Marathons and Attitudes

Well I am finally writing another email.  My apologies for the long silence but in many ways it was unavoidable.  It seems like most of the action around here happens on the weekends and we have been extraordinarily busy for the winter season.  The extremist groups have been extremely busy in their efforts to manifest their power prior to the Afghan election in April.  They have been targeting officials high up in the Afghanistan National Army and unfortunately they have had some success.  We have an ICU full of leaders of all sorts that they have injured.  It is difficult to know how to feel emotionally when you see these things continuing to happen despite our efforts to suppress the violence.  I think that the main problem lies in the fact that the ‘bad guy’ is an ideal not an individual so your friend today can become your enemy tomorrow.  People who have access to our plans and facilities can feed that information to our enemies undetected until it is too late.  There have been multiple incidents here on base of people that have been infiltrated by these extremist ideals and have been caught poisoning our food or trying to plant bombs on base.  The hand of the Lord has been clearly evident in sparing life and is a testimony to me that God is aware of us always.  There is a lot of ‘tall-tale’ exaggeration going on about the specifics of these occurrences and so I will not join the speculation as I do not know the actual facts and leave it with what I have already said on the matter.

                This April 18^th will be the first Boston Marathon since the bombing last year.  The Boston Athletic Association that puts on the race each year is putting on a Boston Marathon Bagram version for us.  We found out about it with just over 7 weeks to prepare but who would pass up an opportunity like that?  I have been training putting in about 35 miles a week.  I injured my foot attempting to change my running style to a mid-foot strike which was extremely dumb on my part considering the short training time I have.  Someone told me that the mid-foot strike helps with knee pain which I suffer from so on a ten mile slow pace run I tried it and my knees didn’t hurt or at least I couldn’t feel my knees hurting because my calves were on fire for the last 4 miles.  The next morning I could hardly walk from the soreness in my calves but I also noticed the tendons on the top of my right foot were really hurting too.  As I stretched and moved around the calf soreness abated but the pain in my foot got worse.  I decided I had to stop running until it was completely better.  I started soaking my foot in a tub of ice water for ten minutes at a time which is a thrill in and of itself.  I highly recommend trying it if you have not had the pleasure.  After three days of staying off it and soaking it regularly it was on the mend.  I did my first easy three miles on it yesterday and it felt good.  I am going to continue to soak it after each run but I think I am back in the saddle.  I have a fourteen mile run next Saturday so hopefully I am all better or I will surely find out about it.  The race on the 18^th starts at 3 am and they give us six hours to finish so even if I have to crawl for part of it I should finish.  This will be marathon number three for me. I swore them off after the first one but somehow I just keep going back.  As I understand it we will receive the same T-shirts and medals as the people running the actual Boston Marathon and since I am nowhere near fast enough to qualify for Boston this is the only chance I will ever have to run in it even if it is 9000 miles from Boston.

                The last thing I wanted to write about this week is a lesson that I learned on attitude and duty.  Most of you know that on March 13^th it will be five months since I left home.  I feel like I have had a pretty good attitude about this deployment up until about 10 days ago.  It seemed as though a black cloud settled over our entire department.  There was a lot of complaining and whining and I was right in the middle of it.  I was doing my best to make Laman and Lemuel sound like Pollyanna and was succeeding.  I was confronted by the chief of my department about doing a task that I thought was unfair but gave a sort of noncommittal shrug to.  I did a mediocre job at the task and for about 4 days each time I came in there was a note of the board about some part of that task that was left undone.  On that fourth day I sort of lost it and went off on how I thought that it was unfair that I was assigned this task when it was really everyone’s responsibility.  I gave my tantrum of a speech and felt the righteous indignation of my cause burn in my heart and my coworkers balked a bit but finally agreed that I had a point.  As that night wore on I ‘came to myself’, playing through what I must have looked and sounded like in my mind.  I was horrified.  I was embarrassed and ashamed.  The attitude and tantrums had brought me nothing but misery.  Winning the argument had not solved anything or changed my situation or even made me feel better.  That night I decided to accept whole-heartedly the assignment I had been given and to do it to the best of my ability.  I sat down and wrote out the basic details of what I had been asked to do and then expanded upon them adding extra things in that I knew would make things better for my co-workers and for future deployers.  I went to work creating a system to make doing a great job easier and organized thing into a logical sequence.  By the end of the night I had a system in place and reported off what I had done to my department head.  She was clearly shocked at the complete reversal of my attitude from the day before.  That night when I came back into work there was no message on the board about things left undone.  I was filled with a tremendous sense of satisfaction at a job well done.  I continue to feel that satisfaction each day as I check off the tasks I have given myself.  Not that it really matters but since I have started to do my part others have stepped up and have found ways to lighten the burdens of others as well.  I still marvel at the difference in the way that I feel now and the way that I felt when I had the attitude of being picked on and unfairly yoked.  I think that this lesson is so applicable to our lives.  Relationships, callings, parenting, working, playing can become so much better as we accept full responsibility for their outcome.  We have way more control over situations that we like to realize.  Avoid the temptation to murmur to look at what you have compared to what someone else has, that comparison never yields anything but discontent.  Incredible growth and satisfaction comes to those who do their duty to the best of their ability and it is entirely independent of what anyone else is doing or not doing. 

