Justin Pickering

Friends from the States

2012-01-30T11:02:00.002-06:00

This weekend, a friend from the chaplain's basic course came by for the weekend. Tim was a great support for Emily while I was deployed, and she was excited to finally meet him and his wife, Kim.

As you see from the picture, we finally went to actually see Mannequn Pis. It's the small statue of a little boy peeing in a fountain. It's a well-known landmark in Brussels. We'd been within 2 blocks of it, and never actually found it. You can see it's not exactly a large statue.

We never could get Isaac to call Kim anything other than "Mrs Amanda." I have a friend here that he calls "Mr Tim." His assumption seems to be that anyone named "Mr Tim" must be married to a "Mrs Amanda."

However, Isaac did ask for "Mr Tim" on the way to and from school this morning. He was not happy to be told that Mr Tim and Mrs Kim were in Brugge.

35 and counting

2012-01-24T13:24:00.003-06:00

Emily and Isaac debating how to properly
spell "Happy Birthday." I won't tell you
who had the correct spelling.

OK, I'm not actually 35. I turned 34 a few days ago. It just irritates my lovely wife when I tell people I'm a year older than I actually am. It's not something I do on purpose, but I do it a lot for whatever reason. My chaplain's assistant just says I can't remember numbers. In a year and a half, I've never learned my own cell phone number and she always has to give it to people when I can't recall it. That's why God invented business cards. Really, it's been a fairly quiet week. The kids are settling back into a routine after the holidays. Claire is walking more, which means occasionally taking a few steps. Isaac is just a little more of Isaac. I'm still not sure what it means, but seems to explain him.

Poor Timing

2012-01-15T07:34:00.000-06:00

OK, so I finished preaching at the chapel service this morning. I spoke from Ephesians 2 and used an extended illustration of a ship sinking, stranding its passengers in the middle of the ocean. The illustration ran throughout the entire sermon so it's not one anyone could possibly have missed. (It's one I've preached before).

I'm walked down the hall when a couple stops me. They ask if I've watched the news over the last couple of days. I told them I had not. There was a massive cruise ship that sank off the coast of Italy this week. They were giving me a heads up in case someone else said anything. (They also got a laugh at my expression).

Oh well...nothing I can do about it now.

My biggest problem living in Europe

2012-01-07T12:02:00.003-06:00

This morning marked the first college bowl game that I cared enough about to watch it live. For those of you trying to do the quick math, we're 7 hours ahead of central time in the States. That means, the 7 PM kickoff of the Cotton Bowl on Friday night was 2 am on Saturday morning for me. This is one of my biggest frustrations with living in Europe. (This actually bothers me more than my inability to speak any language other than English).

One of the officers from the battalion arrived at the house at 2:05, and we watched Arkansas and Kansas State. I had several realizations about college bowl games in the process.

1. They add far more commercial breaks during bowl games. The game didn't end until around 6 am. That's four hours. That's way too long.

2. A month break between the last game and the bowl game is too long of a break. Neither team looked sharp. Poor quality football from a good team is annoying when you are wide awake, but infuriates you if you have only had two hours of sleep.

Unfortunately, I will probably repeat this ritual for bowl games all week. I'll repeat the ritual again when the Super Bowl rolls around.

The Holidays Wind Down

2012-01-01T13:20:00.001-06:00

I remember as a kid, the week after Christmas was always a massive let down. I had the new toys, but the anticipation of Christmas was gone. In the back of my mind, I knew school would be back the next week. The decorations came down, and everything just kind of felt anticlimactic. (I wasn't exactly an optimist even as a kid).

This year, the holidays were completely different. The last 4-5 days may have been my favorite all year. We've sat at home and played with the kids. My interaction with anyone outside of my immediate family has been limited. Basically, we've relaxed. The week before Christmas was busy with preparations for our Christmas party as well as the Christmas Eve Service. This week, we've caught up around the house, but done so without feeling like we were working on our "days off." I've kind of accepted some of the frustrations with work that I realize are outside of my power to change, and I've still got one more day to enjoy.

Happy New Year.

Christmas Morning

2011-12-25T08:18:00.003-06:00

Things are finally quiet this afternoon. The day started around 0630. Em and I got up to get dressed, make coffee and have breakfast (made it much easier to make it to church by 1030). We'd scheduled with both sets of grandparents that we would get the kids up at 0700. They got to watch Isaac and Claire open their Christmas presents. In the picture, you can actually see my parents watching on one of the computers. I'm not sure how much either set of grandparents actually saw between the kids running back and forth out of the camera's range. It was midnight their time when we got started, so they got very little sleep last night.

Claire obviously enjoyed her rocking horse. She also enjoyed Isaac's race track. Isaac was amazed (and perhaps irritated) that Santa ate all of the cookies he'd put out. Claire actually licked the plate to make sure there were no crumbs left behind.

OK, time to get in a nap before the kids get up.

A Christmas Date on Steroids

2011-12-18T14:15:00.001-06:00

Emily in front of the Christmas Tree
in Trafalgar Square.

Emily and I have had a tradition for several years. Sometime around Christmas, we go on a very nice, overly elaborate date. (I gave her tickets to the Nutcracker Ballet our first Christmas as a married couple, and the tradition stuck). Basically, she wants a date the requires her to put a dress on and me to put on at least a sport coat. This whole production gets me a pass on Valentine's Day. Instead of fighting crowds of people waiting to get into any restaurant worth eating, we stay home.

This year, we moved the "Christmas Date" up a notch to a weekend away. We left the kids in Belgium and the two of us spent the last couple of days in London. We went to museums, looked at the Crown Jewels, looked at the most ornate graves we've every seen (also known as Westminster Abbey), and ate more varieties of cornish pasty than I care to recall. The"dress up" date was going to see Les Miserables in the West End. Em says this was more than one notch up from the normal. For once, Emily listed a visit to a church (Westminster) as her favorite part. The Rosetta Stone may have been a close second. (She didn't realize it was in the British Museum until we walked up on it and I pointed it out).

Bastogne Staf Ride

2011-12-04T07:47:00.001-06:00

The officers and senior NCOs from my battalion took a staff ride/senior leader devlopment trip to Bastogne. We visited a lot of the battle sites surrounding the Battle of Bastogne.

The picture you see to the left is one of the foxholes left from where Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment was dug in during the seige. You may remember that this is the company that "Band of Brothers" was written about. The German line was within 100 yards. You can still see the foxholes from each side. Great experience all the way around. The curator for the 101st Airborne Museum in Bastogne served as our tour guide. He's also the commandant for the Belgian Army Barracks in Bastogne. The installation is closed as an army unit (2010), but there are a few soldiers left because they have restored the parts that served as the HQ for 101st during the seige. We stayed in their barracks. Overall, a great experience.

Decorating for Christmas (Almost)

2011-11-26T13:03:00.001-06:00

The Christmas season has officially started (at least it feels that way now). We had a great crowed for Thanksgiving Thursday night. Emily had to work that morning (thanks, NATO assignment), so we set most of the house up Wednesday night. Everyone brought food (we only cooked a couple of things). Everyone helped clean up afterwards. I'm not even sure Emily washed a dish (I know I didn't).

Friday, we went to Cologne, Germany to their Christmas Markets. The Cologne Cathedral is breathtaking. Emily says it's the prettiest church she's seen in Europe. The city itself is where I think I would want to live if I lived in Germany. (Unfortunately, there's not an army installation there).

Today, I lost the annual argument about how large of a tree we should buy. I think the top of the tree should be within an inch of the ceiling (give or take). Emily just looks for what trees are available. I guess I should stop complaining, it took three tries before we found a place that had live trees. Apparently, Belgians don't decorate until the first weekend of December.

Isaac is currently fixated on the Polar Express. Claire is literally jumping up and down in Emily's lap. (She seems to like ginger bread men). The tree is up. Most of the decorations are done. (We still need a couple of wreaths and some poinsettas). Isaac enjoyed putting frosting on the ginger bread men. Actually, he enjoyed squeezing frosting directly into his mouth. Emily made fun of my lack of talent for decorating cookies.

Villers Abbey

2011-11-11T14:28:00.001-06:00

I decided to forgo the Veteran's Day / Remembrance Day (for any Europeans checking in) events this year for a day alone. Emily kept the kids, and I spent most of today at Villers Abbey. It's the ruins of a Cistercian Abbey located about 40 minutes from our house. I wanted to take a few pictures, wander around in the countryside, and spend some time in prayer.

The Abbey is amazing. I spent 2.5 hours wandering through the rooms where these men worshipped, ate, and worked. Anytime I am at any type of ruins, I wonder about the lives of the people who lived there. Today was no different, except for the realization that the monks spent almost all of their time in silence. The designated readers obviously performed the scripture readings. There were certain meetings where they discussed community issues. However, most could go days without uttering a word. I understand the danger too much introspection can have. I do think we might benefit if we periodically took some extended time to observe, process, and understand the world we live in and the God we worship.

Otherwise, the photography was great fun. I want to go back when the leaves are on the trees and when there's snow on the ground to take more pictures. I do wish I'd had more time to wander the trails that run around the area. Since it's so close, I now know where to get in a day-hike.

Matt Lauer is a Jerk

2011-11-08T13:04:00.001-06:00

First of all, Emily wants me to voice her strong opposition to the title of this post. Especially since I have never met Matt Lauer and haven't seen an episode of the Today Show in a couple of years. That is now accomplished.
Last week, we noticed a couple of NBC cameras in Plaza Mayor (Madrid). Emily announced that the Today Show is doing the "Where in the World is Matt Lauer?" She thought he might be in Madrid. Being the compassionate and sensitive husband I am, I ridiculed the idea. This morning, she saw the episode where Matt Lauer is in Madrid at Plaza Mayor and the Royal Palace. Being the compassionate and forgiving she is, Emily is making fun of me.

The palace was closed twice when we tried to go visit. Now I know why. Now you know why I entitled this post "Matt Lauer is a jerk."

Madrid

2011-11-04T14:35:00.000-05:00

For years, we laughed when my Father would fall asleep at the
table after finishing a meal. Apparently, the problem is
genetic.

I had leave this week, and we went to visit Madrid, Spain. It's a great place to visit with a family. We rented an apartment a block from the Prada Museum. Each morning, we had breakfast at the apartment before moving out for the day. We were staying close enough to walk throughout the city center to see the Palace Real, Plaza Mayor, and the Prada Museum. It's not exactly like Rome where there are so many things to see that you are constantly on the move. That kind of makes it nice with small kids. We could go back to the apartment for a siesta (and did a couple of days). We could walk at Isaac's pace. Emily loved the shopping. I enjoyed watching the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace. You don't see a guard detail with mounted cavalry, infantry, and a canon very often. For the first time in several years, we only visited one church on a trip.

We did notice that the city of Madrid puts a lot of effort into keeping the streets clean. It was one of the first things we noticed when we got out of the taxi. We had rain a couple of days, which gave Isaac the opportunity to sprint ahead and jump into puddles. Claire took a step without holding onto anything in the apartment. We're counting it as her first step even though I didn't see it.

Pumpkin Carving Party

2011-10-28T14:41:00.003-05:00

Tonight was our FRG (Family Readiness Group) Pumpkin Carving Party. We filled the chapel's fellowship hall to just about its limit. When I stuck the knife into the pumpkin to remove the guts, Isaac looked up and said, "I didn't know you were going to kill it!" I'll send an autographed picture to whoever correctly identifies what movie he was quoting.

Claire probably enjoyed the event more as she tried a lot of new food that she decided she liked far more than what she gets at home. She's exhausted in the picture to the left.

Otherwise, this has been a pretty easy week. We had the 5th SIG commander in town for a couple of days. I had the 5th SIG chaplain in town for a couple of days, which was actually enjoyable. I normally avoid most other chaplains, but it was a lot of fun having him and SFC Ebron here. They went with us to watch the playoffs for our flag football team. CH Engle observed the problem I have when I can't actually be on the field. He didn't mean it in a bad way (I hope). I sprained a knee and ankle during last weeks game, so I spent this one on the sideline yelling at the defense instead of actually talking to the guests. Thankfully, Emily is a far better hostess.

