Back to School

This morning the girls went back to school. Amanda was nervous and excited! She was up nearly the whole night with a nervous stomach. Rebecca was pretty even keeled. It’s just another day for her.

Kevin went in late to work and we all took Rebecca to Sun Empire (which was extensively more chaos than usual!) and got her to her third grade class with Mrs. Sutherland. When she walked into the classroom there were several kids who called out, “Rebecca! Over here! Your desk is over here!” I was glad to hear that, as ever since Kindergarten, Rebecca has been in classes where she had only one other student from the class year before. This year there are quite a few kids in her class from last year, from church, and, ironically, from Kindergarten. Wonderful! When I have told anyone about who Rebecca’s teacher is this year they have all told me what a great teacher she is! I am glad to hear that as well!

Next we took Amanda over to Liberty Intermediate. Much less chaos there. That campus has pretty well got it together. (It’s the parents that cause issues.) Amanda’s class is in the new building that was completed just before the end of last year. Her teacher is the 6th grade GATE teacher, Mr. Kismet. Most of the kids from last year are in her class again, so no worries about friends there!

They are going to do well! Both of them did very well on their STAR tests last year and they have done a lot of reading during the summer. We are very proud of our girls and how much they love school! Now Katrina and I get some time together!

Road Trip 2

I'm still trying to figure out why Lora would think that I had the camera in the first place. She took it into the resturant, one would think she would take it out. While we were there, I even asked her why she brought it in. (I know, it sounds funny. It sounded just as funny when I was asking it. She doesn't go ANYWHERE without it.) But somehow, since I was the one who left it behind, I was the one who had to go get it.(?)

I figured I could make a ride out of it on the new bike. The fact that the new ST gets better than 40mpg made it an easy decision. I'm not one to ditch church, but I really didn't want to be riding accross the Valley floor on a near 100° summer afternoon, so I headed out in the morning.

I got to the resturant right at the noon rush and met a harried manager who would have been happy to have one (or six) less things to deal with at that moment. I told him who I was and he quickly told the hostess, "I'll be right back. I gotta go get this guy out of the doghouse." (What did Lora tell them on the phone last night?) A moment later, the manager was back, he tossed me the camera over the counter (literally), and I'm out the door.

As I'm getting on the bike, a quick look at the GPS reminds me that I'm only 6-8 miles from the top of Hecker Pass. This is the pass between Gilroy & Watsonville, and while it's short, it's twisty and one of the prettiest roads in the State. Since I was right there, I ran up to the top, just in front of a local Mustang car club. I snapped a few pics and headed back down.

On the way back, I stopped in Casa de Fruita for a moment. While I was sitting there, two more bikes, a Yamaha FJR and a Harley Fat Boy, each with two riders, pulled up and stopped next to me. The guys & I talked bikes for a while, and I overheard one of their wives saying how funny it was to be out on a trip with two Kevins. I looked at her and asked if her husband's name was Kevin. She said "Yes" and added that both of their husbands were named Kevin. I raised my hand and said, "Well, so am I!" She then asked if my middle name was Wayne. When I said it was, she yelled at her husband (the FJR rider) "Hey! This guy's your twin!" It was his middle name too. When she asked the other Kevin (the Harley rider) what his middle name was, he declined to answer.

Over Pachaco Pass, past the San Luis Reservoir and B. F. Sisk Dam and through the Valley's inversion layer. Up in Gilroy, the temperatures were in the 70's. Headed into the Valley, the temps were climbing into the 90's. The wind was very strong blowing into the Valley; between the downhill grade and the tailwind, my fuel consumption gauge was showing 60-70 MPG! Very nice. I stopped at the San Luis Drain visitor's center on top of the dam to look at their exhibits about the dam construction. (Interesting to me, probably not so much for the girls.) The water was very low behind the dam, so low, in fact, that the dam power plant intakes were exposed. They're usually under 50 feet of water. Interesting to see. After a short visit, and a few pics. I was on my way again.

By the time I got to the Valley floor, it was afternoon and well above 90°. Just where I didn't want to be and the reason why I left early in the morning. No matter. It was fun to get out on a second road trip in two days. I may have to start leaving things behind on all of our family road trips.

