Qucik Update ...

So I have a Doctor's appointment tomorrow at 230pm. That was the soonest I could get in. I guess I'll ask then if I should go to work tomorrow night. I don't know. I don't have fever, but I have the yucky cough and am really tired.

So, we found a school for Jayden. It was really strange and a God thing. Yesterday I was driving home from the firestation after visiting Jesse and decided to stop by a baptist church to see if they had a MDO program. I drove through the parking lot and saw two ladies standing there talking. I asked them about it and one said, "yes we do and I'm the director!" So we went by today and toured the school. It's nice and looks like Jayden will really like it. They only had openings in their 4 year old class! And it's only $160 a month! I was shocked! We signed him up and he'll start in January. It's kinda' pointless to put him in the next two months because of the holidays and our trip and all. He would only get to go maybe 4 days. So, he's really excited. I don't know if I wrote this the other day, but we found out that the school at our church isn't going to open in January as planned. To say that I was upset is an understatement. Oh well. Problem solved!

Yesterday we watched Claire all day. It was fun. We went to Old Navy and to visit Jesse at the firestation and then came home. We walked a couple of streets over to see Chris. She was looking at a house for her and Brianna. They actually put an offer on it today (to rent.) So it would be neat if they ended up being our neighbors!
Tonight is lifegroup. The housekeeper is coming tomorrow so we have to clean today. Oh the joy!

Picture Post

Jayden's First Day of School! He's such a big kiddo now!

Jayden sleeping in his new room!

Jayden's new room! I know the pictures are kinda' blurry sorry!

Hello BloggerLand

I know, I know, It's been a long time. Sorry. I just haven't felt like posting a lot lately on any of my blogs! I am totally into MySpace and Facebook right now though!

So ... update ... Same old. We have Snickers the dog now. She has blended into our family quite well. Jayden and her are best buds. Who would've thought this is the same dog who would run away and growl at him!?!?!? I guess things change when you're on the 4 year old's turf! Anyway - she follows him around and plays with him. One morning Jayden even put his socks on her!

We also got kitty the cat. He ran off, but comes around for food. Jesse saw him the other day and I saw him tonight. So at least I know he's not dead.

This week we got Jayden's room painted and decorated! It looks so nice! It only took FOR - EV - ER!!! I'll post pictures at some point if I remember!

My Dad is living in Washington DC now. He'll be there 18 mths. He comes home once a month and my Mom will go there once a month. We are going out to see him in December so we're pretty excited.

So ... I guess that's all for now!

Ok. I REALLY did something today!

I'm so proud of myself! I had NO motivation during the day, but once again the night bug bit me and I came home from fireman night and cleaned almost the entire house!!! Yes, I cleaned the kitchen, wiped down the counters and table, cleaned the dead fish out of the bowl and washed it (it's only been a few months) did laundry (probably 3 loads worth), cleaned the dining area and folded clothes, cleaned the living room and dusted, wiped off the couch (lots of Jayden crumbs), picked everything up, then I headed upstairs and picked up the bathroom, then my bedroom, put clothes away, emptied out my old nightstand and put together Jesse's new nightstand. Downstairs all that needs to be done is vacuum/sweep and mop!!! Upstairs I still need to do the nitty gritty cleaning. This is an example of how bad our room was: I still had to finish unpacking my bad from Honduras!!! Also the bag from when Rocky first got sick!!!

I'm SO proud of myself!!! Now I can play and have fun with my family tomorrow without feeling guilty about how horrible the house is! That's if I get up in the morning. Sadly it's 2:30 am now! I didn't start cleaning until after 11pm. Oh, on the way home from fireman I stopped by Walmart and bought some stuff. One thing I got was this dirty clothes hamper/box that matches our shelves in the bathroom. I went to put it together and it was cracked! So now I have to take it in to exchange it. I also might try and exchange Jesse's nightstand because it's kinda' messed up. Things didn't quite line up and the drawer won't go together tightly. I put my together no problem so I know it's not me and it's the actual piece of furniture. I just have to find the receipt.

I also found out the my friend Megan's Mom, Sue, who was going to be Jayden's teacher this year may be teaching a very small class in her home until the school opens in January! This is so great! I really hope it works out. I am going to call her in the morning to find out the details. We were planning on looking at schools tomorrow so we'll see...

At fireman tonight we practiced clamping off a fully charged hose and replacing a section. It was hard work and the Texas heat and humidity was horrible. I was soaked when I took my gear off and it wasn't all from the hoses! It was pretty fun! I got to be at the nozzle for awhile too! Anyway... fire training is fun when we do cool stuff like that. It's also a great workout. Maybe that's why I have all this energy now?

Currently, I am waiting for my manager from work to call me back and let me know if I can get funeral leave this Friday rather than having to make up my weekend shift. I hope I can. That would be so nice. It's horrible because I think this will be my 5th call in since January. I was sick twice, then my Paw-Paw was sick and passes away, then Rocky got sick, and now his funeral. It's crazy. I hope I don't get in trouble. I can vouch for each one though. I know of people who have called in that much while orientation and they are still around so hopefully they won't try and punish me. It's really not my fault.

Ok. This post is long enough already! Have a great... morning?

