Stinky supper

Caden: Mom, I don't know what you're cooking for supper, but it's stinky.

Thanks, Caden.... I try. (I didn't say this, just thought it!)
~jen

PS... by the way, supper is bar-b-que smoked sausage, mac-n-cheese, corn on the cob, and fried okra. I thought it was a pretty decent meal idea!

I bragged too much....

I must have jinxed Cody by bragging on him yesterday! He had an awful game today (these are his words, not mine... I thought he did pretty well considering the 20-30 mph winds in full force today!). Cody shot a 95 today at Ross Rogers, which put him in 9th place. He doesn't play well at this course, so we'll blame the course and also the fact that Cody couldn't putt! He drove the ball beautifully down the fairway, he just couldn't make a putt to save his life! I did get some nice pictures though, so all is not lost! :)

Cody's next tournament is next Monday at Tascosa Country Club (I'll be paying more attention to the beautiful houses along the course than watching Cody..... just kidding! But, I'll be sure and post pictures of my favorite houses!)

Enjoy!

~jen

Bragging Rights

I have to brag a little bit about Cody! I just realized that Cody is in 1st place in his division within the North Texas PGA Junior Golf Foundation! I happened to stumble across this while looking at the pairings for tomorrows tournament. Here's a link to follow Cody's tournaments this summer. Click on Player of the Year to see the standings for our area.
http://ntpgajr.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/ntpgajr7/ profile/cconrad/tresults.htm

~jen

Latest news, thoughts, and photos

It has been a crazy week around the Conrad household. So much to share... where to begin... how about some pictures first.

Cody took these pictures of Cade at his last Tee ball game. The game was called due to thunderstorms in the area. No need to play with metal bats when there is lightening going on!

Later that night, after the storms passed, we had the most beautiful rainbow! Caden was in amazement. I am not sure if he has actually seen a rainbow before.

Tuesday I took Caden to our dermatologist for a treatment for some bumps that Caden has on the back of his thighs. Caden has had 3 or 4 treatments in the past and has done wonderfully. Tuesday was a different story. He broke out in blisters, some as small as bean-size, some as large as dimes and pennies. He had 50-75 blisters from the back of his knees, up to his bottom and between his upper thighs. He had a few on the front of his thighs and a couple on his feet. Basically every bump that was treated broke out in a blister. I had to wash the medicine off after 6 hours from the application time and Caden could not tolerate the bath, so in a panic I called Mike and we rushed Caden to the ER. They got us in pretty quickly (as quickly as ER's go) and placed Caden in a decontamination room. They carefully irrigated all of his blisters, attempting to wash away the medicine (which is an agent of the blister beetle, hence the blisters). Caden tolerated the procedure very well... better than I did just watching it. We had a couple of doctors assess Caden and they determined that he had just had a severe reaction to the treatment. Why this treatment was different from the ones before, I don't know. We left with a prescription for an antibiotic and a container of silvadene (topical cream used for burns). Cade's legs were wrapped "mummy" style, which he thought was funny. Since then, we have had a couple of follow up appointments with our dermatologist. To say the least I was not very pleasant with our doctor after hearing him dismiss this as just a "normal" reaction and not to worry. Worry is my middle name. You don't tell a mom not to worry, especially when your child is covered in blisters! I made sure to get that point across to him. I think he got my point!

Caden is doing well today. The majority of his blisters have popped. He has a lot of exposed, red, raw skin, though. But, he has been a trooper through all of this. He hasn't really complained, so that's a blessing. Hopefully he will heal with minimal scarring. Say a little prayer for him. He has been through so much.

