Update

Greetings~

I'm still hoping to get into a routine this fall....it's not quite come together like I hoped. I thought things would be fairly straightforward with the 3 older kids all at Mt. Hood this year. However looking at their schedules, you'd seriously think they were trying to avoid each other :o) In short, carpooling just isn't very practical.

Anne is settling in well to the college routine and much prefers it to high school. The kids have lots of friends attending there too, so we continue to be so thankful for the CYT community that God has blessed us with; in particular the great friendships our kids have formed over the years.

Jamie has really been hitting the books, taking microbiology as well as a difficult A & P class. And then there are the other classes too. The reality of her moving to Arizona after Christmasis setting in...I bought the airline tickets for January....Jamie and I plan to fly to Phoenix and have a few days, getting things together for her to move into her dorm on Sunday the 8th. My mom is planning to fly down that day and she and I will have a few days of vacation together before flying home the 11th. Hopefully we can steal Jamie away from campus one evening for dinner or dessert before we leave. Mom and I may drive out to the Grand Canyon, just because it seems a shame to be that close and not see it. We also have friends in Phoenix and hope to see them.

David and Emily got their wedding invites ordered yesterday and we are having a gathering this afternoon to address them. I have cinnamon rolls rising as I write. They are getting excited as we approach the 2 month mark until the wedding. Emily's mom has quite a challenge with making Emily's dress as well as 5 dresses for the bridesmaids and jr. bridesmaid. She is also costume chair for CYT, so is in charge of the costumes for Oliver that opens late October. Their fall hasn't quite gone how they planned either. Work has been really slow for Bill (he's self employed and does flooring, tile work, etc.) as the economy has of course really impacted people doing home renovations etc. Emily's sister Amanda had her appendix rupture several weeks ago, resulting in an extended hospital stay (catastrophic insurance only). It's good their family has a close walk of dependency on the Lord and they are very relaxed about things, so you never feel like they are in a frenzy. I'm sure the wedding will come together and everyone will have a dress to wear :o)

Krissy is doing well other than a few random acts of property destruction (don't get me started) Over all, she has been in a good phase for some time, but lest we get too comfortable, she'll impulsively do something that scares me to death. The last thing was suddenly darting to the blender, sticking her hand inside and hitting the button. I plan to write a letter to Cuisinart to thank them for their design, that by God's grace saved her fingers. Larry got me this really nice blender last Christmas. I honestly thought it was a little nicer one than I needed, but didn't say so. It sits on the counter; the girls use it more than I do to make smoothies, etc. I have wondered over the last year, why they make you first hit the on button (nothing happens) and then you hit the puree, stir, liquify. etc. options which actually makes it take off. I've never seen another blender that requires 2 different steps to do the job. But that feature is what kept the blades from activating. We now have it unplugged all the time, except for the moments of use.

Which brings me to Benjamin....we would appreciate your prayers for him. He has been quite sick this last week. We've been to hospitals 3 times and the MD's office twice. We still aren't sure what's going on. In short he's better than he was last Monday and Tuesday when he was unable to stand up straight and was guarding his tummy a lot. Even when asleep, if you touched his belly. he jump and was obviously in a lot of pain. We saw the doctor on Monday. had xrays and left puzzled. By Tuesday night, I was getting very worried and Jamie and I spent the night with him in the ER. They felt it wasn't surgical, but didn't really know what was up. Besides how he was acting, the most impressive thing was a white count of close to 20,000 (normal is 5-10,000; his usually is around 4000). There was definite evidence in the cell differential that it was a bacterial infection, but the doctor just didn't know for sure. We opted to come home with the IV in, instead of being admitted. We thought he was turning the corner some later Wed, but by Friday, it just seemed like something was still really wrong. His urine was very dark, an unusual symptom. Back to the pediatrician's office, then to the hospital for xrays again. The doctor on call talked to Larry yesterday and said the xray showed an enlarged liver. This is his 3rd set of abdominal xrays this week, but the first time this was mentioned. So now I'm thinking "does he have hepatitis??" or what is going on? I hope to talk with our own pediatrician today and see what we should do...I'd think checking on his liver function thru blood tests would be helpful...thankfully he's not jaundiced, so that's got to be good. But he's never had liver problems, and we'd really rather not go there. Thanks for praying for him and for wisdom for us and his MD's as we try and figure him out and care for him.

I better get to these cinnamon rolls....