350

OK, so I decided to weigh again for the first time in a couple of weeks.. I weigh 350 lbs.. I've cut the carbs since Monday (except for a chocolate chocolate chip cookie and a cran-apple at the blood center yesterday).. that was lunch. That made my morning.

Donna said she was going to no carb it starting Monday. I wanted to support her. My mouth tastes like metal but I'm feeling better and I'm lighter... now I have to keep moving too.

Hannah and her txting exploits v 2.0

Ok... we just went through the holidays... and when you look over to the right there at Hannah's texting performance, you have to be a little disappointed. You would think with all the extra time on her hands during the holidays she would text even more.


But no...


So why did the numbers drop???


Was it the number of minutes she was talking? Did she actually speak to people more and reduce her ability to text as much?? I did a brief analysis of her voice minutes....she was actually on the phone talking more in months previous than in this month of anemic texting performance..

I can only find one other good reason that she has deteriorated in her text performance.






His name is Ryan Stovall... He's pretty good guy.. plays sax in the AC jazz band and has a band of his own..he also plays guitar way better than I will ever hope to and he can play other instruments. I like Ryan.. but he sure is jackin' with our fun with Hannah's texting.

Saying goodbye..

I know this will ramble some but I'm doing this for me as it comes to me..

John August Anderson..known as Sandy to his close family passed away on January 29th 2009 at the age of 60. In November he was diagnosed with brain cancer and even though he had surgery to remove the tumor he never rebounded. He had 2 sons David and Jason and daughter in law Amanda. He had 2 grandsons Brian and Tylar. He was born in Texas City in December of 1949. Even though he was 11 years older than me, he was closest to me in age of all my brothers. He was also the one I felt closest to in all things.

He was the bottom step of 5 stair step boys... the youngest of 5 for 11 years




he was finally an older brother when I was born in January of 1960. Richard..the oldest shared a bed with him when Sandy was little... then when Sandy was older he had to share a bed with me. It's kinda like Richard was to Sandy as Sandy was to me... Richard was even Sandy's best man in his wedding and Sandy was my best man in my wedding.

We used to go fishing together.. we used to go to Oilers games together. We both loved the Oilers...the Luv ya Blue Oilers with Earl Campbell and Carl Mauck and Bum Phillips.

He was the shortest boy in the family and was the only one to get a basketball scholarship. He loved basketball...

He was the brother that came to my house just to visit.. not for a family get together or other event.. he came just to visit.. he did that with all the family. Sandy was the brother that intersected his life in everyone elses life.. he knew all the grand kids when most of us brothers had gotten so involved in our own lives that we had not stayed in touch well enough.

He worked retail from the time I was 7 until he got sick.

He liked guns.. mostly pistols. I never was a big gun freak..not like the rest of my brothers anyway... I've got my shotgun..rifle..and couple of pistols but my brothers love guns.

We went shooting together a few times...

When I was in college I used to take mid day road trips to just go visit with him for a few hours. Because we were close when I was young I always felt close to Sandy as an adult.

Sandy was the kind of person that made you feel pretty good.. he was an encourager. He was full of joy.. he loved to laugh. He was a blessing to everyone who knew him. He helped me with some personal course corrections in my life regarding my attitude and my outlook on life. I will thank him forever for that much less the subtle impact he has had on me that I cannot detect because it's just a part of who I am...

This doesn't even come close to expressing all that I'm feeling and thinking but I can't get it all together or even express it. He chose not to have a funeral/memorial... so this is my little memorial for my own closure...

Sandy I will miss you. I love you!

Doesn't it always happen???

I'm two weeks in to what seems to be a fairly reasonable change I want to implement in my life... eat just a little smarter and move my body more..

So what happens? 2 weeks in I'm 2 lbs heavier.. man I love this...