Total trip: 260 miles.
Average fuel: 46.3mpg.
Camera: returned (with a few extra pics).
Lora: Relieved and Happy.

Mission accomplished.

Road Trip!

We decided to spend yesterday, the last day of summer vacation, on a road trip to the coast! It was a spur of the moment decision the night before, so we just played it by ear. It has been so hot here in the Valley that we decided to escape for the day!

We left a lot later than we wanted to, but that seems to be par for the course. With snacks, sand shovels and cache pages in hand we started our way towards the beach.

We drove up through Mendota and Firebaugh and then caught the 152 west. We drove through Pacheco Pass and stopped in Casa de Fruita near lunch time. There were a few caches there, so we got them first and then the girls got to pick out a fruit to go with their lunch. Amanda picked half a watermelon, Rebecca picked half a cantelope and Katrina picked a basket of strawberries. Yum! We also got some dried fruits and nuts as well. I picked up some dried figs and dates and have plans for a future what-would-Jesus-eat lesson. The girls also watched the train go by, played on a train engine and explored other fun things they have there.

While we were in the fruit stand we saw an accident happen out in the intersection. A semi was swinging wide to make the turn back onto the freeway and the trailer completely ran over a mid-size pick up truck! I don’t know if the guy in the pick-up truck didn’t realize the semi was swinging wide and tried to get passed him on the right, but the semi just drove along the side of his truck and knocked him clean off into the dirt on the side fo the road. The semi didn’t even notice and kept on going, getting on the freeway before we could even think to get a license plate number. The driver of the pick-up truck couldn’t even get out his driver side door and had to climb out the passenger side. He got on his phone as he walked around the truck. Kevin went out to go let him know that we had seen the accident, but before we could, he took off. We called the CHP to let them know we had seen it, but without an identifiable victim it is hard for them to follow up.

Anyway, after lunch we got back on the road, heading through Gilroy and Hecker Pass (that drive is so beautiful!) and then down through Watsonville to the coast. We stopped at one beach, near Aptos, and walked down under an old train tressle. That was fun! (Again, this is why we love geocaching! We would not know to have stopped at this spot if not for a cache nearby.) We decided to go to another beach a little farther down the coast, and we really liked it. It was Manresa State Beach, and there is a campground there and everything. (We want to come back another time and camp there!)

The beach was nice, although the sun was firmly behind the clouds (thanks to the hot weather in the Valley), so it was cool and windy. Amanda and Rebecca had a great time playing in the waves! They made a friend and they all collected sand crabs and put them in a bucket that we had brought. Katrina spent all her time digging in the sand up higher on the beach. She was not keen on the waves getting too close to her. The clouds were really low and there was so much mist it felt like it was sprinkling on us.

When chill and hunger had got the better of us, we left the beach and took the long route back, walking up through the campground area. By the time we got cleaned up and back on the road home it was nearly 7:30pm. We drove through Watsonville, but not being familiar with the town, we didn’t know a good place to stop for dinner. We kept going, back over Hecker Pass, and stopped in Gilroy. We went to the Black Bear Diner, which we had been to once before on a trip up to Oregon. There was a wait, so forty minutes and three very hungry, whiny girls later, we finally were seated and ordered dinner.

It was about 10:00pm when we finished dinner. Katrina was already resting her head on my shoulder and everyone seemed to be listing slightly. I got up to pay and then we scooted the girls out to the van. They were all sound asleep before we got to the city limits.

We called Kevin’s mom to see how she was doing (her long-time boss and friend, Jeff Dockstader, passed away on Friday. She called us this morning to let us know. He had a heartattack on the way home from work and his car slammed into a house. Jeff was one of the witnesses at our wedding, so we knew him well too. What a sad thing to have happen.). Then we called Lora’s mom to see how she was doing (he’s heading to Homer this for a week of glassmaking!).

We arrived home at about 12:20 in the morning. We had found nine caches, carried home a lot of sand and had taken a ton of photos to document the whole thing!

