Were down here in the valley with our boys and a few of their friends. For his birthday, our oldest (Ryan) wanted to bring some friends down to goto Amazing Jakes. We also brought PJ, who is one of the kids on my baseball team and a kid that I have coached for a few years. I call him my 4th son:) as his parents are super busy so I'm usually picking him up and dropping him off to and from practice everyday. I could write an entire post on the joy he brings to every situation but I'll save that for later.

Today though I just wanted to mention something about the Special Olympics. Actually not even really about the Special Olympics, but those involved.

The hotel were staying at is obviously one of the host hotels for the Special Olympics. There are kids (and adults) everywhere. Those that are participating all have their uniforms on with the track number on their chest.

I don't know many kids that are special needs, but have enjoyed observing many of the kids that are staying here at the hotel. One of them even helped me prepare my coffee this morning in the lobby of the hotel.

I found myself thinking that most of us could really learn a lot from these young people. Whether many of them have the mental ability or not to give a crap about what others think about them, they don't seem to portray it or worry about it. I saw them hugging people they just met, talking loud, laughing louder, just being in their moment.

On the other hand, most of us that are deemed "normal" or without any handicap remain in our own little shell of comfort. Just keeping to ourselves and socializing with those that we know.

Can you imagine a world where we socialize more like those with a "mental handicap?". Talk about Christ like! These kids cast judgment on no one and accept everyone for who they are, loving all those around them, and not being afraid to let it show.

I could sit and watch these kids for hours. Jealous in many ways and noticing a desire to be more socially relaxed the way they are.

They bring a huge smile to someone who although states he doesn't care what anybody thinks, but obviously does. Don't most of us worry about that very thing? If we didn't, we would be more like these young people. More loving, more carefree, more socialable. In many way, who is more handicapped?
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Whoever invented lunges is a very very cruel person!!
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Just want to say kudos to my mom.  She ran/walked her first Pat Tillman run (or any other run for that matter)   She will be 61 this year and she did the 4.2 mile run (which is further then I would ever care to walk or run).  

Good Job Mom!!!!

Relaxing Weekend.

Well our first little league of the season is tonight.   It sure is good to finally get started.   We had a small scrimmage on Saturday and if our performance on Saturday is any indication of how tonight is going to play out, we are in trouble.   Nerves, nerves, nerves.     It's amazing how good a kid can perform at practice and then forget everything when under pressure.   I suppose even as adults we can fall apart the same way.  

I've been trying to get my parent letter written, but for some reason I'm having a little harder time this year.  Not sure why, this will be the 16th letter I've written over the last the 16 years, you would think I would just copy and paste it.    Anybody that know's me, knows that I over analyze everything, even coaching.

This year I'm struggling with the fact that quite often Little League baseball is very little about the kids and very much about the coaches.   Several of us have coached against each other for years now.  Anytime I'm worried about losing to a certain team, I'm guilty of putting my own selfish interest above what I should really be focused on, the kids and teaching the game.    I want to distant myself from the "coach battle" and give 100% of my efforts to teaching these kids.   After all, if you teach the game, teach the fundamentals, all else will hopefully fall into place.    

Equal playing time.......................Sorry but this only happens in very rare occasions.   I'm not going to play a kid who spends most of his time playing x-box over a kid that spends extra time at the field.  I want to see effort and I want to see the desire to improve and learn the game.

I've got a really fun group of boys this year.  More fun then I've had in years.  Maybe because they are older.  This year I've got mostly 11 and 12 year olds and 2 ten year olds.    For the most part they work well  together and seem to get a lot pretty well.

Anyway, we'll see tonight if we can get the nerves under control.  Gotta have fun, but also gotta take is seriously.


On a completely different note, I had a really good relaxing weekend and I so needed it!!!  After the scrimmage on Saturday, my family and I went to have Pizza and Ice-Cream (yes the diet was put on hold).   Then around 3:00, Coby my 10 year old, talked me into going fishing.    We took a quick drive up to Horseshoe lake and pretty much just froze our finger off in the wind.    We decided quickly to call it a day and try again the next morning.

