Day 27

Good evening everybody. Today was one of those semi-sleepless days. I got off at 6, rushed home hoping that I might be able to get into bed and to sleep quickly. Ally's soccer game was scheduled for 10:15 and so I knew I didn't have a lot of time. I got upstairs by 6:20, but had to get my phone working again. At about 4 this morning, it died. Just an hour earlier than that, I'm sure, when I looked at the phone it still had two bars. I don't know what happened. I know that when I plugged it in, after a few minutes I was able to get it to turn on. I don't know how it completely died, but oh well.

So, at 6:40 I was finally going to sleep. I set my alarm for 9:45, but Zoe decided to wake us up at 8:30. I hobbled out of the room, and into Zoe's room, picking her up. As is usually the case whenever I have been only on 2 hours of sleep, I swayed back and forth, just trying to clear my head and wake up. When I wake up that quickly after going to sleep, I always feel super up tight and cranky. It takes me a little bit to completely wake up. I gave Zoe her binkie, and layed her back down, and gave her a kiss. When I did that, she rubbed her eyes, and looked like she was ok with the idea of going back to sleep.

Then I crawled back in bed and told myself "one more hour. At least one more hour." By 9:20 or 9:30 though, Lex was coming in saying "Mom wants to know if you want pancakes and bacon." So I was like "Tell her I'm coming." Climbed out of bed, still swaying back and forth. Got dressed, and came downstairs. Drank a few sips of a mountain dew, but did not finish it.

I've been trying really hard to eat a heck of a lot better lately. For instance, I might eat cereal or some eggs for breakfast. For lunch lately I have been making myself a salad. Sometimes I put things like croutons, light ranch, and a table spoon of bacon bits. It could even be just croutons and light ranch. A few times I have boiled eggs and then diced the hard boiled eggs (max of two of them usually) into the salad. The great thing about hard boiled egg in a salad is it makes the salad fill you up better.

Then I don't concern myself with how big or healthy dinner is, and then on the nights when I'm working over night, I will make a salad and take it with me to work, eating it in the middle of the night. Plus now I'm enrolled in the water aerobics class taking place on Tuesday and Thursday at 7AM. I figure, I would like to technically exercise at least 3 times a week. So I am thinking that on Friday or Saturday when I get off, I will change into my windpants and running shoes and will go for a jog/walk, or whatever. I'm not sure where I would go. Maybe I would just take off down 4th street and go till I get about 10-20 blocks south, and then come over to 3rd st and head back up towards home.

I actually enjoy the salads. After having done them for the past four or five days, and trying to mainly drink water, I have been feeling better physically. This routine I'm in was the same type of diet and exercise plan I followed when I lived in Newton with my parents prior to shipping off for the Air Force. I tried to eat a light breakfast, go for a walk or run, drink lots of water, eat a light lunch, every other day I would go to the Y and either lift weights or hit around in the racquet ball court. When i arrived in Newton, from Montana when my ex and I initially split up, I had dropped from over 230 lbs to 212. Then during the two months I was following this plan before I shipped off, I went from 212 to 192lbs. I'm looking forward to dieting and exercising this way and maybe 2 or 3 months down the road, step on a scale and be down near 210. It can be done. I know it can. Then I can continue doing the same routine and slowly work my way below 200.

So today, Lex's soccer game played as scheduled even though it had rained yesterday. We were happy about that. They have already come so far in just the 2 games that they have played. This time they looked like an entirely new team. They were defending more, and being able to get the ball down the field more. Big weaknesses are still: taking shots on the goal when close enough to the goal, and attacking the ball. Some of the girls would keep backing up as the other team came into their end of the field. We would yell "GET HER! TAKE THE BALL! DON'T BE AFRAID OF IT!" and they would say "I'm not afraid of it! I'm just waiting for them!" We'd be like "DONT! JUST RUN UP AND TAKE IT!" It will take time.

Lex's 2 part birthday party went really well. First she had a party at Claires. The girls were able to try on stuff, and play dress up. Zoe even walked around the stoor putting on glasses, beads, and just having a blast. We didn't have a regular camera with batteries, so I had the digital video camera with us. I recorded 40 minutes of the claires party. It only lasted maybe 20 minutes longer. One of the photos posted here is when the staff at claires took the girls outside and took pictures of them all dressed up. The 2nd part of the party was at Pizza Ranch. There was me, Erin, Lex, Grandma, her friend Michelle and michelle's mom. When it was 7PM, Eric and Sophie hadn't showed up yet. We were just getting ready to call to see what was going on and they walked in. It was nice to see them. Pizza Ranch was good. For lunch today, I made salads for Erin and I. I figured I knew that dinner was going to be big, so I knew it would be worth the usual salad lunch.

After pizza ranch, my stomach was twisting constantly. I guess all that grease did not sit well with me. I should have taken it easy, but I figured I would enjoy it while I could. My mistake! It's all good. The other picture you see posted here is from Pizza Ranch. They had someone dressed up as a chicken and dancing while they sang happy birthday to Lex.

In closing, things are going pretty good. We still have a ways to go, but things will get better. In fact, tonight I mentioned to Erin that I was planning to apply for the openings of Sherifs Deputies here in town. She was surprised. Well when we got home, I mentioned that I should call the national guard recruiter to ask him what the word was on whether or not I would be cleared for the jobs I listed. She mentioned that if I was going to try to be a deputy, something about, why would I try to join the guard? I'm not sure exactly what she said, something like that. I'm sure she will comment here clearing that up if she wants to. ;)

I will write more for you tomorrow.

Thanks for being here!

CB