We got the girls into bed and started unloading the car. We had done it a little at a time separately, so it was a few minutes before Kevin asked where the camera was. We both said: “I THOUGHT YOU HAD IT!!!” Yikes! We got online and looked up the Black Bear Diner and got the number for the restaurant in Gilroy. Thankfully an employee was still there! I described where we were sitting and what the camera looked like and they confirmed that they had found it! Whew! She asked if we would be back tonight to pick it up. I told her we were all the way back in Fresno and so we would be there the next day. They said they would keep it in the safe for us.

So, this morning, at about 8:30am, Kevin hopped on the motorcycle and headed for Gilroy. He has been gone for over seven hours. . . can you say Road Trip? : )

See all of our Road Trip pics HERE.

Blogging my weight loss journey - Month 7

Since I have been talking so much about my size 16 jeans, I thought I had better take this month's photo with them on! (Thanks Amanda for taking my picture!)

The word of the month was definitely TURNAROUND! I feel really good about how things went this month! I exercised a LOT more this month! (Again -- LOVE Turbo Jam! I am especially enjoying my Turbo Jam LIVE! workouts!) I can really tell that all my exercising is improving my metabolism! I also got my portion sizes back down to where they need to be. AND, I started writing down the foods that I am eating again. I HATE doing that, but I really needed to make sure that I writing down what I was eating so that I would be accountable for my food choices.

I honestly did not think that I would have lost that much weight this month, although I hoped to reach my goal of passing 178 lbs, which is the halfway mark, but I know that I have lost inches. With all the exercise and strength training this month I know that I am building up muscle, which weighs more than fat, so even though I am losing inches, my muscle mass is balancing out the fat loss.

I am sloping down in my hips where I used to bump out. When I lie down on my back, my stomach doesn't fold over onto my legs. This is all very exciting!

For the first time I am seeing photos of myself and I am not thinking, "look how fat I still am." Especially when I see photos of me from around Christmas time. I can really see the difference then! It is easier to tell when you have that type of comparison!

So, to recap my goals:

*140 lbs by the time I turn 40
*to get below 200 lbs COMPLETED!
*to get back below last years 32 lbs. lost COMPLETED!
*fit into size 16 jeans COMPLETED!
*pass 178, the halfway mark COMPLETED!
*my stomach no longer touches any other part of my body

I have added three more goals:

*waist measurement less than 32.5"
*body fat less than 30%
*change my eating behavior for good!

(Back in 2004 I had my body mass measured, and it was a depressing 47.6% fat. That is nearly half my body mass in fat, AND, at the time I only weighed 198 lbs. So, when I started this year, I had another 20 lbs. on top of that.)

I feel that I have set realistic goals and I am pleased with my progress.

So, for this month:

weight loss this month: 4 lbs.
inches lost this month: 12"

TOTAL weight loss: 41 lbs!
TOTAL inches lost: 57.25"

Awesome!!!

May the Force be with You

Today was Amanda's 11th birthday party. She wanted a Star Wars theme last year, but since there was so many Harry Potter things going on last summer, we did Harry Potter last year and saved Star Wars for this year. As a huge fan of Star Wars (my brothers and I can probaby recite the entire original Star Wars movie by heart!) I was excited to do this party for her and had some great ideas for fun stuff to do at the party!

The invitations we sent out looked like a light saber handle and then when you pulled out the "blade" it had this printed on it: "In a galaxy far, far away, on the morning of 28 July, a baby girl was born. The Jedi Council named her Amanda and they knew she was the chosen one. In the 11 years that followed her birth, young Amanda has been learning the powers of the Force. Meanwhile, the Republic discovered a new enemy. The Jedi Knights felt a strong disturbance in the Force. Fear, pain and suffering have opened the path to the Dark side. Many Jedi Knights have been lost. The very future of the Jedi Order is in jeopardy. Young Padawan Amanda has been called by the Council to seek out future Jedi. Master Yoda is urging the younglings to complete their training and take part in the upcoming trials.

Each Padawan’s presence is requested to complete their Jedi training and prepare for the trials on 26 July 2008. Transport to the Jedi Temple, on Coruscant, will be departing promptly at 10:00am from the Nehring docking bay. Please advise the Jedi Council as soon as possible as to whether each Padawan will accept the challenge of the trials.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!

Please note that due to new security protocols in the Republic, no weapons will be allowed on all transport vessels. Rest assured that the Jedi Council has secured enough equipment for the Padawans to complete their training."

