Big Baby

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

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

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

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!

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.

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.

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.