                I hope this coming week holds great things for each of you.  Whatever is worthy of your time is worthy of your best effort.  Thank you all for your love and support during this amazing but difficult opportunity.  I wish you all the best.  

Washington Post Article

I know that I have not written an email this week.  Things have been busy but I wanted to post a link to a Washington Post article that was written recently.  I spoke with the reporters while they were here and I think that it fairly represents what is going on over here and highlights a couple of stories of young men I have cared for.  I hope all is going well for you.  Take care.

Washington Post Article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-last-casualties-as-a-long-war-ends-risks-still-prove-real/2014/03/04/55905998-8a90-11e3-a5bd-844629433ba3_story.html

At Long Last

A couple of emails ago I mentioned someone with henna dyed feet.  This is as close of a picture as I could find to what they looked like.

This picture was taken on the day I was told I had influenza.  This is a box that one of my classmates from CRNA school sent to me.  It was incredibly thoughtful of him to do something like that and it cheered me up greatly.

As you will recall from previous emails I was coerced into keeping my mustache for over a week after I could have shaved it so we could take a department picture in which everyone had a mustache.  This is the day that I finally got to shave it off.  I thought the biohazard sign was appropriate because when I would wake up in the morning or blow my nose my 'stache would be filled with all kinds of creepy stalactites.  Gross!

Kind of a bad picture but this is me having fun with the remains of my mustache.

  

This is the picture that I had to keep my mustache for.  I guess it was worth it.

We were suppose to take a hospital wide photo on the helicopter pad but at the last minute they cancelled it so Ally and I walked around taking pictures until the haircut place opened.  This is one of the rare totally clear days in Bagram.

Me and one of the heavily armored assault vehicles with a 50 caliber machine gun on the roof

Another of the giant armored vehicles that do patrols around base

An armored ambulance

Me and my mismatched name tapes

This is the group of OR staff that ran the Valentine's Day 5 or 10K.  We are only smiling because this was before we realized we didn't get T-shirts.  There was a live band you can see in the background.

A fuzzy picture of the runners during the race.

                                               This is Dr Bode who was voted to be cupid on Valentine's Day.  He is humongous.

Just hanging out with my bottled water.

This is high security tape sure to keep out anyone trying to get through this fence.

We saw this sign and found its location pretty funny.  I am not sure who put it there but I am pretty sure they were not in the Army.

I took this picture about an hour ago.  This is the flag I am taking home and using at my house.  I am planning on taking it to Normandy when we go this summer.  It is good to remember all of the places and countries over which our flag has flown and upon whose soil our men and women's blood has been spilled to defend what this flag represents.  I feel honored to be here making my own small sacrifice in a cause my nation has engaged in.  It gives me perspective and appreciation for what I have and so often take for granted.

Ground Hog Day

It is very appropriate that I am writing today’s message on Ground Hog’s Day.  If you have never seen the Bill Murray movie by that same name you really don’t need to because it is about a meteorologist newscaster guy (Bill Murray) covering the coming up of Punxsutawney Phil, the famous ground hog who looks for his shadow.  He wakes up every morning and repeats the previous day over and over and over.  Nothing he does changes the fact that he continually wakes up doomed to repeat Ground Hog’s Day.  I am feeling a lot like Bill Murray’s character.  So show you what I mean I will walk you through my schedule for the past week.

