJ my Aunt knew. It played songs specially dedicated to the family (like "Put Me in Coach" for Seth) and announced the weather plan for Florida... we were going to Disney for two weeks.*



Anyway... Back to Nicole. While I delight in surprising her, she's really more of a "open the presents when you get them and sneak a peak into the kitchen when I'm making a special meal" kind of girl.



So when she surprised me on Wednesday... I was really surprised. Without me suspecting a single thing, she organized a large (and well attended) party to celebrate my thesis defense. We had planned on spending a few hours together that night since she would be out of town for the next four days and I let her plan the date. She brought me to BYU's Museum of Art, but after 10 minutes it closed (there were some really interesting pieces on display too, including the I-Spy guy's stuff). Nicole was believably disappointed that her plan was cut short and we went home to regroup. That's when over a dozen of my friends shouted surprise. In the 15 minutes or so that we had been gone, they had put up decorations, got a stack of pizzas, and set up a chocolate fondue.



So props to Nicole, for a great party and an amazingly successful surprise. While this was a real accomplishment for her (keeping a secret), I don't think it's let to a permanent change. As she put it later, "Lying is hard!"



*Now mine is also a family of planning, another trip we took had weekly family planning meetings for a year with us kids managing the "Vacation Fund" and having a vote as to hotels and destinations.

Masters of the University

Unfortunately, this post is not about He-Man and his Masters of the Universe. However, I did recently hear a fantastic orchestral version of the He-Man and She-Ra themes on youtube that no 80's child should go without watching: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFM95w4CXT0

No, this post is to announce the completion of my first two years of Grad school through the successful defense of my thesis. My mentor said "That was the least scathed I've ever seen anyone get through the defense." This despite one of the committee members threatening to bring barbecue sauce to roast me...

If it weren't for Matthew 10:10* I bet M.S.'s would insist on being called Master like PhD's insist on being called Doctor.

*My birthday's actually on 10/10... I'm sure there's a message in there for me somewhere, but who knows what it could be...

Nicole's Prom

Moving away from home at 16 Nicole never got the opportunity to goto Prom. Hearing her talk about the kinds of kids in her high school, that was probably a good thing. Anyway, when the opportunity to attend a Charity Dinner Gala thing came up, she went all out. She had her nails done, colored her hair, bought a dress, and got "all gussied up." We had a good time and even got some pictures:

Wii Weight!

So, last year, despite diet attempts, my weight was topping out at 250-260. I have pictures, but I won't post them. You're welcome. After Thanksgiving I decided to set a goal and get a big prize if I obtained it. The conditions were that I had to get to 215 lbs and stay there for at least a month. Long story short, I did it! Here's a picture of me, sucking it in to symbolically show how much I'd lost, about to open my prize... what could it be???

My sweetie made a big deal of my accomplishment and threw a party with all of my balloon friends shown above (it was an inpromptu party and my real live friends weren't able to make it, so we named the balloons after them, see if you can identify yours!). Nicole even got me candles and put them on (low-fat) ice-cream (see below). For those of you who are terribly observant, you might ask if they ran out of 2's at the store. The answer's "no" we just usually only pay attention to the last two digits of my weight and Nicole's used to her own weight range being in the hundreds... Bless her heart.

Look! It's a Wii! My next goal is to finish my thesis so I can have time to actually play it!

Safe and Smart Family!

Seth's back from Ghana! He brought us a cool statue that wel'll have to post soon. We had fun the day he got back, despite him being really really really really sick still (and over a week later, he's still real sick). But sick or not, we got him back and he's still alive, although given that someone in Africa suggested he should go intern in Iraq, we'll see how true that is at the end of the summer. With that possible (him going to Iraq) and his twin brother wanting to buy a (real) sports car, my Mom called me and said I was the family's last hope to be safe and smart and to just stay in school and work on my degree. For that I have to say "Mission Accomplished" in the same sense as the former administration used the term: I have, just this weekend, finished the substantive work on my thesis!!! Now's it just off to my chair and my committee and all get a (nother) degree! I've allready done my course work for both my MS and PhD so the next two years of school should be must less intense.

Nicole's Mother's Day

Nicole had to work on Mother's Day, so she got her Breakfast in bed the next day. Out of respect for her we are displaying a picture that does not include a head shot at 5 am.

Note the heart-shaped toast... that's love!

Inspiration-- What about now

Don't bother with feeling guilty. Let this inspire you to make a difference for someone today. I am inspired by someone who I know (I won't mention names. She tends to get embarassed.) who wants to "adopt" my sister and my best friend as nieces so she can be a contribution and make a difference in thier lives. What a way to reach out! I love it!! 

What about now?

Dueling Dogs, J-Dawgs, and Seth

My father came up last weekend and brought his little black lab. I say little because she's less than half the size of Gabe. I had always considered her a bigger dog, especially compared to mutts like Teddy (I'm sure there's a picture of him in some older post, but he's smaller than our cat). I guess I'll need to redefine "big dog." They got along great and here's a shot of them sharing a chew toy. We tried to video tape it, but only got 10 minutes of four adults trying to encourage them to play, which, of course, they did, as soon as we turned off the recorder.

Nicole and I also took our father's to J-dawg's -- a must see for anyone passing through Provo. Just a few feet off campus (that's a faculty parking lot behind them), they sell the yummiest Polish hot dogs. For a witness, this shot shows a wrap around line of dozens of people standing in line for to get a hot dog from a shack. There's several other (less crowded) restaurants right outside this shot...

These are grins of anticipation...

With stomachs full, we were ready to send off my brother, Seth. Seth is going to Ghana for two weeks to do some kind of thing with his Public Managment Major. This is him leaving our house. It was the last I've seen of him... *

*He has since emailed and said that he's loving it.

Still Alive

I recently ran the Provo City Half-marathon.

It was less than 30 degrees the entire time.

It snowed.

It's suppose to be Spring. The two days before were balmy, shorts wheather, but for the first time in my life, I ran without taking off my windbreaker/warm-up thingie (thus concealing the Awesome number I was assigned (123).

I hadn't really gone more than 4 or 5 miles in any of my preps, and that was in the basement, on my treadmill, watching TV shows.

It (nearly) killed me, but I tried to but on a good show for the camera. It almost looks like I'm having a good time in this shot. It almost looks like I'm running too, but niether was strictly true...