Big "D" in Big D

Big Baby

2011-02-08T11:09:00.003-06:00

Yesterday Marilyn and I had a day full of doctors office visits. We found out that our little by is not so little. He is a week ahead in size and they are thinking his birth weight if his growth continues might be 8-10 lbs. That is a lot of baby for momma to be lugging around. I think that if he continues to grow like this that they might have to schedule a C - Section. Marilyn is ok with this but I am so nervous. That is full on surgery! This is scary because her body is already stressed out and a little weaker from growing this big baby and then to have to deal with a surgery is just a lot to handle and makes me nervous for her. I would be nice to have a date set for all the out of towners that are going to come see the little guy born though. We will see and I will trust that God will keep both momma and Adrian safe.

On another note I have been struggling with my diet and work outs lately. I am not sure why maybe just complacency. I missed my work out Friday and then cheated on my diet hard on Sunday and Monday. Today I will be hitting the gym before dinner tonight and already have some cardio scheduled for later in the week but its time to check myself. I was nine pounds down from where I started and WILL continue to make losses. I know I can and will get my self back into my routine. Its power through time and its time to man up and stop hurting myself.

We had an Arctic blast come through and give us 6-7 inches of snow and it was cold for the whole week. On Saturday it got up to 50 and melted everything off which made coming to work a little safer but now we are supposed to get another snow storm tonight. Texas is so strange because if we do get snow tonight we will be in the 60's on Saturday. I miss snowboarding, I didn't realize how much until it snowed here and I kept asking my wife if she would pull me behind the truck. I would have done it to but everyone was busy. Maybe tomorrow if we can get more than 2 inches. Hope everyone is having a good week. Stay safe if you live in Texas people don't know how to drive here. I almost had a guy slide into me from locking up the brakes on ice freaking newbies.

STRESS

2011-02-02T13:12:00.002-06:00

With everything that has been going right there always seems to be something that pops up. I have been going to the gym, eating less, and feeling good about everything. A little too go I guess. It seems like every time I think my wife and I are hitting our stride, or finally getting our big ah ha moment, something else craps on us. There is nothing more upsetting for me than asking for help or admitting I can't handle something on my own. I makes me question to much about myself and I don't like having those deep conversations with my self. Especially now when in two months I will be in charge of supporting more than my self and Marilyn. You can ignore so much when the only people counting on you are two adults. With baby Adrian quickly arriving I wonder if we will be able to support him and our selves when we are having so much trouble doing it now. Babies aren't cheap and I am fully aware of how quickly the small things can add up when you have a new born. Is this one of those trust in the Lord moments or is this a wake up and handle your business moment? How much longer can we assume that God will handle it before we realize you don't always get what you want and we get out there and find more work or a buried treasure in our back yard. Something dramatic is going to have to happen and quick. Two months to get it together, two months to support our new baby. Such a short time. Good thing I packed a healthy lunch, because this stress is enough to send me straight through a pan of brownies with a pint of ice cream. Let hope this evenings lifting session can calm me down a little.

Today's The Day

2011-01-24T13:33:00.002-06:00

I have a busy day today. This morning we had another baby appointment which went well. The doctor said that Adrian exploded in the size department and is right on track. We have a sono on Feb. 7th to get exact weight and measurements that should be very exciting. Marilyn is a little worried about why the doctor chose the words exploded and is a little nervous about birthing a big baby which is to be expected. I would be nervous and she is handling it a lot better than I would. I just have to keep up her spirits. I would recommend WhattoExpect.com. They have a section for dads that has really helped me stay on top of my part in the pregnancy. It also helps the dads feel more involved when it is so easy to forget your role while the wife is having all the fun with the unborn baby.

This afternoon is back to the gym I am pretty proud of myself for not ruining my week of hard work with a weekend of low activity and high food intake. i was able to go out with Marilyn and reign myself in. COME ON SELF CONTROL. Today I start the Total Body Training that JJ set me up with. In his words I will spend all day getting my mind ready to DIESEL through all these heavy workout. I have some metal core loaded onto the phone to really pump me up. I can't wait to get going. I have a long way to go but I have motivation and drive fueling me. I will reach my goal and I will be healthy for my family.

Yesterday I went for a 10 mile bike ride. It was awesome! I got my but kicked and my legs were jelly afterwards but I recommend mountain biking to anyone that is looking to find a fun cardio exercise.

Hello Mr. Frost

2011-01-21T13:13:00.002-06:00

Winter has finally hit Texas. To all my friends that live back home this is one of the reasons I like Texas, it took forever to get cold. There may not be mountains to shred in the winter but we have camping and shorts weather for about 10 mths a year. In the summer, I am jealous of you, the rest of the time I win! I woke up this morning and was very glad that I only had to scrape the windows of a light frost instead of scraping snow then thick ice then waiting forever for the truck to get warm (Poor Marilyn took the truck this morning I was trying to be a sweet heart and scrape the windows but I didn't let it warm up for her and she was frozen when she got to her sisters this morning.). Jealous much? Probably not, because the friends I still talk to in Colorado are very out doorsy and would be the people that love the snow. OK I am the one that's jealous now. Why do I do this to my self. I miss Colorado!

Yesterday I hit up the racquetball courts with a buddy of mine Levi and he worked me over pretty good. I did hit the row machine right before and it took a game to loosen the muscles up a little but he gave me the extra work out I needed. A lot of running with that game. I can tell that I am just starting back to the gym because I am sore. I purposefully picked "easy" exercises this week and they all turned out to be some of the hardest you can do. Rowing is full body I forgot that, Swimming also full body and I am paying for it now with sore muscles. They hurt so good though. I forgot how good it feels to know your sore because you worked out. I earned every bit of this soreness and love it. My buddy JJ (who needs to move to Dallas ASAP. Anyone want to hire an awesome engineer?) hooked me up with a work out the looks like its going to kill me but I can't wait to start. I go back to Colorado next Christmas and want to be able to actually keep up with him when we tear the local gym up. I really appreciate all the peoples help that are trying to keep me motivated. I lean on your support more than you know and its nice to know that people are there to help you when your at your lowest. If anyone else wants to hook up at the gym I am looking for a weight lifting partner.

Holy Baby Cloths!

2011-01-20T09:51:00.003-06:00

I wouldn't call my self a very fashionable person. If it wasn't for my wife my daily check list for getting dressed would be:

1) is there more than one hole in my Boxers.
2) do my socks fit
3) Do my shoes feel wet
4) do my pants stink
5) do I stink

well I guess if I am honest this is my daily check list. Thanks to her though my smelly pants look ok on me when I wear them. I say this because last night we decided to go through all our baby cloths that have been given to us. Hang them up and organize them. I figured this wouldn't take long and would be relatively easy. Boy was I wrong. MY son is not even born yet and he has a closet full of cloths. I have exactly 6 t shirts and two Polo's that I swap out all year round for my personal cloths. They are all one size and they all aren't severely stained. Adrian has so many out fits for his first three months of life I don't know if we will actually have to wash them. That may be a little exaggerated but still. They are all so cute and we are very thankful for all the people that donated their sons old cloths to the cause of "not having a naked baby in the Russell house" fund. When the makers of said baby cloths made them why did the sizing system have to be so complicated? I mean why isn't there just New born, 0-3, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12 and then start toddler sizes. I mean is it really that big of a deal if my kid looks like he is wearing a potato sack for the first half and a leotard for the second half of the article of clothing's life? It would sure make organizing the closet for my OCD wife a little easier. She almost made me a list because I couldn't understand the difference in location in the closet for up to 3 mths, 0-3 mths, and just plain 3 mths. We did finally get it all sorted out and I am list free but just barely. I think the only reason I am list free is that the paper and pen were down stairs and Marilyn was to tired to go back down and get them. After we finished putting the cloths away and got some of the boxes out of the way, we realized that the walls in there are still pretty bare. I guess we need to make another trip to a store with cool baby decor. Just so that when we are spending time in there we have other stuff to look at instead of the baby. Well on second thought maybe we will leave it bare if I am not sleeping I will probably be staring at Adrian any way.

Swimming ... The devils new Gym tool.

2011-01-19T09:42:00.000-06:00

How many people like swimming? Raise your hands if you do. Now look around the room and count how many people have their hands raised. Just you? If I had heard that I would have raised my hand. Well that was until yesterday. I was talking with a buddy I work with about starting working out again and he said maybe find something that’s low impact to get back into the grove of things. So I started thinking, “what is a low impact workout”. I got it, Swimming! So all day I was pumped about working my way into working out again with a nice relaxing swim. I get to the gym hop in the warm pool and start stretching. The first lap I took easy and just a nice free style swim. About five minutes in I realized I underestimated the intensity it took to propel my not so aerodynamic self through the water. I was slowly drowning myself. So for the next 20 minutes I just switched from back stroke to breast stroke to doggy paddle to anything that kept my head above water. When I finished with the 30 minute cardio drowning I tried to think back to what had led me here to try this self inflicted water boarding. It was the fond memories of lake swimming, or free day at the pool when the water has a semi yellow tint to it. The diving boards, the water slides none of which can be found in this humid chamber of sweat, and yes you can sweat in a pool. (kind of nasty if you think about it) While this sounds a little complainy I woke up this morning tired with a tight back but realized though it was a difficult work out it really was a full body work out. It took every muscle in me even my toes were hurting last night from being flailed though bad swimming technique. Swimming holds a new place in my work out regimen right above leg circuits. (This will only be used if my friend JJ ever works out with me on leg day again. I hope that’s not soon.) I reccomend that every one try swimming as a work out not hard on your joints but good for your heart.

Water. The sneaky health option.

2011-01-18T14:38:00.000-06:00

So on the new journey to a better life style I have been reading and asking lots of questions about changes to make to my diet. The thing I read about most is drink lots of water. This is every where and on every healthy persons tongue. While most of the benfits are obvious I think I have come up with a few new ones. We all know water helps digestion, hydration, and many other bodily functions but, I think it is a trainers sneaky way to get you to move around more. Think about it, how many people work right next to a water fountain or bathroom? Not many I would hope. That sounds like it would be pretty lonley on the most part but I digress. To get water you have to walk. For me its not a long walk but more than I would be doing espically when I have to make about 10 -15 trips a day to keep my water bottle full. From what I hear every little bit of extra movement can help. Then when your drinking a gallon of water a day give or take a few liters you have to tinkle potty a ton. So that a good 7 or 8 extra bathroom trips a day. While annoying to always have to piss it does help me move around more. I am not sure if it is really all that helpful but I will count it any way.

Also as a side note, I think that the little extra bits and studdying I have been doing at work is about to get noticed. I have a manager that keeps asking about if I think I could handle sales. ARE YOU KIDDING YES I CAN HANDLE IT! That would be another pay bump that I could definatly handle. So if that works out free water shots for everyone. ha.

New Begginings

2011-01-17T12:38:00.000-06:00

Well look at that they don't just delete these things after years of neglect! I think that I will try again to start using a blog. I have had people ask me why I stopped and I really couldn't tell them why. Probably because only 6 of my friends read this. Well those 6 seem to like my blabbering on here so I guess I can try and type my thoughts when they hit me. I am a little more outspoken on here than one on one I guess. Well maybe not one on one but I am opinionated in both situations on here I try and class it up a little bit. HA. So if you don't like me when I get rolling in person here's a fine substitute.