Monday

Wake up: 6pm

Us e the bathroom in the last cubical, shave, shower in the first shower cubical on the left, get dressed and head to work

6:30 pm: Arrive at work, change into scrubs,  get report from the day crew, check the ORs, stock supplies, inventory the narcotics, preop the patients for the next day’s cases, all that takes until maybe 7:30.

7:30 pm: Check personal, Air Force, Army and Bagram email accounts and answer any necessary   emails. 

8pm:  Call home and chat with Cami and the kids

8:30pm:  Start my personal study of the scriptures or conference talks. 

9:30pm:  Get dressed in my PT uniform to go workout.  Monday is upper body workout.

10:45pm:  Shower and change back into scrubs.

11:00pm: Watch some rerun of a basketball game on AFN (Armed Forces Network) the military version of cable TV.

11:50pm Change back into my regular uniform called OCPs to go to midnight chow.  Walk to the DFAC (dining facility), scan your ID card get no more than two Styrofoam take-out boxes.  Fill one with lettuce and kidney beans maybe some shredded carrots and bell peppers.  Go to the sandwich  line and get a turkey wrap with four pieces of turkey and one piece of swiss cheese with lettuce and cucumbers.  Get a cup of tortilla soup, walk back to the hospital and have dinner/movie, Monday we chose Crouching Tiger Hidden Plot or something like that.

2am:  Play cards with the OR crew until I get tired of loosing

3am:  Check email and Facebook to see what real people are doing

4am:  Check prices for European travel to get ready for our trip to France in June.

5am:  Eat one of the dinners I didn’t eat during the movie.  Watch AFN some more.

6am:  Call and talk to Cami again

6:30am:  Day shift arrives, report off.  Sit around and wait for breakfast to start at 7:30. 

7:30am:  Eat three boiled egg whites and oatmeal.

8am:  Head back to my dorm room and change into my jammies, brush my teeth and write in my journal.

8:30am: Try to go to sleep

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all exactly the same with the following exceptions

Tuesday: 

9:30:  Workout is Interval running and ABS

11pm:  Laundry Day, throw a load of laundry in but make sure it is done by midnight or it is thrown in a sack and put in the First Sergeant’s (aka the Shirt) office and you have to recite the Airman’s Creed to get it back because from midnight to 2am every day the laundry room is cleaned.  It usually only takes them about ten minutes to clean it but you can’t use it anyway.

1:30am:  Brought a US soldier to the OR with bilateral lower extremity amputations from an IED blast to the OR for 4 hours.

Also no cup of soup at midnight chow because it is usually Beef Noodle.  Movie was Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wednesday:

9:30:  Workout is Lower Body

Soup is Chicken Noodle.  Movie was Willow.

No oatmeal for breakfast.

Thursday:

Same workout as on Tuesday

Soup is Minestrone and movie was Johnny Lingo.

Friday:

Same workout as Monday

Soup is Vegetable, movie was The Help

Saturday:

At change of shift we usually will have an anesthesia staff movie night.  Day shift will get the stuff for build your own pizza or burritos or cheese dip and we will watch a movie together, this week it was Bourne Legacy. 

Workout is the same as Tuesday and Thursday

I don’t go to bed at 8:30 because church starts at 10am so I study some more.

10-11:30 Church

11:30am: Go to bed

I don’t work out on Sundays and I usually have French Toast for dinner or maybe a three-egg scramble with veggies but since I haven’t gone yet I can’t say what the day will bring.

They do try to break up the monotony with random things throughout the week.  Today in the hall there was a “Fashion Show” where people had to make their own costumes.  I will include those pictures on the blog.  That pretty much sums up the week, month, quarter . . . like Forest Gump says,” life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.”  Hope your week goes well.  Be safe.

www.thebookofbrett.blogspot.com

Low clearance.  Writing in my journal before bed.

I had to include these two pictures to squelch all the nasty rumors going around that Dr Landreth never does anything.

A picture is worth a thousand words

A mustache update.  I know it doesn't look any different.  I was suppose to be able to shave it off on Feb 1 but one of the docs asked me to wait until his wife sent the 'mustache on a stick' things for a group picture.  I reluctantly consented because she sent it priority.  So another two weeks.

None of the advice I have followed has made any difference.

This is our OR locker room.  My locker is on the top with the blue towel.  The guy with the bottom locker that is open hangs his shorts on the outside of his locker door.  That isn't a big deal until he hangs his shorts up after he has been wearing them to run.  When he hangs them up they are completely soaked with sweat.  They drip dry creating a huge puddle on the floor that I have had the misfortune of stepping in and soaking my socks.  Gross!

