March Madness



Irish, Shod, and Silas

This past month has definitely been an interesting one, especially with family members in all parts of the world! I am glad to say that my brother, Shod, his wife (Irish), and son (Silas) are all safe despite the record breaking Earthquake and Tsunami they experienced earlier this month in Japan. Shod was actually deployed out on his ship, the U.S.S. John McCain, when this happened and stated that he could feel the quake in the ocean and witnessed oil riggs exploding on the mainland. He was scheduled to pull into the port the day this happened and was immediately sent back out to sea to participate in relief efforts without the opportunity to see his family first. Fortunately, they have all just been reunited as of today! I would like to commend Irish on her strength and courage to get through this difficult time on her own with a baby!! Thank you for being such a strong support for Shod and keeping my nephew safe!





Home!







Oil Riggs from the Ship







Bill's brother, Mike, is currently deployed on the 26th MEU and has been a main player in all of the Libya Action that has been going on. We continue to keep him in our thoughts and prayers and look forward to his safe return to the United States within the next couple of months!

Bill

As for Bill, WTI kicked off March 13th, which means he has spent alot of time preparing his classes for the students who have come from all over the country to participate in the 6 week course. He taught his first class yesterday, which went well! I think he is relieved to have that first one completed and under his belt. At this point, the academic phase is almost over and they will be moving into the flight phase soon, which means alot of flying over the next three weeks--the fun part so-to-speak!

As for me, I continue to work with ACTS as a Dedicated Case Manager. However, there was a vacancy for a therapist position that I applied for, but the position froze before they could hire anyone. I continue to hold out hope that this will re-open in the future. In the meantime, ACTS has decided that they will still assign a few clients to me for therapy anyway, which I am excited about as I hope this is the first step to transitioning full time into this position. Overall, I am enjoying my position  as a case manager as we get to do alot of neat things with the kids. For instance, I took 9 kids to the MCAS Airshow over the past weekend for prejob development. It was harder to keep them entertained than I thought, but I think they enjoyed it:) Over the next week, I will get to take my probation kids to the Balboa Science Center and am also taking a group of kids hiking out at Lake Cayamuca (don't ask me how to pronounce this!). It is always rewarding to expose kids to different activites that they may not have had the opportunity to do before.


Trek 1200



Other than work, Bill and I have both been working on our fitness. In fact, I finally went ahead and bought an entry level road bike for Triathalons! I have yet to ride it as I need some lessons on riding with the clip in shoes! Fortunately, I have some pretty knowledgeable individuals helping me out here and I should be riding in no time. I have my first Triathalon scoped out in Encinitas on May 15th. Other races that I am preparing for are the Warrior Dash, which is a mud race/obstacle course on May 1st in Florence, AZ. I did this race last year and it was the best time ever! Here is a preview of what the Warrior Dash is all about:

                                                                                                            http://www.warriordash.com/.

Warrior Dash 2010
Moutain City, GA

I have also just signed up for the San Diego Rock n' Roll Half Marathon on June 5th, which I am excited to run! The last half marathon  I did was the Kentucky Derby Half with Bill in 2009. In addition to the Kentucky Derby Half, I have done the Wilmington Battleship Half in 2008. Both races I think I could have prepared more for, so I am hoping and thinking that I will be better prepared for the San Diego Half !! Mile 8 is always a killer when you aren't fully prepared!:) Hopefully, additional training will result in breaking 1 hour 50 minutes. So it looks like the month of April will be spent running (and hopefully biking)!! I look forward to when Bill is wrapped up with WTI so that we can pick out a race or two to run together! We always have alot of things we want to do, but never enough time:) We are still working on our upcoming hiking plans over Memorial Day and will keep you posted!!