Today I was hit with a realization that still makes my head spin. For the people that may accidentally end up here reading my thoughts I will have to bring you up to speed. My beautiful wife and I are expecting our first baby. His name is Adrian Gene Russell and he is already our whole world. Yes even though he can only kick me through my wife's belly he is loved and adored by two pretty awesome parents. ( tooting my own awesomeness horn a little here) For those of you who have had kids or are going to have kids in the future nine months seems like for ever but let me assure you they fly by! We are down to two and a half months left and I can't wait. Today I was sitting at my desk at work reading about week 29 and realized that we only have 11 weeks until he is here! I teared up a little thinking about holding him for the first time and pretty much planned out his whole life with his mother and I. When I thought about how active my friends kids are I got checked a little. I am WAYYYYYY out of shape. Well I would make an excellent water balloon shape but I need to drop some weight and now. I realized that I am slowly killing my self and I remember growing up without a father and realized how selfish I am being by eating any thing and everything I can fit in my mouth. My actions and lack of self control are costing not only me now but my wife and my little boy. How big of a douche am I that I care more about how cookies or peanut butter tastes than the moments I am costing myself with my son. Talk about a wake up call!! Turns out I can ignore doctors, God and my wife but when thinking about my son I get some renewed motivation.

I am a firm believer that God can do anything except make my fat ass get off the couch but I would still like to ask that my friends and family keep me in there prayers. Even if it is just God get that fatty out of the house. Maybe nicer though not sure how God takes prayers. I wanted to just let all six of you out there know what was on my mind. There are a lot of new things coming into my life and I can't wait to start me new life with my son healthier and ready to treasure every experience that I share with him and my wife.

OMG

2009-05-19T11:21:00.000-05:00

Wow so sorry for the break, Twilight and I had an experience. It pretty much consumed me for a few months. Well actually I read them all in a week but that made me want to read a bunch of other books so now Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia are all read and accounted for. It was fun but now all I am reading is the Wheel of Time. It was hard to keep tract of all the books I was reading at once. As expected since March a ton of things happened because I am that awesome. jk For the span of three months almost nothing happened.

My mom came and visited and we found out we have hogs on our property, this is cool because I am planning a hunting party this long weekend and hope to bring back the pork. We went and saw Star Trek and it was awesome. Marilyn and I happened across a drive in move theater that was also awesome. Everyone support your local drive in, it's a lost art. Any Teenagers that are looking for date ideas go to a drive in. They are cheap in a glorious way. It was $6.00 a person and the snacks were way cheap. And no one is in the seat behind you so let the necking commence. Yes I said necking because that is more fun than saying making out. I think time should go back to the fifties either that or I was born in the wrong era. Which I have often thought. In the fifties man they had big band swing and zuit suits, basically endless possibilities. If my facts are wrong I don't care this is the fifties Andrew wants to live in.

Oh everyone make sure you lock your cars. It turns out people steal thing even from pastors whom don't lock their cars. Just a word to the wise. Love you Levi and H-money.

Twilight

2009-03-30T07:16:00.000-05:00

I read the complete series last week and am shocked to tell everyone that I am obsessed with these books. I kind of feel bad for out right disappearing on my wife last week. She would come home and turn the TV on as I was sitting down stairs reading. I don't know if anyone else has the same problem but I am extremely easy to distract when I am reading. So all of last week Marilyn would come home expecting us to watch TV and I would retreat to the bed room for the rest of the night I even missed a couple of dinners just to finish these books. I don't think I have been this invested in a book since Harry Potter. (which I started reading again last night.) The Twilight series was amazing. I can't stop running it through my head. I really recommend the Books.

Tomorrow I am going to a concert that I have been waiting for, for about two years. Two years ago I went to The Warped Tour here in Dallas. My favorite band of all time was playing there and Killswitch Engage put on the best concert I have ever been too. I waited for them to come back but the hadn't until know. I am going to Music as a weapon tour which has Killswitch Engage and Disturbed whom are at least co-head lining. I am super pumped.

I am extremely tired. This entire week I have been going to sleep late and getting up early and Saturday took the cake. We had some friends over and didn't get to sleep until four. The night before that I didn't get to sleep until two o'clock. Both of these days I got up at about 8:30 or 9:00. If I make it through the day, I may take a coma tonight. Starting at about 5:30 when I get home.

Will be back soon.

Peace

Oh the Weather

2009-03-13T11:11:00.001-05:00

Out side is frightful. jk I love that song and it fits so I will use it. Do you think I will have to pay a royalty? I hope not. I finally got all the issues on my truck figured out and 850.00 later it is reliable again. I saved us about 300 though by putting on my own alternator. I find it unbelievable how much dealers charge for simple tasks. I sat down yesterday and looked up a computer program that I am going to save up and get. It is the same ones dealers use to fix cars. Basically if you know what you need to fix you type it in and it gives you step by step instruction on how to fix it. I would save so much money if I can find one that covers all makes and models. I would fix everything myself. Any way the alternator literally took 20mins to switch out and saved 300 bucks. You're welcome bank account..

Today is my 2nd Wedding anniversary with Marilyn. I got her something she always wants but can't write it on here yet because I don't know if she has received it yet. I love her and am still happy with my choice.

This weekend is another full of no rest. I am looking forward to one day actually getting to relax all weekend. Maybe it is coming soon.

Peace Andrew

Lay offs!

2009-03-11T12:12:00.001-05:00

I haven't really been blogging because I usually do it at work. I have had to try and avoid the Internet at work due to the fact that my company is doing lay offs. You know keeping my head down. Being busy, looking busy all that stuff. Well today the axe was dropped and we had a ton of people get let go. I was not one of them thus me blogging again. It is sad to watch people I have worked closely with for two years get let go like they don't matter. I hated watching friends looking so lost like they had no idea what they were going to do. It made me appreciate my job more and also I think I realized that even if I had lost my job like them I know I would have been ok. Its like my mom always said when I was younger and never believed her or just brushed it off, "God will always be there." It is so true. I mean it is hard and there are a lot of people that don't think it will happen. After things in my life and my moms life and friends lives I have to start buying into that fact that while it may not be easy God has a plan and will watch over us.

I went to a birthday for Keegan on Tuesday and was having what my wife calls a "Fat Day". I just hate the way I look and want to do something about it. I wish I wasn't so lazy. I have blogged about being all worked up about this before and I don't want to day the old. "but this time I mean it." I am going to put up or shut up no more complaining I do it or I don't. I love the gym is my new mantra.

Any body want to go help me some Saturday put up a fence on my land? All volunteers reply below.

Peace Andrew.

Stage

2009-02-27T14:05:00.001-06:00

Tonight we start construction on the stage at church. We will be mostly cutting up studs and marking the floor where everything is going. My goal for tonight is to get all the angles figured out and to get all the studs cut and maybe the plate cut and laid out. If we get all that done, on Saturday we will start on all the fun stuff of nailing it all together. I really hope this turns out good. I think it will but now I am stressing because if it doesn't it reflects poorly on me. The good news is Brad and I got some more help which will be useful and make our lives so much easier.

Work has been a little stressful with layoffs. Fortunately I am pretty sure I am in the clear. I guess I will find out for sure next week.

This weekend I have work to do as usual. It seems like when the weather gets nice the busier I am. I am going to have fun tonight after the stage meeting, then its up early to get some work done around the house and then hit the stage again tomorrow.

Have a great weekend.

Peace

Hard work

2009-02-24T16:12:00.001-06:00

This past weekend I spent out at the property with a couple of friends putting in fence posts. We had 40 something to do and got all the hole drilled and only have five posts to set in. It was such a hard working weekend. We started sat at about 12:30 Saturday and finished Sunday at about 6:30. I was exhausted. I have bruises in places I had no idea were getting beat on. Any way we are going again in two weeks to stretch wire, put in t posts and hopefully finish it all up. If there are any more volunteers that would like to come let me know. the help would be much appreciated. jk Kinda.

This week I finally get to go back to church. I have been so busy lately that it has been about two and a half months since I have been. Our church is about to move into our new building and we are waiting on me and the "Wilderness" to get a stage built. Hopefully we can get that done over the weekend or by the very latest next week. We are waiting on lumber, when it hits it is game on.

Well hopefully I will have more later. Thanks for checking in.

Peace.

Well Hey There

2009-02-17T15:20:00.000-06:00

Oh looky there I am still blogging just went on vacation. It was a ma za zing. I love Cruises they are so much fun and every place we have been so far has been gorgeous. I really love the Caribbean. I wish I could live there all the time. The beaches and the weather, it is all perfect. We went on an excursion to the Yucatan Peninsula and on the beach there is a rv park. I thought that, that was the perfect set up. If a hurricane blows in, just hook up to your house and take off. Talk about beach front property. I would love to do that. Marilyn and I had a really good time and really re-connected with each other. I love being reminded of all the reasons I love my wife. This vacation was one of the best for us. We didn't fight and really soaked up our time together. It is so good for our relationship to just get away from all the distractions and just love on each other. Sorry about the mushy stuff but Its my blog and I will do what I want.

I miss all of my friends I feel like I haven't seen them in a while. Sometimes I question the friendship thing if I only see them at church. I need to invite people over more, and try harder. Looks like the Russell's need to have a Smoke Out. I will see if I can work that out. It is coming on Brisket season.

This weekend I will be doing some big time manual labor. I am setting all the posts four our fence on our propriety. Pray for me I will need all of your prayers. I do love manual labor though. I know it sounds strange but working hard and getting my hands dirty is what I love to do.

Peace

Andrew

TWO DAYS!!

2009-02-05T14:53:00.000-06:00

I am going to be cruising in Two days. We are so excited about getting on this boat. We really need a vacation. All week Marilyn and I have been having a big problem focusing on anything other than the cruise. ... Like right here I started thinking about it and didn't type anything for a full minute. Today is my mommies birthday though. I would say how old she is but i don't have a death wish. Lets just say she has worked really hard raising us for a very long time. Love you mama. Any way back to the cruise. Marilyn and I are going with a bunch of friends and we are so stoked to be going with them. I hope everyone is really jealous. Marilyn already said this is going to be the stress free screw it week of our year. Screw it week means that we say screw it to every thing and relax and do what we want when we want to do it. It is going to be Legend... wait for it .... Dary. Every one should watch how I met your mother it is the greatest show on the planet followed by big bang theory.

we went to the killers concert last night with a few of our friends. They did a great job and really put on a good show. My wife really liked it and that's why we went. Speaking of concerts I got the greatest tickets in the entire world. KILLSWITCH ENGAGE and Disturbed in the same show. I can tell you are all jealous as hell. I will admit it is hard to live such and awesome life. Jk. But I am wetting my pants in anticipation of this concert. We got crazy awesome tickets and I am so ready to rock the house out. "COME ON!! HOLY DIVER." Look into that you wont regret it.

And then I found 20 dollars.

Peace

Where has all the time gone?