Emily's First Half Marathon

2011-10-22T08:54:00.003-05:00

Today, Emily ran the SHAPE Half Marathon. For all of her talk about not being ready and not having been able to get in her last few long runs, she did amazingly well (2:04:52). I think she could have broken two hours if she'd come out a little harder. She actually caught a friend and I off guard. We'd watched the start then moved to his front yard to watch them pass at 3km and 18km. Emily hit the 18k point several minutes ahead of when I expected. She covered the last 2-3 miles fast enough that we almost didn't make it to the finish line before she did. (We drove Tim's truck).

Watching races is far more fun than I expected. Isaac, Tim, and I sat in his front yard with a camera, chicken wings, and french fries. Next time, I'm going to set a grill up.

Roman Soldier and Sermon Critique

2011-10-17T11:39:00.001-05:00

It took him a week, but Isaac finally let me put the breastplate on him with his Roman soldier outfit. He tried putting the helmet on as well, but his head is too large. Emily doesn't like this particular gift. Isaac was swinging the sword as she walked around the corner a few days ago and he hit her toe.

As far as work has been, today was interesting. I have a couple in the congregation that I meet with after I preach in chapel. They provide me feedback and suggestions on how I need to communicate better in the pulpt. I'm not sure what it says about me that I crave criticism so much. Emily says it is abnormal.

The rest of the day was in an Officer Professional Development that I hope to never use. I was falling asleep when the guy teaching the class thought the chaplain's perspective would be interesting. I still have no idea what he asked. I talked for a couple of minutes and spent the rest of the training praying he would fall down the stairs when he left the building (kidding...sort of).

Claire's Birthday

2011-10-16T14:09:00.002-05:00

This evening was Claire's first birthday party. I had never really put much thought into first birthdays until this one. I was in Iraq when Isaac's came up, so I'm not sure I actually remember ever going to anyone's first birthday. I'd always assumed they were actually for the child. That assumption turns out to be quite wrong.

The first birthday is entirely for the parents. Presents are mainly something at which a baby stares with no real interest. The three year old brother, however, must be threatened with all sorts of creative punishments to keep him from attacking the gifts the one year old has no interest in touching. People are at the house, who are friends with the parents, and who enjoy seeing the one year old. Claire just wants to be held, preferably by Daddy (I don't understand it either). I was briefly afraid Emily would choke Claire by shoveling cake at the poor child. In typical fashion, I never let my concern interupt the click of my camera (They should be posted tonight).

Having said all of that, Emily and I did enjoy having a number of our friends present to celebrate Claire's birthday with us. Emily had a large gathering of our family for Isaac's first birthday, and it wouldn't have felt right without the friends who gathered with us today.

Pictures as Promised

2011-10-11T13:43:00.000-05:00

The pictures from Rome are online (or at least they're uploading). Today was a decent first day back to work. I'm still struggling to finish part of my sermon for Sunday, which is a little frustrating. I had all but one section complete two weeks ago. It's my biggest problem when I'm working several weeks ahead. I just can't finish the last bit.

Back to Work

2011-10-10T12:29:00.001-05:00

It's been a very long week. I'm still trying to process through everything I saw at Rome last week. There's really nothing on my list that I didn't get to do. I take that back. I didn't see the inside of St Peter's. We arrived to see it, and they'd closed it b/c the Pope had a public audience. Instead, I saw the Pope. I didn't stick around for the blessing he was giving out. (Protestant kicked in I suppose) Overall, I saw and learned far more than I would have with almost any other guide. The picture is Chris Broddle and myself in front of the Spanish steps. Chris organized and led this trip. He's the British padre at SHAPE. His knowledge of Rome was astounding. I had to include a picture with him b/c he made such an issue of being in pictures.

On the more personal side, the week was a great opportunity to get a couple of hours alone each day. It's been a while since I've had so many days in a row with that opportunity. It's a huge opportunity to spiritually catch my breath.

Since I know my Mother really only checks this for stories and pictures of my children, I'll mention bringing Isaac's gift home. I'd bought a horribly cheap and tacky Roman soldier outfit for him. It had a breastplate (Neither of us could figure out how to get it on him for several days), sword, shield, and helmet. He's currently trying to stab Emily with the sword. He insisted we sword fight each day I've been back. He uses the cheap sword and gives me the nice, carved, wooden sword I also brought him.

I should get a few picture posted in the next few days. I'm still sorting through them.

A Little Time Off

2011-10-01T07:08:00.000-05:00

I just realized something. This week is the first time I've taken leave without Emily being on vacation with me since I became a chaplain. I'm hoping to get a little bit of solitude at some point. Part of the week will be spent in Rome, with a group of British chaplains. We're actually getting to stay in the Vatican. I couldn't really pass on that opportunity when it was offered. I'm hoping that during the evenings, I'll have a chance to read and pray some. Uninterupted time alone is becoming pretty rare. It's actually been a while since I've reached the point of needed a break this bad. Deployment actually allowed me more of an opportunity to withdraw for time alone with God. Part of that is probably that we now have two kids and a house that is much smaller than what we had in Texas. Part of it is just this particular season of ministry.

Since I know most of the people who read this are far more interested in the kids than they are in my rambling, I'll give you the outline of what's going on with them.

Isaac and I are watching "Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin" for the 12th time this week.
Claire's hair is now getting long enough to put a bow on her head without using a headband. (Yes, she's about to turn 1 and her hair is just now that long).
Isaac's French has now passed mine. He knows more than 5 words. (No one is surprised that this has only taken a month).

Otherwise, things are still pretty routine. I'll try to put some pictures from September in my web albums this afternoon.

Every Child Needs a Dog

2011-09-29T12:02:00.003-05:00

My biggest complaint with coming to Belgium is still probably that I had to give away Ox, my weimereiner. Every little boy should grow up playing with a dog. This past weekend, we kept Charlie for some friends. Claire thought he was great. Charlie handled her much better than Isaac. He would get excited and jump up and down as he moved toward Charlie. The dog backed away, unsure what to think of Isaac. I have nothing worth putting online, but I did think this picture was pretty good.

Getting Isaac (or me) a dog will be the first priority when we do eventually get moved back to the States...maybe before we find a house.

This week, I have thought a good bit about a comment I heard a few weeks ago. A senior chaplain made a comment about the chaplain corp "eating it's own." Just watching how chaplains and chaplain assistants function, I think the statement is more and more accurate.

Seeing Old Friends Again

2011-09-19T13:54:00.000-05:00

Last week, I had to attend Chaplaincy Annual Sustainment Training in Garmisch, Germany. As with most army training of this nature, the actual training was less than exciting. There were a couple of bright points. A couple of friends I went through the Chaplain's basic course with were there. Brian (left side) managed to get a coin from the Chief of Chaplains for his karyoke rendition of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." That song takes on a whole new deminsion when an Orthodox priest is calling for the crowd to stand up and dance with him.

Our Small Group Leader from the basic course also was at the training. He's now on a garrison chaplain's staff in Germany. I've not met another senior chaplain for whom I have half as much respect. He's very much the epitome of what a chaplain should be. Dinner with these guys was the highlight of the week.

Isaac's birthday was this weekend, which was funny. Emily said he was horrified this morning when he came into the living room and his slide was gone. Apparently he sat in the middle of the rug and cried until Emily realized what he was looking for and told him it was in the play room.

Pictures.

2011-09-09T09:48:00.000-05:00

I'm posting now b/c I doubt I'll have a chance for a week or so. Most people who will see this post quickly are probably looking for pictures. The stuff from the awards/promotion ceremony is at the link on the right of this page. I'm only going to leave them online for about a week, as I'm running out of space in my album.

Otherwise, this weekend should be a lot of fun. SHAPE Fest is this weekend, which is just the large festival that the entire community at SHAPE participates in. I get to sit in the dunk tank at some point tomorrow in weather entirely too cold for dunk tanks. Sunday, we have a 9.11 K run on Sunday morning and a memorial service for 9/11 that evening at the chapel.

Next week is what I've been dreading for months...CAST-E. This is a week of mandatory training for chaplains. I have actually prayed that funding would fall through the budget problems this year (seriously). My attitude is in serious need of help. This will be 4 days of information overload on things that will change or be irrelevent in a matter of three months. The only redeeming part of this conference is that it takes place in Garmisch, Germany. That means I'll wake up to a view of the Alps each morning. Hopefully, I'll be able to get a little hiking in at some point.

Isaac's First Day of School

2011-08-29T14:35:00.000-05:00

Today was Isaac's first day of kindergarden. We've put him in the Belgian school here, so they start kindergarden at 3 instead of 5. This is him getting his backpack and lunch bag before we left. He insisted that he carry both without help from me. I did manage not to tear up until I dropped him off and got back to my car. Emily had to be in her classroom, though a friend did stop by to give her a hug (thanks Sarah).

It's been a while since I posted. That's mostly because I try to avoid using this particular venue for venting. Em and I are trying to sort through where God is leading us in the future (in the area of ministry), and that has really kept me preocuppied lately.

Claire is well. She's getting fast with crawling and can sort of climb steps at this point. She stands and moves while holding on to furniture, but she's still a few weeks from attempting her first "real" steps.

Emily is enjoying being back in a classroom. She's really enjoying the fact that it's a half-day kindergarden so she gets to go running in the afternoon before she goes to get Claire from daycare. She's planning to try her first half marathon in October. Give me another 7 years and I'll have her in a full marathon.

Update

2011-07-29T14:03:00.000-05:00

A friend emailed to point out that the blog has been a bit boring as of late. (Thanks Cole, you're still a jerk). I'm not sure why. I suppose not a lot has really happened this month that I think other people would find interesting. Claire has sprouted another tooth. She's also crawling. I suppose it's crawling. For those in the army, it's actually just a low crawl. Emily insists she is developing a bit of a attitude. I insist Emily is wrong about my little girl. This coming week is VBS at SHAPE, which should keep things busy. I have no real responsibility other than providing a devotional thought for the leaders each morning, but I'm supposedly providing oversight. Our VBS director is amazing, so I've really done nothing.

On Wednesday, I went to a prayer service for those killed recently in Norway. It was a moving service to me. I always enjoy hearing the Norwegian chaplain speak. We disagree on a lot of our theology, but it's always a well thought out and insightful sermon. His thoughts on how we respond to this type of brutality were as well crafted as I would have expected. (Sorry, it's something of an occupational hazard that you grade memorial services in military ministry).

We're trying to get Isaac ready for school next month. He's going to start in the Belgian kindergarden on SHAPE. Em is excited about teaching again....we just have to work out childcare for Claire.

I couldn't be prouder

2011-07-19T15:04:00.000-05:00

This afternoon, we got a package from my parents. As I'm sure you can guess, they updated Claire's wardrobe for football season. She'd been fussy. Emily changed her into her outfit, and you can see the response. I couldn't be more excited that she's already responding to red and blue. Isaac is learning Hoddy Toddy (an editted version). Basically, I'm getting the kids ready for college football season.

If you look, you can see the two teeth Claire has managed to sprout. If you get your hand close enough, you can feel them quite well.

Routine

2011-07-13T13:41:00.000-05:00

Lately, the only things that are happening out of the normal routine revolve around Isaac's astounding creativity in finding new ways to create problems (microwaving metal lids, spraying inside kitchen cabinets with windex, and discovering how to disable the deadbolt and child locks, et al) or the new skills Claire is picking up. Hers are much more pleasant to respond to than most of Isaac's new skills, so I'll update you on those. The picture you see is zoomed in a little too close to get the full impact. She had managed to slide/crawl/roll under her crib. It took Emily a few minutes to find her after hearing the first frustrated whine from the nursery. While she hasn't really perfected the crawl, she's definitely moving herself to where she wants to go. When she can't quite make it, she whines and I move her to whatever she wants. (I'm very much a pushover with her).

Otherwise, everything is basically moving along the same as always. I've probably missed the States more over the last 2-3 weeks. Actually, it's just the southeastern part of the States I've missed. I can't really pinpoint what it is. Partly, it's the weather. When you spend 33 years living with summers of 90+ degrees every day for 4-5 months and occasionally for another 2 months, it just doesn't feel right to have a summer with days the temperature doesn't reach 70. I would normally already be reading up for the start of college football season. This year, I'm not even sure who is competing at quarterback for Ole Miss. (This oversight is being remedied as we speak. My family has already mailed some of the preview magazines). Maybe after this assignment, I'll land back closer to home.

