Excuses, excuses.

So, in a few minutes there will be a post explaining a little about why I've been thoroughly MIA from most everyone's lives lately, but I just wanted to give slightly more info first:

First of all, please pray for my co-worker, Celeste. The day after we came back to work from Christmas break (so, January 5th), she was supposed to come to a school with me in the morning to do a presentation. She called me at 6:45 AM to tell me she was having "weird medical symptoms" and was on her way to the ER. Turns out, overnight she developed Bell's Palsy, which is a very strange and troubling problem, resulting in the sudden and basically complete paralysis of the entire right side of her face. Her mouth droops, her eye can't blink--it's a pretty major problem. They think it is caused by some sort of virus causing swelling around a facial nerve, but no one knows for sure. She's had mostly numbness, but on and off she's also been in a great deal of pain. Please keep her in your prayers--she's an amazing woman, and much too young (26) and has been through too much (she went through Hurricane Katrina) to have to deal with this, and who knows how long it will take to subside.

Anyway, the point is, with that going on, it's been a bit of a crazy time at work, trying to make sure all her schools and programs are covered on top of my own schools and programs, etc. I have been working a lot, but in some ways, it's been a good distraction. :)

Secondly, I have been CRAZY sick for awhile now. I went on antibiotics before Christmas to try to kick my dumb cough, and I went back on antibiotics again this week, this time also adding steroids to the mix, in hopes that I could get my lungs back and get some sleep for once. I felt okay before I went on these meds, I just had a wicked cough that wouldn't allow me to get any sleep and I needed some help to kick it. Apparently with asthmatics (of which I am one), 50% of the time it is caused by some infection, so they always try antibiotics. Within about a day and a half, I felt like complete CRAP. I've taken a day and a half off work in the last two weeks (which, if you know me, I NEVER take sick days unless I'm WICKED sick) because I've been so exhausted and felt soooo lousy. It was like the antibiotics drew up this deep-seated infection so now I'm suddenly having symptoms--sore throat, more coughing, sneezing, blowing my nose 80 gazillion times a day--the whole works. Ewww. But my lungs are definitely doing better (yay steroids!), and I think the rest of this craziness is easing up a bit, so hopefully by the time I have to run next week's retreat, I will be feeling much better.

Third, lots of my friends and my family have asked if I've been so sick for so long because possibly my mono is flaring up again from being stressed out and sick. I think this is a definite possibility. I haven't had a flare up really since I first got it in high school, but I can't explain this crazy exhaustion any other way. :( So hopefully my lying low approach will work and it will settle back down soon.

Fourth, I am in the midst of helping prepare to run a young adult retreat for people all over Western Oregon (and elsewhere), so it's been a lot of thought and a lot of work and I'm trying to get my talk all figured out for it--I'll try to write more about that soon. :)

And then there's the whole life thing, but that's another story for another time. :)

Anyway, thanks for sticking with me despite my lack of communication, and I'll be back with everyone soon (hopefully). :)

Thanks for keeping me in your thoughts. Loves!