As Seen on TV

We all see those "as seen on TV" products. Some of them work and most do not. I do find myself being sucked into those commercials and just wonder how I ever lived without those products. We have a shelf full of those products that we just could not live without. Most of them have never been used for the first time. It's hard to believe that we just keep getting taken time and time again. I am proud to say that we have not been "taken" for a long time. I do however like some of the items that we have purchased over the years. One being the moving men. It is the frisbee with padding that you put under furniture to move them with ease. I have to admit that it does make moving your furniture much easier. Now if I could just figure out how to use that juicer or potato pealer to move furniture I would be in business.

So far we do not have to work this weekend. I really hope that it stays that way. If we do not have to work I plan on sleeping in on Saturday. For those of you who truly know me, it means I'll get up at 6am and not 5am. I'm not sure why I still do this after all these years, but my internal clock has never figured out how to figure in a weekend or a day off. No matter what time I end up getting up I'm sure I'll find some adventure to get into. My last weekend off I ened up painting the hallway. I'm sure I'll have something interesting to report this weekend :)

Blessing till I post again.

Vacation and CD update

I thought of a few things that I wanted to blog about tonight, but like most times I have forgot what they were.

I did have some nice thoughts today while I was at Kroger's this evening. The lady who checked me out was talking about vacations and how many places she has been and how beautiful they all were. I started thinking about the "final" vacation. You know when we finally get home to our great reward. Have you ever thought about what Heaven will be like? I heard someone say to imagine Heaven as pretty as you can and I can promise you that it will be even better than that. WOW. I really enjoy living here on earth and I don't want anyone to think that I want to die right now, but I do get excited to think about living in Heaven. I like to think of me laying next to a crystal river feeling a cool breeze hitting my face and admiring the flowers that are colors that we have never seen. And I'll be able to tell what colors are what without someone having to tell me what they are. Yes for those who don't know I am color blind, but it's not extreme. But thank God I married a woman who is not color blind.

I have not forgot about the CD project that I will be doing soon. I have not purchased the tracks for the CD yet. I have found a few that I like and I'm still deciding on what songs I want to do. I'm trying to stay away from all the standard hymns. I love the old hymns but I want to try to stick with some "newer" favorites of mine and my family. I know for sure that I will be doing Surely the presence of the lord is in this place. I will do that one because my wife really likes that song. (so do I).

Blessings till I post again.

The overtime blues

Just when I thought the over time was finished.... I'm working 8 hours Saturday and 6 Hours Sunday. Hopefully this will be the last of it. But in our line of business who knows.

Not really much going on tonight. I think of things throughout the day that I want to blog about. By the time I finally sit down to blog I forget what it is that I wanted to blog about.

This will be my shortest post yet.

Blessings till I post again.

Sleep Over

Tonight my nephew is spending the night. It has been an eventful day. We started out with both of the nephews, but RM is still at that age that he says he wants to spend the night but he never does. As soon as Sheila got home from work we picked up both of them and headed out to Cheddars. I was smart enough to suggest that they both bring their Nintendo DS. It came in handy because we had a 45 min way. It ended up being 25 mins but 2 young boys waiting that long in a crowded restaurant would spell disaster. After that we headed over to Wal-Mart. They both wanted everything they saw. Well more RM than Emmanuel. I took them over to look at the fish while Aunt Sheila was getting some of the personal items we needed. They both wanted to buy a fish. I told them it would be fine if we had somewhere to stick them. It's to cold in my opinion to stick them out in the pond since they have been used to the warm water. I feel that would be better on the fish if we did that in the spring. Emmanuel pointed out that we could stick them in the aquarium downstairs, but I still declined. We saw some neat frogs that were about half the size of a penny (if not smaller) That would have been fine, but with the way things go with my luck I can only see disaster all over that. We ended up the night with a good old fashion pillow fight. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, Me or Emmanuel. I'll admit this was my first pillow fight. I had a ton of fun. Of course there are a lot of things that happened this evening that I am leaving out, however I'm just giving you the highlights of the evening.

My day before the boys was very eventful as well. I got up at 5:00 this morning. Sheila was out the door around 7:00 (I think) and I decided that I had to much energy to just go back to bed, So I got out the paint brush and decided to tackle the hallway. We had a new thermostat put in about 3 or 4 months ago which left a very big and noticeable hole below the thermostat. I had to patch the hole and it has needed painting every since. I let the wall dry about an hour before I put the thermostat back on the wall. About 3 hours later I though it was getting very cold so I looked and it was 63 degrees inside. The heater wasn't working. So I called Sheila's Cousin who installed the new thermostat (He lives about an hour away) the short story is that I took pictures of the inside of the heater and emailed them to him. He viewed the pictures and told me what to do over the phone. He had me do everything he would do if he were here. We were able to temporarily fix the problem and he will come out on Monday to give us the permanent fix then. I am just shocked that I was able to fix the furnace myself (of course with a lot of help from Ron). What a day it has been. And how I worked in over 2 hours of exercise today is a miracle in itself.

