I've had some fun with my assignments in the stake, but it was time for some changes. After some evaluation of the scouting program, they needed to make more adjustments. As a result, I'm now the Scout Leader for a combined Elliston Park / Valley View troop. I was sustained and set apart just on Sunday. I'm looking forward to working directly with the youth again. My oldest son will be joining the troop soon, so it will be an extra benefit to me.

Our goal is to help the boys achieve their Chief Scout award. They've got a good head start, but had lost their momentum. That's going to be my challenge. I've got at least one good assistant and hope to have a fun program going by September. Right away I need to get a calendar together.

In another part of my life, I've been training for a half marathon in Wainwright, Alberta on the way to a full marathon in Logan, Utah. I've had a tough time with the training, but I'm sure I can at least do the 1/2 this Saturday.

I've participated in a couple of fun runs lately. You can read about the Santa Shuffle and the Resolution Run on The Greep Vine.

I've thought a lot about the backpacking trip, and how much easier it could have been. I got the opportunity recently to join a running group at work. We're starting from scratch to learn to run. Frank Vandongen is leading the group. We started with 1 and 1's (run 1 minute, walk 1 minute) and we'll be building up to 10 and 1's. As of this writing, we're at 6.

So far, I feel really good. Victoria has joined me in running too. During the weekdays, I run at work and she runs in the afternoon or evening. On the Saturdays, we run together.

My immediate goal is to run the Santa Shuffle on the 1st of December, and the Resolution Run on the 31st. After that, I'll see what other runs interest me. Mostly, I want to be able to backpack with strength and endurance.