Babies and stuff

My wife is in California with my daughter (and new granddaughter) for two weeks. Mom, dad, & baby are all still doing find. They hope to go home tomorrow (Monday). They sure do things differently than when we had our children. The babies are in the rooms with the mothers. They also have a bed for the father. This hospital doesn't even have a regular nursery, only an intensive care nursery.

My son-in-law emailed some pictures which my wife printed before she left for California. I took these to church and showed them to everyone who was interested (and even some who weren't that interested).

I made it to day 12 of my diet. I'm now on wave 2 where I have a larger variety of foods to choose from (such as fruit) plus I get an additional snack. I also started (I can hardly say the word) exercising. There is a health club not too far from me that caters to people over 50. They had a New Year's special: 50 days for $50. I'm starting out going 3 times per week for a 30 minute workout; but, I'm still waiting for that extra energy everyone talks about when you start exercising.

The next thing on my list is to schedule a visit with my doctor for a (queue dramatic music) physical examination. I haven't had a full physical in - well, I don't think I can remember the last time I had a full physical examination. I don't think I lived in Texas at the time; and, I've lived here since 1984.

Earlier this week we encountered a new dilemma with this diet. My wife signed up to feed the Missionaries this week on Wednesday. Now that we're on this diet, the question comes up - what to feed the missionaries that we can eat too. Plus, there were 4 missionaries coming over for dinner (2 English speaking and 2 Spanish speaking); so, we needed to prepare quite a bit more food than we've been accustomed to recently. But, my wife came to the rescue. She dug up an old recipe she had found when we tried this diet a year ago - Beef, mushroom, and artichoke stew. During my lunch break, I prepared everything and put it all in the crock pot. Bad idea - I had to smell it cooking all afternoon. Note to self: Don't cook things in the crockpot anymore. Smelling it makes me want to eat it. It's not that I'm hungry (well, maybe I am a little), it's just that I still haven't quite gotten over the See-Food diet I was on before (when I see food, I eat it).

So, now I'm home all alone. I've been alone before as my job requires occasional travel; but, not in my own home. It's kind of weird. The last time my wife left without me was 20 years ago (she went to visit her parents with the kids while I stayed home and worked). While she was gone, I painted the living room and dining room; went and bought some cowboy boots, and I bought a dog. Now I'm trying to think of something to surprise her with this time. Saturday I went out and bought some racks to reorganize the cupboard where we keep our spices (we have lots of spice bottles). I haven't done it yet because I decided that it would probably be a good idea to change the shelf paper too (how gay is that?).

I'm also thinking of painting our bedroom. I went by Lowes on Saturday to pick up some paint chips. I want something daring and bold! Before she left, I jokingly told her I was going to paint the bedroom red while she was gone. She responded that she didn't care what color I painted it; if I go to all of the trouble to paint the bedroom then she would come home and make a quilt to match. I'm sure she was joking too; but, I may just take her up on her offer. Not a bright apple red, more of a brick color with, perhaps, one wall a different accent color. Although, if I go with a blue motif, I saw a ceiling fan in Lowes that would look fabulous. Maybe I should start watching Christopher Lowell for ideas.