Friday Free-For-All

Ah, another week done.  Time for football!!!  Oh wait, K-State and Chiefs are both off this week.  Time for .... yard work????  Oi.

• Sad yet ironic headline of the week:  "Segway company President dies after driving Segway off a cliff.
• Atheists/Agnostics know more about religion than Protestants and Catholics??? Link
• Interesting discussion I had this week with a couple of different studies:  Does it take more faith to believe God does NOT exist than it takes to believe He exists?  I contend that believing God exists is easy.  It can explain anything.  Origin of the universe?  Almighty Creator did it.  Don't have to think about it.  Reason for unexplained medical recoveries?  God did it.  You see where this is headed.  You wanna know the hard part?  ACTUALLY BELIEVING THAT HE EXISTS!!!  Because if you actually believe that, then your actions would reflect it.  Too often my actions don't reflect what I say I believe so then I ask, do I really believe or is it just words?  What about you?  Do you really believe God exists?  Does your life reflect that? :)
• I get to go to the KSU vs Nebraska game next Thursday.  I am so excited!  Oh, not because of the game so much (it will be great though), but because I get to go with my wife!  Just like the college days, going to a game with Sara.  We might actually get to listen to something other than Bob and Larry in the car!
• Lots of exciting things going on in October.  Cousin getting married, spending time with my sister and her husband, spending time with my brother-in-law, his wife, and our nephew, Fall Festival at church, my sister's birthday, my wife's birthday, not to mention that I think it's the greatest sports month on the calendar!  It's going to be a great month!
• One quick daughter update: they are both doing great.  Healthy, happy, and in great moods!  Natalie is getting better at asking for things before crying about them.  She is seeing that if she asks and we say no it's not the end of the world and if she doesn't get upset mommy and daddy are much happier with her. :)  Hallie is just Hallie.  There really isn't any other way to put it.  She is talking more and more, getting MUCH more opinionated and still eating everything she can get her hands on.  She has also discovered that most clothes come off of baby dolls and so if you're clothes don't come off, you are shunned.  She doesn't want anything to do with you baby, she only likes the ones that she can have us undress/redress for her.  Should I be worried about that yet?

Bob and Larry and Junior and....

VeggieTales Live was a blast! (pictures to follow soon)  Sometimes getting the girls to eat dinner is a chore, but not last night.  Just a simple "when you're done we get to go see Bob and Larry!" and they were scarfing like they hadn't eaten in weeks.  Of course we listened to VeggieTales on the way to the show.  How can you go to VeggieTales without listening to the songs on the way???  When we got there Grandpa Marty, Grandma Sue, and the Richardsons were saving some seats for us.  We also saw Aunt Julie, Cousin Christie and Destiny who came down to say hi to Natalie and Hallie before the show.  Once we decided on seating (Becca and Natalie on Grandma's lap and Hallie wondering everywhere) it was time for the show.  Bob was the first to make an appearance.  The look on Hallie's face was PRICELESS!  I tried to get a picture but they didn't allow flash photography so some pics didn't turn out so well.  Later I decided to forgo the warning and use the flash on my girls and no flash on the Veggies.  Never flash the Veggies!  Then out came everyone else Pa Grape, Mr. Lunt, Junior, all there.  Except Larry.  As part of the show he got his own big entrance and the kids went crazy.  Who doesn't love a talking cucumber?  They sang all of the girls favorite songs and there was much clapping and dancing and singing.  About 15 minutes in to the show Natalie turns to us and says "those aren't the REAL Bob and Larry!"  My mind started racing, how was I going to explain to my 4-yr old that there were humans pretending to be oversized talking vegetables?  The question we asked was "what?"  That's right we just took the easy way.  She said something like "those are the pretend Bob and Larry".  I can't remember what Sara said to that one.  After a few minutes of silence it never came back up again and she seemed convinced that it was the real Bob and Larry the more they sang.  At intermission Hallie got a t-shirt and Natalie got a new DVD (thanks grandma and grandpa!).  The show didn't end until 8:45.  Our girls were pooped.  Natalie didn't want to leave Becca, Hallie didn't want to leave Bob!  After just a few cries they seemed okay again.  On the way out of the parking lot Natalie says "I didn't think that was the real Bob and Larry because of the stem things on their heads.  What was that for?"  She was referring to the plugs where they inflate the costumes.  Now what was I going to say.  My answer:  "That's leftover stem from where they picked the veggietales off the plant.  They grow on plants like strawberries and have to be picked the same way."  Her response: "I didn't know they had to be picked!  Do they have to pick all talking vegetables?"  I didn't have a response for that one.  On the way home we stopped next to Grandma Sue at one light and the Richardsons at another and Natalie and Hallie thought that was the coolest thing ever.  Overall it was a fantastic evening with Bob and Larry!

