Life As We Know IT
This blog is designed to discuss ideas between the Shirley Family and friends. Ideas dealing with all aspects of Life are welcome.
Friday, April 06, 2007
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
And he's off
Well, thought you all might like to know that Kaleb took his first official "crawls" this weekend! Sure, he's been doing the army man crawl for a while and can get places amazingly quickly that way, but we were excited to see the effort made towards switching to the real thing:-)!
In other news, we went down to the river last night as it was a balmy 70 degrees around 7pm, and John caught 2 good sized catfish...let the fishing season begin!
In other news, we went down to the river last night as it was a balmy 70 degrees around 7pm, and John caught 2 good sized catfish...let the fishing season begin!
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Checking off the sights


Well, this past week or so, John and I have made an effort to get out into Downtown D.C. We have a checklist of things we want to get to while we are in the area. Our first stop on Thursday was to watch the National Symphony orchestra play in the Kennedy Center. AMAZING. Both John and I had never heard an orchestra play so well (even the ones I have been in I am sad to admit!). We were especially impressed with how quiet an entire string section could get and also how many instruments the percussionists could play at one time. On Saturday, we ventured downtown (along with everyone else it seemed as parking was hard to find) to go to the National Geographic museum. I had heard it was like the natural history museum, only smaller. Wrong. If you have elementary age kids it's fun, otherwise, skip this one. We went to the National Cathedral after this and definitely recomend this one. It is beautiful and reminds of us the European cathedrals. The coolest parts I think are the windows...one which is dedicated to space exploration and actually has a moon rock in it. On Sunday, John was in the D.C. St. Patty's day parade. His captain complimented him on how well he did. On Monday, he took half a day off because he had to work on Sunday, and we went to the Eastern wing of the National Art gallery. This is the modern section. One of the main collections was by Jasper Johns. I can enjoy this section, but John prefers the Western gallery which holds much older pieces. Definitely worth the time to see as well. That's it from this edition of the Shirley guide to D.C.!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Eastern Europe 2007
Hello Everyone--I just wanted to let you know that our trip was a blast. We went all over the place. I sent some pictures to Steve, so we should have a little filmstrip of pictures to go with this post. The places that we traveled include: Venice, Italy; Lubijana & Bled, Slovenia; Budapest, Hungary; Bratslavia, Slovakia; and Vienna, Austria. I enjoyed most of the places, but I definately liked the horseback ride through the mountains in Bled. I also enjoyed the Balet in Bratslavia. I have now made it to 32 countries. When I returned, Mom and I went to North and South Carolina for Presidents Day Weekend. We went to a couple of movies and played two minature golf courses. Then, we spent some time a place called South of the Border in South Carolina. We went up into a 200 ft tall Sombrero. That trips makes 47 states that I've explored. I hope you like the pics. Talk to you all later. Love, John
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Engaged!

Well as all of you know, I proposed to Delia on Saturday and she accepted. We are officially engaged to be married. Not sure when or how, etc yet. We will let you know. Here we are kissing in the new year of 2007 on a patio of a San Francisco apartment while the fireworks were going off. It was a great gathering of friends. Delia will be here in Newport until Thursday which is nice. Ole' Steve is finally gettin' married. We are very excited!
Sunday, February 11, 2007
GNC...GN-who?
For all you GNC lovers out there, I've got a newsflash for you: Yesterday's news. GNC is the supplement and vitamins store you see at malls. John has one at the base store in DC. I used to go there in college, etc., to get some supplements, whey protein and other. However, it MUST be yesterday's news for me and all of you too. You can get the same stuff for literally half the price at Bodybuilding.com. I recently bought about 70$ worth of stuff that normally would have cost about 150$ if I would have went to GNC. Plus, when you order from this sight, it also arrives at your house in about two days. Pretty cool if you ask me. Enjoy!
I'm back!
So Kaleb broke the silence. Great job Kaleb. I am really not sure if anyone wants to check this out from time to time or not. But if you do...I will be here.
I have been pretty busy lately. I found some space today to finally clean up my office and get it set up the way I want. Basically, my roommate Sean was always unplugging the internet connection from my computer to his and it took a long time for me to either switch back or just use his (which probably took even longer to get going!). Time is money.
I have basically been studying and lifting weights and that is it for the past month. "Work hard..uh...I forget the rest." I have been to busy to worry about the rest of that statement. I have been making good grades and getting ripped. I have only been lifting for about a month and I can already see the difference.
Eating is the biggest challenge of bodybuilding. I didn't expect to have to eat so much. Chicken breasts, brown rice, tuna, salmon, steak, potatoes, spaghetti...rotate...Oh and 5-8 eggs in the morning. Oatmeal, wheat bread, tons of fruit, veggies, sandwiches with as much meat as you can pile on. I bring a backpack of food to school so I can eat all day. Sundays involve about 3hrs of cooking and 1hr to shop. Part of it.
I am 203 lbs and 22% body fat. I was about 192 lbs and 25% body fat when I started. I literally am about one month into it though. I think this months goal is to be 208 lbs and around 19% body fat. That will only be about two months though. This is a 6 month long program! That is the fun part! Baby steps. My six month goal is to be just over 210lbs with around 10-13% body fat. We will see.
I better get back to my Sunday chores. I will be re-arranging the blog again. Maybe get my ugly marathon mug off there. I am going to try to get some more recent photos on there. Don't forget to check out the new voting poll. It's coming ya'll...really... it's already happening.
In the great words of lil' bro: "peace out!"
I have been pretty busy lately. I found some space today to finally clean up my office and get it set up the way I want. Basically, my roommate Sean was always unplugging the internet connection from my computer to his and it took a long time for me to either switch back or just use his (which probably took even longer to get going!). Time is money.
I have basically been studying and lifting weights and that is it for the past month. "Work hard..uh...I forget the rest." I have been to busy to worry about the rest of that statement. I have been making good grades and getting ripped. I have only been lifting for about a month and I can already see the difference.
Eating is the biggest challenge of bodybuilding. I didn't expect to have to eat so much. Chicken breasts, brown rice, tuna, salmon, steak, potatoes, spaghetti...rotate...Oh and 5-8 eggs in the morning. Oatmeal, wheat bread, tons of fruit, veggies, sandwiches with as much meat as you can pile on. I bring a backpack of food to school so I can eat all day. Sundays involve about 3hrs of cooking and 1hr to shop. Part of it.
I am 203 lbs and 22% body fat. I was about 192 lbs and 25% body fat when I started. I literally am about one month into it though. I think this months goal is to be 208 lbs and around 19% body fat. That will only be about two months though. This is a 6 month long program! That is the fun part! Baby steps. My six month goal is to be just over 210lbs with around 10-13% body fat. We will see.
I better get back to my Sunday chores. I will be re-arranging the blog again. Maybe get my ugly marathon mug off there. I am going to try to get some more recent photos on there. Don't forget to check out the new voting poll. It's coming ya'll...really... it's already happening.
In the great words of lil' bro: "peace out!"
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Kaleb

Hello:
I am 8 months old (well, really only 7 months, but my 8 mo. birthday is coming up soon). I like to chew on anything I can grab. I am especially good at taking off my own sock and eating it. I can sit up on my own (well, until I fall down or mom and dad catch me). I have recently started eating rice cereal and just learned how to hold my hold bottle. Am interested in happy, fun, girls who would like to roll around on the floor and won't take my pacifier.





