Home safe...

Cody arrived home safely Sunday afternoon from the Lakers/Nuggets game. He said he had a blast. He and his friend had a great weekend together. A big thank you to Russell for taking them and bringing them home safely.

Cody brought a few things home. He bought a new Lakers shirt, they got a T-shirt and headband from the game, and then he also brought home... pink eye. Lovely.

Mike took him to the doctor yesterday. He started on some drops and also got an antibiotic for his respiratory infection.

I'm watching Caden pretty closely. Pink eye usually makes it's way through all the family members! I had thought this morning that Caden may have the start of the infection, but his eyes are clear this afternoon. I decided to keep him at home with me today instead of possibly spreading the infection to his pre-K classmates.

That's all the latest for now... :)

~jen

Prayer Request

Russell (Mike's brother), Cody, and a friend of Cody's will be traveling over the weekend to Denver to attend a Nuggets and Lakers basketball game on Saturday afternoon. Please pray that they will have a safe trip.
Thanks...
~jen

Revenge of the Bird

Mike called my cell phone 3 times in a row yesterday afternoon. I had it on vibrate and if it's in my jacket pocket, I don't always feel it vibrating. On the third call, I felt it vibrate and once I could get away I noticed he had been trying to call a few times. He knew I was at work, so I knew he would only call if it was something very important... like the kids are hurt or something worse.

I called him back and immediately asked "what's wrong?". He responds-somewhat out of breath- "I just about had a heart-attack!". I'm thinking... a real heart-attack, do I need to call an ambulance... what's going on!? I asked him if he was ok and his reply... "yeah, after almost being attacked by a bird in our house... I'm ok!". My response... "WHAT??? WHY IS THERE A BIRD IN OUR HOUSE? PLEASE DON'T TELL ME THERE IS BIRD CRAP EVERYWHERE!!!". His response... (much calmer now)... "I got the bird out, but -yes- there is some bird crap (he didn't use the word 'crap') in the kitchen.". My response... "how much bird crap?". Him... "just a little, which by the way... I can't clean up right now because I have to get back to work.". Me... "no, no, no... you need to clean that crap up now.".

Well... guess what I found when I got home.... bird poo (I'll stop using the word 'crap'). But I will confess last night I called it something worse than poo or crap once I discovered just how much "poo" was in my kitchen! (Anyone ready to come over for dinner now?) Then I immediately started thinking about my cream colored carpet... wondering... why is there only bird "poo" in my kitchen? Did the bird magically appear in my kitchen and only poop in there... or is there bird poo elsewhere... blending into my carpet... that I can't see. Believe me, I will probably vacuum my carpets 10 times today!

We have no idea how the bird got in the house. Hopefully it was just a one-time deal and there will be no more unwelcomed guests (of any variety!)

Welcome to home ownership!
:)

~jen

Craft Project

I took a trip to Hobby Lobby this afternoon. I wanted to just look... but you know how that usually turns out. Looking turns into putting something in your basket to think about while you continue to look. Before you know it you're standing in line with 10 items checking out.

I decided to find something for my kitchen wall. I love pictures. I have boxes of pictures. Nobody ever sees them because they are in boxes. I decided to make a quilted photo board. I don't know what they are really called... that's just what I am calling it. Here's some before and after pictures of my newly decorated wall in the kitchen.

I am planning on re-doing this photo board later. I'm one of those who hurries through the project because I am so excited to see it finished. I need to use a different type of ribbon. This ribbon is very sheer and I am noticing that it is starting to fray where I inserted a tack. Also, I think the next one I make will have a solid back. I used a canvas art frame to stretch the material around. It worked well, it just doesn't give much of a quilted look and the pictures don't stay in place very well. I have too many pictures in this one... I just had a hard time deciding which ones to put in there!

Joys of Home Ec.

Cody had to make some oatmeal cookies for his Home Economics class. It's not called "Home Ec." anymore... it's called Life Management. I wish they had a Life Management class for adults. :)

Here's some pics of him baking away! By the way... the cookies were a little... different. Not horrible, just not a good 'ole oatmeal cookie. These had whole wheat flour, dried apricots, and walnuts in them. I spent $15 on the special ingredients. He made 9 of them. 2 went to his teacher for his grade. I tried one. Mike said "no thanks" after seeing the apricots in them. The other 6 went into the garbage along with the $15 in cookie dough. :)

~jen

What's for supper?

