Frustrations...

I just have to vent my frustrations.

Nobody in my family understands what it's like to live so far away from home. I'm left out of everything... holiday gatherings (even Christmas & Thanksgiving), baptisms, blessings, birthdays, everything. Including the family vacation to Hawaii, but we're punished with that because of school. Meanwhile, I guess everyone thinks that we are having a good time on the holidays all by our lonesome... not true.

It's just frustrating talking to other student families who have visitors all the time... and their visiting families are coming from Utah and Idaho as well. One friend said that her parents came out here 5 times last year... 5 times. That didn't include the siblings from both sides of the family that also visited. We lived in Kentucky for 2 years and we got visitors twice, and one visit was for KynnLee's blessing.

When we first moved to Kentucky, the hardest thing for me was missing my neices and nephews that I was like a second mom to. But now on top of that, I hate the fact that KynnLee is 7 months old and only knows her mom, dad, and brother. I guess I just have to get used to the fact that my family will not see my kids grow up over the next four years... and who knows after that.

I'm certainly not mad at anyone, just frustrated that this is how it is.

Kids' Conversations....

Jaden has a cute little friend, Jenna, and they have some pretty funny conversations. I need to write them down because I've forgotten some funny ones. Keep in mind that both these kids are only 4....

Jaden: "Jenna, what's your phone number?"
Jenna: "Holloway!"
Jaden: "Oh, ok." (like, 'wow, that's a good phone #') "How many letters are in your name?"
Jenna: "J.E.N.N.A!" (all slured into one quick syllable)


Last week Jaden was throwing an absolute fit in the car and kicking the seat etc. I told him if he didn't stop then I was going to take Jenna home....

Jenna: (very calm) "Jaden, you better stop or your mom will take me home. Why are you having a fit?"

Jaden: "Because my mom made me mad!" (an keeps yelling and kicking...)

Jenna: "Jaden, you need to change your attitude. Look, I have a good attitude, your mom has a good attitude, and your dog has a good attitude (Phoebe was in the car too). But you don't have a good attitude. You need to change your attitude or your mom will take me home. Why are you having a bad attitude?....."

I don't remember what else she said, but she went on for a bit and meanwhile Jaden was froze, totally silent listening to her. I thought "you GO girl! Keep that boy in line!"

Why he will listen to a 4yr old girl and not his mother is beyond me.....


My all-time favorite kid conversation was between Kade and Rylee when they were about 3....

Rylee: "Kade, put up your dukes!!" (she had her fists up)

Kade: (looks down at his feet) "Rylee, I don't got no boots on."

Rylee: "Kade, put up your dukes!! Come on!! Put up your dukes!"

Kade: "RYLEE, I said I don't got no boots on, look (lifts his leg), no boots."

Rylee: "Put up your dukes, Kade!" (fists still raised)

Kade: (turns to Trevor) "Trevor, will you tell Rylee that I don't got no boots on?"

Crazy kids.

THE BIG FIRST WORD!!!

My precious little princess had her first word today.... "Mum mum mum mum" was her first word!!! So perfect since Jaden's first word was "da da da da".

We were getting out of the car from taking Jaden to preschool and she said it and I squealed and kept encouraging her to say it again. Then she started saying it again tonight when I was feeding her dinner. Dad wasn't home, so I had to grab the video camera for evidence. Unfortunately, my video camera is "outdated" and is not digital, so I'll have to try to catch a flick on my camera.

It was so stinkin cute! She even left a message for Beeda and Grandpa Dan showing off her first word. That was all she had though, one message she cut it off at that. I tried to get her to leave dad and Micalla a message but she wouldn't have it. But we got lots of video!!!!

And the cat is.....

By the way, this cat was in the tree when we had the high winds from hurricane Ike. There were tons of tree branches blown down that took down power lines and this cat was up there the whole time!!

So day 5 rolled around and this cat still wasn't budging. We were determined to get it down. We put a ladder to the tree and it barely reached the part where the trunk splits. We had some food we were going to put on the highest branch we could reach hoping he would go down to eat it. Trevor had tried using the hose to scare it down a few days ago and he only went up higher. I don't think those pictures do justice to how high this cat really was. He was at least 30' when he was at the LOWEST point. He climbed 2 other branches at least 15' higher and then came back down to his 30' spot.

Then yesterday the cat was in a little nook and Trevor decided he could spray it from behind and he wouldn't have any where to go but down.....

and down he came!!!

It IS true that cats ALWAYS land on their feet. He ran away before we could give him any food or water.

So the cat is ALIVE!! I can't confirm that he is well, but he was alive and running when he left our property!

Whew!

The ginormous tree....

We have a ginormous tree in our front yard.

I walked out the front door on Saturday afternoon and noticed some pretty big branches in the yard. So I looked up to see where it might have come from, and saw this....

Oh, you can't see it? How about now?

For all I know, he could have been up there for days before I noticed. But he's still there today and we've called everyone to get it down. One lady said, "Well, you don't see cat skeletons in trees, he'll come down." Yeah, but you do see corpses in yards and on roads lady!!

He's been without food or water for at least 4 days.

We printed pics of him and took it around the neighborhood a little today. A couple people said they'd seen him around but didn't know who he belonged to.

The hurricane Ike had some side-effects on us, lots of tree branches fell and took down power lines/phone lines and tons of people are without power. This cat lasted through the storm!!!