Small Steps

2011-06-30T11:44:00.001-05:00

There really has not been a lot to mention since my last post so I'll just give a few bullet points.

Emily will be teaching kindergarden for half days this fall.
Claire has her first tooth and has experienced her first bee sting. (Emily was more tramatized than Claire.)
Isaac has learned not to stick his finger into the blades of a fan. (He's fine.)
Isaac has developed a love for head banging to heavy metal music and early '90s alternative rock. We've done it before dinner every night this week.
I'm still not good in softball. (But I put the picture on here anyway)

Otherwise, nothing new is going on at work. The garrison I'm at is short two protestant chaplains, so I've gotten to preach more, which is always good. Everything is still a little disorganized with the short staffing of chaplains and assistants. Thankfully, that's only minimally my problem as I just kind of retreat back to taking care of my battalion.

Anyway, that's the rather uneventful last couple of weeks. There are some random pictures from the month and my battalion's organizational day events in my photo albums.

Another Round of Father's Day

2011-06-19T14:21:00.001-05:00

Many more Father's Days like today and I'll be in favor of striking the whole thing. We got up and moving early this morning to get my Mother-in-Law to the airport in Brussels. (Hope you had a safe flight, Shelia). I preached for the Brussel's garrison before getting back to Chievres to meet with a soldier. Basically, it was 1700 before I wound down for the day. At least I got to play with the kids tonight.

As a side note, Isaac reached a new low at dinner tonight. We're sitting and talking with the kids. He gets out of his chair and walks over to Claire. We assume he's going to offer her a toy or some food (which he's done recently). Instead, he takes her high chair and pushes it into the next room. He walks back to the table as though nothing has happened and gets back into his chair for a few more bites of enchiladas. As I said the week Claire was born, Isaac loves her when he gets attention for being a loving big brother. When she doesn't get him attention, she's a nuisance that must be overcome.

Proof that rednecks are everywhere

2011-06-11T14:13:00.000-05:00

Today, we went to SHAPE for the British Summer Fete. There's a game that I had been warned about, but still seems funny to actually play. It's "Wellie Wanging." Basically, you see who can throw a rubber boot the furtherest. I can easily imagine how many pints the two Brits that came up with this must have pitched back before creating this game. What is harder to imagine is how this became such a cultural event that the British contingent to SHAPE felt that it should be included in an event that shares part of their culture with the community. Isaac thought it was great fun. We fully expect to be hit in the face with one of his rubber boots one day next week when we walk into his room. I was briefly in the lead with 76 feet before it was ecclipsed.

On a somewhat related note, on Wednesday of this week my battalion had a German / American sports day with the German reps on SHAPE. Basically, they grilled brats. We beat them 43-6 in softball. They beat us like red-headed stepchildren in soccer, and we all went home. Great fun. My soccer skills have not improved since high school. My ability to crash into people and shove and elbow may have improved. Either way, I'm still bruised from that one.

Seven Years of Marriage

2011-05-30T10:43:00.001-05:00

Seven years ago, yesterday, Emily and I got married in Leoma, TN. In the last seven years, we've lived in five houses in three states and one foreign country. I've served in two churches and become a chaplain in the army. Emily finished her degree and has taught school in two places. (We're hoping she'll be able to make that three this fall). Somewhere in amongst that, we had two children. She's been remarkably patient and encouraging as I've bounced us around way more than I would have wanted. She raised Isaac alone for his first year while I was in Iraq. I knew seven years ago that I was marrying above my head. Now, I know exactly how far over my head I was marrying.

We spent this weekend in Venice to celebrate (one of the perks of being stationed in Europe is travel). Some friends kept the kids and we wandered up and down canals, museums, and random piazzos sipping espresso and eating gellato. The kids probably had as much fun playing with the Brown family this weekend. Isaac gave them a scare by getting distracted on the staircase and taking a face-first tumble. You can see the black-eye in a few of the pictures in my photo albums. As I was getting ready to take the picture to document his black eye, Emily reminded me that he'd had one in October after he tried to climb a ladder.

Concentration Camp and Charity Runs

2011-05-20T14:01:00.000-05:00

Today has been a fun day most of the way around. This morning, the senior leadership of the battalion had a staff ride to the Fort Breendonk concentration camp. This was a WWI era for the Belgian army used to help defend Antwerp. It was decommissioned before WWII. After the Nazi invation, it become a holding camp as Jewish prisoners and resistance workers were held before they were sent to extermination or work camps in Germany, Austria, or Poland. Amazing place to visit. It's remarkably well restored. It's preservation of the experiences of those held there is largley because it became a monument within a few years of WWII's end. The early board of directors consisted mostly of survivors of the camp, so they had a personal investment in keep the camp close to it's original condition. Truly an amazing place to visit. Hopefully I'll get to take Emily and the kids there at some point.

This evening, we went over to SHAPE to watch soldiers as well as members of the Protestant Chapel community participate in a fundraising project for the Make a Wish Foundation. This is an annual event that is a fundraiser for that foundation. It was a lot of fun watching our soldiers spend time together, hang out, and enjoy supporting a great charity.

I'll get a few pictures from Breendonk up this evening.

Back to Work

2011-05-15T15:15:00.000-05:00

I signed back into work on Friday. Tomorrow will be my first day really back to full spead after Mom and Dad were here this week. (There are a few more pictures from their visit in the photo albums page now). This morning, we went to International Baptist Church. Em & I had been saying we would visit there since we arrived in Belgium. I just find it hard not to go to chapel if we're in the area since I am part of the preaching schedule there. It felt great to be back in a local church. Pastor Al had a great sermon on Nehemiah's preparation for the ministry God had laid before him. (Prayer and planning if you're wondering). I still miss many things about pastoring a church. One of my frequent frustrations with the army chaplaincy is the feeling of competition that most chaplains have with the local church. Theologically, this horrifies me. Even on a practical level, it seems like a level of egotism and insecurity that has no real place in Christian ministry. Part of it goes back to the fear many chaplains I meet seem to have of representing their denomination. Another large part of it is that many chaplains I meet have had horrible experiences serving in local churches. Their hurt and anger becomes detrimental to the Church because they no longer see it as the Bride of Christ. Those feelings are common among many people, but are especially damaging when clergy oppose the church.

Anyway, my parents are trying to get to bed. They're leaving early in the morning (Emily is taking them to the airport).

Paris in a Day

2011-05-10T15:02:00.000-05:00

This morning, Emily & I took Mom and Dad to do Paris in a day. With my parents and both children, we took them to the Eiffel Tower, Arch de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, and walked around a lot of the city. The kids were great (since I'm the one posting, we're crediting my influence as a father on that one). I warned my wife that I was going to dip and then kiss her in front of the Eiffel tower. She laughed and said it was a great idea. She was completely shocked when after the first picture, I threw her backwards and kissed her. My mother then looks at my father and threatens him if he tried to do the same.

My mother still says I showed her more of what Paris looks like below ground than above. I believe in parking and using the subway system. I think I may just let them walk everywhere when we go to Brussels on Thursday. They'll see more and have sore feet when they get home. Emily thinks I should edit this and be nice, but she's still not the one writing this post. We actually did see a lot, especially with the time we lost getting parked and fighting traffic. I have decided that my previous verbal and written comments about French drivers have been entirely too gracious.

I tried to upload more pictures onto this page, but it took too long. There are pictures in the photo albums (link on the right).

Parc Paridisio

2011-05-09T12:59:00.000-05:00

Last night, Isaac made my Father crawl onto Claire's playmat. He then commenced to ordering fast food from my Father. I know the child has not been to drive through window since we moved to Belgium. We cannot begin to comprehend where this one came from.

Today, we finally visited Parc Paridisio (or whatever the new name is). This is a zoo/park that we'd heard about since we arrived in Belgium. The description was that it was a great place to take the kids, but too expensive. We waited until this year so we could buy the season pass. Great day. It was especially nice visiting a zoo with my parents along to help catch the kids and keep them coralled and fed. I managed to sit in some animal's feces within the first thirty minutes of arriving. I sat down to take pictures of Isaac with a peacock. When I stood up, Emily pointed out that there was something on my shorts. At least I know my wife is still checking me out after seven years. There are new pictures on my photo page from the zoo.

Family Visit

2011-05-08T23:29:00.000-05:00

I’ve almost posted a couple of times over the last week, but time seems to have been in pretty short supply. While delayed, I did want to share my thoughts on Osama bin Laden’s death. I do believe he deserved exactly what he got. I’m proud that US intelligence and special forces executed their mission so well. Like most other soldiers I have talked to about the news, his death is symbolic. There will be another mental case that will step into his role. We will continue to have soldiers in Afghanistan. Many soldiers I have spoken to think this will actually decrease the amount of media attention the war in Afghanistan receives. (How often do you see reports from Iraq on the news? There are still 47,000 US troops in

Iraq

). My other question concerning bin Laden’s death is the response of the US public. Dancing in the street? Really? This is the response to killing someone? I believe the man deserved to die, but our response as a nation was over the top. It should not have been that surprising that eventually US forces would find him, and as evil as the man was, another mental case will step into his role.

OK, now that a very small rant is over, my parents arrived her last week to spend a few days with us, which has been great. Isaac is very jealous when his Grandaddy gives Claire any attention. Claire is just thrilled to have more people at whom she can stare. We’ve completed the customary argument about who’s paying for what, and the obligatory catching up on people from Laurel. The next few days should let them see some of the sights around here.

Scotland

2011-05-01T01:52:00.000-05:00

This week, we took a vacation to Scotland. We landed in Edinburgh on Monday and made a loop up the coast and back down through the Highlands back into Edinburgh. The pictures are in my photo albums, so I'll spare anyone a play by play of the week. Driving on the left side of the road was an adventure. I managed to damage a tire on the rental car when my GPS couldn't figure out the difference between a left turn and a traffic circle (for those not living in Europe, don't worry about it). The kids did really well. This was Isaac's first actual vacation with us. I'm the guy that has his itinerary when he leaves on vacation. We make a lot of adjustments as we go, but the point is we try to get a lot of things into most vacations. Both kids did pretty well handling the pace without complaining too much. (Isaac managed one major meltdown, and Claire did not like Edinburgh Castle.

With the flight schedules we could get, we got back to Belgium on Friday night, which turns out to be nice because we have a couple of days to wash clothes, get the house in order, and rest before really getting back to work. Unfortunately, getting in on Friday also means I can't sign out a lawn mower until Monday, and my yard is about a week overdo to be mowed.

The picture I put on this page is the Royal and Ancient Golf Club in St Andrew's Scotland. I didn't get to play the course, but even Emily was excited looking at what we could see of the course.

A not so triumphant return to golf

2011-04-21T14:40:00.000-05:00

I got up at 0215 this morning. I got dressed and got in the car and drove four hours to Wiesbaden, Germany to play in the 5th Signal Command Golf Scramble. My battalion commander and our operations NCOIC are both extremely good golfers. The CSM and myself just enjoy playing. I realized tonight that the last time I played golf, I was on R&R from my tour in Iraq. The last time I consistently played golf was the summer of 2008 (CHBOLC). With that in mind, I'm fairly proud that I only lost two balls in eighteen holes. Unfortunately, we finished well behind the leaders. One of our two ringers had an off day.

I didn't particularly like the course, but it was nice to be playing golf again. I've got to figure out a way to get a membership at one of the golf clubs in Belgium. It costs way too much money, but I really enjoyed a day on the course again.

Otherwise, this week has been as busy as I expected. We've had noon and end of the workday prayer services for Holy Week. I finally got around to getting my ankle checked. (Mainly due to threats from Emily). It's fine. Emily was over-reacting to pain that wasn't even hers. (I'm seeing if she actually reads the blog, which I doubt).

Youth Camp

2011-04-17T00:54:00.002-05:00

This past week, I went with the SHAPE Club Beyond to a middle school adventure camp.

