vLog update – vlog Monday update
Text to video thoughts above (Unedited, no styling)
all right so I figured I would take a moment because I am behind on my blog Vlog and other posts and I need to figure out a way our workflow so I can get some of this out today is November 14th and I have some memories popping up uh from 10 years ago and uh it’s just amazing how time flies and I’ve been seeing things with my little girls and my not so little uh growing teenager who’s on the cusp of turning 17 and yeah and so it’s a Brisk morning it’s 22 to 24 degrees this morning in Cache Valley we’re in the city of Logan Utah and I am coming right in front of the high school this morning they are busy doing our leaf pickup that our city goes through and vacuums all of the roads and curbs and gutters and anyway but memories coming off of me walking through Strasbourg and that was for me when I first went over to Strasbourg that was a very interesting time in life um Liz and I were in the throes of trying to understand a secondary infertility we were trying to understand what’s the best thing for us and our little family and you know during that time it was just not so much that it was difficult but uh there were a lot of questions and along with you know ways it’s the time of year from Triathlon training where it’s it’s time to question things and sometimes questions are difficult and sometimes questions are good and sometimes questions don’t necessarily prompt uh actionable opportunities of value so it was interesting because I was asked to participate some brief history participate in a project in France and I jumped on that I spent a week in uh in about London which was in Milton Keynes and then I dropped into France and after my first week of kind of getting a a little bit of a rundown I wouldn’t say it was a rundown it was a hey this is what’s going on and there was a group in a project that was there and got a little bit of information and then when I showed up amongst the our French staff that were there in Stroudsburg it was just one of those very interesting this is not what I thought was going to happen so but in the end I ended up with some great colleagues and friendships I learned a lot about French business culture again my degree is in French and so it kind of helped with that and then from a faith-based perspective I served a two-year um faith-based mission in Paris France in 1994 to 96 and the boundaries had changed so that Strasbourg was part of that geographic location we separate things into Mission boundaries and different areas so anyways and that was Stroudsburg was now considered part of my old Mission so that was kind of cool and interesting and got to meet with the different members and uh French folks Etc and that went on for the better part of a year a little bit longer there were I believe 11 trips in total and one trip that I got to bring my family over for a month which was Liz and Dennis at the time and it was a kind of a great experience the reason why I bring all that up is it was the walking and stuff and that uh having my family come with me over to France that was the moment that I kind of realized things need to change I guess it wasn’t so much that um and that was physically a little bit mentally of course and I guess I just had that experience when I was looking around and I went to buckle my um seat belt on the plane I realized that I was mere inches away from needing to ask for an extender and after a long period of life where that was never an issue for me it had become an issue that I needed to be pay attention I guess I had been kind of lulled to sleep in a lot of ways I had come out of the experience of living apart from Liz for the better part of 10 months to a year and doing uh when we first bought our home I took an opportunity to go out to Yale and that was just a big Lessons Learned it wasn’t I would say the most positive of experiences but looking back uh it was a cesspool of opportunity for growth and that happened and it happened with a lot of resilience it happened with a lot of resistance but that’s where I put on my first bit of stress weight and didn’t realize what was going on necessarily and then we got to come back together in Virginia our house sold we moved to Virginia and then we took the time to come back and then once we got back after two uh better part of two years than this opportunity to come to France happen and then well before sitting on the plane I started getting active and walking and running a little bit not a lot because I was starting to push 250 pounds or better I think where I got to 248 was the highest I got 242 with my common weight and uh anyways just not good and on the trips back and forth it didn’t really wasn’t getting much better because I was you know spending 16 hours in travel in a lot of time a lot of the time and that was basically from Salt Lake and a big plane ride into Paris and then the the multiple ways I I once flew from Paris over to Strasbourg and Strasbourg and back to Paris and that was just messy so um I tended to just take the train though the fast train it was actually when I looked back at it I looked at the timing and the delays and everything and the Strasbourg airport and having to get a taxi from the airport over um it was just faster to take the train from Paris and to go from De Gaulle and uh and work my way over to Gare de l’Est and then take from garden West out to Strausburg and got to stop by Euro Disney once or twice and anyways go buy a whole bunch of and just see a lot of just very cool things sitting on the train and now I have a young lad who Mr Lucas who is just enamored with trains so anyways uh just it’s a good morning for reflection it’s a good morning for questions it’s a good morning to recalibrate where I’m at where I’m going Triathlon I don’t really have any events that I’m planning on other than I just like to maintain Fitness and maintain sanity I got to get swimming on Saturday so I’m a little bit more than a mile and it finally felt good um and I was I’ve been telling people not this last Saturday but the Saturday before I remember walking out in the parking lot at sports academy and it was the first time that I could say I felt good because I had had enough space for Recovery both for my mind and for my physical body to be able to feel good so I need to see what my wife said so things are pretty good we’re trying to figure out the next steps and what chaos looks like for us and our family and how to keep us happy and healthy and how to get Liz on track to where she can feel like she can get an event or three in she’d like to get back to either running or obstacle course or something just beyond being a mom she’s quite brilliant and Fierce and a wonderful example to our little girls and she wants to get back out there so it’s time to do that I guess it’s her time let’s get her going
