Briguy

Alright, I didn't post back on Sunday or Monday like planned, had a couple of rest days. I went SNOWBOARDING again!!!! Did pretty much two half days, and I still know how after 10 years of not being on the mountain. I was able to not only do two runs on the 'bunny hill' I did great on that and went straight to intermediate then off of that onto some crusted over powder and also did some carving on the groomers, attempted a couple of small jumps - the biggest I ended up nose diving off and having a nice landing of snow in the face. After that one I went ahead and carved a little down with some speed (the snow on my beard started to get really cold, so I decided to slow down a bit on that run) It was my last one of the day as well. The next day I did a lot better but didn't try any more jumps, well, any over 2 feet high. I drove the Jimmy, it ran great, now just need to find out what stuff I need to fix up a little on it. Of course with me being me it goes almost immediately to looking at 4x4 rigs, which not many are showing for 4x4 rigs, so . . . Anyway, I think it has a much nicer ride than the van so now thinking about selling it; so no MiniRVan build for now. maybe I can do a little of what I had planned in the Jimmy. so couple of days of mostly sleeping and now I should be back on track.

Today I got a '01 GMC Jimmy !! It rides a lot better than my minivan, so I am taking it tomorrow to Brundage Mountain. This will be the first time I have really snowboarded since January 2006, unless I go on skis, then I think that was 1995, So here is hoping that all goes good. I will be back on Saturday night I think, So I'll update everything then.

This morning I had someone come and look at my boat, wants to trade for a GMC Jimmy that rides fairly well, a little cosmetic damage and the Check engine light is on, but looks good otherwise, runs great and would be a to get out in a little. This afternoon I am going go to a horse class, first one of this season and then after that am going to my parents for a bit, most of the day is booked ~ but it all should be good and fun. This weekend I get to go Skiing or Snowboarding at Brundage Resort !!! Will be the first time on my board in over 10 years, I am really excited. Tomorrow I am going to go and get a replacement drivers license finally (lost mine somewhere last month) and try to find some snowpants that fit, will throw in a little Yoga as well before I take off to get all my errands done.

Lost my post this morning... Saturday was Yoga and it felt very good, got a sheet of the strecthes so I can start trying it during the week before class again, overall about an hour program that starts and ends with shavasana. After that slept for a bit and then finished my monitor set up, it looks good to me for now, a little crooked, but overall not bad. Today went in early for camera, found out that someone called in and couldn't make it, I jumped in the shower and was out of the door in 8 minutes (had finished breakfast about ten minutes earlier) After that took a little over an hour nap at my parents and then we had an early dinner at a Mexican restaurant and got home at 6, a little tired so after that I took a nap and got up much later than I would have liked to, at 9:30, so heres hoping I can go back to bed early. Last week went by pretty quick for me.

Hectic week of nothingness... Guess I got a little done. My parents stopped by and brought some Klondike bars after they went to a movie on Valentines day. . . That was my social interaction for it. I have gotten a few things done, but not much in the way of anything I really remember. this week kinda went by quick, what did I do? Though it was two days that I posted last, not last week. I have 2x4 to build my monitor mount, have it cut to a general size, then am going to going to notch it out tomorrow and see if it all fits together, just need to get the right size screws for the 5x5 plywood that I cut at my parents the other day so I can attach it to the back and then screw that to the 2x4. Today I went to pottery and put the glaze on some of the pots I made, one should be finished that was in the kiln, I hope the others get fired before next week so I can start my indoor garden with them. And I took a nap to late today, I stayed out till almost 3 this afternoon so ended up getting waking up again at 8:30pm. Hopefully I will be good and be able to get to sleep soon, I am thinking if I leave my alarm set and try to go to bed before 12 if I actually fall asleep I should be good, just need to take the nap at noon tomorrow- they ten to be shorter at that time and I have energy for a few hours then will start to get tired again by 9 or so so I can to bed at 10ish. the Uber~man sleep schedule possibly modified with two 90 minute or 3 hour sleeping session is still in the back of my head as well.