For those who don't know, Club Beyond is a ministry of Military Community Youth Ministries. I speak at our chapter occasionally and volunteered to chaperone this camp a few months back. Youth camp is actually a lot more fun as a small group leader. All I had to worry about was my four middle school boys. It was great being able to dump any issues or problems on Megan (center), who is the Club Beyond leader for SHAPE. The guys in my group had some great questions about who God is and how we relate to him. It was actually a lot of fun to be with students again. I still never see myself back in youth ministry, but the opportunity to help support student ministry without leading student ministry last week was great. The camp facility had rock climbing, caving, moutain biking, etc., so it was a lot of fun on that side of it as well. I'll post a few pictures online later in the day.

Looking ahead, this week is going to be hectic. We have daily prayer services for Holy Week. I'm supposed to play in a golf scramble in Germany. We're also getting ready for vacation next week.

Several people have asked Emily about pictures from the marathon last week. I'm putting those online as soon as I finish this post. I'll try to post something before we head out next week.

Training up a child

2011-04-04T13:00:00.000-05:00

This picture was a fun one. On Saturday, we went to a baby shower at a friend's house. (There is an odd tradition of husbands sitting on the back patio during the baby showers with my current battaslion). Anyway, there is a 14th century churh half a block from their house. Isaac and I explored a little while before goign to the shower. This picture was taken just outside of the church yard. At one point, this was the village's wall.

Sunday afternoon, I began the process of preparing Isaac for a very important part of his life as a big brother, preventing any little boy from ever asking his sister out. Basically, I taught him to say, "No boy is good enough for Claire." When she's about 12, I'll start a rumor that I have PTSD. Hopefully, between that and Isaac, we'll push Claire's first date until 3 months after I'm dead.

Claire's Personality Begins

2011-03-29T12:04:00.000-05:00

Well, I've wondered how Claire's personality is going to differ from Isaac lately. A lot of that is just b/c Isaac has developed quite the love for attention. He's loud and something of a clown. Today, we got our first glimpse at how she may respond to such an older brother.

Isaac fell asleep on the living room floor after lunch. Claire manaed to scoot off of her play mat to grab his blanket. Isaac doesn't sleep without a blue blanket (it really doesn't matter which one, as long as its blue). You can see the beginnings of a smile as she begins trying to pull it out from under Isaac. Emily claims that when Isaac would pull it back, Claire would giggle and restart. Nothing like learning how to irritate her big brother from a very early age.

Marriage Retreats and Window Washing

2011-03-27T14:41:00.000-05:00

Glass blower in Willingen, Germany.

A few hours ago, we got back from a Strong Bonds Retreat in Willingen, Germany. For those who aren't in the military, Strong Bonds Retreats are relationship skills retreats for singles, families, or couples in the army. I end up leading 2-3 most years. This past weekend was a marriage retreat. We took 13 couples and almost 40 of their kids to Willigen on Friday. The resort was great. The food was amazing. I'm still uncomfortably full. I'm not sure how the classes were. I'm probably not the best to evaluate those. I'll read everyone else's evaluations tomorrow.

During a few hours off, Em and I walked down to watch a local artisan that makes glass. I agreed to go in order to be a good husband, assuming this time would be better spent doing anything else. It was actually really interesting to watch the skill with which this guy worked. I'd like to go back during ski season to spend a few days on the slopes.

As for family news from the last week or so, Isaac helped me wash windows last week. Emily says she's done nothing interesting this week. Isaac's potty training is still moving very slowly. The next month should be busy, so things may get more interesting (assuming I have time to actually blog).

An overrated classic movie

2011-03-21T09:35:00.001-05:00

Last Friday, at lunch Emily and some friends of ours discovered that I have never seen "The Sound of Music." Conveniently, our friends had the movie. Friday and Saturday night, we watched The Sound of Music and a Quentin Tarrentino movie. I can honestly say, I doubt I will ever watch The Sound of Music again. It's not the worst movie I've ever seen, but I spent most of the movie hoping I was watching the last scene. It's not really that the movie was bad. I just never got interested. I appreciate the soundtrack, just didn't really care that much about the characters. I laughed throughout the Tarrentino movie (not typing the name b/c it involves profanity). Emily laughed through most of it, but got angry when the movie ended the way most Tarrentino movies end.

Otherwise, I had another new experience this weekend. I drove to a monestary near Brussels to provide a worship service for the end of a Protestant Women of the Chapel Retreat. I realized that in almost 13 years of working in churches, this is the first women's group I'd ever preached to. Somewhat of an intimidating experience for whatever reason. The monestary grounds were amazing. I'd love to use the monestary for a personal or group retreat. The grounds were beautiful. I never saw any of the monks. I think most of their areas are in wings other than the ones used for retreats.

Crossage, No FB, and another milestone

2011-03-15T15:46:00.000-05:00

OK, since my last post, I spent a few days with soldiers in Germany. Insomnia has returned (even less fun than I remembered it). I found a new favorite game, and Claire has successfully rolled over. The last two are the only things on that list that are really that interesting.

The first picture is from one of the streets of Chievres, Belgium. You can see me in the orange jacket in the middle of the picture. The game is called "crossage." Basically, you have a large, wooden mallet (rabot) and a large, oblong, wooden ball (chollette). The streets are closed to traffic, you whack the ball toward kegs in the street and yell "chollette!!!" with each stroke. This is a useless cry because there are always 2-5 other groups playing the same stretch of the street. As often as not, they're hitting in your direction and vice versa. There is no taking turns, you just walk out, hit your chollette and hope you don't get hit in the forehead by someone else's chollette. I could never discern any consistent set of rules. Everyone kind of made up their own method of competing. I don't have a lot of picture b/c my camera cost way more than I'm willing to lose when it gets smacked by a large wooden mallet. I'll post a few pictures in the photo albums next week when I get more.

The second picture is Claire's first time to roll completely over. She cried briefly. Emily got me out of the backyard to see. Claire had fallen asleep during the intervening 30 seconds, so we let her sleep like this.

The only other exciting thing I've had is getting to speak two consecutive Sundays in chapel. Em pointed out that I referenced the sermon I'd preached the previous week. It's nice to be able to consistently share from scripture. This weekend, I'll go to Brussels to speak at a worship service with the Protestant Women of the Chapel. I've definitely missed getting to speak this consistently.

I did try an experiment this week. I deactivated my Facebook account. Emily noticed the next day. My mother noticed 3-4 days later. Other than that, I think I made it under the radar.

Another Isaac Story

2011-02-26T16:03:00.001-06:00

Isaac watching traffic go by from the kitchen window.
If you look, he's snacking on a block of parmesean
cheese (In his left hand).

Isaac seems to be continually learning new habits and ways of making us laugh (or scream). Let's recap the day. This morning, I couldn't find him for a couple of minutes. The doors were still locked, so I knew he wasn't playing in the street. I found Isaac standing in the windowsill in the kitchen. He had used a chair to climb up and was standing behind the curtain while eating a block of parmesean cheese and waving at the passing traffic. Tonight, we had friends over for dinner. When I had not heard him in a few minutes, I checked the kitchen. He was sitting on the counter, shaking the last of a half bottle of red wine vinegar onto the cabinet. He proudly proclaimed, "I making pink." The red color of the vinegar was diluted on the counter. After cleaning that, he played in his room until he eased back into the kitchen without us realizing. This time he was found eating the cherry pie our friends had brought for dessert. His explanation..."I eat it. It good."

Isaac helping himself to cherry pie.

Holland

2011-02-20T13:55:00.000-06:00

The watch shop that was owned
by the Ten Boom family. Their home
is upstairs and adjacent.

It's been a while since I posted. A lot of that has been that for whatever reason, I've been frustrated with several things at work lately. I try not to get into that online. It's just not beneficial.

This weekend, we went to Amsterdam for the first time. On Saturday, we drove to Haarlam, Holland to visit the Corrie Ten Boom Museum. Amazing experience. It's the only museum I've ever been to that allows visitors to touch and photograph pretty much anything. Isaac and I crawled into the hiding place where six Jews and Dutch Resistence workers hid during a Nazi raid.

That afternoon, we went the the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Emily enjoyed that. I've already seen a lot of his major works, but this museum has the largest collections of his works in the world.

This morning, we visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Another amazing experience. I was surprised at the size of their hiding place. They had more room than I had always assumed based on reading the dairy and play in junior high. The building is completely unfurnished, per Otto Frank (Anne's Father), but many of the photos that are in the museum really bring their story to life.

After that, I walked my wife and kids through on of the Red Light Districts in Amsterdam. (Not a destination you might expect from a minister). It was appropriately dull for 10 am on a Sunday morning. It's just one of those things we wanted to say we had done. Emily also wanted to stop for coffee at one of Amsterdam's "coffee bars." I had to explain that any coffee house in Amsterdam with Bob Marley pictures on the window probably doesn't make money from coffee beans.

Brugge

2011-01-29T13:33:00.002-06:00

Looking down one of the canals in Brugge.

Well, nothing spectacular for the week. We've kind of taken January easy. Most of the interesting stuff we've done is local. This morning, we loaded up and drove up to Brugge, Belgium. The city has maintained a huge amount of its medieval architecture and layout. The canals still run throughout the old sections of town. When it's warm, gondolas move up and down the canals. This morning, some canals had a thin layer of ice. Obviously, none of us were getting on a boat with 30 degree temps. Isaac did request a bath in the first canal he saw. Thankfully, he asked, so I was able to head that one off before he pulled his pants off.

Other news, Emily bought chocolate molded in the shape of rats this afternoon. I have no idea why. She then insisted we take pictures of them before we ate them. I refused to put the pictures on the blog. (Seriously, she wanted to put the pictures on here.)

The restaurant we ate lunch in had a sensor over its door. Every time the door opened it buzzed. Isaac kept insisting that Emily apologize for passing gas when it buzzed. Emily insists that I announce that she tried mussels for the first time in her life today. She had one mussel from my plate. Wait, I've been corrected. She had two mussels from my plate. She's apparently now an expert.

Another One Down

2011-01-22T10:29:00.000-06:00

Well, today is another birthday down. Thanks to many who mentioned it on Facebook. It's not been a bad day. Emily and I went to dinner on the Grand Place in Mons last night. Today was a long run in marathon prep with a friend. Afterwards, I squatted down to help Isaac tie his shoes. I stayed down until Emily helped me stand back up. I ordered my Garmin Forerunner watch (birthday gift), and currently a huge pot of jambalaya is on the stove simmering. Overall, very good day.

We also gave Claire her first taste of baby food at lunch today. She liked the sqaush enough that she would get excited when we put a spoon full in her mouth, she'd start to laugh and spit it back out. She would end up eating the same spoon full of squash three times.

Isaac feels that he's been patient enough waiting for me to play "letters" with him, so I'll close for the time being.

Breaking a rule

2011-01-16T15:54:00.000-06:00

Emily and I have a rule we normally follo whenever we have to move. It's something we started on the first move after we married. We never evaluated a place we lived until we had been there for six months. We've almost at the four month mark, but I asked Em what she tought about our new home. I guess the topic came up because we were picking up after a party at our house. It was a friend's suprise party that we hosted. (Low country boil did not help how much I miss Southern cuisine). Anyway, Emily likes the layout of our house. (It's a great house when we aren't snow bound). The fact that we can easily to travel throughout Europe is another huge plus. I think the thing that is helping us feel most at home is that our battalion has a real sense of family. We'd heard about the sense of family in military communities, but this battalion really embodies that sense of community.

On the family front, Isaac managed to make it through a 2 hour lunch with flying colors this afternoon. A friend's baby was baptized this morning, so we went to the Anglican chapel service. Afterwards, we had lunch with them at Maison Du Berger, which lasted the mornal time for a meal at a Belgium restaurant. Isaac never complained. He never tried to get up. Basically, there was no problem at all with a two year old at a restaurant for two hours.

Sick Kids

2011-01-09T13:20:00.000-06:00

Let's recap the last couple of weeks. We're getting back into the routine after Christmas. We're getting scheduled for vacation and family visits over the next months. Isaac had a stomach virus for a couple of days this week. Today, the rest of us came home from chapel with the bug. The funny thing was this evening. I'm on the couch. Em's in the recliner. Claire is in her "bouncy seat." Isaac realized no one else felt good, so he tried to take Claire's temperature. He actually bounced and entertained her for about half an hour this evening. I finally had to have hime come take my temperature so he'd stop sticking the thermometer in her ear. We were pretty impressed with how well he handled everyone else being sick.

