New Year 2012

Happy New Year!
The island life is something, that's for sure. With it comes beautiful ocean views, quiet beachfront frolics, salty breezes and a general content'ness with less. It also comes with challenges. In some cases we wear the outsiders scarlet letter... which looks like a bullseye to some nefarious folks. In any case, we are less than 4 months from repatriating ourselves back to the good ole U.S. of A.

This year has been eventful. For me, I've travelled to Florida a couple times. I've witnessed Julie's wedding to her new man! I've even made it to Utah and Las Vegas to visit my other family folks. There're a few I've missed. I haven't seen my oldest brother Larry in quite some time along with a few cousins and uncles. I'd like to see Larry, he has to be balding more than I seem to be.

The kids are getting bigger and bigger. They both can speak pretty well, asking for things in full sentences. Brylee can handle her business almost entirely herself, which is a huge plus. It's crazy thinking back to when we first started this foreign journey with her in diapers. I really feel this experience will be good for them. I think we've done well to support their development while protecting them from learning some of the less savory behaviors some other island kids have out here.

Looking forward we can't wait till Jan 18th. We should find out where Jeanann is accepted on about that date. I've been accepted to NCSU's MBA program and we both hope we end up there. It's a good spot and seems to have everything available that we'd like for our family. I'd like to attend NCSU's MBA and use it as a catapult to accelerate my career and professional development in the health/business world. I'm open minded to what opportunities it may bring. My expectations are pretty high...

Jeanann's excited also. NC has a pretty developed lab animal culture along with a couple opportunities for her to look into. Guess we'll have to see.

Happy New Year! I hope to drink 1 too many, and I hope you will all celebrate with me whether you plan to drink or not! Salud!

Sometimes I find myself getting so caught up with all the stress that's going on with school and forget about what's important in life; it just takes a little one to open your eyes. Tonight, I kiss the kids and reluctantly say my good-byes for another stretch of a very long 3 days of spending 18hrs/day at school. I give Nate a bit of a long kiss and turn around to see Brylee smiling in our direction. She says: "Daddy kissed a princess, let me show you", she walks us to our wedding picture on the kitchen counter..."See, Mommy is a princess and Daddy is her king".

Finals are rough. Especially when you have to actually pass one of them (Small Animal Surgery), so you don't have to spend 4 more months and 30K in school loans on this island. I'm sure 5 years from now I will forget what this kind of throat-closing stress feels like; but I'm sure there will be new stresses to endure. Nate and I are going to do the transition back to this blog and away from Facebook - it's a big time-waster. I'm going to help him out with posts this time, I promise ;)