Saturday, February 16, 2008

Back to Work

Well, Lyn and I have come back from a really fun break. We went on a cruise from Galveston down to the Caribbean with her mom, dad and aunt and uncle. I have to be honest I was pretty resistant to the cruise idea but I had a great time. Mostly because the cruise gave us a lot of time to catch up with our family. The cruise was on Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas and the ship was a marvel of engineering that I just couldn't get over. The service on the ship was amazing and we befriended some of the staff on the ship and it was fun to get to know them as well. They are very hard working and we really appreciated them. Pictures are in the slide show below.
Coming back to Del Rio was another story. It's hard because although the military gives 30 days of leave per year, it's very misleading in that you have to include every weekend that you're gone. So unless you want to take your vacations from Tuesday to Thursday you really get just a hair over 2 weeks per year. As for me this was my first time getting leave since April of 2007. It's hard coming back to the realization that another break likely won't happen for nearly a year. Because of the weather right now it's also hard to do those things that make it bearable here for me like riding my bike, paddleboarding etc. It's constantly very cold and 20 mph winds every day from about Dec to April. But we get to be more creative on the other hand as Lyn is taking guitar lessons and dance lessons. I usually have my face buried into some journal and so the learning is pretty high yeild and I love getting to take evidence and apply it to my practice. It's so much more interesting that way. My relationship with my patients and my joy for my work I feel continues to grow. It's nice having about two years before I have to reapply for anything or think about moving so I can really focus on becoming a better doctor and Lyn and I can continue to persue ministry.
I've decided to try to train for a triathlon and I think Lyn is going to do it with me. One thing about Texas is that there are multiple tri's, bike races and adventure races almost every weekend throughout the year. I'm going to do a 6 week plan to do an olympic distance tri. We'll see what happens. I'm pretty bad and staying committed to things like that and every time I start running distance my left knee starts bothering me. I love riding my bike though so even if I never make it to a tri I'll be a little faster in the cycling events throughout the year. There's not much out here besides long country roads so I might as well take advantage of that.
I want to throw out my congratulations to my friend Jack and his wife Anita who are going to be having their first baby soon. Amy and Steve who are now engaged and Chad and Ronda who will also be having a baby soon!
The last thing I will mention is how wonderful my wife is! My wifes character is all that is described in Proverbs 31:10-31 and then some. I wake up blessed because of her and no day I have spent with her would I consider wasted. Wisdom...when the Holy Spirit puts something on her heart, you can take it to the bank!
Have a good week.