New Year’s Resolutions Part II

January 21, 2008 on 3:01 pm | In Hayden and Laura | No Comments

Okay, so I guess its high time I wrote up my resolutions for next year.  I won’t list all of them, but here’s a few:

• Be a better father
• Be a better husband
• Complete at least one triathlon other than the Memphis in May Tri
• Complete the St. Jude half marathon again in under 2 hours
• Drop a few pounds (about 8-10 to be exact)
• Drop my cholestorol (by about 45 points)
• Spend more time with my parents, in-laws, sister and brother-in-law and grandparents
• Relax and realize I’m not in control

So that’s it.  There are actually a lot more, I’m just not going to list them all.  I have got them written down, though.  I’ll have to check back periodically throughout the year to see how I’m doing and get motivated!

So I went to Tutwiler, MS this weekend to go duck hunting.  I drove down and met Dad and one of his friends, Craig.  We were hunting on Craig’s land.  We had a great time.  On Saturday morning, we got out there a little late.  It was our first time to be out there, so we had to take some time to find a good location to hunt.  The ducks were all over the place.  If we’d had some time to set up, we’d have slaughtered them.

We didn’t plan to make the same mistake on Sunday.  Saturdary afternoon we scoped out a better location.  We found a good area where the trees were much shorter.  There was a little open water, too, for the ducks to land.  I spent probably 30 minutes wading through the 3 foot deep water to put out our decoys.  By the time I got in Saturday night, my legs were pretty sore from pulling my feet up and down out of the mush and the extra weight of the waders.

Sunday morning we woke up and I was ready to head out.  Since we’d set out the decoys and set up a blind, all we had to do was walk down and start blasting ducks!  Except for one problem.  I don’t know how cold it got exactly, but it was cold enough to freeze over the water.  I waded out and started busting ice with a big stick that was about 2 and a half inches in diameter before it got light.  After about 20 minutes of busting ice, I’d worked up a good sweat.  Exactly what you need when its below 20 outside!

30 minutes later it was light.  I was surprised we hadn’t seen any ducks.  I looked out onto the water and it was frozen over again.  I grabbed my stick and headed out to re-bust.  With a little more light, I saw the ice was a little better than a half inch thick in some of the shaded spots.  We hunted probably another hour and a half and after seeing next to no ducks, we called it a day.  After about 45 minutes of picking up decoys, I went back to the camper.

I was really surprised we didn’t see any on Sunday.  As cold as it was, I figured it would be an awesome day.  No big deal though.  The main reason for going wasn’t to kill ducks.  I got to spend a couple of good days with Dad, which was nice.  I also got some REALLY sore legs to show for it!

  

   

Yet another year passes

January 10, 2008 on 2:45 pm | In Haley, Hayden and Laura | No Comments

Well, another year has ticked by.  Surprisingly, the Bulldogs pulled off a winning season last year…even won a bowl game!  Yep, it was a crazy year indeed.  As I look back over the past year, I reflect on some of the major milestones:

• Last New Year’s Eve (at some tiny little place in Midtown) 
• Having a child
• 12 more mortgage payments
• Another year of work at Accredo
• Another year married
• Another year in the same house
• Trip to Washington with Laura
• 10 year high school reunion
• Getting into photography more
• Growing closer to God
• Growing closer to my wife
• Growing closer to my daughter
• Feeling a sense of accomplishment at work
• Feeling a sense that I’m lost at work
• Meeting new friends
• Considering a move
• Not going to Shelby Farms nearly enough
• Laura leaving her old job to stay home with Haley
• Laura starting a new job
• Laura leaving her new job
• My sister and brother-in-law getting pregnant
• My sister-in-law going to college at the greatest university in the land
• My other sister-in-law going to Miami of Ohio to get her PhD in psycology
• Losing some friends

That last one is probably been the toughest one of all.  We’ve lost some friends over the past year.  Not to death or anything like that.  Just growing apart.  We still talk and hang out sometimes, but its just not the same.  I had a teacher in high school once that “allegedly” got busted doing a little hanky panky with a student…more than once.  Anyway, even though he may have done some questionable things, he always said, “TCPC, folks, TCPC.”  That stood for “Times Change, People Change.”  Silly sounding, but really true. 

Still, its nice to catch up with them.  Sometimes, those people you grow apart from end up coming right back into your life years down the road.  So I’m going to stop being sappy and end this post.  I’ll post another update later of the things I want to accomplish in 2008.