March 28th

I've been MIA the last few days due to a nasty stomach bug.  It hit Sunday night and it took about 48 hours for me to start feeling better.  Thankfully though so far (fingers crossed) no one else seems to have caught it.  As a wife/mother you learn to share just about everything you have but illness is definitely one thing you want to keep to yourself.  Honestly, as many people that I've been around that's had it I consider myself lucky to have escaped it as long as I did. 

But before I got sick we were busy with all kinds of things.....

• Saturday Cade went with Jay to his contest so he could judge livestock.  In those years we were waiting for Camryn I did look forward to when Jay would finally declare Cade old enough to go with him.  I'd have a Saturday to myself.  How ironic is it that he's finally old enough to go once we got Camryn?  We did a little math and discovered I more than likely will never have a Saturday to myself in March.  If Camryn is old enough to go with Jay when she's in the 4th grade (provided she will even want to go) Cade will be in college.  I'll be doing college laundry.  We really aren't old for having a baby but when we think about things like that it makes our heads spin. 
• Cade judged livestock and came in 3rd from last.  But it is impressvie when you think that the two kids he did beat were in high school and Cade didn't even give reasons.  The other two kids did.  That was 100 pts right there that Cade gave up.  Even more impressvie though was that some friend's of ours little boy was there with his 4-H group.  Lucas is in the 2nd grade and finished 25th in the contest (out of about 120 kids).....competing against high school kids.  His parents were both on the MSU judging team so apparantly he got the best of both their abilities.  Hopefully the other high school kids don't realized they were beat by an 8 year old....
• While the boys were gone Camryn and I signed Cade up for baseball and bought paint for his room. Then we went out to eat because we didn't have anything for Camryn to eat at the house. We've been to this restaurant pretty frequently over the years but I don't think it's been as often since we got Camryn. There is this particular waitress who has waited on us several times. Saturday she leaned over and told Camryn she remembered seeing me pregnant with her. At first I chalked it up to being mistaken. Someday I hope Camryn will laugh with us when people make those ridiculous comments, but that day she just smiled at the waitress. Later I got to thinking that I hoped the lady never really thought I looked like I was pregnant. I walked away from the restaurant that day slightly disturbed.
• Saturday I worked on taking Cade's tractor border down that's been in his room since he was 3. It was kind of sad. Here is some free advice for anyone who wants to put up wallpaper border. Don't buy the paste from Wal-Mart. Three sides of Cade's room had Sherwin Williams paste and they came down like magic. The 3rd side had to be repaired when Hurricane Ike dumped water on the tiny whole in the roof missed by the roofer in 2008. We bought some paste at Wal-Mart because it was convenient. I didn't think I was going to get it off the wall.
• Sunday afternoon I managed to get it painted. About 3/4 of the way through the 2nd coat is when I started feeling yucky. Thank goodness I got it done before the plague overtook me. We'd still be walking around Cade's furniture in weird places in the house. His room is done except for 2 finishing touches that I'll take care of in the next couple of weeks. I'll post some pictures then. As Cade said "I like that white a lot better than that Lemon Yellow it was painted". It was painted Sherwin Williams Antique White, but whatever....

March 23rd (Part 2)

I posted the first March 23rd post too soon.  After I got home Jay thought we should go out to eat.  After my day at work I was more than ready to do that.  We decided to eat BBQ.  As soon as we sat down the customer that I avoided at lunch walked up to our table.  I about fell over because it was so funny.  I really do like these people, I was just too mentally tired to talk at lunch. It was fine last night because Jay carried the conversation.  The first thing he said to us was "I figured you'd see my car in the parking lot and decide to go somewhere else".  Really, isn't that hilarious?  I got my payback though...I was using one hand to help Cade pour his leftovers in the takeout box and had my other hand on Camryn to keep her from falling out of the booth. She reached up and grabbed the straw out of my water and my full 20oz glass of very cold ice water fell on my lap.  We still had to go to Wal Mart.  I walked around with wet pants the rest of the night.

While we were in Wal Mart Cade decides he has to go the bathroom as soon as we get on the opposite side of the bathroom.  We had just been right there!  Jay took him so that left me with the cart and Camryn.  She didn't want to ride in the cart.  I'm not sure what I do to my kids but neither of them want to ride in carts or strollers.  At first I thought it was Cade.  Now I know it has to be something Jay and I do to them.  I tried putting her in the cart because I only needed a few things and it would go so much faster.  She started fussing so I bent over so I'd be closer to her and hopefully trick her in to thinking she was being held.  Instead she pulled the neck of my shirt down and stuck her head in my shirt.  I had to keep both hands on the cart to keep from running into a man I was passing.  It surprised me so much.  I was embarrassed.  Jay said the man probably just thought Camryn was hungry.  I know....She is always doing things like that.  I can't imagine what she would do if I actually was nursing her. 