So the next morning we headed up to Sunrise lake.  I've never fished this early in the year and really had no idea what to expect...........that was good, because all we caught was one.   The lake was gorgeous though.  When the wind wasn't blowing, the lake was pristine.

 Then came Hawley Lake.  Still no fish, but what a relaxing way to spend the afternoon.    Coby had never been there and for a ten year old, he was just amazed at how beautiful the scenery was.  I think he wanted to hike more than he wanted to fish.   As the saying goes, "a bad day fishing is better than a good day working".  So very true.  

   
I needed the break and actually can't wait to go back up as soon as possible.  Hopefully soon the fish will start biting.  We shall soon see.

Hope you all had a great weekend too.

Thanks for reading.

You Watch Over Me
by Aaron Shust

I was lonely

You came waltzing over to me

And Your eyes they saw right through me

And You heard each one of my cries for help

And You came to rescue me

I was broken

Every prayer that I had spoken

Reached Your ears and all my tears weren't cried in vain

You carried all my pain

And put me back together again

You watch over me in the darkest valleys

You watch over me when the night seems long

You help me to see the way before me

You watch over me; You watch over me

Always faithful

To be leading, at this moment

Interceding for Your children

Though I've wandered astray from Your infinite ways

You've never left me alone -[to chorus]

Take my frozen heart; awaken me

Never once have You forsaken me

Even though I walk through this shadow of death

You will guide and defend me

You'll guard and protect me

Even though I walk through this shadow of death

You will lead me home

I'm thinking about starting a different blog.  I think it would be easier to write about certain things if it wasn't connected to the company.   While were still a small town company, I think it wise to keep business separate and write the more personal stuff on a different site.

With that said, have you ever wanted to forgive someone for something yet struggled like crazy from within to whole heartily forgive that person?   Even more difficult, a parent or step parent?    Will expand on that later, likely in a different blog, but I'll give you the new blog site when it's up and ready.

All I know is that life is full of challenges.  So many ups and downs, so many trials.  When your trying to live the life of a good Christian person, sometimes these challenges can really weigh on you.  Lots and lots of prayer and hopefully answers.

Growth.................equals more challenges

I'm fried!!!  Not in the sunburn kind of way, but in the mental psychological kind of way.  Work, personal, etc, I'm just fried, burned out, tired.  I'm not even sure why.

I started AOM 9 years ago.  First employee was a very part time respiratory therapist.  Now we have 9 employees.  With growth comes many more challenges.  My goal has never been for AOM to be ran like a corporate company.  This too can cause a whole new level of challenges.  Corporate companies have rules/regulations, policies, that have no gray area.  Every patient, every client is treated the same.  The patient   per se becomes a number, an invoice, a quota.   In many ways this makes it much easier for employees  to follow the "ground rules".  

At AOM, I refuse to let the company go there.  Every patient is an individual with their own individual needs.      This becomes difficult when say the customer speaks to Employee A then calls back and speaks to Employee B.   When treating each patient/client differently, it is immensely important to keep notes about all communication made with clients.  This way each employee knows what were doing to help meet that patients needs.  It may be financial, extra products, special equipment, etc, but again, each patient is treated individually.

The can cause problems when all of your staff isn't on the same page.  Then you throw in the excessive audits that Medicare is performing.   Who's job is it to gather all the paperwork to meet the deadline of the audit?  Is it the intake coordinators? Is it the collections staff, or the billing staff?   Some DME companies now pay a staff member just to deal with the audits, that's how overwhelming Medicare has become.  No longer is a prescription all you need.  Now you need face to face clinical notes, history and physicals, ortho evaluations, etc.  it's never ending.    It's not that medicare is combating fraud among DME companies, but they are just making it harder to justify payment.

I had a great meeting with our pharmacy rep today.  I don't have to deal very much with medications,  but did you know that Medicare recipients have to buy into Part D?    Did you know that there is a whole separate deductible for Part D?   Did you know that it capped out at $2700.00?    I didn't.   I would guess that most seniors hit that 2700.00 mark pretty easily.   I guess what I don't understand is how is a 70 year old senior, on a fixed income, is supposed to afford all of this?  