Well folks, I've cooked supper for my family 4 nights in a row now. I know... it's amazing. (I hope you are detecting my sarcasm.) We have been in a serious rut of eating out. Night after night we seemed to rotate thru the local fast-food places. It was convenient while we were packing and moving. But it got old real fast (and expensive).
Caden's pre-K teachers and some friends of theirs have created a recipe blog. Check it out for some great recipes. I visit it almost daily and have come across some that sound wonderful. I've haven't tried any yet... but have found a few that could easily become fast favorites of mine! :)

~jen

Mr. Caden

What a mess this child is! Here's the latest:

He needs a separate fork for each part of his meal. Tonight he needed 2 forks. One for the hamburger helper and one for the corn (he refused to eat the black-eyed peas... otherwise he would have needed 3 forks!). Then he needed another for some strawberries and whipped cream.

He questioned my knowledge on where corn comes from. He finally believed me that corn comes from seeds and grows on a farm. We had cut corn at dinner and he seemed to be confused about how that cut corn got off the cob.

He proclaimed in a exhausted tone this afternoon... "Mom, we have 3 more letters to do at school." (Each week at pre-k they learn a new letter.) He then said... "we've done like 10,000 already. I'm glad there is only 3 more to go."

Most of our conversations we have had lately has to do with his upcoming birthday. On the way home from daycare this afternoon he asked if Aaron (his cousin) would be wearing his glasses at the party. At the dinner table this evening he discussed his upcoming birthday plans. He wants his party at Mr. Gattis. Not in the party room, in the cartoon room so he can watch cartoons while he eats. He then mentioned that for his 2nd birthday party (we have always had a small party at home with Mike, Cody, and I. Which by the way... he was quite upset that Mike and Cody didn't have 2 birthday parties last month!) he wanted to make sure we had corn on the cob and a cherry cake to eat. He made sure that I knew that we had to use the "corn-picker-uppers" (word-for-word from Caden) for the corn on the cob. (Corn-picker-uppers are those plastic things that you insert in both ends of the cob to be able to pick it up easier.)

This precious child of mine makes me laugh daily. It is amazing how his little mind processes information. How he comes up with some of these things boggles my mind! :)

~jen

All in a day...

So here's the highlights of the day...

Last night I awoke from a dead sleep after hearing a loud thump... Mike had actually rolled off the bed onto the floor. Of course, my first reaction was "oh, my goodness... are you ok?". Then it progressed to "what the heck is wrong with you?". He got up off the floor and then walked around the living room and then came back to bed. He assured me he wasn't hurt and that him falling out of bed must have been my fault. I must have kicked him or pushed him out of the bed. Wrong. Guess again dork... you just rolled off the bed in a dead sleep! Immediately the giggles started. It took me a while to go back to sleep because all I could picture was him falling out of bed! (Thank goodness he wasn't hurt. He did confess this morning that he was dreaming when he fell out of the bed!) :)

(In all fairness... I've fallen out of bed once before. And Mike isn't really a dork!) :)

While getting gas this afternoon (gas prices... ugh!) I gathered up some trash to throw away. Unfortunately the hand that had the trash also had my keys... yep... I threw away my keys in the nasty gas station trash can (which was 3/4 of the way full!). I had to dig thru who knows what to find my keys... which I did.

Caden decided this afternoon that Boomer sure would love a refreshing beverage. Because, after all he must be bored with just water day after day. So Caden went to the garage fridge and grabbed Boomer a Coke. He opened it and poured it into his water bowl! Poor Boomer only got a few sips before Mike realized what he had done and emptied the water bowl!

This is just a sampling of my crazy day.

Oh... the joys of living! :)

~jen

More pictures...

Here are a few pictures... more to come later.


View out front door/entry:



Entry and dinning room:

Tray ceiling and dining room light fixture:

Another view of entry and dining room. Yes... that's a cradle in the middle of the room. I kept hitting my head on the light fixture (I did it 3 times in 1 day... the 3rd time I broke down crying because it hurt so bad!) so I put the cradle there so I wouldn't hit my head anymore! (One would think that I would have learned my lesson after the first time... but oh no, it took me ramming my head into the fixture 2 more times!)

