Summer Lovin'...

If every day could be like today I would never want Summer to end. OK well not all of today because I lost my keys this morning so I ended up running like 30 minutes late and we missed the puppet show we were supposed to be seeing. Oh well it was a fun day anyway. We still went to the library downtown (and caught the last song of the puppet show) and met up with my friend Mary and her two boys for lunch and some fun in the park. Her boys are like 7 and 9 so they are quite a bit older than Jayci but it was still fun.

After the library we went over to the park across the street in the Rivermarket to eat lunch and play. Oh also Jay surprised us by getting off work early and meeting up with us! I have to say this may be one of our weekly trips. I know it is a little far to drive for a picnic and play but it was really fun. The park has little fountains of water coming out of the ground and tunnels in the ground for the kids to play in. I forgot my camera today but did get a few pictures with my phone.



After the park we came home and rested for a bit then went out to my in-laws house to swim. Let me just say Jayci is becoming such a little fish. She can actually touch in the shallow end of the pool. This means she doesn't have to wear here floaties or life jacket if she doesn't want to. Which she LOVES! She can jump off the side and she tries to swim back to the wall. She more less hops back but we are really working on swimming. Tonight she actually swam underwater for a few seconds. I think she is still unsure about the water she doesn't like to get her feet out from under her for too long. But it is still so much fun watching her learn. She is just growing so fast. Here are a few pictures from swimming. She also loves going down the slide now.




By the way did you notice my black nail polish in the first photo? It's really a black with just a hint of red in it. I wasn't sure at first but I did my toes and then like 2 days later I did my nails in the same color. I am really LOVING it. What do you think about black nail polish? Is it too goth or just up to the person and how they wear it?

Finally all caught up

As you can see from the post below we obviously had a blast at the lake. However, our weekend was just getting started when we got back. We rested up for about and hour and then had to go to Jay's brother's, Christian, birthday party. He had a small family swimming party. I can't believe he is actually 13 now. It doesn't seem like he was only 9 when Jay and I got married. I know 4 years is not that long but it just seems like I have and continue to watch him go from this obnoxious little kid to this big obnoxious teenager! Ha. Just kidding. He is really turning into a great young man. I just can't help but love him a little. Anyway, here are some pictures from that night. Of course they are all of Jayci but never the less here they are...

This is Jayci jumping off the steps. Later in the evening she actually tried this without a life vest on. Needless to say I didn't get a picture of that because I was too busy jumping in the pool after her!


Here she is going down the slide. She would go up it and get to the top and just start crying. It was kind of funny. I had to tell her somebody was going to come push her down it if she didn't hurry up and go. She finally went. This same routine went on like 3 times. Every time she would climb up there willingly. I just don't get it?!?


Some fun with Daddy...




Then on Sunday we celebrated Jay and all the other great dad's out there with a wonderful Father's Day. I love you so much, Jay. Thank you for being a wonderful Dad to our daughter and a loving husband to me!

OK I just decided to add a few more pictures from today to this blog. Jayci and I went to magic springs with my aunt Kim and her daughters Kimmie and McKenna. And even though we got rained on (more like poured on) we had a lot of fun.

Jayci and McKenna waiting to swim because it started thundering and lightening as soon as we got there. Luckily it stopped after like 15 minutes. For a few hours anyway...


Jayci, Kim, and McKenna sliding


Kimmie and McKenna riding Diamond Mine Run. You can kind of see Jayci and I in front of them if you look really close.


Kim & Jayci riding Diamond Mine Run. Kim couldn't really use my camera so to get pics I had to be off of the ride. This is blurry but you can still see she is enjoying, more like getting used to, the ride.


Jayci, Kimmie, and McKenna riding the apples. You can see it is really raining by this time. We left as soon as they got off of this ride.


All in all we had a good day. Oh yeah forgot to mention we also rode Plummet (sp?) Summit and Jayci was really excited about riding it until it actually started moving. Then she freaked out a bit. Oh well, hopefully she will get used to them. Jay nor I have ever been afraid of roller coasters so I'm not sure how to react to a child that may have that fear. Guess we will just do what most parents do and Love her anyway!!!

OK two blog posts in one day that is just crazy. Oh well, I'm at least all caught up. Hope you enjoyed it because I probably won't post for another 6 months. Just kidding...hopefully. I really am going to try and get better.

Lake Fun

Just an FYI this is a pretty LONG post.

This week was our vacation. We had such a good time. We left town about 7:30 Sunday night and headed to Lake Norfork. We packed coloring books, crayons, & movies (on the iPod) for Jayci to be entertained on our 3-4 hour journey. We ended up arriving right about 11:00 and even though Jayci was still awake she did really good the whole trip. Toward the end she started whinning about her bottom hurting; honestly, mine hurt too.

