My favorite time of the day

Just some pictures today. Busy, busy, busy. Down to 199.5 lbs today which is down 8 lbs in 3 weeks I believe. I feel like maybe I'll go to 190 at this point instead of 195. 

Okay, this one needs explanation. As you can see, I'm stopped at an intersection and my car is at the line where it should be. The car in front of me, the one in the middle of the intersection, is NOT where it should be. That dumb ass stayed there through two other sets of lights and traffic causing all sorts of problems. I think the light is now green in the picture as it took me a while to get my phone set to take a pic. What a dope though!!

Hopefully you can see this video. It's my favorite time of the day with Marissa. LL captured it on video for me. She's just so damn cute when she stretches!!

Happy Memorial Day!!

Time seems to be scarce these days, though playing in a two day softball tournament and staying with the in-laws doesn't help matters.

The diet continues to go very well as I've rolled back the weight clock a year or two after dropping 6.5 pounds in the last three weeks. That's about halfway to my target weight, but I may try to go lower depending on how I look and feel. At this point, I feel 18 pounds isn't out of the question at all. LL is doing well also, but I'm not privy to that information. Even after our annual Memorial Day party with the Cliffords down in Mokena, I didn't gain any weight! Portion control....and 6 games of softball did the trick. Eating better in between the softball games has helped also.

On to the pictures!!

Nothing really to say about this other than "awwwww".

Her shirt says "I melt my daddy's heart" but we couldn't coax a smile out of her AND have her hands by her side. 

 Just a cute picture of her on her changing table. LL sent me this one morning while I was out. I love when she does that. 

Here's LL with Marissa at my in-laws' house. 

And a baby Marissa smiling pic from my mother-in-law.

This big guy is NOT Marissa nor LL. He's Terry and the host of the Memorial Day party. Great guy!!

This is Terry's lovely wife Sandie who is camera shy. Look at that plate of cheeseburgers!

If you're going to have several kinds of beer in different coolers as Terry does, it's great just to cut out the box label and tape it to the top. That way you know what's inside before you look. He also ties a bottle opener to a string so it doesn't get lost. 

Sandie made place cards for all of the appetizers, dishes and desserts so you didn't have to ask what anything was! Very easy to identify what you were eating. Working smarter not harder!!!

This looks like the kitchen island filled with side dishes. There was so much food it was crazy. And like I said, I didn't gain any weight!! Nice!

 A cool picture entitled "Breaking out of winter". 

So busy....and tired!

Lots going on around the Sutton household with work, softball, parties.....oh yeah, and the baby! Last weekend was Mother's Day (some pictures below) and this weekend two friends of ours from Ann Arbor came into town for the NRA show. The OTHER NRA show: the National Restaurant show. They were here from Friday until just a few hours ago and we had a good time! They got us passes to go to the show, which we used yesterday, and they got us into an after hour party on Sunday night with free booze and appetizers. It started at 9 and went until midnight, so we got a babysitter from my Starbucks (she used to be a nanny) and out we went!




There were a TON of people, as you might imagine. Here's about half the line we waited in since we got there a few minutes before 9. It actually moved quickly thankfully. Oh, and one of the best things about the night is that I got to park across the street for free! In downtown Chicago!!!
















They had a "red carpet" photograph experience. Kind of fun.

They had free sun glasses that fold up...and did I mention free booze?

 A lot of free booze.












So this event was Sunday. On Friday, the four of us went out to dinner. Neither LL nor I gained any weight that night! Saturday was a softball day for me and then dinner with Smitty for his 40th birthday. LL stayed home with our guests and Marissa while I raced from the softball field in Kankakee at 6:00 to home to shower to the restaurant by 7:30 for the party. If I could have found parking quickly, I would have been on time!!

Smitty and his wife Beth. There were 12 of us and it was a hoot. Smitty provided all the wine at the BYOB restaurant, Caromio. The food was pretty good and we hit a bar afterwards. Once again, I did not gain weight! The party up above though on Sunday cost me a pound and a half.

Tuesday morning though, after softball on Monday night, I reached a new low in weight! Still only about 5 pounds lost or so, but it's progress.





Now for some baby pics!!


















Her shirt her says "I melt my daddy's heart". Awwwww!

Mom and dad on Mother's Day! Thanks for smiling pops!

Bee holding Marissa....very carefully. She'll get better. :-)

The last ten

They say the last 10 pounds are the hardest to lose, but what if you're only trying to lose 10 pounds? Are you in for a long journey? Last week, before LL's sister Linda came to town, LL and I decided it was time to diet and lose our baby fat. Yep, I gained weight as well, probably due to the combination of sleeping erratically and LL being home so I could cook for her.....plus some lack of restraint on my part. So LL wanted to do Jenny Craig to jump start our diets and I agreed. It's not cheap, like $100 a week per person for food, but they do teach you portion control and what you really NEED to get by in a day. Unfortunately, though their sodium levels are heart healthy and following the RDA, they are still way more than I ingest on a daily basis. That has caused my ear to ring a bit and I have to be careful.  To that end, I've started cooking some of my own small portion, low sodium, high protein breakfasts. So far, I'm down 3+ pounds (looking to lose 13) and LL is down 5. It's a good start!

