196.5 down 2.4 How do you like my weight today? I kind of blew Brandon out of the water but I didn't really play fair. First of all, Brandon did reach his goal weight just a couple of weeks after Christmas so "technically" that was before Ben's wedding but we both know that we were going to do the big "weigh in" at the wedding. Brandon, of course, lost all of his weight while he was a poor starving student but since he graduated he has been eating quite healthy like. And then, once he arrived in San Diego I can testify that he has been eating even more prodigiously.
I, on the other hand have been very careful. This morning I even cheated a bit more. Brandon had gotten up early with his baby and eaten breakfast, I get up and instead of eating breakfast I suggest we go on a three mile run. It sure is a lot more fun running when you have people with you. Kira, Brandon, Sarah and I all coerced Serene into running with us. It was a lot of fun. Serene hasn't been running lately so she and Brandon dropped out after two miles but I can assure you that there is no way I could have run two miles without stopping if I hadn't been practicing. Way to go Serene. So after I got back from my run, I announce to the family that Brandon and I are going to have our weigh in. So I haven't eaten or drank anything since the day before plus I just sweat off another pound of water on my run and I weighed in at 196.5. Brandon has had breakfast plus he finished his run early so he has already drank some water and he weighed in at 175. His goal was 170. I don't have the numbers in front of me but I lost a total of 20 pounds since Christmas and Brandon lost less than ten. I met my goal and he didn't come close to his. I felt kind of bad though so I told him that I would give him until the wedding to lose more if he wanted. He weighed in later in the day at 170.3 so I gave it to him. After all, who wants to be dieting with all the stuff that was going on? The problem is that Brandon and I had a very different memory of what the bet was. I thought it was who ever lost the most won unless you reached your goal in which case you were excused from the bet. His understanding was that who ever lost the most but if you reached your goal you automatically win but we could both win. So I'm thinking nobody owes anybody anything but he's thinking that he owes me an In-n-Out hamburger and I owe him a steak dinner. How's that work? I conceded to his version but I have no idea when it will happen because every minute is planned out until he leaves. I finally got the lawns mowed today, Lisa wanted them done before I left town on Monday and then the first thing she asked me to do yesterday when I called her from the airport was to mow the lawns but today I did them. I generally cleaned up the back yard and then helped out inside as best as I could. I then headed to the temple for my regular Thursday night shift at 4:30. Except today was no regular shift. Sharley was going through the temple today for her first time. When someone goes through for the first time they have a team of two people with them from the moment they arrive until they leave. That has been my job for quite some time. Even though this isn't Ben's first time, because he's getting married right away he is assigned a team just like Sharley. Guess who was on Ben's team? That's right, me! What a cool experience, but it only gets better. The temples are built as a place where special ordinances take place. Some of the ordinances that can be done there are baptism, initiatory, the endowment and of course marriages. These ordinances can be performed for youself (like Sharley) or for our ancestors who died without having the ordinances performed. Well, Ben and Sharley are obviously already baptized so they didn't need that but Sharley needed her initiatory work done. While she was doing that on the womens side Ben and Brandon were doing initiatory work for deceased ancestors on the mens side and I got to perform the ordinance. It was quite special. Following that was the endowment. The endowment is performed as a group and is officiated by one person. In the group were all of Ben's family and all of Sharley's family. Because serious covenants are made in the endowment session non-members and younger members (like Alycia, Alex and Sarah) don't participate. Well, guess who the officiator for this session was? That's right, I begged and pleaded and the guy who coordinates the schedule let me officiate their session. I know it shouldn't really matter who the officiator is but I really wanted to do it and I'm really glad I was able to. It was a good evening all around. So take a look at that second picture, there is Lisa and I with the first three kids and their spouses. We were all in the temple and I'm so happy. I know pride is an evil thing but I can't help feeling just a bit of pride looking at that picture. Three down, three to go.
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