Summer Is Flying By

Just a month left until I start back to school. Its crazy to think, that in one semester I'll be done with nursing school. Its been a long, rocky road getting here, but I'm excited and confident. I don't expect next semester to be easy by any means, but if I remain constant and disciplined, I'll do fine. Speaking of discipline....

I made it to my 30 day mark of my no fried foods attempt. Actually, it wasn't hard at all after about the 10th day. I've started my count over, since I rewarded myself and endulged in some Canes and Oyster Bar on day 31, but as I look to what I eat, and try to decide what I want, I have no problem passing over the fried stuff. (okay...the sweet potato fries I saw on a menu today tempted me a little).
Amanda has decided to try it as well. She is on day 4 herself today. Impressive! It's hard, in the South, to cut out fried goods. Try it and see.

Biking has cut into my brewing time. I need to get in the mode and just brew for about 3 days non-stop. I have 7 kits of ingredients that need to get converted to malty goodness. I'll make it happen before school starts. Sooner the better, right? Biking has been incredible. It satisfies my need to get outside, gives me good exercise, and is very therapeutic. I've lost about 8 pounds, but thats not why I'm doing it, just a benefit. I'm at almost 100 miles for July. In August, I hope to do about 150. Amanda has been biking a bit as well. She can tell the difference I know.

I'm working quite a bit more with Amanda these days at the Sport Port. I enjoy spending the extra time with her, and its nice to see how far she's brought the facility from what it was. She has a vision for things, and a passion to succeed. I think Let's Play Inc is going to be a part of her life for quite a while. Who'd'a thunk'it?

Cayden, the other day, at the indoor, sat up. It was Sunday, and he was laying in a chair Amanda's Aunt Anne left us last year during the sisters tour. He was about 30degrees propped up by the bobby cushion, and he pulled himself up. Then he looked to one shoulder, fell back. He sat up almost as far, then fell again. I was stunned. I think it was just a fluke, and he might not do it again for weeks, but I saw it. I'm not completly crazy, promise. Pretty Amazing that kid. I'm nuts about him.

G'night....

CV

Going to bed.

Pics from Tuesdays Ride

Amanda and I got out on Clyde Fant Parkway on Tuesday. Here's a couple of pics...

Our four year anniversary

What a wonderful night....Beth took over Cayden duty starting around 4pm for Charlie and I. We caught an early movie "Wanted" good movie not great, but worth seeing once. Then around town just to waste some time before our dinner. We ate dinner at Lil Italiano a great little upscale place with low lighting and just a great atmosphere. Charlie and I had agreed no gifts for our anniversary seeing how we just bought new bikes we were going to call them our gifts to each other. Well just as a suprise Charlie employed Lugo to get me a small arrangement of flowers just waiting for me on the dinner table. Sneaky Charlie... they were wonderful he also bought a black picture mat and silver pen for us to remember our past eight years together. After dinner we went back to get our little man who we were missing terribly.

I would not lay there....

So the other night (I call it night but it was really about 3am) my husband sits straight up in bed and then proceds to jump up. I figure he is going to the bathroom or something along that line...I was wrong. He turns around a few times and calmly looks at me minutes after he has gotten out of bed and says "I wouldnt lay there if I were you".....whhaat??? So I throw off the covers and begin to move when I remember...wait this has happened once before... let me explain

many many months ago way before Cayden was even an idea Charlie jumps out of bed in the middle of the night turns on the light and screams at me to get out of bed now!! So a very groggy and scared Amanda obeys and hops her butt out of bed..... what what??? Charlie says " spiders all over the bed" and begins to throw off the covers to find them. Oh crap are you kidding me seriously...spiders in bed your dreaming...."no there real they are in the bed" where I dont see anything Im going back to bed...end of story no bugs just vivid dreams.

Back to the other night... so not to be tricked again by the sandman I layed back down and calmly said what's wrong... can you guess what he said oh yes he did "theres a spider in the bed" ... "its really big and its under my pillow"... "it's the size of a cup saucer get out of bed"... ha you just think im budging I rolled my tired self over as he crawled back in bed saying " it felt so real".. just like last time no spider!