2009-01-29T15:10:00.000-06:00

I have been so extremely busy as of late. Not so much at work but right after work I have to kick on the after burners. I really don't mind because its for stuff that I enjoy doing. Last week I bought a new, well new to us camper for our land out east. It was in pretty good shape for a 70's model. Marilyn was excited because the 70's style is coming back and out old camper is hip again. i had to fix some stuff in it but it looks so much better. I also got to spend the weekend out there with my wife and some friends. We had a great time and I was really impressed with the camper. It was the first time I have been camping and slept past sunrise.
While we were out there I met the County Commissioner whom also works for a survey company. I found out exactly where out property line is and was pleasantly surprised. We had a lot more property than I had thought. We actually have a creek on our land and that's awesome. Our hunting area is prime I am super stoked about it. can't wait for deer season. I need to get a feeder out there.
Marilyn and I are getting ready for our cruise we leave in 9 days. We are riding to Galveston with some friends of our and can't wait to chillax for a whole week. As soon as we get back it is back to work. My buddy brad and I are going to go put up a fence out at the land to keep all the people and trash off our property.
Well that's a small update I have done more and have a lot more to do. Good talking to ya. Take 'er easy.

Peace

Duck hunt 09

2009-01-21T14:22:00.001-06:00

I went camping this past weekend with my friend Rippey. It was awesome! I finally got to hunt something and was victorious. I got my first two Mallard Hens. They were beautiful and I hope they taste as good as they looked. Rippey got one of his own and we had a really good weekend. We tried to catch us a hog but luck was not on our side. Next time we are going to call the guy that owns the land and see if he will spread out some feed before we go to keep them around then we will bait our trap and get one.

These next few weeks are all very busy. This week my wife and I are going out to my property to get a survey done and also to go camping. I always have fun camping and its supposed to be a good weekend for it. I excited to see exactly where our property lines are. I hope its bigger than I think. If not that's fine too its still the coolest place to go camping at in Texas.

Marilyn and I also went to the Fort Worth Stock Show. This was a unique experience. I had a great time and I Would go again. The rodeo wasn't very much fun but I think it was the type of rodeo. I found the auction very interesting. They were really giving away longhorns for cheap. I think when it comes down to it that I might push for us getting our herd from an auction.

Hope everyone is having a great week talk to you all later.

Peace.

Ouchiewawa

2009-01-15T14:19:00.000-06:00

I went to the gym for the first time in about a year. For some reason I always go in with the mentality that I can work out like I was in high school again. Needless to say I am extremely sore. I woke up yesterday and could barley move. Yesterday it was just my arms today its my chest arms abs basically everything I worked out two days ago. I wanted to go again today but really don't think I would get much done. It hurts to open the doors at work. I think I will try and go a little easier tomorrow when I go back.

The hunt is still on this weekend and I have YouTubed a bunch of videos on how to field dress any animal I might get this weekend.

The "Wilderness" and I are volunteering to build the stage at our new church here in the next month or two to get it ready for opening weekend. I really enjoy planning this stuff out and miss building houses like I used too. I wish i could do it as a living and make the money I am making now doing it. I am really excited about the blue prints i drew up. My pastor Sprang gave me a picture of what he wants and I think that I drew up exactly what he was looking for. When we are done building this thing it will take a bomb to get it out.

Last night we went and celebrated our Friends daughters birthday. Shes such a cute little girl and it was so much fun. I hate to admit it but I really like Chucky Cheeses. All the video games are a quarter!!! It doesn't get any better than that.

Hope you all are having a great week.

Peace

1-13

2009-01-13T12:08:00.000-06:00

Sorry about the title I just had no motivation to think of a good name. Today is a blah day. There hasn't been much of anything going on. Work is getting busy but as you can tell not busy enough to keep me from blogging. Yesterday after I bloggered I got invited to go on another hunting trip. I am going to go hunt hogs on my friends property in Oklahoma. I really hope I get one, one hog will give us a ton of meat. I also might try and score some ducks while I am out there. last night I went and bought a ducks call and chased my wife's Pekingese around the house with it. I think she likes it. Duck calls are loud and so much fun to make noises with.

This weekend is the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo. Marilyn and I have tickets to the rodeo and are looking forward to it. We are going to go early and enjoy all the live stock and especially the longhorns. Hopefully I can get some connections and kind of network a little and learn who I need to deal with when we get into the cattle business.

Peace

Sneaky Ducks

2009-01-12T08:36:00.000-06:00

I was all pumped up about going duck hunting and I didn't see a single one. The guys I was with saw one flock fly over but that was it. I had a great time on the trip but wish I could have shot at a ducky, maybe next time. Brad and I went on a trek through this marsh though, and saw some pretty cool stuff. We were looking for a better place to post up when we go back out and learned we were in the best spot already. We walked around for ever and learned trudging through the plants in a marsh is a lot of work. I was beat when we got home. While we were out though I looked up and we saw five does walk not 50 yrds away from where we were standing. If I only had my rifle on me and it was still deer season. We did get a lot accomplished though. Fred got this laser sighting tool for Christmas and we tried it out. We got both our 30-06's sighted in and super accurate at 50 yrds. I am going to try and make it a point to get to the range in the next few months and just shoot all my guns. Try and get a little more comfortable with them. The trip was a blast and I can't wait to go again. I just like being outdoors it so relaxing and just peaceful out there. I need to go out to my property and do some camping / work if anyone is interested in taking a weekend and hanging out with me let me know.

Peace

Washer

2009-01-08T13:28:00.000-06:00

About two days ago I came home from my work and my wife says, "I have some bad news." Not what I wanted to hear at 7:15pm on a Tuesday night. It was the washer. It crapped out. I open it up and our laundry is floating in a basin of water. So after I took the metal off the back and yelled at the wires to start working needless to say it didn't work. So yesterday my wife went out and Dave Ramsey us a new washer. Turns out all the places we went to wont work on the price at all. We couldn't believe that a place the sells dented and scratched up washers wont let you haggle. Any one that thinks they are getting a good deal at that place needs to go to a sears store first. We stopped by a non sears outlet on the way home and found out they only had taken off 100 bucks for a used washer. Not ok. We found a few on the Internet we are going to go look at today. I hope this goes well, I need this to end. Shopping for this type of things is so draining. The only thing good about it is that my wife and I get to spend some time just the two of us. Even if it is shopping for stuff I like being around her with out anyone distracting us.

Only on day until "The Wilderness" and I go on my first hunting experience ever.

Only 31 days until i get to chill in the Caribbean. Bring on the Beaches and the Margaritas.

Peace

Andrew

Gods Creatures

2009-01-07T15:12:00.001-06:00

As most know I am just starting to get into hunting. This is very unfortunate because I grew up in one of the greatest hunting states and never got to experience it there. So as I am getting more immersed into this activity I looked into what it costs to hunt in another state. This blew my mind!!! To hunt in Colorado you have to put you name in a drawing. Even the residents have to do this, but a resident has to pay like 30 bucks for a licence. I have to pay 250 for just elk and 290 for just deer. In Texas I had to pay 60 and that came with birds fish and animals. That is ridiculous Colorado!!!! My friend Rippey said it best "That's a lot to pay for something no one owns.". God needs to lower his rates! :) I guess it will just take more convincing to talk my buddies into going to Colorado for a hunting trip. Maybe I can talk them into going for a week on a guided thing like a super, man vacation. You up for it Wilderness? One thing I will say about Texas is there really is a lot more animals to hunt here and a lot of area to do it in. This weekend keeps getting more awesome. My brother in law is coming now it should be fun for the four of us to hang out and shoot guns at birds. *fist Pump*

Peace

Bass Pros Mean Side

2009-01-06T14:13:00.000-06:00

Last night I went to Bass Pro to get some stuff for my hunting weekend. It started off great we went to try on waders which is very comical to see me a large man squeeze into skin tight waterproof cloths. Lets say it was like an trying to dress an angry hippo into child size tights. Sad but humorous just the same. After my wife, our friends, and the bass pro helper got over laughing I found the pair and headed to look for some other things for "The Wilderness" aka Brad. We get all our shopping done and head to the counter. I go the the customer service counter because I needed to get my hunting licence. Well this is when it started to get ugly. Now I have had some jobs where you have to "close" down for the night. I have been in the sitch that you are so eager to go home you are shaking. When I worked in restaurants we would hate it when people walked in with five minutes left and it would be like our world ended but we would make the food and quit crying. NOT THIS LADY. She had already put up the duck stamps. She looked me straight in the eye and said Sorry you will have to come back another day they are already in the safe we close in five minutes. So I looked at the door because I read when we walked in that they closed at 10:00pm and it was 8:55pm. I said the door says you close at 10. Then in a snotty tone she looked over then back at me and says well if you would have looked there is also a sign saying our new store hours are 9. It wasn't enough that she wouldn't get me my stamp but then to be a complete punk about the time change. I mean She admitted they weren't closed yet and told me they couldn't help me. YEAH GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE. It took everything I had to not freak out. Needless to say I wont be buying my hunting licence from there and will take a break spending money with B-ASS Pro. Ok i vented thanks everyone fro reading.

Peace

Mon-eeon-eeon-day

2009-01-05T14:12:00.000-06:00

I am in a great mood today. Which is a shock since I woke up so tired I almost fell asleep brushing my teeth. How do horses sleep standing up? I would be a terrible horse. any way... It is raining and nasty outside but it is cool watching the water freeze to the trees and make everything look plastic. We needed the rain which is strange for me to say in the winter time because no one in Colorado talks about rain in the winter. They don't panic until about July when we run out. In Texas though we always need rain.

Last night we went and saw a movie with our friends the "Sizzling Sprangs". That's a new nick name I just made up and it is officially patented right here by Russell's Inc. (also just patented.). I better not hear anyone saying it, or I will go crazy. We saw Valkyrie with Thomas Cruise. It was really good. I really wish in school they taught more about how not all the German people hated Jewish people. When I was in school it seemed all of the Germans were ok with it. I learned later they weren't but youngsters deserve to know the truth. The movie was fun and full of good knowledge.

Brad "The Wilderness" Bloomer invited me hunting this weekend. He has duck fever since he shot his first one. I am stoked about it and hope I get a chance at one. Marilyn will have to pluck it and gut it cause that's gross and I wont do it but I think shes ok with it. JK I will be doing it all. I may see if she can use some of her super cooking powers and make some crazy French recipe on it that she heard some where from someone she can't mention. My wife is a good cook but I swear she gets her recipes on the black cutting board market. Get It?

I will keep you posted.
Take er easy

Peace.

Vacation

2008-12-30T15:12:00.001-06:00

I think in the profession I am in that I should be given the same vacations as a college student. I literally have just sat here and stared out the windows for two weeks. In my field of work a week before Christmas all of the Hispanics that are working here in Dallas go home to Mexico for two weeks and all the construction work comes to a grinding halt. It sucks but I guess the work force is being listened to, or they all save up their two week vacations for this time and never miss work during the year. I am complaining but all I want is to just have the long weekend this week. Everyone else is going to have Friday off why not me too? I want to just sit at home or go hunting but NOOOOO. I have to sit here and count how many ford f-150's pass in front of my store. 157 so far today.