So, I got up a bit ago. Yes, it is 3:18 in the afternoon, but I'm working tonight so I slept as long as I could! Jesse and Jayden went to run errands and are now at my inlaws house. So... it's just me.
I just got word that the preschool that Jayden goes to isn't going to open in September as planned. They gave me the number to another preschool in the area. So... that stinks! It's the school at my church and we are in the process of building a new building and it's not going to be ready in time. So I guess the school's going to take a year off. Jayden has gone there since he was 3 mths old! I was excited that he was going to have the same PreK teacher that Jesse had. Poop. The other school they recommended to us... I don't think I could send him there. VERY long story short, it's the school at our old preacher's church (Doug - who when he left our church had a contract not to take a job at a C of C within so many miles of ours - well - he took this job in violation of the miles thing because it wasn't at a C of C - very sneaky - but that's just a part of it), and about a year or two ago when they started that school one of the teachers at our school left to be the director. At the end of the school year she took about half of the teachers with her to teach at the new school. So... bad history there for me. Don't think I could do it. So that means I have to find a new school for Jayden. Poop!

Ok, I guess I need to start researching and then get ready for work. I'm headed over to the inlaws for the last dinner with Brady before he heads off to ACU on Friday!
Phone just rang and Compass is going to credit 80 something dollars more into our account for the NSF charges. So out of the $380 they charged us... yes... 380 dollars in nonsufficient funds fees... we've gotten $114 back and now around $80 back so we still had to pay the ridiculous amount of around $186!!! That's why we are in the process of changing banks! Yeah, that's what 8 years of loyalty to one bank will get you... SCREWED! Our new bank, Wells Fargo, charges $10 a DAY whereas our old bank charged $38 per transaction. We had 10 transactions in one day before we even knew it. Plus we were out of town because Jesse's Grandfather was dying and is still in the ICU. Yeah, Compass bank is so loving and understanding. so here's my advice for the day:

COMPASS BANK SUCKS IF YOU HAVE THEM LEAVE IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A BANK KEEP LOOKING AND DON'T EVEN CONSIDER COMPASS BANK!!!

Ok, now that I've gotten that off my chest. Everyone have a wonderful afternoon and evening!

A Welcome Accident!

Ok, tonight I was at my parent's house looking through there CD collection. I picked out some CDs to take home and rip to my computer. I also picked up some CDs that were mine and had gotten into their mix. In there were the CDs that I had bought for our wedding (6 and a half years ago!) I decided to take these and rip them too. I have been looking for years for the Shania Twain CD with "From This Moment" on it. I LOVE that song and its a pretty good CD too. So I open one of the CD cases from our wedding and take this CD out and POP! underneath it was my Shania Twain CD! It had been hiding there all these years! Isn't it funny how the small unexpected things in life just give you such joy? The other joy I'm getting tonight is ripping these CDs that I listened to in elementary to high school! It's always a blast from the past. I love music!

On a completely different note, I joined facebook. Something that I've been avoiding for awhile now. I just didn't want to be a "follower" since everyone else was doing it. I guess I also didn't want to embarrass my brother since I seem to follow him in all him online adventures. It's how I got turned on to Xanga and MySpace, but I finally gave in. So... I found my cousin and one of my best friends from California! It's been so great to get to email and reintroduce ourselves! The internet is so cool in that way. You can keep up with people all over the world and find long lost friends. I just love it!

Tonight at the fire department we put on full gear and blacked out our masks to practice navigating in the dark/smoke. We crawled around with eachother then took off our packs and pushed them and then put them back on. Yeah, tons of fun. Maybe it would have been better if it wasn't 90+ degrees with 90%+ humidity. Gotta' love the Texas weather!

This morning we went to the ground breaking for Woodlands Fire Station number 6. It was pretty neat. Some journalists took pictures of us (since we had the only kid there and you know how people love pictures with kids in it) so we may be in the This Week section of the Houston Chronicle and the Monthly Woodlands magazine. Afterwards we came home and I took a long nap. I didn't go to bed until about 2 am last night and then couldn't get to sleep until about 3. So when Jesse got home from work and woke me up to go to the ground breaking, which started at 8:30, I was thrilled.

I also went ahead and canceled Jayden's last three swim lessons. I just got tired of going and dealing with the screaming and crying. Maybe next summer. He did learn some, but he was just too afraid (and stubborn!)

Ok, everyone else is asleep and I did not intend to be up this late again tonight. I get kinda' messed up with my work schedule sometimes. Blah!

So I can't tell you how happy I am to be off of work for the next few days. On Wed/Thurs I had worked 8 out of the past 12 days. Yeah, that's way too much for me. The last night I had a really sick baby. I was ok throughout the night. I struggled to keep my head above the water. There were 6 babies in our pod. Originally, the assignment gave me the sick one and a chronic kid with lots of medications. The other nurse had 4 babies! And she was a level II nurse. I pretty much gave my other baby up as soon as I got report on the sick one. It was way too much. They eventually sent in another level II nurse to help. It was ok, except I had no one to ask questions to. I ended up maxing out on Dopamine, Dobutamine and starting an insulin drip. The baby's fluids were changed 3 times and they were sterile line changes. She was on the cooling blanket. I am curious how she did during the day and last night. I was really worried about her. So, the worst part came when giving report to the one nurse on days that no one wants to give report to. Let's just say before I was finished she told me to leave, because she wasn't getting anything out of this report anyway. That was after many rude remarks and her attacking me on several occasions. Yeah, it was bad. I was bawling! I did go talk to the manager though. I didn't deserve to be treated that way. Ok, enough.

So, Jayden's first swim lesson was supposed to be yesterday. His instructor called during the day to ask me how flexible we were on dates and times because she was going out of town next week! I said not flexible on the days, the times... whatever. So she changed the time to 3:30 yesterday. Then another girl called and said she was covering for our girl and that she needed to change the time. She asked if 6:45 was ok, and it was actually better for us. (I slept AWFUL yesterday after everything so the extra sleep was much needed) Well, we get there and she's not there yet. We wait... then she calls and is "so sorry" but she accidentally double booked. When could we make it up? Well, we're going to add a day to the end now... Yeah, a little frustrating. So, today is Jayden's first swim lesson. Thankfully he handled that all really well!