Sorry, there was such a delay in posts.  I wanted to make sure all the Weightloss Challengers saw the results.  I still haven't heard from a few of you and if you haven't received your prize, it will arrive this week.

Thanks for reading.  

Just an off the wall question............how does one get arms like Mark Wahlberg? Wouldn't it suck for a guy like him to be your kids baseball coach:). Your wife would jump at the chance to drop the kids off for practice and pick them up. :)


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Titleless

Well now that the weight loss challenge is over (by the way, if you want your prizes, you better email me) I've decided to try the same diet my wife is on.  I'm only doing it temporarily, just to get a jump start on things.  It's the BodHD diet.  I started it last night and right now, I'M HUNGRY!!!  Smoothie for dinner and a smoothie for breakfast.   I'm not sure if it's a sugar thing or what, but my hands are shaking like crazy.   While I really want to eat, I'm going to push through the shakes (I get to eat a hard boiled egg as a snack, yummy:) ) and wait for my mid morning snack.   I rarely do things like this with my wife, so I figured it was time for me to step up and work on doing more little things together....you know, things like starving each other. 

Back to the baseball grind today.  Now that we've had two days of cancellations because of the weather, it's time to catch back up.    I think I posted a while back that I was really having to talk myself into coaching this year, but so far I'm having a great time.  I've got a great little team who really seems to want to learn the game.  

Not much time to write this morning, but wanted to leave you with this.  If you're like me (I pitty you if you are) when youre hungry and in a hurry, you think the Taco Bell taco is the closest thing to somewhat healthy.  Well here ya go.  

http://www.livestrong.com/article/1001083-whats-really-inside-taco-bell-crunchy-beef-taco/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=april10


To bad Safeway doesn't have a drive thru produce department.   "Yes, I would like to order 2 apples and a banana please".  :)

Have a great morning.  

note:  My wife has my boiled egg snack and she's still not here.  Shakes are pretty much gone though. 
 

And the Winners Are:

We always start with more people then what we end up with:) .   Dieting is not an easy task.  Changing one's lifestyle is not an easy task either.  For those of you that are still striving towards your goals, keep it up.

Here are the winners of this years challenge.  Very impressive.  I'm hoping some will send some after pics.  Sizzlean, I'm not sure if you will, but hope you send some as well. You guys/gals kicked some major butt and at times it was you guys that kept me motivated.

	Individual	Percent                 Lost
1st Place	Someday Skinny	16.77
2nd Place	CantW82BSkinny	11.36
3rd Place	Andibean	7.72
	Team	Team Avg
1st Place	Fit Quest	7.95
2nd Place	Thin it 2 Win It	2.55

I tried to center the above chart, but no luck.  So here's the prizes this year:

Individual Prizes:

1st Place:  $300.00

2nd Place: $200.00

3rd Place: $100.00

Team Prizes:

1st Place:  $250.00

2nd Place: $150.00

If you're one of the winners, email me (don't forget to include your real name) your mailing address and I'll get your prizes out asap!!!    Again, congrats to all. If you haven't reaching your goal weight by January 1, 2014, we will hope to see you again next year:).    

Amazing!! Watch to the very end.





I am such a pansy!!!

Ugh! Gotta love allergies!!! 50% chance of snow tomorrow. Wouldn't be the White Mountains if we didn't get snow in April.


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One more day

Only a little more than 24 hours left in the challenge.  Unless someone posts some super incredible numbers, it looks as though Someday Skinny and CantW82BSkinny will be going 1,2.   I'm hoping Someday has taken some before and after shots because her numbers are incredible.

I've sort of decided to keep the challenge going for one more month.   I say sort of because I'm going to give the monetary prizes to those that place in the first half of the contest (ending tomorrow night at Midnight), but I'm going to try and come up with some cool prizes for those that stay involved through the second half.   So for the 2nd half, the end of the contest will be May 10th at Midnight.  

