I have to say, it has been an extremely long time since I wrote last. This has to do with a few, small details, namely:
1) A son who is so darn adorable and fun that any "free" time I used to have is spent playing and being with Will
2) My grandfather passed away this past Spring. He was the last living grandparent....I lost my last three in the last two and a half years. Because of some work committments and do to cost issues, I was not able to make the trip to W.Va. with the family for the funeral. My family was very gracious with me for not being there, but they were also hurt and disappointed in me for not making it happen. Nothing said outright, but I know it's there. Hell, it's there from me about myslef too. I think I have been avoiding writing on the blog to avoid openly dealing with the feelings of hurt and loss.
3) The fact that I have had six new full-time staff members start over the summer. The training and development of my staff team has taken as much energy and time as I knew it would (they are all fantastic by the way).
4) The final preparations for opening our residence hall system with 150 more students than we planned to have. (Can anyone say, triples?1$&%^)
5) Football season has started. OSU killed Texas this past weekend. Dallas choked. I have been working my officiating assignments and having a ball.
6) A trip home to Oklahoma and the St. Louis area this summer. Three weeks in the midwest during the June/July heat. Fun. Actually, it was a great time....a little long. Lots of good times with family...got to see a Triple A ballgame in OKC (really nice ballpark) and also got to watch a game with Dad in the new Busch stadium. The Royals did in the Cardinals in extra innings.
7) Have I said that we have an 8 month old running around the house?
8) Have I said that football has started?
I guess the other two reasons why I have not had time to write is that things that used to be sooo easy to get done (dishes, taking out the trash, vacuuming, picking up the dog's poop in the backyard) now seem like herculean tasks with everything else that is going on. And then, of course, things stack up and the job gets harder. We have definetly initatied the "it's clean enough" rule in our house!
The second reason is that every minute I am not over working on the job or playing with Will is spent trying to continue to have a coherent and somewhat connected relationship with Cambra. This is the one piece I did not fully expect...I thought going through the child raising experience would almost automatically draw us closer together. In many ways it has. But the sheer time and attention demands make it difficult to find alone time...mental, physical, spiritual alone time with each other incredibly difficult. We are working hard to make this a priority and things seem to be going well/better....every aspect of my life is so much better when I am fully connected with Cambra!
So, I hope this serves as a good update. Check out the pics of Will. He is getting so big, so expressive, so hilarious, and still so beautiful! I hope to write more regularly as I try to figure out a way to make all of the rings in the circus work together better.
