And so this is Christmas.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas with lots of love and laughter. I worked everyday except Christmas and then came home to a sick wife and a loving son. I didn't get any chances to run or workout over the holidays but enjoyed the time with the wife and son. Still working on the new tv and hiding all the wires in the walls, which has left me with lots of scrapes and sliced up knuckles. The hard part is done now with patch and painting left. The hard part of this holiday is that I didn't start my shopping until an hour before the store closed on Christmas Eve but I finished it with plenty of time and all items were available.

I am planning on going for a run tonight (60 degrees) and then on New Years day (40 degrees). I am very busy at work over the holidays as well at home.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get. Live everyday to the fullest.

chore filled weekend with a run in

I had lots of things on my honey-do list and it started Saturday morning at 7. I had to take the beautiful wife's vehicle in to get serviced at 7 am so I woke up early and headed out. I decided to do some Christmas shopping across the street while the shop worked on the vehicle and nothing was open for another hour. So I walked around the plaza planning out the shopping exercise until Target opened at 8. Vehicle was done early and I finished the shopping soon after that. I got home and started on the honey-do list right away. When I was done with setting the TV up, I went for a good 6 mile run in a light mist. Felt great throughout the whole run with 5 miles being my usual route through development, the last mile or so was through the small trail we have in our development. If I run the development trail I usually start with the trail in the first part of the run and finish on the road, so this was different but great. Some of the low areas had mud and water so I had to be careful through there but was nice to get some trail running in. Finished with 6 miles done with a 9:30 pace for the whole run. I started right back up the honey-do list upon my return and didn't stop until dinner time.

Sunday was family time and the big boy and I played outside some and then played with some neighbors inside. We had a blast with our neighbors while catching up with all the goings on. I did not complete the choir list as well as the Christmas shopping so I am a very busy man this week.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get. Live everyday to the fullest. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas.

relaxing evening

I didn't get a run last night or a daily core exercises in either. I don't fell bad or worried about except for the fact that I am going to a hockey game and lots of beer drinking tonight with coworkers. I haven't done anything like this on a weeknight since being married, so I deserve this. I will have to get a run/workout done thursday night and friday night.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get. Live everyday to the fullest!

Weekend work and run

Had a very busy weekend with a 52" LCD tv mounting and installation complete with running all wires through the walls. I was thinking that it would only take up some of the day saturday but I started at 8 am and didn't stop until 9 pm. We moved are old projection tv to a friend of ours house so I moved that and my butt muscles are sore now. It is all complete now and we are so happy to be done and enjoying our new tv. I woke up early sunday and decided to go for a run in the cold morning. I was bundled up though for a good 5 mile run even though I warmed up after the 2 mile mark but was so happy to be outside. I then came home to enjoy my coffee so I could put up my neighbors Christmas lights as they are too old to do it and I like to make everyone happy.

I am going to list my HBBC points on the right side of the blog to keep track as suggested by Run to Finish. She asked me about my core workouts and if there were any that helped with my running. I do a mixture of exercises starting with a 20 rep of dumbell curls or something similar. I then do 30 sit-ups, followed by 30 pushups. Then 20 leg lifts followed by 30 closed grip pushups. Then 30 crunches followed by 10 pull-ups. I do this everyday and also a 30 push-up, 20 ab-roller, 15 closed grip pushups first thing in the morning. The morning routine drives my wife nuts but I love it as it gets me up and going for the day.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get and you need to tell them your love for them every chance you can also. Live everyday to the fullest.

full moon run

I set out last night for a 4 mile run and was lucky enough to not have any rain during the run. It was a little warmer during the run then it has been in a while so I really enjoyed that. The light coming off of the full moon was awesome as it lit some of the ground and all of the sky, very beautiful night. Did my core workout exercises before the run again which took some of my energy away from the run. Was a great run though and I was happy to be outside running.

HBBC= 7 points + 1.5 points for workout two nights before.

I am planning on getting two runs this weekend even though my schedule is full setting up our Christmas present of a big LCD hdtv above the fireplace and other things around the house. Looking forward to it all.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get. Live everyday to the fullest!

finally a run

I went out for a run last night finally even though it was a little cold. I layered up nicely so I was not worried at all about the cold weather. I did my 4 mile loop with the first mile feeling like I was running on pegs. It really felt great to be out for a run and the night sky was absolutely beautiful. I kept a nice 10 minute pace for the whole run even though I had a small knee pain for a couple of minutes. Did a good workout segment before the run and then followed the run with a long stretching session to get 6 points for HBBC. Planning on doing a good workout this evening at home to keep things going.

Good job to all who ran races this weekend and a couple of qualifiers. Way to go.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get. Live life to the fullest everyday.

cancer sucks my left

Had a good weekend with the beautiful wife and big boy son although there was no workout or running. There was a long list of things that I needed to get done around the house which I did so it was not a total waste. The wife and I had a Christmas work party for her work to go to saturday night and then Sunday was the big boys birthday party. Great times had by all at all activities and good pics as well.

The damn cancer thing is al over the place lately and battles are being fought and some are being lost. My cousin just completed surgery for her breast cancer and went well during surgery. I am praying that this battle is completly defeated soon and she can claim victory, having lost her mom last year to this bastard. Another family member and the biggest part of my life is still fighting and has good days and bad. I completely treasure every second that I have been able to spend with him and remain positive through this time.

