Hello from Southern Oregon

Well I am writing this post from a hotel down in Florence, OR. Shalisa and I have been spending the last few days down on the Oregon coast. Yesterday we drove over from Silverton and spent the day in Lincoln City. We hung out there for a bit and then today we made the drive down to Florence. Tomorrow we will hang out down here for a bit, visit the dunes, go for a hike or 2, and then head over to I-5 and stop in Silverton to spend the night. Then Tuesday we plan on visiting the Oregon Zoo with Eric, Jamie and Taylor. This will be Maddies first trip to the zoo but I am pretty excited about it because Maddie really seems to enjoy any animals she sees, so this could be a really fun day.

I talked with Justin a bit this morning, it sounded like things at church with the launch of the small group locator online tool went well so that is really good. It also sounds like Justin has a long list of items for me to work on. I am kinda excited about that though, as it gives me an opportunity to donate some of my time and energy back to God and the church, something I have been lacking for the last few years to some extent.

This vacation, although definitely not one of our "bigger" vacations has been a real blessing. I think I needed some time to just step away from some of the craziness in my life the last few weeks. The only downside to this whole vacation is that it has been somewhat of a negative impact on my diet plans. About 2 weeks ago I decided I needed to get on a diet, my goal is to drop 70 pounds, which is quite a lot, but I think doable (assuming Shalisa doesn't get pregnant again anytime soon, that is what killed the last one). I actually was doing really well, I had already lost 12 pounds and was progressing along nicely, and then we went on vacation. It is a lot tougher to "diet" when you are eating out, so my hope for the vacation is just to maintain my current weight, then when I get back to town I can get back into eating a bit healthier.