Now for the pictures of Marissa! Happy two month birthday little Sweety!!!

This was at the doctors office on Friday when Marissa was getting her first set of shots. How gut wrenching! She was sitting there all nice, sweet, relaxed and WHAM!! Here come the three shots and the wailing and, for the first time, actual tears. Ugh. So tough to watch.

On the plus side, LL was so smart to bring a bottle of milk and was able to calm her down a bit with it after the nurse was done. Later on, at home, poor Marissa would be sleeping in our arms and would periodically let out a wail, like she was dreaming about the shots. So hard to see. She seems much better today though and hopefully still trusts us to look out for her best interest.

Another week passes

Little Marissa is now 8 weeks old which means....very little is different actually from last week. Ha! She's growing, though I don't have exact numbers right now. Friday we have her next pediatric appointment, so we'll know more details then. Until then, how about another cute pic?

This weekend, Marissa's aunt Linda came to visit which was a real treat. I hadn't seen her in over a year, which is really unfortunate. She had a baby as well and due to being born very pre-maturely, she hasn't been able to leave his care for long. Her boy is growing nicely though and she was able to make a trip out for the weekend. 

There they are! Linda really helped out while she was here, a much appreciated break.

Saturday I was able to go play softball in Rockford, which is always fun of course. Though it was an early morning (left before 7) the schedule allowed me to be home by 6 or so. Since it was a 90 minute drive, that's not bad. We played four games and there was some excitement in game three. We were tied in the bottom of the 7th and with two outs and runners on second and third, the opposition (several of whom had been my teammates) decided to walk the guy ahead of me to load the bases thinking they could get me out. Fortunately, they were wrong as I hit a ball hard up the middle. The pitcher slowed it down a bit and it looked like the extra infielder was going to make a play on me when the ball hit second base and shot into right field. The winning run scored and we moved on. Unfortunately we lost the next game, so the victory was short lived.

Since some people would attribute my hit to "luck", I decided to call my buddy Markakis whom I had seen on FaceBook was somewhere betting on the Kentucky Derby and place a bet. The bet was Orb and Revolutionary in an exacted (need to finish 1 and 2). It was close, but they finished first and third. Arrrrgggghhhhh! Guess my luck ran out.

Take a look at this picture. Pretty crazy huh? That's an electrical wire coming out of a bottle of Sunny Delight. It was part of a 12 pack I think, so my mother didn't notice it when she put it in a cooler and it leaked all over. The company has been contacted and we're hoping my folks get something good out of it.

Crazy. That wire is underneath the original cap! Someone must have been working on the electrical system above the cap screwing machine and just let the wire drop.

About 30 seconds before I took this screen shot, the 64 degrees read 70 degrees. Note the time. Note the temp. Note what the temp is supposed to be in 10 minutes. Well, it was already at 57 and when I checked it without the hourly detail and saw that it was still 70 degrees, I went outside with insufficient clothing to pick up some food. Fortunately it wasn't far, but I was still pissed.

Copied this off of Facebook. Funny.

Another busy week....doing what?

The weeks are just flying by. Marissa is now 7 1/2 weeks old and doing well. This week she had visits from my buddy Markakis, as well as John and Carol who have a 19 month old of their own. Two other neighbors wanted to see her, but one wasn't available when we were home. It's crazy times. This morning I was up at 5:15 to soothe, feed and change her, and just stayed up. I'm probably going to pay for that later.

Last weekend, Marissa had a visit from LL's aunt, uncle and cousin. Tonight, LL's sister comes into town to meet Marissa and tomorrow my buddies from tailgating (the Punke's and Gar) are stopping by to meet her before we go to the Cubs game.  Busy times.

Speaking of the Cubs, last night I went with John and we had fun catching up. We were always roommates when we traveled for softball, but he quit 3 years ago now and since we both have children, we don't see a ton of each other. The night before, LL and I went to see the Blackhawks first playoff game of the year against the Minnesota Wild. The Hawks won in OT! We were not going to be able to stay past the first overtime period because LL was going to have to pump. If you don't know, not pumping or feeding the baby can really make you uncomfortable. She was a trouper to hold out as long as she did, and with 3 minutes left in the first OT period, the Hawks scored the game winner.


Some of the clothes bought for Marissa by Markakis and LL's cousin, who works down at Disney in Florida.

We had some beautiful weather for a day or two and out came the flowers. Look at this beauty!!

At the Hawks game on Tuesday! Our neighbors, who have a 9 month old, were MORE THAN HAPPY to watch Marissa. It seems like the wife is ready to have another as she misses the baby stage already.