Still Losing, But slowly.

Some of you might remember that on January 1st, I announced that my new years resolution was to (continue) to lose weight, and that I had at the time lost 15.2 lbs. I had a 78-day head start on my diet (compared to the usual New Years start date).

I am happy to say that I have stuck to my guns, sort of.

My weight-loss chart stops at February 17th and doesn't have another entry until today:
(click the image to see it larger).



In the intervening 42 days I stopped dieting and exercising, but I stuck to my plan of good (but not "great") eating habits.

So you can see that I didn't plateau or even gain weight. Instead I've lost a decent 2.5 lbs in the past 6 weeks. That isn't much to write home about, but I am happy.

What happened?

Well I started working 10+ hours a day in order to totally revamp my invitations business while still doing my normal work. I admit that February is usually a bit slower, than June, but I still shot 4 weddings and did a lot of invitations for spring (as well as some bridals and engagements).

To re-tool my invitation business I've been redesigning my design examples, redesigning my website, and revamping my product lines (including testing new products and purchasing and testing new equipment).

The end result will be a new website and business that offers more information, better products (even slightly better prices, as my costs have gone down). I'll post the new site in a couple days when it launches.

The main thing I've done has been to add cardstock invitations. In the past it has been on just photo paper, but new printers allow me to get great photo quality results on cardstock (if you received a Christmas or Valentine card from us in the last months you can see what I mean, though those were a bit too contrasty and over-saturated, which I've fixed).

We've started leasing a new slitter-cutter-creaser, which will cut the cards out and even do a crease (for folding cards) all in one pass. That will allow me to mass-produce the cards on an economic scale. I can also print addresses directly on the envelopes economically, which will bring in more customers I think.

So I'll post the new site hopefully by Friday. I'm still waiting on a company to fix some mistakes on an order form that uploads photos. I have done all the web work but the upload forms and a price calculator, that I had my brother-in-law, Nathan Jensen do (he is a wiz at Javascript).

My future weight loss.

Well, I peaked at about 290 lbs some time last year. When I started the diet on October 15th I was at 285.2, I have lost 25 lbs since then. I am sure if I had kept dieting and exercising, I would be closer to 35 lbs right now.

But, hey I've proven that the lifestyle changes I made (at least in eating) have been some that I can sustain. And even if I continue at this much slower pace, I am continuing.

I hope to get back to exercising soon. It gave me more energy. The next couple of weeks will tell if the new site brings a lot more business or about the same. If not much more comes in we'll still eat well and have clothes on our backs, etc. Plus I can lose more weight faster (I will have more time to work out, for one).

If a lot of business comes in, I'll probably be on the slow track still, but that is fine. I'm still working on it. I lost about 7.5 lbs in the first 1.5 months of the year and 2.5 lbs in the 1.5 months after that. So it is still working, just at 1/3rd the pace.

Stephen

Can the winter please end!

This really has been our sickest winter. Between the Croup, Flu, Strep throat, 3 ear infections (2 double ones), pink eye and several colds we just can not stay healthy. I just took Aaron back to the instcare (third trip this month) yesterday. He has another double ear infection. We just can't seem to get our kids well. I can not wait for summer so our sick winter can end!

Our sickest winter

I don't what is about this winter, but we have been so sick. Joseph woke up this morning coughing and saying that his throat hurt. Then I noticed that the lymph node on the left side of his neck was very swollen. So we took him to the instacare. We got there at 8:40 and then discovered that they don't open until 9am. So we had a little wait, but we were first in line. Once we were called back it was very quick. The nurse had to swab Joseph's throat. He didn't like it but he said that the popsicle was worth it. He has strep throat and pink eye (what is it with us and pink eye lately?). So we went off to the store for the perscriptions and more popsicles.

Trip to the park and Sandbox

Today was beautiful out. So the boys and mommy took a long walk to the Post Office and a friend's house to drop off some baby stuff that Aaron is done with. When we got back Daddy said that he wanted to take the family to the Park today. We have this brand new playground a very short distance from our house. So we decided to try that one out. We had a wonderful time. Aaron had his first ride on a swing. He loved it and was laughing most of the time. Joseph loved the rock wall and slide. He also found some binoculars and loved to spot the Pirates with Daddy. It was such a fun afternoon. After we were done with the park, let me correct that. When mommy and daddy were done with the park we dragged Joseph to the car kicking and screaming.
After the park we went to Sutherlands to get sand for our sand box. When we moved we dumped all the sand from our sand box. When we first moved into our new house Joseph was sad that the sandbox was empty. But then winter came and we didn't go out side to play as much. Now that it is spring we can start to play outside again so we had to fill up the sand box.
This week we gave Aaron the chance to try out a lot of different surfaces to sit on. He is not a fan of grass, cement or wood chips. So we were a little worried about how he would like sand. But he loved the sand, but I think part of that was that his brother was there playing with him.

Josephisms

Joseph has said and done a couple of really cute things the past few days and I thought I would share.

Yesterday we were all up in the office and Joseph walked up to Stephen and said "Daddy is my best friend." It was so cute. He then just cuddled with Stephen for a while and was not happy that I made him come and play downstairs so Stephen could work. Tuesday while we were eating lunch Joseph started talking about a Monster. Telling us different things this monster did. Then he went "The End." Neither Stephen or I knew it was a story until that point. Then he started all over and told us another story about a different monster. I had never heard him put together a storyline before. It is fun to see your kids grow up and learn different things. He has also started saying prayer all by him self. It is a very short prayer, but he is trying.

