Updates

Yet again, here i am playing catch up!! it was a very busy weekend! i worked at Diamonds by Design on friday and saturday. then yesterday, caden and i, mom & dad, and courtney & kaylee, all left early sunday morning for kansas city, to attend courtney's best childhood friend's baby shower. we grew up with sasha and her mom julie just down the street and at chris and i's wedding, sasha told my dad that she always pretended that he was her dad so he felt it was important that he see her during her pregnancy. she is due april 25--which happens to be my niece, kaylee's birthday! funny how things work out that way. things were fine with courtney and i and the kids who were in my jeep--but sure got hairy whenever we were with my parents!! i don't know what that's about really, but my blood pressure sure shot up while shopping at target and at lunch! CRAZY is all i have to say about that i think. got home around 8pm i think and was sure tuckered out!!
today was a GREAT day other than having to go back to school! I'M SO READY FOR SUMMER!! having said that, some great things happened at school so it wasn't all bad!! i was taking an advanced dysrhythmias class from 4-6, making my monday's at school be 1-6pm. well, it is an elective course that just started before spring break, so i decided that i was no longer interested in taking this class! me and about 5 others i think! so i dropped it! that makes my day again 1-4. then i signed up to enroll for next semester and asked my advisor if she thought it would be possible to get out taking the very dreaded research class. she told me to go and talk to dr. calhoun-the chair of the dept--and professor for that class so very nervously, i approached her. SHE AGREED that my undergraduate and graduate research class would suffice and to have dr. wendling substitute my undergraduate research class for this one!!! I AM SO HAPPY!! that is a huge weight lifted off my shoulders!! it is a class that take a tremendous amount of time outside of class and requires a big research project and presentation--all of which i despise!! so yea for me!!!
i had also been waiting on a check in the mail for some time now and finally received it today so now i have some money!!! so much less stress!! so, that's my day!!
tomorrow i am enrolling in the morning and then going to topeka to interview at the diamonds by design store there so that i will be able to work some hours there especially this summer and get more hours in. i'd actually be quite content only working at the one here---and i do love it!! seriously...they are paying me to shop for jewelry, help others pick out beautiful jewels, and play with loose stones to come up with new designs!! a little bit of heaven!! so tomorrow i'm doing that and then spending the night with my cousin shelby so i'll already be in topeka for my clinical wednesday!! then thursday is caden's big boy 3 year old birthday!!! i can hardly believe it!!! so, i'm signing off for a couple of days.....it's entirely possible that i may go into withdrawl from not having a computer near me, but i'll try and work something out!!

Caden's 3 year check-up!

this boy is so good!! i really mean it!! he did exactly what the dr tells him and cooperates fully!! no crying, no fighting, nothing. just cool, calm, and collected!! even when he made him gag, i thought for sure he'd cry then but nope!! the dr said that usually by the end of the exam, the 3 year olds are in tears, but by 4 they are usually more cooperative so he thought caden did great. of course, since mommy practices things on him all the time, that helps!! such a good boy!! the dr said he is doing great all around. i feel like he should weigh a little more...29lbs and 36inches, but the dr said that this was just fine and not to worry about it a bit. i asked about him not really eating much, and he said that they don't usually at his age and unless he is way skinny, he's fine. and as we all know, a kid a little on the thin side is better than the other way. guess he really is taking after his daddy in that department!! and that's good. i had to get a hepatitis-a shot for my upcoming trip to greece, so i had caden come around so he could see, you know to be a good model for shot-taking, and i thought he was going to cry!! his little eyes turned red on the edges but i told him it was ok and mommy was fine and then he was ok!! such a sweet kid!! so of course i said i'd take him to lunch...where you might ask....mc donald's of course. isn't that every kids favorite? and i had voiced concerns about his eating, so what does he do, but eat all of his chicken nuggets!! we wanted to play on the toys but they were locked because it rained last night and i thought we might have a melt down over it, but he composed himself, and said "we can come play tomorrow, not today, but tomorrow". and, since it's proud mom day, he also counted cats in a book and counted to 8 all by himself!! he can get to 10 if he wants to and occassionally with a little help, 15!! so smart this kid is!! simply amazing!

My Mom

i have mentioned in previous posts, that my mom has some significant health issues occurring right now. osteoporosis is only one of them, and a serious situation. she told me on monday, that she thought she may have cracked or broken a rib when she bumped into the corner of the counter top at home the other day. there is a sharp corner there and she had some bruising and a whole lot of tenderness. she saw the endocrinologist at ku med monday and he told her that they could x-ray it and it probably would show a broken rib, but since there isn't anything they can really do for it, it seemed like a waste of money. so she went on and then tuesday, things got worse, so she went to see the nurse practitioner at her primary care dr's office since he was out. they did an x-ray and said that one of her ribs is broken right in half. easy to see, and definately painful, but since the dr was gone, not official. they called today....she actually has 3 broken ribs, not just 1. they are trying to get her started on an injection form of medication that is very expensive and insurance fights covering, but she can't take the oral medications because she has severe esophagitis and if the medication got stuck in her throat as so many do, it could cause pretty serious damage. so until they can get it approved she just has to wait. they did decide to go ahead and start her on 50,000 iu of calcium but no one in emporia carries this amount so they had to order it in before she could start it. she's so scared to even move for fear of breaking other bones. what a mess!

