Early father's day...
I was wondering to myself the other day why I don't write in my journal very much, and I decided that it's because the majority of what I would write about would be work, becuase that's just what I think about, where I spend a lot of my time, etc., etc. And if I did that, it would have to be complaining about work (because I don't like a lot of what I have to do), and I spend a lot of time trying to convince myself that it's not really that bad, so I don't want to undo all my self-brainwashing by complaining a lot in my journal, heh. ;-)
But anyway, that's not what I wanted to write about. I wanted to post to say that I have the most beautiful and wonderful children ever. We had an early father's day yesterday because I have duty today, and then my ship is getting underway this weekend. My daughter, all by herself, without any help from mom, wanted to buy me knee and elbow pads for when I ride my bike. How cool is it that my three year old daughter is worried about me? I think it's great. I don't want to wax too emotional, but having a little girl is exactly everything I wanted it to be. I rub noses with her at night at bedtime, she loves pink, she tells me that she 'loves me more than the ocean'. She can be a little demon sometimes, but mostly she is great.
My son got me new athletic socks, which is great becuse the ones I have are very worn and falling apart. It was very thoughtful of him. A bit about my son - I love him greatly too, and he is also what I pictured having a boy was like. He's very active, and likes to play, etc., and unfortunately he and I have a history of bumping heads. When he gets something into his mind, it takes a colossal amount of effort to convince him that he's not being reasonable or that he's not going to get his way, etc. He takes a lot of effort to parent. The good part is, that he and I have really started getting along the last couple of months. We've started playing together a lot more, and he's become really interested in star wars, which has been a good bond between us (I'm not a nut, but I think it's cool).
My wife got me some software that is very handy to study the bible, but unfortunately I have the exact version in book form, so I was sad that I had to tell her becuase it was a very thoughtful gift. I appreciated that she got it for me. She really is a great wife. I don't know what I did to get so lucky as to have met the woman of my dreams at the age of 14, but it must have been something great. We have our agruments sometimes, etc., but we get along so well together, we agree on a lot of things, we talk about everything, etc., we're really close.
Like I said, sorry to wax sentimental, but I just wanted to jot my thoughts down on how great my family is. I've been thoughtful today becuase today is pretty symbolic; my ship is just coming out of a maintenance period, and we are going to be an active sea going vessel again, meaning I will be gone more often. Like my wife said, going out to sea is hard enough, but on top of that I have to be on the ship once every 4 days while I am in port, which makes being close to my kids difficult. Ian the other day told me that he wished that I didn't have to go to work so much, and it hit me pretty hard. This certainly isn't an easy life. And then my captain springs on me that I am getting underway for a day or two next week with another ship, right before we leave again for a couple of weeks....but that would be complaining about work, and I don't want to do that too much. ;-)