View of living room from dining room. To the right is the hallway to the boys bedrooms and guest bath. To the right of the fire place is the sun room/3rd living area and the closed door is the entry to our bedroom.



Another view of the living room. I love all the features of this room. High ceilings, recessed lighting, the fan... it's a really neat and huge room. Now if it only had furniture!


Our realtor gave us this "C". I think it looks very pretty on my mantel!


That's all for now. It's been a major accomplishment to get these 2 rooms completely emptied today. Unfortunately... most of the boxes just went to my bedroom until they get unloaded and put up! I'll try and post some more pictures later today or tomorrow.

~jen

Just the latest...

Moving in is going slower than I want. We are still living out of boxes. I still can't find my alarm clock! (Which is very frustrating!) I'm one of those paranoid people who has to have 2 alarms set (I use my cell phone and the alarm clock)... just in case. Mike's been nice to set his cell phone alarm for me so I have a back-up (especially on those mornings that I have to get up at 4:30!).

Back to the boxes... my room seems to have become the dumping ground for all of those things that don't really have a home yet. It's fine... because our bedroom is twice the size of our old room. However, the boxes are getting very old, I've tripped over them more than once. I am ready to have my house set the way I want it and have everything un-boxed!

I hope to post more pictures of the other rooms of the house later today. I need to get some boxes cleaned out first. The pictures won't be too exciting as 3 of the rooms don't even have furniture yet! It may be a while before we actually purchase furniture for them! Moving is terribly expensive! :)

Hope all of you are doing well. Caden, Cody, and I seem to be suffering from some major allergies lately. We finally received some rain, so hopefully that will clear out the air a little bit and there will be a little less sneezing going on!

Cody has 6 weeks of school left. I cannot believe how quickly this year has passed! These next few weeks will fly past very quickly! He's excited for the summer golf tournament season to start.

Caden's doing well. He is finishing up his last few weeks of pre-K. His teachers assure me he is doing well. We've seen such growth in Caden's speech. I feel confident he will be ready for kindergarten this fall. He is so excited about being a Knight (his elementary school's mascot) this fall!

I am doing well. This will be my last week as a nurse educator. I am sad to leave my current job, but we've been just getting by financially these past few months. I've realized that I need to work somewhere that is more stable, more consistent. I am excited to start my new job at the Urgent Care Clinic. I am excited to get back to nursing. I've missed my interactions with the patients.

I guess this is all now. Hope everyone has a great day. :)

~jen

New House Pictures

Here are a few pictures from today. More to come later...

~jen

New house!

Oh... the joys of moving. This time around it is truly a joy since we are moving into our very own home. The internet/cable guy arrived earlier and hooked up our internet and cable. The satellite guy is here getting the satellite up and running. So... we are just about set on the important things (according to Mike and Cody!)

I've unpacked my kitchen and utility room. I even plan on making our first meal in our new home tonight (that's the plan at least... I am desperately in need of a nap... so it may be pizza tonight... but we will at least eat on actual dishes and not paper plates!). :)

My other goal for the day is to get Caden's room done. I haven't started, yet. But... I promised him his room would be ready so I'll get it done.

I'll post some pictures later tonight. I still have some rooms to get cleaned out before I get some good pictures!

~jen

PS... Happy Birthday to Marcia and Angie... hope you both have had a great day! :)

Last post at our old home

I’ve waited until now to do this last post at our old house. The closing is complete. The house is ours. We have finally realized the American dream. There’s a mix of emotions right now. Happy, scared, thankful, tired (and the work’s only half-done!), sad (we’ve lived in this house for almost 7 years… we’ve lived so much in this house), worried, relieved… the list goes on and on. Most of all I am thankful and happy. We have talked about buying a house for many months. I have prayed so many prayers for us to find a way to buy a house. Those prayers were answered. I am truly happy and blessed.

The next post will come from our new home. Call my cell to stop by anytime to take a look at the new house… but consider yourself warned… you may end up moving a box or 2 while you are there! :)

~jen

Boxes, packing, and more boxes... oh my

The saga continues. More boxes, more packing... it never ends! We did get a movable storage building delivered to the house yesterday, so that has helped. (It is one that will be moved to the new house by the storage company and then once we are finished unloading they come pick it up.) At least I feel like I am making progress when I actually take a box from my house to the storage building!