Saturday: ✔ Yoga ✔ 1 box minimum, wasn't much in the box, but its a big plastic one so I can use it for donation stuff again. Shelving under stairs didn't measure, just cut on the line, will cut again using my dads chop saw tomorrow. CSS-- Took a long nap after Yoga, and when I got on my computer found that I need to build a mount for the monitors so my keyboard will sit correctly, or just move the monitors again

Thursday didn't go all that well as far as my to-do list, but overall I am somewhat happy with the day. At ten I went to meet a person that helped me get into my place, then to pottery, there I put a glaze on coil pot I made and it should be fired this next week hopefully. After that I went and talked to the cardiologist, he said for me everything is checking out okay right now as far as the charts and all go; just need to be careful and continue to not overdue it. He did state that it looks a little 'puffy' around AICD, so next time I go in to have it checked make sure to have them make sure its all good, but more than just a little water retention right now. After that I stopped by a friends house for a few and helped take some boxes to the recycle. Then left there and went to a winter pool session for Team River Runner, was a little off on balance and such so I decided not to get in a kayak this time, and hung out for around half an hour, left and went back to my friends for a little fire and some anime before coming home and going to bed. Friday I woke up at 6:30 and after breakfast got on the computer for a few things, decided to check craigslist and found two 22" monitors for a decent price so went and got those at 9:30. After that I went straight to the VA for my exercise class and the gym was being used by a legal clinic so all we had access to was the machines, went through and did a kind of circuit with Sue, felt quite good for the rest of the day, especially after my 3 hour nap. Spent the evening of the day with a little CSS tutorial (well, the HTML portion, will continue today with the CSS part). Then attempted to make my phone case, didn't turn out so well, couldn't get past the sticky silicone part so its a no-go for now, would like to try again. Today I just had breakfast (late, its 11 now) and am going to head to Yoga at noon. Oh, and Thursday I decided to do the 5 diamond push ups in the quest log, have always made sure I could at least a few of those, my arms definitely felt it for the most of the morning... Well, time to write my list for today and get back later.

just have to keep the momentum going, whether it is consecutive or not. But on the bright side I was going through the NF Quest page and one of them is 5 diamond push ups, and since hearing that they are hard I have always made sure I can so at least five, so I cranked out 5 this morning as a start to getting as many push ups as I can today, then ate breakfast- still feeling it in my arms.

working up to the 100 pushups- I got 40 in today, as soon as I get to 100 I'll start logging it for 30 days in a row, so my 30 day challenge doesn't start untill I can get a hundred. got some potato starch from Fred Meyers, going to make another attempt at a bumper case for my phone. Tutorial says let it sit for 12 hours in the phone, so I will try it tomorrow night and turn my phone off at 8. Once I got it right I want to try and make one with the SeaBee emblem on the back, indented in it so I think I will have to do in inverted so it will turn out correctly, so it may take a few tries. Other than that all is good so far.

Good day. My parents came over and helped with moving stuff a bit, couch is in place and it doesn't look bad. Didn't take a nap, I went back to sleep this morning after waking up and finally got up at 1100, so got a little over 9 hours sleep. 20 push-ups= decided this tonight that I am going to try a 100-a-day, did 12 normal and then had to finish with 8 knee. Hoping to do in small sets to where I can do all normal until I can do all 100 normal and in a much shorter period of time. ✔ Bass practice

✔ MOVE ✔ very very short nap ✔ guitar class have people come in after fourth time phone rang and didn't allow me to get my nap to put carpet padding back in. yay, I can actually put my furniture back where it goes now and it doesn't smell like wet carpet anymore. They were done around 3:45, finally took a shower and it was time to go to guitar practice. after that dinner and a few things, was to late to get my license again.

Yesterday I went with my dad to check out his camera and magnet setup by a local bridge, ended up going to my sisters for the first half of the Super Bowl, before I finally came home, had some snacks and nachos there. got home and went to bed, was having a bit of a tired day and didn't get any base or guitar practice in ... then of course since it was a little after 8 I woke up around 1 and stayed up for a bit to go to sleep again after 5. So today so far I am looking at 6 hours of sleep, will probably nap at noon. Today's list so far in my head: go back to MOVE after I post this. Take short nap Attempt one more time to find Identification holder in snow/ice, if not need to go get a new drivers license, since that is apparently since I guess I need it when driving. After that I have guitar tonight. Only other thing to do is to put in a work order for the outlets and windows, and try to get the property management to come in and put carpet padding back in so I can actually get stuff out of my closet...

