What we've been up to...

I know, it's been a while between posts. We've just been a little busy lately! Here's a brief run-down of what we've been doing and more importantly... photos!

We have been super busy with golf, golf, and a little more golf!

As of this evening, Cody is in 9th place out of 133 in his division. He has qualified for the West Area Championship in Midland which is during the second week of August. We will be traveling down there for him to compete. Depending on how he finishes, he may have the opportunity to play in the Ewing Automotive Junior Tour Championship in McKinney the following week. He continues to amaze me. Last weekend, he played in the La Paloma Men's Club Championship and placed 1st in his flight with his net score and tied for 1st with his gross score.

This week we traveled to Dallas for him to play in a golf tournament at the Las Colinas Country Club and also for a little vacation time as a family.

After his tournament, we had some time to kill, so the boys decided that we would just drive by Cowboys Stadium. While searching for directions, we discovered that there were daily tours going on at the stadium. So, a family of Steelers headed over to Cowboy country and toured the stadium. I have to say that I was impressed. I've never been to an arena like this before. The largest stadium I've probably ever been to is Tech's. Cowboys Stadium is amazing. I can't even imagine what that place is like loaded to it's capacity (120,000+)! The kids really enjoyed the tour.

After the tour we drove to Marie and Joey's house (Mike's sister and her husband) for an overnight visit. Thanks to Marie and Joey for a wonderful supper! The kids played soccer once the temperature fell to just below 100 degrees! It was still hot at 10:00!

The next day I took Jaden and Cade to a water park while the big boys went and played golf at the Tribute.

We all had a great day. Late that afternoon, we loaded up the car and headed to Groom.

Thursday morning, both boys had golf tournaments in Pampa. This was Caden's first golf tournament. He did so well for his first tournament. I know deep down he was disappointed that he didn't win a medal, but he did his best and he knows that's all that matters. He is growing up too fast!

It was a great week. It was a busy week! More importantly it's a week we all spent together!

And then there's me. Just wanted to share that I hit that first all-important milestone this week (while on vacation I might add!)... 10 lbs! I thought I would commemorate the occasion with a new picture. (Ok... this is totally one of those cheesy hold the camera in front of your face and take your own picture pitures... but it worked!)

~jen

To be 15 again...

Cody passed his driver's permit test! :)

Taking his test...

Having his test graded...

Electronically signing his permit...

Signing his paper permit...

Being fingerprinted (this will be the only time my child is fingerprinted!)...

It's official...

Ready... set...

Go!

Permit Day

Within the hour, I will be taking my precious oldest child to the DPS office so he can take his Driver's Education Instructional Permit test.

My mind is blank. There is a lump in my throat. Tears are eminent.

Where has time gone?

To my precious oldest child, I pray that you will always know how loved you are and how special you are to me and your Dad. We only have one of you and we can't even imagine life without you. I pray for your upmost safety as we begin this next chapter in your life. May you always use your head when on the road! Remain strong against temptation and peer pressure when riding with your friends! May you have courage to always do the right thing. I love you Cody. My prayer for your safety will never cease. Love ~ Mom

Family and friends, please join me in praying for Cody's safety as we begin this new adventure!

~jen

Mini-Vacation

Last Thursday Caden, Cody and I loaded up for a 4 day mini-vacation. The first leg of our trip took us to Era for a visit with my grandparents. We celebrated Caden's birthday a day early. Granny made Caden's requested Strawberry Shortcake for his birthday cake. (For weeks Caden's been telling me that instead of our annual Ms. Piggy's custom made birthday cake, he wanted Strawberry Shortcake for his birthday!) We had a wonderful, short visit with Granny and Papa. Thanks Granny and Papa for everything!

Friday morning, we began leg 2 of our trip. Norman, Oklahoma, where everything is crimson red. 2 out of the 3 of us traveling on this trip are not big fans of the crimson red, we favor more of a burnt orange color.

