Ford's Baptism

We had a lovely weekend with Meredith's parents, sister's family, two cousin's families, my parents, sister, godparents to Alex and Ford and friends celebrating Ford's baptism. The outfit he is wearing was originally bought in Vietnam by my mother's parents for the baptism of my mother's younger sister Louisa. I and my siblings wore it at our baptism as well as Alexander to his.

It was special having so many people there. We are truly blessed with friends and family. Our love goes to Kathy and Gary Griffin, Ford's Godparents. They gave Ford a child's book of prayers and one of bible stories. It was a successful weekend.

Sugar...Buh..buh...bah..bah..Ahh, Honey, Honey.

I've got high blood sugar. Officially (cause the letter says so) I've got diabetes. So, I'm on a blood sugar medication to reduce the tolerance level in addition to the other one to reduce the blood pressure. If I don't make the changes, then parts of my anatomy which I'm particularly fond of - feet...may wither and fall off. Or the kidneys will clog up and shut down...or the heart goes phfttt. Or inumerable other things may happen to me. Including getting hit by a truck.

Nothing else new however...I need to continue on the weight loss and excercise. I'm walking about a mile a day and would like to increase that amount. Yesterday, I cajoled Alexander into walking around the subdivision with me by telling him we're going out to fight bad jedi with out lightsabers. That worked up until the point halfway around when he started asking where the "real jedi" were.

Yesterday was also a banner day for Alex when he piped up in a restaurant with Meredith that he saw a man with only one leg. He then proceeded to laugh uproarously. Meredith had to calm him down and explain that sometimes people have bad accidents or have gotten hurt somehow to only have one leg.

If you were three and you first saw someone hopping around with one leg and a walker wouldn't you think they looked funny? Anyway, Meredith handled it fantastic. Alexander really does have a sympathetic ear for people when he understands what's going on.

Weight Loss and Life

I'm on the Weight Watchers Flex Plan diet with Meredith helping me out. Its a lot easier tracking points during the day and evening when I can just do it over the computer. I don't even have to think about the calculations and I can manipulate the serving amounts with ease.

This is all precipitated by going to the doctor last Tuesday. I've been feeling rather run down - problems with occasional dizziness and blood sugar issues. At my height of weighing I was 276 lbs 2 years ago. Since then, I'm down to 260 and I need to lose the 60 extra pounds. By the charts I'm supposed to weigh something like 170 or something...but I'm not sure I could do that. If I can make it to 200 I'll be happier.

In addition to the doctor's office, I had to go get a battery of blood/sugar/fluids tested. That was last Saturday and took up my entire morning. I had to drink the orange drink and wait around for two hours then get blood drawn on a regular basis. Hopefully, I'll come in under the "Diabetes" range of the glucose test and just need to work on the lifestyle changes.

The first week hasn't been that hard. The more difficult time will be on Sunday after church with all of the snacks out...and then the following weeks as I start having cravings for Whataburgers and Mexican Food.

So far, Subway has been a friend. I can have a 6" Roast Beef sandwich with lots of veggies, no cheese and spicy mustard and a bag of Lays Baked Sour Cream and Onion Chips and a Diet Coke for $6 and only 400 calories.

Lastly, I've been scared straight with the news that one of my good friends suffered a heart attack this past weekend. He's going to recover, but it scared him and his family something awful. I can't imagine what they went through as it was happening. He's a bit older than I am, and smokes, but he has a much more relaxed viewpoint on life than I do. I have to make the changes now...or I'm putting my whole family at risk.

So, if you and I go out to lunch or dinner...encourage me to get the healthy choice. I've always needed friends to kick me in the butt on occasion to keep me moving forward.

Ford Sitting Around and Grinning

Catch Up!

This weekend was a good family weekend. It started off with Friday evening that I was able to get much of my workload done for the week so I felt like I've actually accomplished something. Second, Meredith and the boys came down to my work for lunch.

On Saturday we went to the Fort Worth Zoo, where we have memberships, and participated in a Baylor Alumni Diadeloso Event (Day of the Bear). There were door prizes and we met some very nice Baylor Alumns. We were even singled out as a "mixed marriage" of Aggie to Baylor Bear as well. Hey...I wore green and yellow for the day. The zoo was packed. There were more people visiting the zoo than I have seen in a long time. Afterwards, we went home and all of us slept for the afternoon. Alex and I are slowly watching through "The Lord of the Rings" making sure that we skip over the really scary parts.

Today we went to church and then went to the Denton Arts and Jazz Festival. It was really nice seeing several Denton friends from my time working at the city. I was even told by one of the police officers that I should apply for the Director of Planning position. He said that he felt I could do a really good job at it. I'm not so sure. I'm having a little heartburn over presenting my first divisional budget tomorrow morning as well as attempting to hire my first person solo in the coming week. Lots of little stressers that depending on how well I do, will be reflected in my performance review as a manager.

The past week has been a time of working on the house. I've repaired the hole in my ceiling that I placed (2'x3') by falling through from the attic while looking for a wayward Easter basket. Dad came over last Saturday and we repaired the hole rather well. I've also installed new florescant lighting in my garage and have planted herbs, tomatoes and okra in the garden. It seems like I'm always working at accomplishing something.

I'm thinking I may take Friday off.

Whew!

After some time off from blogging...mainly because of the vast amount of time that has been spent on Life 2.0 upgrade I've been having lately...I can sit down and write some stuff out.

Its been a little hectic with the two boys. Alexander has started showing a little of the small regressions including some bathroom problems, wanting to sleep in our bed a little more and being overly loud at times attempting to get our attention. Ford has decided that 8pm is his bedtime - thank you very much - and lets us know under no uncertain terms that he is mad if we don't hit that time. Also, car trips are not his favorite pasttime, particularly when the car is stopped.

We've had some lovely outings though. A couple of weeks ago we found out that Thomas the Tank Engine was in Grapevine pulling the passenger cars along the Cotton Belt Line. We only found out about it late in the day from the news. So we packed up and went out to see if we could find Thomas. Luckily we arrived just as they were disconnecting Thomas from the cars. We got to see them put Thomas on the turntable and park him. Later in the afternoon we went to Grapevine's Botanical Garden and playground.

Adding to the stress that Life 2.0 has created - I have been promoted at work. I'm now the Planning Official and I report to the Director of Planning and Engineering. Its a lovely raise and a ton more work, but since Meredith isn't teaching this semester...its a good upgrade.

One of my first things as the new Planning Official was to go to Texas A&M to a Sustainable Urbanism conference. We heard from James Howard Kunstler - a bit of a rabble rouser of a speaker - on the end of the oil boom in the country and the beginning of a period in gloabl history in which we need to focus more on the local habitation of our communities rather than how we will be able to focus globally.

This next week I will be setting up interviews for a new planner position and hopefully I can get someone on board that will help me with the development review items.

Life is good. Its just a little stressful.