Isaac seemed to be better after 24-36 hours, so we're hoping to be better tomorrow.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T05:13:00.002-06:00

Santa apparently knew what to leave at our house. Isaac got a play kitchen. Hopefully, this will let him "help" cook without grabbing any actual kitchen knives or pots. Claire got one of the few things that actually matters to her...food. We also gave her a new play mat. Isaac gave her a plush duck for Christmas, which he's tried very hard to get her to play with. He pretends the duck is licking her face like we do with his stuffed puppy.

This morning was probably the last Christmas for a while that we were the first to get up. I'm not sure Isaac realized he was going to open presents until we handed him the first wrapped gift. We were able to get up, make coffee, make cinnamon rolls, and feed Claire before I went to get Isaac out of his room. It'll never happen again, but we enjoyed it immensely. He's currently engrossed in a Charlie Brown movie that was left in his stocking.

Last night, we had a really good turnout at the Christmas Eve Service on SHAPE. The road condition was listed as "black," so we were pretty unsure how many people would make it. The praise band didn't get to practice until an hour beforehand because several of them had been snowed in. Hopefully the service was a worshipful time.

Dinner is marinating in the fridge now, so everything is ready for friends coming over this evening. Nothing to do for the next few hours but relax, watch some Christmas movies, and nap after a late night last night.

Let It Snow...

2010-12-19T13:32:00.001-06:00

The last week has been a bit busy. I played catch up the first half of the week. Wednesday, I helped lead a "Lessons and Carols" service with a British chaplain. This is the first time I've put on any type of clerical robe in several years. Anyway, we were on the road the next morning to go to Landstuhl, Germany. My assistant had surgery, and we wanted to go up to check on her. The roads coming back were sheets of ice. We managed to stay out of the ditches, but had a couple of slides that weren't a lot of fun. The last couple of days were spent getting ready for some entertaining this week. As you can see from the pictures, the snow from the last couple of days is beginning to pile up.

You can also see Isaac's new way of entertaining himself with the Christmas gifts. He's ignored the gifts up to this point, but this morning he thought they'd make good blocks. This would be funny except for the only reason he stacks blocks is so he can knock (or kick) them down.

He wore me out in the snow this afternoon. I tried with very little success to get him interested in a snowman. However, his favorite snow activity is making me get a running start before diving into the snow. My head still hurts and we came back inside three hours ago.

I've added some pictures to the photo albums, including some of Claire. To the left is her first attempt at eating solid food.

Brussels Christmas Market

2010-12-11T13:29:00.000-06:00

This morning, we caught the train into Brussels to spend a few hours at the Christmas Market there. Every large and small town has begun having a Christmas market, which normally consists of venders specializing in Christmas junk, regional specialties, etc. It's a German tradition that has spread into more and more of Europe. Brussell's market is supposedly one of the better ones.

This was also our first experience using the train system to travel. (Thus the picture of everyone sitting on the train platform). We'd used buses once, but stuck to using the car for the most part with the kids. We'll definitely use trains for any trip we can within Belgium.

Otherwise, it's been a busy week. I've been a bit sick, which has made Emily's week that much busier. Last night was the children's Christmas Party with our FRG. They made ginger bread houses. Isaac ate an entire plate of candy that was supposed to go on his house. He then had a plastic cup full of sweedish fish and candy corn, which he brought home. I'm kind of unsure how we got that cup, and really hope he didn't take it away from some other kid. He continued to argue with everyone who tried to tell him he was in Belgium. Since the second weekend of November, he's refused that he could possibly be in any European country besides Germany. It becomes an intense argument if anyone tried to convince him otherwise. (On a related note, Em no longer thinks it would be a good idea to put him in the Belgian school system).

Isaac obviously was not a fan of Santa Claus. I don't actually think it was Santa as much as me making him leave his plate of M&Ms (Yes, a plate of M&Ms) on the table so he could see Santa Clause.

Cold Weather

2010-12-08T04:08:00.000-06:00

Starting a couple of days after Thanksgiving, we had a week with high temperatures that never reached freezing. On top of that, we had several days with light snow showers. You can see in the picture that it never really got thick enough to matter. It was just enough to make the yard look pretty and the roads to be a pain.

The ice on the sidewalks forced me onto the exercise bike or to treadmills in the gym, which I always hate to do. I'm supposed to start marathon training in a week or so for the Paris Marathon in April. I dread to even think about the training.

Otherwise, there's not a lot going on. We finished Christmas shopping last week. The tree is up. The house is decorated. Isaac has developed a great love for "A Charlie Brown Christmas." We have to change it's hiding place almost daily because once he finds it, he'll find a way to climb to whatever shelf it's on.

So the Season Begins...

2010-11-26T14:22:00.003-06:00

I suppose the holiday season has officially begun. For the second year in a row, I haven't finished Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. (In my defense, I wasn't back in the States until December last year). Thankfully, I just have to finish shopping for Emily this time around. Tonight, we put up our Christmas tree. It's the first live tree I've ever had. We're using the old, wooden Christmas tree decorations from when I was a kid. Actually, they're the ones we used when I was a kid. My Mother wouldn't let those near her tree. They were what hung on the tree that the kids got to decorate. We mixed in a bunch of gold ornaments Emily had from when she was a kid.

As we do most years, we make a kind of big deal out of this particular event. (I tend to go Clark W. Griswald during December). We made ginger bread men. Isaac loved them, but rarely took more than one bite of a cookie before putting it back and getting another one. We put on The Polar Express, which Em and Isaac both loved. Claire was amazed at the colored lights. Isaac was initially confused by the fact that I brought a tree into the house, but warmed up to it when he got to start putting things onto the tree.

By the time we finished Isaac would run to Emily and hug her. Immediately he'd run to me and hug me. Understand...Isaac doesn't hug without a four step running start. He successfully put Emily on her back once.

Otherwise, it's been a pretty good week. We had Thanksgiving dinner at Joe & Rochelle's yesterday, which was nice. On Wednesday, I had a meeting with a British chaplain. I'm helping with one of his Christmas services in a few weeks. It was a lot of fun talking with him on some of the differences between chaplains in the UK and the States.

Two year olds...just not as cute as they sound

2010-11-20T12:21:00.003-06:00

This morning I was reminded that Isaac will copy most of what I do. Emily was putting dishes in the dishwasher as we got ready for breakfast. I walked by and slapped her rear end. She said, "Justin!" just as she does every morning when I slap her rear end. I began pouring my cup of coffee when I hear, "whack." Isaac had walked behind Emily and slapped her rear end. Emily's response..."Justin!" I should go ahead and apologize to any girl he dates in the future. He's stuck with an example of flirting that generally involves his father just iritating his mother. Poor Emily is stuck living with a two year old, a one month old, and a husband that shows effection only slightly more maturely than pulling the girl you like's ponytail in elementary school.

Differences in European Countries

2010-11-16T14:06:00.002-06:00

Coming back from Garmisch, Germany this weekend, Emily and I came to a few conclusions about driving in Europe. The Germans are undoubtedly our favorite drivers. At 90 mph, we were being passed like we were standing still. The nice thing was that the left lane was actually used for passing. After passing someone, people move back into the right lane. Turn signals are actually used and I was only cut off once while driving in Germany. The car that cut me off....was from France. All of the positive statements above did not seem to apply to any cars we encountered from France. They stayed in the left lane, cut people off, and were completely random with turn signals....basically, they would fit in with drivers in the US. Then we come to Belgian drivers. Even more random than the French vehicles.

Thankfully, the house was in good order when we got back. There has been a lot of flooding in our area over the last few days, including some from my battalion. Honestly, it's nice to feel that we can begin getting into a little bit of a routine with Claire and Isaac.

The last few weeks

2010-11-13T11:27:00.002-06:00

I haven't really gotten on here to give any updates for the last few weeks. A lot of that was because my Mother was visiting to help us get everything settled with Claire. I spent most evenings visitng with her and Em or falling asleep ridiculously early on the couch. (Mostly, I fell asleep early on the couch). This weekend, we have spent at a Singles Retreat in Germany. I'll try to post a few pictures later tonight. I'll try to give the bullet points for the last couple of weeks.

My Mother hemmed our curtains, which all finally arrived. We no longer have to bunch them in the windowsill so they won't sit against the radiators. It also makes the house look much better.
I've already mentioned the Single Soldier retreat. Em has decided Bavaria lives up to all of her expectations, complete with houses that look like ginger bread houses. Isaac loves to announce "I see Germany."
Isaac's opinion of Claire is back to skeptical at best. He is very affectionate and interested in Claire around new people because they make a big deal out of him when he shows Claire attention. When he isn't benefitting personally from giving Claire attention, he is indifferent or annoyed by her presence.
Isaac never figured out how to say "Trick or Treat" when we were Trick or Treating, but he says in 10-12 times a day when he wants us to get his Halloween candy from the top shelf in the kitchen.
We are no longer a single car family. We bought a Toyota Corolla a few days ago, so Em is no longer stranded at home with two kids.
I learned how to pull apart a toilet with a mechanized grinding unit underneath it. Don't ask why, how long it took, or what had to be done to the bathroom afterwards. Shockingly, I can say I didn't curse at it (I think).

I think that sums up most of the last couple of weeks. I'll try to post some pictures tonight. Otherwise, it'll probably be 2-3 days.

Back to Work

2010-11-04T15:08:00.003-05:00

I've been back in the office this week after paternity leave. It's nice being back in a routine. I suppose I should say a little about ministry here. I normally don't allow myself to make comparisons for the first six months in a new ministry, but I think I can make a few comparisons. My battalion is very small in comparison to 1-12 Cav. The entire BN is roughly the size of a mechanized infantry company. It's nearly half civilian. It's obviously signal instead of combined arms, which is a drastically different mindset. It's also not a unit that deploys, so the pace of everything is much, much slower than anyone in 1 Cav. So what does that mean as far as a chaplain goes? First of all, I've found that a little more of Cav than I want to admit probably rubbed off on me. My assistant has to remind me about once a week that I'm no longer at Hood. (Speaking of which, I seem to have landed the best Chaplain Assistant in the region yet again).

It's harder to catching many of the soldiers just to check in on them. Many of them work shifts and we're spread out so ministry of presence is not as easy as I would have imagined. The ministry has more events (and resources) than I did at Hood. In some ways that's nice,o learn a new set of skills for navigating requests and some of the paper drills.

I'm enjoying 39th SB. The commander is extremely supportive of the chaplaincy. Both company commanders are as well. The unit is a very tight knit community. Actually it's a tight knit community within a tight knight community b/c SHAPE and Chievres are not exactly large duty stations. I am speaking in chapel services about once a month, which is great. I'd like to speak more, but at least I'm getting to speak.

That's the brief overview of work and ministry for me.

Adjusting

2010-10-23T08:24:00.003-05:00

Isaac has finally made the adjustment to having Claire. He holds her legs when she's in her bouncy-seat. He's a little nervous about any further contact. I got him to hold her for a few seconds last night. This morning he gave her half a bottle.

Otherwise, we finally tried the ice cream shop down the road that makes it's own chocolate and ice cream. The ice cream met every expectation.

My computer finally has a power cord again, so I uploaded the pictures from September and October onto my photo albums. There are a few pictures from around Mons as well as a lot of Isaac's birthday.

Belgian Maternity Wards

2010-10-19T14:21:00.002-05:00

We're still sitting in a hospital room with Claire. The normal stay after labor and delivery in Belgium is 4-5 days. It's nice in some ways to know that Emily and Claire are well-taken care of before going home. However, Emily is tired of the same four walls and is ready to get home. I am taking a few days of paternity leave, so I end up running errands during the day and coming back to spend the night at the hospital with Emily and Claire. Isaac and I will probably be back at our house tomorrow night. He's been staying with friends, but Emily wants him to get a good nights rest and have some time at the house before we bring Claire in on Thursday.

