The "You don't have anything better to do so update your blog" post

Walking the kids to school.

Athena getting ready for school.

Renae cross country skiing.

Christina, Athena, Aimery, and Jeff at Quail Hollow.

Christina and Spider-man.

Renae and Athena after coming down the chutes.

Athena chilling.

Me and Aimery during a break in the action.

Me and Aimery after coming down the chutes.

Athena and the escalator.

Tarra at Bubba Gumps

Tarra and I with Bubba the Shrimp.

LOL, I was reminded by my very good friend Stacy that I haven't updated my blog in a while. So I'm am going to give a brief synopsis of my life for the month of February 2011 as I have been somewhat busy. For those of you who don't know I've taken a job in Fairbanks Alaska and actually fly out on the 24th. Initially I am only taking 4 large suitcases and one carry on suitcase to live out of until sometime in May. In my gypsy-nomad nature I've been trying to give away, sell, or trash quite a bit of my stuff as well as say good-bye to new friends, rekindled friends, and enemies. If I were an outsider I would have probably talked to my self about these suicidal behaviors, lol, but that isn't the case I'm only moving.

I recently found my long lost best friend from high school on facebook and she amazingly enough lives in Colorado. So when I was traveling around I met with her in Fairplay and we spent several hours catching up on 20 years worth of stuff, life, and life changing events. As luck would have it though I never thought to pull out my camera and snap a couple of photos. Which I now regret, but what are you going to do.

That same weekend I also met with my friend Tarra who lives in Kansas but grew up in Colorado. She was in town for her nephew's birthday so I drove into Denver from Colorado Springs (took a Conceal Carry Weapon Class, that's right world I'm packing heat). I picked her up from her brother's apartment and we headed off in search of a record store so that I could sell some of my vinyl records that I have been toting around for nearly a decade. The store was downtown and I followed my phone GPS, sorta, to get there but then gave up totally and followed my instinct on how to get there. My instinct was much more adventurous than the damn GPS. Needless to say we found a parking spot downtown and set off to find the store but I forgot the records in car, so we decided to eat at Bubba Gumps instead. See the pictures above.

After this weekend I had two weeks before it would be time to head to Ohio to visit with my family. During these two weeks we met with the realtor to determine whether the house could be placed on the market, started packing some/most of my belongings into tubs and boxes, and have been trying to decide what belongings to put into the four suitcases and one carry-on. Let's say that the new pistols are in one of the suitcases. I bought a .45lc/.410 Taurus and a .45 ACP Springfield Armory. My bedroom is a mess because I've got clothes and crap all over trying to decide whether to keep, trash, or pack.

On Thursday Feb 10th Renae and I headed to Frisco to stay the night with RJ and Cheryl prior to going to the airport on Friday morning to head to Canton. We had fun playing dominos and had a great time. We got up early and got some Starbucks and headed to the Blue Moon for breakfast. (Side Bar: I've been having fun eating at places for the last time but have gained a couple pounds because of it.) We arrived at the airport and parked in the economy lot and managed to get on the shuttle and arrive at the terminal to check our bags. The baggage checking process is becoming such a burden anymore. We stood in this line to be redirected to that line to be redirected to another line. Our flight was to go from Denver to Chicago to Canton/Akron. Our flight from Chicago was delayed several hours because apparently the pilot refused to take the flight because it was not on time. So instead of 15-30 min late we were two hours late. Once we arrived in Canton we were informed that one of our bags was still in Chicago, great. Luckily it was the one with mostly the kids clothes but also our snowboarding boots and boarding pants.

So in the plans for the weekend with the kids was tubing at Brandywine hill and cross country skiing and snow shoeing at Quail Hollow near Canton. Aimery made it clear that he also NEEDED to go to Toys-R-us because Grandma Strange got them gift cards for Valentines Day. So Saturday rolled around and after getting our bags we were headed off to Brandywine for a three hour tubing session. It took us about 45 min to get there and the kids seemed pretty jazzed to go tubing. Once we got our tubes and on the escalator at which point Athena seemed a little timid about the loading and unloading process. After taking our first ride down the chute, Renae and I, spent some time encouraging the kids to try different chutes. Which eventually we made it up to chute 7 (they had 25 chutes).