Blessings till I post again.

My best post YET!!!

I have been waiting a long time to make this post. But today it became official. I have finally hit my all time goal. I have lost all of the weight that I can loose (according to my doctor that is) I weight in this morning and I have officially lost 122 lbs. I still can not believe it. This has taken me 22 months to accomplish and I will admit that I never thought I would even loose 10 lbs. The question that I get asked the most is "how did you do it" I find it funny to be honest that people ask that question. It's not like it's a magic trick or something. It all boils down to eating right and EXERCISE. that is the key and I think if you ask any professional they will tell you the same. When I decided to really buckle down and take the weight off I did tons of research. And I looked for the common thread in all weight loss success. And that common thread was simply exercise and diet. I have always said and always will say that DIETS DO NOT WORK!!!. Yes it is true that a diet will make you loose weight, but what happens when that diet ends?? Yep you gain all that weight back and then some. My biggest pet peeve is when people say what kind of a diet are you on. They are always surprised when I say that I am not on a diet. I never will be on a diet. I have made a life choice to eat better and exercise. Diets are just fads. I looked up the definition of the word fad and this is what Wikipedia had to say: A fad is a fashion that becomes popular in a culture relatively quickly but loses popularity dramatically. In lamens terms a fad is something that is popular but eventually goes away. So if any of you want to loose weight the best advice that I can give to you is this. Start moving and simply watch what you eat. You don't have to stay away from candy, your favorite foods or anything dramatic. Portion size is the key. Many people think that what you put on your plate is what you have to eat. That's not the case. I have fallen victim to this to many times. that's how I reached almost 300 lbs. If you read what a serving is of something and follow it you might think, well that's not enough food. but over time your stomach will shrink and you will become full before you finish that serving. I never thought an apple would fill me up, but these days it does. There was a point in my life where I could eat an entire pizza to myself and say what's for dessert? Those days are gone and I pray that I never get to that point again. God has richly blessed me with determination and I know that with his help I will not loose that determination. Sorry that you all had to read about my weight loss ramblings again. I will try to limit myself in the future, but you have to realize that me reaching this goal was a huge deal to me. I proved to myself that if you want something and work hard you can do anything that you set your mind to. And one last note... for all of you who have been worried that I will become "anorexic" let me tell you this. I WILL NOT!!! I have reached my goal and I will begin my program to maintain my current weight. I'm sure there will be days that I will loose a few or gain a few but my plan is to stay where I am at. I feel great now and I wouldn't trade it for anything. The best news is that when I do die (don't get mad for me saying that, everyone will die someday) My paul bearers will not throw out their back carrying me to my final resting place.

Blessings till I post again.

Trading Spaces and recruiting squirrels

I saw a commercial tonight for Trading Spaces. I am sure you have all seen this program if not at least once. I used to watch it all the time. About 2 years ago they decided they no longer needed a host and now the designers run the show. For some reason I quit watching. Tonight I saw that they are bringing back the original host Paige Davis. I think I will start watching again. I think the show lost something when she left. There is another show that I have become attached to lately. It's called Little people big world. If you have not seen this show it is about a dwarf or little people family. They show the struggles of day to day living in our "big" world. The dad is amazing and to be honest the whole family is amazing. If I am flipping channels and happen across this program I will end up watching it to the end.

Today I noticed something odd. I looked out the window when I got home just like I do every other day. I do this to see what the squirrels are up to. I had to look twice. There where 4 squirrels out there. I guess they are recruiting now. Who knows. I just found it odd that ever day there are 3 squirrels out there and now there are 4. I think they have been telling all their squirrel friends that we fed them waffles last Sunday. Sounds crazy, but we made waffles and had the batter left over. So we made them some pecan waffles. I took some video of the surveillance officer eating on the bench. I will post this video in the blog when I figure out how to do that.

Blessings till I post again.

The wonderful world of BORED!!!

