Thanksgiving

Well another Thanksgiving has come and gone. We went to Debbie's sister Heather's house for dinner. It was quite the crowded house. There was about 20 people there. All in all we had a good time. There were a few firsts that went on that day. I weighed myself first thing Thursday morning before I even ate breakfast and then I weighed myself Friday morning pror to eating anything. I gained exactly 1 lb from the eating I did Thursday. Not sure if thats good or bad as I had never weighed myself like that. THe good thing though was that I was down 1.4 lbs Thursday from were I was Monday. So even with the eating I did Thursday, Im down almost a half lb for the week, woo hoo! The other first that happened was Sarah rode her bike for the first time without training wheels. Being she is 7 we were wondering when she was going to have us take them off. As high up and bent as they were though she basicaly was riding without them, now they are physicaly off the bike. I was proud and a bit apprehensive at the same time. I didnt want any ER visits on Thanksgiving Day.

Numbers, they keep a changing

Well I got on the scale this morning, and for the 3rd week in a row I gained weight. I just cant seem to get a handle on what Im putting in my mouth. Dont get me wrong Im not plopping down on the couch and eating a quart of ice cream. I know my soda consumption is back up to were it doesnt need to be. Along with that comes the Hersey or Snickers bar that gets purchased along with the soda instead of a NutriGrain or Trail Mix bar. Im not sure if its stress or depression eating. I dont feel either stressed or depressed but I cant figure out whats wrong.

Im still 11 lbs down from the beginning of the year but nowere near the 30 lbs I wanted to drop. Maybe that was too lofty or maybe an unrealistic goal for me. Maybe 20 lbs woulda been a better goal. Im not giving up but with Thanksgiving on Thusrday and the holidays coming up it makes it that much harder.

Only time will tell

Alone in the Woods

I borrowed this next entry from the pastor of my church, Joe Darago, from his blog. Thought it was pretty cool

Somebody once told me this story or legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of Passage. I have no idea if it is true, but I like it enough to share it with you.

"A father takes his son into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a man.

He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm.

The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!

Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the ground next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.

"We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, God is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him.

Joe Darago
Lead Pastor

Branden and Tyler

For those of you who dont know Debbie's oldest nephew, Branden, serves our country in the Army and is currently deployed in Iraq. We got word Thursday afternoon that he was wounded by shrapnel from a bomb explosion. He is in a hopsital. Not sure if its a hospital in Iraq or if they flew him back to Germany ( were he is normaly stationed ) Hoping to here an update on him soon.

Tyler was having trouble breathing yesterday when I dropped him off at Amy's in the morning. It got worse as the morning progressed. It got to the point were Debbie called me letting me know I was going to have to take time off of work to take him to urgetn care. She then called me back a few minutes later and let me know that urgent care wouldnt see him I had to take him to the hospital.

So I left work, picked him up and headed to the e.r. It was just a short wait in the lobby and then we went to a room. They proceeded to take his vitals and start him on breathing treatments. He had several of those by the time Debbie got off work and met me at the hospital. It was decided they were going to keep him over nigth for observation and to coninute with his breathing treatments overnight. Debbie txted me this morning to let me know while he was showing signs of improvement, they are going to keep him overnight again.

Thanks for reading and wehn I have more info about Branden, Ill post it.

Up, Up and Away

This past Saturday night Debbie and I went for our first hot air balloon ride. The balloon ride was my birthday present to Debbie. It was quite the experience. We had to be at Deer Valley Airport ( a small city of Phoenix owned airport in the NE valley ) at 3:15 pm. Once we all gathered there ( 10 of us would be going up in the same balloon ) we piled into a 15 passenger van and head for the takeoff sight. After a 15-20 minute drive we arrived at that take off sight along with the 3 other groups who would also be flying in other balloons.

We were introduced to the pilot of the balloon. Mike then went over the basic rules, 1. dont get out and 2. dont get out unless instructed by Mike to do so. We then signed the required wavers and proceeded to hop in the basket and off we went.

