5 YEARS!

It was 5 years ago today(and tomorrow) that we packed up all our stuff and moved to our house in Highland! In no way does it feel like it's been that long.

I guess I don't have pictures from those exact days, but here are a few that fit...


You never think you have that much "stuff" till you move it all to a new place! We filled the garage.


We did a bunch of work on the house. The painting and the floors were the biggest jobs. Guess we didn't take any pictures of putting the new floor in, so here's one of getting the old flooring up.

When we moved into the house, we only had Duncan (3 1/2), and Liam (2). Jennan was only 6 weeks away from being born.

In one more year, we will have tied the longest time we've lived in one place. We lived in Altadena for 6 years. We love our house. It will be a sad day if or when we leave it.

Crazy.

friday flashback 04.30.10

It's the last day of April which means my birthday is just a couple days away. So I thought I'd put up an old birthday picture...

So that you don't have to count the candles, it's (1985) my 13th birthday! The day I became a teenager... (I'm still waiting to grow up.)

Crazy to think that Duncan is only 5 years away from being a teenager. That's how long we've lived in Highland, and it feels like we just got here...

not even checking

Today is the day I would normally weigh myself to see what weight I've lost... But I'm not even going to check.

I've been having too much fun eating birthday dinners and other celebratory items to think I've lost any weight. Really it would be to see how much I've put back on, so... nah! Don't get me wrong, I'm not pigging out or totally eating bad stuff all day, but the burgers, fries, cake, and ice cream all add up really quick.

Once all the birthday stuff is over, then it'll be easier to get serious about weight loss again.

Good times though.

Green stuff

The green stuff continues to grow! I like when that happens.

Things are starting to fill in a bit.


In box one- everything's getting dwarfed by the broccoli. The yellow squash is doing quite well. The strawberry plants all look healthy, as well as the pepper plant. The watermelon is still WAY behind, but still green.

Here's our biggest broccoli starting to fill out.

Here's a close up on some yellow squash.

In box two- the corn has gotten taller, the zucchini plants are getting big, and the rest all look fine.

In the "corn patch", at first it just looked like dirt. I put a bit of water on it, and upon closer look... some tiny little green shoots! I looked a little closer in a few other spots and can see the tops of some others too. I'm hoping that by next week, we'll be able to see most, if not all, of them.

I like seeing the progress. Can't wait to see how much they've grown by next week. See you then.

Sara's Birthday Today

It's Sara's birthday today! To celebrate, I found some random pictures of her to put up on the blog...

Aahh... birthday spanks... gotta love 'em!


Feeding the geese and ducks... so they don't eat them!

Waiting for the boy for a school dance (was it prom?).

Scotty not too happy to be caught with a groupie.

I really like this picture.

Oh, but here's the best part! (muahahaha *evil laugh*)

Good times! Happy Birthday Sara, hope you have a great day.

Happy Birthday to Liam!!!!!!!

Liam is 7 years old today!

I usually like to put pictures in order from oldest to newest, but somehow I got it backwards today. Still some fun pictures though...

Here's Liam watching a "helicopter" seed at the "Plant Lab" at the Huntington Library. We were there Saturday with Grandma McAlister and Sara and her kids. Fun day.


Chilling out, playing DS one fine afternoon.

A great candid shot of Liam at a hike we did last November.

Liam turning 4 years old!

April 26, 2003.

Happy Birthday to our awesome and sweet boy Liam!

monday music 04.26.10

Heard this song on the radio a couple of days ago, and liked it.

Song

Turns out it's from a band named Metric. I seem to remember liking a band named Metric. It took me a while to remember the other song by them I liked...

This one

It's safe to say I like Metric.


Also, heard this song sometime this week, and just about everyday since, I've hummed part of it to myself...

Good thing I like this song

Happy Monday music everone!

Friday flashback and Birthday post 04.23.10

With mom's birthday tomorrow, I figured I'd put up some flashback pictures with her in them for today's flashback post.

Two birds with one stone, as they say...




Here's mom holding a newborn Duncan. I think that makes this picture the first picture of mom as a Grandmother.




