Resolve

Okay - so this is a new year and I'm supposed to make resolutions and stuff, but I really have too many decisions to make, so resolutions will just have to wait. But I have told myself that I need to make time for writing more entries in my blog - I mean, for all you people out there! =) 2008 is a year where I will graduate, turn 30, and start law school - so some organization would be nice as well. And now that my kid's five, I guess I have to stop blaming pregnancy and breast feeding for my poor eating habits and flabby body. Being a student for the past 24 years of my life, and teaching at schools and in the summer for the past 10, I tend to look at life a semester at a time - so I continually make mini-resolutions every 4 months - one day I'll have to change that mentality, but for now, it works for me.
My parents made a resolution to get healthy in 2008 - actually, my mom did and will force my dad to go along - but I think its a good thing. My dad got in a horrible car accident about 8 years ago - structurally it ruined him, but functionally he was fine. He was in traction for 8 weeks and is now built out of metal. He has the worst dietary habits ever - he only eats hamburgers or steak or roast beef and mashed potatoes, french fries or potato chips - oh, and black olives and wax beans. Needless to say, this doesn't help him in the weight arena. He was 130 pounds when he married my mom, gained about 40 pounds in muscle when he was in the Air Force, and since he turned 30 - has gained over 100 pounds in belly. I get all my competitiveness from my father - he's an active man who is good at everything he tries, and likes everyone to know that, too - but now he works around the yard when he can and is run down after a day working with kids. He has this excuse now that he can't do as much - but doesn't understand how much easier his bionic body would move if he didn't bog it down with so much weight. Oh, I also get all my stubbornness from him - so it's not like anyone can tell him what to do. But I want my dad around as long as I can keep him. I lost all my grandparents by the time I was 20 - all before they were 70 years old. All before I realized how amazing they were, or could really relate to them as people instead of these nice old people that like to give me stuff. I want Elle to know Popopotamus (what she calls him) for more than the storyteller, chasing monster, and doting grandpa that he is to her today - I want her to have time to get the know the intelligent, kind, stubborn, frustrating, funny, social, and hard-working man that I have gotten to know and love and accept over my lifetime.
And so, for that reason, I am starting an online fitness contest with my family. Because its the one thing that we all relate to - competition - and the one thing that we can't deny, or debate its benefit. (Well, we could definitely find something to debate about it - I'm sure). And it's the one time I'm rooting for someone else to win.