Signs of life...

So.......... it's been like a month and a half since my last post.

[Sigh]. My excuse is that I know I should post pictures from Spain, but I just have no motivation to go through a bazillion pictures and wait for blogger to laboriously upload them at a snail's pace. My second excuse is that school is in full swing again. At the start of every school year, I always forget how time-consuming and tiring it is to be a teacher. I was just telling Mike the other day, "I forgot how dumpy our apartment gets when we are working & coaching full time again." It's easy to come home, dump our things on the counter or couch, and do nothing really productive since we've expended all our energy on our students during the day. Already in the past 2.5 weeks of school, I've gone to bed at 8PM several nights... and I FORCED myself to stay away that long; I could have easily gone to bed at 7PM if I had allowed myself to do so.

So here's a quick synopsis of the past month and a half:

• Got back to Bkk after an amazing trip to Spain
• Had 2 weeks of freedom before school meetings began on Aug. 1
• Did a lot of work setting up my new classroom
• Mike was busy taking a class, trying to get as much finished before the start of the school year
• A lot of new teachers this year... which has been fun, but also a hard adjustment since they have replaced the positions of a lot of our dear friends that have left ICS.
• School started Aug. 9
• Had a three-day weekend for the Queen's birthday and went to Koh Samed with our great friends, Grant and Carolyn
• Roof started leaking in our apartment, just as the rainy season started ramping up.
• BTS skytrain FINALLY opened and comes all the way out to Bangna now (Wahoo!! We've only been waiting 1.5 years!!)
• Roof finally got fixed... yay for no more loud dripping sounds & holes in our ceiling.
• Became Uncle Mike & Auntie Karly to Bennett Davidson Aust (Thanks Ben & Emily)
• Found out that my brother Pete & gf Sarah will be our X-mas 2012 visitors

Prayer Requests

• Health: Mike's a bit under the weather right now. I don't think I ever went back and blogged about why he was wearing a boot during our trip to Vietnam either... Mike was wearing the boot because he was having trouble with his foot, namely his toe. The Dr. thought it would do him some good to stay off his foot for several weeks, which actually didn't help the problem at all because in the end he was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. Arthritis... quite the news/diagnosis for a young, otherwise healthy, extremely athletic person to swallow, but he's been a champ and has been taking it in stride. Psoriatic arthritis affects tendons and joints particularly in the hands, feet, and lower back, which explains all the years of low back pain for which no MRI could ever detect cause. It's actually an autoimmune disease, which means that his body's immune system works against him and actually attacks his tissue, instead of efficiently attacking infections. So basically when he gets sick, his immune system goes into overdrive to ward off infection, but ends up attacking his tissue even more too. Because of the psoriatic arthritis, his white blood cell count is naturally lower, which also means that he is more likely to get sick, which results in his bad immune system kicking in and... well, as you can see, it's a viscous cycle.
• Contentment: It's hard to be away from MN with new changes to the family... we certainly would love to be an uncle and auntie that can hold their new little nephew.
• Peace & Rest: The school year & sports season is always a crazy-busy time. Pray that we would find down-time to bask in His goodness even during these busy times.
• Light: That we would be Jesus' hands and feet here in Thailand; that our students and the people of Thailand would know His love and their need for a Savior.
• Friendships: That new friendships would be formed with new teachers & that older ones would be strengthened despite distance and time.

It's been a whirl-o-wind month and a half... well, it's actually been a whirl-o-wind past 2 years here in Thailand! God has been so gracious to us & we can't wait to see all the amazing things He has in store for us this year in Thailand and at ICS. Thanks for your support & prayers.