Update

I apologize for the delay in posting. The last couple of weeks have been full of non-stop action so I'll do my best to get you caught up on everything.

Patty's grandmother is out of the hospital and doing better. Due to much prayer and the Lord's blessing she was spared an operation to clear the bowel obstruction she had. She is still very weak which one would expect after lying in the hospital for 5 days and getting nothing to eat. The obstruction evidently cleared on its own with the inactivity of eating. Bessie turns 90 in December.

Saturday before last, I headed out with Katie and 19 other 4-6 graders to Student Life for Kids camp at Ridgecrest Conference Center in Black Mountain, NC. This was my first experience at a "summer camp" so I was as green as the kids who had never been before as well. It was truly a great time where the kids got time to do their quiet time in the mornings, attend great Worship & Celebration events which included great skits, videos, and praise & worship times. They also got to participate in water games and other great games such as dodgeball. Unfortunately, the group leaders such as myself got to play against the camp staff. We didn't win but we held our own. I was the last guy out on our team so I didn't embarrass myself, lol...

As soon as I returned from camp on Tuesday my cousin Chuck and his wife Beth came in from Nashville to stay with us through the holiday and our Aunt's wedding on Saturday. We enjoy it anytime they come and stay. We always have a lot of fun and stay up late catching up on all of our lives. This time they brought a new game to us that is and oldie but goodie that we had never played. Dominoes! More specifically the "Mexican Train". We stayed up their last night here until 3 a.m. playing. It is a lot of fun and I sense it is going to soon be showing up at our camping events.

Saturday, my aunt Billie who is my dad's sister got married after being widowed for over 14 years. They asked Grant to be the ringbearer. You've never felt any pressure until your 4 year old son is standing in front of the whole wedding just itching to cause some kind of disaster. For that reason, that had to be the longest wedding I've ever been to. Luckily, all he managed to do was find some stick pins on the steps, pull up his jacket, swing the ring pillow round and round and then put it on his head, lay down on the steps, almost tip a plant over, crawl up the steps, make smirks and ugly faces at my attempts to get him to interpret my cleverly discreet sign language during the wedding to turn around, stand up, and be still, lol.... We still had a great time seeing extended family and friends we hadn't seen in a long time.

As life ever so swiftly progresses, these are the times that I cherish. Over the last few years there are a few things that I've observed that bring me joy. Quiet time with God, a great cup of coffee, a fresh newspaper, and extended time with family. IMHO, if a man experiences much joy from these few simple things he has been blessed. Of course, some would argue the coffee and newspaper but hey, a man needs a couple simple vices.

Now, let get to the most important thing you've been wanting to read, an update on Patty. As you'll remember her white counts had been running low. In further tests the doc discovered that her B12 level was low as well. So he decided to start her on some B12 injections and her counts last week rose to normal levels! Praise God! It also detected that her thyroid levels were extremely low which should cause her to have hyperthyroidism. She hasn't experienced many of the symptoms of this but he wants her to see a endocrinologist for review. The only symptom she has felt is fatigue and heat intolerance. According to the doc, the low thyroid levels is unrelated to her originally diagnosis or her treatments. So the new prayer request is for her thyroid levels to return to normal.