So at the lake we joined my mom, her boyfriend Greg, Greg's daughter Allie, Greg's brother Jeff, Jeff's son Joe and his wife Nicole. Then Monday morning Greg's oldest daughter Ashley came with 3 of her friends. Needless to say we had a pretty big group.

Anyway, Sunday night was a late one because after the long drive Jayci was just excited to be there she had some energy to burn. So we went to bed late and got up bright & early Monday morning (8:00). We took the morning pretty easy and I cooked breakfast for everyone. That was definitly a new experience for me. I've never cooked for that many people. One lessoned learned: don't ask everyone how they like there eggs just scrammble them. They will either eat them or not. Either way is ok.

Around noon we loaded up and went on the boats (Jeff & Gregg's). Here we are on Greg's Boat.
Jayci liked the boat ok but she really was more concerned about swimming. She was funny the first time we anchored out and just swam in the middle of the lake. She was a little nervous but liked it a lot.



Jayci swimming with Ashley and her friends! Needless to say Jayci recieved a lot of attention this last week!!! It was really great to have so many people to play with her and actually want to! Ha

I am so glad she is getting used to her life jacket. The very first time I made her wear it, in the pool, she hated it. I was afraid that she would just fuss about it the whole time but she didn't complain one time. After stopping for a bit we went and caught up with Jeff & everyone on his boat. We found a beach to pull up on and eat lunch and swim. This was all great and fun until...

...It started Thundering & Lightening!!

Ok so it wasn't exactly right over us but it did start raining. Which when your already wet it not a big deal. Unless it's lightening. So Gregg had the idea of leaving where we were and trying to go around the storm. Yeah, so that idea didn't work! So we end up heading back to the docks and end up right in the middle of the storm. It's like raining really hard so Greg can't see very well but can't slow down because we will get pounded. Oh yes did I mention it was hailing! During all this me, Jayci, Mom, and Allie end up huddled in the floor of the boat under the dash board singing whatever song we could think of to make Jayci laugh so she wouldn't freak. We started out singing Jesus loves me and apparently that wasn't funny enough. The next songs we sung were Shes a Brick...House, Baby got Back, and Apple Bottom Jeans. Apparently in a crisis Jayci just needs a little rap to make her happy. Ha! Anyway we got back to the dock safely and just in time for the sun to peek through. It was all a little scary but a memory that will last a long time.


This is Jeff after a long day!!!

Monday evening we all just took it easy. Jay & I went to Wal-Mart, Jayci took a 3 hour nap with my mom, and everyone else just hung out.

Tuesday we woke up fairly early, ate breakfast and loaded up to go back out on the boat. Jay and I decided to cliff jump. I used to do this all the time growing up but for some reason getting older and having a child changes your prospective on doing dangerous thing. (At least for me it does.) Anyway, I jumped once and it was really scary but fun. Somebody got a picture but I don't have it yet so I will have to come back and add it.

After this Jayci decided to be brave and try out a little tubbing. She LOVED it! Of course I rode with her and we went pretty slow but we had a lot of fun. While tubbing we saw this float called a bannana split that you hook up and pull with the boat. Gregg asked the owners if we could borrow it and they let us. Jayci lasted about 5 minutes on this and was out! It was great.
Jayci & I on the tube

Jayci passed out on the bannana


We headed in soon after that to cook dinner and just hang out.

Wednesday~ half way through our week. At this point everyone is a little tired and wears out easily. We got out on the water around noon and Jayci lasted about four hours before having a complete melt down. Which for a 3 year old is really good. So Jay, Jayci, Allie, & I went back to the house for a nap. Needless to say Jayci was asleep before we even got back to the dock.

After a 3 hour nap we woke up just in time for everyone else to be back from boating. We cooked dinner, hung out some, then Jay, Jayci, Allie, & I went for a late night boat ride. It was really fun and Jayci enjoyed it a lot. She couldn't see the waves clearly so she kept yelling "waves where are you."

This is Allie...Jayci's best friend for the week. Thank you Allie for being so great with Jayci. She has even asked a few times since we have been home "Where's Allie?" I swear that is all we heard all week from her. HA!


This may have been the same night that I got some pictures of Jayci playing in the bubbles. I'm not sure...the week kind of runs together.


Thursday~ I don't think anything exciting happened. We went back out on the boat, swam, grilled dinner, ate, and went to bed

Friday~ Greg's oldest daughter, Ashley, and her friends left to go back home. Jay, my mom, Gregg, Jayci, Allie, Jeff, and I all went to this place called "The Zone" that is in Mtn. Home. We played video games and rode Go Karts. Even Jayci rode a Go-Kart. I don't have a picture of this but she LOVED it.

