Jordan's letter

So, Jordan emailed me and asked that i share this with everyone.  I figured I could make everyone feel special and forward it to them individually, or post it on our blog.  Mom, I specifically was thinking of you - somehow, by posting Jordan's email on here almost makes him a part of this family again!

Enjoy, and all I'll send Jordan everyones email.

Jared

m:  jc_grimm@myldsmail.net

Subject:  Hi!

Date:  October 16, 2008 12:05:32 PM MDT

To:  jaredgrimmer@gmail.com, grimmerma@gmail.com

Dear Family,
Last Tuesday I had the eating experience of a lifetime:
My companion and I were on our bikes and we were going to go drop by a member's house for one reason or another. All of a sudden, in the distance, we heard this weird honking noise. My companion looked at me and said "GHETTO CORN!" I of course, had no idea what he was talking about. He then started grilling me; asking me from whence the noise came, and the hunt was on. We searched diligently for about ten minutes until we saw it; a little white car with a little Hispanic man handing out the aforementioned "ghetto corn". It costed $1.50 and this is what it was: corn on a stick, smothered in mayo, parmagean, butter and chili powder. They'd specifically told us in the MTC to avoid eating from street vendors, but we figured, since he kept things in a cooler and it was an unusually cold day, that it would be safe for us to eat. It was perhaps the most AWESOME $1.50 I've ever spent! I'll try and send pictures next week of the experience.
Other than that, the work is continuing; we have one of our investigators - this guy named Antonio - for baptism on November 15, and his son is going to start taking the lessons with us tomorrow! It seems like the majority of the people we teach actually "hunger and thirst after righteousness". This one lady, Tiffany, when we started teaching her, was just in the mindset of "oh, I'm Catholic, but I'm pretty open-minded about learn of other churches". At our last appointment, she was asking so many questions, we were providing satisfactory (and doctrinally-sound) answers and she's just eating up everything we've given her. This one is bound for baptism! I never really understood what they were saying in the MTC about how there were actual people being prepared to hear what I have to say until I got out here and experienced it for myself! I'm just blown away by it. Just yesterday, one of our investigators asked me if it was possible for him to be baptized again, even if he'd already been baptized in another church! My first thought to myself was "are you serious?!"
I'm learning a lot every day about what it's like to be a missionary. On our last P-day, we played ultimate frisbee...I made the mistake of trying to catch one with my face, and got a pretty big goose-egg on my right temple for a number of days. Thankfully, that's the worst injury I've sustained while I've been out here.
Yesterday was pretty crazy:
first, we forgot to set our alarm so we accidentally slept in until 7:00. When we finally got ready to go, we found, much to our chagrin, that our front-right tire was completely flat! So we looked for our spare, a jack and a tire-iron...we found only the spare. For the next two hours we searched for the other two (mainly the tire-iron, because the other missionaries in our building had a jack). We sadly had to cancel one of our teaching appointments, but after replacing the tire, and going to Pep Boys to get the other one fixed, we were back on track. Sometimes, I wondered why we had to many delays that day, but then I remembered 2 Nephi 2: 24 "all things are done in the wisdom of he who knoweth all things" so then I stopped worrying.
I just wanted to let everyone know that I love them and that I'm still alive. I still don't have everyone's email address yet, so Jared, if you wouldn't mind forwarding this to our brothers and sisters, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks for the prayers! I look forward to hearing from you and hope everything's well,
-Elder Jordan Grimmer

The exception

So far so good...with a little exception.  For the last two weeks I've gone pretty much processed sugar free.  This has been great - I'm eating more vegies and fruit, and pretty much no junk.  I will admit though, I splurged a little.  Last Friday I ditched out on my morning classes for opening day of hunting season. I figured after four years of school - I could skip at least a half day.  Well, just as I was planning on coming back  into town to go to some of my really important classes, we spotted some dear and I forgot all about school.  After hiking around through the desert for a few hours I built up quite an appetite, and since I was planning on coming in early, I hadn't packed a lunch.  As a result I ate a small slim jim and a snickers bar to tie me over.  The next day my buddy had bought some of those powder doughnuts with the raspberry filling.  I used the excuse i think dad's probably using right now while he's up in the Blues - I was hunting and ate two of them!  With only these two minor set backs, I've successfully avoiding  eating any of amanda's cookies, her mom's apple cobbler and everything else anyone's tried to tempt me with.  And no, i never got a deer, so I'll be going back out this weekend, hopefully without any exceptions!