The Ground Hog Day meal, soup is Corn Chowder.

The 'catwalk' for the fashion show.  I was coerced into coming to watch.

This is our leadership in the hospital and the honorable judges.

Everyone had to make their own costumes. Some were serious most were funny.

These guys had the most elaborate costumes made out of biohazard bags and drapes. 

This guy won for this move right here.

"Man-uary"

Another week has come and gone. I had a birthday and started growing my first ever mustache. Most of the guys on night shift started growing mustaches in December. They kept trying to get me to join in but I have never been one for facial hair and so I respectfully declined their offers. On the 8th I was looking for some paperwork that I needed to submit to my commander back home. I had been looking for about 45 minutes when one of the main mustache boys asked what I was looking for. I made the mistake of telling him that if he could find it in less than 2 minutes I would grow a mustache for the rest of the month. In about 25 seconds I had the paperwork in hand and I was on my way to growing my first mustache.

This is Kim Freisen, the man behind my mustache.

 I am just under two weeks in and I have to admit that I am not impressed by my progress. Granted the other guys have several weeks on me but still I have a pretty sad looking caterpillar living under my nose. The sparse hairs are multicolored from blonde to red to black. It really bugs me to have it there. You can't eat anything or blow your nose without it ending up tangled in your lip hairs. My personal opinion is that very few guys were meant to wear Speedos and mustaches and I fall into neither category. I have begged to be able to shave it off but all requests have been denied. Darn those Air Force core values (Integrity, Service, and Excellence).

This is the mustache posse minus Kim who was still sleeping when this was taken.  We lined up from best to worst mustache, obviously best on the left!?  I keep telling myself that it is just because I am a week or so behind the rest but in my heart I know it's just because my 'stache stinks.

Takes you back to junior high doesn't it.

Sorry for the close up the nose shot but you have to get this close to really appreciate the grandeur of my facial hair.

In other news, I turned 37 on the 17th. The first gift I received was arriving at the hospital and putting in the code for the door lock and finding out that it no longer worked. 

This is the kind of door lock we have all around the hospital and the dorms.  It is called a cipher lock.  They usually have a 3-4 number code and they are all different so you just have to remember them.  They are putting these on all the dorm room doors because there has been a problem with thievery. 

I walked around in the dark until I ran into a colonel that was in the same boat. We just waited by the door until someone passed by. I hailed him over and told him that we didn't know the new code. He got all huffy and said that we should have received word through our chain of command. Clearly, we hadn't received the info but the guy just didn't let it go until he noticed that I was standing with a colonel and then his tirade just died in his throat. Stuff like this makes me wonder how we ever got to be the greatest military force in the world. Once inside I received a birthday package from my family and the OR crew made me a cake and sang. There were several people offering to give me birthday spanks but luckily I dodged that bullet.

Here is my fabulous birthday cake.

And here are those who were kind enough to celebrate with me.

You know you have been gone too long when your in-laws forget your name.  This is the label on the birthday package they just sent.  Just kidding Mom and Dad I know you love me, I just thought it was pretty funny.  Right up there with wedding presents that said "Congratulations Cami and Ryan", Ryan being an ex-boyfriend.

      That night we had our first battle casualties of the week. The one that came back to the OR was an Afghan soldier that was walking with his friend when an IED went off. His friend was nearly vaporized by the blast but he was peppered with shrapnel all up the left side of his body. A huge piece of shrapnel entered his left lung and he was losing large amounts of blood. Two chest tubes were placed in the field and then he was flown to us. Once in the trauma room he was assessed and sent to the CT scanner so the extent of his internal injuries could be evaluated. The trauma czar (yes they really call him that) came to the OR and told us that he needed to explore his abdomen for potential organ damage. He was brought into the operating room before we could get blood in the room to start transfusing him. Anesthesia drops the blood pressure of most patients but it really drops the blood pressure of volume depleted patients. This guy was in the latter category. I gave him medications that don't usually drop the blood pressure as bad and kept him only on a whiff of anesthetic gas but his pressure tanked. I gave some medications to bring it up but it doesn't work as well as replacing the blood that is lost. Eventually we got blood in the room and after slamming in six units he started to improve and stabilize. Trauma is almost like a separate animal all together. There are general surgeons that specialize in trauma but in anesthesia you need to learn to do it all. The hospital I work at in San Antonio is a Level I trauma center but rarely am I ever scheduled in that room. I had a great experience in Baltimore when the Air Force sent me to one of the busiest trauma centers in the country to prepare for battlefield trauma. It was a great experience but I had lots of people around to help and guide the resuscitation. Now we are baptized by fire in a feast or famine classroom. I am learning a ton and my confidence in my abilities grows all the time.