GOT A JOB!!

it's true!! i have a job!! i kept forgetting to post about the outcome of my interview with the boys and girls club. i was not offerred that job and from what i have heard since then, it's a good thing for me! so i went yesterday and put my application in at a jewelry store called "diamonds by design". i had seen an ad for a part time person several weeks ago, but that was the same time as the boys and girls club so i put it off. then it was advertised again this weekend so i went there and put my application in yesterday morning. they called me yesterday at lunch time and set up an interview for today and basically hired me on the spot! the down sides are that the pay isn't nearly what it was for the boys and girls club, and they are open on saturday's which takes away from my time with chris and caden, but truthfully, not many part-time jobs that can be as flexible as i need them to be, aren't open on saturdays. so, we'll have to plan things a little better as far as trips and weekend fun. so that part stinks. but the up sides are many in my book!! first--i love jewelry so messing with diamonds and other jewels all day sounds like a great deal of fun!! they also make their own jewelry so a lot of what they do for their clients involves designing a piece based on their desires, lifestyle, and personality so it's not like other jewelry stores where you pounce on the person when they come in the store, which is good, because that kind of thing i wouldn't be good at. they are willing to be very flexible with my school schedule and i'll be able to get in more hours this summer by working some in the topeka store also. a couple days a week at that would be ok. i interview at the topeka store on tuesday. and the biggest thing.....IT'S A PAYCHECK!! and that i desperately need. so, all in all, i'm happy. i wish chris were more excited, but he really doesn't like the thought of me working saturdays at all. i think part of that is because he's afraid it will cut in on his fishing time!! in the summer, he usually fishes 1 day and spends the other with us, so if he can't go on sat, he'll want to go on sunday and then we wouldn't see each other at all!! but she tells me that they are looking to change the saturday hours to only 10-2 and that wouldn't be so bad. and i know he thinks i'll want to spend all my money there, and i'm sure i will want to, but i won't. i don't know what kind of discount employees receive yet, but i'm not looking to get anything new anytime soon. maybe for graduation??!! but that's a year from now so until then, it's just a paycheck! i actually work friday and saturday already!! jess is going to keep caden because chris has to work this saturday also so it'll work out! wish me luck!

Upcoming Birthday

so hard to believe that in just 9 days (march 29), my miracle baby boy will be 3 years old. it seems like just yesterday that we called everyone to say that he was coming on that monday and everyone waited all day and night in the waiting room at the hospital for news of his arrival. and here we are getting ready to celebrate his 3rd birthday. hardly seems possible. this year, we are returning to the location of his 1st birthday party, (a local park) and the differences in how he is able to interact and play this time around are tremendous. we are always both celebrating and grieving his ever changing and constant development. in many ways, things are so much easier now, but as he grows and becomes more independent, he feels less like a baby and that i do not appreciate! i'm adding a couple of pictures to see how he has changed in the last 2 years. the first picture is caden on march 29, 2005, his exact 1 year birthday. the second picture was taken just a couple of weeks ago. there are not words to express fully just how much i love him and how lucky i feel to be his mommy.

Magic Monday

i sure missed my little monster this weekend so we decided that since mommy is on spring break, caden should at least get to stay home today as well. we have had fun but boy i am a tired cookie today! i woke him up at 7:30--yes you read that right, I woke him up, because i thought he was breathing kind of funny and whimpering so i needed to see if it stopped when he was awake. it did so then i of course tried to convince him to go back to sleep but he wasn't having anything to do with that!! so we have played, and watched a movie, and played some more! he is such a joy and he makes me laugh so much! so, we've stayed in our pj's and just been hanging out. he's not going to my parent's house tonight like usual because they had her appt with a osteoporosis specialist at ku med this afternoon. looking forward to what they have to say. she thinks she may have at least bruised, if not broken, a rib running into the counter downstairs so they really do need to get her started on some kind of regimen! tonight--nothing too exciting going on either. just hanging out with my husband and my baby, but tomorrow tammi asked me to go to topeka with her to pick out some spring/summer clothes so how can a girl turn that down??