The visit from my father in law has been very enjoyable. We are sharing custody of him with my wife's sister. We cam to the conclusion that Marilyn and I get him holidays and weekends Sue get him while we are working. Jk its all in fun. I hope he feels that he has gotten enough quality time with his kiddos.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME. I literally just got a call from my wife and She gets FRIDAY OFF TOO!!!! I hate my life right now. I work with stupid rednecks and I don't get the day off. I need that day off for mental health. ok I am done I don't have the energy to write anymore.

Peace

Christmas Is Close

2008-12-23T13:53:00.000-06:00

Today is another crappy day. I moved here for sunshine not clouds. Blech. Well the dogs have kind of come into their own and are getting better. Even though Frankie threw up a tile separator the other day. I hope he doesn't have a belly full of them. I think they are helping potty train our little princess. We have left her out with the others and the haven't been any accidents. YEA! I completed my gift shopping and wrapping yesterday. Thank goodness. Marilyn, me, and some friends went and saw "yes man." Sunday night, and it was really good. I recommend you see it, it was some of Jim's best work.

Marilyn and I are going on a cruise with our friends from Kansas City and it is only 47 days away and today we picked our excursions. In Jamaica we are going to go river rafting. In the Cayman islands we are going to just go to the beach and I am going to try and get a couple boxes of cigars. Then the next one is my new favorite and I am really excited about it. We are docking at Cozumel, Mexico and then we get on a ferry and take a 45 min trip to the Yucatan peninsula. From there we hop in a jeep and go 4X4ing to some old Mayan Ruins and then eat authentic Mexican food and hit the beach. The places they take us are going to be awesome. We get to go into a cave and swim in a pool the old Mayans used to cleanse them selves. I am super pumped about it. Bravo to Marilyn for picking this one.

Marilyn's dad comes in Christmas evening and we are so excited to have him. He such a cool guy and we always have a really good time with him. Have a merry Christmas everyone if I don't see you.

Peace

And it starts.

2008-12-19T13:56:00.000-06:00

Well puppy invasion started off with a bang. We got the first dog at about 8:30 and the seconds parents left about 9:00. At 9:05 Frankie barfed on my rug and the other one licked it while Marilyn screamed and I yelled at her to clean it up. Then after that it was smooth sailing ... or so I thought. At about 5:30am my wife woke up and asked if I farted. I said no and asked why and she said "oh no!", the pug had erupted in the crate without warning. Not the best start to a day but I have no choice. Let us hope that this is just cause they were nervous about being in a new place.

Yeah for Friday.

Gloomy

2008-12-17T16:25:00.000-06:00

Today was a cloudy just yucky day. Me being sick and the day sucking really took away all my energy. I am really looking forward to bed and starting a new day tomorrow. Hopefully the sun will be out.

Last night I hung some curtains for my wife. I was not the nicest about it cause I was running a fever but I can only take her begging me for so long. I must admit they look great. Now we have to save up and buy new furniture to match it all. We got a killer deal at Linens and Things. They are going out of business so I highly recommend you get out there and take advantage of it.

This morning I got in my garage and saw all the things I have "accumulated" from my friends. I think instead of Christmas presents I will return all their stuff. I would have a ton more room in there.

T minus 27 hours until puppy invasion '09. pray for us.

Peace.

Christmas

2008-12-16T15:46:00.000-06:00

I found myself realizing how much I don't get excited for Christmas like I used to. All my old excitement was about the gifts and now days I really don't care as much. I mean of course I would be upset if I didn't get anything but it has become more of a burden then a sense of joy. I know that sounds bad because what I should be celebrating is Jesus. I Do know what this Holiday is all about but man it is amazing how the stores really make it about gifts. Why is it that Red and green are all you see from Halloween to New years? What do those colors have to do with anything? Any way I got my wife some really good stuff I hope she likes it.

I went camping this weekend again and it was way awesome. I got to shoot all my new guns they were awesome. My first shot with my rifle was right on but when I got back to 150 yrds it needs sighted in a little bit. I didn't bring enough rounds after playing around to sight it in all the way, but I think next time that is all I am going to do. I need to go to a range with a holder so I have no control of the gun at all. I found a cool web site to order cheap ammo which will help this cause.

I hurt my back this weekend and have been nursing that which sucks. I hate how a hurt back takes you out of everything. This is such a big pain. Some times I feel when I move like I just disconnected my spinal cord. (OUCH!)

IT SNOWED HERE TODAY!!!! I miss the snow from home and today was a good moral booster all around. I love snow (in small amounts). This also shows that people in Texas panic like crazy when its cold and wet they don't travel any speed between 10 and 75mph. They are either slamming on their brakes to slow down or crawling along. They wouldn't last 1 minute in Colorado. Which was -8 on Sunday props to the Arctic weather. Sorry mom you need to move down here we had our low for the year 26. (shiver)

Long time

2008-12-11T10:53:00.000-06:00

Once you get out of the habit of blogging it is really hard to get it up and running again. I Have really done a lot the last couple weeks. My moms visit was a huge success. She had a great time and really loved the property. I got spoiled like crazy and loved every minute of it. I am officially ready to hunt I have all my guns and camo and just need to go shot a little to get used to the new guns. I am going camping this weekend and I may go sit out for a while and see if I can get a look at any bucks. Just to see. My wife and I are in the Christmas spirit and cant wait to celebrate our Saviors birth. all our friends and family are leaving and we are going to have a house full of doggies. I am a little worried about taking care of all of them. I hope I don't forget to feed one and I hope that they all will be ok with each other for a week. At least they are all cute. Church is going good and I am feeling the real story of Christmas. I feel like I have so much to say that it would really take a new server to get it all out. I will do my best to start keeping up with it. I hope every one is enjoying the Christmas Season.

Peace Drew

Excitement

2008-11-25T09:20:00.000-06:00

Today is the day my mommy flies over the ocean. Jk Shes is just coming to visit. My wife and I have spent the last week cleaning the house. It really is surprising how much the house work builds up even when you think you are staying on top of it. House work sucks!!! Today is our office Thanksgiving day party and my wife is coming over it should be fun. We have a ton of stuff planned for this week hope mom wasn't coming to rest. I am really looking forward to this week.

Two of our very good friends are pregnant and she is just starting to show. I am so excited about it. they are having twins. I am pumped and they aren't even my kids. I am going to love those babies. I love all kids and can't wait to have my own. (fingers Crossed)

Well I know this was short but I have a ton going through my mind and cant focus on typing. take er easy.

Peace and Love.

Weekend

2008-11-18T15:12:00.000-06:00

This weekend was a lot of fun. I had a bunch of friends out camping at my moms new land. It was a blast. We all got there and set up our camp site and got the tents ready. We knew it was going to be cold but we were all so pumped about being camping that we didn't care. I was planning on using tall these big guys to help me work but it turned out to be more fun then work. We started out shooting our guns which is never boring. I just bought a new shot gun and it shoots like a dream. Funny story: we were out there shooting and I really want to be able to try and share my passions with my wife. So I talked her into shooting my gun. Which wasn't hard but turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. She said ok I will shoot it once. She walks up and after I show her how to hold it and tell her how to aim she said she was ready. She yell Pull and the clay pigeon flies, Marilyn aims and Boom! She turned it to dust her very first shot!!! Every one was so impressed and I was so proud that I gave her a chest bump. Not the most romantic thing but I was excited what can I say. After we shot guns for a while we got to work cutting down trees. Brad and Fred had their chainsaws and boy do those things make life easier. We loaded up the truck and drove the wood to the campsite. After we unloaded I got to pull brush and trees out of piles with my truck to make more of an entry way to the property. This was awesome my old truck did me proud. To cap off the first night we started a huge Bonn fire to burn off the brush and boy did we need it. It was Freezing. the next morning we woke up to a frost covered wonderland. we were all so cold but that is my favorite type of camping. It reminded me of home. I cant wait to show mom her new home away from home. Hope everyone else had a good time to this weekend.

Peace and Love.

Obama

2008-11-05T11:25:00.001-06:00

Well we lost the good fight. Jk I wanted McCain but it is not the end of the world I hope. McCain had a great speech and I think proved to the world that he's not Palin and he deserved the white house. I live in Texas and am surprised by all the peoples reactions. I have heard more about how long it is until an assassination attempt than anything else. That makes me afraid for my country. I didn't want Obama but it happened and now its time to support and back our new president. Hopefully the house can be unbiased and they actually do whats in the best interest for the American people. Palin 2012!! Jk I hope we get a stronger candidate.

Its been a while since I have chatted with my blog I wonder if it misses me? Every thing in my life has been a whirlwind in the past couple months. I am so busy all the time. I like it some times but it make me so tired other times. This weekend is another action packed one. I have two birthday parties to go to. Hope my liver can keep up. jk. My mom is coming in less than three weeks and I am so excited to take her out to her new land and go look at some Cattle ranches and homes for her to get excited about moving down here. I have a comping trip coming up and a lot of other fun thing that i am getting jazzed for. That's all I have time for today. Sorry I haven't been here in a while I will try to be more vigilant. Peace and love.

Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Tired, and random thoughts.

2008-10-21T07:58:00.000-05:00

It seems that no matter what I do I wake up tired. I wish I knew the cause of this. I bet it is sleep appneia but I refuse to give in to it. I think Marilyn told me last night I stoped breathing but I didn't notice so I dont believe her. I think my not wanting to admit it is becasue of that mask they have to wear when you have it. I dont think I could get used to it, and I think it would make intamcy harder. You can't really cuddle with a scooba mask on. I have told my self that if I am not going to get my sleep checked out that I need to choose to have a good mood all day and not complain about being tired. Isn't it neat that you can tell yourself to be in a good mood and sometimes it actually works. I am going to "train" myself to be in a good mood all the time. I wish this was possible but I will do me best.
My wife and I love the hollidays. From October through January we pretty much go all out in decorating. well maybe not as all out as some people but pretty much as all out as we can get. when i say me I mean Marilyn mostly. I kinda slack on the little stuff but I will be the one hanging the lights after she tells me where to put them. I bring this up because this is the first year we are in our house during the Hollidays. We are really excited to decorate and just really have fun with our home. Marilyn bought christmas lights this week and we plugged one strand in and it was so bright, I think when we get all of them up our house will glow. We really like the Big bulbed C9 lights and these are going to look so good. An added bonus to all this is, that through work I can get a man lift for free. So there wont be any climbing up and down a ladder a thousand times. This is good for me cause now I wont be dead tired after I spend a day hanging lights. Yea me!
My mom is coming to visit and this is going to be an awesome thanks giving. I really miss her and she always cooks like crazy for the holliday I hope to have many treats and a lot of fun with her for the short time she is here. I think for this "Slapsgiving" we are smoking a turkey and having all the normal fixings. I just have to find me a good size turkey like three days before the feast. Wish me luck I dont know what its like down here but I can assume that they run out fairly quickly.
Ok well I will get on here later. Y'all keep it real.

tragic tuesday

2008-10-14T14:30:00.000-05:00

Turns out this week is just a depressing week. I found out today that in December they are moving another guy in over here and that they want to cut my hours. I cannot work here if I am not getting overtime. the only way you make money is because of it. So after them all telling me how great I am and how much they appreciate the hard work I do they don't don't give me a raise and want to cut my hours. I think my time here is done and it is time to look for a new job. I think that I am going to apply to other rental house until I am able to become a police officer. Yes to every one that is still my plan even though I am not really doing what I need to do. It is hard to find time in my busy schedule. If its not raining I am going running if it is I may just do weights tonight. I am trying to use this as a great motivation to work harder.