The guests arrived at 10:00am. We had a sign on the front door that said Welcome to the Jedi Training Academy. We had Padawan tunics for each of the trainees to wear. The house was decorated with black and silver foil stars, Star Wars figurines and the dining room table had a black tablecloth, napkins, forks and cups and a large black plate with a smaller red, green or blue plate on top of it. There was also some Star Wars confetti sprinkled all over the middle of the table.

First we made lightsabers (foam pipe insulation wrapped with electrical tape) and they got to choose which color of light saber they wanted - red, green, blue or purple. Then the Jedi trainees went outside into the desert wasteland of Tatooine (our unfinished backyard) and had light saber agility training. They each got a red balloon and tried to keep it up in the air with their lightsabers.

Then it was time to break the Death Star pinata. Amanda helped me to make the pinata and I painted it and drew all the details on it. Then we took a wooden dowel and wrapped it in electrical tape so that it looked like a lightsaber and the trainees used that to break the pinata.

When they came back inside, we took photos of them with lightsabers. The photos turned out really cool! It really looks like they are holding lightsabers! We told them to make their best Jedi faces, and we got some good ones!

The trainees then took a break for lunch, and they had Saber Dogs, Tatooine Tortillas, Millenium Melon and Jedi Juice. (That's hot dogs, blue tortilla chips, watermelon chunks and green kool-aid with purple kool-aid ice cubes.) For dessert they had Force Floats (blue kool-aid and Sprite mixed together with vanilla ice cream).


After lunch they made pretzel lightsabers. They dipped pretzel sticks into red, green, blue or purple candy melts. Then they watched the movie, Star Wars, Episode I. (As her parents, we kept trying to convince her to watch the REAL first episode, but it was her party after all, so we let her choose.)

While the trainees were watching the movie, I put together a certificate that congratulated them on completing their Jedi Training that had their photo on it. After the movie ended and they were ready to head home, they each got a goodie bag that had coloring pages, some scratch magic stars, a package of pop rocks and a light stick in it.

The trainees had a great time and were ready to go out into the galaxy and fight the forces of evil!

-Lora

See all the Star Wars party pics HERE.

Observation

How observant are you? Can you pass this test?



Just for the record, Lora & I both failed.

Mid-Life Crisis

I've been planning a mid-life crisis for a few years now. The planned answer/remedy was to be a new BMW motorcycle, particularly a R1200RT. During a recent visit (of many) to the BMW dealer who services my 1993 BMW R100GS, I started seriously looking at them. While I was well aware of the price of admission for one of them, the thought of actually chewing on that high price - nearly $19,000! the way I wanted it outfitted - almost triggered a crisis of its own. No new RT this time around. I'd have to make due with the GS.

On the way home, I made an unplanned stop at Madera Honda Suzuki. I was in the neighborhood and had never been in. Being a bit depressed from the above mentioned BMW shop visit, I went in to take a look. I walked around, looked at the bikes they had, and was headed for the door when I saw this 2006 Honda ST1300; Honda's version of the BMW RT. Comparable to an RT in purpose of design, the differences are mainly in engine architecture and electronic gizmos. Another difference is the price tag. I had walked right by it when I came in and didn't see it. I had never thought about an ST, but this one caught my eye.

It was used, but not much. The previous owner had bought this one new to replace his ST1100. He had the dealer trick it out with a few after market items before he even picked it up: a Heated Corbin saddle and Corbin Smuggler trunk (that's what really caught my eye first), Helibar riser with attached RAM GPSr mount, dual power outlets, Honda tank & knee pads and saddle bag liners. Being more than a year old, the price on the sticker was less than a new one (and much less than a BMW). The price would have been worth it if the bike was bone stock, without the after market add-ons, but the add-ons were there as well as the stock seat. And most suprising was the mileage: 376 total miles! The bike hadn't even had it's first service yet and still had two years left on the factory warranty! I suprised the salesman by looking for him, handing him my card and telling him I would be back to ride it.

I left the shop and spent the next 20 minutes driving home figuring out how to tell Lora I found a new bike. That conversation obviously went well.

I'll post more about living with the bike later.