I don't know if we will be ready to move on Monday or not. We got the final word today that everyone (both realtors, the title company, the bank) is ready to close. Talk about waiting until the last minute... we close on Monday! We did get a small repair settlement from the seller's. It doesn't cover much, but I guess it's better than nothing! Hopefully we can get the contractor doing most of the work to come down some on their price. We'll see what happens. We close on Monday at 11:00. Very exciting and scary at the same time.

Please remember us in your prayers as we go through this major life-changing event. I know that is will be stressful over these next few days to weeks trying to get settled into the new house. Hopefully within a few months it will be all that I dreamed it would be! :)

~jen

New job

Well... many of you know by my earlier email (and for a few of you... phone calls) I was offered a job at our hospital's Urgent Care Clinic. I had to sit through an interview with the director and five other nurses (I think I told someone earlier that it was 6... but as I sit here and count... it was only 5!). 5 or 6... it was still overwhelming to say the least. It was very relaxed and casual and once I relaxed a little it went very smoothly.

I feel as though a great weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. As sad as I am to leave my current job (because I truly love presenting our medical lessons) I know that this move is the right one financially. We have been struggling over the past few months. We've been fine... but with the added house expenses, moving expenses, taking off work to prepare for our move... things financially could be very difficult in the next month or so.

I know that there was a greater power in all of this. I know that my (and your) prayers were heard. And more importantly they were answered. God is good. :)

I pray now that I will be happy with this new job. It's going to be hard those first few months. Adjusting to the 12+ hour shifts again will take some time. Adjusting to a different kind of nursing will take some time. I am confident though, this is a good fit for me and I will enjoy the job.

Again, thank you for your prayers. I really appreciate all of your sweet "best wishes" and "congratulation" emails.

~jen

Prayer Request

I have my 2nd interview tomorrow at our Urgent Care Clinic. Please say a prayer for me. I have given an advance notice to my current employer. I have been so stressed these past few weeks, not only worried about the house, but things at my current job have been on a rapid decline.
I need to go back to work on a more full-time, steady basis. We need better (less expensive) health insurance.
I am saddened that this job didn't work out. I love teaching the kids. I love what we are doing to hopefully help decrease the number of teenage pregnancy and STD rates.
I feel like I have been unhappy with my job for the past 18 months. I am ready to find something that I enjoy and something that benefits all aspects of my life.
Thanks,
~jen

Happy Birthday Cody!

Today is Cody's 14 birthday. I can't believe it. I can't believe he is actually 14. Remember last year's birthday post? I feel just the same this year. It seems like yesterday I was holding him tightly in my arms, watching him sleep. Time passes too quickly.

Happy Birthday Cody. I love you more than you know.
~mom

Horoscopes

I am not a horoscope kind of person... but there is a section on my MSN homepage where my horoscope is displayed. I got a kick out of today's.

Motivation must come from within, dear Scorpio. The only thing that can pull you out of bed is your own inner drive. And the fact that my alarm clock is going off.

Too much partying may leave you spent to the point that you don't even want to move. What?? I haven't partied like that since 1993! (Those were the good ole' days... no kids, no husband, no worries... gas was 99 cents!)

Remember to be moderate. Be good to your physical body. Yeah, right. I'm drinking a coke as I type.

Go outside and let your mind radiate outward like the rays of the sun. I'll pencil that in somewhere between 3 appointments scheduled for today, dealing with the ever increasing stress of what may be our new home, oh and trying to clean out 3 bedrooms and a garage for a yard sale tomorrow. I'll see what I can do about getting some rays of sun! Actually, I am a little pasty... maybe a quick trip to the tanning bed will count? :)

Feel the grounding of the Earth below. Whatever.

:)
~jen

Just thoughts...

This is a long one... lots on my mind today...

Today has been one of those days that you just can’t wait to end. All day long it has just been one thing after another. First… Caden’s sick. He started going downhill late yesterday afternoon. After a short nap on the couch yesterday he woke up hotter than ever with fire-red cheeks. His temp was in the 102’s and he was very crabby. No real complaints of anything except a headache. His fever continued through the night and this morning he woke up complaining of a headache, sore throat, and an earache. After a trip to the doctor this afternoon, we found out he has an upper respiratory infection and the start of an ear infection. His strep and flu tests came back negative (thank goodness). We started an antibiotic this afternoon. Hopefully within a day or two he will be back to good ole’ Caden.