A few minutes later she tried to do the same thing.  It caused my cart to veer to the right.  There was a lady on that side but really I was still far enough away that I wasn't even close to hitting her.  She screamed "whoa whoa".  Good grief.  It wasn't like we were playing chicken.  Jay thought they might have been a high strung bunch because he saw the dad telling the wife to take a chill pill on another aisle.   If you were in to people watching Wal Mart was the place to be last night.  Including me with the wet pants and Camryn's head down my shirt.

March 23rd

y`This has been a long exhausting week at work.  I'm not sure why things are so busy....Cattle prices are high right now so I don't know if that is the deal?  Farmers have a little extra money in their pockets.  Goodness knows that doesn't happen often!    I know someday it will slow down, but right now it doesn't feel like it ever will.  Or that I'll ever get caught up.  I guess that is job security???? 

Due the extreme business the last few weeks though when I leave for lunch I don't want to talk to anyone, especially customers.  I want to hole up with my book and get 30 minutes of quiet.  If you can't tell I'm feeling a little drained.  I'm not complaining because I am very thankful I have a job, but it's hard to explain how things have been lately without sounding like I'm complaining.  Anyway, today I thought I'd go to Subway for lunch.  I pulled up and shut my car off.  Luckily I looked up before I got out of the car.  I saw a customer and his wife sitting inside.  I started my car again and went somewhere else for lunch.  Hopefully they didn't notice.  I don't think I made eye contact with them.  And even though I wanted to back out quickly and high tail it out of the parking lot I did do it with a reasonable speed.  I don't think they noticed....It's nothing personal towards these customers, they are really nice people that I like a lot.  I just didn't feel like having to make conversation today.  When I tell Jay that story he will more than likely respond with "you are so weird".  I probably am, but oh well! Does anybody else do things like that?

And on a unrelated note - for those of you who know Mt Vernon....When I was walking from my car into the building after lunch a car circled through the parking lot.  They had their window down so I knew they needed to ask a question.  I was expecting they needed directions.  Instead they asked "do you have a Red Lobster here"?  They are lucky I didn't fall over laughing before I could tell them no.  I wish I had thought to look at their license plate.  Obviously they aren't from around here.  Mt Vernon is the biggest tease of a town....something about the way it's laid out right on the Interstate makes you think it should have lots of retail/restaurants....but it doesn't.

March 21st

I just want to squeeze this baby!!

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March 17th (Cade's Birthday Party)

I'm having a hard time grasping that Cade is now in the double digits.  The last ten years have flown by.  We had his party Saturday night.

I spent Saturday cleaning and getting ready for the party.  I really don't know what happens to our house.  Wednesday night it was picked up...then we got home late Thursday and it all went to pot  There just aren't enough hours in my days any more.  Cade was a big help all day Saturday.  He entertained Camryn for most of it.  I heard a lot of "No, No, No Camryn" and "Quit touching everything" throughout the day.  Towards the end of the day I asked Cade if he wanted any more brothers or sisters and he said NO.  Good thing he has us as parents and not the Duggars!  I'm pretty sure the having more kids ship has sailed!
Earlier in the day I thought...'Wow, it is almost Cade's party and no one had to go to the doctor prior to the party and since everyone is healthy we shouldn't have to go after the party (one year I developed pneumonia during the party and had to go to the ER after every one left).  Of course I spoke too soon.  I was almost done with everything and Camryn was getting tired.  I thought if Cade would watch her in the tub she would play and be happy and I could put up the last load of laundry.  Everything was going good until I tried to do one last thing. That's when she stood up in the tub and fell.  I don't blame Cade...the other night Camryn did the same thing to me and I was watching her.  I turned my head for a second.  She is fast!  Everything seemed to be ok.  Of course she cried but she got over it quickly.  We got her dressed and she was fine.  A little later Cade noticed some blood in the crease on her eyelid.  I had cut myself on some glass and it keep breaking open so I thought that's what it was.  We wiped it off and then a few mintues later it was back. I got her to sleep and got a better look at it about the time Jay got home from his contest.  She had split the crease in her eye open.  We looked it over and it looked pretty deep.  Jay thought we should take her to see if she needed stitches or have it glued or something.  I felt terrible about it.  But Jay took her and they didn't do anything to it and they still made it back in plenty of time for the party.  I figured her eye would be really bruised the next day but it wasn't.  It's a good thing babies are tougher than they look!

By party time the house was in order and all of us were present.  At 2:00 pm I wasn't sure that was going to be possible....

