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.

Working from home

Well, part of being single dad means that if I have a sick kid I have to take care of him/her AND work.
Luckily I have a full work rig a home, so it's an easy problem to solve.

Currently Caleb is my little sick guy. About 7 last night, he started having the dreaded diarrhea. I'm sure he would horrified if he knew I was letting everyone know about this.

Then later in the evening I was informed that Friday while at his mothers home, he was throwing up. That would have been something nice to know when he came over on Saturday. Might not have sent him to that birthday party in the afternoon.

Oh well, we're both a little tired, having been awakened every 2 hours by uncontrollable bowels. (I hope noone is eating while reading this.)

Currently he is able to help me work. Here's some pics of him coloring in my office.


My sister says that when he is able to start eating, give him the B.R.A.T. diet. Bananas, Rice, Apples, Toast. Seeing as he doesn't eat half those things, he'll be on the R.T. diet.

Does anyone out there, have any other tips??

Almost There

My revised moving plan seems to have worked pretty well.
I spent 3 days moving loads to the new house with part 1 of the plan.
Saturday brought part 2; 4 friends and 2 pickups making 3 trips each.

Phase 3 was incredible. Movers showed up at 9:00 Monday morning, and by 10, the piano and the rest of my crap was in the new house.

There's still a couple car loads of knick-knacks in the old place, not to mention all the cleaning that needs to be done. I started cleaning on Monday with Kelsey and Karissa who had the day off. They lasted about an hour before saying they were exhausted.
After the cleaning, I need to tackle all the organizing in the new place, which has to be done before everything is out of control.
Number one priority is laundry, which is currently in heaps scattered around my bedroom.

Moving Week

I closed on my new house on Tuesday, but due to some weird Utah law, I couldn't get in until Wednesday.

I had a moving plan, which was simply that I had no plan. I figured that since it is just down the street, I would take truckloads of stuff when I had time to. I don't have to be out of the rental until May 1st, and I simply was not ready to do a full on move all at once.

When I went to church last Sunday, however, everyone must have gotten word of my move and were insisting on helping. It's such a good feeling to know that there are people out there that want to help me out. I tried explain my plan of having no plan, but they seemed taken aback. So now I have devised a plan, which is actually a plan.

1. I am boxing and moving things with my Pilot. Instead of doing so at a leisurely pace like I had planned, I am taking 2 truckloads in the morning and 2-3 more in the evenings.

2. Saturday, after the kids Easter Egg Hunt, a group of guys are coming to help with some of the larger items that won't fit my Pilot.

3. On Monday, official movers are coming to transport the items that would cause back problems for my friends, such as the piano and library cabinet.

I guess this is a better plan, then my no plan plan. The kids won't be back until Sunday night, and by then I should have 90% of things moved, making the transition easier for them.