Well… It’s been a wild and crazy week…
My first official day of sabbatical was Thursday, July 20th. I said my goodbyes to my team on Wednesday and walked out the door with mucho anxiety… Anxiety that stems from the “what-ifs” of my job and the unknowns of what the next 30 days would bring while I was away. Thursday and Friday, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I ran a few errands with my wife and caught myself pacing the floor as she checked out, my brain going 1,000 miles per hour, wondering if I left enough instructions for Terry, Jessie, and Jake, second guessing myself if I had sent an email that I needed to send, etc… The good news? I woke up on Saturday morning to an epiphany! This is MY sabbatical and I’ve got all the confidence in the world in the people who are handling my responsibilities while I’m gone.
So what have I been up to?
Friday and Saturday, July 21 – 22, My cousin’s wedding:
I was able to help my family setup my cousin’s wedding at T&P on Friday. We setup the wedding and the reception, attended the rehearsal dinner as my oldest son, Griffin, was the ring-bearer. Saturday morning came around and we arrived promptly at 9am for the 10am wedding. After the awesome ceremony the reception was a huge bacon… I mean… breakfast buffet with anything you could imagine… including mimosas. Sam Corbett (who you will all soon meet) is the father of the bride!
July 22 – 28, trip to the beach:
My family of five, my parents, my grandmother, and my sister’s family all trekked down to Galveston shortly after the wedding ended. We rented a big beach house and just RELAXED for five days. Nothing to do, nowhere to go, just bum out on the beach, fish, and SLEEP (and eat). We had a great time, but also had a scare on Wednesday. All the ladies decided they didn’t want to watch the men fish all day, so they went shopping. My grandmother, who is 80, ended up falling on a sidewalk in downtown Galveston and hit her head and elbow. We later found out that her elbow was broken and her wrist fractured. Thankfully, her head was fine. God provided a lot of good people that day to help her out. There was a registered nurse who witnessed the fall and immediately took action. My wife called 911 and an ambulance came right away. The ER doctors at UTMB were first class all the way and made her a priority. They communicated with her doctor here in Abilene. She does require surgery on her elbow, but will be able to do that here at home. Please keep her in your prayers.
Jeff and Rob: As you look through the pictures below, you will notice I haven’t shaved in quite some time. Please don’t hold this against me. (HA!)
Saturday, July 29, My Cousin’s proposal:
You remember my cousin from that got married up there ^^^? Well, her brother proposed to his girlfriend, Becca, TODAY. He had this planned for a while now, and the entire family got to witness it from the press box at the McMurry baseball field (a good amount of my family graduated from McM, me included). It was an awesome sight, and reminded me of my proposal to Andrea. The memory of the nerves I had that day all came back. The journey that they are starting is the same journey that has given me a beautiful, hard-working wife and three amazing boys, and I look forward to witnessing those events in their lives.
So what’s on tap for this next week? I begin my service project at Global Samaritan in the warehouse. Football is back with a vengeance and practice starts on Tuesday for my two older boys. This will be Griffin’s (age 8) fourth year and Kipptyn’s (age 6) third year in football, and my 3rd year of coaching their football teams.
Gazaille… Over and out.