Welcome

Hello everyone!

This is my first attempt at blogging
so I hope you will have patience with
my new endeavors. There are so many changes in the Tolliver family that have occurred this year, where to begin.

First, we have been full time Florida residents for over a year now and are still very excited to be in paradise year around. Hurricanes sometimes cause us to consider other locations but then the sun returns and life is again calm.

The summer was filled with the Chaplain Officer Basic Course (CHOBC). The course started June 2 and graduation was September 2. The course was designed for the individual who had never been in the military before and for sixty percent of the class it was a refresher course as we were prior service. One of the largest classes in recent history as we started with over 120 students but at graduation we were down to 106. Many students were only with us through phase II and will return to complete the course sometime in the future. The hair was shorter, wake up time earlier (0345), and the day was anything but routine. The day was part college course and part football three-a-day training schedule. The day always began with a morning workout and then into the chapel for a devotion. Then we would embark upon a day of what we affectionately referred to as "Death by Power Point". Hours of looking up at a screen and listening to numerous speakers as well as finger numbing note taking. The days that we actually training in the woods or on the trails seemed to go by much faster and were in many cases more interesting too. I don't want to sound disinterested it just that one can only take so much information on "Just War Theory" in a single day (forgive me CH Mueller).

Not much time to really sort out all that I had learned this summer, before the hurricanes necessitated its use in the communities of south Florida. My first major hurricane experience was with Katrina, in Waveland Mississippi. I got a chance to see first hand what a Cat 4 storm can do and it was quite destructive. It was as if the homes had been surgically removed from their foundations and taken away. It may very well take decades for the land to heal and even longer for the human healing to be complete, and some may never get over it. Through this past hurricane season and even during CHOBC, my wife (Hadley), and I began to feel as though God might be wanting us to serve on an active duty post after I complete my seminary work. Hadley got a chance to sample what life on an active duty post would be like, when she attended a seminar hosted by Pam Vicalvi, the wife of the chaplain school commadant. Peter (our youngest) even had fun at the Child Development Center, where of course, he met lots of friends. There is no telling where we will end up but it will definately be an adventure.