Excuse me while I shift my paradigm

So I spent some time recently doing some blog strolling ? different from trolling, because the blogs I looked at are all people I know/am related to ? and made an important discovery. Maybe it isn?t so much a discovery as a wake up call.
First, I?m pretty much the only guy I know who keeps a blog. Sure, it could be argued I don?t keep a blog as the postings have been so few and far between over the past year, but for argument?s sake we?ll say I do.
Second, a lot of people I know are genuinely happy people. The posts I read were positive, upbeat, optimistic and authentic by people I know all have struggles of one kind or another in their lives ? they?re either going thru school and are poor as dirt, have health problems, fight the good fight of raising a family in less than impressive times, etc?
I started the day at 5am, having gone to bed earlier in the morning (not a typo) after taping and painting for about 6 hours; my attitude was not prime. But after perusing afore mentioned posts, a sense of peace and happiness settled upon me and has since changed my outlook on the day.
Happiness is truly contagious.
My revelation is that people need to know I?m happy and that I make the choice to be happy even though life isn?t the vacation I sometimes wish it would be. I?m not one of those people who is always smiling, so it?s not about being fake or having one of those perm-a-grins; it?s simply acknowledging there are things and people to be happy about and until I am a quadriplegic laying alone in a some hospital bed with nothing but MSNBC and The Real Housewives of Whatever-City/County/State-They-Come-Up-With-Next on the tube, there will always be a reason to choose to be happy.
So, let the following be known:
Today is a good day
I?m stoked to take my first time off of the year over the next 3 working days
My lawn ? tilled under, seeded and worked from scratch ? is green and looking good
Lydia is awesome and makes me laugh every day
I?m excited to have another little girl in our house
I?ve repainted the entire house in less than 2 weeks and it looks GOOD
?A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have? ~ Gerald Ford
And if I could extrapolate these personal results, it would seem that putting our best face forward ? despite any issues, problems, etc actively occurring in our lives ? positively impacts the lives of others. And when it seems we are about to drown in troubles not of our doing or wallowing in the filth of our own self-pity, there are those around who, purposely or unknowingly, lift us up. All we need to do is look.

For your listening pleasure

Paula showed me this the other night and I really liked it, so I thought I'd share it with everyone else. She and/or Natalie stumbled onto it in one of the 300 or so blogs they troll.
I really like Coldplay and all I know about Taylor Swift is she's a country singer who dated a Jonas brother, but the arrangement is cool if you enjoy the piano and cello.


Love Story (Taylor Swift) meets Viva La Vida (Coldplay) arranged by Jon Schmidt from Matthew McLelland on Vimeo.

To quiet my sister

So I haven't been blogging much. I recently had a coworker call my blog pathetic or something like that because of the limited posting going on; he recommended I just shut it down and put it out of its misery. He has a point. That decision is pending.
As you all know from Paula's post, we are expecting child #2. I'm looking forward to it - should make for an interesting holiday season. The baby is due the weekend before Thanksgiving - the 21st. Given Lydia going over almost 10 days before we forced her out, I'm anticipating a Thanksgiving Day birth. Paula was adamant about not having a holiday baby, so the irony would be off the charts; of course, I predicted the reason for Paula's extreme duress w/ this pregnancy was that she was having twins. That turned out to be a poor prediction, much like experts with the Sugar Bowl this year.
The question has been posed to me: would you like a boy or girl? I'd like to have a boy before it's all said and done - that's for sure. So, in a way I want a boy just to make sure we get one. From a short-term economical perspective, it would be better to have a girl since we have a bunch of girl stuff; however, in the long-term a boy will be significantly less expensive. I feel much less responsibility to assist any sons I have w/ their higher education - no sense of obligation, really - but I do with my daughter(s). Then there is the whole wedding thing. I'd prefer not to foot the bill any more than I have to.
From an emotional standpoint, a boy would be beneficial. I've become (emotionally) soft since Lydia was born. If women living together can, through some form of chemical osmosis that I don't understand or feel like researching, end up on the same cycle then you can only imagine how being the only man in a house of three girls will mess with me. Pretty soon I'll be crying during Oprah.
Anyway, there's a quick rundown of my thoughts w/ the second on the way. Now to address the subject line.
Rachell is leaving comments about how I don't post any pictures of Lydia. I pose the following: do you know any man who has a blog and posts pictures of his kid? Not a family blog, but an individual man? That being said, I don't feel too guilty about it. Actually, I don't feel any guilt. But to keep the snarky comments to a minimum, here are some of Lydia Pics in no particular order and without any commentary. Since a picture says a thousand words...