This experience is helping me to become a different person in all aspects of my life. It is hard to be away from home but being involved in something significant in the history of the world helps to distract my mind from homesickness. Be safe one and all.

I had to include this photo and the story that goes with it.  Someone ordered XL head covers for the OR and they are huge.  They must have been from the days when the beehive hairdo was all the rage.  Anyway, you could put one on and pull it down over your whole head and face.  One thing about growing up with five boys you are always looking for an opportunity to scare someone.  My unfortunate co-workers are now subjected to this habit of mine.  One day I went into the OR behind one of the nurses who was stocking carts.  I had one of the head covers pulled down over my face.  I ninja'd my way right behind her and quietly said "Boo" and simultaneously poked her in the back.  The most shrill scream I had ever heard erupted from this tiny nurse who spun around and once she saw my face shrouded by the head cover let out another eardrum rupturing scream accompanied by the most horrified facial expression I have had the pleasure of witnessing.  I doubled over laughing on the floor when three or four armed soldiers came bolting in to the room to see who had been murdered.  It was a glorious moment in Bagram history.

Resolutions

Every year at this time we tend to look back on where we have been and look forward to where we want to be.  One of the benefits of being deployed is plenty of time to reflect.  I have spent a lot of time thinking about things in my life that I want to improve or get rid of entirely.  One of the things that I have been thinking about is my weight.  Like many people, I have fluctuated in my weight ever since I got married.  There must be something in wedding cake that stops one’s metabolism.  After Connor was born my sweet Cami started a lifestyle change called Body For Life.  She did two consecutive 12-week periods of eating right and exercising and had such incredible results that I joined her for her third 12-weeks.  By the end we were both in the best shape of our lives.  We felt great and looked good too.

Originally I included our before picture but thought that I should get permission before I do.  This is after our 12-weeks of eating right and working out.  

Amazingly there is no shortcut to having a healthy strong body other than eating right and exercise.  It is almost as though there is a lesson to be learned there!

You would think that this picture would be a point of pride for me but it serves as a reminder of how far I've fallen.

  We maintained our figures for a short time and then fell back into old habits.  The lost pounds found their way back and I began to feel sluggish and wimpy again.  I know that this story is not unique to Cami and me but is one to which most can relate.  Years passed as did plenty of New Year’s resolutions to make changes that would lead to more permanent change.  There were periods during which I would meet my goals and drop some pounds and then would go right back to the same behaviors that got me in trouble to begin with.  Finding pounds was easy, losing them was hard.  I found that I had a talent for finding pounds and stopped trying to lose them.  I had a great job, lived in my dream home, had an amazing family and was literally living LARGE.  My weekly exercise consisted of walking behind my self-propelled lawn mower and occasionally helping someone move in or out.  I would still have the occasional desire to change, often associated with getting into my bathing suit which I become proficient in suppressing with a batch of cookies or two.  Things went on this way for years.  I would walk around comparing myself to those around me feeling justified by some and depressed by others.  I wasn’t happy.  I didn’t have any self control and I knew it.    

Hey, hey, hey!  Life was clearly treating me well, a little too well. 

It was at this time that I decided to change careers which meant going back to school.  My patient, wonderful wife supported me despite the great challenges this created for her and the kids, not the least of which was joining the United States Air Force.  In the back of my mind I remember thinking that in the military I would learn self-disciple and self-mastery which would be the solution to all my problems.  Not so.  After 30 months of school, living away from home while I did clinical rotations all over the country, I continued in my same well established habits.  Once I graduated and passed my board certification exam I went off to Commissioned Officer Training.  I was sure that this was the beginning of the end of my poor eating habits and roly-poly figure.  

These are pictures I took just before Commissioned Officer Training.  No need to exaggerate the belly fat, this is all natural.  

When I returned from training I was a few pounds lighter mostly because of a very short haircut.