This morning when I got Hallie dressed she saw her Bob shirt and started pointing at it.  I put a different shirt on her.  She wasn't having any of it.  She grabbed the VeggieTales shirt and said "BOB!!", then put it down grabbed her shirt with both hands pulled it up and said "OFF!".  I think she wanted to wear Bob....she is.

Those girls

• So this morning Hallie found a travel cup full of mini chips ahoy cookies somewhere in the living room.  She proudly marched in to the kitchen and proclaimed "COOKIES!".  I said "It's time for breakfast, what would you like?"  Obviously her answer was "cookies" while presenting me with the cupl.  I said "You can't have cookies for breakfast".  She thought about it and said "eggs".  Well she had eggs yesterday so I wanted her to mix it up a little. Would you like pancakes?...."Eggs"....."Pancakes Hallie"....."Eggs".....you get the picture. "We" decided on pancakes (frozen Eggo style, I'm good but not that good).  After I got them all fixed and cut up I sat her up in her chair at the counter and put the cookies on the table behind her.  She turned around and saw them and asked "cookies?".  I said "after you finish your breakfast you may have a few cookies".  She thought about it, looked at me, slid her plate across the counter and said "all done!" with the biggest smile you have ever seen.  Just for the record, I won and she ate every bite of her pancake.
• Tonight we are taking the girls to VeggieTales Live.  That's right they get to see Bob and Larry live and in person.  Natalie is actually really excited for a change.  She used to be afraid of all things in costume.  We'll see how she does.  I think it will blow Hallie's little brain that Bob and Larry are on the stage in front of her.  Full report tomorrow. :)
• During the pancake "war" this morning Natalie got up at the counter to eat her breakfast while Hallie was still in the "I'm not eating no matter what" phase.  So I asked Natalie "Will you please tell your little sister to eat her pancakes?"  Natalie assumed the voice and said "Hadgie Bear (our nickname for her) eat your pancakes so you can grow big and strong like mommy and daddy."  She cracks me up.
• I love my girls.