On top of the fact that this day that was pretty good most of the way it ended with me discovering some crap at work that really bummed me... just day to day service stuff but just when you think you might have a really good day something bites you in the behind and then I'm lookin for fudge in all the wrong places. Anyway...this week...Tuesday I played about an hour of something like racquetball..the other three were playing it, but I was limited in my motion.. my legs felt like rubber and I almost ate the wall a couple of times.. but it was pretty fun.. until the next day and my knees were killing me. I walked the next day but Thursday my knees couldn't take it. I wasn't feelin it Friday either.. Got walks in on Saturday and Sunday and felt I was getting back in the swing. I blew it off tonight because I got home late from work and it was cold and I wasn't in the mood. I was really tempted to blow this whole thing off but to be honest with you one of my motivations is that some time in 2010 I would like to purchase one of these... and I know I can fit in one already.. already done the test drive.. but I'd like to be comfortable.. sideways.. in the car. I've got head room and leg room and I fit in the seat but I want to enjoy it...I'd also like to begin riding a bike again some day and I've got to keep moving. A bump in the road, I'm in a funk but I do plan to keep going forward.

Moving my body

Dropped a little weight.. ate more often.. did less gorging because I didn't feel starved. Walked 1.5 miles 4 times.. got a blood blister on my left foot.. had to sit it out for a few days.. hope to get active again tomorrow.. birthday was today so had cake.. that will hurt.. but that's ok.. moving forward in my quest.. down 2 pounds from last week.

362

362

Yes that right.. I weighed today for the first time in probably a couple of years and I weigh three hundred and sixty-two pounds..wow... I also now wear a 54 waist pants and I can't live like this any more... I've already learned from watching all my siblings that I will get diabetes...but do I need to rush it any faster? I've always had a weight problem since I was a kid. Food was my sanctuary when I was tense...and it still is. I've got to change that.

Chocolate is my heaven... and I've got to change that..or maybe just not go to heaven near as often..

Finally, I've got to move. somehow I've gotten very sedentary the last couple of years. Work used to keep me very active and now it does not because I have a great staff. I still work long hours and I've got that church gig too...tends to exhaust me and I really don't want to do anything else.

But now I'm committing to change. Not just a new years resolution but a change in my daily lifestyle. I've got to move. I started walking today.

I'm not doing a bunch of measurements and posting all that stuff and tracking my progress on sizes etc. I am laying out there for all to see that I'm too fat and I've got to make a change...I'd love your prayers and support and if you are so motivated..join me in this little exploit. No races to see who loses more faster. Just hoping to see progress. ... and I'll fail and I hope I get back up and get going again. Maybe that's why I'm letting you in on the deal. I'm gonna check my weight weekly...I'm gonna post weekly weight and approx miles walked each week. If I share it with you ... I'm a little more sold out on doing it....

If I drop some weight...maybe I can start riding a bike again too... I blogged about that way back when gas was $4.oo a gal.. would still be good for me..

Here is to a healthier, fuller and more active life!!!

Seven Pounds

FYI..I'm going to talk about this movie on this blog post and I'd love to hear your feedback on the movie..if you have not seen it do not read this and then get mad at me for ruining it for you.....

spoiler alert..spoiler alert.spoiler alert..spoiler alert.spoiler alert..spoiler alert..spoiler alert..spoiler alert..spoiler alert..spoiler alert..spoiler alert..spoiler alert..spoiler alert..spoiler alert...............etc..

Now.. I saw the ads and the movie intrigued me. They did a good job of getting me interested and not letting me know what was really going on.

I didn't go research it because I wanted to be surprised at the movie.

Then my daughter tells me I must go see it and that I will cry. She said she boo hoo'd big time and she knew me and she knew I would too. I trust my daughter as she has seen me cry in church and at movies and other events and so she knew it would touch my heart...

I post this on twitter and a some friends want to go too... awesome... more people to know I'm a cry baby (Glover ...who went...already knows)...

So I'm not going to lay the movie out for you to surprise you with the plot..if you're reading this you either don't care to see it or you've seen it and want to know what I think and you want to tell me what you think..

I loved the movie.. I cried...and I mean .... It's a wonderful life kind of crying.. nearly sobbing in public like my momma died kinda crying..almost. Still a little more emotional than I care to be out in the open public.. my church knows me and knows that's a part of who I am but EVERYONE doesn't need to know it.. NEXT.

Rich guy taking his wife out to dinner... looks at his blackberry (I do this way too often).. swerves in to on coming traffic and kills his wife and 6 others... my thoughts on this is he is giving up the metaphorical "pound of flesh" for each person he killed.. helping others who deserve it (not what Christ would do but he's not Christ...but by making this selection he does ensure that the good things of good people continue on... Christ didn't select everyone to be his disciple to carry on his teachings and way of life so in a way I can see this as a Christ like move... he will help far more people in this world by selecting the right ones to help...ok??