After some play time we went to dinner at El Chico's then back to the house to change to do one last evening of boating. I would say we got out on the boat about 6:30 and the plan was just to do a little tubing and swimming and be back on land about 9 or so... Until the guys decided they wanted to cross the Arkansas/Missouri border via boat. We found it alright! Ended up about 4 miles into Missouri. How do we know that we were in Missouri? Good question. Somebody finally thought about my phone and the Map application it has on it. So we confirmed it by the little blue dot that shows up on the screen showing you exactly where you are.

This little blue dot also became very handy on the way back to the dock. The map will also show what part is water and what part is land. By the time we headed back to the dock it was dark so we used the blue dot to guide us and make sure we were in the middle of the lake. Obviously we also used lights and such but the dot also have us a bit of extra comfort and allowed for us to get home way earlier than we probably would have without it. Isn't modern technology great?!?

OK well that was our week! We had such a great time. It was hard having to come back home. I may post again today or tomorrow on the rest of our weekend. I am really going to try to get better at posting more often. I need a way to keep up with all the silly things Jayci does or says! We'll see how that goes!?!

~ Kristen

Happy Mother's Day

As I sit here in my PJs on an early Mother's day I can't help but think about how blessed I truly am. I have a healthy, beautiful, sometimes rotten 3-year-old daughter. I cannot even imagine where my life would be without her.



Just look at that sweet face.



These pictures are from the lake yesterday. Maybe later I will post more about that. For now HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all of the mommies out there.
~ Kristen

Memphis

Earlier this week I was approached by some friends about going shopping. Naturally I never miss the opportunity to shop (even if I'm not buying anything). Then I realized I would have to take Jayci with me... If you have children then you know shopping with a child is not always the most fun. That made me really question going or not. Well my friend said I think we are going to go to Memphis! Road trip & shopping...I'm so there (3-year-old & all)!!

So this morning we got up and left the house about 7 to meet up with Stephanie & Mary. Jayci was in such a good mood. This is always a good sign as to how the day is going to go. Anyway we left the house backpack full of coloring books, books, & DVDs. All things to keep a 3 y/o entertained... So did it work or not?

Yes it did work! Jayci was so good today. She watched Cinderella on the way there, colored, and read some books. She did not whine one time about being in the car. She was such a big girl.

We got to Memphis and hit up William Sonoma & Pottery Barn first. And being the nice Mommy I am I decided to let Jayci walk instead of riding in the stroller. Brave...I know! But we established a ask before you touch and a one finger rule. As in she had to ask if she could touch something and if I said yes she could only touch it with one finger. This really worked pretty well. With some practice it will be even better.. It just seemed better than going through the store saying "don't touch that" and getting mad when she tried to sneak and touch something full-handed. Anyway, it worked great.

After this we went to Red Robin. This is a resturant that is known for there burgers. Although I didn't have a burger I had this awesome grilled chicken sandwich. It had yummy pesto and all kinds of good stuff. Oh and these garlic French fries. I think my breath is still funky from these. Ha. Jayci had grilled cheese and melon.

Here is a picture of her at the resturant. She is making her supermodel face. This is the funniest thing I've ever seen. It came about one day while she was pouting and had her lips stuck out. So to redirect her I told her she looked like she was doing a supermodel face and it has just stuck. Usually she will look over her shoulder and make this face. She is such a ham!



After lunch we went into all the other stores. I have to say Jayci was very well behaved. She got a little restless toward the end of the trip (about 2:00) but I really don't blame her. She had gotten up early and hadn't had a nap.

I did buy myself a swim suite. Even though I am proud of the weight I have lost I still did not look forward to buying one of these. Which I think I could weigh a hundred pounds and still would not look forward to buying one. It's a girl thing. Anyway I bought one and I like it quite a bit. It's black and white and very cute.

Ok well here are some pictures from on our way back. We had a wonderful time. Hope to get to do it again sometime soon.

This is Stephanie.




Here is Mary.



Me



And Jayci napping...finally!



Oh yes and I hope all you mothers out there have a very Happy Mothers Day!!
~ Kristen

Test

I am trying to decide weather or not to cut off our Internet at home. I just wanted to make sure that I could still blog if I had the desire/time and I think it is possible.

Here is a picture of Jayci from our first ER visit this past Sunday. She is ok now. And I must admit I could have waited until Monday morning to take her to the doc. Oh well it's over with now. By the way she is just sleeping in this picture. It was really late/early.


-- Post From My iPhone

Just words.....

Disclaimer: This post may not be the happiest. I am not sure where I am going with it. I just know that I figure I have the blog I should use it other than just for Jayci.