For those of you that have stuck with us through these torturous few months, thanks and good job.  It's not easy to eat well and exercise through the winter months.   I'm hoping that now with the warmer weather, this month long extension may be beneficial to some of you.

I apologize for the lack of posts lately.   Between family, work, gym, and little league, it's tough to find any downtime.   I've got a few things that I really want to write about it, but I don't want to be rushed when putting it into words.

One of the posts has something to do with the question "what is your purpose".   I was watching a special on ESPN this weekend about Chris Spielman, who was a linebacker  for the Detroit Lions.   I won't go into detail right now, but he's a prime example of following your dream and understanding your purpose in life, even when that "purpose" isn't what you had originally planned.  

The other post sort of goes hand in hand with the "what is your purpose" one, but it has a bit more to do with the sermon at church this weekend.  I may in fact combine the two, but I'm not sure yet.  Hopefully I'll be able to post it either tomorrow or Tuesday.   I'll also be posting the winners of the challenge first thing Tuesday morning.

It's getting late so I gotta get ready for tomorrow.    

No Excuses

Ok, I promise I'm not on a YouTube kick this morning.   Just have one more:  If you're filling yourself with excuses not to get outside and do something active this weekend.  Here ya go:  Quit your whining,  quit your excuses.    We are all so blessed in a million ways.   Make the most of it.

I don't understand spanish or whatever language this is in, but it's inspiring nonetheless.

Isn't this pathetic? This is all my coaching stuff. My sons gear is in the back seat. How much crap does one guy need? Wouldn't just a ball and glove do??
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Making Christ Cool

I started a post last night, but as most of them are it was quite boring.

Last night before falling off to sleep, I was watching an old fight between Victor Ortiz and Josesito Lopez.  I was too tired to watch the entire thing so I hit the good ol record button so that I could watch it later.   The fight was on Showtime so wouldn't it be common sense to think that when I turned the TV back on this morning, the TV would still be on the Showtime channel, right?

Nope.  Instead I hear a guy reciting a poem.  First all I could think of was wow, is this on a cable channel?  What cable organization stepped up and allowed this?   Of course though, once I hit the guide button, it wasn't on the Showtime channel.  I guess that would be like NBC allowing something positive to be said about Christianity.   Somehow though, my TV ended up on the ABCFamily channel.   I can't find the actual poem that was being read, but it was Jeff Bethke who has some pretty good stuff on you tube.  Here's a pretty cool one.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SkZg1ZflpJs?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


This next one was played at church the other night.  This one got me thinking about all the young people that so desperately need some moral direction.    How do you make Christ cool?  Sure to all of us "old" people, it's easier to see the importance of having Him in your life, but to our young people, it rates up there with carrots for dinner or having to watch the 700 Club on primetime.   Now imagine this guy sharing his story with young people.  I'm thinking they would at least be partly interested, "wow, you can believe and be cool".  

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/K48-Li7lIfA?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Most importantly though, is just laying the seed.  As parents, as mentors, as friends........living by example is probably the most powerful tool we have.  It can be frustrating sometime as you don't see instant results, but that's where God comes in.   You do your part, He'll do his.     Let's all step up, don't be a part of the crowd, but be something more.   Take the hard road.  Be the example your meant to be.  

It's Baseball Time

Little League season has arrived.   We had the draft last night and will have our first practice tomorrow.   We  ended up with a fairly young team, but I'm really looking forward to having a lot of fun.   I met a few of the boys at the field today just to throw the ball around and get a few hits in.

I thought this was my 14th year coaching, but I found an old picture of a minor league team that I had coached back in 97 and I've been coaching ever since.  16 years!!!  I'm old!!!

Shouldn't I be the perfect coach by now?  There are times when I still feel like I'm fumbling around with trying to teach the basics.   While I think form is super important, repetition is ranked just as high.  You can't beat just going outside and throwing a baseball around for an hour.   I realize they are just kids, but I think striving for perfection with everything you teach only makes for better young ball players.   The goal isn't to create robot like players who all play just alike, but to work on a players current skills and improve upon them.  No throw is going to be alike and no swing is going to be alike.  I think that's where some coaches fail.  They try to make every kid swing just like the last book they read, or the last video they watched.  At this age and with what little time we have to teach, those things just aren't going to happen.   Little League lasts on average about 11 weeks (if you don't count all star season).   It's a real challenge to change a kids habits in that amount of time.  Repetition, repetition, repetition.  This is the only way to make something become habit.

