I haven't quit blogging...really...

It's just that I've found other ways to keep the very small number of people who care what I do on a daily basis updated. Those ways are facebook and twitter. Also it seems like I never have time to sit down and write what is really on my mind. I have a ton of half written posts that will probably never make it to the blog because they are old news now.

Things are going great for us. We are staying busy but it's with good stuff. We had our Disciple Now weekend at church this past week. It was an incredible weekend. Our youth group and entire church never cease to amaze me. Our guest speaker for the weekend was awesome. It's someone I first heard about seven years ago and at that time it was clear he was blessed by God with the ability to speak. He still has that incredible gift today. It was great for the kids to hear him speak and great for me to just sit back and take it all in. It was great.

Things are starting to get busy at work but that's a good thing right? Job security? I'm doing things at work now that I love doing and that makes it fun. I also love the people and the place I work at. I told a friend the other night I have never had a job that I didn't like. Somehow whever I work I always manage to have a good time. I think there's a way to have fun and get the work done. I like to think I'm a master of that balance but what do I know.

P90x isn't going as well as planned but it is going. Last week during one of the videos I honestly felt like I tore an ab muscle. I'm sure it's nothing more than a strain but up until today it has really hurt. It's better today so I'm hoping to get back on the bandwagon tomorrow. It would also help if Malachi would sleep through the night. He's off the bottle which is a nice but now he likes to wake up about three o'clock in the morning and he does NOT have the ability to put himself back to sleep. Leah was so good at that and we have been so spoiled.

Now that DNow is over it's time to complete the college application to go back next year....I took a practice GMAT test, the test required to get into graduate school and didn't get as high as I would have liked so I'm going to study just a little for that.

Supposedly Dr. Nietzel is getting ready to make a major announcement about the future of Missouri State University. There are small rumblings it could be a law school...I really hope not...if that were true I honestly think I would quit my job and go to law school...law school has always been my dream but I love Springfield too much to move away...am I crazy...

Twitter and more...

I've resisted twitter for some time but last night gave in and signed up for a twitter account. Basically a twitter account is a way of instant messaging limited to 140 characters. It's become quite popular over the past few months and is a tremendous way to stay in touch with a lot of poeple without much effort. Many popular celebrities and politicians have their own twitter accounts and their "followers" can get live tweets delivered to their computer or even straight to their cell phone if they have text messaging. I've thought a lot the past few days about how we stay in touch with people. A year ago I barely sent a text message a week, now there are days I send upwards of 100 texts a DAY. It's an amazing concept and so strange at the same time. I may have a conversation with a person with 20 texts each way for a total of 40 texts over the course of 20 minutes that could have been had in 2 minutes if I would have just dialed the phone. Working with the youth at church I've found out it's the easiest and most efficient way to get ahold of people. Then in a senior staff meeting this past week the senior staff was debating texting. One of our oldest senior staff members said he had professional contacts that only would communicate via texting. It's so weird how communication has changed the past few years. Email is almost out of date now. Who would have thought it??? If anyone so desires to follow me on twitter you can reach me at www.twitter.com/achorton14 I'm trying to get as many followers as possible, yes it's a competition with me and others, everything is a competition for me...

Then for all you business people out there is texting legal documentation? How does that work? Can you send a text to an electronic content management system?

Lots going on...

Lot's going on with use but nothing too spectacular. Monday Leah had another MRSA spot come up. Just when we get comfortable and think we've got things under control healthwise something comes up. Malachi seems to have all his issues cleared up and we finally think we are on the road to healthy living. Hopefully this is just a bump on the road.

Anyone tried P90X? If you don't know it's a 90 day work out plan that has received quite good reviews. I fully believe it's like any other program where if you buy it and do it you get results but if you buy it and it sits on the shelf you probably aren't going to get any results. I've decided to give it a try. My weight loss isn't going well at all and I need something to get me started. I found a cheap version on craigslist so I'm supposed to pick it up and start it on Monday morning. Hold me accountable if you see me! As far as the H20 only goes I've mixed results. I'm 100% off of diet coke but still drinking a lot of tea and some crystal light. Overall I'm happy with the change. I still need to ditch the crystal light and some of the tea but hopefully over time.

I've mulled around going back for my MBA and I think I'm going to finally pull the trigger and head back in January. It's a huge amount of time to dedicate as I'll be in class two nights a week for three hours. We have our life plan together of what we want to do and to get this done I need to get it over with sooner rather than later.

Ordered our Missouri State basketball tickets on Friday. Can't wait until basketball season. It will be here before I know it.

I guess I should post something...

I've had lots of ideas for posts the past week but everytime I sit down to write them something distracts me. I've got some "interesting" posts, or at least I think so, that I hope to most in the next few weeks.

Today I went for my first jury duty summons. I honestly didn't think much of it. So much that I had three meetings scheduled for work that I had to wind up postponing once I realized late Saturday evening that I would possibly not be there. I had to call in Friday afternoon to see if I actually had to go and was informed "the case" was still on. At that point it peaked my curiousity and sounded like maybe something important. Showed up at 8:15 today and found 2 people from my church were in the jury pool. After about an hour we were escorted to the court room and were told we were there for a MURDER TRIAL! I had absolutely no idea. I was number 54 so I understood my chances of being selected weren't good so I wasn't too disapointed when I was let go at around 2:15. One member from my church is on the jury and the other one was let go with me. I had mixed feelings about being on it. It was going to last all week and I have a lot going on at work but on the other hand I've always wanted to be on a jury and then a murder trial on top of that. Both of the attorneys did tell us this would truly be a CSI type case with lots of forensic evidence. Sounded cool but I'm not totally upset I didn't get on it. Lots of people encouraged me to try and get out of it and that was a bit dissapointing to me. It's hard to give up time but hey it's our civic duty. I sure hope if I was ever on trial people would show up for my jury. The funniest moment was when the prosecutor asked if anyone had a violent crime committed against them or a family member. A lady responded that someone tried to kill her TREE, yes her tree. They shot at it twice. The entire courtroom tried to hide their laughter but it was obvious everyone was laughing.

