Everything is Easier

Even with a painful herniated disc, I find everything is easier with 140-pounds gone from my frame. I did nine hours of yard-work on Saturday and although the herniated disc was painful and made me go slower than normal, doing things was much easier on my knees and joints. I enjoyed the day and spent the entire day hanging out and working with my 5-year-old son at my side. Of course, he made things more difficult at times, but his personality and watching him feel important and strong as he helped was priceless. The entire day was dedicated to my little guy. It started with Dad taking him to his soccer game and then we spent the entire day working together. The day ended with playing the Nintendo Wii, dinner and then a man's shower to wash all our dirt and grime off.

Just as we were off to bed, the door bell rang at 10:30pm. My son immediately ran for the front door, followed by his sister, against my wishes. They opened the door and I slowly walked towards the front door. My daughter says, "Dad, someone left two bags of trash on the front steps". I looked and sure enough, there were two bags of trash (Dark Green) on our first step off of the porch. I stood there thinking, I do not have enough room in the trash can for two more bags. My son, the ever inquisitive guy he is, walked to the trash bags. He examined them and then reached out and grabbed one and... both trash bags stood up, screamed and ran away! I nearly had a heart-attack, my son screamed and my daughter screamed and laughed. Stinking teenagers, nearly caused this old guy a cardiac arrest! My son said, Dad I grabbed them because those trash bags had knees sticking out of the front! Very clever having a trash bag tied at the top over their upper body, and then they sat on the first step, backs to us with their legs and knees pulled closely to their bodies. Had no idea there were humans inside. An awesome prank to say the least. The three of us had quite the laugh after our hearts calmed down. :-)

I have taken three days off of my program. Nothing serious, just trying to reset things and move from a six day plateau. Increase in calories and carbohydrates and back on the plan with discipline on Monday. On Friday, I attended a lunch where my daughter was honored for winning a top place in the Stock Market Game, a statewide scholastic competition and learning game to teach investing and portfolio skills. It is the second time she has placed in the top group in two years. I should hand over the finances to her. In the game she turned $100,000.00 (Pretend Money) and turned it into $175,000.00 in ten weeks of investing and trading, in the current volatile market. During the luncheon, all winning students spoke about their experience and how they managed to do so well. Adults can surely learn from these young minds that are not cluttered with so much negativity and doubt. I am very proud to be this young lady's father and just learned that she wants to drop dance/cheer-leading and do athletics. I guess I am fine with that, but her Mom is a bit stunned. Mom is a former High-School All American Cheer-leader. My ex-wife says, there is always our son for cheer-leading. Yeah, right... over my dead body! Nothing against male cheer-leaders, just not my kind of thing. Time to get this kid into more sports... immediately! ;-)

"Have you ever thought about how others shape your life? Never underestimate the power of influence. The influence of those around us is so powerful, so subtle, and so gradual that often we don't even realize how it can affect us." ---Jim Rohn

"Keep the weeds of negative influence from your life. Farm the seeds of constructive influence." ---Jim Rohn