Wednesday we had a gentleman come by our house asking if he could pick up our yard to earn some extra money. By the look of this man, you could tell that he had very little. He was wearing old, tattered clothes, missing the majority of his teeth. He must have had a very hard life. Our house was once again toilet-papered last week end (our 3rd time in less than a month!) and a number of small pieces of toilet paper had fallen from the tree and were scattered around the yard. Thankfully Mike was home and was able to talk to the man. All he asked for was $3 to pick up the yard. Mike agreed and let him clean up the yard. We gave him more than the mere $3 he was asking for. Of course during the whole time my mind was going from the warm-hearted feeling of actually doing good to the complete opposite end of the spectrum... to what if this man intends to harm us. Why does that happen, why is it when we have to drive through the "bad" areas of town, I immediately lock the car doors? Why do I do the same when ever we pass by a homeless person on the corner of an intersection? All this man needed was a few dollars to help him with what ever it was that he was in need of. I ended up wrapping up our left-over fajitas from supper that night for him, which he stuffed into his pockets. Who knows when his last meal was. He was very grateful for the money and food. In some ways I am glad that we agreed. I think the whole experience was an eye-opening lesson for Cody. Of course he was excited that someone other than him was picking up the yard! I hope he gained a greater lesson than just that. I know it made me think. Time to change the subject!

Cody is doing well. He gets out of school today at 12:15. I still cannot believe that the school year is over! Where has time gone? He is very excited about summer, especially because he just figured out that school does not resume until the end of August! The kids actually get a nice, long summer break this year! His first golf tournament of the season is next Tuesday. I think he is signed up for about 8-9 tournaments this summer. He is really excited to play. I am looking forward to it too. It gives us an opportunity to spend some time together and I really enjoy watching him play. (As much as golf has overcome this family, to the extent that I am having to set limits on golf clubs in the house....there's been to many close calls with Caden and a golf ball and club....I do enjoy watching Cody play!)

I am still searching for another job. I haven't heard anything from the 2 places that I have applied. However, I realized today that our answering machine on our phone has been turned off. (We got a new phone system and are still figuring it out!) I sure hope I haven't missed "the" call for an interview! Maybe this is just a "sign" that I am supposed to stay where I am at. Maybe something will come along when I am least expecting it. We'll just have to wait and see. :)

Hope all is ok with all of you. Hope you all have a wonderful Memorial weekend. Take care.

~jen

Latest Converstations with Caden

Here are just a few of the conversations Caden and I have had over this past week:

- While out shopping for a few gifts Caden asked me, "are you sure you are my mommy?". At that very moment of keeping Caden from completly destroying a display of Veggie Tales DVD's, I thought to myself the same thing!

- During the same shopping experience, and after our second stop on my errand list, Caden asks (in complete desperation) "how many more errands do we have to do...2 or 65?".

-Yesterday on the way to daycare Caden and I had the following conversation:
Caden: Can we have a baby... like baby Hope (Cade's newest cousin)?
Me: Why do you want us to have another baby?
Caden: Because I want everyone to see her.
Me: You want us to have a baby girl?
Caden: NO, no girl, just a boy and I want to name him Boomer (our dog's name).
Me: I'm sorry Caden but we are not going to have any more babies. Mommy and Daddy have you and Cody and that is all the babies we are going to have.
Caden: (he's not giving up on this one!) How 'bout you have another baby when Cody's grown up?
Me: (thinking... Are you crazy!?!) No, Caden, no more babies.
Caden: (defeated) OK, mommy.

While at Hoffbrau the other night Caden saw a man who was disabled. This man did not have any legs from the hips down and he walked with this arms and hands. My goodness.... Caden's eyes lit up and he all but did a double take at this man as he was walking out of the door (which of course was less than 2 feet directly in front of us). I held my breath because I knew this child of mine was about to say something....out loud... within ear shot of everyone around us and of course the disabled man walking out the door. Caden turned to me in sheer amazement, eyes wide open and mouth open ready to form the word "cool". Luckily he could see the look on my face letting him know that he needed to just keep his mouth closed... so he just smiled at me. I don't think I have ever breathed a sigh of relief as loud as that one! :)

~jen

What? School's out next Friday!?!