Todays plan: ✔ Yoga at noon. ✔ Find DVI and amp cable ✔ Practice major and minor scale on base. Okay, so I didn't really find my amp cable, instead I went to guitar and bought a ten foot red one, as well as a $20 stand, so now I have stand for both my guitar and electric base. Overslept on my nap, instead of the 90 minutes planned it was 3 hours or so, grabbed a quick bite on my way to guitar center and no more eating or drinking tonight, except for maybe an IPA, but no coffee drinks. On the way back I got breakfast foods, a dozen eggs and bacon, will be figuring out meal plan to get all the little white meat packages out of the freezer, thinking I should have enough to last me near the end of the month in there. Now just to fall asleep at a decent time. . .

Thanks Wolfen. The small victories are what has gotten me through the past few years, one step at a time

Todays plan: Yoga at noon. Find DVI and amp cable practice major and minor scale on base.

I went so far forward only to fall back again, but not as far this time. My battle is simple, eat the right shit, walk a little more, don't seclude myself. I have made a few attempts to set a schedule again and organize my life, it only works for me part of the time; I follow it for a week or less but the first day it is off I don't go back. That is a problem I need to face and get over with. First battle is food because its 90% and the whole exercise thing depends on everything else, second is exercise because if I start small and work up to small with more walk I make other things work as long as I follow the signs and don't go over again. Third is walk, because I can walk, even if some days its not past the mailbox. I have been there before and went from 20 yards to 2 miles, so I can do it again. Basic limits are same as before: Don't do anything that will land me in the ER if I can help it (December was a reminder that sometimes it can seem as if nothing shuts me down for a few, so the whole avoid at all cost is no more, I need to start going in when the symptoms get bad rather than trying to ignore them. so I have dailies I need to achieve with other added bonus stuff to add. Dailies: Sleep 6-8+ hours (not including naps) Bass and Guitar (bass everyday, guitar at least 3-5 a week) Breakfast and dinner Day plan: Prewrite everything planned for the day to accomplish on Battlelog or notepad, make follow up and post in evening. Weekly: Clean the apartment: follow plan written on those dry erase board spread all over the place. change them up every once in a while on the non-essentials Clean vehicle: This used to be a weekly ritual long ago, make it so it looks good so you can relax a little more when you drive. Laundry: its got to be done before you run out of clean socks, You picked Tuesday and wrote it on the board in laundry room, do it on that day. Sort mail, do you really need all those coupons for places you don't go, throw them out or make firewood blocks out of them. Monthly: Cook your meals, prep everything in a day or so, freezer works great. Go through paperwork, make sure its all in order and documents needed are find-able. Go over budget, what ways can it be adjusted, are the auto-pay amounts correct for what is planned?

To much blah blah written. second night of not sleeping, well, at least yesterday I was actually able to go to sleep eventually, today not so much. I am going to Yoga at noon so I guess just a couple more hours. Then no more than 90 minute nap and sleep should come tonight. . .