Friday Free-For-All

• We have a tattle-tale umongst us.  Hallie is ratting out her sister, even when there is nothing to rat out!  Last night she came out from Natalie's room crying.  We asked her what happened and she said "Nanee....push....no,no! (complete with a finger wag)"  So mommy took Hallie back to Nat's room and talked with Nat about what happened.  About five minutes later Hallie comes back, fussing again.  So again Sara says "What happened Hallie?"
• "Nanee.....book"
• "I don't think she took your book did she?  Can you find a baby to play with?"
• Hallie hesitated, then said "Nanee...push....no,no!"  That's right, she realized we weren't going to get mad at Natalie and so she thought of a reason that we had previously talked to Natalie and brought it up again hoping to get Nat in trouble!  She is too smart for her own good.
• The fair last weekend was excellent as always.  Hallie was a little fussy but overall not too bad.  She just was mad because sister was big enough to ride the carousel and she wasn't.  Natalie let us go see some animals first and have dinner before she went on the rides.  Didn't eat anything too exotic, Pronto Pup, Roasted Corn, and capped off the night with Call Hall Ice Cream from under the grandstand.  For those uninitiated Call Hall is a building at K-State that makes their own ice cream and it is FANTASTIC!
• Pick for the KSU game:  KSU 30 UCF 20
• As I've mentioned previously Natalie likes to play the Wii and often that includes the balance board.  Hallie isn't allowed to stand on it while Nat is playing.  She went in to the corner by the couch and we didn't think about it too much.  But pretty soon we look over and she is standing on the Wii box and doing the motions that big sister is doing.  She just made her own board, no problem. :)
• I can't believe what celebrity in this country has become.  It makes me sad that anyone can become a celebrity just by being an idiot and getting on TV.  What is celebrity anyway?  Why are people on TV any different than the rest of us?  Why do their opinions matter?  Is it because they make more money than us?  Why do they make that money, it isn't because they are any better than us I know that.  This country needs God more than ever.
• I struggle with worrying about what others think of my opinions or things I do.  If I make a mistake and people laugh I have a really hard time letting it go.  If people in a room are whispering and then start laughing I immediately wonder if it is about me or something I said.  I have gotten better but it is a personal struggle.  I wish sometimes that I could just be one of those people that doesn't care what others think, I am just going to be me.  But that isn't the case.
• I am not insinuating that anything about me is fake.  I love Jesus, I love my family, I love sports, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't appreciate conversations about drinking.  I don't see the fun in getting so drunk that I am sick the next morning and can't remember what I did the night before.  It is just baffling to me how that is fun.  I don't get it.  Call me a goody goody, call me whatever you want, I am done caring what anyone thinks, because if this changes your opinion about who I am then you didn't really know me anyway and weren't really a friend to begin with.
• I am not perfect.  I have issues that I struggle with just like everyone else.  Please don't take the previous paragraph as a holier than thou stance or attitude.  It's just something that's been weighing on me lately and I needed to say it.

Friday Free-For-All

• Natalie loves the Wii.  Specifically right now she loves Wii Sports Resort and the Speed Slice or "cutting game" as she refers to it.  In this game you use the wand as a sword to slice through objects faster than your opponent.  Two objects drop on screen with an arrow indicating the direction to slice.  Whoever reacts faster wins.  She is stinkin' awesome at that thing and loves to play it.  At least she will do that on her own and not ask me to drive Mario any more.
• Hallie is a parrot.  She repeats almost everything.  The sad thing is she struggles saying an phrase that is more than one word so when referring to people it is "am-ma", "am-pa", "papa", "emmie", "nick", "eric", etc.  Well the other night they were trying to get her to say "Grandpa Marty" but she fixated on the last word and kept referring to him as "Marty".  It's not as cute on the computer but if you heard her say it you would laugh, I promise. :)  We tried to correct her but she would just laugh and say "Marty".
• I love Fridays.  Especially in the fall.  Maybe it's because of all the football talk and the fact that the high school, college, NFL weekend is upon us, I'm not sure.  I think it has to do with growing up with a dad who coached high school football and then playing high school football.  It just has a different feel even if I have a project or presentation on that day, everything seems better on Friday.
• I love it when God sends a reminder that He truly is in control and everything will work out for His purposes.
• Twitter is awesome.  That is all.
• My pick for the KSU game this week versus Iowa State: KSU 34 ISU 24
• Hallie has decided that every time Natalie goes to the bathroom she needs to as well.  Once Hallie hears Natalie announce where she is going, she immediately starts repeating "potty?" "potty?" "potty?" in the cutest little whine you've ever heard.  She also tugs on her shorts/pants and heads for the bathroom.  This morning she went in the bathroom and I heard the toilet seat go up and her hollering "potty".  Sometimes we will sit her up there just to let her know that she's on the right track but taking off her diaper and then putting it back on just isn't worth it when she never actually goes.  But potty training her is going to be a breeze. :)

