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...