I liked it when he burned the guy running the nursing home... I liked it when he gave the abused woman his home (how will she pay the taxes?) That when I started getting weepy..

Was not sure about what was going on with Woody Harrelson's character at first but later a saw what was happening.

He stated that his life was less than remarkable in a conversation with Rosario Dawson's character which tends to tell us he believes he's worthless... after who he killed and the impact on many people's lives I can see that.

Some were not happy that it seemed he never overcame that worthlessness. I believe after his night with Ms. Dawson's character...and he ran to the Hospital to see what the odds were for a rare blood type heart transplant...the story was telling us he now wanted to live. I believe at that point he was trying to find hope for his own life so that he could spend it with her. Then the gift he was now willing to give was not just his money, his possessions and his body parts because he was worthless... he was willing to give his life..which now had meaning, for the one that he loved. I believe he was redeemed in his relationship with her..by helping her and her helping him in a way he couldn't help himself....so I cried a lot more...

And then of course the end with Ms. Dawson's character finds Woody's character and looks in to his eyes... so she could see the eyes of the one she loves... can they do that??? They've been doing that in movies for a long time but I've never been sure it could actually happen..

@Drun..did you find out if jellyfish stings render donor body parts useless?

I love the flick.. it was what I needed after weeks of peak volume and tense days at work and lots of church responsibilities around the holiday season.. it was a great release for me and I'm glad my daughter told me to see it.. can't watch it in public again though...have to do it at home...late at night...by myself.. like I do "It's a Wonderful Life"..

Let me know what you think..did you hate it? Love it?? Not sure?? Let me know..

Eating at Cheddars tonight..

I saw one of my favorite young ladies with the last name of Anderson that's not my daughter but I'd take her any time and do anything for her any time... and that's what I'm doing here. Donna and I ate at Cheddar's tonight and Katie did not wait on our table but she brought us our food then we conversed and had fun while she worked.. she also pointed out a young man of interest named Josh.. She told me to yell at him and I did...she was then terrified that I yelled at him..just what did she think I would do??

I later called his name at other times and Katie seemed undone by this and yet she felt compelled to tell us about her wonderful date with him where he... was nice.. I won't go in to details because Katie might get mad.. Katie then made a comment about making sure that I blogged about this experience tonight..so here it is. I've known Katie for a few years now and she is such a super awesome girl.. well young lady.. you should get to know her more here.

Here is a pic of Josh and Katie.. I think it's the one she showed us at the restaurant..

Peace out folks..

Hannah and her txting exploits..

Ok I lied.. I'm not too busy to blog until after Christmas.. or maybe I just find this topic way more important than the delivery of your boxes... not really just kidding. But..the phone bill came in today and I just though it would be really cool to let you see a glimps of a small part of my family life..that part involved in phone bills and texting..

I find texting to be a very strange phenomena in that people use telephones to NOT talk to others..just send them little messages like you might get from a western union office dozens of years ago..except faster and cheaper.. I actually like txting. I think it works for many in that you can manage the conversation among other things you are doing vs when you're talking you tend to have to get singularly focused. It has been funny when friends of mine have sent me replies to txts that they got from someone else... maby too many balls in ther air there???

Anyway..my daughter Hannah loves to txt... so I started a new feature over there to the right side of my blog...check it out..give me some feedback and I'll keep you posted each month on how she's doing. My daughter does make me cry sometimes...she also makes me mad... and she makes me laugh.. this is the funny part.. we have hundreds of roll over minutes every month we don't use but she will txt every waking minute she can if she's able. Why not just call em???

Boxes....Boxes....Boxes....

Hey folks... it's that time of year that many of you like to call Christmas... for people like Kathy Dunn or others that are very intimately tied to the church calendar... it's advent. Many have other holidays around this time of year from Hanukkah to Kwanzaa.. People in my business call it PEAK.

This is not a post on theology... This is not a post on faith...

This is post regarding the fact that I get very frustrated this time of year as my full time job gets very very busy in the business of delivering lots and lots of boxes.

