It's been a long time........

Not sure who all has heard the news or not, but Retta ended back in the hospital this past Sunday with another bout with Pancreatitis. She awoke Sunday morning with intense back pain and vomiting and we headed in to the emergency room where she was promptly admitted. She's been struggling the past two days to keep the Popsicles down and they are doing testing today to see if that's related to her pancreatitis or if she has caught a stomach virus. She needs to eat solid food without issues before she can go home. She's frustrated and they still don't seem to be able to find the cause or source of her pancreatitis. She does not drink, had her gall bladder removed a couple weeks ago and all tests are returning normal. Right now she's focused on getting home, realizing that she will probably be back with the same aliment at some point in the future.

In other news, I have started a job search for new employment. Please pray that we will have wisdom in searching and opportunities would present themselves. I am fortunate that I am not conducting this search while unemployed, but it is time to move on. I have lost faith in my employer and cannot further deal with the dishonesty and lack of integrity of those I report too. I will not go into further details here, but it is clearly time to move on. The decision has come after 9 weeks of soul searching and praying. We'll see where God leads us now.

The kids have settled back into school for the year. Adrian is a Sophomore (oh my!) and school takes her all day, mostly because she doesn't stay focused. Chris is a Freshman (oh my, oh my!), and gets on his school work every morning and is usually finished by noon. Amber is in 7th grade and takes all day to get done, mostly because she would rather do other things. Every time Retta turns around, Amber is "gone". Both Chris and Amber are 1 year ahead of where they would be if still in public school.

Summer family vacation was a weekend trip to Atlanta in August with Retta's folks. We didn't do much there, except swim, go to the movies, eat out and just relax at the hotel. Adrian and Chris spent a week this summer in Tampa FL on a mission trip. They really had fun, but were stretched in their faith as they went door to door, witnessing to residents there. Amber and I spend a week at church camp together and we really had a good time, even dumping our canoe in the middle of the lake.

Other than that, it's been routine as usual. I've been working 7 days a week, 12~14 hour days for the past 52 days (except for this week where I'm only working 6~8 hours a day while Retta's in the hospital). Sorry it's been so long since I've posted, but I'm usually just too tired and discouraged to post when I think about it. I'm still enjoying keeping up with all of you though, so keep it up.

EDK