So lot's to do today, I need to get the Splashtown tickets first thing, pay the car payments, swim lessons, work on the messy house/laundry, and spend time with Jayden. The first three things are the most important (aside from the Jayden part) the rest are pretty flexible. I think the errands and Jayden are going to be coming first! Jesse will be working.

Sorry for the lack of posting. I've been working a lot this past week and it's been busy! We have over 100 babies again! Crazyness!

My toes/left foot are still kind of numb and tingly off and on. Mostly on. I really need to go to the doctor, but I work the next three nights in a row so the next chance I'll have to go is Thursday or Friday. My foot is pink, with good cap refill and good pulses so this leads me to believe it's a nerve problem. Boo. I just hope it goes away at some point and I don't have to have a tingly foot for the rest of my life.

Last night we went over to the Fotnote's house. It was a lot of fun. Jayden and Ty play really well together. Sunday afternoon we went out for Jesse's B-Day to Pappadeaux, and Saturday night we went out for Brian's B-Day to Saltgrass. Good family times.
I don't know if I posted it before but my Dad got the 18 mth position is DC and will be leaving the end of Aug. I'm excited for him and mom. It's going to be a great step up for them! I'm also excited about going to visit! I'm going to be living vicariously through him! He may get a high rise apartment and travel by metro and the train, just too cool!
ok, enough for now. Have a great week everyone!

I am almost finished with my first work stretch for the week. I have work the last three nights, I'm off the next two, then I work the next two, I'm off for two, then I work the next three, then I think I'm off for a week! I've already been thinking about things to do during that time. I was thinking camping... too hot though, and I really want to get Jayden in swim lessons so I'm going to work on that tomorrow for that week. That way I'll be able to go with him. I'm thinking he's going to need the support person!

He's so cute. I miss him right now. Last night my Mom called me at work because Jayden needed me to pray for him before he could go to sleep. I told him to put his hand on his head like I put my hand on his head and then prayed. I wanted to cry! I wished so badly that I could be there with him instead of at work. He has bad dreams. We've taught him to pray before going to sleep, but once he still had a bad dream so I think he feels that I need to pray and no one else can. I don't look forward to the day that he has a bad dream after I've prayed for him. Then he'll probably find a new prayer person. It was already hard enough to explain why he had a bad dream after he prayed. How do you explain to a 4 year old that God doesn't always answer prayers or that bad things happen even when we pray. I just don't want him to get discouraged. I remember prayer being my "protector," well, besides my Daddy of course! I also remember hearing that satan can't stand the name of Jesus so when I was afraid or felt a bad presence I would say Jesus and sing and praise Him. That was nice. (I'm having trouble typing complete thoughts. Sorry!)

So... I also need to get someone out to look at the garage door. Need to call Home Depot about that tomorrow...

Prepare for the randomness...

So my job today/this week is finding out about fixing the garage door. It was bent by the garage door opener a few months back and I've been meaning to getting around to getting it fixed. So far today I have called a garage door company, home depot, (the insurance company last night), and now I am waiting to talk to someone about the warranty on the door. "Thank you for your call. The first available representative with answer your call." The man seems so excited... So I priced new doors at Home Depot.com and it looks like it would been between $500-750 for a complete new door. I'm trying to find out if part of the door can be replaced or the entire thing, yada, yada, yada. My question is if they replace only part of the door, did Lennar paint the door or did it come that color? Would I then have to repaint part of the door and try to match paint? If that's the case it may be worth paying a little more for an entire new door. We'll see...


My stomach is upset today. The "it" has kind of come back, but seeing that it's been a week that I've been home I'm guessing it's something else this time. The Imodium I took last Sat just now wore off. Well, I think Tuesday I finally... well, you don't really want all the details now do you? Anyway, that's the reason I don't want to take more. Right now I'm ok. Maybe it was just a one time thing.

Ok... 14 min later... I have now spoken with the Clopay lady (the type of door we have) and found out I can get sections and Home Depot should be able to do an estimate for me. It is not a warranted "injury" and she is sending me information on maintenance and how to reinforce your door so that the force of the opener is spread out over the entire top panel to prevent what already happened to us. Man, that would have been good to know before! Oh well! Next step, estimate from Home Depot...

So, I'm hungry. I've done a lot today. I guess.... I got up filled Jayden's pool up so he could swim in the front, folded clothes, went through stacks of papers/mail, made Jayden lunch, researched the garage door problem, now what....

I didn't sleep too good last night. Maybe it's because I slept all day yesterday? I'm not looking forward to the next week. It's going to stink! I work too much! 5 out of 7 days! Sa-Sun-Mon-Thurs-Friday Stinks!

Tonight we are going to a friend's CD release party at Walter's on Washington. That'll be fun, I guess. Moderation...

The Newest Cox

We went to meet baby "Topher" today! He is cute! His actual name is Christopher Andrew and he belongs to Andy and Stephanie. He was born on Thursday July 5, 2007.

One quick Honduras shot. This is one of the few pictures of Jesse and I (I tend to take pictures of everything else then get home to realize there's only of few of us actually there!) We were on our way back from the medical brigade (a short 32 km drive that only took over an hour each way due to the road!) This only begins to capture the beauty of Honduras!

Ok, quick post. I'm forcing myself to stay up until 1am in preparation for returning to work Wednesday night after having three weeks off! I don't want to go back! I've really enjoyed having the chance to just be home and travel and just do nothing with Jayden!

