52 weeks

In 52 weeks life is going to feel singificantly more chill than it does right now.  362 days to be exact.  At this time next year comps will be behind me as will the manic chaos of a full school schedule, work schedule and seeing patients and doing testing at 2 different sites and running around DC to have supervision with 3 different individuals.  I am now consistently in DC for 14 hours at a time often times driving around to 2-3 different places throughout the day.  I am officially in the midst of the maddness that is The Second Year.  But the Lord is proving to be very faithful.  I feel like I've settled into a groove (just on time for school to start. . . though when school starts I won't be waking up @ 5 am to go to the hospital more than 1x a week so that actually may help things to feel a little less tiring ;)

I did take 36 hours of summer vacation for the year.  Philip has been at a pretty wild crazy training in FL. (learning how to shoot AK47s, learning how to shoot through glass out of speeding vehicles, doing some wild defensive driving (things that I had only ever seen on crazy crime shows), and growing accustomed to being under survelliance [which I got to experience from the minute I stepped out of the airport.  . . very interesting. . . ]).  He got home today and is sitting next to me.  He can harldy move - thankfully not because of the nasty welts that are he came home withs ("pain concequences") but because of his most recent Crossfit workouts.  I digress. . .

We decided that I'd go down and visit for the weekend.  It was really nice to spend some time away from home where it seems like the "busy" of life bleeds into most of our time together these days.  I didn't manage to not have to deal with some clinic/school stuff BUT I did my best to disconnect for a bit.  It's as good as it'll get for the next year.  So we'll go with it. . .  We're actually both feeling okay and ready for the intense pace.

So my report on 36 hours in FL.  I got there on Fri.  We had dinner.  Sat. we slept in a bit and then headed up to Orlando and went to Sea World.  We paid homage to Shamu which brought back nastalgic memories for Philip.  Little did I know, the senimentality of my otherwise not-super-attached-to-objects was about to rear its ugly head.. . .  We headed to the beach.  Cocoa Beach.

Enter "the shark magnet".

So I hadn't make this connection, but this was not Philip's first time to Cocoa Beach.  Oh no, you see we actually have a  hideous magnet on our refrigerator from Philip's first visit to Cocoa Beach back when he was a teenager (Philip is reading over my shoulder and wants me to say "Philip thinks it's not hideous.  It's definitely the coolest magnet we have".)  Try as I have to ditch this dumb shark magnet, it still is affixed to our refrigerator.  Sadly, it has not become a casualty of any of our moves (the stuff you actually want to dissapear never does - the stuff you love and need gets trashed. . . it's murphy's law of military moves).  Philip's mom made very sure that it left her household when Philip and I got married (and I can understand why).  When I got Philip, I got the shark magnet too.  Philip's mom and I have try to employ the same tactic with this magnet - we both routinely move the magnet out of sight by placing on the side/bottom of the refrigerator  (I didn't learn this from her but after a few months of my doing it he said that was what his mom always tried to do too. . .  great minds think alike.  Unfortuately for us in this situation, our brilliance has not yielded victory).  And each time we do, Philip moves it back to "its place of prominence in the front" (his words not mine).

So we're driving to the beach and Philip sees a sign for Ron Jon's Surf Shop.  Suddenly I hear (he says it was "coldly calculated" - wow blogging with him sitting next to me is a bit of a challenge) "THERE IT IS!  I can get another magnet?"  I looked over at him in the car like "what on earth are you talking about?"  He explained that this was the perfect opportunity to get another shark magnet.  Maybe 2 - one for his mom too!  I told him 2 definitely wasn't in our budget but if he HAD to get one for his mom that I couldn't stop him (but if he was going to get one for the house I live in I WOULD stop him. . . sorry Laura).  We were in hysterical laughter about the whole thing.

*Sadly* when we got to Ron Jon's, Philip could not find the same 1990s-esque tourist trash shark magnet.  But let me tell you - he checked that store top to bottom.  And this man hates shopping.  Hates stores.  Hates anythign touristy.

The dolphin magnets that the store now carries weren't quite macho enough for Philip.  A-okay with me!

It was absolutely comical but a beautiful memory and will continue to provide a wellspring of laughter. I hate that stupid magnet but I love my husband more than life and I love love love how he makes me laugh.

On a not so joyous note, we received the sad news that Philip's uncle passed away this week after what has been a horrendous 9 month battle with brain cancer.  It's been a heart-wrenching, painful nightemareish situation that has unfolded since we received the news of the diganosis at Christmas.  I ask for your prayer for Philip's cousin as well as Philip's dad, uncles and grandfather as they mourn the loss of their dad, brother and son.