I am a very lucky man – I’ve got an amazing wife and am the father to three wonderful kids. Lylli was born on Halloween in 2008, Gracie was born November 2010 and although she only lived for 17 months, she will remain as much a part of this family as the rest of us, and Mickey Gray, our first son, was born in June of 2012. I’m not going to say that life has gone exactly as I would have wanted, but it is a good life and I am determined to make the best of it.



This blog is an attempt to document my quest to become a dad that my family can be proud of.






Thursday, February 26, 2009

FW: ta-da!




Miss Lylli learned to roll over from her back to her belly yesterday!

Monday, February 16, 2009

I just realized that its been awhile since I've entered anything on this blog. So here's a quick entry to get you up to speed. Cable guy came to install cable and couldn't because of many reasons, Bought Tivo and the wireless accessory to allow it to connect to my wireless network -- neither the Tivo or the accessory work. The new fancy wireless SD card that I bought for Carrie's camera broke -- they sent us a new one and it won't connect to my home network. I got bit in the leg by my pitbull last week on accident because he was trying to bite the mastiff and apparently I was in the way. I Ran 10 miles last week including my second 5k race of the year last Saturday -- let me tell you about that day. Got up early to get ready for the race. Had a cup of coffee and a bowl of raisin bran -- got all of my gear in order and ready to go -- I figured I'd take a shower to wake myself up a little -- I'm pretty proud of my shower -- I redid all of the walls in slate and put in one of those long armed sunflower shower heads that comes down like rain. The arm of the shower head has a couple of elbows that you can loosen and adjust so its just at the right height - unfortunately, sometimes those elbos loosen on their own causing the head to sag way down -- it had sagged, so I attempted to adjust it -- turns out that the long arm also generates quite a bit of leverage and I cracked the shower head where it is threaded into the brass fitting at the top of the copper -- of course I didn't know that until I turned the shower on and had water shoot straight out of the wall (As well as down the wall behind it) -- and to add to that -- when I put the wall in the closet on the other side of the wall from the shower head and faucet, I put an access panel on the bottom, but figured I'd never need to get to the top part -- so I got to cut holes in the wall so a plumber could come and fix it after the race. As for the race, I got to the race - stood in line for about a half hour only to find that they didn't have shirt that would fit me (what was I thinknig anyway) -- so my wife got a nice shirt from the valentines 5k. I lined up at the back of runners with the rest of the penguins -- thought I would do OK since on Thursday I managed to run 2 miles before stopping and walking. My ipod wasn't keeping my pace correctly and kept telling me I was running like 20 minute miles -- so I was struggling to keep myself from speeding up -- I stopped and walked at mile marker 1 -- walked a few more times -- but managed to finish under 40 minutes this time -- not much under, but at least it was progress -- as far as the weight loss -- still 285 -- running a lot and not losing a pound - this is great!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Last Weekend