Honduras was a wonderful success once again! I LOVE it there! If only I could get Jesse to move... If he didn't have the job he has now I think he would be up for it. Oh well. Maybe one day! I will try and post more about Honduras later. It's kinda' long.... and I would like to add pictures.

This morning we went to the pool with a bunch of families from church. It was really fun. I'm so glad so many came, I was afraid we might be the only ones! Silly me! Let's see, as Jayden would say, "Ty, Lille Beth, Tristan, Trenton, Reese and me!" Of course their other siblings and moms were there too! It was a lot of fun! I'm loving having play dates this summer. It's a great chance to spend time with friends and other mommies and let Jayden play with other kids. I hate that he's an only child. We're working on that though!

So, tomorrow we are going to College Station to see the new baby. I know Jesse is anxious! Hope everyone is having a great summer, so far we are!

Last night we got the shelf hung, the bookcases secured, the shelf in the bathroom hung, and attempted to hang the towel rack. It didn't want to cooperate. I have decided that that particular wall in the bathroom is either cursed or doesn't want a towel rack on it. There are two holes in the wall that have to be patched from the previous towel rack and there are also sheetrock nails that are popping through. Yeah, it's a mean wall! The previous towel rack just up and fell off one day last week when I was grabbing my towel. It was strange. Then I remembered that the builders had had trouble too. When we removed the other side of the towel rack there was at least a quarter size hole hiding underneath, yes, they had trouble!

The new furniture (all I have to do is decorate!)

The bathroom. The shelf is on the left, the cursed wall is on the right with the not so stable towel rack. (Don't touch it!)

The cursed wall!!!

The hole! Well, one of them!

So... we tried out a new restaurant last night. It was ok. Not great, but ok. We'll probably go back. We then headed over to Lowe's to get the right screws to hang all the stuff. We looked around and dreamt of all we wanted to do to the house. Our house is great, but you can almost always upgrade. One day...

Today... I need to get some more rest. I have to work tonight. Boooooo!!! Tomorrow is playgroup at one of the pools around here. It's at 1030am. I really want to take Jayden, but we'll see if I can make it. I was hoping to sleep a lot today to make it tomorrow. Yeah, try that with a four year old!

Speaking of Jayden... He's been a little toot the last few days. Talking back, smarting off, flat out disobeying... Well, this morning (I think since I was in the "I'm sleeping what do you want" haze) He's been so great! Not throwing fits, obeying, being so polite! I'm so happy, I even let him play with play-doh! (It's cool, but messy) We put him to bed last night around 830-900 because he was being such a stink! Maybe he's just tired, tired, tried. I think I'll try to get a nap out of him (plus I need more sleep) this afternoon before work.

Post from Xanga - I'll have to add the picture later...

I Got It/Them!!!

I'm so excited! I got the bookcases to complete my entertainment center! Now all we have to do is put together three bookcases/shelves! Then our entertainment center will be complete! Just to remind everyone of what it looks like:

Ok, this is one shelf and the middle thingy (a. my brain went dead and I can't think of the name of it; b. ours is the darkbrown/black color)

This is the color of our stuff.

So, it's the center piece, the two shelves on the sides and a bridging shelf over the middle thing. I'll have to take a picture when it's all together to show everyone! I'm so happy! Yay, Yay, Yay!
So, that's the excitement for the day. Jayden's sleeping. They called to see if I could work tonight, uh... NO and tonight's fireman night.

***EDIT***
Ok, so... it's 10:57 and I have all the shelves and bookcases put together! It really took no time at all. Probably less than an hour to put all three together, and.... I did it all by myself!!! So handy! (No, IKEA is just user friendly - except for that cabinet thingy - that took a few hours) So, tomorrow after Jesse gets out of class, he's going to go and buy the stuff needed to hang the shelf and the stuff to secure the bookcases and the stuff to hang the bathroom shelf/towel rack I bought today also. It's like the ones at a hotel. Kinda' fun and different. It's a towel rack plus storage! Yay!

Ok, so here are the other things I bought at IKEA:


Shoe organizer

Serving tray (for breakfast in bed hint, hint!)

Towel shelf/rack

I also got a cutlery organizer that's really big to fit in our drawer. We had a really little one because our original drawer was tiny. Now it's the biggest drawer in the kitchen! So, I got a new one to actually fit most of the silverware in! Nice! I got two of those storage things for grocery bags, two bags that you can reuse when you go to the grocery store rather than using so many plastic bags, and a little train set for Jayden. The set was less than $10 so I got two additional sets of different pieces for the set itself. All in all I spent less than $300! That's including the two bookshelves! That's why I LOVE IKEA! You can get so much more for your money! I also found out there is a small end table to match our furniture! Only thing it's $100, and I would need two. So I'll have to wait on those. Oh well! I'm still extremely happy at this point!

On another note, I think I forgot to post today that my friend called me and said the Dr. said she had strep and not the measles. That's a REALLY good thing! I was thinking that last night since they would have let her know if her titers weren't high enough and made her revaccinate.

No major plans during the day tomorrow. Maybe go to the pool. Maybe start decorating some. We'll see what it brings. It's days with no plans that I end up staying in bed all day and I definantly don't want to do that! Good night!

Just hanging out right now. Abbey, Sedric, Kaleb, and Jayron came over after church to kill some time. I like that. I like being able to open my home up to people to just come by and hang out. It's nice.

This morning I woke up around 6:45am! I slept all day yesterday and got up for a few hours then went back to bed at bedtime. It was really nice. I woke up feeling rested. It's so nice to feel that way!

So... Let me catch up...

