Update from Home

I haven't written an update about Joshua and me for a while, so here goes. We had a great Thanksgiving with my family at my brother and sister-in-law's new home in Escondido, California. There are lots of fun places for the kids to play and Joshua disappeared with his cousin Evan almost immediately upon arriving. Of course we had more food than we could eat, but turkey dinner leftovers are some of the best. We did our now-traditional family geocaching in the morning and worked off the calories before we ate them. We played family games after eating around 2:00. Joshua and I stayed overnight and started in on more games in the morning. Around noon I took Joshua, my two nieces and nephew to the Wild Animal Park, which is about 15 minutes from their house. We had a great afternoon together and Steve and Sandi got more unpacking done (they had just moved the week before).

I ended the Thanksgiving week by participating in the ordination service of my good friend Scott Mann. He has been called to be an Associate Pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue, Washington. The service, held at our old church Trinity Pres. in Santa Ana, was wonderful and it was such a blessing to see so many old friends. We moved to San Clemente 4 years ago and haven't seen some of these folks since then. It was such a blessing to know how many still remember our family and are praying for us during this deployment year.

This week Joshua and I are back to our busy school and everything-else-that-I-do schedules. But today we are slowing down a bit as Joshua is sick. I thought maybe he got dehydrated at school yesterday. When I picked him up after school he complained of a bad headache. I asked him what he had to drink and he said, "just the juice box in my lunch." I imagine the kids don't feel as thirsty when they are out playing cause they aren't getting very hot. (For those of you not living in So. Calif., we are having dry, windy cold-for-us weather -- high 60 with 15% humidity). I tried to get him hydrated yesterday afternoon and evening, but at bed time he was crying saying his head hurt so bad. Got him to sleep but he had a rough night and this morning complained about a headache and felt nauseas. So he's home resting on the couch playing with Christmas ornaments and listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Hopefully he'll be back to school tomorrow. He has a fun Saturday planned with his friend Alex and his dad -- train to LA to watch the Mighty Ducks and then an overnight at Alex's house. I have planned at pamper-myself-day, so please pray that Joshua is fine by then. :)

Today I received a note from Jon that ended with these encouraging words. "Well, I'm doing well, I'm in good spirits, and believe I'll survive all this hard drive trash [computer problems]. Thanks for your prayers."

Sheryl