Getting Old...

You know your getting old when you look forward to getting your new lawn mower!!

I just purchased this handsome Crafstman Riding mower Monday night and will be picking it up tomorrow night, ahh yes, no more pushing, life is good.

That's all I wanted to say! Have a great Wednesday! - Peace Out!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mothers day to all you mothers out there. We had a good day!

Enjoy the rest of the evening and make all your significant others do all the work like Ashli did. She moved the carpet cleaner out into the living room and looked over at me....I'm a smart guy and knew exactly what was expected of me!:-)

Later Peace Out!

Sea Legs Attached...

Wow, what a weekend. I got over to pick up my father-in-law Friday afternoon around 12:45. We met up with the rest of the crew and left Greenville around 1:30pm. A couple of hours later we were in Columbia picking up the last crew member before heading to the coast.

We stayed at a really nice resort hotel in a spacious ocean front three bedroom suite, really a great place. After getting all unpacked it was time for a late dinner so we headed over to one of the local seafood places and had a good meal. Right next to the restaurant was the Bass Pro shop and a good excuse to walk some of that good food off. We didn't get back to the suite until about 11pm; yikes we have to be up at 3am! Needless to say we didn't get much sleep and I think I finally got up around 2am, just couldn't sleep. We got everything packed and off to the dock by 4:15. We were on the boat and headed out to sea right at 4:15. Danny, our captain, explained that we were going to go a little further out right around 65 miles which meant a 3 hour boat ride, time to settle in and try and get a little more sleep. Two to four foot swells we predicted all day long and they were accurate.

We caught our first fish right around 8am and it was about a 25 pound Mahi-Mahi. Not long after that David reeled in a 50 pound Wahoo, one of the toughest fighting fish out there. He was toast for a good hour after that fight, just a beautiful fish. Things slowed down for a few hours before my father-in-law brought in a 35 pound Mahi-Mahi and then the six lines we were trolling with just fired up and we caught several more Mahi-Mahi and another Wahoo. Those were the only two types we caught all day. By 3:50pm we were still 65 miles out in the Atlantic and after catching about 20 fish or so it was time to head back.

I think we finally got to the dock right around 7pm, just about 15 hours on the boat with a constant 2 to 4 foot swell hitting us. We were all very tired to say the least and a long day for sure. We didn't leave the dock until about 9pm, it took that long to clean and divide up the meat. We had a great time all day goofing off and we can't wait for the next trip. That was the farthest I've been out in the ocean and I have to say the water is just so blue. It is a little weird to look around and see nothing but water in all directions and not much else besides the occasional freightliner passing in the distance. We got back in to town around 4pm on Sunday and I was excited to see Ashli, Gracie, and Rosie.

Check out some cool pics of the trip!

So far its been a busy week but things are going well. I will be getting back to my regular workouts sometime this century! Both lawn mowers I had crapped on me last week before I left and I had to get my landscaper guy to come out and cut the grass for me. I'm trying to find a good deal on a new mower so I can keep my grass looking good, it was looking pretty bad until he came out yesterday. Well, I need to get some things for work done I have a class I'm doing on Thursday and Friday and I need to iron out my presentation.

Have a good rest of the week. - Jason

Deep Sea & Doughnuts...

Man, it has been a while since I updated my blog. Things are going well just super busy with life! Still very inconsistent with my workouts but I'm not sweating it.

Tomorrow I have off from work and what fun it's going to be. First I'm going down to Gracie's school for Dads and Doughnuts, I will not be eating,:) but enjoying the time as a proud daddy. Then I have to run a few places and pack up for my deep sea fishing journey. My father-in-law and I are headed down to North Myrtle with 4 other friends for a weekend of fishing and fun. We are headed 50 plus miles out into the Atlantic Ocean to catch, hopefully, some Wahoo, Tuna, Grouper, King Mackerel, Sail Fish, and more. Saturday morning we will be at the docks around 4:15am, ouch!, that's early but will give us more time to fish. This will be an all day event and alot of fun.

I'm really excited to spend the morning with Gracie and her class it will be blast and she is really excited. This August she will be going to school full time so life is going to change come this fall, man they grow up so fast, geez! Tonight after work I got home and decided to wash the cars and Gracie helped wash the cars and tried to wash me in the process, not that I needed a good washing!:) We had a good time playing around while Ashli and Rosie played in the yard.

Rosie is about 15 weeks and is already approaching 30 pounds; she's becoming a big girl! All I can think about is she still has a year of solid growth in her, slow down on the growing girl, geez!:) Rosie and Gracie are best buds and having a blast together. Next weekend Rosie has her first personal puppy class with a good trainer in the area. This should be a fun time and hopefully we will be able to continue the classes. Rosie does really well now and can sit, come, lie down, and shake on command, pretty good for a 15 week old. She is completely pottie trained now and that we are thankful for. She does get a little excited sometimes and piddles a little in the house but that is very rare nowadays.