MonNoFunDay

2008-10-13T14:16:00.000-05:00

I dislike Mondays. I am always tired and they never go well. I wish we could sleep through them. Sorry I haven't visited you in a few weeks blog I just got busy. The last few days have been crazy all the way back to last week. My mom made an offer on some land and we accepted their counter offer. Basically she is a few signatures away from owning a new tract of land. So I have been helping her with all her questions and it has been a lot of fun being my mom's eyes down here. I am the biggest mamma's boy. I love that little old lady. Shes a huge role model of mine and I really, really look up to her and respect her opinion. I love talking to her and can't wait for her to visit for Thanksgiving. I hope I can talk her into going camping on her new property.

Marilyn and I have kinda hit a big issue/milestone in our marriage. Up until know money hasn't been a big deal. We have had a lot of unexpected bills and now we are hurting for money. Just as an FYI to all our friends we are about to be the no fun Russell's for a while. We are going to focus really hard on paying off all our debt and some how we talked our selves into doing it militant style. that means no allowance no nothing from the account until all our debt is gone and we have met all of our financial goals. I hope everyone will understand when we decline invites and re-invite them over to our house for free hangout time.

Petey's

2008-10-03T13:09:00.000-05:00

Tonight is my sister in laws b-day. It is going to be AWESOME. Normally I wouldn't be so excited about a night out except we are going to a place known as Pete's Dueling Pianos. If you haven't been to a piano place you need to go. This place is so fun it should be illegal. I plan on drinking and yelling until I can't talk. That always makes for a good weekend. Happy 26Th birthday Sue!!! Thanks for planning it at this awesome place.

From one side of the world to the other. From partying like its 1985 to the bible. Ha! You didn't think I could do that but I can. I was reading in Acts about Jesus's crew, and it turns out Jesus rolled deep. He had his Twelve right lets call them his "A" team. Then he had like replacements for each of them. In Acts it talks about how the disciples replaced Judas after Jesus was killed. Well Jesus had the final say but I just thought that it was neat the Jesus had like A,B, and C teams. That would make us like ACDFZ Team. Chew on that.

I am awesome.

Work

2008-09-30T15:46:00.000-05:00

Well the guy quit and now I am busy at work. The only plus side of this is that now the day goes by quickly. I barely have time to blog. Jk I can always find time for that. :) In all seriousness I haven't ran around like I have the past couple day since I framed houses. Its been fun. There is nothing more manly then getting in a huge earth moving machine and driving it around. In the little skid steers you can pop wheelies and just ride it out. I love doing that by the way. That and they do the tightest doughnuts. I cant wait until we get our land then I can rent a DOZER!!! Take that Marilyn. I will have to invite friends to this and we can all take turns. It is going to be awesome. I may make a weekend out of it.

Our pastor at church gave a crazy sermon on Sunday. It was so good I am afraid to do anything except sit at the house and pray. It talked about gossip and taming your tongue. It was like he lives with me. It really woke me up to how much I still need to grow as an adult. Sometimes I forget I am still a kid. Not literally of course but I am very young. I really don't like to stir up drama but have noticed that lately I have started talking about people when they aren't there. Nothing really bad just little comments. Some people I am around have a lot more to say but its not about them is it? I need to work on my self. Levi said that the things you say are a reflection of inner problems. I realized that I lie a lot. Not to everyone mind you, mostly to the woman I love the most. How sad is that? I have really been working on this lately and to hear Levi talk about it this way really gave me motivation. Its not that they are big lies they are usually because I feel it would be easier to say one thing cause it creates less opportunity for me to get in trouble, when actually it does the opposite. Like the other day she asked where I was and I said I left work early to play disc golf with Levi. I had actually taken the whole day off cause I didn't feel like going in and used my sick time. I was in the middle of a round and was trying to get off the phone to continue playing. I don't know why I felt I needed to say that but I did like it was second nature. I fesses up later and got in way more trouble than i would have been in had I told the truth. How childish! It was like a natural reaction and after the sermon this scares me big time. I realized that I have some crazy trust issues. I am not sure why i can't be open and honest. If any one wants to help feel free to jump in this mess. I mean I might need an army of loving people to whip me into shape.

I know this is random but it has really got me excited. I need to work on my truck next month and I plan on doing the brakes. I hope I don't mess them up and crash. Foretelling any one. Jk I hope.

Peace

THE OFFICE!!!

2008-09-25T09:06:00.000-05:00

Tonight is the night all the waiting ends. Are Dwight and Angela getting back together? Will Jim finally ask Pam to marry him? Will Micheal say something stupid? Of course he will. If you have no clue what I am talking about you need to slap yourself and get with the program. I am a huge fan of the office and tonight it comes back on for another season to make me uncomfortable with all of its awkward glory. We are having a party at my house to enjoy this with most of our friends. Whom I hope wont judge me to much on how into it I get. It is going to be so much fun. I think it is the greatest comedy on TV right now. I am really excited about watching this if you cant tell.

Saturday we are seeing the other property that we are interested in. This one will be a really good hunting property but it might not be as nice as the other one for a house. I think this one would be better for hunting but not for living is what I am trying to say. I found out my mom is bringing her shotgun down here for me to have until she moves down here. This is awesome by the way. It is a 20 ga Mossberg tactical. She has a pistol grip and a regular butt. How cool. Any one that has ever met my mom should stop and think about this tiny little lady holding this big shot gun. I chuckle thinking about how cute it would look as long as she is facing away from you. I might see if I can talk her into getting a pistol instead I think she could handle it better.

I have started reading John for a bible group thing and when I did it took me way back to my baby christian days of TEEN QUIZZING!! Maybe not that cool but I remember it was on the book of John. I hope that when we get together to talk about it I don't jump out of my seat and rattle off any memory versus. jk. I started thinking about how awesome I was at quizing. I am a little ashamed to say that in Colorado there was only one kid that beat me in the three competitions I did with the whole state. I had trophy's for each of the three competiions. When I quit quizing there were a lot of people that were upset by it. OK well there is your Andrew's haunted past tidbit for the day. keep it real hommies!

Week End Up date

2008-09-22T11:41:00.001-05:00

This weekend was BUSY. Saturday we spent all day looking at properties. we have one that we all really like and two more to look at. The only thing about the one we like is that the neighbors have cows and there is no fence so they just come on over. I don't know how we could get them to put one up or if we would have to front the cash. Sunday we had church and were missing some vital people to help set every thing up. It took a little more time but over all went ok. After that we went to a lunch and it was really fun.

I have been planning some parties at my house and the first is Thursday a which is "The Office" season 4 premier. We are super excited about this one. All my shows are coming back on. I love fall all my TV shows are back. the next party is the first annual Russell Halloween party. It is going to be awesome I have my costume picked out already!!!

I might lose my first fantasy game tonight. I hope that Gates does terrible.

this week should be a good one. Real busy but I will make the most of it. I am really excited about Saturday looking at the last two properties will be really good.

Manly

2008-09-18T08:45:00.001-05:00

For those of you living in a bubble, last week a hurricane blew through Texas. We just got high winds and a ton of rain where I live. Our electricity kept clicking on and off, and sometime during that our refrigerator broke. We spent about two hours on Saturday cooking a ton of meat to keep it from spoiling. I tell you this to explain why I stayed home yesterday.

I woke up to the repair man calling to tell me he would be late. So I got up and decided to work on my truck. I love working on my truck nothing makes me feel more manly than doing auto work. All I did yesterday was an oil change and I changed out all the plug wires for new ones. Its amazing how important I feel when I do these little things. Some where in doing this I mess up a fuse again and it would start. Talk about a huge blow to the ego. Here I am thinking I am the manlyest man in the entire world, go to start it an nothing. (ouch my pride) I am officially not ever taking the truck to an auto shop again. They charged me 100.00 to put a fuse in my truck. That is wrong. It was like 10 dollars in parts and 90 in labor. I could have done it myself for way less than that. I will not be making that mistake again. I would rather ride my bike than pay some one to look at my truck, then try and stick it to me. I ended up missing a whole day of work which sucks but had to be done cause the repair man didn't show up until a little before 2:00pm. They were supposed to be there between 8:00am-12:00pm. The dreaded four hour window. During all this I get a call from the tow truck driver and he tells me that he broke my mirror and that he needs a couple days to get me a new one. I called the office where he works and he told me he will get one today. We will see but at least I have called the office so that if he doesn't I will get me new mirrors.

I am getting rally excited about looking at all the land my mom wants to look into buying. I hope Marilyn is ready to take some pictures. It is going to be so much fun to spend that day hiking around my new potential camping ground. This is all going down Saturday.

Last night I went over to my buddies house. I really like hanging out with him. I need to invite him over though this friendship is so one sided and I feel bad.

Twosday.

2008-09-16T11:07:00.000-05:00

Yes I know that, that is not the correct spelling. Hidden meaning? maybe? Any way. The past couple of days have been really busy. Sunday we had church and a full day of foot ball, we also ate with family and went to a birthday party. Yesterday we had people over for dinner and Monday night football. The game last night was crazy for anyone that missed it. I watched as my fantasy team slowly started to lose its grasp of the lead. I won by .55 of a point. I am still undefeated and feel pretty good about my chances to take this whole thing. I have been busy helping my mom find some land down here in Texas and then trying to just relax. It has been really nice but when I think back on the past two days I see that I have gotten a lot done. My poor wife, man I love her. I went to bed Monday night and woke up to a spotless house. I just want to publically thank her for all the work she does. I think I do a lot around the house but then I see all the little stuff shes done and it puts me to shame. I love you Marilyn and all the nice things you do to keep the household moving. (intenet kiss) Sorry about that guys but it had to be done! Moving on.

I went last week and played Disc Golf with my friend Levi and he found this new course, it was a really fun course. Also a while back I asked my neighbor whom I am trying to get to know better if he would like to go. I told him let me know when ever he is free to go and yesterday he said he was free Thursday and Friday. I never thought he would take me up on my offer. So I am going to take him to this new course, I hope he has fun and that I can start becoming his friend. Thats not to girly is it?His name is Kyle and he has two little boys, the youngest one is the only one I have met and he is so cute. I came home one day and I hadn't mowed my yard in a while it was getting long. Any way I pulled up and his son is in my yard cutting my grass with scissors. How funny is that. The little boy really wants to meet my dog Kobe and is always coming up to the fence trying to see him through the boards. Any way I hope it goes well.

I have to cut my grass today and I am not looking forward to it.

Oh the Texas state fair is almost here. I think I am going to go tonight and get my wife and I's season pass. It is so much fun to go out to the fair for a fun and cheap date. We have a friend that lives for the fair it seems like, so we go a lot. Shes kind of got us hooked on it. The food is good and we like to just go and act like kids again.

