Last post was when?!?

Hey, everybody, if there's anyone out there reading this. I just logged in and noticed that my last post was way the heck back in January. Holy cow! So, what have you been up to? I'll give you (and myself) a little trip through my 2011 so far. Should we start in January? Sure... why not?

Hang on... let me go get my day planner...

Okay, now that I've actually read my last couple of posts and remember what I was talking about at that time, I can carry on more intelligently.

Let's start with family. The Boy finished his Bear Cub Scout year in scouts. Our den had grown large enough that the pack leadership decided to split the bear den into two groups. The two registered leaders each went with one of the dens. Our den chief went with the new den and I was asked to register as a new assistant den leader for our group. (We kept the original den number.) Don't get ahead of me here... Anyway, shortly after I did all of my new leader training our den leader got sent on a "temp" assignment to Oregon for work and asked if I could handle the den on my own. Since Marines are always able to improvise, adapt, and overcome, I said "sure" and was thusly promoted into the den leader's position. Long story less long: we (I) coordinated our pack's blue and gold banquet in February, helped my son build his pinewood derby car for March, and made sure that all of my Bear Cubs earned their rank achievements and were promoted to Webelos at the last pack meeting of the school year. In fact, here's a shot of me putting the Webelos neckerchief on my son...

He looks like he's been busted for something, but the truth is that I am very proud of him and I'm actually looking forward to leading him and his den through the Webelos scouting experience. I'm not sure how many of them will succeed in earning their Arrow of Light but as their den leader, I will do my best to encourage them (and their families) to do their best... and that's the cub scout motto anyway. =)

Okay, so on to sports. I ran a 5 mile race in January, but got lucky enough that the weather was at least clear if not warm, so I earned my t-shirt for the "Frosty's Frozen" for that one. I looked into the Marine Corps Marathon, but decided that with my pending retirement I should stay closer to home, so I registered for another shot at the Denver Rock-n-Roll marathon in October. I also completed the Flying Pig marathon in Cincinnati in May. Here's a shot of us crossing the bridge into Covington at the 1 mile mark. I'm actually in the middle of this picture, wearing my Denver t-shirt...

I thought I might be, based on the time (I started in a group about 10 minutes back) and I recognized the group of runners in the red, white, and blue jerseys so I took a closer look, and I'm right in the middle of the picture. Here's a better shot of me, taken by my sister, just before the end of the race... notice I'm still "running" here also!

I finished this race in 5:01:53, which killed my time in Denver, so now I have a new target... get through in less than 5 hours. However, I don't know if I'll be able to make that this next race because of some other medical issues.

I had surgery to repair my right shoulder (again) just last month. I went to the doctor because I had stopped making progress on my strength training so I asked for a follow up MRI to be done. The results came back that I have what is called a slap tear on my biceps tendon. I was referred to the orthopedics clinic at the Air Force Academy and they decided that surgery was in order. I went back in and they basically drilled my biceps tendon into the bone in my arm and the part that's supposed to wrap up and around my shoulder before looping under my armpit and attaching to the pectoral area has been removed. Say it with me... "OUCH!" So, I've been in a sling for the past month and I start physical therapy on Thursday. I'm going to ask them if I can run and I'm hoping that with my previous marathon experience I'll at least be able to finish the race in October. I still want to run the Marine Corps Marathon, but it'll have to just be on my bucket list for now.

Speaking of the Marine Corps... I was passed for selection for promotion again this spring. I wasn't really surprised, but it still hurt. So now I am in the position of having to request transfer to the Fleet Marine Corps Reserve. Translation: I'm retiring at the end of my 20 years. My ceremony will be with just the active support staff at work and I've asked to have it on the Thursday before the Christmas weekend. That way, most everyone will still be there and I had an excuse to have my folks and Jen's mom come out for my ceremony and stay for Christmas. I went to a job fair in San Diego during our vacation last week and didn't find anything. It was very small and mostly filled with college reps and military recruiters. Sorry.. already settled there. I attended retirement classes last summer, but I'm going to TAP classes again here next month as a refresher. I'll also be submitting my claim to the VA at that time, since I'm six months away from transition. Guess it's a good thing I'm in school right now.

Classes are going pretty well. Other than the one that I bombed (by not turning in the final paper on time) I'm pulling in decent grades. I figure by the time this next semester is over my GPA should be back over 3.0. I've been advised to add a psychology minor to my OMHR degree since I want to work with transitioning service members and I've submitted the official request to make that happen. I even ordered some business cards from VistaPrint with that information on there. Now comes the hard part of pretending to care about my current job while I look to the future and try to find my next job.

We just got back from a week and a half in San Diego for our vacation. It may be our last trip for a while as a family. We met up with a friend of ours who does photography and celebrated our 15th anniversary with a family photo shoot. We got some really great pictures, but I think this one sums it up the best...

So, that's a run down of the first half of my 2011. I know I said I was going to do this update thing weekly, but so far, it's more like "weakly" and I'll have to work on that. Take care!