Caden was in awe of the campus. From the moment we got there, he couldn't get over everything OU. There were OU flags everywhere! After arriving Caden asked Cody (in a very sarcastic tone, I might add)... "how you doing, Cody? Are you ok being at OU!?!". It was hilarious (I guess you had to be there to experience the whole conversation, and the looks that were passed between these 2 boys!).

We got Cody checked in and headed over to the dorms to unload his things. I have to tell you that there was a moment while unloading Cody's clothes and sheets that my eyes became teary! I had this flash-forward moment that in 3 years we could be unloading Cody into a dorm room for college. Wow. Deep breath. :)

Caden and I stayed to watch Cody's team's first game of the tournament. They won with ease. It was great to see him play again. I love watching him play golf and basketball. I like basketball more. I can yell and cheer at a basketball game. Not so much in golf. I get dirty looks when I cheer at golf. :)

Caden and I then loaded up and headed to our hotel. I had meticulously planned this trip (I am type A after all). I knew I wanted to stay somewhere between OKC and Norman and I found a perfect Days Inn that had everything that we needed for a great price. Once we arrived, we discovered that it did not have a pool as was described on hotels.com's website. Since I had promised one particular little boy that in just less than an hour of arriving that he would be jumping into a pool, I had to make a decision. This was probably the biggest stressor of the trip. I had planned our entire weekend from this one hotel's location. I had directions all written out from this location to all of the places we were going to go while in OKC. I had a mini-breakdown while on the phone with hotels.com. Caden's looking at me with tears in his eyes, I'm frustrated and mad, I'm realizing that the "good deal" I got online, may not be available at another hotel, and I'm hot. It was well over a 100 degrees that day and it was 3:00 in the afternoon! Long story short, I was able to cancel our reservation, (without any fees!) and the nice hotel manager directed me to a much nicer hotel that he also managed, and he gave me the same rate that I had booked online. In the end, everything worked out well.

We drove back to Norman that night to catch Cody's 7:00 game. They won that game as well. Day 1: 3 games; won 2, lost 1

Day 2 of our OKC trip was Caden's 7th birthday. We drove to the OKC zoo, only to arrive an hour before it opened (Type A me wanted to make sure I knew how to get there!). We spent about 3 hours at the zoo. It was a nice zoo. Lots of animals that Caden's never seen. However, it was miserably hot. By 12:00, Caden was done. I was done. So we loaded up to our next stop, the memorial site. I've wanted to visit this memorial for years. As we arrived, I realized that parking was going to be an issue, it was already into the 90's outside, and something that I hadn't planned on... Caden was asleep. So instead of fighting the traffic, waking Caden up, and then something that I hadn't really thought about... explaining the reason for the memorial to Caden, I decided that viewing the memorial would have to wait until the next OKC trip.

We drove on to the Incredible Pizza Company for Caden's birthday lunch. This place is 10 times better than our local Gattis pizza place. We had a great time playing putt-putt (I won) and video games. Afterwards we drove back to the hotel for some swimming and then drove back to Norman for another late basketball game.

Day 2: 3 games; won 2, lost 1

Day 3 of our trip, loaded up the car, checked out of our hotel room, and back to Norman for an early morning game. The 6 games prior and the few hours of sleep (too much partying in the dorms!) were beginning to take their toll on the boys. We barely slipped by with a win for our first game. Sunday's games were single elimination. You lose a game, your out... head on home. Next game was at 11:00. Cody had just enough time to finish a game, load up, drive to the location, warm-up and then the game was on. Second game was a dirty game. The other team was overly cocky, mean, and just played a rough, dirty game. They were ahead at one point by 15 or more. We slowly got it within 1 with seconds to spare. In the end we won by 1. Dirty never wins. Oh, they may actually win a game every once in a while, but to win dirty is to win without dignity and dignity is one thing we had every game.

Game 3. Played well and won. On to the championship game in the Loyd Noble Center. We had thought that Cody's team would be able to play on the main floor of the LNC, but the varsity teams were playing there. So, second best was the men's practice gym in the LNC. This gym had all of the OU banners hanging around the gym. It was a great moment. We lost game 4. In the end, the umph was gone. These boys were tired, worn out, had just played 3 games earlier in the day. We just didn't have enough to pull out a win. They lost by 15. Our team placed 2nd in the weekend tournament. It is something to be very proud of.

