What I wouldn’t give for this to have been an extended weekend. Not only is it a nice day out, but I could use some catch-up sleep. Emily and the kids and I spent the weekend at the “Stewart House“ on Lake Malone in Kentucky. It was relaxing for the most part, if you consider we were there with 12 other people (that would be my wife’s parents, siblings, children, and foster children). lol! When Emily was a kiddo, her grandparents owned some property on the lake, and she and her family used to visit there often. I believe the original plan was to stay at her grandparent’s old place (now owned by her uncle). Nice as it still is, it’s a good thing we didn’t try that because it was significantly smaller than where we were.

Anyhow, the “Stewart House”, owned by Bill & Geraldine Ewing, is a great place to escape for the weekend. The “cabin” is large and cozy, with ample room in the common areas and outside for everyone to move around without constantly falling over one another. It also had three full bedrooms, 1.5 baths, and a game room with a pool table and pinball machine. It was right on the lake, and we were able to rent their “John Deere” pontoon boat. Despite being “out in the sticks”, the house had a large living area in the basement with a fireplace, TV with satellite, wireless Internet, bar, ”stocked” kitchen. Outside, there were two sizeable decks, a really neat campfire pit, and a somewhat steep path down to the lake. My only complaints are that the path could have used some better footing, as it was slippery from the rain, and fishing could have been better (but I guess that’s subjective).

All said, it was a pleasant weekend and an excellent place to “get away” for the weekend. I’d prefer next time to go for maybe one more day, as it felt we were packing out just as we got settled in. Something to keep in mind for the future, though. Thanks go to my in-laws for the weekend getaway! =)

According to the National Weather Service, it’s 69°F outside right now. And sunny. The expected high today has now been revised to 81°. So nice! In fact, Emily and the kids are going to the zoo today.

But according to my calendar, it’s still Tuesday. That means I have to work… inside… all day. I have so many things I want/need to get done outside, or places I want to take my truck for “consultation” that would be great to do on a day like this. In fact… uh oh… I think I feel the flu coming on. haha!

But the weather has been pretty awesome lately. Friday was really nice, Saturday wasn’t bad, Sunday was better. Emily and the kids rode with me in the truck to get a newspaper and gas, and then up to my parent’s house to show them the truck (my dad hadn’t seen it yet). I even had two guys at Meijer ogling the truck while I was gassing it up. lol! I took my dad for a ride while the kids played, and that was about it. It was Emily’s first time riding in it, though, so that was fun. I also took it out last night to pick up something for dinner. That was the first time I’ve driven it at night since I fixed the lights, and they worked great!

Outside of that… I need to get back into my workout routine. I’ve been really bad lately with my eating habits. Seems someone is always bringing in donuts or buying us lunch here at work. The trousers are feeling a little snug, so I need to slow it down a bit and get back into my workout routine. Things just got so out of whack, and it seems to be one thing after the other. Right now I have an ingrown toenail — and that feels great when you’re running (not)!  

That’s all for now! That is, unless you want a good laugh…

Yea! We finally have snow! Well, sort of. It was a bit of a generic “I had potential” kind of snow, but it at least covered the ground… mostly. It was at least enough for “the snowman” to finally “come visit”, according to my son. We had a good time playing in it, although mommy almost traumatized him when she attempted to place the carrot on the snowman’s face and half of it broke off. lol! Poor guy… it was sweet and funny at the same time. Oh, and we fixed him, so that made it better.

I really wish we could get one of those nice, big, sludge through the snow ’cause its up to your knees kind of snowfalls, but this will suffice for now. The roads aren’t bad, and at least we were able to bring a little life to the front yard. Maybe next year…

Just a couple of updates today…First, a “Week 1″ update on my workout resolution: I managed to get in five last week, which was a “short” week for me. You could say I actually only got in three, but two days counted as two because I did both upper body and cardio on those days. My total exercise time was 3 hours, and I managed to burn through 1965 calories (a few short of my goal). I sort of ate too much over the weekend. We had some REALLY good pizza on Friday night, and then my mom cooked for us Saturday with a few of my favorite foods. I’m back at it this week, though… worked out upper body and cardio again yesterday, spending 35 minutes on the exercise bike. Today I’m supposed to run 40 minutes, so I guess I’ll do that shortly. 

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Well, today’s the day… my vacation ended and I had to return to work. I’ve been off now for 9 days. It has been so nice to just relax and spend time with the family. It does seem a little odd to be returning for one day followed by a three-day weekend, but I am now “on call” so I had to pick up the pager and sit here all afternoon waiting for something to happen (or not, such as the case has been). That’s OK, though. It’s nice to have a three-day weekend coming up. Hopefully I won’t get paged (knock on wood).

Updating my last post, I believe I neglected to mention a few other few nice items I received for Christmas. I have to say it was a banner year! lol! My wife made me a really nice Indy Colts blanket, and the kids gave me a monkey from build-a-bear that my daughter named “Football Guy”. The monkey has sound chips in it with little voice messages from the kids. I’m a big softie. Hopefully it holds up for a long time so I can always remember what they sound like now. My parents also gave me a nice NFL football. My old NCAA football is flat and worn, so this is nice. I haven’t had an NFL-sized football since we destroyed mine in college. I can’t wait ’til my son is old enough to throw it with me (I hope he will want to)!

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The weather outside had been a little crazy, but it seemed we were in a lull. I looked outside to the west and could see sunshine. The map on the television showed more storms were headed our way, but for the moment we were in the clear. Certainly, I thought, I had at least a half hour before the next round hit. That should be enough time to run over to the grocery store and pick up my wife’s prescription. Our son was scheduled to be delivered the next morning via c-section, and she needed this picked up beforehand. I had plenty of time… or so it seemed.

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April…May…June…July…August! Already!?

Wow. It has been more than 4 months since I last posted here. FOUR MONTHS! I was on a roll, too. But life has a way of happening, and the most you can do is try to prioritize and handle what comes your way.

So what has changed since I last wrote?

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