Let's try again in 2010

Well this year is shaping up to be a good one. Let's never mind that I haven't posted anything on here for over a year but I'm determined to try again in 2010.

Since the last post I've lost considerable weight and then gained a fair portion of it back again. We took our family photo at just the right time. I was almost at my lowest weight in 4 years and I was feeling great. Of course then I had a long string of weeks and months where I was traveling and not exercising or eating as well as I should have been. Then we hit the holidays and I added a little more Holiday Chub as I've decided to call it. Fortunately I only gained back a little over half of what I lost and I got some weights for Christmas so I can lift AND run now and I hope to have the weight off again and then some in time for our family reunion in late July.

Carter will be 9 tomorrow and I just can't believe how much he's grown and how far he's come. Hard to believe he'll be getting the Aaronic Priesthood in 3 short years. He's very small for his age but he makes up for it in moxie and I was small too and not nearly as self confident or assertive as he is so he'll do just fine. In the last year he took off in the Cub Scout program and earned all kinds of badges and awards and advanced to Bobcat and Wolf. This year it will be the Bear. Scouts is something he and I really enjoy doing together and when it's warm out we shoot hoops.

Madelyn is 4 and it was fun to have her fourth birthday on the 4th of July. She's a go getter and she plays the piano every chance she gets. She will be going to Julliard I'm certain of it, I just hope she gets scholarships :o) She told us more than once this year that it was the best Christmas ever and I think she is right. It was just the four of us but she and Carter were more excited than any other year so it was truly delightful.

Elizabeth is still the compassionate service leader and I was called as Elder's Quorum President just before Thanksgiving. I just got counselors so no more flying solo and time to get work done on building the kingdom.

Summer Time!

The joys of summer time play. Hot and Humid and Happy as can be.

And boy is Dad Chubby!

Stuck in Cincinnati

What should have been a standard flight from Philadelphia to Salt Lake for Liz and the kids turned out to be quite the ordeal.

After getting delayed for more than four hours she was offered a flight to Cincinnati connecting then onto Salt Lake. She was promised first class seats for the second leg no less. Pretty hard for them to make good on that promise when they delay that flight too and then leave her stranded.

Delta did pay for the hotel room so she and the kids could stay overnight but she didn't get much sleep in the few hours they were at the hotel since she had to be back at the airport at 6:30 AM.

The kids were in good spirits and having a grand time despite the terrible circumstances. Liz of course endured it like the trooper that she is. She got the little ones to Salt Lake safe and sound and hopefully she'll be able to get a little R&R while she is there.

I'm headed out on the 16th which isn't soon enough for me but it's the best I could do with what vacation time I have left. The family reunion should be really fun. I'm looking forward to seeing my relatives and being with my family again.

It's amazing how quiet it is with the kids gone. I overslept this morning because they weren't here to wake me. I miss them terribly and can't wait to be with them and Elizabeth again.

Jason

A really great friend of mine spent the weekend with my family and me. We had a great time and he was so good with the kids.

Jason and I met about 14 years ago, wow that was a long time ago. We both served missions in Japan and the whole time we were roommates at BYU he invited me to come visit him in Maryland.

Of course when things were looking serious with the job I now have, he was one of the first people I contacted to get the low down on the east coast. He had great advise as always, and we've really enjoyed all that Maryland and the east coast has to offer.

I'm glad that he lives as close as he does so we can do things together I wish it was a little closer so we could do things even more often.

Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere

These days I live on the East Coast but it wasn't always this way. All my life I've lived in the west. Born in Idaho, raised in Arizona and Wyoming. Summer work in sunny California, college in Wyoming and Utah. A westerner through and through yet here I am living just a few short miles from the Atlantic Ocean. I call Maryland home now and perhaps with this blog I can document the journey here. I'll try to date things when they happened and not when I'm writing them so the reader will get them in chronological order.