Introspective

I went out for a run this morning at Lake Fausse Pointe. Accompanied by my brother in law Luke Capritto, I had great conversation and company for the drive there and back (which was much needed there, we left Lafayette at 4:55) On the run (I was solo for this part, he is 14) I had loads of time to think, and while thinking these words of Bruce Lee came to mind, instead of summarizing them I saw fit to type them word for word as I feel it appeals to my introspective quite accurately as of late: "I am learning to understand rather than immediately judge or to be judged. I cannot blindly follow the crowd and accept their approach. I will not allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge has transcended that and I have come to understand that life is best to be lived and not to be conceptualized. I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude."


PS - I am trying to send the pics of the run to my blog but I am running in to some difficulties.

Conversation

Eden: Daddy!?
Me: Yes ma'am?
Eden: Go to sleep daddy!!
Me: I'm not ready to go to bed, I'm reading princess.
Eden: Daddy!?!?!
Me: Pardon?
Eden: Wait... what? Daddy go to sleep so I can beat you up!

Kung Fu Eden

Yesterday at lunch my gregarious daughter had a sparring competition with her imaginary friend Sadie, this what I video'd. 

RedStar $500 Gift Card

Original Shipment

Ashley's Glasses (My Favorite)

My Glasses (Second Favorite)

Running Glasses

Don't really like how wide they are!

Fit Great, but are too small overall, not my favorite, but still nice for running.

Love 'em

Yes, you read that headline correctly! I couldn't believe it. In my last issue of Runner's World Magazine I flipped to a page that said $500 Gift Card from RedStar WorldWear. RedStar is a new company line trying to make a path for themselves here in America. I read the advert in the magazine and detached the credit card inside. I read all the instructions and looked diligently for fine print (I didn't find any). So, without further ado, I entered the website in to my search browser and perused the site for about 1 hr, learning and reading. I eventually settled on 5 pair of glasses, for me and Ashley, upon check out I received a pop stating that because I used my gift card for glasses only, I was entitled to a free watch of my choice (the only offered 2 at that time so it was easy). I placed the order, received my confirmation email, (figured it was all a ploy but decided to play along) and completely forgot about it... until yesterday.

I went to check the mail at my parents house, saw a unusually large box with my name on it. Thinking I had purchased something on eBay and forgot about it, I wasn't really overly excited. I opened the packaged and noticed all of the glasses I had ordered some time ago (the initial order was placed 7/5/2011). I was elated, very impressed that these people were actually serious! At the bottom of my invoice I was placed in a market study analysis program, I was to write a review of the glasses over the next 3 months and email all the goods and bads of my RedStar experience... so far so good! I don't like all of the glasses, but the ones I do like I love and the watch is pretty awesome, not worth the $180 price tag accompanied with it, but a nice watch nonetheless. 

The End!

First Dr. Appointment

Aria has her first Dr appointment today, I'm sitting at the hospital now in the waiting room. Appointment was for 10:45, I have money saying it'll be 12:30 before we leave here. No worries, Rubys for lunch then Target for goodies for the kids (it's still weird for me to say "kids"). At any rate I suppose this beats working.

Her First Smile

Actually, she has gas, but its a smile to us.

Funny Story/Favorite Video

The video above features a young woman named Jenny Kirk, Jenny has been a long time friend of my wife. Jenny stopped in that Friday to say hello while on her way to work. When she walked in, Ashley went in to full blown labor, in fact, it was so fast, Jenny had the pleasure of video taping the birth, it was her first ever witness to a child birth. She had to call in and explain while she wasn't coming in. Imagine that conversation. It was pretty funny, I could hear her boss on the other line screaming in excitement. I think I will use that excuse the next time I don't want to go to work...  Thank you Jenny and Margie for witnessing the miracle of my daughters entrance to this world.

Jenny and Margie were the only two people in the room when Aria started crowning, it happened within minutes, literally. This was also Margie's first delivery experience, she too just popped in to check on Ashley. At 3:30 I sent everyone home thinking it would be hours before the delivery bc she was only 3 cm dilated at that time. Well at 5:15 we were in the dance, at 5:19 we started pushing, at 5:29 we had a baby.

Photobucket Photos & Videos Here

Finally Home

We are finally home, safe and sound! The entire weekend was an absolute rout I might say. We had a blast from start to finish. I was introduced to a new card game called Apples to Apples, if you haven't played I recommend at least one night of fun with this game, great stuff. HUGE HUGE thanks to Mike McMinn and Margie Deblanc for battling the late nights with me and Ashley, hanging around and pretending that they like us enough to sacrifice sleep for us. Special thanks to my Mom and Dad for keeping Eden for the time we spent in the hospital, that was pretty awesome, we definitely couldn't have done it without them. We had tremendous support from friends and family both near and far. It is always a delight to have such kind words bestowed on my family. I have posted here for your viewing pleasure some pics and vids from around the hospital  some you've seen, some you haven't. So enjoy, and thanks again for everyone who supported us. The videos are G rated, no birthing videos posted... Ashley made me take them off!