The theme this year was Legos.  Janella did another wonderful job with the cake.  Cade was very happy when he saw it.  We had to cut the face out for him to eat!  We had Mazzio's pizza for dinner, Cade's request.  After we ate he opened his presents.  Our big gift to him this year was to redo his bedroom.  Actually we wrapped up his bedding...the re-decorating is till to be done.  I'm wondering how long he'll have the tractor border with a Razorback comfortor????  I think he was pretty excited about it.  We've got it on his bed and he's told us thank you for it several times.  I think that means it was a hit! 

As far as theme decorations....I made the Happy Birthday out of left over wood blocks.  I thought they'd be good to set out for birthdays.  The top banner says A Perfect 10.  The bottom banner are 10 pictures of Cade - his hospital picture and then one with each of his other birthday cakes.  I wrapped his presents to look like Lego blocks.

March 19th

Today is Cade's 10th Birthday.  Where have the years gone?  Seems like just yesterday I woke up with contractions.  Now he's almost as tall as me. 

We had his birthday party on Saturday.  I tried to post those pictures this morning, but blogger was really slow. I took these this morning with my phone which is much easier to post.  We saved a couple of gifts for him to open this morning.  If you can't tell the theme was Lego.  That's supposed to be a Lego block on top.

Cade woke up to us singning him Happy Birthday.  After his shower he was treated to the breakfast of his choice....waffles, poached eggs and grits. 



 

Camryn was supposed to give him a Birthday hug but she was more interested in the balloons.

He got the 4th Pirates Movie.  Jay is going to be gone tonight so I think we are going to eat leftover pizza and watch this again.

He also got new shoes.  I would bet a million dollars that when I pick him up today they will look like he's had them 6 weeks.  This boy is hard on shoes.





This was his big gift that we gave him Saturday.  We still have to take down the tractor border and paint the top part white.  Jay went ahead and put the stuff up because he said "who knows how long it will take us to get that done".  I'm hoping it will just be a couple of weeks....


 

After breakfast we measured him on the door frame.  He is 4 ft 9 inches. 

Here's how much he's grown in the last year.

Since we were measuring we got Camryn started on her own door frame.  She measured 27 inches. 

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March 18th

Today was my 35th Birthday.  We celebrated it the same way we did the last time it fell on a Sunday, which happened to be 5 years ago.  I woke up thinking about my 30th Birthday this morning.  I was on my 5th round of Clomid hoping to have our 3rd and hopefully successful IUI.  I remember Jay taking a picture of me with Cade that morning before we left.  We had also turned in our application for Bethany 2 months earlier and we were waiting to wait.  I used that picture of Cade and me for our adoption profile.  It's probably for the best I didn't know what the next 4 years and 3 months would hold.  I might have changed my mind.  It's a good thing that didn't happen because we would've missed out on a whole lot of this sweetnesss!

We took Cade and his friend Matthew to Silver Dollar City for the day.  It was crazy!  Very, very crowded.  I think the boys had a good time though.  We were waiting on them to get done with a ride so I had Jay take our picture.  After SDC we ate at Cracker Barrel and then took Cade to Ridemakerz so he could spend a gift card he got for Christmas.  Then we came home.  I'm not going to lie and don't think I'm terrible....but it was a struggle to not drive 90 mph to get home faster.  We were in my car, which is tiny, and Cade and Matthew were driving me nuts!  If they had just talked it would've been ok, but they were shooting each other and fake punching.  Jay took a nap from Branson to Springfield.  I had the radio up loud trying to block out the noise.  I'm sure Camryn was doubting our love for her....we tell her we love her, but yet we stuck her between those two loud boys for an hour.  After we dropped off Matthew we told Cade we were driving the rest of the way home in silence.  I'm sure my parents did the same thing to me when I was his age and I vowed to never do that with my kids.  At least there is comfort in knowing when Cade is 35 he will do the same thing and finally understand why Jay and I were so frazzled today.

Today was a great day, except Camryn has entered into that awkward stage.  She got tired of being in her stroller and being held - she wanted to be down, but since she can't walk there was no place to put her.  I spent a lot of time carrying her.  I think this was about the hottest birthday I can remember.  I'm positive I've never sweat as much on any other March 18th as I did today.  Jay took the boys to a ride and I found a cement area where Camryn could sit.  For the first 10 minutes it was great.  She would pick up the wood chips and look them over.  Then she tried to sneak one in her mouth.  Then she started trying to shove handful after handful in.  I'd pull one hand away and she'd have another hand ready to go.  After several minutes of non-stop trying to eat wood chips I decided to track down Jay and the boys.


Jay just walked in and told me to add this quote to the post "I would not recommend putting Cade Shepherd and Matt Jones in a car for an hour together". Those two don't have a moment of silence when the are together. The are in the same classroom. I really feel sorry for Mrs. D. And for her it's Cade and Matt x 25.