Announcement of the Century

Mack here, well, I have a little somethin somethin to disclose.  I know you are all excited to hear what it is and sit in your chairs salivating for information about me so I will not procrastinate further.  As many of you know, I have been struggling with health issues over the last year that have left me in chronic pain/discomfort from head to knee.  I have also been gaining quite a bit of weight due to my thyroid issues and not being able to work out.  So I have been thinking a lot over the last few weeks about ANYTHING that I could do to really get back into a healthy lifestyle and have decided that for the time being I am going to be living a conservative vegetarian diet.  I feel that this could definitely do more good than harm for my body.  I will still be eating eggs and will be getting the necessary protein I need from whey-isolate protein shakes.  I'm not going to be super strict like a vegan level or anything, and I'm definitely not going to start preaching about how bad it is to eat an animal from some slaughter house in Texas.  Honestly, I love meat.  But it is something that I think I can sacrifice for the benefit and health of my body.  I don't feel healthy at all and I don't like that feeling. I like the way I felt when I was serious about my health and bodybuilding.  I looked fantastic and felt even better.  I look like crap and feel like it as well in the present time.  I think my choice will help me.  Let me know your thoughts.

Here is a picture of my dinner tonight.  It tasted soooo good.

   I cooked a black bean burger with tomatoes and an egg on top sandwiched by whole grain bread.  Seriously tasted really good.

盆栽!!!!

Mack here, my wife has been asking me to post for the last 6 months, so I finally obliged.  Not only do you have the great privilege of reading my post, but also getting a taste for my new hobby....BONSAI!!!  Bonsai is the art of growing trees.  It originated in China but grew popularity in Japan, where we get the word bonsai.  To my surprise, as I was learning a little bit about this, I found out that the bonsai trees are grown from full stock seeds. I thought that it was some kind of "dwarfing" mutation but it just uses long term cultivation techniques like pruning, root reduction, potting, defoliation, and grafting to produce small trees that mimic the shape and style of mature, full sized trees.  It's pretty neat stuff and I never thought I was much of a green thumb (which was a term I had always associated with the art of weeding a garden).  But I don't like my thumbs that much (thumbs are weird looking aren't they???) so I guess I'll go with the term green finger.  Especially when my nails are manicured and trimmed, they are quite beautiful..hahaha.  I digress, I'm watching college football at the same time as writing this and it seems a little bit harder than first anticipated.

 Here are a few pics of my 5 year old, 7 inch tall deciduous Ficus tree.  Breana has affectionately named her Treebeard.  Not the prettiest name but I let her name this one.  I'm saving up for either a 20 year old Chinese Elm that is only 12 inches tall, or a 18 year old, 15 inch Juniper which I will name. Gorgeous trees, go look them up.

I use a growing light b/c out apartment has no natural light.

Beautiful little thing, isn't it?

I really like this picture.  I'm constantly amazed at the quality of pictures that the iPhone 4 can take. (obviously I can see that this one is a little blurry, user error)

          Up close and personal meeting with Treebeard.

I am waiting for my office clock that I ordered to arrive here from Crate and Barrel and as soon as it is put up it will finish off my side of the office (Bre gets the other half) and I will post some pictures of the new HQ (playing too much Starcraft II) 

 OH YEAH, I ALMOST FORGOT TO MENTION!!!!!...........

       

      I got a new watch. It's gold plated Dolce&Gabbana.  Don't hate, or I will blind you with the blistering rays of the sun that bounce of this hot timepiece. 

Cheers,

      Big Mack

PS - since all who are reading probably think I'm a self absorbed douche, I'll tell you something that will help calm those envious feeling you inherit: Since moving to Ogden, I really miss being around my family and my wonderful brothers and sisters in law, and especially their children.  My little nephews and nieces that I can't get enough of.  Till next time.

I Love Love Love These...

You are going to think I am crazy. Well, I am a little bit. But these hats are so AWESOME. Have you heard of Philip Treacy? Maybe not, but you probably have seen his work. Does this crazy hat look familiar?

I was watching Project Runway and the designers had to make an outfit to match a crazy hat designed by Philip Treacy. I fell in love with his outrageous designs. Have you seen these crazy do-hickeys that my fav Lady Gaga wears?

               

       

Well, it turns out that Philip Treacy made these for her. (I know Lady Gaga is crazy, but I love her.) When I found out that he was the designer of these weird things it made me love him even more. I had to look up more of his creations. He has some down right CRAZY things and then he as other more elegant things that some royalty wear and other hats that would be worn at the Kentucky Derby. I told Mack I want one some day. I don't know when that day will be because his hats are like hundreds and thousands of dollars. Mack's first question was, "where would you wear it?" I said I don't know, around the house but who cares, thats not important. I've picked out some of my favorites from his new collection for you to see. Some are weird and some actually seem wearable.

                  

                               

Guess what else I found out ... he has designed some shoes!!!! Look at these lacey heels. SOO COOL! I WANT THEM!

                    

Well there you have it. I could go on and on posting more pictures of these fun hats. If anyone feels like they are in a giving mood and happen to have an extra thousand bucks lying around you can feel free to get me a hat.

You May Take Your Seats

So we have been up in Ogden since the 12th of this month, which has been 2 weeks, and we have also been without couches to sit on this whole time. When Mack and I got married my sister Nikki gave us some Ikea furniture to use till we got our own stuff. We finally got our own couches before we moved up here but they were back ordered so we just got them today. Mack and I have been sharing a chair from Ikea that is at the bottom of the picture. We would take turns sitting on the chair and sitting on the floor. You might be asking yourself why we didn't just use the furniture my sister lent us until we got our own...the answer is that we didn't want to bring it up here and then have to haul it back to Draper when we got our own stuff. (I've been reminding myself of our reasoning often).

Anywho, today was like Christmas for us. We got our couches and they are comfy and make our new place feel complete finally. All we need now are friends to come over and sit on them.

Photo Frenzy

My sisters and I just started a new website-venture together. It is called Photo Frenzy, isn't that such a good name? I like it a lot (I came up with it). Anyway, back to the website, it is dedicated to photography and artsy stuff. Each week we have a different theme and each day of the week one of us will post a picture. We're also going to have guest artists and other cool things as it develops.

This is the first week and we are introducing ourselves with self portraits. The website is ourphotofrenzy.com. When my sisters came to me with this idea I was a little scared because I am not a photographer by any standards, but that's kind of the point of this adventure. My sisters and I are all using different cameras and have different levels of photography experience.

I've posted my self portrait today so I hope you go check it out.