The party went really well. I think we had about 40 people here. It was nice. We did have a lot of leftover food. Stinks. Oh well, I would rather have too much then not enough for everyone. This week's been work and such nothing too interesting. The countdown to Honduras has begun. Just a few more weeks! Hard to believe. I also need to get cracking on Stephanie's shower. Seems that I am the main hostess! Surprise!

What's Happening?

I'm sorry for the lack of posting lately. I've been around, just not posting. We even have these two nice new laptops so I really have no excuse. Last week they said that we are not allowed to get on the internet at work anymore. This is so stupid. So, I am going to have to work really hard to keep up my blogs at home. Blah!

Well, let's see... the craziness has concluded for the time being. Thank God! Last week we were able to just do nothing for a few days, which was wonderful!

Last weekend we got Abbey married off. It was beautiful. There are pictures on her myspace account. We watched their dog, Jax, while they were on their honeymoon - a cruise - which was a total surprise for Abbey! Now Jax is gone. It was a little sad/lonely getting ready for work Saturday night without him. Still don't want a dog though!

What else? Yesterday, I was fighting staying awake on the way home from work (probably because I was so bored at work and already ready to fall asleep since I couldn't get on the internet) so I went to bed when I got home. I was planning on getting up around 1030 to go to church. Jesse woke me up around or after 1100 and I said forget it. I was pooped. I got up around 5pm. We went to the Gibbs house for the last senior class blessing/dinner of all our families. I guess the next one will be in about 14 years for Jayden. Crazy! Soon we are all going to be real grownups. So strange.

Brent got a job as the junior high intern at church. I'm proud of him. It's going to be a long, hard summer, but this is so much than a job. He's going to learn so much and have such great experience. It's awesome. I'm so proud of him in general.

Saturday was Jayden's fourth birthday. Jesse and I both had to work so we celebrated with our annual House of Mouse visit on Wednesday night. It was fun as usual. Jesse and I were doing the game there that was like Dance, Dance Revolution. It was really fun. It was also quite a workout.

Jayden's party is next Sunday. I've got to get cracking on getting ready for it. It's going to be at home this year as it was last, only thing is that we are having our first "friend" party. In the past it's just been family and close friends. So.... yeah, exciting.

I think I'm going to see if the pool is open today.

Just some Pictures

This is Jayden, Eddie and Baby Claire. Jayden loves Baby Claire. He wants one!

Random Jayden shot.

These photos were taken on my phone. Pretty good, huh?

Back to Work

So, I'm here at work again. I thought it was going to be bad, but so far so good. You know how it is when you've been gone for awhile and come back. You feel like a complete idiot! Like you are starting over from scratch. Now imagine that feeling combined with the feeling of having someone's life in your hands. If you screw up enough they could die. Then add on the feeling of if you screw up they could sue you. Ya' not so fun is it? Oh well. That's what I got myself into!

Things are actually good here tonight. 'Nough said, let's not jinx ourselves.

So, my house looks great! Thanks to Jesse, me, Jayden, and the housecleaning ladies! Let's see if we can keep it looking like this now!

The next week and a half or so is going to be crazy again for us. I work Wed-Thurs-Fri, sleep Sat, go out for Abbey's bachelorette party Sat night, go to Nacogdoches Sunday, go to Marshall Monday for a funeral, come home, back to work tues-wed-thurs, girl's pampering day Friday, Abbey's wedding Sat... Breath! Now add Jesse in there he works tonight, Fri-Sat (24 hour shifts) traveling, has to find a trade to get Monday off, works Thursday (24 hours), Wedding Saturday... Now add Jayden in there he has school Wed-Thurs, travel with us, school tues-wed-thurs, wedding sat plus he gets bounced around here and there while Jesse and I are working. Poor baby! No wonder he has learned to be so flexible! His entire life has been this way!

Ok, I guess I'm finished now. I think I'm getting hungry. It's almost lunch time! 1am!

Chaos

So, I'm sorry for the lack of posting lately. I usually post to this blog while I'm at work and I haven't been at work in the past two weeks! You might think, "Oh nice, Becky had a vacation." but unfortunately that's not the case. You see, my Paw-Paw got sick and passed away on Friday April 20th. It still seems so surreal. I'm not sure I believe it's all happened yet. Then this past week we had the funeral and my Mom and I went to New Orleans for the National Conference of Neonatal Nursing. We got home Saturday night. I don't go back to work until Wednesday so that's nice. The house is a wreck from all the trips we've made in the past two weeks. I would come home, dump my bag, wash and repack. I think this happened at least 4 times? So I've got a lot of work to do. I think I may just wait until tomorrow. Today should be a family day. Hope everyone is doing well!

So, I guess I'm supposed to post 9 interesting facts about me? Well, since this is our family blog it'll be the family. : )

1. Jayden has the most amazing memory. It's actually quite sickening to Jesse and I. For example, at some point he saw some pictures from the George R Brown/LTC. They have very distinctive carpet there and Jayden said, "That's where I played with Mallory." Ok, it had been MONTHS and he was only 2!!! Sick, sick, sick

2. Jesse is REALLY smart! The things he remembers just blows me away. He can explain almost anything to you. Medical, Cars, How something works. Yeah, it makes me sick!

3. I, am the one with the memory issues! I only wish I could remember half of what I learned in college, or nursing school.

4. We have two laundry rooms in our house. Well, one is the actual laundry room and the other is the empty bedroom I affectionately call the laundry room. There is a section for dirty clothes, a section for clean unfolded clothes, and a section for clean folded clothes. This is the room we also keep the luggage in.

