I am officially on my first day of the second week and I have to say that I think it is going well.  Day 2 (plyometrics), which I will be doing again tomorrow, was probably the hardest work out I have ever done in my life. Three quarters through the work out I was only doing the exercises about half as long as they were on the video, and then with about 11 minutes the computer froze.  I thanked Mr. Computer a couple of times beacuse I was already dead.

Other that the plyometrics, the next hardest thing is the meal plan.  It takes forever to try to plan out your day.  I do think I have developed a appreciation for eating good food.  I feel like I have more energy because my body actually has fuel to burn rather than fat to store.  I will keep the updates coming.  Mostly so I can look back.  Hopefully my journey we be encouraging for someone else to try.

Cora’s goal in life for the past few months has been to crawl through the kitchen around the stove and into the forbidden laundry room undetected. The laundry room of coarse is where the big shiny silver bowls of secret dog food and mystery water reside. Yesterday morning Cora saw her dream come true. I was carefully cutting up small pieces of a pear for her breakfast as I saw her quietly pass me and the stove. I can usually gage her crawl and I know how much time I have to react. Well, I must have miscalculated because the next sound I heard was the tinging of Chase’s dog food  against the big shiny sliver bowls. By the time I made it to her she had a clenched fist full of yummy Purina One dog food and a confused look on her face. Apparently the food that made into her  mouth wasn’t all she’d dreamed it would be. I used my hook-like- finger to scoop the food out as she attempted her lock jaw move. I removed the dog food from her hands and got her into her high chair. By the way her high chair is amazing, not because it has any special bells or whistles, but it magically keeps her in one place. At last, I sit down and begin feeding Cora her breakfast to which she has no interest. Apparently Purina beats pears hands down.

I can’t say that I have really done much of any exercise since…about Thanksgiving.  You know how it goes.  Your work has a pot luck Thanksgiving the week before so you eat like crap the whole week.  Then you have a huge Thanksgiving dinner with your bible study group the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  Then you have a huge Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving.  Next the cookies start coming in at work, people are baking cookies and giving away snacks and rather than make anyone feel bad you of course eat as much as you can.  By this time you might as well wait till after Christmas to try to get back in shape.  But, then comes new years and before you know it, you weigh the most you ever have.  You know how it is.

Maybe you don’t, but that is how it went for me this past year.  Now I am typically not one to make New Year’s resolutions, I did realize that I had to something.  Jodi felt the same way.  She didn’t quite give in to goodies like I did, but she too felt like it was time to get back in shape.  Our solution…P90X.

Today was day one.  I got up early this morning and started my journey to getting in shape.  I didn’t go crazy since it was my first day, but I felt the burn.  I think I am really going to like this.  Jodi and I are also doing the meal plan that they suggest to stick to while you are  going through the program.  The crazy thing to me is that we are eating more food during the duration of the day then we did before.  I fell like I am already noticing the benifits.  No I am not that crazy that I think I got buff off one day, but I had way more energy today, never crashed like I usually do around 4pm, and just felt better.  Maybe it is mental, but I am encouraged.

I am sure I will ad more posts about how it is going.  Stay tuned.

Okay, it has been a really long time since I have written in the blog (is it in the blog or on the blog…anyway).  I don’t know why I have taken the hiatis I have, but it hasn’t only been from the blog, this includes most things to do with the computer.  I check my email every third day or so, I haven’t updated my status on Facebook since who know when, and what is this Twitter thing I keep hearing about? (Just kidding on that last one, but seriously)

I just haven’t made it a priority of late, I would much rather spend time with my beautiful wife and baby girl.  But, yesternight was a perfect picture of what chaos can insue when Dad is left in charge.

It started with Jodi dropping Cora off at Nadco at 4:40 in the afternoon.  This was the first night of her self-defense class and it started at 5.  I took the liberty to show Cora off to anyone who cared at work.  I am a proud Dad.  So, I shut down my computer and strolled Cora out.  She was in a really good mood so she was alot of fun.  She does this really cute thing where she makes this whispering sound.  It is so precious.  If you make the sound back to her you can have a whole whispering conversation.  I think it is so cool how you can have a conversation with you child without saying a word.

We got home and it was time to feed her dinner.  She is still downin’ the Mama’s milk, but she is also eating home made baby food.  I was in charge of the baby food since Jodi was out learning how to kick you butt.  On the menu was cauliflower that was mixed with some cheese I believe.  The first few bites go great.  Cora, like her Dad, digs the cauliflower.  But, about half way through I get the lock jaw.  She is not opening those lips for anything.  She has also gotten quiet good at swatting away the spoon when she is not interested.

I tried everything, I made her laugh and snuck it in only to have her ooze it back out, I heated it up to make sure it hadn’t gotten to cold, I even resorted to acting like a gorilla to get her attention.

Just as I am making a complete fool of myself I see a woman walk up to my front door (who can see me making a fool of myself).  This woman doesn’t look familiar and all I am thinking is how bad timing this is.  Then she does the most foolish thing a visitor to my humble house can do…she rang the door bell (I know).  Needless to say Chase (our dog) goes ballistic.  There must be some sort of electronic device in my dog that is set off by the ringing of the door bell because whenever it happens he acts like he wants to get out of his skin.  Oh but even better, this is not “normal” ballistic Chase this is bite wound recovering, infection having, surgery gotten, staph infection diagnosed, cone wearing Chase.  Who even though he has been wearing the cone for about 2 weeks still has not figured out the dimensions of said cone.

So, there I am with Cora in the highchair food all over her face, Chase going nuts whipping his cone into every possible object, and me not knowing what to do.  My first thought was answer the door, so I got up, boxed out Chase like I was trying to get a rebound and cracked the door.  ”Hi I called about the chair your selling on Craigslist.” she says.  ”Um, okay.  That must have been my wife you talked to and she’s not her. Hold on a second.” I said and I shut the door.  Next thought: put Chase somewhere that he can’t kill these people.  I manage to get Chase in the sun room, but of course, he is still going nuts, which after a while can make you go nuts too!  Thought #3: I need to go out to the garage and show them the chair.  Thought #4: I can’t leave Cora in here by herself.  I unlatch Cora from her cauliflower encrusted throne and take her out to the garage.

The good news is the lady bought the chair and didn’t even try to get me down on the price.  I think she may have felt bad for me.  Seriously, that was one evening.  I don’t know how Jodi does it everyday.  She is a great woman, wife and especially mother.  I am forever grateful to the strengths and abilities that God blessed her with.

Another month has flown by. Our baby girl is walking along anything that will hold  her up from furniture to the walls. She’s learned to clap and loves telling us how big she is by throwing her hands over her head with a big grin. When she gets really excited she bounces up and down and occasionally stomps her foot. We have seen a small glimpse of hope for our efforts of teaching her sign language, she almost did  the sign for “please” the other day. She has learned how to roll her ball back and forth on the floor with her Dada and she will grab anyones fingers she can reach and make you walk with her. She’s eating pretty well now, she’s had cauliflower & cheese, chicken and potatoes, graham crackers, some small amounts of juice (she’s learning to suck from the sippy cup) and her favorite has been the introduction to the timeless joy of Cheerioes. She is making out a few words, “Mama, Dada, and Chhzz.” She is a source of endless joy. I can’t image how much our Father, our Creator, our God must love us. If I, a flawed selfish human, have the capacity to love my daughter this deeply His perfect love for us must be amazing. I praise Him for all that He is and all that He does.