13.1

I survived my first half-marathon.
My time was 2 hours 8 minutes. Not quite my goal of 2 hours, but my main goal was to finish. I can work on improving my time in future races.

The highlight was when I was about a mile and a half from the finish, and my sweet kids were there with April to cheer me on.
I stopped to give them hugs and thank them for coming when a funny thing happened. My legs thought the race was over, and as I started to finish the last mile and a half they begged me to give out.

So, a new rule for anyone wanting to cheer me on… don't let me stop unless you are at the finish line.

Knowing Bob may Induce Nightmares

Most of you have been following my situation with April and the aunt and uncle she lives with.

For those of you that aren't up on it, April and I have been dating, but keeping it from the aunt and uncle because they are not cool with it. They say it's because my divorce is not final, but now I'm suspecting other reasons unknown to me.

April woke up this morning and stepped outside her room to go get a shower. Her aunt was waiting for her and said "Where have you been at night."

April told her that she'd been working on her high school class reunion stuff and last night went to the mall with her friend Karen and grabbed dinner.

Her aunt told her that she's been having nightmares about Bob (me) and she doesn't trust him (me) at all. She then expressed her opinion yet again that April should stay away from me. Keep in mind that I haven't spent more than 45 seconds talking to this aunt. It was mainly small talk at church and I never felt as though I left an impression like that.

April has become numb to all of this. I've met most of her immediately family by now and we all get along great, and she has their approval to hang out with me. This continued assault from the aunt is only going to distance April from her, who is now looking into renting a room in the area solely so she can be out of her control.

Punishment

My cousin Mickey was in town last night. His company, Symantec, purchased a company out here, and he comes in town every now and then to do training or teach employees how to submit their will to Symantec and Norton Utilities.

Mickey and I took Caleb to pick up some carryout from my favorite Chinese place down the street. Before I left, I gave Kelsey and Karissa explicit instructions not to fight or get into trouble, I would be back in ten minutes.

When we returned with the food, I came through the garage door and had a nice view of the backyard, where my sweet angels were walking atop the 8 foot high fence/stucco wall that surrounds our property as though it were a balance beam.

I screamed at them for an embarrassingly long time and sent them to their rooms. Then I went to the kitchen to get dinner on the table. I looked out the kitchen window which has a slightly higher vantage point and noticed that my neighbors behind me were having a nice quiet family dinner outside on their patio, which was interrupted first by my daughters walking on the wall, then by my maniacal screaming.

I sent the girls to showers and bed directly after dinner. Of course they felt this was unfair; I felt it was not enough. If I would have pulled a stunt like that when I was a kid, the punishment would have involved a paddle that my mom bought at Six Flags.

What do you think? Is it enough punishment one night of going to bed early, and should I apologize to my neighbors and let them know to expect many more rants by me.

Caleb the Casanova

I've known for some time that Caleb is a smooth talker with the ladies. He has four girlfriends at school now.
One of them has begun to call him to talk on the phone .

He's also working on stealing my girl April away from me. Here's two instances.

1. One evening at dinner I got a text from April. I was replying when caleb asked if I was saying 'I Love You'. I said I wasn't. He said "Give me the phone, because I'm going to tell her and send it."

2. A couple evenings later at dinner, April was over and Caleb was sitting on the opposite end of the table when he leans forward towards her and says, "April, you are soooooo cute."

We're hoping this doesn't become a problem. I'd hate to have a heart to heart talk with my 5 yr old to stay away from my lady. I don't mind if he plays the wingman role, he's pretty good at that too. I'm just not ready for him to become a rival.