Here is mom with all her kids + Anna and the sunset, in Hawaii!

Old school family portrait. The back says, "Dec. 1976". Dad- 29, mom- 25, me- 4, Kristi- 2, Kevin- 6 weeks. In this picture, I'm Jennan's age now, and Kristi is Tegan's age now. Kristi's got a lot more hair than Tegan does. I think dad still has that tie.

Some fun photo's there. Hope you have a great birthday mom! Love you!

Happy Birthday Sweet'ums...

I was pretty busy with tying up loose ends today for Anna's birthday, and I almost forgot to do a birthday post... almost.

As you can see, Anna's reclaimed the self proclaimed throne as, "Queen of the hula-hoop". Huzzah!

Appropriately, Anna got a new hula-hoop, some shirts, a DVD, some candy, but mostly a painting from the kids. I had the kids each paint an area of a canvas, and then had them put there hand print on it in a different color. I think it came out rather well. The kids were very happy to make it for her. Fun day.

Still working on it...

Well, it was a pretty good week as far as eating goes... I did a pretty good job of walking... But I guess I can say I haven't been hardcore. And if I'm not being hardcore, how can I expect to see bigger results? But somehow, each so-so week, I'm expecting larger losses. Still not the case this week.

The lightest I weighed this week was 217.6 (or was it 218.4? I can't remember), on Wednesday before dinner. I weighed myself then because we were having Del Taco (had some expiring coupons) for Anna's Birthday Eve dinner. I think it was the next morning that I weighed 218.4. Anyhow, it's been two weeks since our week vacation in AZ, and I'm still not down below 215, like I was before we went. For shame. I'm not a big fan of going hardcore on the diet, but I have a feeling it must be done if I want to see some real success.

With that being said, We ate at Chili's for Anna's B-day dinner (had a coupon). Next week we'll be eating at Red Robin for Liam's B-day dinner, I'm sure we'll be eating out for my birthday soon after that... Not a good time to be struggling to lose weight.

I'm not being whiny or complainy, I'm just being matter of fact. I can't play the "I don't know why...?" I know why.

I'm going to try and not go over board this week. We'll see.

I Gotta Try This!!

KFC has a new chicken sandwich called the "Double Down"! Two pieces of bacon, two pieces of cheese, with special sauce, between two chicken breasts as buns! I'm sure you've seen the commercials.

This promo shot looks SO good!

This is a picture of a real one (lifted from the internet). Still looking mighty tasty!

I must try one of these before they are gone. I missed the "Angry" whoppers when they were here, and I'm still bummed about that. I believe you can also get the Double Down with grilled chicken breasts as well. Hmmm... I just might have to try it both ways...

Is it dinner time yet?!

Added Features

Starting to really see some progress with the garden this past week.

Here is Jennan and Tegan with the first "fruits" of our labor. Those strawberries were SO good. There were a couple others right behind those that still needed a couple of dayd. But the critters got them before we did! Grrrrr! (btw-great picture, taken by Anna)

So here's the garden as a whole. There are some differences in this photo from last week's photo, not including the actual growth.

In box one- Added another broccoli plant that was still waiting for a home. I put it between a couple of strawberry plants. Crazy to think that it's still the same size as when I bought it, compared to the ones I transplanted in the beginning. I also added another plant, but it's tough to see in this shot. I put another strawberry plant in between a couple of the broccoli plants. Other than the new editions, everything is looking good. The watermelon plant is still so small, but it's still green, so I'm leaving it alone.

The broccoli plants are kickin' butt!

Look what I see!

In box 2- There are a few additions in here as well. I added a zucchini at the end of the corn. We'll see how well it does there. I also added the last two homeless broccoli plants between the corn and lone strawberry plant. Other than that, the corn is filling out nicely, as well as the initial zucchini transplants. So far so good.

Then there's this...

I cleared all the weeds and stuff out from the area we dug out last summer. I tilled it over with a pick axe, and put in three rows of corn seeds! Should take 7-10 days to see sprouts. It might take a little longer since the weather is so cool these days. But we'll see.