Last Friday, the wife and I closed on a great rate refinance on our house -- Closings have come a long way -- we were able to do the whole closing at our kitchen table and used our wireless network to sign some of the paperwork electronically. Way better than closings I've had in the past. Yep, after 7 years of living in my house, I've paid off $2000. I'm so glad they talked me into that negative amortization arm loan and 2nd mortgage. Good news Is that the new loan is good enough to get me back on track. My sister-in-law agreed to stay at our place and watch the dogs for the weekend, so we loaded up the car and headed to the in-laws cabin. Its just over an hour away, so after a stop at the grocery store, we got up there just after 9. We turned on the water, turned up the thermostat for the furnace, sat by the fire for a bit and then went to bed. I woke up the next morning, grabbed a couple of coffee, and tried to wrap my head around the fact that I was going to try to run a 5k race that morning at 10 AM. I wasn't quite sure how I would pull it off because I hadn't run since Jan 5th and it wasn't pretty then either. After my cup of joe, I went into the bathroom to take care of the standard morning three S's - two of which are shower and shave. On completion of the first S, of which is not specifically mentioned in the previous list, I leaned on one cheek to take care of things and at that moment, another monumental event happened to me letting me know beyond a shadow of doubt that I am a very fat man. Yep -- apparently shifting all of my weight was more than the seat could handle because I cracked it right in half. After my embaressment, I headed to the winter festival where the race would be conducted -- As I studied the crowd, I quickly realized that I was the guy that everyone looked at and said "whew! At least I won't be last". It was sort of fitting as the sun cast across the hot air balloons being launched on the lake nearby the start of the race, I could barely tell between my sillouette and that of the POW/MIA and American Family Insurance hot air balloons. The race was not pretty, lets just say if they turned the list of the results upside down, I'd have finished in the top 10. But I finished it -- and was easily the heaviest guy there by 50+ lbs. I said only 50 because my stepbrother was the next heaviest and he was quite a bit heavier than most of the other people there. My brother-in-law-to-be pulled way ahead of me before we got to mile one, but it only took about a quarter mile for my step-brother to do what I can only imagine it would look like if her were to be hit by a long range sniper while in stride - holding multiple body parts in agony as he struggled to keep it to a trot. So I basically ran/walked the race by myself - of course I got to talk to lots of senior citizens for a few seconds at a time as they passed me. Once the race was finished, I made my way back to the car and swung into Menards to buy a shiny new toilet seat for the bathroom upstairs at the cabin. Fortunately they were on sale, but at $6, I waited until the end of the weekend to replace it just in case the cheaper seat was not rated for a fatty like myself.  We got home early on Sunday so I settled in and watched one of the best Superbowl's that I've seen on the 15 inch TV in my living room.   

Bodey and My Shoes

Our dog, Bodey, has Cerebellar Hypoplasia.  I must admit that I let me heart get in the way of my head when it came to adopting Bodey.  He is a very happy dog, but I did underestimate the amount of work it would add to our already dog extensive household.  Two of his sisters have the same issue and live at the Rolling Dog Ranch in Montana (A real cool sanctuary for blind and handicapped animals).  To give you an idea about life with Bodey, these dogs are so involved that they changed their policy and will no longer take dogs with this problem.  Many people see Bodey and feel terrible for him when they see him try to get around -- The truth is that he loves people, doesn't know any different, makes due just fine, and has a pretty happy life.  I don't know if its boredom or what, because he can't exactly play fetch, but Bodey has perfected the art of chewing my shoes.  There is not one pair of shoes that I have that does not have some sort of issue because of Bodey.  I was running late this morning and am dressed too casual to wear the black boots I would normally wear (which I need to add are all chewed up around the top) -- so I grabbed an old pair of sketchers that he got too awhile back -- managed to pull the one surviving lace from a different pair of shoe that he ate at a different time, and pieced together a pair for the day --  I was sitting in a meeting this afternoon and realized that my shoes stink (I'm guessing as a result of the tooth lubricating slobber it takes to eat a shoelace while it is still laced in a shoe).  So I'm sitting at my desk with a stinky pair of half chewed brown sketchers with one dark brown lace and one tan.   Real Professional...     

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Lylli pics


 

I finally got to park in the garage

It was a monumental night last night at the Delaney household.  The Rolloff company picked up the 20 cubic yard dumpster I filled with junk that was in the driveway for the past few weeks.  I, for the first time, was able to park Kermit the car in the second garage stall.  It felt so good.  This morning was the standard morning -- Mother Earth running around trying to get the baby and her gear into the 5 different bags she carries (no pun intended) with her each day while I stay in the bedroom with the dogs as late as possible to stay out of the way becasue I'm not a morning person.  The wife and baby left for the day, I let the dogs out, jumped in the shower, got dressed and went out to get the dog food and start up the car -- I hit the garage door button with pride and hopped in to start the car, hooked my arm over the passenger seat, swung my head around, started to back it out and suddenly - CRUNCH!  Turns out Kermit won't fit through a nine foot garage door with the drivers door wide opened -- yep -- forced it open about 6 inches further than its meant to.  I pulled forward, backed out of the garage and looked at the damage -- didn't look too bad - I thought I got away with one and was int he clear until I started the drive to work and although closed tight and still safe, it now sounds like the window is cracked while driving down the road