I cannot believe how quickly this year has already past. I cannot believe that school is out next Friday afternoon! Where has the time gone? More importantly.... I am going to be at home.... with both of my boys.... together.... all day long... all the time? :) Just kidding.... they are doing better being nice to each other... however, they still have their moments.

I know Cody is ready to be out of school. Every morning he is just dragging himself out of bed. Last week he had his year book signing party. It was so much fun to look through his year book and see how much him and his friends have changed over the school year. I enjoyed reading what his friends wrote in his yearbook. It took me back a little. Of course, I secretly got out my yearbooks and looked through them before going to bed the other night! (Oh, to be young again!) My baby is going to be in the 8th grade next year. I cannot believe we are 1 year away from High school! And what makes it worse... is that at the same time, Cade will be starting Kindergarten as Cody starts High school! That's a double whammy! Oh my!

Cade is doing well. He absolutely loves Tee ball. He has another game tomorrow night. I have to work tomorrow, so I will miss his game. Mike and Cody will have to fill me in on all the details!

Mike is staying busy at work. When he's not working ...you guessed it... he's out on the golf course. Things at Honda are much better (I think, I get limited responses about work!). He seems happier.

As for me, things have been on a rapid decline at work. I had a patient code and die last week. It was my first experience with that and it was rather difficult. I worked 3 days in a row, which was exhausting. I have been off for the past few days. I am still looking for another position. I've applied for a position in a day surgery unit at another hospital. I think the hours would be better. We'll see what happens.

Well I guess this is all for now. Oh.. here are some updates. My mom's surgery went well. She is at home, recovering day by day. How I wish I could be there to help. My grandmother's breast biopsy came back negative for cancer.

Hope each of you are doing well. I'll post again soon.
~jen

First Tee Ball Game Pics

One year ago...

One year ago tonight, right around this time, I was at my graduation from nursing school. I cannot believe it has already been a year. How time flies! It is amazing to think about how much I have learned and accomplished this past year. I still have a ton to learn. But hopefully, I am not so "green" anymore. :)
~jen

Tee Ball Pics

I finally have a new camera! I finally have pictures to share! I feel whole again! :)

Here are some pictures of Caden at Tee Ball practice. Enjoy!

~jen

~Practicing his swing

~Waiting his turn (which is hard work for a 4 year old!)

~Wow! What a great catch! (and no injuries, if you know what I mean!)

~One, two, three.... swing!

~Do I stay, or do I run?

~Running on home!

~Cheese!

~Cade's #10.

Latest News

It's been a while since my last post. I feel like I have been running since last Thursday!

The kids and I traveled to my grandparent's last Thursday. We all traveled to Fort Smith, Arkansas for my brother's wedding. We had a wonderful time. The kids got to experience the whole hotel "experience". Let me tell you I was ready to check out after our over-night stay. It was hard being cooped up with my 2 boys!

The wedding was beautiful. It was held in a downtown historic church. It had the most beautiful stained glass windows. (I don't have any pictures to share right now, I am waiting on a disc of pictures from my dad. I'll post some pictures as soon as I get them!)

I am happy to announce that I have another sister-in-law, Mary. I look forward to getting to know her. We also have 2 nephews to get to know. Mary has 2 boys, Hunter (age 10) and Colton (age 7). It didn't take long before all the boys were playing with each other! I am looking forward to traveling to Arkansas this summer so we can all spend some time together.

The kids and I came home on Monday afternoon after a nice visit with my parents and grandparents.

Caden is enjoying tee ball. He had his first practice Monday evening. He was so cute! I worked last night so I missed his practice, but I was told by Cody that Cade hit a home-run!

Well, I guess this is all the news for now. I am off for the next week, and I am looking forward to my time away from work. If only I didn't have a house in need of some major attention. Time to start my "other" job!

Hope all is well with you all.

Here are a few prayer requests:
-my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer
-my grandmother had a breast biopsy done this week
-my friend Renay, her family is ill with strep throat and respiratory infections.

~jen