So, the big question is, will the cat live or die?!?!?!?!

Make sure to cast your vote at the top right of my blog.

Who needs a big man around the house anyway?

Apparently I don't. Me and my little man get along just fine taking care of things around the house, the KynnLee girl, and the Phoebe dog. Trevor has been missing from our household since Friday..... Thursday maybe.... I don't even know, but he's not here. It's his first test week and he's been gone till the wee hours in the morning every night.

I've had car trouble lately, I think I've gotten a jump like 5 times in the last week or so. Of course we don't have extra money sitting in the bank for when our car battery goes bad so I tried to put it off. It just got worse and worse. So today, I changed the battery in my car, all by myself! I didn't even talk to my dad (although I did call him.... "Laurie said he was really, really busy").

Meanwhile Jaden turned his little push car over (which he is way to big for, by the way) and got out some tools (a whole pile of just wrenches) and fixed his car too.

Jaden now knows all about jumping a car. When someone was giving me a jump (don't even remember which time it was) he was telling them what to do and how it works. He just looked at him quizically and turned to me and said, "He's seen this before, eh?" Jaden also knows that the car won't always start lately. After I got the battery in and put my hood down it started right up and Jaden's face lit up and he said "It works!!! Great job mom!"

After the battery was taken care of, Jaden started asking if we could mow the lawn. It did need mowed so I thought what the heck. Trevor's not going to get it done anytime soon. I got the mower out and then he saw his little friend Alex going by on his bike and he ditched me and went for a bike ride instead (typical man)..... Alex's mom was there of course.

So me and my little man took care of the manly duties today. I have to say it has been nice not cleaning up after Trevor all the time..... I mean......uh...... don't tell him I said that!

It's official.....

You might look at this and see that, yes Trevor is officially a Student Doctor, wow, cool. But what I see is the past 8 years of our marriage (yes EIGHT! but we are NOT old!) and how it has always involved school.... changing majors, expensive tuition, expensive books, endless nights of studying, attending classes on our lunch hour, Trevor going to class while his son was in the NICU, being on crutches while trying to pack our house, the time and money we wasted on applying to dental school, spending 3 weeks hotel hoppin with a dog and a sick child when we moved to Louisville, not being able to eat a meal together for weeks at a time (not even Sunday), taking 18 credits and working full time, working 3 jobs, the outrageously expensive Master's program at UofL,..... and here we are.

It all comes down to this.

We're finally here. Podiatry School.

For most people it wasn't too bad getting here, but for us it was blood..... sweat..... and tears.

I find it ironic that I've always had a foot fettish. I have a toe ring that I wear 24-7 since I was a Jr. in High School. Ok, I used to take it off for Ballet, but that's it! I've always said I have good feet, I like to pamper my feet, friends in high school used to say I had a foot fettish, a guy I used to work with used to call me "The Foot Momma" because I had a picture of Jaden's feet at my desk. Jaden's feet are also on my debit card. I have pictures of random things where I would stick my foot in the picture just because.

I do have good feet, and my kids have PERFECT feet. So Trevor can't help us out in that perspective. HIS feet, however, could use some help!......

I do not, however, have good teeth. But just because he's not going to be a dentist doesn't mean that I won't get my teeth fixed.

So it's all good.

Only 4 more years. The 3yr residency will be nothing compared to what we've been through. Besides, the tables will FINALLY turn... he will receive a paycheck in residency instead of paying thousands of dollars to be there..... only 4 more years.

KynnLee's first swim!

We have a hot water spicket outside (I know, cool!) and we filled the kiddie pool with warm water, man did the kids love that! Someone asked me (Laurie or Micalla?) why we have a hot water spicket outside..... to fill the kiddie pool, DUH!

The Olympics in Jaden's tub

Jaden really enjoyed watching the Olympics, especially all the swimming sports. The other day I told him to get in the tub and he ran and got his swim suit on and his volleyball to play "Water Pillow" in the tub.....

Here, let me show you how to open....

One of the rare times that dad feeds KynnLee, watch Trevor closely. I'm a little disappointed that it's hard to see, but I managed to get both videos without Trevor noticing......

Go Indians!

We went to a Cleveland Indians game last week, Jaden loved every minute of it! Even though it was delayed an hour because of rain, he stayed strong till the very end (almost midnight!). He had to bring his mitt and wear his baseball shirt and also wanted to bring his big Louisville Slugger. We went with a bunch of other Podiatry students and Jaden had them all laughing when he was getting trying to get the guy to throw him a ball.....

You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you that I had to leave early for a grumpy girl. Man, when she's done, she is DONE! It was after I left that Jaden had everyone rolling.

Liberty Park

Jaden absolutely loved the "bike town" at Liberty Park, I gotta say I loved it too!! It has little road signs, stop signs, banks, crosswalks, buildings, and a real stop light. It had Jaden's name all over it!!! KynnLee liked it too, but of course her favorite thing at the park is the swings. She even has a buddy, Jackson, who likes to swing with her. They were so cute!

Come visit us Grandpa!!

This picture frame has been in Jaden's room since he was born. It's of my dad holding Jaden when he was in the NICU. He found it the other day and had to put it on his bed so he could see "Grampa Heoooweooo" (that's Hellewell) before he went to sleep. Grandpa Dan should be proud of that!!