Calling All Warriors

As the snow was coming down the other day, I remembered a certain snow ball hurling device from my childhood and started making plans to recreate this harbinger of snowy death.

One trip to Lowes, about $20 (yeah a little more than I had planned, but it's worth it to reminisce) and 10 minutes of work later I had two sleek snowball hurling clubs.

Note: Not intended as a bludgeoning device



These roughly 3 foot tall devices instantly craft perfect snowy cylinders of pain, provided adequate snow depth, within seconds that can be hurled at your unsuspecting victim.

So now comes the challenge. Anyone who has the nerve, the transportation, and the mental dexterity to face me on the snowy battlefield is welcome to try their luck. I'll even let you borrow one of my snow clubs. "Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you."

One Month Later

Figured I'd give every one an update on my running, and yes I feel like I'm legitimately running now. So I started out about 4 weeks ago and ran approximately 1.5 miles. I say approximately because the nature trail I jog on is a semi figure eight with disproportional loops and a vague estimate of length from the park's website. So at first I was running very inconsistently, but I've finally got it down to a routine. I run 3 days a week M, W, Sat because I have to wake up with an alarm on M and W anyway so what's a half hour earlier and Sat because I work most Friday's and running on Sunday sounds much less fun than having our Lazy Sunday Morning tradition. So yesterday I bumped my distance up by one more loop bringing my total distance to about 3 miles ( the most I've ever ran at one time more than once, or at least tomorrow will be more than once). I'm starting to get some nice tone in my legs, however I still have, as my brother-in-law so kindly put it, the "middle aged pooch"...sigh. Might be time for some cross training. Oh I timed my last run and it looks like I'm running a 6.5 minute mile. It's not exactly fast, but that was my first shot at 3 miles so my time will get better.

Stickin' with it.

Sympathy Pregnancy II

So I got enough responses that I thought this was worth a day two entry. Adam, n.p. means not paginated (sorry they make us use APA format instead of MLA in the engineering school).
So my morning started at 6:50 with my alarm going off; plenty of time for my run. Unfortunately it takes a lot less energy to hit the snooze button than it does to actually get out of bed. I guess the fact that Hudson was up a lot more than usual last night had something to do with it.
Ironically we had a Mexican smorgasbord for dinner including but not limited to chimichangas, saffron rice, pinto beans, fresh pineapple, home made guacamole and chips. We wont get into dessert.
So tomorrow morning I will get my Mexican laden stomach out of bed and run...er...jog.

Sympathy Pregnancy

So we have actually attempted to post stuff to our blog in the past 8 months, however each video we tried to upload has been rejected. This leaves us too angry to finish a post and we scrap the whole thing. However, I'm pretty sure I've talked to everyone lately so I wont bother with "bringing every one up to speed" on what's going on around here. Needless to say, all is well.

I did have a funny realization today, well actually this past month. It all started on September 30th. Katie and I were in Culpeper to go to our dentist appointments so of course we made a date out of it. After our cleaning we went straight to a fancy chocolate shop and bought way too much overpriced chocolate that we did not feel guilty about at all. Of course we didn't give any to our children simply because they wouldn't be able to appreciate the "exquisite and sensual flavors" as the rather flamboyant chocolateer put it.
Next we tried our luck at the lottery that is Goodwill. I found a nice pair of name brand jeans that looked new and Katie found a nice top (I think, it has been a few weeks). The only funny thing was that the jeans were a bit snug, however they were a 32 waist (which has always been my size). So I bought them. They continue to be snug but as Mike Rowe says in his commercial, "they make my butt look good."
The next realization was this weekend when I bought my first business suit for my first business interview this upcoming Wednesday.
"What pant size do you wear?", asked the tailor.
"32", replied the patron. He fetched the 32 for me and a tried it on. Now it wasn't quite the Battle of the Bulge but it was snug. So I walked out. He asked me to tuck my shirt in and then suggested a 34. The real shock came when I tried on the 34 and the tailor said, "well once we let those out a little bit they should fit great." I must have gone a little pale because he added that "we all gain a little weight as we get older". At this point I couldn't decide whether to be more upset that I'm a 34 and change around the middle or the fact that I'm 23 and already "getting older".
The final shocker was this morning when I stepped on the scale to reveal the number 170. Yup I've gained 16 lbs this year which is more than double what Katie has gained her entire pregnancy. Of course I have been a little over dramatic about this all day, which amused Katie for about 10 minutes and then became annoying. I decided that my diet wasn't the problem. Fancy chocolates are few and far between, fast food is an occasional treat, and everything we eat at home is made from scratch (with no bacon grease contrary to Dad's beliefs). So maybe some exercise is in order.
Tomorrow morning I will start my new routine of jogging (working up to a run) for half an hour followed by some well intended, poorly executed sit ups and push ups. I'm sure this wont last long, and I'm speaking about the workout routine not the new waist size.

P.S. To my well read siblings. I realize my grammar, sentence/paragraph structure and use of passive voice is atrocious. However, I'm an engineering student and "frankly my dear I don't give a--" (Gone with the Wind, 1939, n.p.)

Cracker Barrel and naps

Okay, so I just thought I'd do a quick post before Hudson arrives... We recently went to Waynesboro in some pretty nasty weather to try and jinx Hudson into coming. It obviously didn't work, but we had fun with our gift card at Cracker Barrel anyways. Thanks Annie!






A couple of weeks ago Lily fell asleep on the couch when we were getting ready to go out. She NEVER takes naps, so we just stared at her and took naps on the other couches. :)

Ticktock

Let me just start by saying that I have absolutely no free time on my hands anymore with school, work, and family. So in my free time, I've been constructing a grandfather clock out of K'nex (Dad's thrown in some good pointers too). So far I've got the escapement (the thing that actually makes the tick-tock noise) working almost perfectly. I've got it ticking at 559 ticks per 560 seconds, so it only loses a second every six minutes or 10 seconds an hour or 4 minutes a day and so on. It only runs for about15 minutes at this point but that should change once I get more parts. My weight right now is just a water bottle...can't find anything better.



That's about it really, once I get more gears I'll be able to make the weight drop slower and create a second hand, minute hand, and hour hand. I could still work on perfecting the timing of thependulum but I think I'll probably wait until the end of the semester. Oh, and my latest endeavor, at least that I've been thinking about, is making an escapement gear with more teeth since mine only has 8. The problem is knex are some what limiting when it comes to shapes, but I'm sure I'll figure out something. There ya' go; ain't I a nerd :).

Spontaneous Temple Trip

So on the way home from church today we randomly decided to go to the Washington DC Temple Visitor Center!
So we came home, ate lunch, packed a lunch-like dinner and set off.













The temple was beautiful and it was very peaceful. The visitor center was nice, and extremely cool compared to outside. We met a very nice sister missionary who sat on the edge of her seat for Katie's conversion story. Lily was uber happy the entire time and kept pointing at the statue of Christ and saying "Ho Ho" (Santa). Ain't she great! Elder Allen would have been proud of our little adventure.Oh, except for the part where we had to stop and get gas on the way home. Plan? What plan? We're like dogs chasing cars, we wouldn't know what to do if we actually caught one. We just do.