In years past, we've always had at least 12 kids per team.  Numbers are so low this year that we each only have 11 kids.  This is good and bad.  It's good because you only have to substitute two players.   It's bad because once summer gets here, it's much more likely to have only 8 kids show up for a game therefor having to forfeit.  I've never had to forfeit a game and I definitely don't want to start now.

It's going to be a fun season.  For a change, I'm really looking forward to the season this year.  I was really starting to feel burned out and even this year I was worried I wasn't going to feel like coaching, but now that we have started, I'm confident were going to have fun.

Only 6 days left in the challenge.  I'm hoping everyone sticks with it even after the 8th.   A few of you have asked me to keep posting and to keep the challenge going, unofficially of course.   I'm game for that if enough people are interested.   With the weather warming up, I'm thinking it will be easier for people to start dropping the weight.  After seeing the success that Someday Skinny is having with Mydietitian.com, I'm thinking about signing up.   While I don't think eating good is rocket science, I do think that being accountable to someone who is going to evaluate your food habits can be beneficial.  I'd like to start riding my bike to work, but I have all my baseball gear to haul so I'm not sure how to make that work.  I could use the added miles though.

Well it's getting late and tomorrow is going to be a long day.  Hope you all are doing well.  Good night.

Awesome Weekend

What an awesome weekend.   Super busy, but had a great time.  My brother and his family had come over from Cottonwood to spend the weekend while also celebrating his 11 year old son's birthday.

There was no downtime on Saturday.  The day began with a little bit of yard work, then off to the last Saturday of Little League tryouts.   I thought that being the last day that there would be a million kids there, but there weren't.   The numbers sure have been way down over the last couple of years.  This was also the first year that I can remember that both tryouts were sunny and warm.  When is that last freak storm going to hit?  

After tryouts, we all met up with my brothers family at the bowling alley.  What a blast.   Much better then the Wii, but I think most of us have much better luck playing on the Wii then we did playing the real thing.    I do have to brag a little though, in one game I completely had luck on my side and bowled 5 strikes in a row (then I completely sank after that).  

It was about 4:00 when we finished bowling.  It was going to be a rushed evening as we were going to have a birthday spaghetti dinner at my brothers then Christy and I wanted to make it to the Easter Eve service at church.  So that's what we did.  While the boys stayed at my brothers house to play, Christy and I headed to   The Church.   Couldn't ask for a better way to end the evening.

Then came Easter!!!  I don't think Easter has ever meant so much to me as it has this year.  I've never really taken the time to think about the Miracle that happened on this day.   How a perfect God in human form could give His life for so many of us who hardly deserve it.  Would you ever even offer to give the life of any of your children for any of those around you?  I can flat out say, I wouldn't.

To make dad happy, everyone was dressed and ready on time for church.  This was our Church's inaugural Sunday service so we really had no idea what to expect as far as turn out.   I had hoped and prayed that the turnout would be outstanding and it was excellent.    Church was awesome.  The music was awesome, the message was awesome, the people were awesome.  I'm glad the dim the lights during the music because the tears can certainly fall.  Music sure is a powerful tool when it comes to bringing out the emotions.   Everything in life is good and I'm so thankful for all of it.   Work, Family, Friends, I'm blessed all around.

This was supposed to be our gangster look:)  Not too good at looking "Bad"!  I think my wife looks the toughest (in her dress and all) :)

After church, we headed to my brothers to join family and friends for our annual Easter Fest.  Food and Games and Friends.  Frisbee, KanJam, baseball, etc, and lots of food.  I couldn't have asked for a better day.  

Hoping everyone else had just as much fun this weekend.  While back to the grind, let us walk the walk we are meant to.   Keeping God out front and trusting Him to guide our every step.

Have a great day!!!!