Debbie was the first one into the basket

One of the ground crew snapped this of Debbie and I right before we lifted off

Looking into the envelope of the balloon

One of those noisy propane burns giving us lift

Once off the ground it was a nice quiet ride ( well except for when he hit the burners to heat the insed of the balloon ) . Its quite different from an airliner as you really have no sensation of pressure or actualy rising. We went as high as a mile up and it didnt feel any different than when we were 500 feet of the ground. Out of the 10 of us on the ride, 6 were from out of state, we even had a lady fron Calgary, Alberta, Canada with us. Mike proceeded to give us all a little lecture on the sights, the different plants, trees and animals we might see. Being the natives we are, Debbie and I knew most of what Mike was mentioning and were familiar witht he sights but it gave us a unique perspective on our hometown.

Subdivision in Peoria, AZ

Lake Pleasant in the distance

It was a great time. Kinda funny side note. Ive lived in Arizona all my life and the only time I had previously seen Javelina were in teh zoo. As our balloon flight was nearly over we flew over a family of four javelina. Kinda cool even if we did scare the hell out of the little baby javelinas. The balloon ride was just part of the experience. This was a sunset flight. Im pretty biased but IMHO there arent many places that have comparable sunsets to ours.

Self portrait of Debbie and I with the sunset

After we landed ( in the middle of a dry wash ) in the middle of the dessert, the support truck and van were waiting for us. Just when you might think our experience wouldve been over, you were wrong. Waiting for us were two tables with table cloths, fine china and linens, champagne flutes and hour derves. Yes, we cracked open champagne, gave a toast had a drink and sat down to some great food and conversation. It was nice and dark by then but the candlelight allowed us to see. After a while ( and 4 glasses of champagne ) it was time to head back to Deer Valley Airport and call it a night. We definatley had a blast and might someday do another balloon ride.

Captain Mike breaking open the first bottle of bubbly

Our food

Debbie hording the bubbly =)

The end of a wonderful experience fading with the sun

RandomCam

Wow, I went a whole month without a RandomCam entry. I dont know the reason why, but I dont have many pics of Sarah on my phone. Here's one I shot a few weeks ago when we were at Burger King for dinner.

A Historic Election

Well unless you live under a rock, you are well aware that Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States yesterday. Im glad I took the time out of my day yesterday to cast my ballot in this historic election. Only God knows whats going to happen next with thie nation of ours. It will be an interesting time in our lives.

Its A Special Day

Today is November 4th, 2008. Election Day here in the USA. History will be made in one way or another tonight as we will either have our first African-American president or our first female vice president.

But thats not whats special about today.



Today is my grandfather's birthday. Had he not left us earlier this year, we would be celebrating his 84th birthday. Even though he is no longer with us, this date on the calendar will always be special. I love and miss my grandfather. I have many wonderful memories of him that I will always cherish. Im glad he lived long enough to see me grow up, marry and have two wonderful children. Im glad they got to spend time around him. They might not have had the chance to build as many memories with him but they are old enough that they will remember him for years to come.


This is a pic of me, the San Diego Padres Padre and grandpa just after he threw the first pitch of a San Diego Padres vs. Chicago Cubs spring training game in Peoria, AZ a couple of years ago. I entered grandpa in a contest through my work and he was selected to throw out the first pitch. He really loved it and I was glad he was able to do it.

Another one bites the dust

We came home night from small church group to find our parakeet Kylie dead in the bottom of the cage. When our other parakeet died in September the kids didnt see it dead so we just disposed of it and told the kids the bird flew away. There was none of that this time as Tyler heard Debbie tell me the seconnd bird died. So there was no hiding anything this time as the kids both saw the bird dead. Now we are down to just Popcorn, Sarah's hamster. Pretty amazing how a month and a half ago we had 4 pets, now we are down to one, Weve kicked the idea of getting another dog around but havent acted on it. I dont think Im ready for another one just yet. Maybe we can get a turtle =)