To my great surprise the Air Force, out of necessity, had loosened its standards for physical fitness so that more people could pass.  I put my effort into getting into shape encouraged by the shrill voice of the drill sergeant always one step behind me.  I think the stress of that experience resulted in more weight loss than the exercise but I passed the physical assessment at the end of the 5 weeks without too much difficulty.  Life calmed back down as we settled into our new lives in San Antonio.  As a family we were introduced to Blue Bell ice cream, a Texas original that quickly became my new vice.  Once a year I was required to perform the physical fitness assessment which I found I could pass if I did push-ups and sit-ups for two weeks before and learned to ignore the desire to vomit while I ran. 

This story has now arrived at present day.  I am deployed in Afghanistan with lots of free time.  For the last twelve weeks I have done a decent job of exercising routinely and eating better than I did before I arrived.  I have seen good results in my physical appearance and in the way that feel.  

This is where I am after 12 weeks of being in Afghanistan.  There are some Abs in there somewhere but they are still hibernating under the protective coating of blubber.

However, in the back of my mind I know that I have not really changed the habits that will at some future time result in my return to the old me.  It is upon this aspect that I have been thinking and that I wanted to write today.  I know that all of us have things in our lives, habits that keep us from realizing our full potential.  Not everyone struggles with weight but this is an allegory of the human condition.  Our spirits can be just as out of shape and flabby as our bodies.  Addictions, pride, anger, laziness, dishonesty are the junk food for our souls.  We feel tired and worn out when our spirits are sick.  We can temper those feelings on a short-term basis by doing a few spiritual sit-ups like reading the scriptures for a few days, doing better at saying our prayers, and putting forth more effort to be aware of where we are.  Much of the time we fall right back into our old habits and things continue like this for years.  What is the solution?  What is the recipe for real change?  I think that the answer to this question is the same for physical and spiritual problems or weaknesses; it is the atonement of Jesus Christ.

The Book of Mormon teaches us that weakness is an invitation to come unto Christ, to recognize our inability to change on our own, to become humble enough to then seek out the Master and only then is the weak thing made strong.  Paul reiterates this teaching in the 12^th chapter of 2 Corinthians.  Paul beseeches the Lord to remove ‘a thorn of the flesh’ but the Lord tells him that His grace is sufficient for him (Paul) and that His (the Lord’s) strength is made perfect “in weakness”.  Paul’s attitude about weakness, infirmity, trial, persecution or distress of any form completely changes as he recognizes that “when I am weak, then am I strong”.  Finally, a modern day apostle, Elder Russell M. Nelson, in the October General Conference said, "We can change our behavior. Our very desires can change.  How?  There is only one way.  True Change--permanent change--can come only through the healing, cleansing, and enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  He loves you--each of you.  He allows you to access His power as you keep His commandments, eagerly, earnestly, and exactly. It is that simple and certain. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of change!” 

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/decisions-for-eternity?lang=eng

All of our weaknesses or problems are blessings because they are invitations to come unto Christ and be made whole.  Only when we yoke ourselves through covenant with Christ will our burdens, whatever they are, be made light.  I know that this is true.  I have experienced it in my own life and continue to each time I remember to look unto Christ and live.  Self-discipline then goes back to the root of being a disciple of Christ, living as he lived and using His strength where we are weak.  I have proven to myself over a lifetime that I can find temporary success through sheer willpower but in the end the only way to fully, completely, permanently change is through our Savior, Jesus Christ and His mercy and grace.  I think Nephi says it best in 2Nephi 25:23, “. . . for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”  All we can do is to surrender ourselves, to approach the altar of God and place upon it our failings, our weaknesses, sin and pride and allow it to be taken from us.  There is no other way.  There isn’t supposed to be another way.

I hope that as each of us begin this new year we will be like Paul, Moroni and Elder Nelson and remember that if you will trust in the power and strength of Christ rather than in yourself you will be permanently changed into new creatures.  I love the Lord.  I am grateful for His incredible goodness.  I love all of you and I am grateful for your unwavering support and love. 

Random pictures from this week

Waiting in line at the post office again.  This time it only took an hour though.  The girl sitting down is Ryan Krampert.  She is one of our anesthesiologists and my night shift buddy.  She is sending home her Gorilla box with all of her stuff cause she is going home! 

Gotta love the post office.

I sent this 60 pound box home.  So far the heaviest box I have shipped.  I cover all boxes with packing tape because inevitably they will get we at some point on their journey back to the states.