So yeah, that's what's going on garden wise. Fun stuff.

monday music 04.19.10

Even though she's not a fan of my monday music posts, I'm dedicating today's monday music to Anna, in honor of her birthday this week. In fact, I'm putting two songs up here today for the occasion.

First- Beck, "The New Pollution"

Second- Lenny Kravitz, "Always on the Run"

Two good ones, from two of her favorites.

Happy Monday Birthday Music Day, honey schnookums!

Friday flashback 04.16.10

It's Friday, so it's flashback time!

Look at this nice young family... aaahhh. The baby is Jennan, and she was born in July. She looks to be a few months old (at least), so what's the occasion? We're eating homemade ice cream, so it must be a birthday? Guess it doesn't really matter.

This was taken in 2005. That makes Duncan 4 that year, but he's still 3 there. Liam would be 2 in this picture. That means, in this picture, Duncan is younger than Jennan in now, and Liam is the same age as Tegan is now. Crazy.

2005 is also the year that we moved from the compound to Highland, so this is probably one of the first few times we were back for an occasion. Yep, we're very closely coming up on our 5 year anniversary of moving into our house. My how time has flown by! Crazier.

I could go for some homemade ice cream right now...

music post 04.15.10

The lead singer of the band Type-o-negative, Peter Steele, died yesterday. Sad news. I wouldn't say I was a huge fan, but I did like quite a few of their songs. I have their album, "Bloody Kisses", and I like it a lot.

Here's a news story about him.

And here's one of their songs that I like. It's called "Black No. 1". (It's an edited version.)

back on track?

Last week I didn't "weigh-in". I was in Arizona, eating like I was on a cruise... wasn't really watching what I ate. When we got home, I was about 10 pounds heavier than when I last weighed in (214.8). I was roughly 225 pounds. Yikes!

Well, we've been home for 4 days, and I'm down to 219.6 lbs. So that's good. Not sure how much of my "10" was what was sitting in my gut and intestines, and it's all just worked it's way "out", or if I've actually worked off those pounds. Maybe a combination of both.

Out of the 4 days home, I've walked on the treadmill 3 of those days.

Also, this marks the half way point of time I have to lose 40 pounds by the reunion in August. Luckily, I'm pretty much half way there (not counting my binge vacation weight- which put me a little bit behind).

We'll see how it goes in the next two weeks. There are a grip of birthdays and parties and the like, and it will be quite a challenge to stay on track... or rather not to get too far off track.

Some effort is better than no effort at all... right?

It's working...

The garden continues to grow. Some things better than others.



Here's Duncan's corn plant. It's not doing to well. We made sure to give it plenty of water and sun light the past couple days, but so far it hasn't really helped. When we left to AZ, we put about a half inch of water in the tray in hopes that the plant would suck it up as needed. Maybe that didn't really help it. Anyhow, we're still watering it, and hopefully it will spring back.



Here's the double view this week. It's been two weeks since the last picture, to the growth is a bit more dramatic. I'm just happy the soaker hose kept them all going while we were gone.

In box 1- The broccoli is doing AWESOME! The bell pepper plant is also doing well. The yellow squash seems ok, but I thought it would be doing better. The strawberries are still small, but I don't know if that's how they're suppose to be. They have berries on them, so I guess the trick is to keep the bugs and/or birds from getting them before we do. The watermelon is doing quite poorly. I don't know if the soaker hose wasn't seeping water onto it very well while we were gone, or what? But it's definitely struggling. Might need to pick up some miracle grow and give it a boost.

In box 2- The corn is a lot fuller with leaves. The zucchini are looking nice and leafy and doing well. The strawberry is still pretty small. Much smaller than it's siblings in the other box. I think I might transfer the other broccoli plants (I still haven't transplanted elsewhere) in this box between the strawberry and corn. There's some space right in there.

Here's a close up of one of the strawberry plants. As you can see, it has a ripening berry, but something has already gotten to it. There's also an empty stem on this plant that looks like it had a berry, and it got chewed off by something. That's going to irritate me if the "critters" get to these and we don't get to harvest any of them. We'll see.