I am sitting here trying to think if there is anything else I want to tell you guys but I cant think of anything. If something comes up I will let you know.

Peace.

GOD OF THIS CITY!!!!!

2008-09-15T16:48:00.000-05:00

Dibs on this song. I was asked to blog about a song we sing in church and how it speaks to me. I think it was so important that will post it on two different blogs. Man there isn't a song I have heard in church that speaks to me the way this song does. My wife said that it should be the "theme" song for our church. I would whole heatedly agree. Not just our church but any church. This song to me talks about how great God is, and how much he has done for us. It also reminds us that it is our job to share his love. Not force it on people but to just love people. What greater compliment could we give God then to try and love the way he does. No strings attached or hidden goals, just love. I know in my personal walk with God I want to be someone that just loves people no matter what. I don't care if you agree with who they are or what they choose to do, just love them. This for me is very hard to do, but is something I really am trying to work on. It is not our job to judge. If Jesus can be around the people and love the people he was with then I should be able to do the same in my life. How great would our world be if everyone just loved each other with out question or expectations? Not just the people that are Christians but Muslims, Jews, Atheists, or anyone that believes anything. What I wish would be that as a community of humans we could learn to love. This would change the world. "Greater things are yet to come. Greater thing, are still to be done in this city!!!!"

Excited

2008-09-12T12:57:00.000-05:00

Well I don't know if I have blogged about this yet, but the people I hang out with are probably sick of me talking about it. Well suckers here it is again. I really wanted some land to start my professional hunting career on. (not a pro at all) So I started looking at leases for my friends and I to share. In doing this I saw that people are making a ridiculous amount of money off this land. Like 1500-2000 dollars a person. For that much money you can only bring yourself out to hunt. Like your family can't even go camping on it while you are out there. LAME!! So I started researching how much it would be to buy a plot of land. Turns out you can find some great deals here in Texas. I found some that I would be like four or five years from even thinking about buying seeing as I just bought a house and got married so it wasn't in the cards. I called my mom just to catch up and mentioned it in passing about how owning land down here would be cool and the deals I found on the Internet. Next thing I know she calls me up and asks me to look into some land down here for her to buy in the next year and a half. I called her back to tell her what I had found and she said, "well I want to retire in four or five years and would like to live in the country close to my future grand babies. It would also be nice if it was all paid off by the time I got there." I thought that was very cool. Then she unloads the mother load of good news. She wants to buy land in November. That's right I said NOVEMBER like in two months from now November. This is so exciting! Maybe not for you but for me I can't control how happy I am about it. Next weekend we are going to try and get out to go look at some of the properties I have found on the Internet. I don't want to say where seeing how this is so public someone might snipe the land from my dear Mommy. I guess the gun purchase wasn't in vain after all.

Another bonus of this is having my mom so much closer to my family again. I have really missed her. I am about the biggest mama's boy in the world. Who wouldn't be when you have the bestest mom in the whole wide world. In a few years when Marilyn and I are ready for kids it will be a jack pot of love, they will be able to see their Nana a whole lot more than if she was living in Colorado.

Fantasy Foot ball

2008-09-10T13:06:00.000-05:00

Turns out doing fantasy foot ball was a bad idea. Not because its not fun or anything just because I AM (sorry about the type o) addicted. Its not good for my mental health. I sit at my desk at work and just read over all these NFL happenings and see how I can use that to benefit my team. I keep talking my self into and out of starters. I am basically panicking about if I might win this weekend. This Sunday I will be curled in the fetal position watching the game with my lap top out yelling at the players. I ended up wining last week and this week I am facing one of the top teams. If I can pull out a win here I feel I can take the whole thing. I am gambling on some people this week though. I don't want to say whom it is cause I will jinx them.

Last night (pastor) Levi called about doing some in depth bible boot camp with me and I couldn't go, bummer. I am really excited to start reading and studying the bible more in depth. I hope to be his best student. Jk its not school. Every time I read the bible I get half way through Genesis and get bored and stop reading it. Maybe with a little accountability I will be able to get all the way through it. Levi better carry a big stay on track stick.

Any one want to play disc golf? Oh I bought gun the other day here is a pic. Its my first shot gun for my new hunting career. Its a Remington 1100 12 Ga semi auto.

Official Driver

2008-09-05T12:36:00.000-05:00

Today I wrapped up a two day effort that ended with me being a licensed driver again. I took the written test yesterday, which is way harder than I thought it would have been. I am pretty sure I was one question away from failing. Today it was all different I owned the driving portion. The lady said I had one of the best scores she ever had. Take That! So basically I am getting bored with everyone telling me how great I am at every thing. JK. Also I am now a registered voter in Texas. Thats right I am going to make a difference. Jk Voting for president is like arguing over which M&M color tastes better. They are all the same. Not only do they not make decisions for them selves they are basically pawns the do what the house and senate tells them to, Or whom ever the highest bidder is. Any way now when I get pulled over I wont have to make up a lie about leaving my licence at home. I can take the tickets like every one else.

Oh THANK GOD ITS FRIDAY. I don't know if I could take much more of this week.

Hunting

2008-09-03T15:23:00.001-05:00

Well over the holiday weekend I got to shoot some guns and really enjoyed it. Now that I am an adult I want to pursue something I have never done before, hunting! I spent the last two hours of yesterday and most of today looking up camo on the Bass Pro website. Man its expensive stuff. Every time I look at it though I get excited. I don't know what to buy first the out fits or the guns. In looking all this stuff up I started researching where to go hunting in Texas. Turns out it is nothing like Colorado. Here you have to lease land from some one and it runs about 2000.00 a person!!!! So I got the idea of just buying some land and making the payments. I found some plots of about 10-20 acres of forest and ponds for 30,000-60,000. If I went into it with a few of my friends that would want to hunt, camp or ride four wheelers or what ever there, I think it would be a much wiser choice in the long run. Not only would we own the land but we could turn it into our own lease if we didn't feel like hunting that year. So now I just have to talk my buddies into going in on it with me. Well no talk them into it but see if that is something they might be interested in.

Wish me luck.

Week End Up Date

2008-09-02T13:07:00.000-05:00

If you cant tell I blog at work. So these weekend updates may get a little lengthy. That being said lets get started. It all started Saturday when I slept in. That was fabulous by the way. I woke up and my wife made biscuits. There is nothing better in the morning than waking up to the smell of warm biscuits. Any way I got up after laying in bed awake for like 30 minutes. The only reason I got up is because I had to work on my wife's car and it was getting hot out side. Got up ate buttery biscuits and jelly then took out my wife's head light and headed to the parts store. Got there and saw they were having a sale on some things so I bought stuff for my truck that I thought would be easy to fix and headed home. After a minute my wife's car was fixed. I think that the first time something on her car took such little time. Newer cars are so complicated. So I started on my truck, I am a little embarrassed to say this but I got bettered by a little piece of plastic. I couldn't take my plug wires off because a little plastic clip got stuck and I couldn't get it open. The fact that it was a million degrees and I was soaked with sweat might have had something to do with me giving up so easily. My truck had been riding a little rough lately and I took the plugs out and found out why. They must have been the stock plugs from the factory. they were old and not good. I replaced those and it runs so much better. After I finished that up I got the bug, The cleaning bug that is. It doesn't happen often but when it does watch out. I took the seats out of my truck vacuumed under them and then shampooed the entire truck. I also cleaned all the interior and then armor-alled the entire inside of the truck. I love that truck and now even more cause all the nasty stains came out. I highly recommend shout to anyone that has stains in the carpet on seats. It took out everything!!! Now I need new floor mats to match the sexy interior! Oh all this cleaning made us late to our friends house whom had big news by the way. Congrats friends!!!!

Next was church we had a different service. I don't know if I liked or loved it. It was ok and hit good topics but was a little slow. Maybe I was just tired. I think the things we talked about are important I just have never been a fan of reading and for lack of a better term "chanting" together. I will say that the music gave me a work out. Man this was the hardest Sunday for me the sound guy for some reason. Maybe cause I am getting better and notice the little things now, or maybe I was just struggling.

We went camping and it was AWESOME!!. There were guns, and fish, and fire, and burgers, and four wheelers, the list could go on. It was like a highlight reel of camping adventures. I did have a rough time in the fishing pole department. Last week I went camping and broke one of my fishing poles. So I went out and bought a new one just for this trip. I put on the reel and got it all ready. I set it up with a bobber and catfish bait cast it out and let it sit. I noticed it was drifting so I reeled it in for another cast. As I cast I heard a noise and looked just in time to see my reel fly into the lake. So I was tried to pull the string off of it and save it but the reel fell of the string and was gone for ever. I thought well at least I have the pole still. So I gave up fishing for the trip seeing as I had lost three lures and a reel. On the drive home the poles caught wind and I got to watch a semi run right over my new pole. The fish gods hate me. I will not be buying any more fishing stuff for a while.

And that was my weekend. Hope every one else's were just as eventful and fun.

America

2008-08-28T15:17:00.000-05:00

I dont mean this to sound worse than it is. I love this country and I think all my friends know that. I think it's great to have a melting pot of cultures and peoples all together under one country. What I dont like is when I have people that come to my work that don't speak the language or even try. I have customers that come in here and don't speak any english at all. Does any one know how hard it is to rent a machine using hand gestures and pictures. I know people will say well they dont know our language. They live here why dont they learn it? When I go on vacation I try to speak in thier language it's just easier for them and me too. If I lived there I sure as hell would know how to speak thier language or at least have a book so I can butcher or at least attempt to try to make it so that they can understand me. Ask my wife, we went on a cruise and I really tried to speak spanish the best I know how to the people we interacted with becasue it was easier that way. Not only was it fun to be able to communicate with the locals but it was also neat to be able to try and learn thier dialects and differences that I didn't know before. Ok any way that was a soap box.

Motivation?

2008-08-27T12:19:00.000-05:00

last night I pedaled up to my WW meeting and actually lost 4.2 lbs. I wish that I could use that as motivation. Its just that I really don't care how much I lose it is so hard to get out and exercises. Right now I am sitting here trying to talk my self into running tonight which wouldn't happen for another five and a half hours. I hope it gets easier. How long does it take to make a habit? People always say that if you can make yourself do it for two weeks straight it starts to be routine. I don't see that happening. In two weeks I expect to still have to talk myself into going. I just don't know if I will ever find running fun. I like weights but have yet to lift one. Maybe if I had a workout partner I would look forward to working out with some one. I guess this is what athletes call low mental toughness. I am going to go but just don't like to think about it.

Work is slow as usual and I even found extra stuff for me to do. Maybe I work to fast. I mean I watch people make their work drag on all day I can't do it that way. Something inside me always make me want to hurry and get everything done so that nothing gets left for tomorrow. It would bother me to do what all these other people do. Really how could you type up something take a five minute drink of a soda and talk for a little while, then get up and grab some papers? It all seems so boring why not get it all done and surf the Internet. Oh that's right the work place watches our Internet usage. That is all so lame. If I get done I think I deserve a little Internet time. not my fault the salesman aren't getting rents. Any way work sucks I wish I was rich or doing something that made a difference. Come on police academy. One year and counting.