5. We have lived in our house for over a year and a half and the office is still full of boxes. Sad. And only one room in our house is actually "finished" the kitchen.

6. We never put the toilet paper on the roll. We just set it on top of the roller or counter. This started when Jayden was little and would unroll all the paper. It sit stands. The only time you'll find it on the roll is after the housekeeper has come or if we are expecting company.

7. When it comes to work schedules, school schedules, sleep schedules, or just schedules in general we are very strange! The word "normal" in no way applies to us. I work nights - three a week - which vary from week to week. Jesse works on a rotating shift - 24 on - 48 off - oh, unless he has that random day of PTO or has picked up a shift at the Hospital District. Jayden is the only semi-normal one. He goes to school every Tues-Wed-Thurs - only thing is who drops him off or picks him up is very random, also where he sleeps each night - home - my parent's - Jesse's parents - Chris's....

8. Up until lately, we ate out almost every meal. Jesse has been on a diet so he's been cooking up a storm. Good for him, bad for my kitchen. It gets a little messy in there! Jayden and I still eat out a lot. Jayden can tell you names of restaurants, what he wants there, sometimes even where they are located. Like yesterday he wanted to go to the place with the cheese sandwiches, big gumballs, by the movie place. After digging a little deeper I realized he was talking about Skeeters. We also go grocery shopping about once every few months.

9. Jesse and I are really quite opposite. For example, he grew up in the same house his entire childhood, I lived in well, I think 9 maybe, in 7 different cities, and three different states. We hate each other's music selections. Jesse will eat almost anything, I am very picky. He can go on very little sleep, less than 12 hours kills me. So on and so forth.

Mommy Jayden Day

It's been a busy night. It's 2:32am and I am just now caught up! One of my babies has lots of labs and x-rays and they all fell around change of shift/first few hours of shift! Craziness! One more night and then I'm off until Sunday! Even though I have to work Sunday after that I'm off until Thursday! So I'm almost off an entire week! Yay!


Today Jayden played hookey from school. I finally rolled out of bed around 9:45-10am (even though my alarm had been going off for over an hour!), and Jayden didn't get up until around 10-10:30am! So, I made the decision that it was going to be a Mommy Jayden day! We got up picked up the house, made lunch, ate, played outside, put mound ate killer on all the ant beds throughout the entire yard (front and back) and there were lots! Then we sprayed eachother with the hose! Jayden thought it was funny, me, not so much. Actually while I was getting ready to kill the ants Jayden sprayed me and I yelled, but I was laughing within 10 seconds! I tried really hard to hide the laughter, but I quickly gave in! He was just too cute, and I was soaking wet in my pajamas! Oh well!


We saw Molly, Baxter and Grandma (I always forget what they call her) outside and Jayden, Baxter and Molly were all super excited. Well, me too! I know Molly wanted to get in on the "spray eachother" game! Maybe next time!


After that it was shower and nap time. Then we got up and headed off to Red Robin to meet Becky, Chris, Taylor, Brady, Dorothy, Becky, Andrea, Mallory and Chloe. I think I got everyone! Jayden was really excited to see Mallory, it's been a long time. I was glad to see Andrea. She's so sweet, and it's been a long time. I'll see more of her this weekend. Oh, and she's pregnant again! Then I was off to work! Fun, I know!


Oh! I guess while we were eating Jayden told Mallory (who's 5 now) that we were going to have a baby. And I guess she asked what the baby's name was. So, he yells across the table to me, "Mom, what's our baby's name?" Shocked, I said, "Jayden, we don't have a baby." He said, "I know, but when we get one what's it's name?" One of those funny things kids say!
Ok, enough. I've got things I need to do. Have a great day!


Oh, and I found out that baby Kylie went home Sunday night around 9:30pm and I got all their meals taken care of this morning! Yay!

Drawings

Tonight I was voted in as a "real" firefighter! So now I'm official! Kinda' scary, huh?

On another note:
This is a picture of Jayden's first people drawing ever awhile back (that was done with prompting).


Tonight, Jayden drew a picture of a man and shocked us all! His drawings are usually just scribbles, but we looked up and there was a man! Here's a picture of his second man drawing:

the first man "went swimming" and was colored over by "water" so I didn't get a picture. The first man even had hair! Much improvement, huh?

They amaze you every step of the way! The camera on my phone does too! If it only had a flash!

Tomorrow, pick up the house for the housekeeper (coming Wednesday - I was wrong) then sleep for work, boo! Only two nights and then our crazy weekend begins. I wish it was more of a restful adventure, but it never is.

Nothing much going on around here. Just work and sleep for me. Thursday night Jayden spent the night with my Dad while everyone else was at work or out of town. He got to drive in with my Dad to work and my Mom and I picked him up on our way home. He was pretty excited to get to go to Pa-Pa's work, although he was very shy while he was there. Imagine that, Jayden shy?!?!

Friday night we had yummy steak and potatoes with the Boyer's. I guess that I can't really address them as just Eddie and Megan anymore! How great! They are finally in the "parenting boat" with us! I held Clarie while the boys got everything ready. Then I helped clean up in the kitchen while Megan took care of Claire and Jayden fell asleep on the couch! After dinner we went to Chili's so Megan could get out of the house for a bit and we could get dessert! Yum! It was Claire's first trip out to eat! I love being a part of their "firsts" just as they were a part of ours!

Saturday we tried to go see Meet the Robbinsons, but the line was REALLY long! So instead we just headed over to the bookstore to buy Babywise for Eddie and Megan. That is the best book. I recommend it to anyone and everyone for helping with those first few months. It has worked so wonderfully for us and so many others I know. Then we headed home for a nap!

