Melody Is Smart

I don't have much time right now (dang final exams, I should be studying for an Employment Law final right now) but I wanted to tell everyone just how smart Melody is. If she sees this post she may delete it, sorry. As many of you know, Melody began taking online classes this year through the college here in Salem. Melody attended some college right after high school but then has taken five years off to go to Massage Therapy School, Cosmetology School and of course take care of me and the girls. After such a long absence wouldn't you think she would be a little rusty in the academic department? No, and it makes me sick. She took three classes and got straight A's. She got a perfect 4.0! If the school gave out A+'s, she would have had a 4.3 because she finished each course with higher than 100%. She was informed this week that she made the Academic Honor Roll. She did all of this while taking care of three crazy screaming girls and me (mostly absent husband/father trying to stay above water in law school). Most of her homework and studying came between 9 p.m. and 1 or 2 in the morning. She is pretty nerdy, but quite smart and so incredibly wonderful and beautiful. So if you see her, give her a pat on the back or a congratulations, or something, she deserves it. Melody, the girls and I love you and are very proud of you, keep up the good work.

Weigth Loss Challenge Update

We have had a pretty big response for the challenge, it is really great. We are going to set the start date for next Monday, March 23. If you have already let us know that you are planning to participate, or even if you are just deciding to, please send us an email at loserchallenge at gmail dot com. That way we have your email addresses and can relay the rest of the information and rules to all the competitors. Please do this within the next couple of days. Thanks!

Weight Loss Challenge

As you have seen here in a prior post by Melody about running, we have been trying to live healthier lifestyles. After months of doing really well, we have both hit a wall and are constantly seeking new ways to stay motivated. I recently ran across a blog entry of an old friend who did a weight loss competition and lost 28 pounds, winning $500.

Because we enjoy money and want to lose more weight, we are starting a weight loss competition and invite everyone to join. To join, you need to pay $10. The winner will take the entire pot. The prize awarded will depend on the number of participants.

Details

How long: The contest will last eight weeks, beginning as soon as we have at least 10 participants.

The Format: Have you ever seen The Biggest Loser on NBC? It is a weight loss challenge where people compete to lose the most weight, calculated by percentage of weight lost. If A weighs 250 pounds and loses 25 pounds, he has lost 10% of his body weight. If B weighs 150 pounds and loses 15 pounds, she has lost 10% of her body weight. For the purposes of the challenge, A and B are tied. The reason for basing the contest on percent of body weight lost is to level the playing field. Our contest will also be based on percent of body weight lost.

The Rules: When we decide on a beginning date, each participant will be required to submit their official starting weight. You can email it to me and I will not disclose the number to anyone.We will designate Monday as the official weigh-in day. Each Monday you must weigh yourself and send me the latest weight. Again I will keep the actual number confidential. I will calculate the percent of weight lost that week and make a new blog post listing the top three losers and their percent of weight lost. At the end of the eight weeks, whoever has lost the greatest percentage of body weight will take the pot. As I mentioned above, I want to wait until we have at least 10 participants so the pot will be at least $100 but hopefully more (just enough to buy a new outfit to show off your new look).

If you are interested, leave us a comment or let us know on Facebook and we will email you with more details.

We didn't fall off the face of the earth, but we want to

Oh my gosh! Life has been so busy. So I started school and ever since I really don't have time for anything. The girls make doing homework during the day pretty much pointless, so that leaves from 9pm to 1am for homework. Ahhh! Teaching better be worth it dang it.

Brandon is doing really great in school. We are trying to figure out where we will go after he is done in about a year. We were thinking of taking a trip to Colorado over spring break because everyone we talk to loves it. It would be great to stay in Oregon, but we need to leave our options open.

The girls are doing great, we have been potty training all week and have made some progress! Cali is now 7 months old, crawling and standing on things, and I just pierced her ears! She looks so cute. I will post some pictures soon.

Freakin' Christmas

What a great mother I am! I had this idea in my head about how fun it would be to bring a tree home and have the girls decorate it with me, have Brandon hang lights, drink hot cocoa...you know, the perfect family Christmas. I guess I didn't factor in that our kids are HORRIBLE 2 year olds with the biggest emotional crises every 2 seconds. Brandon and I had to hurry and put the tree up while the girls were in time out for like the 15th time that night and by the time bedtime came around half the ornaments were already off the tree with the stupid little metal tops pulled off!!! Ahhh!!! So next year I hope it will be better with only one 2 year old to deal with.

On a positive note, we got a free tree from one of the local state parks. The Silver Falls State Park bought some land with a Christmas tree farm on it and every year they cut a few down and have this Christmas activity day where they give out free trees, hot chocolate, the kids can make ornaments and gingerbread houses, it was so much fun. So, the whole day wasn't so bad, I really do love Christmas.

The 80's Are Back!

Yeah Baby! A woman in our ward had a surprise 80's birthday party for her husband yesterday and Brandon and I really wanted to go so we could make more friends since all of ours are moving away. Anyway, the invitation encouraged people to dress up and it was super fun!!!! If you look closely, Brandon ended up SHAVING actual lines on the sides of his head. Oh my gosh!!! It was flippin' hilarious!

Winter Break

Melody has begun to refer to this blog as hers, rather than ours, so I thought it would be nice to make my very first solo post.

Today I have officially begun my winter break. Four weeks off. Four weeks of no reading, no studying, no sitting on the edge of my seat in class filled with anxiety that I might get called on, no case briefs, holdings, majority opinions, concurring opinions, or dissenting opinions. Four weeks of not having to go to that big building pictured above. It is four weeks to give my brain a rest. And trust me, four weeks is not nearly long enough.

The really cool thing about this semester coming to an end is that this officially marks my half way point in law school. The first half flew by and really challenged me. I fully expect the second half to go just as fast and challenge me even more.

Please do not take this the wrong way, I really enjoy law school, the law school finals however, are not so great. I have spent the last three weeks in the law library, non stop, studying for these dang tests. Poor Melody has pretty much been a single mother because I have rarely been around. She continues to support me though and doesn't complain about the time spent at school too much, even though I know our three little girls are not easy.

We are going to my parent's house in California for a few days after Christmas. My mom called last week asking if it is okay for she and my dad to rent a hotel room for Melody and I at Lake Tahoe so we can sneak away together for a night while our girls stay with them. Of course that is okay! Is it sad though that the first thought we had about having a hotel room to ourselves was that we can go to bed early and sleep in as late as we want? I guess we will work on that.