Dill is not pickle juice

Well I know that I haven't posted yet but I've been meaning too! Right now I'm going to school with 15 credits and taking care of Ashlyn and Jared and the house and it gets a little busy sometimes:) I'm excited about this "Trimmer Grimmer" thing because it will definitely help me to work out more and cook better. 

This last week, I have discovered several things in the way of cooking. Firstly, I'm not very good at cooking healthy, and secondly, when a recipe calls for dill, they mean the seasoning, not pickle juice:) I was making a salad dressing that called for dill, so instead of asking Jared what that was, I assumed that they meant pickle juice, so I added it. Much to my astonishment, that's not what it was! haha, it was really nasty, and Jared made fun of me really bad for it. Later we found some dill seasoning in our cupboard.....how am I supposed to know what that is?;)

So some of my goals for this "wellness" program are:

1- Work out 3 times a week for 1 hour every time, focusing on the abdomen and leg strength

2- Support Jared in his silly notion to avoid eating sugar:)

3- Drink lots of water every day! Atleast 64 ounces

4- Loose 10 pounds & have flat ABS;) (no Aaron, not a flat a**) haha

5- Get more sleep

6- Run half a marathon

A couple of Ashlyn's goals include:

1- Making her double chin a triple chin

2- Making mom dress her in pants that fit her  

3- Eat baby food  and not sneeze on mom every time so that food plasters her

End of week #1

I found that Russ' original routine was too easy, so I doubled up the bowflex resistance training.  I kept the weight the same but just did 2 sets of 15 reps each.  I will check w/Russ to see if he wants me to change anything.  Jordan Lydia is here this weekend and she will be giving me some specific ab routines.  The 6kid mama midriff bulge is gettin' in the way.  Can't see my shoes when I look down!  Having everything set up in the gay-raj works out really nice.

For the treadmill routine, it's 30 minutes @ an increasing incline at a fast walk.  I'm not yet to the point where I can jog or anything, but it's coming.  I do break a sweat and I'll keep pushing myself here.

We go to Waimanalo the end of the month (for Halloween!), and one of the best workouts is just walking the sandy beach.  It always kills my calves for a few days so I want to be in enough shape for a no pain walk.  One of my goals is to learn how to surf.  Lotsa work ahead!

life after "24 and looking to score"

So, I'm sure you're wondering why I was so generous to allow you all a few weeks head start in the "trimmer grimmer" contest. The truth is that I've been secretly working out and not telling anyone;) Actually, rumor has it that my body-fat percentage is now lower than my actual age, which is encouraging.
I'm still working on the specifics of my goal, but so far I've come up with a few ideas, including this good saying:
"25 and looking alive...not like I just ate a small animal"
So I've posted this picture to inspire me to NEVER look like that again. But then again, this was the body I had when Jordan Lydia fell in love with me, so I suppose I had some sort of appeal....probably some pretty nice curves regardless of my gender.
While being a stone mason may not be the easiest job I have ever had, it does have its benefits. I've been toning up quite a bit and losing some weight too. Usually, I'm pretty exhausted when I get home, and working out is the last thing on my mind. I think that with Jordan Lydia doing her routine, will really help encourage me too. Thus far, these are my goals:

1. Don't eat like (or look like I ate) a pig
2. Do Yoga with my wife
3. Go to the gym with my wife
4. Keep being a stone mason (at least until the end of the contest)
5. Do 100 push ups a day (mainly because even though I have posted 5 goals, I feel one of them needs to be associated with an actual number)

My iTunes Gift Certificate

Thank you all for the awesome birthday gift. There are actually a bunch of albums I've been wanting to get, but hadn't been able to justify the cost in these "economic times." So THANK YOU!

Love ya all.

Chris

Getting Physical With the Coffee Table

Gunnar had an accident during his daily dance aerobic routine on Tuesday. Let this be a warning to all of us not to push our bodies beyond their capacity to perform . . . and to avoid exercise involving twirling with your eyes closed around sharp objects.


For more info on the gory details visit http://lospeterson.com

I only worked out once last week - but I'm counting the mad dash to ER as aerobics for one day. Chris is working out like a pro lately though. Everyday he's on the Eliptical followed by 'Perfect Pushups' and at least semi-perfect sit ups ;) And he's been skateboarding instead of cabing it to places lately too.



I'm really proud of him. He's already lost over 5 lbs!! Plus, and this is the kicker, today is his BIRTHDAY and he wouldn't even let me make him his favorite rainbow chip cake. I'm going to put candles in his salad I guess. Happy b-day babe!