The past couple of days I have been feeling some overwhelming sadness. Sadness that is so deep and hurtful that I can't even express it. Many of you (probably all that read this) know about one of my very good friends, actually best friend, that has gotten herself into quite some trouble. I say "some" very loosely. I just am not sure where to go with the feelings I have about her. Of course I pray for peace and comfort but it's like I just want more. I want my heart to feel happy and whole again. For me, my friend getting in trouble is almost like she died, except she didn't. But when I have a bad day she's not there to call. When I want to go pick up a Starbucks and go to Target, she's not there. When I loose 2 pounds she's not there to share in the joy. All of these things that best friends are supposed to be there for she is not there. Yet her phone number is still in my phone. I just cannot bring myself to delete it and probably never will (unless of course she gets a new number and I know about it).

Anyway, the sadness comes and goes. Each day is a little different. Each week that passes by that I don't receive a letter back from her makes me a little more mad, hurt, ect. Then I question our friendship and what it really was. I mean what kind of friend lies to you over and over again. For 8 YEARS!!! But I still dealt with it, even though I didn't trust a word she spoke. Deep down in my heart I really wanted to. I wanted to believe ever word she said but I knew I shouldn't.

Anyway, I'm not sure that any of that made since but it felt right. It at least let me express some feelings into words. So onto other feelings.... Nursing - there are so many places you can work with nursing. For me I can't tell you want I want to do but I can definitely tell you what I do NOT want to do.

I do not want to do Med Surg. That floor is not for me. It took me about 10 minutes and 1 incontinent man on my first day to realize that wasn't the place for me.

Another place I learned I don't want to be is Labor & Delivery. The miracle of birth is an amazing and beautiful thing....in theory. I am here to tell you watching a baby be born is anything but beautiful. This following is going to be the story of my day (of course without HIPPA violations). Warning it's not all happy.

My day started with me being on the postpartum unit. My patient and her baby were healthy and being discharged today. That was great. They were discharged about noon so I wasn't going to have a patient for the rest of the day. Being the ambitious student I am, plus I didn't see anything last week on L&D, I called my instructor and said I need something to do. She calls me back and says come on up to L&D they are super busy up here. Without hesitation here I go...

I get up to L&D my nurse, we'll call her J, had 2 patients. Both were due for c-sections close together. Therefore, she had to ask another nurse, B, to step in with one of the patients. Well, B was my nurse last week and needless to say I did not want to be back with her. So J gave me the choice to either follow B with that c/s (c-section) or go with her to the other c/s. I thought I like J, she's a really good nurse and has actually spoke to me, I'll just follow her. Well right before we went to the other patients room she warned me that the baby would probably not live and may not even take a breath at birth. Well that threw me through a whole different loop.

You see I have yet to see a person die. Let alone see a baby die. But there again the ambitious student side of me said this is part of it. If you want to work in L&D you have to know if you can handle it. So I went with J.

Before my c/s was ready, a classmate, A, had a patient that was going to give birth vaginally. So I ask my nurse can I go with her just to watch. Of course she doesn't care. It's a learning hospital, you never know who is going to be in your delivery room. So I hurry in there. And about the time the doctor put the gloves on Mom was ready to push. And what do you know 3 pushes and like 10 minutes later baby was born. I say born he more like fell out. I'm not sure if it was supposed to happen like that but it did. And it was wet and slimy and gross. Of course the baby was beautiful and I did cry a little bit but over all not a "beautiful" experience. So mom, dad, and baby were all good there. So I head back to my patient...

Now that I have seen a healthy baby be born I have myself psyched up to see a not so healthy baby be born via c/s. I will save all of the details about the baby but this was the saddest situation I have every been through. Being a mother and having gone through a c/s I cannot imagine what it would be like to have to be that mom. To know that your baby may not cry or even breath after he is born. Well, I watched the baby try to cry and breath and heard mom cry as she heard it herself. An operating room full of doctors, nurses, techs, med students, scrub techs, nursing students all very sad. Needless to say I had to step out of the OR to regain composure. And I did and followed the family back to recovery. I cried a lot with my nurse, with the family, and with one of my former instructors. I pray for this family to have peace over them. They will surely need it in the days, weeks, months, and years to come.

OK so this was a really long and sad post. I apologize. I have no idea if it makes any since. I have been up since 4 this morning and it has been a really long day, obviously. But for some reason I wanted to post all of it. The births and deaths today made me really thank God a lot for the many blessings he has given me. He is my rock and my Savior. I could not get through any of this without him.

Thank you God for your many Blessings you pour out on me. Be with both of these families from today! They each need you in their own special way.