Lastly, I have followed the blog and fight of Erica for the past year and a half. She is such a beautiful person inside and out that even a blog reader can feel the large loss of her passing. Erica, you will be missed and God bless you and your family.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get. Live everyday to the fullest.

**HBBC- 6 points**

no wet cold run

Was dressed and ready to go for a run last night but as I was walking out the weather decided to change with cold rain. I did my 30 minute workout before and decided with the traveling last weekend as well as the tired long week, a cold wet run would not be worth it. I will get some runs in this weekend as well as my 30 minuteish workouts.

I am thinking of putting together some activities to do for raising money for fighting Cancer organizations. I am in the brainstorming part right now and well post my plan here when I have one.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get! Live life to the fullest everyday! Good luck to those running races this weekend.

Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge

I am gonna do the Holiday Bootie Buster being put on by Run to Finish. I always try to do something active everyday and it is going to be nice to be a part of something. I don't believe in focusing on races or competition for staying fit but just living everyday to the fullest and teaching my big boy son to be active. I have been taking it easy since being back home with only a shortened exercise routine and no running. It is cold here as well as being tired from the traveling has me not wanting to get sick by over doing it.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get. Live everyday to the fullest.

Best Thanksgiving weekend ever!

I was very stressed and tense for a week leading up to the holiday weekend. I was worried about the long drive down to south Florida with all the crazy drivers out there. It was a long drive that took 12 hours and getting in to my parents house at 3 am. I woke up at 7am and hung out for a little with my mom and little sister. I decided to go for a run while my mom went to the store for a couple of things. I did a quick 3 mile run through my old stomping grounds and really enjoyed the flatness. The temp was perfect and no issues what so ever. When I got back to the house I helped my mom with a couple of things and then we all got ready for our family pic. Everyone was there except my beautiful wife and big boy which hasn't happened since my wedding over 7 years ago.

The rest of the day only got better and we played games outside, drank, joked, talked, and visited with old friends. The meal was awesome with tons of good food and cold beers. My family are the biggest Dallas Cowboy fans so we all watched the game while the wives talked. A couple of my brothers and I played football against another 3 boys and we beat them pretty good. When it was over with and everyone went the seperate ways, I decided to head over to my best friends house to hang out for a little. Two of my brothers, best friend and myself hung out and talked til around 11ish about anything and everything in his back patio. I slept on his sofa and had one of the best night sleeps ever. We woke up around 8 when his wife was leaving for work and had breakfast. I said I was planning on going to the beach and running and my best friend said he would ride his bike with me. We loaded up and made plans to go out on the boat later with my brothers and SIL. We drove to a shopping center parking lot in Deerfield beach in which we started from there and began to cross a intercoastal waterway bridge which started to open for a boat so I had to really run fast. When we got to the beach we stopped for a second to look at the awesome flat ocean. I proceeded to run north up to Boca inlet and decided to keep going to the next main intersection of Palmetto. We stopped there for a second and I talked to another brother and then my wife called. We turned around and headed back along A1A to our starting point. Before we were headed to the bridge I thought I saw my brother and his family driving along the beach so I said hey lets go see if we can find them. So we went a mile down the beach and didn't see them so we headed back to the car. We did a total of 7.6 miles at a 10 minute pace according to nike+ which doesn't account on the stopping. Absolutely was one of the best mornings, runs, and times I have had. We then headed to another brothers house to meet up with my family (which did not go to the beach) and made a timeline for the boat outing. We went out on my best friends boat and cruised up the intercoastal to the Hillsboro inlet and anchored next to the beach and dredging barge. We all hung out on the beach for a little while and then we decided to go to the top of the lighthouse. Absolutely awesome up there and having been born and raised in south Florida, this was one of the coolest things I have done there as you could see forever up there. When we got back on the boat we discovered that the battery had died and the anchor didn't set so we drifted to the barge. I dove down to get the anchor and had to swim out with the anchor about 100 yards and set it in deeper water away from the barge. What a workout and as I finished this the sea-tow boat showed up to give us a jump. We headed back to dock and then went straight back to my brothers for a bbq cookout. My dad was too sick to come so it was just all the brothers and sisters hanging out and eating while some were making fun of each other. A couple of brothers and sisters and I decided to go see a movie so we drove there and saw the new bond movie. Come 12:30 I am at my parents house and going to sleep. Wake up at 6:30 and decided to hang out and enjoy the day with my family at home. I helped my mom get the Christmas stuff out of the garage and did other things around the house to help out. All of the brothers and sisters showed up for lunch and then I decided to leave the next day for a long drive back. Went to church that night with the family to our church where I haven't been since my wedding and then went and had a great dinner at home. I went to the store and got a real tree for my family and put it up for them. My other best friend came over later that night and we talked for a little until they went home. My dad and I watched a football game until 12 and then talked for little. We went to sleep and then woke up at 7 to leave. It took us 14 hours to get home to Charlotte that day as South Carolina was the worst state with stopped traffic. Abolsutely awesome time and I would do it again today to see family and friends.

Love and hug your loved ones every chance you get. Live everyday to the fullest.
Happy Birthday Big boy! 5 years old today!