See many more pics of my first week with the bike HERE.

Rebecca's new glasses

Rebecca got her first pair of glasses shortly after she turned three years old. They were light brown metal frames with Spongebob on the ear pieces. Over the next three years she got two pink pairs in a row. She has worn this last pink pair for about two years.

Recently we went in to have her eyes checked again and even though her prescription did not change, her glasses were small and her lenses were scratched. I hadn't planned on getting new glasses for her unless the prescription had changed, but the doctor's office suggested we see what the insurance would pay for towards a new pair of glasses. Since we had different insurance than the last time, we decided to give it a try.

We went to the glasses shop and while the sales lady was checking with the insurance, Rebecca started trying on frames. She had a great time and picked out a pair of pink wire frames. The sales lady came back and told us that insurance would cover everything! Cool! I was excited about that! At the last minute, Rebecca changed her mind and chose a dark red plastic frame. I asked if she was sure that was what she wanted and she said yes.

So today we went and picked up her brand new pair of glasses. The frames are bigger so they fit her better, and she got transition lenses which she was very excited about! She looks great!

Happy 4th of July!!

We have been out of town on the Fourth of July for the last two year in a row (New Mexico on the way to Texas in 2006 and Alaska in 2007), and this year the girls begged us to be home for the fourth of July. So we did, and we had a great time!

On Wednesday we decorated our house. We put out a bunch of flags and hung some twirly foil star things that looked pretty cool. (Unfortunately the wind played havoc with them for two days and pretty well destroyed them.)

On Thursday we went to the Kerman Ward potluck BBQ. There was a whole lot of food and we all set up our chairs and blankets on the back lawn of the chapel. When it started to get a little bit dark, the kids all got sparklers. (Most of them started writing with them on the blacktop. What's up with that? What ever happened to twirling them around in the air?) Then the kids moved back and the Young Men lit some fireworks there in the parking lot. When it got dark, the fireworks started. The city of Kerman shoots of their fireworks from the high school stadium, which is a block away from the chapel, so we had great seats! The fireworks display was awesome! We got some great photos! We love our new camera!

Today our culdesac, Michelle Avenue, all gets together and has a big block party. This is the fourth year we have done it. Everyone really got into the 4th of July spirit. There were things going all day long, snow cones at one house and swimming at another, water balloons at another, etc.. We had a potluck BBQ, and we all got a chance to sit and talk. We even got a fly-over of sorts. Some jets who were lining up for a fly-over of the downtown Fresno stadium flew over us and it was really neat!

As it began to get darker, we got out the poppers (they make a popping, craking noise when you throw them at the ground) and sparklers for all the kids. There had to be at least 30 kids out there, all going through what had to be a million sparklers. We had a huge bag that we had been kind of collecting over the last several years, and then everyone else had some too. Then we all pooled our fireworks and had quite a show. We had bought the Moondance Fountain and the Red, White and Blue Salute or something like that from Phantom Fireworks and I want to remember those for next year. They were great!

It was a fun way to celebrate the birth of our nation and the freedoms we enjoy and should never take for granted.

-Lora

See all the July 3rd pics HERE.

See all the July 4th pics HERE.

Blogging my weight loss journey - Month 6

Setback. That is the word for the day. Or the month, as it were. Apparently I am still under the delusional expectation that I can eat things I am not supposed to and not gain weight. I find it so frustrating that I can't just get to where I want to be weight-wise and then not have to work at staying there for the rest of my life.

And, yikes! I started sneaking food again. That is always a HUGE red flag. Things are definitely going in the wrong direction if I am trying to sneak food!

My back started hurting right around the middle of the month and I was one, mad!!! and two, worried that I might hurt it worse, so I backed off on the exercise, which, of course led to no exerise for the rest of the month. Arg!

I am halfway through the year and I am halfway to my goal. I have to get my act together and get going back in the right direction. I have to get my portion control back under control. I have to stop eating after 7pm. I have to stop buying sugar-free desserts, because I have been eating them as though it's okay to eat three of them at a time. As much as I HATE to have to do it, I need to start writing things down again so I have to be truly accountable to myself for the things that I eat.

Month 6
weight lost: +1
inches lost: +5"

Next month's word - turnaround!