Saturday, December 5, 2009

We've had a very nice couple of days, despite the weather. It had been raining here for the past couple of days. Although we really should be used to the chill and the gray, it's Florida for heaven's sake.

Uncle Robert, who was in Jacksonville on business this week, came on Thursday evening to spend the weekend with us. It's been nice to have him around. Yesterday, Mark had to spend the morning at MacDill AFB at the medical center for his evaluation physical for the Medical Evaluation Board. It was really very routine, as the VA has all his medical records (DUH!) but it's required that a compensation board doctor examine him and ask a lot of questions. I'm not sure what "passing" is, but I think they get the idea that he will be permanently disabled, which is actually what we want. Good God, I never thought I would even think that, let alone say it! But, unfortunately, that is the reality and Mark really is doing so well compared to anything we originally were anticipating. He is a living miracle without a doubt.

On the upside, today the rain stopped and we decided to go look at neighborhoods and model homes in this area. We were told about a subdivision by some of the folks who were involved in Mark's rehab at the hospital, so we sought that out and were very pleasantly surprised. One of the model homes was by the same builder that Mark and I had seen in another subdivision and the same home here (about 5 miles away) was considerably less and he loved the layout. He was excited about the prospect of a new house in a nice area. It is something we will certainly persue further.

Then we went on to meet my cousins, aunt and a good friend for dinner. My brother hadn't seen any of them in about five years so we enjoyed a good dinner and great company before calling it a day. It's too bad Uncle Rob will be returning to California tomorrow, but we've had fun while he's been here.