2022: New Year, Same Old Me.

      It's true, we have all finally made it to the long awaited 2022. As if the passing of a single calendar day, emphasized by the rolling of another tick that is a year in the 21st century could have any significance. Perhaps if one makes it significant then it holds some sort of weight, but I have chosen not too hold such things within my mind. Resolutions? Not for me.

    I will continue to be the same person that I have always been. Will I get in better shape this year? I will certainly try after my long hiatus from the gym being the station commander. Will I be a nicer person? I certainly will try, but sometimes I will fail and go nuts on someone in traffic texting on their phone. Perhaps I will change my dieting habits this year and stop reaching for so many sweets? Unlikely. I will try to eat less processed foods/fast food and go for more meats, fruits and veggies. I have always like the idea of becoming a carnivore or sticking to the paleo diet, but it seems like a lot of work. Just today I find myself reaching for my usual sweets with a pretty bad craving for them. I made a mashed sweet potato instead. It filled my stomach but did little to suppress my craving for processed sugar... perhaps I will try the paleo diet this year. More to follow.

     The point is, I don't feel like mentally committing to a gargantuan life change just because the new year rolled around. The new year means little to me other than the adjustment period when I continue to write the old year down on papers I sign instead of the new year. This will last a few days/weeks. If there are changes I want to make I will make them when I want, and I certainly won't hold myself to a goal of doing some thing or abstaining from some thing for an entire calendar year. With 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year you are bound to fail and with a failure will come added stress and self-doubt, of which I have no time for. Instead I'll just start small and try to eat less cookies!

     Something of some significance to me is that just before the new year started, I began drinking real, caffeinated coffee again. It is fairly significant to me because I quit all forms of caffeine and tobacco in November of 2011, which means that for 10 years I had no significant intentional use of caffeine. Every sleepless night followed by an early morning was fueled either by rage, hatred or a dull sense of duty to keep my job. Now I'm back on the horse and not really because I want/need the caffeine; I clearly operate fine without it. I just love coffee and Decaf really doesn't taste the same or come in nearly the same variety. Did the real coffee help fuel me during my last days as a station commander? Absolutely. I certainly was able to power through morning work super well. But the evening crash is a little much. I'm getting used to it though. I may quit the real coffee later this year, but then again, I may not. No pressure! Hope you, dear reader, have a great year as well, whatever year it may be!

2021 Christmas Letter

     What a year 2021 has been for our portion of the Moore Dynasty. Many changes in work, additions to our family and of course many experiences by all! It was not a dull year by any stretch of the imagination. It was a year of extreme ups and downs, highs and lows, valleys and mountain highs. We made it together, the 5 of us now, and are looking forward to next year and what it will bring!

     Oren, our oldest, continues to grow like a weed weighing almost 45 pounds and fast enough to really give you a good bruise should he choose to headbutt you at full speed. This year we went through a short lived plane obsession phase that has been replaced with a more permanent obsession: snakes. The boy loves his toy snakes, stuffed animal snakes, watching snake videos, trying to be a snake, talking about snakes and more importantly catching snakes. While he hasn't caught one yet, he has found them under rocks often enough that having a snake in a bucket after dad catches it is becoming more frequent. Just this morning we caught a beautiful Texas Brown Snake and as usual he was pretty upset when we had to let him go. Oren is so extremely smart and continues to blow my mind with his vocabulary on a daily basis.

    Ryker, our middle child, is about as wild as a child can get I imagine. This year he has really found his voice and started talking in complete and coherent sentences versus the mumbling we started the year off with. Quickly this has progressed to the full on expression of his disdain or disagreement with the instructions his mother and I give him. His favorite and most frequently uttered word is, "no". He is full of sass and is not quiet about it! He is extremely rambunctious and fears nothing. The boy would jump from the tallest of towers given the chance and says "hi" to every other person in the grocery store. He smiles through the crack in his bedroom door when he gets out of bed too early and likes to snuggle a few minutes later because he is tired once more. He mimics his older brothers fascination with snakes and has many snake toys and makes as many snake sounds as Oren. Ryker too has shot up in height this year and is picky as ever with his food making him a skinny fellow like me when I was a boy. He is, or so I am told by my mother, of the same manner as I was when I was a child. Lord, I know what comes around goes around but please be with us should he be half as much trouble as I was. A foreshadow of things to come, this year Ryker single handedly destroyed his crib by tripping and smashing his head into the crib, breaking a wooden support while suffering nothing more than a nasty bruise. That was how he ended up with a twin size bed!

    Nico is second brightest light of the world next to the Sun God has given us. He hardly ever fails to smile his no tooth, gummy baby smile whenever you look at him. He laughs at every tickle and every toy. He rolls over and looks at you with such a cute baby boy face you can't help but pinch his chubby cheeks and give him a kiss! At 6 months old now he sleeps most of the night, sucks down bottles and eats 2-3 baby food jars a day. His grandparents from NC and TX spoil him with new clothes and toys all the time! He loves hugs from his bigger brothers and can watch them play all day! Only getting upset that he, a baby, is unable to walk or crawl fast enough to keep up with them. We are soaking up every second of him being our last baby boy under our full time care, and eagerly await every last milestone for him to reach as a baby!

    BethAnne had one heck of a year being the literal best mom and wife in the world! Pregnant for half of the year, she gave birth to our 3rd son, Nico Moore, in mid June. She toughed out this last pregnancy while managing to wrangle our 3 year old and 2 year old, Oren and Ryker. She also had to weather me being gone for nearly 2-months to ALC as COVID lockdown rules stupidly kept me locked down on Fort Sam Houston. On top of 2 toddlers and a newborn she was also my rock at home as I worked pretty late most days from June to mid December due to my new position. This was a huge challenge for her and she did outstanding and she is looking forward to have 3 young boys at home and myself being home more often going back to a shorter work schedule! BethAnne has also put in her retirement packet with the National Guard, and we are praying that it goes through smoothly. The Texas National Guard attempted to send her to the Texas/Mexico border for 9 months to a year and that was about the last straw for her. She has recently been able to pick up a new hobby over the holiday season, jewelry making, and I pray the boys will give her enough time in the evenings to enjoy it! I love you babe, thank you from the bottom of my heart for every thing you do; you are the glue that keeps this family of 5 together and happy!

   I started off this year as a regular DA select recruiter doing good and putting in my one person per phase line. I ended it as a station commander ready to hand the station off the incoming station commander. As previously stated, I went to ALC this year and I'm glad that it's only a one time school and that I will have a few years until I attend SLC. I have a huge respect for the NCO Corps but the NCOES system should be re-evaluated; that is all I will say about that. I was able to catch up with a buddy of mine there so not a complete loss. I got a new motorcycle this year, a KTM 1290 Super Adventure R, which I have ridden in all sorts of weather. My loving wife got me a Big Green Egg grill/smoker which I absolutely love and have been firing up several times a week since getting it! I have been spoiled this year by her in all aspects and cannot fully express my gratitude for her. I have decided that I shall not be converting to a full time recruiter (79R) and wish to head back to the operational Army when my 3-years in USAWRECK is done. Early mornings and late nights every single work day kind of sucks when you have such a wonderful family at home! 

    The Good Lord has blessed us every single day this year. We have laughed and cried. We have been with family and friends. We have grown together and closer. It's been a heck of a year, I hope that next year will only get better. Farewell 2021, welcome 2022, lets just keep going up from 2020!! God be with you and yours this year. - The Moore's