Peace

P.S. Any one want a cat? She comes with many extras!!!!!

Bordom

2008-08-26T15:34:00.000-05:00

This morning at work was a little busier than normal. At least thats what I thought. I was running around being busy, got done with what I thought was a ton of work and it took me two hours. That sucks I had eight more to go. This place is sucking the life out of me. I am literally sitting here chewing on my beard so that I don't go to sleep. The Phone just rang!!!!! No one on it they hung up, what a let down. I would give you a play by play but I wouldn't be able to type anything. This place is a time vortex. Let me out of here crazy magical time keeper. Lame I know but I have nothing else to talk about.

Well lets focus on tonight. I am going on a 10 mile bike ride. Five each way and the way leads to the dreaded Weight Watchers scale. I feel used by going to that place though. I am paying for a scale, and the people there give you fatty looks while their skinny asses tell you, "you will do better next time". They make me want to smack that smug little "I already went through this" look right off their faces. This is why I have officially withdrawn my membership, but unfortunately when you sign up they give you a month after you cancel. So two or three more meetings, then I am scale free. The bike ride will be fun though, I do like riding my bike. Last night I went for a 1.5 mile run and cut a whole minute off my overall time. I think having my Mp3 player heps me keep a more steady pace. I wonder if they will let me use it on my test doubtful but maybe.

Don't tell my wife but last night she made me watch this movie. It was on of those romantic ones that usually make me sick to watch. The one last night was pretty good. There was this one guy that married this lady and I don't think he really liked her and he had the best one liners. I wish I could understand them better though. It think I missed a lot cause they spoke old English and I couldn't follow them as well. It so cryptic for me, like Spanish.

Have a great day all.

Whats Going on??

2008-08-25T09:42:00.000-05:00

I got to work today and started my normal routine. This consists of doing all the filing and mailing that needs done then going on the Internet to check email and read the news before it gets busy. (it never gets busy). So I am reading some stories and notice that there is never any good/positive news. All that our media reports on is tragedy. For me I used to always assume that these things were happening in some far of distant land. Then I moved to Texas. I have noticed that a lot of the really bad things happen here in Texas. I read a real bad one today and the first thing I thought after reading the head line was I bet it was in Texas. Sure enough San Antonio is where it took place. I just sit here and read these things, and hurt for the world. I mean, where are we taking this place? How do people get these ideas? Where and why would it seem like a good idea to hurt people as bad as they do? I would give specifics of the one I am talking about but it is so twisted and just wrong that it makes me sick to think about it. If you have questions you can ask me later. So I read all these terrible things and think this is why I love God and my church. I start thinking about how much I would love to help make this world a better place through my faith. Right as I start thinking about this I read another story about a catholic priest that is making a web site call "Miss Sister 2008". A beauty pageant for NUNS!!!! What kind of mockery is this? Really is this condoned by the Catholic church? Its no wonder non-Christians think that religion is a joke. This priest is quoted saying that "beauty is a gift from God and we shouldn't hide it". These women devote their lives to following God. Isn't that beautiful enough? I would think that this "pageant" is more about glorifying self then God. Isn't that blasphemy? Any who

I had a great weekend. I went camping in the heat and that was fun except for the sweating and fire ants. If you ever live in Texas remember this, the smaller the ant the more it hurts when they bite. Man those things hurt, maybe I am allergic. For real they bite me and I get little blisters. Well have a great day hope every one is well.

BIke Ride

2008-08-21T08:08:00.000-05:00

Last night I went for a bike ride around Rowlett. I met Marilyn for a date at Casa Nostra and it was really good. It must be a family owned restaurant because they were all very Italian. One guy would just randomly start singing like old operas in Italian and he was a pretty young guy. The food was really good which always make me a little bias. When we got done I was going to go shopping with Marilyn but looked at the clouds and seeing how it looked like rain and I was on my bike I decided to just head home. I took the long way hoping I wouldn't get caught in the rain but wanted to see what it would be like to ride my bike for fun again. It was nice. I went through some parts that made me think of the river ride in my home town. Oh last night at dinner I heard a lady talking about Grand Junction. Just thought it was neat to hear someone else know where I am from. Its a little city but we are a proud people. Jk. Any way the bike ride was nice then I sat outside in the cool weather until it started raining. It was such a relaxing evening. we watched Semi Pro again for me first time for Marilyn. That movie is so funny. I really enjoyed it.

After the movie Marilyn had me play some new songs on my guitar. Well I say play but mean hobble through it. Its fun though. I want to learn these songs so when I go camping with my future kids I can bring my guitar and play song by the fire. Man that sounds fun. Overall I had a great day with my work out plan and my wife. I like those days. :)

Day One!

2008-08-19T09:07:00.000-05:00

Last night I did my first evaluation day. My plan is to once a week do the physical agility test that I will have to pass to get the job as a police officer. I was right about where I thought I was overall. I was 2 seconds over the sprint time and 7 minutes over the 1.5 mile run. So I have some work to do. Also I have to be able to do 25 push ups and I am about 12 on those and I have to be able to do 29 sit ups in a minute and I suck at those. I think after I lose weight though the vertical leap wont seem so impossible. It has to be 19 inches and I think I could get six maybe. So I know what I need to work on and am willing to get it done. While my times sucked I had a personal achievement. I ran 1.5 miles without stopping to rest. I thought I was going to die but now that I have done it it really helps my mental toughness. Now I just cant let myself slack. Watch out Rowlett here comes officer Russell.

Happy, Sad Rain

2008-08-18T13:37:00.000-05:00

Today is Monday and what a lame Monday it is. Its Raining which is good and bad all at once. good cause its not as hot now and we needed rain. Bad cause its the first day of my new getting in shape life. I now get to run in the rain. Maybe if I think happy thoughts it wont suck as bad. I looked up all that things I have to be able to do to get into the police academy and am going to try to go today and get all my base stats to track my progress. That is if I can find a 1/4 mile track. Maybe Levi knows. He does have "Jesus on the Main line." thanks Marilyn. It doesn't make since I just wanted to use it.

I at lunch with Brad today at this bomb German restaurant it was so good. I love a good braut. I love Kraut even more though. I guess that's an OK addiction to have. I love pickled cabbage and i don't care who knows it. And yes, my wife knows of my twisted feelings for sour kraut.

The weekend was short and I am tired. The Olympics are on and I cant stop watching. I wish competitive eating was an Olympic sport wouldn't that be fun to watch? GO USA!!!

New Focus

2008-08-13T10:17:00.000-05:00

You know how people always say you should do what your passionate about? Well right now I am NOT!!! doing that. When I was in college I worked night shift at a 7-11. I used to have the night shift police come in every night and shoot the shit with me. I started asking about it and was fascinated with it. I started looking into it and even got the application to an academy. Then life happened and it got put on the back burner. Now that I have to get up everyday and sit at this desk I have started thinking if I could do this forever. I don't think I can. I mean there is room for advancement but do I really want to be in heavy equipment rental forever? Behind a desk? The answer to that is, if I have too. I don't want to be here forever but will do what I have to to pay the bills. OK, I did all that back story to say that I am officially trying to get in shape to get into the Rowlett police force. I have full support of my wife and am going for it.. (duh!, man in uniform of course shes OK with it.) jk If there is anyone that needs a work out partner let me know.

Fantasy Rock Ball

2008-08-11T11:37:00.000-05:00

This weekend was full of excitement and wonderment. It was so busy I feel like I got less sleep over the weekend than I did during the week. Friday night I went to my leagues live fantasy draft party at Jono's house. It was a ton of fun. most of the guys that aren't really into it got bored with the draft about round 10 but I loved it. I even went home and signed up for another league. This is the first thing I have been really excited about. Usually I like things and look into it get bored and quite. This is one of the first things I really want to learn all about. After I looked at it I see all my teams weak points and cant figure out how I will win. After the draft I lost 10 bucks in poker which sucked but I made it to the last three. The two that beat me split the pot like girls but what ever. I might have done it too, leave with more than you came with; every ones a winner. After poker came the newest love in my life, "ROCK BAND". If you haven't played this game you need to. It was Crazy fun. I sang at first and it was so cool. Does any one remember the Atari? I remember thinking how cool that was and now we have video games that can tel if your singing on key or not. We continued rocking into the wee hours of the morning. I got home at 4:00 am that's a late night.

Saturday we had a church sponsored movie night in the park. It was fun. We had a bunch of families that came out and watched the movie. We are doing it again next week hopefully the wind wont be there again. We only had it break once and got it fixed quickly so that it wasn't a big deal.

Sunday was church. It was good. the sound was kinda funky which is my fault I don't know what was going on with it. I think it was a bad pedal or something. I hope next week it goes smoother so we can get started sooner and get the bugs worked out. After church we went to lunch and then drove out to Jono's for more ROCK BAND. This was a great time and also turned out to benefit me cause now my wife is addicted to the game. Well maybe not addicted but she likes it enough to maybe help me get one. I think we are saving up for guitar hero 4 though. I wonder if I can get sponsored by them and if I talk about them enough I can get paid for it. From there we went over to the Sprangs to watch GSP beat the tar out of a guy with the best chin I have ever seen. After that I went home and watched the USA pull out a crazy upset in the 400m men relay in the Olympics. IT was awesome. Eat it FRANCE!!!!

From this long weekend I realized I need to spend more time with my wife. I was around her but not really with her. I need to devote as much time to my wife as I do all my "extra" activities. It's only fair and I think it would be a lot more fun in the house if we weren't always playing catch up on what we have been up too. I hope she feels the same way and isn't sick of me.

Goober

2008-08-07T09:13:00.000-05:00

Last night I took my wife on a date. It started out a little rocky cause I was joking around a little too much. Some times she doesn't like that. Who would have thought that? We went to this little Italian restaurant and it was so good. The food was good the service was good. Their bread is great and they bring you like a plate of 10 rolls at a time. MMM so buttery and good. Any way we ate and talked and really had a good time. Then we drove home while Marilyn rubbed her dinner baby. (aka. full stomach) After we got home and let out the kids to go potty ( we have dogs not actual babies) she got the urge to finish up the bathroom I started painting this week. So we got all of it painted but I kinda had some mishaps with the roller hitting the ceiling. So I have to paint the ceiling again anyway when we redo the trim. We had a good night none the less. As we were painting Marilyn was either on the toilet or ladder and lost her balance and smooth stuck her back on wet paint. We were painting in old clothes and Marilyn happened to be a tank top and panties so she had grey paint on one butt cheek her arms and her hair shes such a cute little goober. I got it on my foot. Not sure how but it was on the bottom of my foot. Funny how that works.

Last night when I was sleeping I was having this crazy dream. I was a Russian mail order husband working at a suit rental place with my crazy dream wife. My phone in real life's battery was dying and kept making a chirping noise. Now I took mostly psychology in my college stint and it is crazy what your brain would do. Every time my low battery notification would chirp in my dream my brain made that the ringer for the door. So in my dream the chirp meant someone else came in to rent a suit. That's CRAZY because my brain played along with it..

