Happy 30th Birthday Jared

Its hard to believe that today is Jared's 30th birthday. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of my old family pictures scanned so when I went to look for pictures of Jared, I checked 2 of my picture folders. Vacation and working on the car.

Jared and Emily have joined us for some fun vacations. In this picture we were zip-lining near Coba in Mexico. We jumped from a high cliff and your eyes are not deceiving you, the landing pad was a rickety wooden platform with no railing that ended by slamming into a moldy matress. Even though Bob, Emily and I were all anxious to jump and zip, Jared opted to be the photographer and help us as we got to the end of the ride. He was generous (or chicken) enough to allow our driver to use his turn.

Some things about Jared:

If there is work to be done, or if someone needs help, you will always find Jared there.

Jared is Bob Jr. which is probably why I love him so much. He has inherited Bob's talent to fix things. It is not unusual to find Jared spending his Saturday with his Dad working on someone else's car.

He likes the same things as Bob, has some of the same mannerisms, loves family but is not a huge fan of big gatherings or crowds but will be happy to drive 100 miles and give up his weekend if you need his help.

Jared was lucky to have survived the first 5 years of his life (he was a tough 3-5 year old) but I'm glad I decided to keep him around. He was a tough toddler but a great teenager and even better adult.

Jared is a wonderful uncle and his nieces and nephews love him. He is going to be a father himself this spring and I'm sure his son will be blessed to have him as his Dad.

Happy Birthday Jared, we love you!!

My Million Step March

I am not big on making resolutions that I won't keep but I do like to have goals and a way of measuring my success. About 5 years ago I made a goal of walking 1,000 miles in a year. I was able to make my goal in 6 months. I kept a spreadsheet to track my miles.

One thing I really wanted (and got) for Christmas this year was a Body Bugg . It's a device you wear on your upper arm that tracks your physical activity using sensors. The contestants on The Biggest Loser wear them. You log in to a web site where it lets you know how you are doing. It also asks you a lot of questions about the types of foods you like to eat and it develops a meal plan for you.

You are supposed to log what you eat every day but I have to admit that with the holidays, I haven't been doing that. Maybe I will if I get serious.

One of the goals of my program is to walk 10,000 steps each day. I love to walk so it doesn't seem too difficult, but it is more than I am doing now. Even with my 2 daily trips to the dog park I fall short.

So I decided if I do the 10,000 steps per day I should make 1,000,000 steps in 100 days. That doesn't seem too tough. The fun part is that it keeps a record for me and if I forget to plug in, the info is still there.

If you decide you want to get a Body Bugg, I suggest getting it from Costco.com. The price is not only lower but it comes with a one year subscription to the website. I'm not sure what it costs after the year is up.