goals of 2010 revisited

Back in January, we posted a little blurb about some of the goals we wanted to accomplish. Some were reasonable, some weren't, yet we managed to tackle a few of them.


1. have a baby - DONE
2. pass the professional engineering exam - Still don't know
3. travel to another state for vacation - DONE (Georgia)
4. remove and replace the carpet in our house - nope
5. start a vegetable garden - nope (looked at the seeds a little too late)
6. drop and maintain a weight of 160 (currently 170-174) - close (163#)
7. complete a half-ironman triathlon - August 2011
8. increase my blog readers - anybody out there?
9. cook a minimum of five meals per week - sort of (baby slowed us down)
10. take more photographs - DONE
11. travel to another country for vacation - nope
12. process and sell more photographs (open an online shop) - nope
13. run a half marathon - DONE (Mercedes Half Marathon 2:10:41)
14. correct the weed issues we have in our yard by the spring time - DONE
15. replace the fencing around our house - nope
16. clean the garage and park at least one vehicle in it - DONE (And Bethany loves it)
17. play golf at least 5 times in 2010 - nope (only once)
18. install crown moulding in the living room of our house - nope
19. donate $500 to charities - nope
20. increase my total yearly mileage to 2300mi (swim, bike, run) - nope (1918mi; studying wrecked my training)
21. become an active participant in a church bible study - nope
22. actually become a member of the church - nope
23. purchase a macro lens for my camera - nope
24. try a new difficult recipe twice a month, and record it - nope (we tried a few, but not that frequent)
25. learn how to put away the laundry after folding it - nope (working on that one...)
26. pass on our "excess stuff" to those who need it more - DONE
27. take bethany on a romantic date at least once a month - nope (she got a couple though)
28. take bethany on a date night at every two weeks - nope
29. ride the chief ladiga trail from anniston, al to atlanta, ga in a day - nope
30. become a positive influence in the lives of the scouters that I teach - I hope I did
31. pay off a sizable amount of our debt - DONE
32. start becoming a dad that my kid would be proud of - working on it
33. expand our porch, adding an outdoor grilling area - DONE
34. entertain for our friends more - DONE
35. meet more people for weekend backpacking excursions - nope
36. live a story that someone would like to share - working on that too

Now to keep adding for 2011...

Rice Cereal must be good...

Her first try..

It must be quite good because fussing ensues when she's not chomping on the spoon. Hopefully it's a good start to solids.

Some 6 month photos

A quick little shooting session this morning yielded these. Enjoy.

6mo check up

Today's 6month checkup...

 

Measured in at 24" and just over 13lbs. Minor ear infection too, but nothing some feel good medicine can't fix.

 

 

 

 

To the zoo

Off to see the Zoolight Safari... should be fun!

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Its cold

And now time for a morning run...

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This morning's run

This morning I woke to temperatures in the 20s and as usual, layered up for my morning run. Nothing fancy, just a couple of simple layers. Lightweight track pants, a lightweight long sleeve shirt, and then topped it with a jacket and gloves. For the drive to the gym, I threw on a beanie, but it isn't something that stays on when running.

Myself and the two other guys who ran with me, thought nothing of it. We were dressed well enough and were ready go...so off we went. After our little 7mil run, we pulled up to the parking lot to notice that we all had ice gathering on our faces and head. I guess it really was that cold.

Surprisingly, how you don't notice that while your running, but only after you've stopped and started cooling down. Just before it all melted, one of the guys snapped a couple of pictures of the ice...

So, enjoy.

Oh, and this run was nothing short of AWESOME! (Thanks for the photos Chris!)

making fruitcake

We spent part of last weekend visiting with my grandmother, so we could learn her tricks to making her Christmas fruitcakes. As it turned out, we wound up making two different fruitcakes with two different recipes, and both were pretty awesome.

So, here's her traditional cake...
We start with her recipe that has a date from 1964. I'm guessing if it's still around after that long, it must be pretty good.

 Grandmother and I getting started with the cooking...

 There's mixing of the candied fruits, the nuts, and the dates...

 There's mixing of the actual cake mix...

 And then the combination of the two...

 Then of course we pack it tightly in the bundt pan...

 And bake that bad boy. It took us almost 3hrs to bake this one, but it was quite worth the wait...

 Afterwards, we found the secret ingredient - bourbon. The cake hadn't been out of the oven more than a couple of minutes before she started pouring the bourbon on it. She then informs me that when it cools, it'll get a little more added to it too.

The second fruitcake was just a simple no-bake cake. She mixed everything together and added it all into a glass pan. After a couple days in the fridge, it's good to serve. Oh, and of course, there was bourbon in that one too...

It was definitely a good day!

Another training run

Great run. Based on this a sub 2hour half marathon should be in the cards.

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Baby Boil

Add water, salt, pepper, and other seasoning. Boil on low until done. Serve with sides of potatoes and veggies.

Enjoy. :)

(No babies were harmed in the making of this photo)

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SPROUTS by Heather

A quick thank you to SPROUTS by Heather - a Birmingham area family photographer.

A good friend of ours, Heather, agreed to help us with some photos of the family, by putting on a little photo shoot of the three of us. We met at Linn Park, in downtown Birmingham, where she did her magic, shot tons of photos, and helped keep the little one entertained long enough too.

It was fun.

A preview of what she did for us can be found here: Harris Family.

So, if you're in the area, looking for some photos, and want to get some great shots, check out SPROUTS by Heather.

Thanks Heather!

Red nose trial

A little red nose run time trial. Not too bad.

33* at 0600, shorts and it felt great.

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Unhappy face

This is the "I'm sick and don't feel good" look.

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Roll tide

Lets go bama

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yummy goodness

Inside is nothing but yummy goodness. Two peach cobblers, and I'd have to say, they were pretty great! Just a little desert to go with our pre-thanksgiving Thanksgiving.

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