Two completely unrelated thoughts

These two could not be any more unrelated but here they are anyway:

• On Friday night I sat behind two dads that I hope to never become.  At a high school football game where Derby was getting trounced, these fools were constantly yelling.....at the PLAYERS!!!  These are high school kids, trying as hard as they can.  Sometimes a team is just better than you.  On every play they said something negative about the boys.  Not the officials, not the coaches, the players.  Seriously.  Grow up.  To top it off dad A says "Man, we're getting beat by a 5A school."  To which the brilliant dad B replies "Not just beat but trounced by a 5A team".  These idiots obviously think they know everything but in those comments revealed their ignorance.  Hutchinson is the SIX TIME defending state champions and took the #1 team in Missouri to overtime last week and should have probably won that game.  They are anything but "just a 5A team".  Pathetic.
• I have been on a weight loss journey for quite some time now.  It started when my wife began running again and that motivated me to get off my butt and do something.  This was 5 years ago before we had any kids.  I didn't do much.  Lost like 5 pounds, thought I was the man and that was about it.  I don't know when it kicked in that I needed to actually do something drastic but it just did and so I started eating less (not anything different, just less), exercised 3 days a week (30 minutes on elliptical) and lost 20 pounds really quick.  After that I kind of hit a plateau, gave up on the whole thing and gained 8 pounds back in about 2.5 months.  Oops.  I picked up again, changed what I ate a little and lost about 20 more pounds, so now I am down a little over 30 and thinking I really am the man.  Again, plateau, quit, gain.  Well, in January of 2008 I finally hit the final push.  I dropped the last 30 pounds I had in mind and was down a cool 60 pounds.  Somewhere along the way I started running.  I hate running.  I don't know what happened.  Well I had fluctuated between 195-200 for quite a while and at beginning of the summer was up over 200 again.  I decided this was just lazy and I wasn't going to be the one to put all the weight back on so I got serious.  I started running again, going about 2 miles every couple days, losing weight slowly but surely.  Somewhere along the way I upped that to 3.1 miles every time I go and now me, the guy who despises running, gets up at 6 to run 4 days a week.  The days I don't go I feel lazy all day and look for ways to do something.  Mostly that involves walking a mile over lunch around our pond behind the office.  Through the course of this I have broken so many barriers it isn't even funny.  Broke 18 mins in a 2 mile run.  Broke 27 minutes for 3 miles.  Actually ran 4.2 miles.  Weighed under 200 pounds.  Today I hit a huge one though.  I broke 190!  I weigh as much now as I did when I was a sophomore in high school!  It hasn't been easy, I know I'm not the fastest or the farthest runner (my wife actually beats me on both counts) but I did it and I'm not done yet.  The best part?  I charted the whole thing in Excel and have a fancy little graph that shows me the big picture instead of week to week which can be depressing.  Once a nerd always a nerd. :)

Natalie is confused

Sometimes I wonder if Natalie thinks she is Hallie's mommy or her big sister.  This morning I went to wake up the girls to start the process of getting ready for the bus ride with grandma.  I woke up Natta J first.  Her being the amazing morning person she is was quite perky and I asked if she wanted to help me wake up Hallie.  She said "Oh, sure.  (Changes voice pitch to a little higher, with more dripping babytalk overtones) Hallie Bear, oh Hallie.  It's time to get up.  Do you want to go see mommy?  Do you want your juice?  Hallie Bear, time to wake up."  It's really cute but COMPLETELY different from how she talks to her when Hallie wants to play with her toys. :)  After grandma got there, they were giving daddy the required hugs and kisses and Natalie walks over to Hallie, puts her hand on her shoulder, leans down to look her in the eye, and says (same voice as before) "Hallie, will you go give daddy a hug and kiss?"  Ok, my description isn't doing it justice I can tell, I am going to have to get a video of this while Natalie isn't looking.