Team Crothers

********Be sure to look below this post for more pics of Kiddos and thier first days of School**********


Tim's Journal 2.0
Sept 8th 2010

I t has been some time since I last logged in to my journal. Much has changed and things are well overall. I left Pascagoula Saturday, the 28th of August and was very glad to see it in my rear view mirror. No offense Mississippi, it’s me, not you… actually, it is you. Sorry about that!
I had a four and a half hour drive ahead of me which I absolutely cherished. This is always a highlight of mine to drive into unknown territories and take in the new views/people/restaurants/gas prices/smells/etc. About two hours in I pulled over to have a late breakfast at the always inviting Cracker Barrel restaurant. Yum. Moving on…
My plan was to hit Pensacola then head southeast on 98 right on the Gulf beach but somehow I missed the Pensacola turn off altogether. I pulled over once I saw signs that looked like I should be seeing once I passed Pensacola. I opened the map, studied it for about five minutes with my flashers on, Spoke on the phone with Angela, and we then decided that I was way off course. Just so happens that where I pulled off at was a direct south shot down to the 98 I was looking for, only it was an hour East of Pensacola! That’s ok, I hit the road and went through some very tiny but great looking small towns where they had track meets going on and little carnivals and even a big top revival tent. Praise the Lord!
Once I got to the city limit of Panama City Beach, I called my new bosses to let them know I would be there soon. I did not realize that our condos were on the far east side of the beach and it was the Labor day 3 day weekend. 50 minutes later I show up at the condo. It’s ok.
My Condo is just like one of those timeshare World mark type places where all the furnishing, sheets, kitchenware, and everything was all set up. And my large window stretching from East to West across my living room gave me an amazing view of the ocean just outside my window and across the pool deck. The sand is like sugar color and feels about the same. The weather here is a steady 90 degrees and the water is about the same! I was and still am in complete awe compared to the whole set up in Pascagoula.
Sunday was my first full day here and with no work to go to yet, I went shopping for some snorkel gear. Found a CVS, went all out on a $12.99 combo set of high tempered plastic lenses on the face mask and matching blue and orange snorkel that attached right on the side of the goggles! SWEET! I have only snorkeled once before and that was in the Caribbean with Angela on our ten year anniversary. That was actually pretty rough because we where way out in the ocean and the waves were large, too much sucking saltwater. This here though, wow, I never knew how much fun and addictive it is. I can walk straight out my beach a hundred yards and the water is still only up to my waist. This is amazing; I have seen literally thousands of fish and even two different beautiful and large stingrays.
The first day I went in the ocean three different times and basically after being there for about 45 minutes I was chased to shore by little annoying yellowtail fish. They freak me out! They nip/bite at you and they are much faster and accurate swimmers than I. I would wave my hand at them and they would keep pace with my hand back and forth just was quickly as I whipped it. Yikes, just very unnerving is all. Now when I go out, I take my CG knife with me and we have a stand off at sea! Yesterday… I won! After a long dance and stare down with my little yellowtail fishes, they became frightened of my shiny pointy blade and decided to go pick on some other unsuspecting woman with an ankle bracelet on. Champion!
I made my tacos last night and only ate 14 of them, I bought 18 shells so it was a failure.
My first day of work here was good and after laying all the ground work to get Pascagoula Demobilized, this is already second hat for me. Easy peasy. Although the work is good, I would still rather be home with my buddies; Team Crothers.
I have been well received here and the folks here are glad to have my assistance as they know nothing of how to go about accounting for the property and splitting it up with BP. Also, it is very tricky getting the vendors to take back their equipment months before they have to. My current office is actually in a Connex box but it has air conditioning and I am loving this 68 degree temperature in here. I am making phone calls, scheduling our guys to conduct inventories, making appointments for our CG Computer network shut downs for both Pascagoula as well as Panama City. I imagine sometime next week they will send me to Pensacola to do the same for that last VSU. (Vessel Support Unit).
Either way, this is a much better set up than where I came from but it is tough knowing I have to pack up and leave again just to settle down again in a new location soon.
I have been so blessed to be able to use the internet video chat windows to talk with my family back home every night and I think it helps them to see Daddy as well.
I have been thinking a lot lately about how Jesus has taught us to Bear Good Fruit. This has challenged me to look at how I live and I need to make some changes. I am for the most part, an introvert and with that being said do not actively seek people out and engage in “Christian” conversations. I was looking into it and in Galatians 5 22-23 it speaks of fruit as being “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control” as sign of good fruit. Now I feel that the first eight items are things that are never perfect but that I don’t feel like I struggle in any of those areas. The last one in “self control” however I do feel like this is somewhere that I can daily work on. Still though, when I think of an apple tree bearing fruit, I think that I can pick out an apple tree from 50 yards away no question. With that I ask myself, can someone tell I am a fruit bearing Christian from that distance? Food for thought and something that I will be working on in the coming days/lifetime.

More later!
-Tim

Be sure to look below for more pics of Kiddos and thier first days of School!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!