PS - Eden is going to be an amazing big sister. She is soooo excited about her little sister, when we first told her she was born she ran around the waiting room screaming, "I'M SO PROUD OF MY LIL STISTER (not a typo) SHE'S SO PRECIOUS AND CUTE!!!!!!" It was hilarious. That lasted about 2 minutes btw. I look forward to the future with these two.

Aria Eve Sharlow

<p>What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Well the truth is, we struggled picking a name for Aria, we had many names to choose from but it wasn't until we saw her that we really knew what we were dealing with. Funny story, we actually narrowed the selection by practicing what the girls names sounded like when we had to fuss at them later on in life. Yep, that's parenting... lol. At any rate, Aria is a very strong Italian name that presented a slight level of exotic origin but was still classic enough to be nostalgic, I think. Well whatever the case we liked it, we loved it. Eve, well that just flowed all to naturally to pass up. If I need to explain Sharlow please stop reading and exit this page. Our future has just been expanded beyond what we can possibly imagine. I'm well excited to undertake this responsibility as husband, father and daddy. Here we go!

More From Delivery

Sleeping Beauty

But this one wakes for food. She slept about 6 hrs last night and only woke up once to eat.

The New Edition

Playing with names still

More more

Here She Is

7 lbs. 13 oz. Updates to come. We are at women's and children's currently in room LDR 3. Moving soon I'll notify accordingly.

Joseph Leday

Louisiana State Board of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics Certificate of Death...

Pictured above is a death certificate from October 13, 1923. The deceased is a man named Joseph Leday (as the title of this post suggests). Joseph Leday was/is my great great Uncle. But all that is neither here nor there. The interesting, or for me the cool part of this is the cause of death (pictured in the second photo). It may be difficult to read so I will translate:


     "Fracture of the skull (Homicidal) strike on frontal bone, with a post by another negro."


Joseph was 24 years old and was born in 1899. My dad is in possession of this certificate and brought it to my attention today. I found the articulation and verbiage used most interesting as I am certain is was colloquial to that time frame. It is quite amazing how times have changed.

Scar Crow... Tiger Edition

Yes, what you see in this picture is a stuffed tiger tied to a tree, and if you're really savvy then you will have also noticed that the tree is a fig tree. (back story time). About 1 week ago my dad walked to his garden and noticed his illustrious fig tree had sprouted approximately 400+ figs, delighted he relished the moment and saw fit to pick them on the next day. When he approached the tree the following day he saw a handful of black crows flying away from the tree, untroubled by the sight he proceeded and finally realized he only had 4 figs left, yes 4. The crows had a feast at my dads expense. With only 4 figs left, and desire to preserve them, he grabbed a stuffed Tiger from one of the spare bedrooms in the house and tied the tiger to the tree. I think it fair to note that it has been a week and those 4 figs are still there. Damn crows!

Remember the Post about the Kid Going to West Point

I said in that post that I had been knowing the family for quite some time, I found this photo recently of Brennan when he was 2 being held by my grandmother, this is after a radiation treatment at St. Jude's Hospital. He certainly doesn't look like a kid with many problems in life... lol.

Then Die!

My good friend and 1/2 Marathon Running Partner, and soon to be 2011 Tough Mudder Finisher, Jeremy Zenon, posted a blog site on twitter. I clicked the link and read something I had never really considered to be a aspect of my mentality, but after reading it I was immediately inspired. Taky Kimura was a student of Bruce Lee and trained with him every day, this is a story from Taky Kimura in an interview some time ago:
“Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We’d run the three miles in twenty-one or twenty-two minutes. Just under eight minutes a mile [Note: when running on his own in 1968, Lee would get his time down to six-and-a half minutes per mile]. So this morning he said to me “We’re going to go five.” I said, “Bruce, I can’t go five. I’m a helluva lot older than you are, and I can’t do five.” He said, “When we get to three, we’ll shift gears and it’s only two more and you’ll do it.” I said “Okay, hell, I’ll go for it.” So we get to three, we go into the fourth mile and I’m okay for three or four minutes, and then I really begin to give out. I’m tired, my heart’s pounding, I can’t go any more and so I say to him, “Bruce if I run any more,” –and we’re still running-”if I run any more I’m liable to have a heart attack and die.” He said, “Then die.” It made me so mad that I went the full five miles. Afterward I went to the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about it. I said, you know, “Why did you say that?” He said, “Because you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”