St. Patrick's Day weekend

WHAT A GREAT WEEKEND!!! We had so much fun in Kansas City this weekend. Friday we arrived around 5pm at our hotel on the plaza and got things unloaded before going to dinner at the fabulous Figlio's. It's truly the best italinan food i have yet to find anywhere. there we 7 of us for dinner--my jess, nursing girls jessie, megan, ashley, justine, tammi, and i. then we were off to find a target and a liquor store. after some little bit of difficulty we located a target and got supplies. then, i stuffed 4 girls in my back seat and we were off!! we decided to stay in the hotel friday night and just hang out. meg and ash did go to the hotel hot tub and saw some disturbing should-have-been-private sexual activity there, so they came back to the room, after nearly being assaulted by 3 guys in the elevator! we laughed so hard all night long and called it a night about 3am i think. jess, tammi, and i slept in the king bed and justine, ashley, and megan shared the sofa bed. pretty comfortable night other than the early morning trash truck and then our sink dripping enough all night that it overflowed and was a bit surprising when you walked through the door way to hit the bathroom!! ashley took off at 9am and the rest of us got ready for the parade which we missed!! we didn't finish getting ready until noon and it started at 11 so we decided just to go eat and then go and shop. meg wanted us to go to the cheesecake factory and yes, the cheesecake is TO DIE FOR!! the food was great, company even better!! tammi headed back to emporia after lunch. the rest of us took off for our shopping day. tammi, however, got a little turned around and spent a hour or so just trying to get out of the plaza!!! i have done that too and it is SO frustrating!! she finally got different directions and went out by KU Med center where a girl was going psycho in the street and the rescue men were chasing her and eventually tackled her, but not before she came and ran into tammi's car while the traffic was stopped!! she said that she was sure it was the leprechaun's talking to her! we went to this new shopping district called "the legends". i had never been there and am really unfamiliar with this part of kc so it was a challenge finding our way there, and a much bigger challenge finding our way home!! the exit we needed was closed and you know detours are lots of fun anywhere, but they are especially helpful in DOWNTOWN kc!! WE WERE LOST FOR 2 HOURS!! i was so frustrated so by the time we got back to our hotel and we only had 2 hours for 4 girls (2 of which needed showers) to get ready for dinner and our night out! the hotel bar was absolutely packed with very loud and very drunk people and we could hear the same guy yelling even when we were in our room on the 11th floor!!! we decided to go to a restaurant megan called "baja 500" and my friend julie met us there. it's actually called "baja 600" but it will be forever 500 to me!! again, very good food. after several drinks we hailed a cab to take us to the beaumont club. of course, they block off many roads near the westport district for st. patrick's day so we couldn't get that close by car and 2 of my dear friends were wearing tube tops so they were a wee bit chilly!! we walked the 3 blocks to the club and initally, i was not pleased. it was playing only country music and it was extremely crowded and dirty but justine found us a fabulous place to people watch and we had a ball!! they played lots of different kinds of music and we laughed so hard watching these very drunken fools!! we never even went to the dance floor we just stayed up top watching!! they have an electric bull that you can ride too, but we steered clear of that for this trip. megan and justine managed to try to get into a couple of fights with men--but it all worked out in the end!! this one dumb guy had stepped right in front of megan and i on our way up the stairs and wouldn't move so justine decided that he deserved to have a tiny bit of beer spit on his head!! jess and i heard her talking about it, but soon, this fool who should not be allowed to drink was yelling at us, all of which we couldn't hear a word of...so he actually climbed up on a table to get closer to us...there were 2 guys on both sides of us watching and were ready to step in, anyway--jess and i were saying that no one spit on him when low and behold, justine did!!! i thought i was going to die laughing!! then he told me that me, justine, and megan were "hoes" so i simply said that my life would forever be changed by his view of us!! what a mess. jess and i kept a close eye on him though because we both felt that if he had the chance, he might not be done with justine who almost poured her beer on his head because he was going to spit in her face!! we also had a great time watching the "wedding guy" who clearly was not dancing with this wedding date, and this messed up fat girl who thought that she was very sexy whew.....alcohol does trick the brain!! we decided to head back to the hotel at 1:45am and as we were getting ready to walk out, this guy at the table behind us grabbed my arm and said "hey, my friend here thinks you are cute" to which i replied, "thank you. so does my husband" and i said goodbye to his friend. my favorite part of the weekend came next though...we flagged down a mini-van cab for the ride home. the other 3 were in the back and i was in the front as there was only 1 bench seat in the van since the other had been removed. so we start going and the cabby is on his phone with his friend talking in a language that we can't understand and he goes a few feet before he suddenly slams on his brakes and i feel this "bam" on the back of my seat as my darling and lovely megan is thrown from her seat and hits the back of mine!! i thought i was going to pee my pants!!! she didn't really get hurt but she immediately started saying (the entire way home) "sir, sir, my knee is really hurt. i'm serious, i think my knee is messed up, i may need to go to the hospital" and on and on and on!! during all of this, he put his phone down and forgot until i kindly reminded him that his friend was on the phone!! i really thought i might die and we practically carried megan into the hotel for effect. she said she was trying to get our ride free and was "taking one for the team"....we all barely made it to the lobby bathroom before wetting ourselves!! we stayed up until 3am again, finishing off the drinks in our room and doing fun things to megan when she went to sleep. we laughed so hard that today, our voices are all pretty iffy!! yes, we got many pictures!! some on meg's camera that will be a surprise to her when she develops her shots!! we got back to town about 3pm and i watched the kansas jayhawks kick some kentucky fanny and took a nap with my little boy!! i missed him so much!! jess was going home to sleep too and she's not yet taking my calls so i'm guessing she is out for the night!! it truly was so fun!! jess actually said that she hadn't had that much fun since before her mom had been diagnosed with cancer! i'm so glad she went and she really hit it off with my school friends. as i expected and predicted they loved her!! we all decided that we are definately going to do this again in the future!! embassy suites will never be the same!!