Saturday night I got the taxes finished and e-filed. They were accepted so as soon as I get the check we are paying off our Honduras trip (no fund raising this year) and getting the dead tree cut down. Other thoughts on how to spend the extra: new tv for the bedroom (really needed since I have to sleep at weird times and I can't let my 3 year old roam around the house alone), buy the rest of the furniture for the living room (missing two bookcases from IKEA - if they would ever have them in stock!!!) best choice - savings for when I have the next baby and stay home for 12 weeks. So we'll see...

Sunday was church and lunch with friends and family. We saw the O'Neals which was nice. And we also ate with the Jones whom I also love. Fallon is so awesome!

Tomorrow, finish picking up the house for the housekeeper and sleep! Fire department tomorrow night. Then back to work Tuesday and Wednesday night. Then LTC this weekend. No, it never ends - especially in April! Have a great week!

Ok, so what's been going on this week.... Well, I've worked the past two nights and will work tomorrow night so other than that I don't know! Funny how I get so brain zapped when it comes to my life at work. That's because when I work all I do is work, sleep, work, sleep... oh wait... drive, work, sleep, drive, work, sleep... That's more like it! Jesse worked Monday and will work tomorrow. It was a strange evening for childcare. We usually don't have an issue in that area, but alas tomorrow night (actually it's tonight) proved to be a challenge! Jesse's parents will be in Abilene, Chris will be out of town, my Mom is working with me, so on and so forth. So... I think we finally got it worked out that my Dad happens to have the day off (thank God!) so he'll pick up Jayden from school, then he'll spend the night with him and bring him to work in the morning where my Mom and I will pick him up on our way home in the morning. Yeah, that's going to be a long morning! But at least it's worked out!

So, Sunday was our Honduras meeting. We are really excited about going this year and Jesse worked out all his days off! We are going to be able to do medical stuff this year! We have a huge group going this year! 63 people! Mostly adults! I'm sure that we are going to get a lot done for the people there!

Happenings this week

So, as it is with my other blog, the times I post the most are at work! Funny, huh? Anyway, things have been great in the Cox household lately! This week was nice. We had our lifegroup picnic which was a lot of fun. Jayden loved being able to play with his buddies at the park. I enjoyed getting to catch up with friends! Unfortunatly, Jesse had to work. After we left the park we stopped by to see him at the firestation. That made him happy!

Wednesday Jesse and I played tennis. It was fun. Jesse is actually starting to enjoy it! It's nice to have something that we can do together outdoors. And, as a plus he's getting better! This means less running and chasing the ball for me!

Tomorrow is Laporte fire training day. This is where they go and practice with live fire. I am bummed that I don't get to go since I work tonite and tomorrow nite. But I know that Jesse and Jayden will have a blast and come back pooped!

Sunday, Honduras meeting! I'm really excited to be able to return for my third year. I really love it there!

Ok, gotta' get back to work! It's time for my one o'clock vital signs and pump checks then lunch! I'm hungry!

The Good Life

So, nothing major going on this week...

WAIT!!!

Yes, major happenings! What was I thinking? Our best friends, Eddie and Megan welcomed a new member to their family! Claire Peyton was born early Thursday morning. She is a healthy beautiful baby girl! They are doing really well thus far. I am quite impressed with them both but especially Megan. She was awesome during her labor with all the visitors and kiddos around and she's been awesome so far with Claire and all the visitors and goings on that come with a new baby!

Congratulations!

Other than that... We went to our neighbor's and friend's first birthday party. I can't believe Molly is already one! She was so precious! We rested on Sunday and Monday, and now we are back to work!

So far, the week for us holds a BBQ with friends and going back to school after spring break. Nothing else that I can think of at the moment.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Family Vacation March 2007