Check out the new PICTURES

Ashli is going on her third week of working and seems to really like the job. Come August she will be able to get many more hours in when Gracie goes to school full time. She is the marketing and office manager for a friend of ours who has her own real estate office. I used to work for her husband and we stayed friends even after I left that company. He now owns the learning center that I used to teach full time at and we just have stayed in touch over the past several years. Anyway Ashli has really just been trying to help get her organized in the office and manages her house showings and whatever else.

Well, I have some packing and stuff to do to get ready for tomorrow, and I need my beauty sleep so I must sign off. I will be taking lots of pictures and video of the trip. Have a great weekend! - Jason

Still Sneezing....:)

So far this has been another week fighting allergies. I did find some meds that seem to take the edge off a little but still not sleeping well. The pollen is just so terrible here this year that even those that don't have allergies are having problems. Last night I was planning to cut the grass because my yard looks terrible but my mower blew up so I called my brother-in-law and he was nice enough to bring his lawn mower over and he even cut my grass for me, what a nice guy!

So I'm formulating a fitness plan for myself. Basically, I'm going to go back to my 3 day a week split strength training routine and slowly add consistent running for cardio. I really think the best time for me to run is going to be in the early morning hours which is going initially be very hard for me but I like the idea of getting my running done early. Strength training will be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. My gym is opening a new facility about 2 miles from my house with a pool so I plan on incorporating some swimming in to the program this year as well. My diet is very strict right now with my calories being a little on the low side so I'm working to get them back up where they need to be to consistently lose 2 pounds a week. I really would also like to find a new bike this year and get back to cycling for some good cross training. It's been a long while since I spent any time swimming so I plan to get some good lessons right away before even trying on my own, should be interesting.

I'm going to keep things very light for the next few months but plan to get back to the volume I was at right around this time last year. Gotta get myself back into shape as I've already wasted too much time this year.

Make it a great weekend.

Attack of the ALLERGIES...

The last three days have been spent sneezing, itching eyes, and blowing nose, I dislike this time of year because of it.

I like to be outdoors as much as possible and the allergies really make it difficult, I'm not getting much sleep because of it either. I am taking allergy meds but they just don't seem to be helping this year. No joke I sneezed 20 times in a row yesterday morning, it was terrible. Hopefully I can get some relief soon. So far with basically just diet alone I've dropped about 6 pounds in about a week and half. I will probably see a large weight loss number for April, mostly water. Now I just need to be consistent with the running and strength training and I will be dialed back in.

On May 2nd I'm headed down to Myrtle Beach again for another deep sea fishing journey on the mighty Atlantic Ocean. Hopefully this time the weather works in our favor and we can get out to the big fish. Hopefully we can catch some good size Grouper and Tuna, should be a fun weekend out on the Ocean. I will be taking some good pictures and video of the trip.

Have a great Thursday!

MIA...Blog Slacker

Wow, time just flew on by without updating my blog! Man, I'm a blog slacker. Everything is going good. My running is still not consistent and I’m working on cleaning up my nutrition.

I did have to make a difficult decision at the end of March. I decided to drop out of my classes for the spring semester. To be honest it was a huge weight lifted off the day I withdrew. Lots of things going on at work and my school started to affect my job. I was also really missing my time with Ashli and Gracie. I will finish the program probably in 2009, we will see how things shake out.

With that off my plate I can now get myself back into my normal running schedule and get myself back into shape. Not totally consistent with my running yet but looking forward to getting back out there. I've put on some weight over the last 6 months and its now time to shed those excess pounds. I will document my new journey here.

Gracie is doing great at school and we always get great reports from her teacher. Starting in August she will be going full time. Ashli started back to work last week and I think is enjoying having conversations with someone older then five!:) Rosie is doing fantastic and growing like a weed, she doubled her weight in less then two weeks! Gracie and Rosie get along great and are best buds.

This morning I had a hard time getting up. These are the hardest months for me because I have a bad allergy to pollen. I got to work around 7:45am and met up with the guy that is teaching a week long class I setup. After getting him settled and the class started I was able to slow down and catch up on some emails and relax. I do plan on getting out for a short run tonight with no distance in mind, just walk out the door and start running!:) I’ll wait until Gracie is in bed and fast asleep so probably won't start my run until 8:30 or so. I can't wait to get back to the shape I was in last summer right around that 8 minute per mile mark. I'm going to get back to updating alot more frequently this month.

"LOOK UP, GET UP, AND DON'T EVER GIVE UP!" "You tell everyone or anyone that has ever doubted, thought they did not measure up or wanted to quit, you tell them to look up, get up and don't ever give up." - Michael Irvin

Later - Jason