Making pancakes

I promise that this won't become a habit or anything, but I read this email, and while still not sure on my stance on God yet, I thought that there was much truth to this message and wanted to get it out to all of you. Just a little reminder of how I really feel about all of you and how important you are to me. Take care guys and I love you.

Making Pancakes

Six year-old Brandon decided one Saturday morning to fix his parents pancakes. He found a big bowl and spoon, pulled a chair to the counter, opened the cupboard and pulled out the heavy flour canister, spilling it on the floor. He scooped some of the flour into the bowl with his hands, mixed in most of a cup of milk and added some sugar, leaving a floury trail on the floor which by now had a few tracks left by his kitten. Brandon was covered with flour and getting frustrated. He wanted this to be something very good for Mom and Dad, but it was getting very bad. He didn't know what to do next, whether to put it all into the oven or on the stove and he didn't know how the stove worked!. Suddenly he saw his kitten licking from the bowl of mix and reached to push her away, knocking the egg carton to the floor. Frantically he tried to clean up this monumental mess but slipped on the eggs, getting his pajamas white and sticky. And just then he saw Dad standing at the door. Big crocodile tears welled up in Brandon 's eyes. All he'd wanted to do was something good, but he'd made a terrible mess. He was sure a scolding was coming, maybe even a spanking. But his father just watched him. Then, walking through the mess, he picked up his crying son, hugged him and loved him, getting his own pajamas white and sticky in the process! That's how God deals with us.. We try to do something good in life, but it turns into a mess. Our marriage gets all sticky or we insult a friend, or we can't stand our job, or our health goes sour. Sometimes we just stand there in tears because we can't think of anything else to do. That's when God picks us up and loves us and forgives us, even though some of our mess gets all over Him. But just because we might mess up, we can't stop trying to "make pancakes" for God or for others. Sooner or later we'll get it right, and then they'll be glad we tried... I was thinking. and I wondered if I had any wounds needing to be healed, friendships that need rekindling or three words needing to be said, sometimes, "I love you" can heal & bless! Remind every one of your friends that you love them.. Even if you think they don't love back, you would be amazed at what those three little words, a smile, and a reminder like this can do. Just in case I haven't told you lately... I LOVE YA!!! Please pass some of this love on to others.... suppose one morning you were called to God; do all your friends and family know you love them? ... And never stop "making pancakes."

I really needed to make......

one of my New Year's resolutions to update my blog more. I haven't really been up to anything too terrible exciting. I've been fly fishing a couple of times, bu now that the snowpack is melting, the rivers are blown out, so I'll have to wait 'til they clear up again. I managed to sneak in some golf before the weather got cold again, and played my best season beginning round ever.

I've also been being pretty good about the whole working out thing. I've managed to up my bench press weight by 40 pounds in the past six weeks and while I know that this won't continue forever, I'm pretty stoked to see how much longer I can continue this growth before I plateau. My ultimate goal is to be able to bench press my weight, but I'm hoping that as I get fitter, my weight will go down and I'll meet somewhere in the middle, probably around 200. Right now I'm maxing out at around 150-155, so I've got a ways to go, but it feels great to be getting back into shape. I've just got to be real careful about my back. The other day, I pushed myself too hard and I ended up straining my back pretty good and had a tough time walking once I cooled down. I'm pretty strong everywhere else, but I really need to be careful or you guys will have to wheel me to the gym.

My biggest roadblock to true weight loss and fitness is my insatiable love for fast food. I can give up dessert and even soda, but I love greasy food. The pairing of bacon, cheese, and burger should rank right up there with the theory of relativity as one of man's greatest inventions. I swear, I need to start going to a hypnotist or something to kill these cravings. I need rehab, I'm like a crack addict when it comes to fast food. While I doubt if I'll ever start giving out sexual favors for fries, we mustn't rule it out completely. Is there some sort of twelve step program to help with this kind of thing? A patch? Maybe I need some sort of intervention.

An epiphany!

I know that to many of you this will sound really stupid and you'll think I'm a moron for not completely knowing this earlier, but it is really hard to lose weight without a change in diet. I've been working out, and that's been going well, but I haven't really been seeing any loss in weight. I was reading an article on the 'net and it stated that without proper diet, fitness alone will not help a person to lose weight. Again, I know that many of you already knew this, and I at least knew this a little bit, but until yesterday, I never really made the link/decision that I really needed to take a hard look at what I eat as well as how often I work out. I've tried eating better and not working out and I've tried working out without watching what I eat, but now I just need to put it all together and hopefully see some real progress.

Not much else is happening in my world, though My friend's house I've been working on is looking like a showplace and his appraisal went better than he even hoped it would. We've still got a lot of work to do, but I fear that we're going to make it so nice that he won't want to sell it when we're done. I think this next week we're going to tear down the rest of the 70's era paneling in the basement and put up nice new walls and light fixtures. Then, all I'll need to do is wire up the shop and we'll be done, unless we decide to put in carpet.