Checking in...

Where to begin?  It's been too long... again.  Life has been busy, but good-busy.  I guess that's as good a place as any to begin again.

Sea Scouts has kept us busy this spring.  In March we took the kids to Houston for an overnight sail in Galveston Bay.  It was a great trip, fun was had by all, and it was a nice escape from town.  In April we went to Camp Constantin (on Possom Kingdom Lake) as a service project to work on the camp's sailboats in preparation for summer camps.  In the process, our Boatswain ("BO-sun", or President) was recruited to work at the waterfront for the summer - which he wrapped up yesterday.  Seems like it was a great experience for him, and he's pumped and ready to go again next year.  May provided our first overnight at our marina with this group of kids: another success, despite crazy wind that kept us off the water for some of the day.  June started off with a bang: a weekend lock-in to review the Power Squadron's Seamanship course, wrapping up with the final exam.  It went well, and we were pleased with how much they learned over the year (read: success!).  Later in June we camped at Lake Texoma for the Safety at Sea weekend, which was the highlight of last year - and may be the same for 2012.  It's a great weekend of hands-on water-related safety training events.  The kids have a blast, and stay wet for most of the weekend.  It was another success this year, despite camping in the heat.  As I said, Scouts has kept us busy.  We're now at a bit of a downtime with them, which is a nice breather.  When we went out on the boat on July 4th, it made me realize that we haven't been out on the water with them in quite a while, so it'll be nice to get out again next weekend.

Other than Scout stuff, things are mostly status quo.  Well, other than the fact that Adam's training is really starting to ramp up.  It just happened that each of our cars needed maintenance packages at the same time, so for two consecutive weekends I got a good view of the training when I dropped Adam at the lake to meet his coach and training partner at 5:45am, then picked him up again after 12:00noon.  Saturdays are the big training days, and they're getting bigger and bigger.  This weekend  was a bit lighter, but the rides are getting to be 5-6 hours, and are immediately followed by runs that are stretching past 1 hour now - totaling about 7 hours for a Saturday workout.  I think the enormity of the event is finally sinking in with Adam, and he has a different understanding when I tell him that this thing he's set out to do really is an incredible one.  The countdown is now to less than 4 months...  amazing how close it is!  If anyone is interested, the big day is Saturday, November 3rd at Panama City Beach, FL.  It'll be a long day, and the sport is not spectator-friendly, but the atmosphere of the athletes and the crowd is absolutely unparalleled.  If anyone wants to enjoy the beach with me that day, then congratulate Adam on an incredible physical accomplishment late that night, let me know.  :-)

As far as I am concerned, life goes on.  I have very much enjoyed spending quality time with college friends this spring.  Luckily two of them got married in June, which brought the crowd together for lots of fun - including bringing Meghan back from the east coast!  It was great to catch up with the roommate who has gone off and completed a Master's degree.  Family is doing well: Bryan family gatherings were all rescheduled around our busy schedules, including my dad's traveling to see students and (of course) our Scout stuff.  Adam's folks are continuing their now-annual globe-trotting, this year spending a month exploring Italy before joining their friends in Germany for a two-week bicycling trip before coming back just in time for classes to begin again.  We spent a long weekend in Florida in May for Adam's cousin's (beautiful!) wedding, and will spend another long weekend in Colorado next month for my cousin's wedding.  That cousin's sister brought a new kiddo into the world very recently, adding another Adam to the family.  :-)  As I said, family is well.

I'm thankful this summer is not as hot as the last, especially with Adam spending so much time outside these days.  I'll be glad if this trend will continue as we hang here through the summer, with the much-appreciated escape to Colorado soon.  I imagine the fall will center around training schedules, which will be fine as it will prompt us to hang with friends, sail with the Scouts, and relax whenever possible. Should be a good wrap-up for 2012.

One random, non-sequiter that I feel I shouldn't omit is that last week I, sadly, found that I had lost Lena - one of my parakeets.  I don't really know what happened; I was, at least at first, more shocked and wondering if I did something wrong than I was sad.  However, Keeley is keeping up the singing, chirping, talking and (more often than I'd like) screeching - appearing to be content enough.  I think I'll stick with one critter for now and see how it goes.

I know I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, but I really am hoping to get back into the swing of updating y'all here...  As we now know, I'll have plenty of time to myself on weekends, so what better time to sit down and reflect on how life is going - and to journal this journey of what, I'm sure, will be a very significant time in our lives.  I don't know the numbers, but there aren't many people who set out to accomplish such an incredible thing, and I'm glad to get to witness Adam's road to the finish.  I'm taking it as a time to get back to some things that I've left behind for a while...  scrapbooking, going to movies, having folks over for dinner, reading more, spending more time with myself.  It should be good.  Perhaps this free-thought blogging style will stick, too.  Hope it's entertaining and/or informative, or at least accomplishes my goal of keeping in touch with friends and family.

Take care, and drop us a line sometime.  :-)