We have to hire extra people.. they all don't do such a great job all the time..this requires lots of conference calls..and discussions about action plans to do better and people telling me when I must be on calls on weekends.. ugh..

Most of you are planning parties or enveloping yourselves in the atmosphere of anticipation and waiting for our coming King or celebrations of family and friends.. I have to force some of this in to what is the busiest time of year for me in my industry..the transportation industry.. along with what is a pretty busy time of year in the religious business.. you know.. special musical events, Christmas eve services, Christmas parties that fall on days when you really think you should be practicing music for the coming Sunday, Christmas parties falling on days when you wish you could just go home and go in to a coma, Christmas parties that are taking place while you know that many of your employees are working 14-15+ hour days to make sure you get that present you ordered.

I want to have a festive spirit but in the back of my mind I'm always wondering if there is service failures happening and am I going to be on some conference call tomorrow to explain why we didn't do as well as we should..

I look forward to the day when package pressure will mean..well... nothing..I can't think of anything funny to put there. I'll be glad when I don't have to worry about another peak and my full time job will be planning special Christmas music and going to Christmas parties and being part of Christmas eve services..

I say all that to say this.. I doubt you will see another post until after December 25th 2008..I hope to have a Christmas post.. but if you want to see what's up in my life just watch my updates on facebook or twitter (which is what drives my facebook updates anyway). Grace and peace to you all...

Mark Lee: Guitar player for Third Day.

Ok, I'm 48 years old and I don't get all giddy about rock bands, or rock stars or movie stars... personally I would tend not to interrupt them if I saw them eating dinner or whatever. I figure their lives are pretty abnormal as it is and I don't need to be one more addition to it.

BUT

On twitter I follow a few people that are doing pretty well as musicians in the CCM genre of music. Brandon Heath who really does not post many tweets but I like one of his songs so I started following him on twitter.

Bart Millard of Mercy Me just because I've liked these guys for a long time and their cover tune grab bags are great and Bart will announce them being posted via twitter.

I also follow Brandon Todd Wright who is a real up an comer and will have a song on the next song discovery CD coming out from worship leader magazine..

Finally.. I follow Mark Lee..the guitar player for Third Day...

The great thing about following Mark and Bart is that the tweets they post really show that they deal with a lot of the same things the rest of us deal with. They are parts of bands that are huge in Christian music. I'm sure they do ok for themselves. Now Bart always posts via txt so there is no way he can interact with folks on twitter unless there is technology out there I don't understand..
But Mark Lee...he's on twitter just like the rest of us.. and he has quite a few people following him.. but then a couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail that he was following me (actually he is now following everyone that follows him on twitter)..that's pretty cool.

A few days ago a friend of mine posted a tweet about going to a metal concert in Denver and Mark Lee actually responded... hey wow..that's cool.

Today Mark posted info about a quiz you could take to see if you could determine if a phrase was scripture or Shakespeare.

I went there and scored a 70.. boo for me...

I asked Mark how he did...not really thinking that he would respond..(I am olderbutnotup by the way) ..now I thought that this was pretty cool..now for you naysayers out there...


Here is his twitter profile..

here is his blog link

read this it's pretty funny..

here is his band..



I'm still not all giddy or whatever but I think it's pretty cool how Mark is just a guy on twitter who happens to play for one of the biggest Christian Rock bands ever.. and I like them to boot.. fell in love with them when C. Caraway introduced them to me via the offerings CD. Just kind of a cool thing that happened today.

Gas Prices again...

Don't know if you can read this picture from my facebook but .. I'm pretty frustrated about how much our gas costs in the greater Lufkin/Angelina County area. It's about a quarter a gallon more than in Tyler TX. I made some twitter posts about that and I got some feedback on my facebook feed (don't know if you can read that to the left).

Buck eighty-nine in North Texas and a buck fifty-nine in Oklahoma. Edie says it's high in the Chicagoland area but don't we Texans expect that? Sorry Edie.. I guess growing up in Texas where we have active oil drilling platforms around us.. where I grew up there were oil pump stations in all the pastures around my home(Galveston County). We should have cheaper gas in Texas right? I remember a few years ago working in New Jersey for a week and the gas was a dime cheaper than Lufkin and they pumped it for me too. Go figure...