2016 started off okay, then went downhill. After much debate and trying to figure things out I moved into an RV in June, actually got down to 290 again then the last week of June I went to my parents house to help move a shed. Slept in the shed as normal when I lived with them and went in around midnight to use the restroom, came out and Zoe was not on her chair waiting. Figured I had been camping for a month and she basically had free reign there, she would often be sleeping under the RV when I woke from a nap during the day. Around 1 am my dad woke me up, the police had tried calling but my phone was still in airplane mode since I didn't have service where I had been camping, so they contacted the address listed for Zoes' tags. She had been hit about 3/4 a mile from the house and didn't make it. We went and picked up her body and he took care of it the next day. My mom cried, I didn't say anything. The following after noon I went back to where I had been staying, and had a few times on the road where I would say something to her during the drive and started too only to realize I was alone in the car. I got back to my RV and stayed there for a couple of hours and then went to a friends house that I had just recently had contact with again. Towards the end of the week I went back and got the RV, using a leap frog method and walking/hitching a ride to get it to the main road, it was 14 miles up a dirt road by a reservoir. My the end of July I was back over 300 and going between 305 and 310. I sold the RV and bought a GMC Safari Minivan that I stayed in most of the time, most of the stuff from the RV crammed inside so I didn't have much room. In the end of October I started getting cold so I caved in and went to talk to some people about housing and got set up so I took everything out of storage and its in here, didn't go through it much though. After a bit I started secluding myself again and finally realized it a couple of weeks ago, I pretty much only did scheduled things all of last December. On of the good things that I did was tried to get my eating on track and was able to slowly drop the pounds; wanting to go on walks but sleeping or daydreaming instead. I need to get another dog to kind of force me out I think, Zoe helped me a lot with anxiety, even if it was just he and her, at least I was getting out for walks and she was great at getting me talking to people. Since loosing her (and a little before on occasion) I started smoking again, not sure how it helps but it is a little relaxing. Went back into the ER in December and got stuck on a halter monitor again during Christmas and New Years, hopefully will see the results of it next week at the VA. I was able to maintain weight during the holidays and lsot a bit last month, got down to 290 again last week then was had dinner at a couples house I hadn't seen in a while, had a little extra yesterday and the scale said 307 tonight . . . Taht was after I went to bed at 9:50 pm, it is now 2:25 and I still haven't fallen asleep. Here is a picture of Zoe in her chair with a cat my parents had

Came up with a new goal for 2016. Well, It isn't like a new years goal, but I set a long term date to meet it, the end of next year. I wan't to loose about 90 pounds. Pretty much still the same as before but never have set a reasonable date to it. With 53 weeks it would work out at about 1.7 pounds per week, if I can keep that average for most of the year I should get to my goal weight of 220. Since I like to be an over acheiver and set goals that most people say is outragous I did set that, but will use this one as a fallback. My actual goal is 5 pounds a week, and that is on the higher than average side, if Ican manage that for 90 days it will be 60 punds lighter by the time I turn 35. Then keep it up for a couple more months and will be down to a good wieght by the middle of the year and can use the rest of the year sustain and figure a good meal plan that I like to sustain. Part of the reason of setting a long term goal is if I am unable to manage the 5 ounds a week I can still meet the goal by the end of the year, even if Ido plateua for a month or two during that time. I could always work to drop my BMI down to 24, that would be about 190, so that would be 120 pounds, haven't been at that wieght since my freshman year in high school and I had to cut 20 pounds to get there.

There goes the at least once a week deal . . . I went to Portland last week and had an EKG, was told after that it looks like the septum has not changed in size, so no future prospects of surgery soon and that makes me happy. I asked the doctor about my shaking and she said to set up an appointment with nuero for that. I am going to talk to my PA and se if I can have him set one up for me. That seems to be getting a little worse these days, I hope that it is something I can control and get figured out.

I thought Iadded more to this, I guess not... I took them out for a hot coco (at Moxie Java) and talked to them a little about what had happened. and asked them if they had any ideas on how we could solve any potential problems in the future before they happened. Their response (the youngest was the only one to have an idea he voiced) was to let them just do what they wanted. I agree with what you say Elastigirl, however whenever they are around they are generally on electronics, playing the piano, watching TV or running around outside, and I am unable to keep up for more than a few minutes before my heart acts up.

As far as keeping up to date on here it is going to be about once a week that I check and post to my log. So far as accountibility have one two people on MFP, and would like to add more, jsut have to keep up and start keeping it up to date and not skipping days or months at a time.

