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

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

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.