Claire Arrives

2010-10-18T12:10:00.000-05:00

Yesterday afternoon, my beautiful and stubborn wife refused to admit that she was in labor until her contractions were seven minutes apart. Around 6:45 PM, she decided we should go to the hospital. (Something I'd suggested an hour and a half before). At 7:05, we dropped Isaac off at some friends' home (thanks Joe and Rochelle) and went to the hospital. At 7:45 PM, Claire Lucille was born. I have thoroughly enjoyed saying I told you so to Emily today. It's amazing how much less she intimidates me when she's not pregnant.

Claire was 7 lbs 5 oz and 19 inches long. Mother and baby are well. Isaac is very indifferent about Claire. I convinced him to be interested for almost a full 60 seconds before he decided to play with my cell phone some more. There are pictures of Claire and Isaac, as well as the house we're renting, in my photo albums.

For those who've asked, I hopefully will begin consistently posted pictures again. My laptop is out of commission and using Em's laptop is an annoying and painful process.

Probable Belgian Rental

2010-08-31T12:34:00.004-05:00

Well, let's try this again. I have been trying for two days now to post a few pictures of the house Justin and I are probably going to rent here in Belgium. It is in a town called Erbisoeul, between the two posts Justin will be frequenting. We are probably closest to SHAPE, but that is o.k. since he will need to go there occasionally, and I am hoping to get a classroom there at some point. Once all the photos are uploaded, I will go back and type a brief snippet about each underneath. The pictures were an afterthought, so they are kind-of random, as the language barrier prevented me from truly evaluating how the landlords felt about me taking photos. Ok, the computer is putting these pictures in crazy places, but they are on here! Now, for the tour......

When you walk in the front door and turn to your right, you see the living room/dining room combo. Right now, there is still carpet that the previous tenants left behind. We may leave it in some of the bedrooms, but we are probably going to have it removed from the rest of the house. It prevents some of the doors from opening properly.

When you walk in the front door, if you look straight ahead, you see the three steps leading up to the bedroom/bathroom area. The door on the far right is what will probably be the master bedroom. The door on the left will likely be Claire's nursery. Just to the left of her room is the main bathroom with a shower/tub combo, toilet, and sink. Just past that is the room that will likely be Isaac's.

This is a picture of the kitchen. It is quite large by local standards. The cabinet space is a HUGE attraction. The only major appliance we will have to borrow for the kitchen is a refrigerator. That doesn't bother me, however, as it means we can go ahead and request an American-style fridge/freezer combo. Most Europeans do not use freezers. We still will have to get several small appliances, as ours are in storage due to the incompatibility of the plugs with European outlets.

I'm not sure why Blogger decided to put these two pictures beside each other. The picture on the left is the part of the kitchen area that got left out when I took the previous shot. It would be a nice place for a small breakfast table. The picture on the right is another shot of the living room. I panned a little farther left than in the first posted shot of the living room, so that I could show the fireplace and TV area. The lady in the picture is one of the landlords. The color of the brick in the last picture is approximately the same color as the exterior brick. The exterior brick may be a slightly more golden shade, but it's close. We meet with the landlord at the housing office tomorrow, where our "agent" will speak both French and English and act as a translator. Hope this helps to give you an idea of our (probable) new home -- Voila!

Still No Good Pictures

2010-08-20T13:17:00.005-05:00

OK, I did not take the camera with me today. Inprocessing doesn't really provide anything photo worthy anyway. I was able to meet a number of people in the battalion this afternoon as well as the garrison chaplain. My office area is extremely nice. The weather was excellent, which I've been told is not the norm. Dreary weather is supposed to be a little more common. The area we're in is definitely farm country, which is nice. We passed hay fields being fluffed and baled today.

Since I seem to be unable to remember my camera, I am posting a few pictures of our hotel room and the view from the balcony. The army lodging facility was at capacity, so we're in a local hotel, which is nice. The restaurant in the lobby is really good. Since we don't have a vehicle or drivers' licenses yet, we're stuck spending a lot of time at the hotel after work hours. We are going over to our sponsers' home for dinner last night. They've been great. Otherwise, there's not much to tell about.

Arrival

2010-08-19T14:10:00.002-05:00

We made it to Belgium around 0900 this morning (local time). We did a few of the necessary steps to begin inprocessing, mainly getting IDs made. Tomorrow we'll actually start doing the inprocessing.

Our hotel is nice. The room is pretty large by Belgium standards (I think). The area is beautiful. I'm just getting ready to move forward with getting settled and plugged back into ministry.

Isaac handled most of the trip well. His stomach got upset a little before we landed. We think that he'll be back to normal in another day or two. We didn't even take the camera out of the briefcase today. Between wrestling with Isaac and our own exhaustion, it just didn't happen. Maybe that will happen tomorrow.

Kids

2010-08-08T22:09:00.008-05:00

I know the last several posts have basically been anecdotes about what Isaac is doing. A lot of that is because everything else seems to be a massive to-do list. Clearing Ft Hood is largely over. My last couple of places to clear will take forever, but I have the required paperwork, so it's just waiting in line. Most of our free time is spent tying up loose ends like getting the house ready for the move out inspection or closing out utilities. It's pretty mundane.

This leaves Isaac providing a massive amount of entertainment. The second picture you see is when he pulled the pack-n-play down for the
second or third time this week. He learned that if he threw the mat out of it, he could pull on a tab until it collapsed. He didn't really need to collapse it. He can crawl out of it any time he wants. I took this picture b/c we basically have no idea where he'll be sleeping when we check in on him at night. He seems to sleep on the floor, lay on the ruins of the pack-n-play or lay on the mattress we had once put in the pack-n-play. He generally throws that to the floor.

The last picture is obviously Emily's stomach. This child has been extremely sedate compared to Isaac. He constantly pushed and kicked.

This child moves a lot, but doesn't push against a lot of people or really do anything that anyone other than Emily notices. These pictures are the obvious exception to that. I kept waiting for an alien to burst from her abdomen and commence a killing rampage. (For those who are too old or young to know, I"m referencing a movie from the 80s).

Hopefully, this week will provide something of greater interest.

Getting things ready

2010-08-04T19:58:00.008-05:00

I had to change the template of the blog back to something lighter. Something about the largely black background was annoying.

Anyway, we're a couple of weeks from leaving Ft Hood. I've finished most of the clearing process. I still have to get the Finance Office and the BN S1 to sign off on my paperwork. The Finance piece will involve a lot of waiting, and I'm still a little fuzzy about what that will accomplish for me. The unit I'm going to and the chaplains in the area have each provided me a great deal of information, which is making this move a little more comfortable.

I think I'd mentioned previously that all of the furniture and household stuff that is going with us has already left. That leaves our house largely empty. This is somewhat depressing for Emily and myself, but Isaac seems to be enjoying the empty house. The first picture is him climbing in and out of our empty cabinets.

The second is from his bedroom. His bed has shipped, so he's sleeping in a pack-n-play. I'm not sure if he flipped it crawling out or after he crawled out. The last picture used to be our den. It is now where Isaac has decided all of his toys not already shipped out should reside.

We actually have a son again.

2010-07-24T21:20:00.007-05:00

Isaac has been in Mississippi with my parents for the last three weeks. Em & I met them in Shreveport today to get Isaac. Had a great time visiting with Allison and Jerry and their family (cousins living in Shreveport). Approximately eleven hours in a car whose air conditioning is out is not exactly a relaxing day. We're exhausted.

However, as promised, I have another selection of vacation pictures. The first is from our hotel room. We stayed in the Best Western Presidential just off Times Square. They went with the theme of presidents. The lamp shaped like George Washington's bust was interesting. I found it more than a little disturbing that it always looked like Kennedy and Washington were staring at my wife as she put on makeup. Kind of creepy. I thought about putting a towel over Washington's head, but Emily said she needed the light. The hotel was okay. The housekeeping left something to be desired. Each day, they left a different decorative pillow or throw blanket. This was not done intentionally, I asked the front desk. They also were very hit and miss on whether they left wash cloths. They just either didn't have enough to go around or just didn't care.

The second picture is me in front of the doors for St Peter's Cathedral. Absolutely the most beautiful church I have ever been into. Em thought I was crazy dragging her to three different churches to look around, but admitted this one was astounding.

Vacation Day One

2010-07-22T21:31:00.001-05:00

If you can't tell, Em is standing in front of the sea lions display at the American Museum of Natural History. She did not appreciate the comparison I made while she looked at this particular exhibit.

We went to the Natural History Museum our first full day in NY. Much better than I really expected. I actually wish we'd scheduled another hour or so. After the Museum, we wandered around Central Park, had Mediterranean food for dinner, and went to see Wicked.

( I'm going to try to choose one picture from each day. These are basically what I find entertaining. Since this isn't what most people find more interesting, I encourage you to look in our web albums. I'll be updating those over the next day or two.)

Update

2010-07-22T20:27:00.002-05:00

OK, so it's been five weeks since I posted anything. That is less to do with opportunity or things to post and more to do with blatant laziness. I'll give you the bullet points for the last five weeks. I think I have already posted that we are moving to Belgium. Here's the updates.

We went to MS for July 4. It was great to see family, eat fried catfish, etc. We left Isaac there with Mom and Dad. I left Em there. She went to TN for her little brother's wedding (Congratulations Zack and Mallory). I came back to Ft Hood and went to work.
I've done a married soldier class, single soldier class, and an ASIST training class since my last post. I have a Strong Bonds retreat next weekend. After that, I begin clearing Ft Hood. For those not in the military, that's the 2-3 weeks of administrative red tape that I have to go through in order to move.
Em has already cleared all red tape for herself and Isaac. In addition, she managed to get my passport, which was mailed to the wrong place. It seems very few people are able to say "no" to a pregnant woman.
The first load of our house has been picked up for shipment to Europe. There are three different shipments for this move. The first is the furniture and household goods we are taking to Europe. The second is a very small shipment of things that we'll need very soon after we arrive. These are shipped next week. The last are the things that will go into storage here in the States. This means we are living in a mostly empty house.
The van has been dropped off for shipment. This means we are sharing the Mustang for the next few weeks. Not much fun. (Speaking of the Mustang, it's for sale.)
Em and I spent last week in New York City for vacation. Excellent trip. I'm going to try to post about it tomorrow. Most of our pictures should be uploaded into our web album tonight. We'd already made our reservation and bought all of our tickets before we found out we were moving, so we went.

Race

2010-06-13T19:00:00.002-05:00

Last night, I ran a half marathon over in Temple. It was very different starting at 9:30 PM instead of early in the morning. It was still muggy and hot throughout the race. I actually ran up on a guy who had collapsed with a half mile to go. He was unresponsive, but breathing. One of the people in my group ran on to get the ambulance. He was stable when they left. I didn't even check my time when I got to the finish line. It'll probably turn out to be around 2:30. Stopping was the right thing to do, but it still annoyed me to see people standing around the finish line that I had passed at mile seven. I was on track to finish in 2:05. I wanted to make it in under 2 hours, but I paced myself poorly.

Changes

2010-06-11T21:49:00.004-05:00

It's been an interesting week. I think I mentioned that my battalion commander was to change this week. Immediately after the change of command ceremony, my division chaplain walked up to me and said she'd heard from the board that was making chaplain assignments and asked what I thought of Belgium. I got the official orders today, so Em and I are frantically trying to get ready to move as soon as we can so we get moved before she hits the point in pregnancy where she can't travel anymore. She was less than excited on Wednesday night. The more friends she's talked to that have worked in Belgium or that are stationed in Germany, she seems to be a little more excited now. She has been amazing at figuring out how to navigate the paperwork and red tape necessary to move OCONUS.

As a side note, I owe a couple of my brothers apologies. I always rubbed it in that I don't normally react to poison ivy. Apparently Texas has a different type of poison ivy because my ankles and arms have broken out after a run through the woods last week. Sorry about that guys.

Pondering the future

2010-06-06T21:21:00.002-05:00

No new pictures this week. That's probably because the last week allowed little time for pictures and this weekend was largely spent running errands. Last night, my outgoing battalion commander had the primary staff to his house for dinner. We enjoyed ourselves. Isaac thought it was great. He played in the sprinkler and got in the way of "yard ball." Emily is currently on the internet looking for "yard ball" or "ladder ball."

