Remind me next summer to never complain about not having anything to do. If I believed that what we say actually can tempt God, then I put the lightning rod on my own head and yelled loudly at the Almighty.

I took A. to the pediatrician in the large town about an hour away to see doctors I know will listen. Out of the last 40 days, he'd had to take his cough medicine/decongestant 34 days. He'd had to use his inhaler at least once a day, if not more, for two weeks, and his nose secreted a discharge that was thick and disgusting.

What did the doctor in the small town say THREE times? Just allergies, don't worry about it.

What did the doctor in large city say? Sinus infection and the beginning of walking pneumonia.

So we have been on antibiotics and steroids and such; even with all of that, A.'s still be pretty good! I think he is so used to feeling like this that when he's older and can tell us how he feels, when he feels good he'll be amazed.

Then, presbytery meeting. I won't even go into the long, long, long debate on if a congregation and accept an athiest into membership. Presbytery decided that the church needed to have some remedial conversation on this point with the committee on ministry. After reading a new faith statement by said athiest, I came to believe that the session and pastor really did hear some kernel of faith in him they wanted to affirm. The main lesson I took out of it? If you accept someone who is struggling with their faith into membership in your church, make sure they don't write a bone-headed article about it that is published worldwide and picked up by CNN.

Then, this week, we have had two deaths in our small community - the mother of our president who, at 91, had a stroke last week and never came out of a coma; the other a father of one of our students who died without warning of a massive heart attack on Sunday at the age of 45. We also had a professor go into the hospital on Monday for knee replacement surgery.

Yep, remind me to just keep my mouth shut next summer. Off to finish writing a five-year review of our program, strategic plan goals and an operations calendar. Oh the joys of summer in higher education!