Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Fall-ing for Autumn

Fall has got to be my favorite time of year. The trees and bushes ditch their green summer garb and gives us the red carpet treatment. The air is as crisp and refreshing as a cool glass of water, the "good" sports are in full spring, its a time for football party BBQ's, camping trips, its death to the bugs that bite, and finally, Fall is the Herald of the Holiday festivities with all its splendor. A time to dust off the baking sheets, and download some cool recipes in search of a new holiday food tradition that will make us fat, like hot apple butterscotch two sugar no crust pie topped with with non-low fat whip cream and powdered sugar ... bombs...with Ice Cream...on the side...can I get a heck yeah? Best of all, its our first with little Sofia!!!
YEAH !! Sofia and The Pumpkin Headed...Construction...um... Worker...Scare..crow.......

Why didn't the ghost get a Job at the haunted house? ....because he lacked substance.......


A happy Sofia and (2) Piles of Leaves going as Pumpkins for Halloween....kinda of trashy if you ask me.



Um...my feeling is uncertainty... thinking one thing will produce a cool result, but it always ends up with you, or someone you talked into doing it first with the promise that they would be the "coolest", getting hurt... you ever tried jumping on a ball thinking it would act just like a trampoline???

Later Gater,
John

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Kiwanis Run




This weekend we ran for the Kiwani's, it is an organization that raises money for special needs children. All proceeds is going to build them a new playground. It was only 1.5 miles, which is a couple laps around Bob Woodruff Lake. It was a lotta fun... well at least for my little Sofia. Daddy hasn't ran in a little while so needless to say, I was gasping for air, meanwhile Andrews little friend Becca trotted along with ease. Youth!!! It was worth it though, and I hung in there with my wife, even though her response was " not bad babe, you kept up!!!". Love the support. We also got to dress little Sofia up for the first time in her Halloween get up. She is our little pumkin, so it is was only fitting to dress her like one. Besides, if your gonna spend money on an outfit that she will outgrow by next year, you might as well get the milage out of it, right?.? We didn't stay for the judging though, but like any proud parent would say, she would have won cause she was the cutest!!!

It was also cool to see Chester there as well, and we couldn't pass up the photo opp. He looks like a giant compared to my wittle girl!! I almost thought he might join us for the run as well, but then I thought to myself, why bother? Cheetah's never win............

Ciao for Now,
John











































































































Friday, October 24, 2008

Turkey Trot Training Update


Week 3: For those who are still reading, our blog or even this Turkey Training update, is now week three of seven weeks of training. Here's the rundown.
Well, it has gotten easier since week 1, I am no longer hurting from running unless I do squats, which I hate, but they are good for your knees and other parts of the body, which I will not mention in this family friendly blog, but overall I feel good about this Trot. We went from running 35 minutes to 50 minutes. I thought it was impossible, but I am managing quiet well, mind you. This Sunday we are running for an hour. Well, if I ran 50 this past week, I can do an hour; but my hubby announced to me that running is not his hobby, he only does it to loose weight, unlike me is my hobby, so he's decided he doesn't want to run with me anymore. (i think he said that playing World of Warcraft is his true hobby, I say whatever!)
He ran the 40 minutes on that first week quiet well, but says that he's not into self inducing pain so, he's just staying home with the baby. Now, I like to share my passion with someone, so I took my dog Lenny instead. He can hang! Although he was falling a little behind there by the 40 minute mark, he made it just fine, he's a trooper. Lenny needs to loose weight anyways (so does John) but my dog Lenny can't nag to me and besides I am his owner so what I say goes. I wish Billy my Chihuahua dog could hang, but he's so tiny, he's only like 4.9lbs.
So, we are training on hills and let me tell you, they are a pain!!! ugh, the worst when it comes to running, but I must conquer them! We ran the hills yesterday in this cutsie Richardson neighborhood last night and the hills had me gasping for air but I made it. So, anyways, I will update you in a couple of weeks so far we are running 4 miles already and only 4 more to go! yippee! Love, S.S.





Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Sofia's Corner






Here's Sofia hanging out on the last day of nice weather here in Plano, TX. As well as hanging out at her playpen. Sofia loves to stand on her playpen. She's getting pretty good at holding on and is moving from left to right on that thing...very soon she'll start walking! ummm...but my mom tells me not to get too excited...when she does, I will wish she wasn't walking. We'll see. I just worry about the dogs, they won't be able to nap during the day anymore, she'll be on their tails...

Andrew's First Recital

Sofia with Auntie Wendy yesterday Tuesday, October 21st. 2008


This is Andrew's first recital (my 11 year old nephew) out of the 20 something kids, he's the only one that didn't miss a note. Way to go Andrew!



Thursday, October 16, 2008

Daddy Is Officially Baptized


Well I have avoided the pee storm for 8 months. Today the dark clouds rolled in and that all changed along with my clothes.
I've done this dozens of times and I have never been peed on. I'm in my work clothes and I get her bath ready in the kitchen sink, I undress her for her nightly bath in the nursery and make my way to the kitchen with a naked Sofia in tow, and all of a sudden I start feeling water splash all on my stomach, down my leg and on my feet, and I 'm thinking what the hell is this and where is this water coming from?
So I pull her out at arms length and out of her comes the last bit of this unusually large fountain of pee from my little girl. Dang!!! Sofia! LOL! Well... I have been officially baptized. The joys of parenthood...

