This week has definitely been a blessing. I PR'ed on two of the lifts that I have been stagnant at for awhile, the Snatch and Overhead Squat. I also had a holiday and a snow day to enjoy with my family, and with those days comes new adventures from Jalah. Her fear of the tomato(tornado) warnings in the spring bring back memories of the cartoon 'Attack of the Killer Tomatoes' I watched as a kid. She constantly asks us if we remember when she was four even though it was only three weeks ago she celebrated her fifth birthday. I could write a book from the vantage point of her imagination and it would outsell any Harry Potter or Chronicles of Narnia. I will share with you a glimpse of some of these stories. I may only be a five dollar dad but she is definitely my Million Dollar Baby.
Ranked number three in my book is the most recent of our encounters. Yesterday morning I received a text from my boss that the office was closed due to snow and ice on the roads. I gently shook my wife awake and gave her the news. Then burrowed my head back into my pillow and let the Ambien continue its course. At seven AM we were greeted by the sound of Jalah's voice as she was running up and down the hallway. "I did it. I did it. I told you I could do it," she exclaimed. "What is it you did, J?" "I did the snow dance and made the snow come back. You've GOT to see this!" So Shan and I climbed out of bed and looked over her shoulder out the window. Sure enough there was snow covering the entire backyard, and the biggest smile ever on a little girl's face. Well when your daughter tells you she did a snow dance, the next item on the agenda is to have her demonstrate this spectacle. So she embarrassingly showed us a few moves and raced to her room to get her snow gear on. The story continues to this morning when she was looking out the window again and informed her mother that more snow had fallen. When interrogated as to whether or not she had danced more, she replied that she had only shown me a few moves and that's why only a little snow had fallen.
My second favorite comes from a book that we occasionally read at night called 'Chip and Cookie.' The book report synopsis of this story is this: A woman named Aunt Della runs out of chocolate chips to make cookies so she creates two magical cookies out of paper that come to life and travel to the palace of Sultan Semi Sweet to get more chocolate chips, meeting many other characters on the way. The problem is this. We read this book EVERY night when she first got it. So I started changing things up a bit. In the most southern black woman's voice I could muster, I retold the story of Chip and Cookie (who became Chip and Dip) and made up every word in the book. During 'Jalah' week at school, J informed the class that Chip and Dip is her favorite book and promised the class that I will come in and read it to them. I've already come up with 37 excuses as to why I cant come in and shock her private Catholic school teacher with my Aunt Jamima impressions.
And the grand prize story goes to the Five Dollar Daddy. During a conversation with her one night she was talking about her life 'before she had a dad,' which prompted us to probe her further. What took place next could not be described in words. Fortunately I captured it on my Flip.
This week I PR'ed on two lifts: Overhead Squat (285) and Snatch (225).
My Max effort Snatch
My Max Effort OH Squat
My Max