Friday we started out driving to Galveston. Jayden was really excited! We were on our way to "bacation, bacation, bacation!" We arrived at Moody Gardens and started at the aquarium. When we walked in Jayden immediately said, "It stinks in here!" The smell of fish was a little overpowering at first! We went around and looked at all the fish, etc. Jayden's favorite was the penguins. They would play back with him through the glass! It was really cute! The other thing Jayden was really excited about was the "giant straw." We were trying to explain to him before we left about the area where you "walk under water" and the fish swim over you. The best explanation we had, "it's like a giant straw that you walk through." Jayden was not overly impressed with it. Oh well! We finished the aquarium and headed over to the IMAX. It was a 3D show about life under the sea. It was good, and as with all 3D shows things jumped out at you. Jayden decided he didn't want to wear his glasses about half way through. It freaked him out. There were fish eating other fish, you know regular under the sea stuff, but for a three year old it was a little overwhelming! After the show we headed over to the rainforest pyramid. We did not spend a lot of time here because it's just not as interesting to a 3 year old as the fish. It was really fun though. Jayden got up close to a ... iguana? And his favorite thing there was the ducks. Yes, the ordinary! The bats, little monkeys, cool birds, plants didn't interest him as much as the ducks! After the rainforest we went to discover! The discovery pyramid was all about music. It was ok. Not my favorite and I'm a musical person. Lots of the exhibits were broken. The discovery pyramid is all hands on fun. There were things to change you voice, instruments to discover how they worked, drums to play, etc. (Sorry no pictures!) That night we went to Mario's Italian! It was yummy! It took awhile to get our food and Jayden slept through almost the entire meal! He fell asleep in the car and didn't wake up until we were finished! We called it an early night so we would be good and rested for Schlitterbaun the next day! That night I didn't sleep well. Going from a king size bed to a double is always an adjustment, plus we were on the wrong sides of the bed! So, the next day we got up and ate breakfast at the hotel and then walked over to Schlitterbaun. We got a locker and then went to explore! It's an indoor waterpark! They have heaters around and the water is warm! This is my type of place! I hate being cold! We went around the lazy river, which really isn't lazy! It was a wave river! Fun! Then Jayden played in the kiddo area for awhile. Then it was lunch time and nap time Jayden was starting to have major meltdowns! Low blood sugar and tiredness, not a good combination! I neglected to mention that Jayden woke up that morning at 6:45am! He walked up to me and said, "Mom! The sun's up!" During breakfast I noted that on the weather channel it said that sunrise was at 6:25am! Yes, the sun have just gotten up! So we walked back over to the hotel restaurant. Jesse ended up carrying Jayden, which is part of the reason we drove from then on out, and Jayden fell asleep waiting for the food. We ate outside by the pool. The weather was nice! After lunch was nap time! Then we headed back over to the park for a few hours. It was really nice to have a two day pass and a hotel so close. We didn't worry about getting our money's worth. We could go back and forth quickly! That night we asked Jayden what he wanted for dinner and he wanted, "Enchiladas, beans and chips" so mexican it was! We ate at a place called Salsa's. It was also good! Back to bed at a decent time and wake up late Sunday because of Daylight Savings time. Yes, we forgot to change the clock. Oh well! No rush! Back to the waterpark for more fun and a repeat of the day before! (almost exactly, but no nap today! check out instead.) Then we were off to home, but wait a quick stop by the fire station, as usual. Jayden and I slept the entire way home and then went to bed once we got home. Jesse was really sweet and unloaded the car and picked up the house! How nice! Jayden and I got up around 10 or 11pm and then stayed up until probably 4am for him and 7am for me! Monday we go up and played around the house. We played tennis outside and Jayden played on his swingset! We also had a novelty! We cooked dinner at home!!! Then we headed off to the fire station to do this:
Well, kinda. We practiced with the hoses. We played water polo and it was fun. I don't think I've been that hot and sweaty since Honduras last summer! It was my first time to use the hose so I'm pretty sore today! I was wiped out by the end of training! We stayed up late again last night and I slept in until... well, I don't want to make anyone angry...late. Tonight we are meeting Jesse's family and brother and SIL for dinner and I'm starving!

(One day I hope to put the pictures in that go with this post...)

The Week Thus Far

-Monday - Jesse: worked; Becky: got things done!; Jayden: played with his friends and loved every min of it!

---Monday night at fire department training we went to the SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus) house at The Woodlands Fire Department's main station. Basically, you put on all your gear and your SCBA and go through this maze. You have to crawl on your belly the entire way because it's such a tight squeeze. You go over, under, through, down, and at the end kick the door open. It was really fun and I kicked booty! Some of the other new people freaked out, or took a really long time, or ran out of air, but not me! Does this make me want to go into a burning building anymore than I wanted to before? Heck NO! It was just a fun experience and I was proud that I made it through!

-Tuesday - Jesse & Becky: we went to the mall to go see the new museum exhibit, but it wasn't open yet so instead we shopped! We also did surveys for a marketing company and made $20!; Jayden: school; Family: We went to Marco's for dinner and then to lifegroup. We have a great lifegroup!

-Wednesday - Jesse: took Jayden to school, went to Fry's, went to the movies; Becky: Slept; Jayden: school; Family: after school we made pizza and went over to the park to have a picnic and play tennis together as a family. It was fun! Jesse still stinks! Jayden hit the ball a few times and well, I'm actually pretty good at tennis! We then came home and I got ready for work while the boys played in the front yard. We went and got ice cream and then it was off to work for me.

---Tonight I only have one baby. He got here about the time I did and he's really sick. He is doing better so lets hope that keeps up!

We are all really excited about our trip this weekend! Or our "bacation" as Jayden calls it! He knows that tomorrow is Cowboy day at school and the next day is "bacation, bacation, baction." To give you the visual he is jumping around with his arms up in the air as he says that! Too cute! Have a great week!

Our First "Family" Post

Well, I decied that I wanted to start a blog for our family. I have a personal blog, but I don't always want everyone reading it. Plus it's a Xanga account and it's protected. So... you have to be a Xanga member to be able to read it. This causes a problem for my non-Xanga friends and bloggers. So... all that said... here is our family blog.

I think it's so neat to be able to chronicle your life in this manner. Our generation is such a technologicaly driven generation that this is a perfect way to "journal" without "journaling." I enjoy reading back over my posts that I have written over the past few years. I really try to force myself to post in every season of life for this reason.

So... Family stuff. Jayden is growing, growing, growing! He'll be four in May! I can't believe that! He's just so big! He's so smart. It's amazing how they change so quickly! Here is a pretty sad reflection of Jayden's intellegence and our family's eating habits:
While trying to decide where to eat lunch yesterday, I asked Jayden if he would like to eat at Fazoli's or Popeye's. He said Fazoli's and that was fine. Then I started thinking, "Does he even know what's at Fazoli's or Popeye's? We haven't eaten at either place in a few months." So I ask him what he's going to get at Fazoli's. He looks at me a says, "They have good breadsticks! I want three breadsticks!" Then I ask him what he would get at Popeye's. He said, "Biscuts!" So smart, but we eat out WAY too much!

Jesse is working Full time at the fire department, and part time on the ambulance. He's loving it.

I am working full time as an RN in a NICU in the Texas Medical Center. The drive is long, but it's worth the experience! I get to see some of the sickest babies in the area.

Ok. I guess that's all for now. It's taken quite a while to write this post since I'm at work!