I started my weight loss goal last week to lose 32 lbs by Christmas. I'm down 2 so far so I'm happy with that. 30 more to go!

Until later...

Miscellaneous Ramblings...

Lots of stuff has gone on since my last post so I'll recap with some miscellaneous ramblings.

We opened our new santuary at church today. It's pretty awesome. We had close to 300 people at church today and we filled up the place. Pretty soon the youth get to move into the old santuary and we are super pumped about that. It will be such a blessing to have a bigger spot for Wednesday nights.

Malachi went to a bunch of doctors last week. 3 appointments in two days. Nothing new, more tests. This morning though he had the worst diaper I have ever experienced. It stunk up the whole house, was all over the crib and himself, and I am such a good dad I was the one who cleaned up the mess. Literally I almost threw up.

Put the contacts back in this morning. Way sooner than the doctor ordered but I'm young and healthy right? I'm sure the infection is gone, right? So far no redness. Tomorrow morning will be the test. Pray that they keep white and not red. I HATE wearing glasses.

Yes, I watched Michael Jackson's funeral on Tuesday. Actually watched part at work and then watched the rest taped that night at home. I have mixed views on the whole situation as far as making that big of deal out of someone and all the other stuff in the news. Bottom line, Michael Jackson was an extremely talented muscian, that can't be denied.

The all H20 is having mixed results. The one thing I am totally proud of though in the last three weeks I've had one diet coke and can proudly say I've broken the diet coke addiction. Drinking a lot of H20, lot of ice tea, and a few other low calories drinks, mainly Crystal Light.

Tomorrow I'm faithfully starting a new eating plan. I have a goal weight that I want to be at by December 31st. Probably around 30 lbs to lose, I'll do a weigh in tomorrow. I think I can do it and losing it that slowly is probably the best way to do it vs all real quick. I am running a 1/2 marathon again in October and plan to faithfully train for that so hopefully that helps as well. Still playing basketball on Monday nights and softball on Tuesday nights and that helps a lot. I really dreaded being 30, fat and bald. When I turned thirty I was overweight and balding. I can come to grips with being 30, going bald is not the end of the world, but I really want to lose some weight.

Leah talks to everyone. Today at church while waiting to get our food she pointed to an older gentleman and said "Your bald". I wanted to vanish. Then the other day at a resturant she pointed to a girl in a cowboy hat and said "Cowboy? Cowboy?" I'm sure she'll provide plenty of those moments.

Malachi is starting to get the hang of taking steps. He's not walking yet but has taken a step or two. I think in a week we'll be there.

Leah is ALMOST potty trained. Just one accident the past few days. I'll be glad when this stage is done.

I've gone back and forth on Sarah Palin. I've come to the conclusion that I can respect her decision and I think she might be a player on the national stage in 2012. I still think she's too polarizing to be the nominee but she will have a voice in the party. I almost think I would vote for her if I had to chose now.

Lots of rambling, maybe I'll be a more faithful blogger in the future, maybe not...

What's up Sarah Palin?

What is up with Sarah Palin announcing not only that she won't run for a second term as governor of Alaska, but also announcing that she is stepping down in three weeks? I've gone back and forth on Sarah Palin since she was announced as John McCain's running mate ten months agao. I remember watching her speech at the Republican National Convention and thinking, wow, we've got a winner here. The speech was truly awesome. Things went downhill after that for her. I blame most of that on McCain's campaign team, which at times appears it wanted to lose, constantly mismanage her and put her in situations she didn't need to be put in. After the election I wondered if she might have what it takes to run in 2012. At the time I really wanted her to run again but thought she probably was too far to the right to get the nomination. The past few months have been odd to say the least. She has become a polarizing face in politics, but isn't anyone who is anyone in politics now polarizing? People love her or hate her. That is clearly shown by her approval rating now being at 45% in Alaska which before she was announced as a vice presidential candidate was at 73%. Has she really changed her politics that much or do people just now see her differently after the election? She's been the focus of 15 ethics violations since the election. Most of the time I lean on the side of where there's smoke there's fire but since all 15 have been cleared I'm beginning to think it's just a witch hunt. She stated in her "resignation" speech that her and her husband had $500,000 in legal fees as a result of all the investigations. That would be hard to pay off with her salary of either $125,000 or $160,000 depending on who you believe. Either way it's hard to pay off that amount. I would also imagine after her and her family being smeared by the media during the election and since then maybe she just wants away from it all. Some sources report she's out of politics for good. If that's the case I respect her decision but at the same time am sad because even though I'm not sure she would have been my pick for the Republican nomination in 2012 she would have added a lot to the debate. If she does want to run in 2012 I'm curious as to her roadmap from here. My pick, by pick I mean I who I think will be on the ticket not necessarily my choice, for 2012 is Rommney if we are still in an economic crisis and if we're not still in the crisis Eric Cantor is my pick. I'm probably way off, but we'll start hearing about it before too long:)

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