News September 27 2008

Hello from Charles,

Diane is busy this month doing the student stuff - reading, reading and more reading. Classes she is taking are Hebrew, Theology and Spiritual Formation in Ministry. She does advise me that she seems to be able to only get through a portion of the reading and not all of it. Not being able to do all the reading is something all prior students of the Seminary warned us about. Maybe it is part of the learning of how to be a pastor in that you can't do it all.

This month I celebrated my birthday and fun was had by all. We met up with our friends Joe & Marci at an Italian Restaurant and the party wrapped up at Joe & Marci's house around 11. Kids enjoyed playing with a Radio Control car that they had picked out for my birthday.

Our Kids are back into their school time activities. B has opted not to do Chess this time but instead work on the school newspaper. S is still enjoying being part of the school band. Outside of school, S has started soccer, something of which he has been requesting to do since he was 6 so finally the parents got around to arranging it. Right now the coach is still working on team positions so S could end up anywhere. After two games, one was a complete loss and the other a 1-1 draw. B is back into swim lessons and having not seen her swim over the summer, I was surprised to see how much she had progressed. Swimming multiple lengths of the pool is not an issue for her, not sure what I could do these days.

We were scheduled to go on an all expenses paid trip to Charleston SC next month as part of meeting the sponsors of the award that Diane received. It is a beautiful city and we have in the past gone there on an annual basis. In regards to this trip however another family who received the award and who had never been to Charleston expressed an interest to go so we are letting them go in our place.

Work wise, despite the banking crunch I manage to remain employed. The project I am working on is funded and the group that is funding it is still making money so I am optimistic that I will have a job into the early part of next year.

That's it for now, hopefully Diane will be able to write next month.