5 lbs. closer

I am now 5 lbs. closer to my goal! For those of you who don't know, about 2 months ago a bunch of us from work had just finished playing a round of golf and were sitting at a table in the local McDonalds. It was about 9:30 at night and, like most guys at night, our conversation turned to the stupid and stupid-er. We got on the subject of the UFC and Brady boldly stated that, if he were to lose some weight, he could beat GSP. I nearly spit a mouthful of Big Mac and fries in his eyes! The thing was--he was dead serious. Anyway, our conversation led to a bet between Brady, Mike, Ryan, and myself. We decided that each of us would put in $25 and the first to lose 10% of their body weight would win the pot. Now understand that all of us are very competitive and when money is involved, competition can turn ugly. No one trusted anyone, so after we finished our burgers, fries, colas, and shakes, we headed across the parking lot to WalMart to weigh ourselves.
Now that I have given you a little background, I weighed in at an obese 200 lbs. that night. Well, after about 6 weeks I was down to 180 and had won the money. But I didn't want to stop there. My ultimate goal is to reach 170. The last 10 lbs. have really been difficult. But yesterday I stepped on the scale and was at 175! That's only 5 lbs. (for those of you who have difficulty with math) from my goal! And while Ana is a little upset because, as she says, I have lost a little from my stomach and all of my a$$, I must say I look strickingly sexy. I am pretty proud of myself, though, and I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel--not to mention my toes!

Old Lady Autumn

I love Autumn! By far, this is my favorite time of year. Autumn is like the old lady who sits at the end of the bar; she knows death is near so she wears her favorite dress, accompanied by her finest jewelry, in one last desperate attempt to demonstrate her beauty. We drove up the canyon today to visit old lady autumn and she did not disappoint. She indeed put on her finest dress made of greens, yellows, oranges, and reds and colored the rocky mountain cliffs. There was even a little bit of snow on the back of Timp, evidence that winter approaches. And since I have been looking at everyone's blog and admiring the family photos, we decided to take our camera. Please take a look at the slide show and enjoy. I apologize that it is formatted as a video, but I'm not as cool as many of you and don't know how to create a rockin' slideshow (hint, hint Kristi--a little bit of help over here please.) Please let me know if anyone would like any of the pictures and I will email you.

Halloween at Branch 044

For those of you who don't know, we take Halloween pretty seriously at SOS Staffing. To prove my point, I thought I would post some pictures of last year. That's right--there's the crew: Brady as the cowboy, Me as the white AI, Hi-D as the renaissance princess, Marlene as the U of U cheerleader, and Dave as the nerdy, well, nerd (of course, it wasn't too much of a stretch for Brady and Dave as that is how both of them dressed in high school.)

So what is in store for this year? Well, as far as costumes go--we're all keeping it quiet. It's much more fun when no one knows what to expect. And while I can't let any of this year's costumes out of the bag, I will say that no one jacks 044's swagger and I promise that we will take Halloween to a whole new level.

Elder Ensign

I have to give a shout out to my little nephew on this very special day as he leaves the MTC to enter the mission field. He will arrive in Fort Worth, Tx. today to spread the gospel. I remember, nearly 20 years ago, leaving the safety and security of the MTC and arriving in Guayaquil, Ecuador to start what would become 22 of the most memorable months of my life and I'm sure that, 20 years from now, Reese will say the same thing about his time in the mission field. I am proud of him for the decision that he has made to serve the Lord and know that he will represent Him well.

Derek's Highlight Film

This is a wrestling highlight film that Dusty made of his son, Derek. Now that I have found out that more and more of you have blogs, I'm putting this on here to make it easier for everyone to see (I don't think Dust will mind--it's a pretty sweet video.) Now all of you need to email Dust and Tara to convince them to start a blog as well.

7 Things

Alright--I've been called out by Terra so I will play along:

7 things I want to do before I die:
1. Own a home
2. Take a four generation picture with all of my children
3. See all my children graduate from a university
4. Tour Europe--especially Italy and Greece
5. Be published
6. Go to the Guayaquil, Ecuador temple
7. Speak in General Conference

7 things I do now:
1. Work too much
2. Coach
3. Prepare to play indoor in January
4. Diet
5. Read
6. Write in secret
7. Teach Abi Spanish

7 things I can not do:
1. French braid
2. Eat meat with fat
3. Play guitar
4. Sing
5. Pull-ups
6. Coach without yelling
7. Decide on a presidential candidate

7 things that attract me to my wife:
1. Her walk (I still walk behind her at times just so I can stare)
2. How she dances
3. Her face--in particular her bone structure (weird but true)
4. This will embarrass her, but the fact that she has been hit on by a lesbian on two separate occasions while I have been standing right next to her (and each was a pretty hot lesbian, too--not the butch kind)
5. How she folds her tongue
6. She likes to travel
7. The challenge

7 things that I say most often:
1. Cool
2. Flaca (Skinny--Ana's and Vanessa's nickname)
3. Love you
4. I love my Abi
5. "Thank you for calling SOS Staffing. This is Shane. How may I help you?"
6. Freakin'
7. "Nessa--rub my neck"

7 celebrities who I admire (all for different reasons):
1. Gordan B. Hinckley
2. Landon Donovan
3. Will Smith
4. Katie Couric
5. Chayanne
6. Rev Run
7. Steve Young

7 favorite foods:
1. Chicken and rice
2. Ana's chicken estofado
3. BBQ steaks
4. Cherry turnovers
5. Seafood in general, but I love crab and salmon
6. Lucky Charms
7. Cheese

Vanessa's Scrimmage

This video is a little longer, but it shows a few scenes of Vanessa playing in her scrimmage today. She didn't put one in the net, but she did play a real physical game and had a couple of close chances. Her last game of the fall season is on Tuesday against a team from Logan and I will be sure to post some videos of that. After that game, I think I am going to have her totally rest for about a month. She, as well as a couple other players on the team, have really been getting banged up. I think she deserves the rest. In November I'll start having her run and do some light workouts and then I think they begin indoor in January. Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy the video.