This morning my boss heard on the radio about a lady pressing charges against her husband because she woke up to him copulating with her. This was interesting to me cause in college in psychology you are required to "volunteer" for laboratories. One of the ones I ended up doing was all about the perception of forced intercourse. The result they gathered is that if you are married the public makes excuses for rape being OK. What really is the difference between a man forcing a woman into it and a husband forcing a wife into it? Nothing but a ring. This is all by the way my opinion, but I feel that you don't marry a woman and sex becomes a duty its a privilage and something special that is meant to be shared. Marriage is about love and if your doing that you don't really love or respect you partner. Any way thought that was intresting and interested to see what others think.

Another Universe

2008-08-04T09:26:00.000-05:00

Friday I took off work to go and get my drivers license. It was a very big awaken er. This place is the most awful place in the world. Not only did I not get my license but I also found out that I have to pay more money to get it again. This sucks, but isn't even the worst thing that happened. When I got there the second time after having to go home to get two more Ids for a total of four that you have to have in order to change an out of state license over to Texas I see that that lady in front of me is about 90 and cant hardly stand. I figured that she was there to renew an Id or something NOT!!!! a drivers license. Oh boy was I wrong. As her turn comes up she wheels her way to the counter with her rusted walker and tells the lady she needs to renew her license. She managed to fill all the paper work out in a record time of ten minutes while I stand in line waiting for her to finish. Next is the eye exam. I have never been so scared for my life. She was told to read the Fourth line. She rambles off some numbers and the lady behind the counter asks "what line are you reading?"

"Line four of course." states the old lady
" You got none correct can you try again?" the teller asks.
"Well its kinda fuzzy let me adjust my glasses." the lady says and rambles off some more random numbers.
"Are you sure your reading line four? Your not getting any number right." The lady says
Of course I am reading line four that's what you asked me to read." The old lady says a little irritated now.

"Can you try to read line three?" she asks.

This goes on all the way to line one let me say that again LINE 1! its like the big E on eye charts. the Numbers a huge. which the old lady didn't get a single number right. the lady behind the counter then explained that she is legally blind and needs to go see a doctor to get new glasses. The old lady looks her in the face and says

"I see just fine when I am driving I don't need new glasses."

She leaves and smooth gets in her car and drives off. I was terrified. Needless to say I am not looking forward to my next visit.

The weekend was fun. "Fusion" the band I help run sound for had a little teen concert and it was pretty cool to see all the teens react to the band in a cool way. My friend Brad rocked so hard on the bass on this one song I actually had to stop my self from throwing up the horns in church. The drummer in fusion is like a 15 year old prodigy. Hes going to be good. We also had our first church service in the theater and the sound in there is a MILLION times better than in the old church. I gave my self goose bumps with how awesome the band sounded. Not to toot my own horn or anything. It went really smoothly and I think this will help our church grow and reach some people we may not have been able to reach because of location and timing.

Adult Hood

2008-07-30T13:14:00.001-05:00

This week My sister in law's, husbands, cousin was in town. He is our age and is into partying like I thought I was. They want to go out at night and hang out and have fun and i just cant hang. I realized how old I feel. I can't believe how much having a "real" job affects how much fun I am. I really want to go but know if I go I will be so tired the next day. Waaawaaa. I know I am a little baby. I wish I had my wife's job she doesn't have to be to work until nine and gets off the same time I do. Lucky. That's what a college degree does for you though.

On a side note though I have noticed that since I have moved to Texas I have become more and more confrontational. I don't know if it is because my role has changed since I got married or I just got tired of being walked on like I used to. I am not sure its a change for the better. Its one thing to stand up for yourself and entirely different to be a bully or pushy or what ever negatives that could come from this attitude. I hope that my friends or wife will say something if I step over that make believe boundary. If you are scared to say something maybe bring Brad to the conversation. Hes a friend that's big and scary. (Jk) Hes not to scary but I definitely would think twice before getting mad at him. Mostly because of his man beard. For real that thing could take me in a one on one fight. Like sitting there looking at it I feel it sizing me up. Jk I love brad in a non-romantic way hes my boy.

And lastly I LOVE my wife. Just felt it need said today.

UnManic Monday

2008-07-28T11:01:00.000-05:00

Hello again. Well we had an eventful weekend. It was a lot of fun and hanging out with friends. The bar-b-Que was good, and the friend time was even better.I think I am going to in the future though buy a smoker that is mounted on a trailer so that we can have whole church function's. I was driving to see a movie with my friends and saw a smoker that would be prefect. I feel bad when we have a bra-b-Que and all my friends are there then I go to church and see all the other people that could have come. Its in those moments I want a bigger house just to have all those people over. So I think when we get in our new building I will have to buy a big smoker and then we can cook at the church, or at the house and transport the meat to the church or park. I really just want a big man smoker that would be awesome.

Work sucks again. I shouldn't complain though cause we are a little busier which is good, we are just missing more drivers than before. I found out today and by found out I mean eaves dropped some info. About how our company is not making enough money due to the economy. Luckily my division is making more money than we did last year so the cuts wont come from here. This economy needs a boost. I guess this just shows that no one wanted to rent equipment with their stimulus check. LOL.

Oh! My wife got this fine hair cut this weekend. I really like it. Shes a super hottie and the hair cut bumps it up even more. Though it is very similar to like four people we hang out with. Ok well talk to you later.

Issues

2008-07-24T11:40:00.000-05:00

Today I get to work expecting everything to be a little better, but no. Everything hit the fan this morning. I show up to no driver again. the machines I need to have going out are all wrong, and one got given away the day before I need it. Luckily most of this fell on my manager so they finally get to see what I have to deal with on a regular basis. Suck IT!!!! I wasn't liking and finally I have been justified. so while it was hectic it was all worth it.

Last night I stayed out way to late. 10:30pm, that's right I know that early but not for me. That's way past my bed time. We were "forking" our friends house. "Forking" is the act of covering a yard with as many plastic forks as possible with out getting caught. They just moved in up the way from us, "over yonder" for all the Texans that may read this. It was so much fun and couldn't have worked any better. As we rolled up to their house, they were in the drive way so we had to incognito around the block. We crept around the side just in time to see them leave. It was jail break. Then with a multitude of forks being stabbed into the ground with blazing speed. 600 fork in two minutes. I don't think Spartans could do it faster. It was fun and I know that every one had a fun time. (even the clean up was a good time) Tonight I am going to rest it up big time.

Today a thought jumped in my head and I realized that I need to work on something. I have always said how much I dislike hypocrites. Ask my wife it is quite frequently that I say I don't like them. Today I was thinking about a conversation I've had with my pastor aka friend Levi and a few select others that I think wanted to listen, now everyone can read it. I have talked about how I don't like when the "church" not our church but the Church as a whole often says we need to save people but then they avoid certain groups of people. To what avail I guess would be my next question. I mean I think that everyone deserves Gods love and we are not the people to judge. I found myself today thinking about how i don't think I could hang out with certain people cause they make me uncomfortable or "rub me the wrong way". This is where the attitude of I want to save people just not those people I think starts. So I want to work on finding the good or something I can relate to in everyone. I don't want to miss getting to know someone because they aren't my normal. To gain anything in life you need to get out of your comfort zone. Wish me luck.

Another Long Day

2008-07-23T10:39:00.000-05:00

When I was younger I remember riding my bike every where. For me to ride ten fifteen miles wasn't that strange. I rode to school, to friends houses, every where. How I wish that I never got a car, .... sometimes. Being healthy was just a side effect of transportation. Now that gas is a million dollars a gallon I have tried to start riding my bike to and from the bus stop. Talking myself into it has been one of the most embarrassing things ever. I ask my self a lot how I got this big and looking back every morning to how hard it was for me to get out of bed to ride my bike tells me exactly how I got this big, laziness. I am turning over a new leaf or at least telling myself for the hundredth time that I am sick of being unhealthy. This morning I rolled out of bed to get on my bike at five in the morning. that may not seem early to a lot of folks but for me this sucks big time. I didn't actually make it to the bike until 5:30 and then had to load it in the truck to make my bus. I am going to look at this as a baby step toward getting healthy and saving money instead of a failure. Tomorrow, that's a great word. There is always a tomorrow. Its so easy for me any way to just say that and let every thing "work its self out". In the words of every motivational speaker I could imagine, for me I wont let it be tomorrow. Today is when my Life style is changing. I am going to need every ones help. Please!! I want, like my wife say all the time, "people to slap food out of my hands". I like to think I can do it by myself cause I am a man and have no weakness, but the truth is that if you put a sweet and cheesy cloche in front of my face I am going to eat it. No if ands or buts about it, that thing is gone. Man I love food and that is a huge problem. Maybe I should pay my wife to take me on walks, or put an add in the paper for a work out buddy. Not that this will fix every thing but it would make working out easier. When my friend Levi calls to go play Disc golf I would never say no. It is fun and for me any way good exercise, I need to make every thing fun that will help me get in shape. Why can I say yes every time to that, but say no to my poor dog that wants nothing more than work out with me? Kobe has to much energy, it's not really a work out when I take him. I make him pull me on roller blades. hes a beast, I love that dog.

On a different note work is good just really slow. For the second week in a row my Haul truck is broken. Today we put up metal shelving for the parts department. Not making this company a dime but keeping me busy. Kinda. I managed to find time in my busy day to write on here. Looking forward to the end of the day. and my short bike ride home. See you tomorrow. Who am I saying good bye too? My blog? ok good night blog. :)

First one

2008-07-22T14:43:00.000-05:00

Well today I was reading my friends blogs and figured that if they can do it, I can to. I started thinking what would I blog about. Would people want to know and read about my day? if so why, what do I have to offer? No really influential things would come from me. I mean I am kind of a wussy but I think I put up a good front. I mean do my friends really know me? What kind of person do I present myself as? Would they like the person my wife has to deal with all the time? How true is that, the only person that knows me is my wife. Is that what life is, a big show that my wife and I get to share? I guess still after all these years who I am is still clouded to me. How do you learn who you are? I know what I would like to be. How do I make myself what I want? Do I give my wife the stick and let her mold me into what I need to be? That's not fair, easier but not fair. Can any one give me an answer? I mean God knows right? Well there is a question, what does God want me to be? I have so many questions and no answers.
Today has been slow at work and I have had a lot of time to sit here and reflect on the sermons that a couple of friends of mine have given in a series titled "The Upside Down Ways of God". I really think that these new friends of my families are really helping me in ways I never thought possible. I feel that I have a bunch of good role models that I never had before. When I say role models I mean that in a very powerful way. I have had some conversations with my wife about how marriage and life is supposed to go. What is the norm if you will. I had no one to look at growing up and was completely clueless of what it would be like. I mean I tried to fake it but ended up making some huge mistakes. Luckily my beautiful and very sweet wife stuck with me and we've had to rely on God to make our marriage stronger than ever. To see all these kind and intelligent people interacting has given me something to kinda look up too. Its not like these couples are perfect or have been married a lot longer than me its just nice to see that I am not the only one that has these issues and that they are a great help and knowledge source.

Any way kinda got on a rant there. I will save some more of my internal issues for tomorrow. Peace