After tubing we set out to find a Wendy's and encountered the smarty pants of Stow, OH. I had to figure out how to talk and think slowly. After the 15 min it took to order 4 meals we sat down to eat and then headed back to Canton. We found the Toys-R-us that Aimery NEEDED to go to. He was so funny picking out his gift, it was cute. Athena couldn't make a decision about what she needed vs what she wanted.

On Sunday we were to head out to Quail Hollow to rent some cross country skis and take the kids out for their first snow shoe experience. The rental process was a little chaotic but soon we were off. The snow was soooooo much different than the Colorado snow, but luckily I only fell once at it was on a down hill. We all had a great time and decided to head to the secret hill near their house and run down the tubing hill a couple of times.

After tubing on Sunday we headed back home and got ready for dinner. We ate at a Mexican place called El Ricon where the waiter kept calling me "chula" which we all became curious about. At first we thought he called me lula, bella, and various other names. When we left the place and headed to Borders, Jeff looked up on his phone what "chula" meant it was something like when a guy thinks a girl is sexy. After getting up off the floor from laughing I helped the kids pick out some books and we headed home. The kids read to me before going to bed. The next morning we walked the kids to school and headed to the airport.

So that is the last week of January and February to this point. I am now pulling hair out of my head trying to get ready to head to Alaska. I'm excited and scared to bejeebers.

A Year in Review

Well it is now four days into the new year and I've been thinking back about last year and everything that I accomplished and things I wished I had been able to accomplish. So this is my retrospective mumblings.

Last year I reduced my weight 27.4 lbs which is a tremendous accomplishment. I went from 216 at the beginning of last year to 188 at the end of the year. My goal weight mainly to get back into the military is 168. So 20 more lbs and I am golden. It will be the healthiest I have been since 1994.

Last year I completed four half marathons including one with my sister, the Air Force half. She actually ran the full marathon but we finished within minutes of each other which was cool. My first half was the Reno Rock n River half in which I finished in 3hr7min. This time would elude me for the next two halfs; the Steamworks half in Durango (elevation 9300 feet) and the Gold's Gym half (elevation 4300 feet). Both of these halfs seemed like such work for me and I was absolutely miserable running them so I had little hope for the Air Force half. But man I love running at lower elevation. I rocked the Air Force half coming in 17 min faster than my best half marathon time. The Air Force half took place in Dayton OH at Wright Patterson AFB with an elevation no greater than 2000 feet but more like 500 feet. I came in at 2hr50min. So my new goal for a half marathon time wise is 2hr30min.

Last year I also completed numerous 5k and 10k runs such as the Highlands Ranch 10k in April, Children of Hope 10k in June or July, Rim to Rim 5k in Oct, Galloping Goose 5k in Oct, Scream Scram 5k with Kaleb in Oct, Turkey Trot 2mile in Wichita in Nov, Turkey Trot 5k in Grand Junction in Nov, and the Jingle Bell 5k with Kaleb in Dec.

Last year I started an ambitious project of returning to college. I decided that I truly enjoy working with veterans who have disabilities such as amputee, TBI, some sort of paralyzation, so I decided to pick up a BS in Kinesiology at Mesa State. This would give me more options when I go pick up my PhD (for those of you who knew me in High School ain't that a kick in the pants) other than just social work. I took 7 credit hours in the fall of 10 and received two A's and a B. If grandpa were still around I'm sure I would have earned at least $25 dollars of pocket money for those grades.

Let's see what else, oh yeah I had to be pulled off a mountain by search and rescue. That was quite the little adventure that really shook me confidence. Since that little incident I've been rather hesitant to even go snowboarding. Speaking of snowboarding last year was my second season in the sport and I rock. I was able to go probably at least 16 times last year and have advanced my way up to running powder on blacks or slowly running moguls on blue's.

I had my first crown and next week will receive my second crown. As much as I hate dentist's I really enjoy the one I have in Grand Junction. He barters for service, no not sex, but I traded him a snowboard for some work he did on my teeth. He is a really awesome dentist.

Over the last year I've also been able to come to terms with some of my demons from the past. I have worked through the military thing enough to pick up the courage to try to return to the military. That is truly a work in progress.

My New Year's resolution is to continue my journey to a healthier lifestyle, to live my life to the fullest, to continue to realize my potentials, follow my dreams, and be a good friend and family member.