When I grow up.

This has been a very odd year for us and I'm ready to look forward. It has taken me over 30 years to decide what I want to be when I grow up. For the first time I have some direction and goals in my life. I'm not sure when or where the path will end, but I know what direction I'm headed. Life is full of unexpected twists and turns but as long as you know the direction your headed you can always get back on path. Here's to a messed up year that let me put life in perspective and understand the important things in it. The top looks pretty good from the bottom and it's time to get climbing out of this hole.

Amazed for generations

For Christmas I received a blue-ray player. I didn't receive any movies with it so went to Walmart to find an inexpensive family movie. When looking through the blue-ray movies I found "the Wizard of Oz." I remember as a child my mother was a babysitter and me and the kids she watch loved this movie. We watched it everyday for an entire summer. I wasn't sure if I would like it as much as I did or if my daughters would like it at all, but I purchased it anyway just wondering if it was still as good as I remembered. Not only did it have unbelievable picture quality it is still one of my favourite movies of all time. My daughters said they loved it and want to watch it again tomorrow. I couldn't be more excited to watch it with them again tomorrow.

Christmas future will be better than Thanksgiving

The greatest holiday is thanksgiving. I hate the crowds, expectations and pressure of Christmas. Thanksgiving has no pressure or expectations to give anything but love. I love just getting together with family laughing, eating, and enjoying each others company. I think the gifts at Christmas just set people up with financial burdens and disappointment. I think this is the last year I will purchase gifts for anybody but my children. Starting next year all of our gifts will be made from the heart not purchased off a store shelf. We will no longer give away heartless gifts made in India. Everything we give away will be made in our home and come from the heart no matter what our financial situation is.
Thank you horrible economy for making me understand my messed up vision of Christmas and making me see what is really important this time of year.

Christmas love

This was a hard year for most and remember to make Christmas about being with each other not what you get each other.
I love you all and wish you all a VERY VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Christmas funk

It has been a very hard year and I think I forgot the "" true meaning of Christmas. Last night we got a visit from some caroling family members that helped me remember that not giving a lot of presents out this year is actually a good thing. It has made me remember that presents are not the focus of Christmas it is the people. You will never find happiness in stuff. Thanks Holdaways, you saved Christmas, by helping me out of my funk.

Defense

Lately it seems I'm always on the defense when other people are talking to me. I'm trying to learn how to listen. This is not as easy to do as it sounds. Listening is actually a very hard skill to learn. To not think of anything or start coming up with my answer before a person is finished talking is very difficult. Practice makes perfect so this is my new goal. Practice this everyday and remind myself every morning.

Nickles and dimes

I received at the beginning of the month a CDL five-year renewal. I have never received this before and wasn't sure what it was since I have had my CDL for 10years. I have found that new legislation was passed to make me go down to the DMV every 5 years and pay them money. It started recently, and guess what the government has there hand in my pocket again helping them selves or they will ruin my lively hood. It's only $15, but it's the point of it that pisses me off. It seems our government is finding new and fun ways to nickel and dime us to death for there wasteful spending.

Respect

In todays world it seems respect is not easy to get. Disrespect is an extremely toxic part if any relationship. It could be a relationship with friends, co workers, pets, spouse, children, or the biggest one yourself. I do believe to truly respect others you have to respect yourself. You have to approve of you before you try to get others to approve. If you respect yourself, people will almost automatically respect you. Be the person you want to be friends with and you will be showed with respect.
As you go through your day, remember that its not about who you please if you are not happy with yourself.

All fired up

Today I was all fired up over competition taking down a pricing sign at an account. I'm not usually an aggressive person but I don't not except disrespect or losing very well at all. I really enjoy the competitiveness of my job and today was one of those days. It's going to be an interesting week, because I will win this battle.

Time to cut the crap

Today is the first day I have stayed away from the crap of the holiday. I even managed to work in a 2 mile walk/run. I will be running 4 days a week until the week of Christmas in hope to get down to 190 ish and be ok with gaining some weight back. Yesterday I was back over the 200 mark for the first time in months and I'm not happy about it. It's hard to stay motivated but I will reward myself with a guiltless Christmas eating feast if I'm able to stay motivated for the next 3 weeks.

A quick 8

So since Wednesday when I had family come into town I have eaten an insane amount of food that is not exactly healthy. We have been eating big meals late followed by deserts. Now tonight I hoped on the scale and have gained 8 pounds since Tuesday night. Looks like I'm going to have a couple of serious healthy weeks ahead of me since I need to lose all 8 pounds + before Christmas comes and we go for round 2 of unhealthy food that makes me happy.

Deep pit party

We took the idea of digging a hole in the ground and cooking a turkey a step further and made it a night to remember. Instead of burning a bag of charcoal in a hole and expecting it to cook a turkey buried in the ground we made a night of it. We started with some basic ingredients. Research online on how to deep pit, a new turkey, lots of wood, marshmallows, chocolate bars, graham crackers, and beer. This of course turned to a nice fire pit in the backyard with family, smores, and of course the beer. This created a great hot base to deep pit the Turkey in. After about 4 hours of fire we had the hot coals to set the bird and go inside. We started Elf the movie and had a great time waiting to see if the Turkey was going to start to cook this time or just fail and become nasty like the first one. This time we had an electronic thermometer in the bird to monitor its status. After we went out to check on the temp of the bird we got nervous because the bird had heated up so rapidly in the first 3 hours. We decide to stay up because if it continued to cook that fast it would of been done in 1 to 2 hours. About 10 to 20 degrees before we would take the bird off it hit a wall and the heating of the bird slowed dramatically. At 3am we decided a quick nap was the best way to let the bird finish because obviously the saying " a watched pot never boils" was involved here. We woke up about 7am to find the bird had reached it's final temp and was ready to be dug up. The bird was amazing and now I'm sold on the deep pit. Its not just the moistest tasting meat I have ever had, the preparation to cook it is an amazing way to spend a holiday evening with family.

3 out of 4 isn't bad

We had a plan to cook 4 Turkeys for 30 people on Thanksgiving. We had an oven Turkey, weber turkey, smoked Turkey (that was mine), and deep pit turkey. All turned out great except the deep pit. We put a family member in charge of the deep pit that hadn't done it in 40 years or so and missed some steps. We have decided to do some research and do it right this time. Failing is not an option so tonight we will be putting another bird in the ground in hopes of an amazing new way to me at cooking a bird.

Your post

This post is for you. On this Thanksgiving day I'm thank for so much but most of all I'm thankful for all of you. Everybody in my life means so much to me and I just want you to all know.

Thank you for being a part of my life and enjoy everybody around you today.

Slow times round 2

I figured out tonight at 5pm that I need an oven thermometer. I thought to myself there is no way I'm facing the walmart the day before thanksgiving. I will just hit up the local supermarket and hope its not out of control. I told my brother in-law he was coming with me because so I would have a person to talk to when standing in line. Once again shocked! We got a parking spot right up front, found our thermometer, and walked towards the check out. A cashier meet me at the end of the isle and said I can check you out if you are ready. Are you kidding me...where are all of the people? The store had more employees then customers the night before thanksgiving at 6pm. I don't care what people say our economy is a disaster. Was it just me or did anybody else come across these same experiences of way slower than expected stores?