Duncan's poppies don't seem to be responding to their care. Those seeds were pretty old, so they might not have been any good. We'll have to go pick up some new seeds so Duncan can have some success in planting a flower bed/garden.

There we have it. Some good prospects and some that need help. Hopefully it will all be on the up-and-up next week.

Spring Break Trip- 1st half

Anna's spring break was last week, and we did our best to fill it with fun stuff! She did have to teach Monday evening... at Cal State San Bernardino! Yep, she's got a college teaching job right now. She's teaching an Earthquakes and Public Policies class. It's just this semester. She's hoping they'll want to use her regularly.

On Tuesday, Anna went out to lunch with an old friend from H.S. and Sara at Ernie's in Eagle Rock. She had a great time.

Wednesday morning, after breakfast, we loaded up the van and headed out to spend the next five days in Arizona! First stop- Bullhead City, AZ (and Laughlin, NV) for a couple days.

We stayed at the Colorado Belle in Laughlin. We went to visit Kristi and Jason, and help out with the building of their house. Kim, Luis, and Isaac drove out to Bullhead the same day to do the same.

We were there earlier in the day, and went by the house to see if there was anything to help with. As I helped, Anna entertained the kids (that was the plan). She gave them wheel barrel rides, took them on walks, picked up rocks, etc.

They taped down a hopscotch game. It was fun, but it didn't last long enough. After this, I think they went and watched a movie in the van. Here's Jennan getting some pretty good air in her hops.

That evening for dinner, we met up with Kim, Luis, and Isaac, with Jason and Kristi at the Buffalo Wild Wings. Our five days in AZ were somewhat planned around places to eat. BWW was on the list. I REALLY like the food there.

The next morning, Thursday, we got up early to go to breakfast. There's a place called "The Black Bear Diner" in Bullhead. I remember the food being pretty good, and the portions being rather generous. It had been a few years since then, and I wanted the whole family to try it. We all met there- party of 11! Here are the kids posing with some of the bears out front.

That breakfast was REALLY good. Anna ordered a breakfast called "the Bigfoot". A large Chicken fried steak, a mound of hash browns, 2 eggs, and 2 huge biscuits. She finished everything but one and a half biscuits. She can EAT breakfast!

After breakfast, Luis and I went with Kristi and Jason to work on their house, while Kim and Anna took the kids to play in a local park.

Bullhead City sits right next to the Colorado River, so there are lots of spot to "play" in the water. There's just something about rocks and water that keeps kids happy.

The park they went to is covered, so that makes it a really nice area to spend some time. This park is right next to the river in the same area as the picture above.

Tegan, with Isaac in the background.

Later that evening (5:30pm-ish) the moms and kids came by the house. It was a good stopping time. My energy tanks were running low. With that huge breakfast, we didn't even stop for lunch.

Kristi keeping an eye on the nieces as they play on the pile of dirt and rocks next to the house.

This picture looks hilarious! It looks like Duncan is hosing down Jason! Great shot by Anna.

Jason let Luis and I take a turn with the back hoe. Here I am with Duncan on my lap, as we "play" in the dirt.

That night after we all got cleaned up, we went to dinner at a restaurant called "The Mohave 'King of Steaks' Steakhouse". ( I think that's what it was called?) Here we are, leaving our hotel. Across the street is the Tropicana(?) lit with Green lights. Liam really liked it.

Friday morning was our last time in Bullhead. We all had cereal (Anna and I shared the left over biscuits from the day before), and loaded up the van. Here are the kids in our hotel room. Good sized rooms there at the Colorado Belle.

We had a great time in Bullhead. It was a lot of fun also having Kim, Luis, and Isaac there. Hopefully Luis and I helped to shorten the time the house takes to build. I hope to be able to go out there again and help out some more.

From Bullhead, we are now headed off to Queen Creek, AZ to visit Kevin and Dawn and family. Look for the pictures from that visit in a different post.

Good times!