We drove back to the dorm and loaded up 3 days worth of sweaty jerseys, shorts, socks, and 3 days worth of wet, damp towels. Also... a pair of basketball shoes that had seen 10 games in 3 days. It was a nice ride home. :)

Whew... just reliving the weekend has made me tired all over again! We had a wonderful trip. We logged over 950 miles from start to finish. I am greatly thankful for the time that the boys and I had. I am thankful that my parents raised me to be independent and that I have a husband who lets me be independent. I am proud of myself for not getting lost, for my ability to read a map, and a sense of direction (well, at least I know Never Eat Sour Watermelons... N-E-S-W... I used that saying a lot last weekend!). Most of all I am thankful for the safe trip. We arrived home at 10:30. Mike had Caden's birthday gift ready for him to open... new golf clubs... then we headed on to bed. It was a great weekend. A great mini-vacation. Now I just need to get caught up on the laundry! :)

~jen

Photojournalism by Caden

I have to get creative in order to keep Caden entertained while at Cody's golf tournaments. Last Tuesday, I gave him control of my camera for a little while. Here's the view from Caden's eyes. :)

~jen

Clear, blue sky.

The essentials for clear, blue skies. Bug spray, sunscreen, and fruit punch!

Checking out the ball Caden found.

Making his putt.

The ball.

The golfer look.

More clear blue sky.

The underside of the golf cart roof.

Legs.

The End of Me

I guess I should re-word the title of this post to... The End of the Current Me. Many of you know that I have struggled with my weight since... well... the birth of Cody. There's been ups and downs, but over the past several years, it's been a steady increase. I've tried and failed many diet and exercise attempts... joined and quit weight loss programs.

Two weeks ago, I joined what will hopefully be my last weight loss class through my employer. So far I've lost 5 pounds. I haven't had a sip of any carbonated beverage (regular or diet) in 20 days. I can eat what I want, I've only changed when and how I eat. The good news is it's working. My clothes are fitting more loosely and the scale is now on a downward decline.

So why this post? Well, it's more for me. More for a reminder of where I've been, where I am at, and where I want to be. Where I am at now is unhappy, unhealthy, embarrassed, tired, and worn out. Where I want to be is healthy, happy, self-confident, active, and a better example for my family, friends, co-workers, and even my patients. While I understand (and totally accept) that I may never be that size 8 that I was my senior year, I sure don't want to be where I am at now anymore. Hopefully there is a happy median between the two.

I have a wish list that I've created for myself. These are things I want to do with Mike and the kids, things I want to do for myself. Here's a small sampling of some of those things...
~take the boys snow skiing
~learn to play golf
~go inner-tubing on the lake just one more time
~participate in a 5K run/walk race
~bike ride through the canyon
~fit comfortably in a ride at Six Flags
~shop at Coldwater Creek (and not have to order a "women's" size from the catalog)

I'm adding a weight loss tracker to the side of my blog. Again, this is more for me. I will update it every Friday.

So, here's to a new me. A better me. A happier and healthier me. :)
~jen

First Week of Tournaments

First tee shot of the summer golf tournaments

Like Father Like Son

Here's Caden keeping himself entertained with the wonders of nature!

I love when my camera captures these actions shots. Caden thought this one looked like a little volcano erupting! I love the next one, can you see the ball in the air? Those are my favorite shots!

Here's one of a bad shot. There were only a few of these!

A great photo-op moment of Caden watching the fish in the pond.

Focusing hard.

Can you believe this is my baby? All 6'1" (and still growing) 160# (he is finally back to his pre-surgery weight) of him is awesome!

Cody had a first great (and not so great) week of the summer golf tournament series. He played Monday-Thursday and received his first medal of the summer with a 3rd place finish in Perryton. He's off to a great start. There will be more pictures to come! :)
~jen