I know when I drive to Conroe that the price of gas in Riverside is always 10 cents, 20 cents, 25 cents cheaper than Lufkin.

I have no idea how many gallons of gas get sold in Lufkin each day...I tried to find it but no luck.. but just imagine that you could sell something 12% higher than others around you over and over and over again..day in and day out.

Cha ching...

Catching you up...

I hope I don't make this too long but here's what's been up lately..

Friday Octoboer 17th.. drive to Conroe to do some work around my in-laws house.. almost hit a deer and scared the crap out of everyone.

Saturday October 18th.. Clean out my wife's aunt's house and get stuff for the 2nd "Send Hannah to Rome" garage sale (see pic of truck for our spoils).

Sunday October 19th.. Breif worship confessional..

Rain Down

To Every Nation

You Never Let Go

Communion-Come Ye Sinners

Went home, ate lunch, took a nap, drove to Fort Worth...Hannah did most of the driving on this trip..


, ate at Uncle Julio's with Donna, Hannah and Katie Anderson.. yeah. a table full of Andersons... but not all mine.

Monday October 20th.. Spent the morning hanging out with Katie on the TCU campus as she showed us around. Ate Lunch at Fuzzies and saw Nikolee Beyers (our super awesome student intern from last summer).

Saw Aaron Marez that morning too and he did our orientation meeting.. that was cool.

Hung out around the college of communications that afternoon and took a tour and saw Brittany Brookshire Adams.. she gave us all big hugs and we hugged her back and she introduced Hannah to her class.. that was cool. Also looked around the radio, TV, film department and that's where Hannah would like to study.. heck so would I.. looked pretty fun.

Drove back to Lufkin then drove (by myself) to Waco to do Fortune 100 transportation work.. hit a deer east of Marlin. No one hurt.. including the deer I think.. the PT Cruiser got a little damage though.

Tuesday Oct 21st.. Worked in Waco, age at Rudy's that night. Stopped at Sonic and got a sonic blast.. shot the last needed video I have to do to complete my half of the Todd and Artie eats video.. now if I could just get time to put it all on a CD and ship it to you.

Wednesday Oct 22nd.. worked in Waco that morning and drove back to rehearse for drug court entertainment.

Thursday Oct 23rd.. Worked that day then did entertainment for Judge White's drug court and drug court graduation at our Fellowship Hall. We did:

Unclouded Day

I'll Fly Away

Everything (Caraway, Anderson, et. al.)

The Road to Recovery (Muchow)

Friday Oct 24th Worked and went to the first half of the LP/University Park game (the half with no score).

Saturday Oct 25th Learned "Audience of One" by Big Daddy Weave and "Give me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath. Cleaned House..moved all of Hannah's garage sale stuff out of the guest room in to the "media room" (that's a future name for what is now a junk room). Did laundry, practiced Audience of One with Shawn Reith. Hung out with Cory Glover and many of his friends who came in for his Ordination that occured Sunday night. Tell him he needs to blog. Went home early because I had to get up early for church..

Sunday Oct 26th.. video worship confessional and more..

Yes.. our wallpaper is coming off the wall in our bedroom... we'll be fixing that some day soon.

And that's a PBJ..yes I ate it right after shooting that vid.

Oh and by the way. We had myself on Acoustic Guitar and Amanda Hutchinson on bass..that was our whole band.. We had several singers and thank you Scott Skelton, Tara Watson, Bill Malnar and Tina Peavey for being there along with Amanda..

You can see the video of Cory's ordination here.

Monday Oct 27th..worked that day and vegged that night..watched some dvr'd shows and ate and skipped bible study.. I was too worn out. Forgive me.

Tuesday Oct 28th..worked at you know where that day and that night planned, scanned and e-mailed music for the next couple of weeks. I have even updated my sidebar here on my blog with the music that is planned for the next few weeks. I also went to the Goodiers to get more garage sale stuff for Hannah. I plan to head to the Tyson's Thursday and get their offerings to the Rome trip.

OK, my hands are cramping.. I think that's enough.

Flea Market Montgomery

I learned about this from the world famous Katie Anderson



Then I saw this and thought it was funny too.