Eating has been healhty, been on a more regular basis, but not what is needed. I made a food budget, and it consist of non-Paleo Onigiri, beans, and oats. This is a "low-cost food plan" (I think) that I am going to start and see what it does during the next month. (I am saving all the reciepts so Ican find out how low cost it really is,) I wrote out a weeks meals that will be around 2,100 calories, and plan to use that and adjust it slightly as wieght goes down. For wieght I set a goal of 90 pounds in the year of 2016 . . . To accomplish this goal I am going to work on loosing 5 pounds a week Yes, that is how good I am at math. 5*52-WTF=90 I want to get back down to 220 or so, that has been my goal for a long time, and I have slowly done things but haven't done enough. Actually planning out the meals will allow for calorie intake to be controlled, also working with others and upping my exercise routine at the VA, no longer walking laps at a slow pace, If Ido laps they have to be normal - moderate pace. 90 pounds over 52 weeks is 1.73 pounds,or roughly 7.5 pounds a month. I always like to plan for the extreme. But on this one I subtracted WTF, wich is all those times I screw it up, and allows for any plateaus, If I loose 20 pounds in February, but only 2 in March it won't make a difference in my goal. If I end up loosing 5 a week and am down to my the goal by June then it will become maintain and by the time the holidays come around again I can have a routing that I can stay in to keep it all at a managable wieght. The other things should play into accordance and work outwith financial stuff at the same time since most of the extras I get now is food and lattes

I have issues with some anxiety and depression, I try to manage it and do failry well in my own opinion. In most cases if when trouble starts I am able to leave and not have to worry about it as much. Watching the kids is another story. They were adopted in 2010, they were family, now at 10, 12 and 13(14 in January) The oldest is the girl. In most cases they can do fairly well on there own, the oldest babysits for others, however when they are all together the get into arguments and they don't resolve. They have gotten better and don't nearly have the issues they had when they first arrived. I realize that it is part of the growing proccess and they need to have these sibling squabbles to figure things out, but they tend to get me frustrated really quick and I go towards the blanket punishment approach. If it turns into any type of argument or complaining you are not doing whatever it is anymore, depending on time Iwould be happy with everybody quietly reading a book. I was watching them earlier tonight and a 'negative joke' was said. I adviced them that it is better to be positive and they could go to bed early. And in the same manner advise that even if it is ment as a joke those things can still have negative effects on people so it is better to not use them in private or public. After having the two boys say they don't to watch a TV show the oldest got permission for (not a big deal, she told them an hour before she had permission to watch it, so a little complaining, but not all that bad) They started getting into an argument over who could hold the cat. I followed my normal I'll take it and you don't have to worry about it routine and was met by the 'but mom said', but John said' and a whining voice. I don't deal with that so I said go to bed. She stated as went upstairs 'this always happens when you watch us'. After that the TV was turned off and Itold the youngest he could do something just not watch TV. After about 15 minutes I went up and told the two older ones that they could come out and we could play a game or something, but they need to figure out a way to not argue because gives I don't want to deal with it. I heard a responce from one but not the oldest, her light was on but Ifigured she was ignoring me. We played a couple games until 9:30 when they were supposed to go to bed and then tried looking up some things. So far didn't find much. I have worked on some CBT skills, but they haven't been working for me. I want to be an Uncle that they like to hang out with, I want to learn how to deal with kids and eventually have my own family. What ways do you deal with kids this age that have been raised with a different mindset than than you have? What can help me adapt to them when I only see them a few times a month and get to spend time with them when my sister and her husband go on dates (generally they buy pizza and the kids have something they want to watch on TV)

I am going to resurect an old thread . . . I don't have kids, but my sister adopted three and has two more through marriage (I don't count the two older ones, since they are on their own) Since she adpoted them and got a house it has been our tradition to go over and be there while they open presents... thats the only one that I can think of that we have and would like to find my own traditions that Ican start and add to my life. As the youngest child I would wake up early, look through anything not wrapped, go wake up my sister to tell her what we got and then my parents to open the rest of the presents. That changed to waking up, checking things out, waking up Angie when she said I could about the same time my parents said Icould getthem up (this still happened when I staying with them after I moved out) As far as Santa, I am not sure how old I was but looked over at the tree and asked " Mom, you said Aunt B is coming over right? Is she bringing the kids?, Do they still believe in Santa?" Then proceeded to take a present from Santa and place it to the back of the tree and cover it with some others. Another time, I think I was 16 or so, I found some coal junks when helping take down a shed in the fall. Christmas morning before I woke them I dumped both their stocking on the couch and placed a big lump of coal in each. Please add any tradions you have, there are some of us that don't have kids and have to go places with them, or are new that may not have traditions, your stuff may inspire us to start a new one.