Sorry, it's been awhile

Sorry it's been awhile since we've written. Quite a bit has happened since our last posting.

We enjoyed our visit with Peep & Jessica last weekend. They were able to come over for a few hours for breakfast and to visit. We have missed spending time with them. Ruthy was so excited when she learned they were coming. Both the girls enjoyed the company.

Mark went to Chicago Tuesday-Wednesday and met up with Mark Nichols and Matt Worstell. Mark Nichols turned 30 and was the first one of the guys to take the big plunge, so they had a small celebration. They all had a good time.

While in Chicago, Mark woke up at 6:00 AM Wednesday morning in the hotel. He got up and turned on the heater as the A/C had the room rather chilly. About 15 minutes after he turned the heat on, his lungs started getting tight and his inhaler didnt help. He thought about a hot shower, but things started to get worse so we went back in the room and started a pot of coffee. Realizing things weren't getting better (and knowing his breathing machine was back in Missouri) he woke the other guys up and they called the front desk saying they needed a hospital. An ambulance ended up coming and giving a breathing treatment to Mark and then took him on to the ER. After another treatment and a round of steroids, he was on his way in about 3 hours. A very scary experience for him, but thank goodness for medicine and good health care. He felt great when he left and the guys finished up their celebrating. Mark flew home back to St. Joe in time for small group on Wednesday night.

While Mark was gone, the girls and I stayed here and stuck with our usual routine (except that Ruthy got to have a sleepover with Mommy all night). Ruthy & I did our school time. We did "Q" & "R" this week. Ruthy worked hard on learning to write an "R". Yesterday she almost had it figured out and today (Friday) she did it.

Ruthy drew a card for Mark tonight after supper. She'd been trying to write her "R" so we gave it one more try on Daddy's card. She wrote her entire name. The "U' looks a bit like an "O' and the Y might be confused for a "P", but it's beautiful! I was so proud of her. After she received her praises from us she looked at me and said "I'm so proud of you." It's cute.

Moriah's been going potty at least three times a day now. She does really good telling me, especially if we're in the living room where the bathroom is close. Today she walked over to the bathroom and started pounding on the door to tell me she wanted in.

Our small group from church is really growing. We have four new families that haven't previously been very involved in church. We have a total of 18 people in our group. Everyone is so much fun. The last few weeks everyone has grown closer together and it's so exciting to us to see the friendships develop. We love this group of people and feel very fortunate that God brought our group together. I'm excited to see how they will each make an impact for God. Please pray for our small group as they develop relationships with each other and with God. As I said earlier, most of our group hasn't been involved in church and over 25% of our group has only been coming to church for less than one year. It's amazing!

Well, hopefully you're up-to-date on our last week. Tomorrow Mark is supposed to install a projector at church in the morning and in the afternoon I am co-hosting a baby shower for one of the ladies in the choir. It will be a fun day!