June 16, 2008

Taking stock

Church issues still are still going on that I won't get into but lets just say that several of us are not getting fed.

So I and two other men are working on setting up our own men's study. We are doing this for ourselves and not doing this as a church-sponsored Men's Ministry event, but we are telling people around church. If our pastor feel like he wants to be involved, then fine. If he wants to use Men's ministry money for this, then fine. But we are not asking for it. Then Men's ministry was kind of a mess and there are those who want to distance ourselves from it.

Yesterday during the morning message for Father's Day, I wasn't really following where the pastor was going, but one thing that he said was interesting. He asked can your childeren tell that God is a priority or important in your life? I thought about that.

So after church we went through BK and so I asked Jackson what he thought was important to me. We told him there is not a right or wrong answer and thta I just wanted his opinion. Honestly, I was a little nervous about his response because you don't know what will come out of a 9 year old. His answer was family and friends. That made me feel good.

Later Heather and I were talking and that I can see why he would not say God was important. For one, when I read, he doesn't see me do it. I do that after he and Reid go to bed. We are not good about praying before meals, etc. I can fully admit that am usually stagnate and not moving forward. My own issues and no one else to fault. But with this lesson, especially if I lead it, I have now where else to go but up.

June 13, 2008

Quick update

As of this morning, I am down 44 pounds since January 10th. So that is about 2 pounds a weeks over the last 22 weeks. Go me!.

June 11, 2008

Renovations, vacations and other such nonsense

So the other nonsense first.

I have taken 2 minutes off of my 5K run time and actually added distance. So instead of 34 minutes to do 3.1 miles, I can get up to 3.25 miles in 32 minutes and I can easily get that in over my lunch hour. So, I'm pretty stoked about that. I can also report that I am now down 43 pounds. So I'm on tract to be down about 80 pounds by my birthday in December. Awesome.

Now, renovations. So, 2 months ago we discovered water in our bedroom. Yes, water. Lovely when it is in the bathroom and more specifically, in the shower. But in the bedroom, not so much. Especially when it is running under a wall and soaking the carpet. Well, the shower pan cracked and that was the cause of the problems. So since then we have all been using the hall bath (aka the kids bathroom). Now here we are this week we are in the middle of the below scene:
Yes, that is tile you see on the ceiling. More to come after they finish that later tomorrow. So by next week after it is all grouted and sealed, we can have our bathroom back.
Now the cruel irony. We bought this house after it had been redone and all we had to do was move in. Yeah, now. Not so much. Tonight...we are standing in the master bathroom looking at the in-progress renovation/repair of our shower and decide with the new tile going in the wallpaper has to go, the floor in the bathroom really needs redone to match the new shower, and then, and then, and then. So we will see what we do next when we have the money to do so.
Oh my, this is the beginning of the end. Just shoot me now cause here we go.

So vacations. Vacations are nice. And so is this place: Great Wolf Lodge. Here is the outside:
This is is just the lobby: This place was just incredible, from the lobby to the water park to all of the details they take care of.

The room...
We had the Kid Kamp Suite and the kids had their own "camp" in the room. They slept in bunk beds in their "camp", had a little window, their own TV. one of the funnier things about the trip...throughout the day, at dinner, etc., you would hear the staff start a wolf howl, kind of like the wave in a crowd. One would start it and it would go all over the lobby, water park, etc. Our kids picked up on it and when they heard the wolf howl, they would howl. Reid's howl just too cute. In the end, the kids were beyond over the mood. More like over Saturn.



The Grapevine location had an 80,000 sq. foot water park (inside) and another water park area outside, something like nine water slides, a small kids area, a wave pool, a lazy river, hot tubs, a huge three-story water fort, and several other play pools. With our one night reservation, we were able to play in the water park for two days.They also had an arcade, restaurants (the spinach artichoke dip was to die for), an adult spa, a kids spa, and a thing called MagiQuest. You buy a wand for like 10 bucks and then go all over the hotel looking for clues to the Quest. There are pictures, treasures chests and crystals spread out throughout the hotel and when a kid would point their wand, the picture/chest/crystal would light up and give the next clue. We didn't have time to do it, but it was really, really cool.
That is about it for now.