Charles

Worship Confessional 10/19/08

Worship Confessional (video #2)

First.. I forgot to mention I had no electric guitars or drummer on Sunday..But we did have Cyndi back who plays acoustic beautifully (finger picks) and sings beautiful harmonies and counter harmonies..we were small but it went very well...

My Saturday

Well folks.. I slept in big time this morning. I think it was almost ten by the time I rolled out of bed... Wow.. I hardly every sleep in that much any more. I don't know why but I have really been droopy lately. Maybe it's the chest congestion that's dragging me down but I'm just whipped lately. Anyway.. I've decided to NOT do My Fridays.. I work on Friday and big deal, I go to work, I complete some reports, I sit on some conference calls, I eat, I go home and maybe go see a movie or go to a Panther football game..

Anyway..I'll do My Saturday's from now on. Well I have a lot to report on today...as I already said I slept in..

Then I did laundry..and more laundry and watched some college football.


This is just a small sample of the workI did today.. I did numerous loads.. as well as tidying around the house some.

Oh and see that cat in the picture.. that's Magic.. I just call him gato.. anyway.. I found him in our bedroom with the tail and hind legs of a squirrel today.. I ran him outside.. that was fun..

Did a little more laundry..

I then took the family to Chili's for supper and enjoyed their chicken club tacos and a couple of Shiner Blacks...



..those things are pretty good...

We then went home and relaxed watching some dvr'd shows we just haven't gotten around to watching.. House, CSI, Criminal Minds...

A good relaxing day with my family...and our little touch of wild kingdom to boot.

I know..it's been a while

I haven't been feeling so hot lately.. a lot of sinus junk and some other discomforts that really don't need to be revealed here. So.. I've been doing a little twitter but I realized I haven't blogged since Oct 1st.

So I thought I'd share a little bit about what I've been contemplating lately..

I'm a big dude... most everyone knows that. I used to be smaller but I've always been a person of size.. hard to find clothes that fit off the rack.. not that many shoes in the store that fit me.. heck.. and I know folks at work will back me up... even my head is a little bigger than most.

But I'm getting frustrated with myself. I'm getting too FAT. I know I'm never going to be like most of my brothers... skinny.. or even just kinda lean. I've been "husky" my whole life. I don't know where my kids get their slim stature but I'm happy for them... I just know I've got to start doing something...

My wife has begun an after school work out program offered by the school. She says it's wearing her out but she's feeling a difference too. Me? Can't seem to make it a priority. I have a hard enough time finding quiet time with my God and my bible so I really just don't know how important getting some exercise is to me .. well I do know.. Not very...

When I was younger.. (years .. many years..) I used to ride my bike everywhere. I loved riding it and it was cheap transportation. In college it was the only way I got around College Station save for a bus on a rainy day or something. No way was I going to move my car from my primo parking space just outside Schumacher Hall ( I lived in Walton thank you..I did not live in those up town spaces in suckmocker).

I rode a little more later in life going on camping trips and stuff like that but then I went to work in the freight business... A business that has seemed to consume my life for the last couple of decades.. throw on top of that finally hearing God's calling on my life and spending many hours on things like Upward Basketball and leading worship in what spare time I have.....no bike riding any longer.

So...I'm getting more and more sedentary as my local fortune 500 transportaion branch grows and I get more employees and drivers and my work life becomes less hands on.

Gas prices get stupid and I start thinking of these...

I went by Pedalocity and they gave me a little look around and a book on Fuji bikes.. I've also been checking them out here .

Wow..there are some very expensive bikes out there.. I'm thinking.. really thinking about getting one I can ride to and from work.. Now how I deal with the sweat.. the clothes.. the rest of those kind of issues.. I'm not sure but I know other people ride bikes to work in other places. I don't want to spend more than around $500 either.. I'm used to $99.00 ten speeds from K-Mart myself so these bike shop bikes really seem "out there".

So.. I'm pricing these, I'm thinking hard, I'm knowing it's not something I can jump it to too quickly or I'm gonna get some big hurt on my body....but I've got to do something and this resonates with me a great deal..

Who knows..maybe you'll be honking and shaking your fist at me soon as I legally use my lane of the road and you think I should have tale lights and turn signals..

Heck..maybe there will even be a pinywoods purgatory in my future.

Any thoughts?

Sonseed

Thank you SCL..