We were supposed to have the hydrostatic (water and sewer) inspection on the house completed today. Well it appears that the clean-out valve is covered by the back patio. I’m not quite sure what is going on or how to explain it better. The end result was that they were not able to complete the sewer portion of the test because a new clean-out valve has to be installed… which only means one thing to us… more money will be involved. The good news from today is that they were able to complete the water line part of the inspection and it looks good. They are returning to the house in the morning to install the new valve and finish the inspection. I am completely worn-out by this whole experience. I am so ready for this process to be over.

Cody returned to school today from his extended spring break. They had a snow day yesterday. I think he was excited to be back in school. It seems once spring break is over, it’s all down-hill. He only has about 9 more weeks of school left. Wow. It will be summer before we know it!

I received some sad news this morning. An area teenager (a senior in high school) took his own life over spring break. I discovered after reading the obituary that I knew his mother. She is an instructor at the college I attended. I never had her in class, just passed her in the hallway every now and then. She also helped with a number of our clinical return demonstrations. She was such a friendly staff member, always smiling. I was so saddened by this news. I can only imagine what a nightmare this has been for their family. He was just a senior in high school, only weeks before graduation.

I remember how hard high school was. I remember having those feelings of despair that I would never survive what it was that I was going through. I thought about this for a good portion of the afternoon. I figured that since this was the first day back at school since spring break and this teen’s funeral was yesterday that Cody would probably have heard about it at school. I decided to use this as an opportunity to talk to Cody. After I picked him up from golf practice and before we went inside the house I asked him if he had heard anything about the suicide. He answered yes, that he heard some of his friends talking about it. A number of his friends have older brothers and sisters who attended school with this teenager. I asked Cody what he thought about it. Suicide isn’t something that we’ve ever really talked about. Immediately the “wall” went up. It seems that whenever I have something important to talk to Cody about this “wall” goes up between us. All I hear from him is, “I know mom”, “I know what you’re going to say”, “You don’t have to worry about me”, “It’s not going to happen to me”. I don’t know how to get through to him sometimes. I don’t know how to break that wall down so that he will actually listen to me. I don’t know how to get through that whole “I’m invincible attitude” that almost all teenagers have. I don’t know how to break that mindset that only bad things happen to those people, people who live over there, people not like me. The truth is bad things happen to everyone. I don’t know how to get Cody to where he will truly listen to me… to lose that attitude that I as his mother am stupid and don’t know what I am talking about. I tried to tell him that I hope he never ever feels so lost, or so alone, or so sad, or so miserable that the only solution he feels is left is for him to take his life. I want him to know that he can come to us for anything. No matter what it is, we are always going to love him and will help him with whatever it is that is causing him hurt, pain, anxiety, worry, or anger. There is nothing that we can’t overcome together. I want him to know that there is Someone greater than all of us who will help him overcome whatever it is that is causing him pain.

I pray that he let that wall down just a little this afternoon to hear my words and my pleas to know that he is too valuable to us, that he is too special to us, that he is so loved by us to ever let anything or anyone break his beautiful spirit. I hope he feels loved, that he knows how special he is to us, how proud we are of this young man that is growing up too quickly in a very scary world.

So, that's my day today. It's now almost 9:30. I'm ready for bed. I'm ready for this day to be done. I'm ready for a better day tomorrow. I pray for the family of this teen that they too may have better days soon.

Love,
~jen

2 weeks until closing...

I can't believe we are just 2 weeks away to our closing date. Where has time gone? We had the home inspection last Friday. Only minor repairs are needed. We are focusing on the bigger ones like a few problems with some electrical, plumbing, and brick issues. Everything else can wait (until my dad can come for a visit!!). We had the radon inspection over the weekend and the results were within normal limits. The plumbing inspection is tomorrow. The termite inspection later this week. Wow. This is really real.

Hope everyone had a blessed Easter weekend. We spent part of the weekend with Mike's family. A fun, crazy time as always. It was nice to see everyone, even if it was just for a short time. Now if I could just make all the Easter candy disappear... to the trash. Every year it seems to increase by the bucket-full! That crazy Easter bunny leaves too many eggs filled with such tempting goodies! :)

~jen