Also a little update on Aaron. Our ward has a playgroup every Thursday morning. This morning we spent a little time outside. So I put Aaron down on the grass and the sidewalk. He did not like either location. He kept putting his hands down and then picking them up as if the grass stung him. It wasn't the softest grass but it wasn't all dead either. We need to get these boys outside more so Aaron can get exposed to more things.

Getting Buzzed!

Hey, it's Stephen. I just gave myself a buzz cut. I guess that doesn't sound like the most interesting thing to blog about, but it something that changes my look quite a bit, and people who have known me for a long time (or for long enough to get used to my look) might be shocked to see me.



Those are the "before and after" shots. The before shot is from me wearing a hat (I have bad "hat hair"), and then I made the hair stand out so you could see how long it was (with the curl to it you can't see exactly how long, but it was long). Click on a photo to see it larger.

Why? It grows SO FAST!

Okay, so why did I do it? Frankly I am so tired of having to get my hair cut every two months. And I mean "have to." After one month I should get it cut, by the second month it is ridiculously long. Most guys could do fine getting it chopped every two months, but their hair doesn't grow like mine.

Growing up, my sister was so jealous of how fast my nails and hair grow (and how thick my hair is). How fast does it grow? This past year I measured that because I was so frustrated with having to cut it so often. It grows more than ¼ of an inch every week. In fact in one month I have 1 ¼ more inches of hair than I had at the beginning of the month.

So when I say that by 2 months I HAVE to cut it, I mean it. I go into a hair cutting place and the lady asks "how short?" I reply "A number 2 on the sides, and then just blend it." She is shocked because a #2 is very short, and my hair is long on the sides. Yeah, more than 2" long! She always says "are you sure?" and I say, "yes I know it is long now, but I need it to be a #2." I need it to be a #2 so it can be short for at least a while. Then I tell the lady I had a #2 on the sides just two months ago. That always floors them.

So I am tired of needing a hair cut at least once a month (and absolutely having to have one every two months).

I could 1) make Jen cut it, which always makes her nervous. 2) grow it out and donate 15 inches to charity every year, or 3) buzz it myself once a week.

I'm trying number 3 out. Number 2 doesn't seem as professional, and number 1 (no offense Jen), has the potential to look like it wasn't done professionally (though with my hair growth rate there wasn't a haircut she every gave me where it no longer mattered in a week's time -- the mistakes had grown out).

I've started out with a #3 adapter to the clippers. I'll probably end up doing a #2 just so it stays short enough to not need combing for the entire week.

Anyway, that's the news on that.

Oh, and if any of you have ever wondered about my previous hair style, here is the story on that (oh, and it is a fascinating story). I part my hair on the right (your left), because back in grade school my brother Chris' part was on my right (his left), and then when I copied the style in the mirror, I looked like him.

I imagine that hair style was first on me by the 3rd grade or so. Yep, 20 years with the exact same hair style (except for when I parted it in the middle for a few adventurous years). This very conservative hair style has been with me for quite a while.

Why? Well, again, it grows so fast!

When I was back from my mission I decided to try to finally branch out and embrace some new styles. My first (and only attempt) was the "Cesar" cut. It was a spikey cut where the top, front hair was a bit longer than the rest. It lasted about a week until the hair was getting too long for the style.

Eventually the only style that looked okay was either to slick it back or comb it to the side. I realized then that I was stuck with a part to the side and combing my hair to the sides. As my hair grows long, it works within this style. So that is the story of why I have had the same hair style for 20 years.

We'll see if I like this style (both in terms of the look and the maintainance). If I do, it might last a decade or two as well. I think that buzzing myself (and having Jen do the edges/ neck) once a week will be better than paying $10 and trying to find the time to go get it cut every 2 months. We'll see.

Our poor little Aaron!

We have had a really bad cold going though our family for the last week. First Joseph had it. Then he gave it to me. Then I shared it with Aaron on Sunday. He is such a cute little sick kid. Today we noticed that he had a lot of goop in his eyes. Sorry I don't know a better word for it. I know that when you have a lot of mucus, as he did, it can come out of the tear ducts but we wanted to get him checked just to be sure. We went to the instacare in Bountiful. A wonderful place to go if anyone needs a good urgent care facility. We have been to it more times than I care to admit. Crazy enough we ran into my good friend and old college room mate, Brit, there too. It was great to see her even just for a couple of minutes. So we went back and the nurse was taking down all the information that they do she asked if he has had a fever. I said that he had. For some reason that really resonated with Joseph because that was all he could talk about for a while. In fact when the Doctor came in he told her "Aaron's sick. He has a fever." She looked to me for tanslation and was very impressed by his care for his brother.

The diagnosis: Two ear infections and pink eye. So now we are putting drops into Aaron's eye every four hours for seven days and giving him a strong antibiotic every day for 10 days. This is going to be fun. Here are a couple of pictures of Aaron with his goopy eyes and a red nose because we just had to wipe it. They don't do him justice though. He is much more pitiful in person. The fist one is him trying to smile, he just can't open his eyes very much.