This summer has flown by. I cannot believe it is already August!





Isaiah has been golfing. He joined the golf team this year. They will officially start next Monday. He has been golfing with his friends and taking lessons from the golf pro at a local course. The pro said that Isaiah is very good and has great potential to become a great golfer. That is wonderful news to Cory's ears. Jordan has been calling Isaiah "Cougar Forest" ...instead of "Tiger Woods"! Isaiah is getting a little bit of "nonsupport" from the football community in Rochester. The coaches and players wanted him to play football. But they only want him to play because they don't have that many players and they need as many warm bodies as they can get. So we are looking forward to the golf season.

Jeremiah is playing football and loving it. He is a mighty mite this year.
Corynne is playing soccer. She asks me daily if her coach has called and wants to know when her practices will start. In addition to golf, Isaiah is also playing fall baseball. So I guess I am getting ready to get really busy!

We will be leaving for vacation soon and I cannot wait to go. We are going to Nags Head. This year our house is on the beach. I just can't wait to drink my coffee on the deck and look at the ocean!

School will be starting soon and I started having my usual dreams about teaching. Last night I dreampt that my classroom was actually in a hotel suite and they didn't give us any desks. I was so upset and couldn't understand how I was going to teach 28 kids with no desks! Agh!
I am going to go into work next week and get my room ready and all my lessons for the first week completed. I guess I will feel more prepared after that is done. I just can't believe it is almost time to go back to work.

Corynne will be in a portable classroom this year. Rochester is doing renovations on the building this year. I toured one of the trailers the other day and they are actually pretty nice. Jeremiah, on the other hand, will be having classes in an old gym that architechs have supposedly made into a make shift school to house fifth and sixth grade. I have my doubts and have expressed my concerns to the principal and the superintendent. Both of these ladies have tried to put my mind at ease, but I am sure they are just appeasing me. We shall see. Jeremiah actually had an appointment yesterday with the ear specialist at Children's Hospital. I am just still thanking God for the miracle. The doctors still can't beleieve Jeremiah has an outer and inner ear. Most children with atresia have one or the other, but not both. The doctor said Jeremiah is a great candidate for surgery to open up his ear canal. We are looking at the summer time to possibly do this. Cory and I will be praying a lot througout this school year. I did talk to the audiologist about Jeremiah's so-called classroom this year. She said I definitely have a reason to be concerned. She gave me great information as to helping him this year.

On another side note, I absolutley hate hate hate driving in Pittsburgh. Just when you think you have done everything right: left early enough to combat traffic, mapquested routes and alternate routes, scheduled the appointment after morning rush hour...etc. etc. etc.....then you come across a detour because a bridge is closed. If my kids weren't in the car, I would have started crying. But thankfully, because I researched alternate routes and prayed really hard, I was able to figure it out and we made it to Children's in plenty of time.

I wanted to bring the other kids to Children's with me because I always leave that hospital very humbled and very thankful. There are so many children there with so many health related problems. It is such a blessing to have healthy children. I never want to be ungrateful to the Lord for blessing Cory and I with four healthy children.

Our next step is to get a cat scan for Jeremiah and then we will decide what we are going to do.