Today, we went to church. I had my weekly period of missing being a pastor. I actually have that thought more than weekly. Em & I are a few months from needing to know if God wants us to stay in our current ministry or go back to serving in the local church. As we pray about it, neither of us really feels a strong push either direction. Perhaps this is one of those places where God's will is broad. There are days when I truly enjoy the opportunity to share with soldiers and discuss faith with soldiers whom I probably would not meet as a pastor. I do love the ministry as a chaplain. There are just some things that infuriate me beyond what I ever experienced as a pastor or youth pastor. I don't think this is the format to get into those specifics.

Emily is looking forward to this week. Friday was her last day of school, so she's got her to-do list to work on this week. She's a little behind on her reading for vacation next month. We're planning to go to NYC for a week, and she wants to read a little about the city's history.

2010-05-31T20:23:00.007-05:00

Memorial Day Weekend is winding down. I can't believe it's already June. Last Thursday night, we did our Hail & Farewell for LTC Fadden and CSM De Valle. It was down at Round Rock at a baseball game. For those who don't know, Hail and Farewells are periodic dinners to welcome and say goodbye to incoming and outgoing officers for a unit. We have about one a month right now. At this point, there are very few officers in the battalion that were there when I got to 1-12. As far as I know, I'll be around until December, at least.

Friday, I managed to break my mountain bike, which could be a problem since I need to start training if I'm going to complete the triathlon I plan to late this summer. Also on Friday, Isaac decided he needed to pick one of the two tomatoes we have (had) on our tomato plant. I was trying to set up the sprinkler for him to play in. I turned around in time to see him pull off the tomato and bite into it.

Saturday, Em & I went to get massages and cooked dinner at home. It was our sixth anniversary.

Sunday, we said goodbye to a couple of our friends who are heading to Ft Lewis. Will Alley and I went through the chaplain school together. We've gone to church together and served in the same brigade for the last year and a half. We'll miss Will and Jessica.

Today, we cleaned the house and Isaac played in the sprinkler again. I guess that's been our weekend. Maybe the pictures below will satisfy my Mother's requests for recent pictures of Isaac.

Routine

2010-05-20T20:22:00.003-05:00

I realize that we have become very irregular in posting on the blog. It mostly occurs when Isaac has found additional, interesting, or irritating new skills. Life is pretty routine. There's honestly not a lot to talk about. Em & I both go to work. We play with Isaac. We go to bed. Next week, we'll have the sonogram where they try to figure out if the next baby is a boy or girl. We are still unashamedly hoping for a girl.

Someone asked me the other day what exactly it meant for me to go through the normal routine as a chaplain in garrison. It varies from day to day. We'll use today as an example. I had officer PT this morning. After PT, I taught a class on family budgetting to a few of our soldiers. (Money management is a common problem for soldiers. It is often an issue that comes up in marriage counseling). The rest of the morning was spent working through all five of our companies talking with soldiers. This is largely informal ministry that builds relationships with my soldiers. Right after lunch, I stopped by to introduce myself to the command sargeant major of another battalion. They are without a chaplain right now, so some of their soldiers may be sent my way if they need to talk to a chaplain. I tried to get some preparation done for a Bible study I teach on Wednesday nights, but ended up with a soldier stopping by to talk about an ethical decision he's facing. On Thursdays, Ft Hood ends the workday at 3 PM so soldiers can spend a couple of extra hours with their families, so by this point it was a little after 3. In between this stuff, I returned emails back and forth concerning a two day course I'm teaching on suicide intervention next week for the brigade.

The details change, but this is a fairly routine day. I hope that helps for the people who have wondered what I mean by "same old routine" when they ask how my week has been.

Can't Sleep

2010-05-07T23:00:00.002-05:00

It's been a long time since I've had trouble getting to sleep. Getting up at 0500 to make it to PT does wonders for putting me in bed early in the evening. Isaac had a doctor's appointment this afternoon. He has an inner ear infection again. This is his second this year. He must be feeling better as I'm listening to him through the moniter.

Tomorrow, I'm running a 10k over in Copperas Cove. I don't expect a particularly good finish time. I'm mainly using the race for motivation for some other races I plan to do this summer.

As far as work goes, this week I started a Bible study on Wednesday evenings on post. Turnout was low this week, but we'll see. It's just nice to prepare and at least attempt to lead a study of scripture. My last couple of months in Iraq, I was so tired that Bible study prep was a struggle. A few weeks off gave me a chance to recharge, but 5-6 months has been much too long of a break from teaching.

And so it begins

2010-04-26T20:05:00.000-05:00

Isaac has developed a new skill. In the last two days, he's climbed on top of the table. He's climbed over the back of the couch. He climbed into the freezer. This should make for an interesting next few weeks.

Spring

2010-04-04T15:55:00.005-05:00

This picture is from two weeks ago. We decided to see if we could successfully grow a few herbs and flowers in pots. Isaac thought this was a great idea while he rode in the wheelbarrow or ate dirt (see the photo album). When I wasn't paying attention, he thought it was an even better idea to play in the dog's water bucket.

The other picture is from after church today. He actually kept the coat and tie on through church. The shoes were put back on 3 times that I know of. I suppose I should have put a cute picture with him smiling before church, but this is the one we had of him sitting still.

Anyway, we've had a leisure afternoon. However, Isaac has now eaten an entire chocolate bunny. I have a sneaking suspicion the leisure part of that is over considering he is now running around the couch and perhaps speaking in tongues as I type.

2010-03-23T20:26:00.004-05:00

This afternoon, Isaac and I played outside after dinner. Isaac got to feed Ox a few treats. By a few, I mean as many as he could before I finally hid the box from Isaac so the dog didn't get sick. Isaac assumes that everyone rams food into his mouth at the same rate he crams food into his mouth. This meant that for the first time in his five and a half years of life, Ox couldn't eat jerky treats as fast as they were pushed into his face.

As I chased Isaac down the sidewalk, I realized something. I definitely am loved by everyone living in this house. However, the one who I think loves me the most, actually listens to what I say, occasionally does what I say and is least likely to run into traffic or bite me is probably Ox. For those of you wondering, yes I am comparing my dog to my wife and child. Yes this post will annoy my wife and I will pay the consequences. No I don't care.

Big Boy Bed

2010-03-22T06:16:00.003-05:00

Just a really quick post...Isaac has slept the past 2 nights in his new big boy bed! The quilts are a temporary thing, as the red and navy comforters are on back-order. Besides, it's not like he uses the quilt at the moment. We'll work on that later. Right now, we're just thrilled he stays in the bed.

New Room

2010-03-19T21:31:00.002-05:00

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. I suppose I haven't posted because I simply haven't known what I wanted to talk about. Parts of the last couple of weeks have been really busy. Parts of it have been wonderfully slow. I'll skip to today. I suppose most people who actually check this know by now that Emily is pregnant (about 9 weeks along). This means we'll need the crib in a few months for number two. (Yes, we are hoping for a daughter. No I don't feel bad admitting that.) That means we are about to begin transitioning Isaac into an actual bed. It also means that I have now lost my office here at the house. The nursery has moved into my office. Isaac's bunk bed was delivered today. In the name of indoctrinating the child at a young age, the Ole Miss pennents and flag go up tomorrow. The red and navy bedspreads have been ordered. I'd post pictures, but I'm feeling a bit lazy. Otherwise, today was the spring cleaning day for Em and I. We washed windows, fed the lawn, cleaned the fridge, mopped, caught up on laundry.

The Zoo

2010-03-06T16:22:00.002-06:00

This morning, Em & I took Isaac up to Waco to the Cameron Park Zoo. For the most part, Isaac was mildly indifferent. The tigers and lions seemed a little more interesting. I suppose having the largest cat he'd ever seen roar and breath on the glass right in front of him may have been somewhat more interesting the watching a monkey hang there and stare back at him. He would giggle every time the lion's breath fogged the glass. He cackled when the lion or lioness would growl or snap at the other one. To make things better, we got there as the zoo opened and there was no one there for the first hour we walked around.

Since we've gotten back from Iraq, most of our work weeks have been four day weeks. Many have only been three day weeks. This has been great for getting time with the family. It's also made the work days very pushed to get the administrative and staff work done. There really isn't much of a schedule to fall in on. It seems that much of the next few months will be that way.

There are more pictures of the zoo in the photo albums.

Marriage Retreat

2010-02-27T21:43:00.003-06:00

Today, I completed the first Strong Bonds retreat as a chaplain. I've provided some marriage enrichment classes, but this was an overnight retreat at a resort in Grapevine, TX. Everything seemed to go well. The administrative stuff ran very smooth. The resort and my assistant both excelled. The seminars themselves seemed to go ok. There was good participation through both days. It's always hard for me to really judge how well any retreat goes when I am the one leading or teaching. It was a very different experience for Emily and I. In previous retreats or camps I've led, she and I went almost completely different directions. We actually ended up spending more time together as a family than normal, which was nice. The resort we were at had an indoor water park. Isaac loved floating, sliding, and pretty much anything else that put him in a swimming pool. He danced for the child care providers. In general, he seemed to have a good time. It'll take us a week to get him back on his normal schedule. I would post pictures, but I left the camera sitting on the entertainment center at home. Hopefully I'll get some from some of the soldiers that had their cameras.

Battalion Ball

2010-02-19T07:47:00.000-06:00

Last night was the battalion ball for 1-12 CAV. For those who don't know, cavalry units are allowed to wear the black Stetson hat instead of the normal headgear. I'm sure Emily would have more to talk about with it.

Update on Previous Post

2010-02-08T10:00:00.002-06:00

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that I would add more pictures from the marathon Stan & I ran. I've added them to the online photo album, but wanted to give a few explanations. We all wore tshirts in honor of my sister-in-law, Julie. She is going through chemo treatments for breast cancer. Robert was supposed to be at the race with us, but stayed home to help care for Julie. We took pictures of his t-shirt in various places over the entire weekend. That's the reason for the random pictures of a tshirt in front of a plate of food or sitting in a chair by itself. I think the rest of the pictures are fairly easy to figure out.

Who'd of thought?

2010-02-08T09:45:00.000-06:00

I grew up a Saint's fan. One thing I never really expected to see is Tom Benson holding up the Lombardi trophy. Anyway, you can see from the picture that Isaac was more focused on eating bleu cheese dressing than watching the game. He didn't seem to approve of getting meatloaf and eggplant while Em & I ate chicken wings. Once he got out of the high chair, he grabbed chicken bones, dipped them in the dressing and would have eaten it until he got sick if I had not taken it away from him.

Otherwise, things have returned to somewhat of a routine. At work, I'm trying to finish up working on married soldier and single soldier retreats for my battalion. There seems to be a constant series of changes or confusions surrounding funding for these things coming from the Chaplain Corps. One of my biggest frustrations will military ministry at this point is the poor communication and inefficient channels of authority within the chaplain corp itself. I love the ministry to the guys in my battalion, but I am constantly frustrated in dealing with my branch.

Emily is doing well. School is ok. She's ready for the summer, but what school teacher isn't. Isaac is learning more words, but still sees little point in saying much more than "more" and "all done." The child likes to eat. He does enjoy trying to catch his football, and does well with that. He feels he needs to applaude each time he catches the ball.

I'll try to post a few more pictures in the photo album. Some of them are from a trip to Houston to visit relatives from last weekend.

Race details

2010-01-13T22:03:00.004-06:00

I'm supposed to have a few pictures taken by photographers along the route of the Disney World Marathon. I'm still waiting for those to download, and I'm a bit impatient. Here's the weekend. On Thursday morning (around 0130), Dad, Stacey, Stan, and I left the farm for Disney world. At about 0530, the trailer the car was on had a tire blowout. It's great fun looking for a trailer tire before dawn.