One day I am really going to be upset when my wolf crying husband launches himself out of bed as I lay there allowing some nasty creature to crawl on me......

Lake Bistineau Group Ride

So, now that I've been biking a while, it was time to use my bike for what it was built for, off road, mountain biking. Since we don't have mountains, how bad could it be, right?

Wrong.

Them woods have hills, ya'll! And trees you can smash into, as my bike and I soon found out.

I met up with a local mountain biking group, appropriatly named LOCO, Louisiana off-road cycling organization. Great and very supportive group of people. In particular, a guy named Brady who has been helping me find road trek's in Shreveport for my early morning rides. When I pulled into the state park, and met up with the dozen or so other riders, I soon knew I was going to be way in the back alone. But, Brady, who is known to be super fast, stayed back and blew his riding day off, to help me. I layed my bike over at least two major times that I can think of, and discovered that my seat was not my friend. One time, I laughed the whole way to the ground, as my fellow rider shouted "Get up and quite laughing, there's redbugs everywhere out here!". The other time was pretty bad, I cliped a sapling with my handlebars, turning me funny and slamming my shin and crankset (front gear teeth) into a bruised and dented mess. No worries, I wasn't using that gear anyway.

The course was very technical, with alot of back and forth path movements. My biggest enemy was going slow actually. I crashed way less when moving quickly. The roots and things wern't too big of a problem, but having to get going on an uphill climb is something I'll have to work on. Oh, and those damn trees. We pulled out about 2 miles to the end, because we were running short on time, and honestly Brady probably was worried about an unintentional manslaughter conviction. After about 7.3 miles, I was toast. And this is after me doing all the miles in the city, thinking I'd built up some endurance. Yeah, going 20 mph on pavement isn't too hard, when you consider going 5 mph in the woods.

At the end of the day, I had a great time, and learned alot (often by necessity of the moment). I also now know how to tailor my rides in the city to build me up for riding on the woods.

Bottom line, get a bike! I'm having a blast!

Charlie Vman

July 17th Starts Year Four...

...for Amanda and I. We got married here in Shreveport/Bossier back in 2004 after we moved up from school for work. Its been quite an adventure here, and now we have Cayden to enjoy as well.

Our friend Beth, and probably Lugo as well, is taking Cayden for the evening, so that Amanda and I can get out and have a nice dinner together at this snazzy Italian place. It is one of those places you'd expect to see a 'family meeting' at. Low lit, locally owned, with a booth in the corner and one swinging light illuminating the goomba and his briefcase awaiting a guest....okay maybe its not that gangster, but it is pretty interesting. In any case, we'll also get to go hit the movies as well, which is something we don't get to do these days. So, it should be pretty fun. Its almost like a date or something!

"Hey Amanda, wanna go out with me, you know, on a date or something?"

Charlie

A life with no fried foods

Well, today is day 19 of no fried goods for me. It is amazing how much stuff I HAVENT been able to eat since commiting myself to 30 days of fried-food-free eating. When I started this deal, it was pretty simple, I just wanted to make one small change. Its hard to say "I'm going to eat better" and really stick to it. Thats just too broad. So, I figured, the easiest way to impact my cholesterol and other bad-food related lab values, was to just cut out the greasy fried foods. I think I'll be able to make it past 30 days, but that just seemed like an easy goal. At that point, I'm going to eat something fried, and I don't care what it is. And then I'll restart my 30 days.

I won't know what objective impact this has made to me until the end of August, when I repeat my labs at the Doc's office, but I expect it to be better. Boy, I do miss Raising Cane's though....only 11 days away.....

Charlie

My first bike ride

Well I finally got to take my first bike ride!!!!
The sistas tour finally came to an end this week after about a month. The girls came back through Shreveport after making thier last stop in Dallas on Monday. We got to visit with them one last day before they ended there trip and see all the pictures and hear all the great stories from their trip. From the sounds of things that had a wonderful tour this year yet again!!! We were glad to have them and look forward to next years tour!
So Tuesday Morning after the little man woke us up for his morning feeding at 7am BeBe took over babysitting duty and let Charlie and I take a morning ride. It was great we biked 5 miles to the boat launch and back home. I cant wait til we get to go riding again....