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

A Marriage Weekend


Everyone knows what John and I went through last year. Our separation, our pain, the divorce that almost happened. Then we found a marriage retreat that saved our marriage.

This weekend Friday the 17th, 41 hurting married couples are going to gather at the Radisson Hotel in Irving for the weekend of their lives. I want anyone reading this to pray for these couples, please pray that they may find the love they seek in their marriage, but most importantly, that they find God in the midst of bitterness and hurt and allow HIM to help them build a new foundation.

Currently, John and I are the Registration couple for this and next year. If you know a couple that is hurting in their marriage and is thinking about ending their marriage, please let them know about Retrouvaille. Or better yet, we can talk to them about the possibilites of saving their marriage by attending one weekend.
We have been on the side of bitterness, sadness, betrayel and mistrust. It is hard work to make a marriage work, but the result of all the hard work you put in your marriage is blessed by what how much work you put in it every single day.
Love, Sandra Seaman

Friday, October 10, 2008

Turkey Trot Training Update


WEEK 1: I manage to push myself and go. I didn't want to. I wanted to be by my baby and hubby. But the class has been paid for and I'm not going to let money just slide away just because I don't feel like going. So here's the run down.
On Monday we did the one magic mile run. Explanation: they have you run 4 times around the track which equals to one mile and they time you. Well, even though this lady and I came dead last, I still managed to run at 10:32 the mile and you say "NOT BAD!" I know! This was my time last year pre-baby body running time.
Yesterday, Thursday: We ran for 35 minute straight! and yes, I did it!!! Don't ask me how much I hurt today, but it hurts. I have not ran like that for over a year and even though the feeling is good the pain is not. So far there are 12 ladies and one gentleman in our class and my couch is Chrissy! She's awesome, this is my second time training with her so that's nice.
This Sunday we are running for 40 minutes long (no stopping, no cheating) since everyone is meeting at the Mockingbird Dallas Store and this is only a social class run, I have decided to save money on gas, I'll just go to the beautiful walking trail by my house (literally by my house) I'll wake up my hubby, with Sofia, she don't need no wakening and we are running for 40 minutes, dang it! John needs to loose pounds anyways, he hasn't ran since he did the "Too hot to handle" run in July, so he'll just run with me on Sunday's. aja! See you until next update! GOBBLE, GOBBLE! s.s

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Sofia's Corner - Her first words!!!

I don't know what she's saying, but I know she's saying something! yippee! She's started talking this past Monday, October the 6th! my baby girl is talking at 7 1/2 months!

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Whoo-Ha Corner

OK! I was just reflecting today on my wonderfully different nieces and nephews. You've got my sister Vanessa who's kids are all different, and full of love and laughter. I love the nights when we got together and played monopoly or some type of board games. We have so much fun with them, especially playing Clue. You have Javier, who is pretty slick, but not slick enough to trick uncle John, Chaz who you don't expect anything from because she has a good poker face and she ends up going for the jugular at the right time, and then you have Aaron who gets mad cause he wants to hang with the big boys, but then accidentally shows his cards off...of course I have no choice but to see what he has!!!

You got Guy's Kids who act just like he does, goofy and spunky! I remember once when his oldest was about 6. We were playing charades and she wanted to partake. She had no clue what or who 3/4's of the subjects were, but she finally clinged to this one thing that she could identify with, and it was a ballerina. She played it beautifully and everyone knew what she was! She could even do a courtesie and a pirouette, so adorable! She was the x factor. Her next subject was Jurassic park. We coached her that it was dinosaur movie, so we told her to do her best T-Rex and people would get it. So she gets out there stands confidently and looks for us to give her the signal to go, and she busts out with the ballerina dance again!! My sides hurt from laughing so hard.

Then you have Wendy's kids! These are all so different from each other, you have the brainiack wheeler and dealer Andrew, you have the small and spunky firecracker Anthony, who is twice as small as his two older brothers but with 2 times the fierceness. But then there's Sammy, he takes the cake, I mean he literally takes the cake! He is a kid after my own heart. He shares my passion for food. He loves to eat, between him and I we can kill a bowl of chips and dip in a whole sitting. He has got to be the only nephew that when he comes over to spend the night will bring a bag of chips with him, along with a change of cloths and toothpaste! A couple weeks ago I was sitting in line at a supermarket staring at a birthday card and a 25.00 gift certificate to Olive Garden. Moments ago I was in hunter mode and it didn't dawn on me, but as I sat there and looked at the cool olive garden card, I was thinking to myself I can't believe I'm buying him a food gift card for his birthday. I even went as far as visulizing what sammy was probaly going to eat with this card. I bet Sammy is going to buy Fettuccine Alfredo. He loves Fettuccine Alfredo, I mean we used to go to Cici's and he would skip the pizza and like a bug to a light bulb, he would go straight for the Fettuccine. I chuckled to myself, most kids want a video game or some kind of cool gadget, but not Sambo. When asked what he wanted for his birthday, with a smile on his face he goes "food"! LOL!

I love my Nieces and Nephews their colorful personalities gets me right in the funny bone. One minute your changing their diapers and the next minute you are trying to figure out how they got slick enough to beat you at clue, laugh at them for drumming to their own beat, or buying them Food Gift Cards for their Birthday!

Love Uncle John

Sunday, October 5, 2008