Pork everywhere!

Fat
I had a revelation while attempting to play basketball over Thanksgiving – I am fat. And out of shape. And fat.

This wasn’t so much a revelation as a culmination: the inverse ratio of diminishing jaw-line to increasing waistline was a fair indicator; it seemed my gut was expanding faster than the federal government. But it wasn’t until trying to run up and down a court that the painful and embarrassing reality filled every fiber of my being…particularly my atrophied lungs.

Fortunately this basketball game was in Wyoming, so my buddy Nick was there and he is in excellent shape thanks to a little something called P90X. This is one of those workout programs you see advertised late at night, sandwiched between infomercials promising riches by selling your old nail clippings and how to get more hair – and women – by strapping a cat to your head; I was skeptical.

But Nick’s diamond-stamped triceps and his ability to run up and down the court like a gazelle across the Serengeti was proof enough for me that this was something that I needed to do. Along comes Christmas and with it P90X – 12 DVD’s that would act as the harbinger of death for my gelatinous body.

Well, I’m on week three (technically Week 4, but Week 1 was such a mess that I decided to scrap it) of the program and this is what I’ve discovered so far: first, P90X is code for ‘welcome to hell’; second, I was much farther down the road to blobness than I anticipated; third, P90X is awesome.

Anyway, there’s my endorsement for the program. Definitely something that will work you over, but something that is enjoyable and that produces results. I’m not going to hit the beach anytime soon, but my reps have increased each week and there is even a certain level of enjoyment as my body is abused by Tony Horton.

Fatter

Everyone give a hand to the federal government for strapping us and our children with nearly $2 trillion (2,000,000,000,000). Really excited about this, the total bill between TARP and the “stimulus” is going to end up being nearly $10 trillion (9,700,000,000,000). No big deal – just going to cost my daughter and her family nearly 80% of their gross income to make up the difference. Thank goodness for Big Brother taking care of us all.

I wonder if there’s any administration in history that has done so much to hurt our nation so quickly after coming into office. I haven’t the time or the energy to talk about it all, so I’m going to provide some links and you all can check it out.

Links that should make you think:

Universal healthcare is on its way

Play now, pay later

Breaking down the cost

Stimulus 101

Tax cuts don't work? Please...

The man at the helm

A couple things have inspired this post: First, the bye week has made it seem like an eternity since the Cougars of BYU have taken the field and I have a bunch of Cougar Blue bottled up inside me and it needs to go somewhere or there will be an explosion. And Paula hates messes. Second, BYU's football team is now entrenched in the top 10 in every poll - funny how against Washington they block a PAT and win, then drop in the polls but they don't even take the field last week and jump up three or four spots...gotta love the pollsters.
This post isn't to discuss how BYU would do in a BCS game (certainly they'd lose no worse than Ohio State has the past 2 years) or how valid their ranking is (3 top 10 teams losing to unranked opponents last week). All that is subjective. Detractors and apologists would all have valid points on the topic, I'm sure.
One thing with winning is that the press comes calling, especially when said team is an underdog (speaking of BYU's position as a non-BC$ school). And with the press comes greater scrutiny, visibility and exposure to the world. This can be unnerving because whoever does the talking suddenly becomes the face of the organization - a visible representation of the acronym by which the entity will be recognized across the nation. The weightiness of this representation is multiplied significantly when the organization also portrays a faith. So it is at BYU.

And as a died-in-the-wool Cougar fan, I'm thrilled that this face is that of Bronco Mendenhall.
Reading the words of Mendenhall in a newspaper column can paint the picture of a man full of hubris as he talks about the standards, aspirations and goals of BYU football. Such was the reaction of many when the motto for the 2008-2009 season was revealed: "Quest for Perfection". Comments and message boards are like train wrecks - a gruesome, ugly affair but difficult to turn away from - and scattered through the wreckage was the derission towards Mendenhall and this motto.
But to read is different then to hear or to see. (Any doubt about this, one just needs to go back through the comments on this blog for evidence.) Between the antenna-like picture on The Mtn and other media outlets, listening to Mendenhall explain his philosophies about coaching at BYU and the goals and aspirations he has for his team is interesting to say the least. His approach to the game of football at BYU isn't close to any other program - granted, this is partially out of necessity - and it's refreshing to listen to.

Mendenhall was on the Jim Rome radio show and the interview was very cool. Here is the link for your enjoyment.
This is a link to an interview Bronco did on a Seattle radio station before the Washington game.

Anyway, whether or not you are a BYU fan, hopefully you can appreciate the integrity and well-grounded nature of the man who is at the helm of Cougars of BYU.