We got to Orlando, picked up our race packets and listened to part of Hal Higdon's presentation at the health fair. Robert was supposed to go with us, but decided that he needed to stay with Julie. The weather had been projected to be icy and dangerous. On Friday morning, Dad and Stacey ran the 5k race. Stan and I didn't run the marathon until Sunday morning. We started near Epcot. Our race cut through Epcot and we were at the Magic Kingdom right after sunup. Leaving the Magic Kingdom, we had a long road run before going into the back of Animal Kingdom. This was Stan's toughest stretch. He's had IT band problems and his knee started hurting soon afer the race started. From Animal Kingdom we hit MGM Studios. About mile 20, I began hurting. By mile 22, I hated every step. Late in mile 25, my knee went out. This wasn't expected as I've had no knee pain throughout the training. Regardless, Stan and I both finished, which was the goal.

I've got a number of pictures to upload to the online photo gallery, but I'll leave that for whenever I get the rest of the pictures.

Disney Marathon

2010-01-10T11:40:00.001-06:00

Finished Disney Marathon this morning (4 hr 52 min). Not a good time, but a finish. I'll post pictures in the next two days.

Update

2010-01-05T19:32:00.003-06:00

I have no idea if anyone still checks this, but I thought I would update anyone about the last month or so. I got back from Iraq on December 3. December was the massive tour of everyone for Christmas. Normally, Emily and I only go to one family on each holiday. It saves us from spending most of our break driving from one place to another. Since I had not seen anyone in TN for a couple of years, we ended up making a massive loop through KY, TN, and AL on our way to the farm for Christmas with our family. I'll spare the details and give the bullets.

Isaac did finally begin to figure out that it was ok to tear into the Christmas paper. It was on the last two gifts he opened, but he got it.
My wife gave me a BB gun. There is a long standing joke behind that. (Some of the pictures in the online albums are thus explained).
Emily's little brother proposed to his girlfriend.
Emily managed to pick up and spread a stomach virus to more than a dozen people, including Isaac. (I briefly considered turning her into the CDC as a pandemic). I don't think we're invited back to any friends' homes now.

Tomorrow morning, I leave to go back to MS. My brothers and I are going to Disney World. My younger brother and I are running the Disney Marathon. My father and other brothers are running a 5k there.

OK, that's the once over. I'll get back to keeping this up to date since I am home and have all but stopped checking facebook.

Oh yeah, family can get the Christmas pictures I have from my album.

Great Idea, Ox!

2009-11-16T05:18:00.003-06:00

Wow! It's been a really long time since I've posted; my apologies on that. Last night, Isaac and I finished our run early enough for me to still have time to clean up the backyard. As I was walking around and shoveling things up, Ox was drinking water from his bucket. Isaac apparently thought this was one of the grandest things he'd seen in some time! He laughed hysterically, and even tried to mock Ox once we got inside for bath time!

Birthday Pics!

2009-09-20T22:50:00.002-05:00

I am currently syncing three folders of pictures from Isaac's first birthday to the web. Take a look at them. Soon, I'll come back and actually blog about all the celebratory events and will even try posting some video (if the files are too large).

Rrrr....Rrrr....Rrrr....

2009-08-29T20:14:00.005-05:00

Oh my, today has been an eventful one! I was sooooooo excited about it being Saturday, as I have just completed my first week back to school with students for the 2009-2010 school year. My students so far remind me of my first class I ever taught; those of you who knew me then know this is not necessarily a good thing. My plans were to hang out with Robert (Lynn's [my sitter's] son) until she returned from a date with her husband. Then, Isaac was to take his afternoon nap, after which we were going to go to Round Rock so I could pick up the favors for his 1st birthday party! Then we were going to get back in time for me to bathe him and lay him down, not too terribly long after his normal bedtime. I was going to clean house after he'd gone down, something that's been skimped on, but not completely ignored, this week. Weeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllll, we were fine until the leaving for Round Rock part. I tried to crank the Tahoe and didn't think anything of it not starting immediately, as it's taken a couple of tries the last few days to get it to start. The battery's charge has always looked good upon starting, and everything functioned well, so I didn't think anything of it. I tried once.........twice......thrice.......and whatever the word for four times is, and NO LUCK. I let it rest in between tries, so as to not kill the battery. Lynn came back over to the house (hooray for friends!), removed the battery from the Tahoe, and we took it to the O'Reily's just up the street. She put the battery back in. We tried to crank it -- no new results. We poured in some fuel, though the gauge (known to be inaccurate before) was showing 3/4 tank, and the engine cranked! Stupid me, however, didn't leave it running long enough for the battery to recharge. So, we had to repeat the process, only there's no happy ending. Other than God has reminded me what a blessing my friends are, particularly in this time of Justin's deployment. And, as Lynn said, "At least you weren't in Round Rock when this happened!" Below, I'm including some pics from today.

While Lynn and I (ok, mostly Lynn) were putting the battery back in the second time, Isaac thought he'd better give the tires a check. I heard Lynn exclaim, "Oh Lordy!" Apparently, he found the tires to be finger-lickin' good.

I shudder to think at exactly what was introduced to his little body during this car repair! He drank a bottle of milk/formula afterwards, which I know is what is typically to be done when something bad is ingested.So, do I win the Mother of the Year award for letting my child eat tire residue and then eat off my floor? I left a few puffs in the lid on the floor for Isaac to eat while I went to the kitchen to make his bottle. I put the rest of the can on the top shelf, where I thought he couldn't reach. I came back and saw him grabbing puffs by the fistfull. Apparently Daddy picked a good flavor!These things are better than rubber!

Please pray for me. It's hard to not be a complete Negative Nelly in the midst of all this.

Dinner & Dancing

2009-08-07T16:18:00.003-05:00

Justin is currently singing in the kitchen as I (Emily) post this video. Other pictures will be posted soon. I LOVE when Isaac does new things!

R&R Update

2009-08-06T09:59:00.006-05:00

OK, so we haven't updated while I've been on R&R. I'll try to sum things up briefly. Emily and I had a couple of days to ourselves. As you can see from the third picture, Cole (a friend from Birmingham) sent Emiy and I some ribs from Dreamland Barbeque. Some of my family was able to come in for the weekend. I got to play golf with Dad, Stan, and Robert. The Ft Hood golf course is much better than I expected. Then, Emily and I spent a couple of days in San Antonio. Hotel Valencia was nice. Dinner at Citrus was excellent.

Now, we're back in Killeen for a few more days. I think Emily is planning to post some pictures that were taken at the airport when I arrived. Actually, when Emily arrived. (She was fashionably late arriving to pick me up.) Luckily, my cousins Carolyn and GT Robinson were there to greet me.

Update

2009-07-25T05:46:00.002-05:00

Justin called around 9:30 last night to say he was in Kuwait!!! His next stop will be somewhere in Europe, then Dallas, then Killeen! All said and done, we're thinking he'll arrive Monday. He is VERY much ready to be home and I am so excited about him being here!!! Now, for all that housework and schoolwork that needs done..........

one...two...three...FOUR!!!!

2009-07-19T16:43:00.003-05:00

Isaac has known how to do the "soldier scoot" for some time now. He began inserting a few attempts to crawl on all-fours towards the end of our stay in Mississippi. He has now begun to crawl on all-fours out of habit! Way to go, Son!

AND.................it won't be very long until his Daddy gets to witness this first-hand!!!

More Pictures!

2009-07-05T22:50:00.002-05:00

I currently am syncing pictures from May in Iraq that Justin has sent. Look for the album titled, "Iraq_May." Creative title, huh?

Celebrate Good Times!

2009-07-05T21:54:00.004-05:00

Hopefully everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July Weekend, taking the time to enjoy friends, family, and the freedoms we experience in this country that we often take for granted. This past weekend, as well as this weekend, have held some wonderful church services in which our soldiers, our country, and our God were all hailed. I have really enjoyed getting to spend time with my family in Mississippi lately. On July 3, some friends of mine and Justin's from Lucas Grove stopped by to visit on their way back north from the beach! I was so excited to have Jason, Tonya, Danae, and Austin Desjardins spend a couple of nights with us. Celebrating is always fun but is especially so when you get to celebrate with friends you haven't seen in quite some time. Isaac and I last got to spend time with these friends when we went to Kentucky for a few days at Christmas. We watched fireworks in Laurel on Friday night. Lots of pictures were made of Isaac, as Jason had not gotten to meet Isaac at Christmas. Saturday night, we went to Robert's (Justin's brother's) house to cook out and shoot fireworks. I don't care what they say, all my fish was DELICIOUS! Isaac got pretty sick while en route and continued the sick trend while we were at Robert & Julie's. He was a good sport and still let most anyone hold and comfort him. I was a pretty good sport too when I was vomited all over. And all my friends and family were AMAZING sports in helping to clean and care for me, Isaac, and the bathroom. All that said, I am posting pictures from the weekend under our Web Albums. If things with Picasa finish syncing anytime soon, I'm also going to try to post a video of Isaac watching Friday night's fireworks. "Syncing" looks misspelled, but this is how Picasa spells it. Please correct us if you find it spelled otherwise.

Once again, I have really enjoyed this weekend. Thanks Desjardins family for stopping in! My family has really enjoyed hosting you. Thanks to my family for providing all the opportunities to celebrate. And last, but not least, thank you, Justin. Thank you for serving our Lord by being a witness to our country's soldiers. Thank you for clinging to your faith in God even when surrounding circumstances are neither easy nor desireable. You are an amazing husband, father, chaplain, and Christian man.

Isaac is getting to see fireworks for the first time. He was super sleepy, so please excuse his occasional mediocre response. He ended up sleeping through parts of the show towards the end!

Austin, Jason, and Danae Desjardins are watching the fireworks in Laurel. In this picture, either Isaac's hand is REALLY large or Danae's arm is REALLY long!

Tonya and I are watching fireworks and Robert's & Julie's. I can't find a picture of all four of my friends together. So I put one of Tonya and I that I really like, and a fun picture (above) of the other three.

Remember to check our Web Albums for the rest of the pictures from the weekend!!!

Surf's Up!

2009-07-01T22:31:00.006-05:00

Well, not completely. Today, Isaac and I went shopping at the outlet mall in Gulfport, Mississippi with Justin's parents and our niece Katie. Gulfport, as you might guess by the name of the city, is on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Mr. Gene and Mrs. Karon decided to take the scenic route back home to show me the areas hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina almost four years ago. Even now, some areas of Gulfport, Pass Christian, and Bay St. Louis look devastated. It is amazing, however, to see how these areas have bounced back and re-established old business and residential areas. I LOVE the beach and have not been to a beach since the honeymoon in 2004. So I asked if, when we stopped, I could run quickly across the road to stick my toes in the edge of the Gulf. We made a U-turn and stopped on the side of U.S. Hwy 90. Isaac, Katie, and I got out and walked down to the water's edge. Silly me didn't bring a camera, so these pictures were taken with Mr. Gene's new phone. The quality of the pictures amazes me! Katie is a great photographer. Isaac seemed to enjoy his first encounter with the beach.

He was patting the ground. He wasn't sure why it was crumbly.

He was a little confused as to why I was piling this strange stuff (sand) on his legs.

He loved how the wet sand would squish between his toes!Once in the water, we couldn't get him to look at the camera. He was enjoying watching the small waves ripple in towards the shore.I hate that this one is a little blurry. His smile was soooo cute!No, I've not gotten bangs cut in my hair. The wind was making the tendrils of my hair do crazy things.

Happy Fathers' Day!

2009-06-21T12:04:00.004-05:00

Isaac just keeps learning new tricks!

We have visited the senior portraits at the end of Mrs. Karon's and Mr. Gene's hallway several times since I've been here. There was not any review of the boys' identites immediately before hand. So what if Justin was 17-18 in the picture? I sure hope Justin's brothers don't mind having their senior portraits posted on the blog! Happy Fathers' Day, Justin! Now you can believe me when I say Isaac recognizes you (or at least your picture)!

Happy June 17th!

2009-06-17T21:50:00.003-05:00

Aren't they beautiful??!!!!

I was on my way out the door this afternoon to eat supper at church before Vacation Bible School was to start. Mrs. Karon told me I needed to wait just a minute. So, I came back into the house, where this big, BEAUTIFUL, fragrant floral arrangement was delivered to me! Justin called a local florist and picked them out for me. How sweet is he?! He even had a little message placed in the arrangement. I can't figure any particular significance for today's date, other than it's Isaac's 9-month birthday. I love these really random, thoughtful gestures Justin makes. Thank you so much Hon; you completely surprised me!