This week has been so boring for me. I have been off work all week with a terrible sinus infection. It's the kind that makes your head pound. I cold not sleep, and forget about laying down in bed. When I laid down my head hurt that much more. I only found comfort in sitting up in the recliner. I have always joked about wanting to be a stay at home husband, but after this week I think I would have to think twice. It was kinda nice the first day, but by day two I was ready to climb the walls. I watched way to much TV. and let me say that when you are bored you will watch anything. I watched a TV show on how they make erasers. For those of you running to your VCR to set up a recording DON'T BOTHER. Go watch paint dry, it's about the same concept. At one point me and the cat were watching out the kitchen window at the fish swimming in the pond. Man I'm glad I'm not a fish. They have to be bored out of their minds. What would be terrible would be a fish with ADHD. Think about that. I guess watching paint dry would be a step up from that.

I am going back to work tomorrow and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I can't wait.
I went to the doctor yesterday and I got some treatments for my nose. It's pretty gross and I'll spare the details, but I will say that it is helping. I feel about 60% better and I'm expecting to feel much better in the morning. Especially since I am able to sleep now. Well I wish I would have had a more interesting post tonight, but you get what you get. At least I didn't talk about the squirrels. Dang it, almost made it one post without mentioning them.

Blessings till I post again.

Waffles, Squirrels and Blackberry update

Today went by way to fast. This has been my one day off since New Years day and Christmas day. We are working 10 hours Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, 12 hours Thursday and Friday we SHOULD be back to our normal schedule.

Sheila and I made waffles this morning. Sheila likes pecans on her waffles so I made some that way for her. I don't like pecans so I had mine plain. We made some extra waffles for the squirrels. I put pecans in them as well. The waffle had barley hit the ground when the surveillance officer spotted it and headed for it. He picked it up and sat on top of the bench next to our pond. I took a picture of it and then realized that my camcorder was charged up. So I pulled out the old camcorder and took some video of him eating. I think I can add video to the website, so as soon as I find time to transfer the footage to my computer and edit it down it I'll post it on my blog.

OK enough about those squirrels. I went to AT&T today and they finally got in the case to my new blackberry. So now I feel better because I hate keeping it in my pocket. I'm starting to get the hang of this new phone and I'm so glad. I'm still going to read my book (someday) and learn all that this phone can do. Maybe after the overtime is over I'll get around to it.

I still have 1 more lb to go to my goal. That last pound is going to really make me work for it. But I'm sure that I'll be able to loose it.

Blessings till I post again.

Cold Weather..... Brrrrrrrrrrrr

I am so tired of this cold weather. It's funny that 2 years ago I never would have said that phrase. But things have changed and yes to all of you who know me I AM COLD!!!

I noticed yesterday that the pond is freezing over. Well actually as of today it is completely frozen over except for a hole in the center of the pond where the fountain is. I keep the fountain running all year round. It keeps it from completely freezing over and killing my fish. I was a bit concerned last year about it but come spring they were all there and doing fine. I don't know why I was so worried. Fish have survived the cold weather in ponds, springs and the river every year. Granted the river does not freeze over but ponds and springs do.

Before I forget my friend from work requested a "shout out" and while I am not completely sure what a "shout out" consists of I am giving it to Elise Right now. So Elise if you are reading this I'm shouting at you.

Tonight I will be giving no squirrel updates, no mention of Paula Deen. I am doing this on purpose! of course I guess I just mentioned both of them, but I will not elaborate any.

Blessings till I post again.

New Year New Phone

Sheila and I went to AT&T yesterday (New Years Day) and I inquired as to if I could upgrade my phone. I am not eligible until April 17th of this year. But I found that out about a week ago when I tried to upgrade then. I told the guy the problems I have been having with my phone (Signal and charging daily or every other day) he put a new Sims card in it and claimed that would fix the problem. Well it did not fix anything. When we went into the store the same guy waiting on us. He remember me from a week earlier. I told him I was experiencing the same problems and I asked if they could do an upgrade exception. He said sure. So I ended up going with a blackberry pearl. Sheila and I had already done all the homework on phones before going to the store and we both felt that phone would be right for me. Sheila's only concern (I think) is that this phone will have more features than I will know how to use.

Sheila spent about an hour tonight putting phone numbers in it for me. But I am proud of the fact that today I learned how to take a picture (on my own mind you) and even set the picture as caller id. For example if Sheila calls me her photo pops up. I also learned how to use the calculator. I like the calculator on this phone. My old phone had a calculator but I did not understand how to use it. You would think a calculator is simple to operate. And yes a standard calculator is simple to operate, however on my old phone you had to jump through hoops to do what would have taken you 10 seconds to do on a regular calculator. I claim a rocket scientist from NASA is qualified to use that calculator.

But anyway I have to say that I am pleased with my new purchase. My next purchase I want to make is a wii. But I think I have already mentioned that before.

Blessings till I post again.