Ending of an Era

Friday, April 8, 2011 was Jason's last day as the General Manager for Bluebonnet Country Golf Course. What a ride this job has been! Jason has learned so much, and has truly loved every minute of it {getting to play golf twice a week may have had something to do with that!}. This was a bittersweet move for Jason. He knows that he is facing much bigger and better opportunities, but was sad to leave behind his employees and golf course members.

So, that Friday two of his bosses and one co-worker flew in from Canada for a good-bye lunch. I was able to get off of work and go to say my good-byes as well. After lunch I headed back to CS and Jason stayed for golf and a fish fry.

He had an amazing last day, and felt like he was given little signs all week to let him know that he had made the right decision.

He was a little bit emotional on the way home that night, knowing that he wouldn't be returning on Monday morning. He had worked at Bluebonnet for six years!

Here are a few pictures I took on Friday:

Justine {one of Jason's bosses} giving a farewell speech.

This job has been such a blessing over the last six years. It has been flexible, a great learning experience, and even afforded us the opportunity to travel {for FREE} to Hallifax, Nova Scotia in Canada in the fall of 2008. We were there for six nights and seven days. Jason had to work two of those days, and we got to play the rest of the time! I got pregnant with Bryson shortly after we arrived home, so we will always look back at that trip as our last little hoorah without babies. Here are a few pictures of that AMAZING trip:

Justine {pictured earlier in this post} and her husband Lucas spent an entire day driving us around to the country side and different landmarks that we never would have even known about without them. Justine sent Jason an email before we left and said that we will always have a place to stay in Nova Scotia. :)

Jason will really miss working at Bluebonnet- but he is SO excited for the opportunities that lie ahead with his new company.

He started on April 11th {that's right- he didn't take a single day off!}, and is loving it. He is really being challenged and having to learn a lot, but he is PUMPED! I have never seen him so excited about work.

What an amazing opportunity. Jason and I have been talking about the fact that Jason has a responsibility to learn everything that he can about his products, etc, but that God is ultimately in control. We know that any success Jason has will be thanks to the one who provided this job in the first place.

What a freeing realization.

Can't wait to see what God has in store for us!

-National Champs-

Jason and I had the chance to really get into Texas A&M Womens Basketball this year. We were given tickets to a few games, and bought tickets to several more games. Jason used to say that he "just didn't like women's basketball" but has definitely changed his mind after following the Lady Aggies this season.  They were so much fun to watch, and ended the season by winning a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP {the first sports championship in school history}. We enjoyed it so much that we are now the proud owners of season tickets for next year!

 Danielle Adams {All American}

 The Sydneys

 Coach Blair

The girls defeated Notre Dame to take home the Championship trophy {76-70}. There will be a lot of whooping coming from the Ruples next season.

CAN. NOT. WAIT.

Canton

A few weeks ago my Mom, Mother-in-Law, and I loaded up and headed to Canton. We left early Thursday morning, shopped all day Thursday, and then shopped on Friday. We LOVE to go early in the week to beat the crowds. The weather was perfect and we had so much fun! On Thursday evening we ate dinner and then went for pedicures! This was my MIL's second pedicure EVER, and we laughed and laughed. The people used a small little tool on my feet, but then pulled out a large cheese-grater looking thing to work on my Mom and MIL's feet. We chatted away with the sweet ladies that worked there {and almost jiggled away due to the weird massage chairs they had there}. These pictures were snapped with my phone- so not the best quality- but wanted to remember the moment! 

 The after:

 I challenged my Mom {who always gets the same color of mauve} and my MIL {who always gets the same color of burgundy- even had her own polish in her purse!} to live a little and branch out. My Mom picked a different shade of pink and my MIL branched way out and agreed to my favorite color- Cajun Shrimp.

So, when the lady asked if I wanted a flower- they told me I should live a little! This is what I ended up with:

 So, while shopping at Canton I came across these little eco-aquariums with two frogs in them. They are {supposedly} self-sustaining, and you only have to change the water out once every six months {by sucking out most of the dirty water and adding spring water out of a bottle- I think I can handle that!}. The frogs only need to be fed two times a week. I knew Bryson would love them- and I was right! Look at that sweet smile!

 His new pets...

He LOVES the frogs and has been walking around the house saying "ribbit, ribbit" over and over again. It is so cute! So far they are still alive. :)

Quick photo-op with the Grandmothers.

This is the cheesy face he now makes every time I get out my camera.

What a great trip! We had so much fun and are already looking forward to going back in the Fall. I'm already saving my pennies!

21 Month Stats

Bryson is almost 21 months old and I can honestly say that I can't believe it! Soon we will be counting his age in years instead of months, and I know that the years are sure to fly by. So sad. On the other hand, Bryson is changing so much from day to day. It seems like he wakes up as an older kid every morning. He is talking more and more, and was even pretending with his Granny last weekend {He was pretending to get a piece of ice out of her cup, pretending to put it in his mouth, and then pretending to drop it. He would then say "Uh Oh!" and pretend to pick it up and put it in his mouth. We were amazed and could see his little wheels spinning! Crazy!}. He is a handful but is so much fun.

I took him to the doctor today for an ear check. She said he has fluid behind both ear drums, but that there is no {current} infection. She said that it can be normal to have fluid behind the ears for up to two months after an ear infection. This could be affecting his hearing, which could in turn be affecting his speech. I have recently noticed that when he repeats certain things he just repeats the right number of syllables, and that it doesn't sound anything like the actual words. I guess this could be normal, but we are going to get his ears checked again in 4-6 weeks. If he still has fluid we will probably be headed to the ENT for tubes. She also said that she could tell by looking in his nose that he has bad allergies, so we are starting him on Claritin every day. Hopefully this will help, too.

Now for the 21 month stats (since we haven't had a well-check with stats since Bryson was 12 months):

Height: 34.5 inches (75th percentile)

Weight: 25.7 pounds (50th percentile)

Shoe Size: 6 1/2 or 7 (he used to have to wear an extra wide, but his foot has really slimmed down and now he can wear a regular ol' medium)

We are so thankful for this little man. Don't know what we would do without him! :)

So hard to know...

The Sunday night after our weekend away was rough. Bryson and I were home and I was cooking dinner. Sometimes I let him play with the pots and pans out of one of my kitchen drawers. He usually has a great time and it actually entertains him for a little while {which nothing else really seems to do at this point). So, he was playing with a pot and I was cooking. The next thing I knew I heard a shattering sound and just saw broken glass all over the kitchen floor. I didn't have shoes on and neither did Bryson, and I had hot food on the stove. Somehow I managed to get through the glass to him, pick him up, and put him on the carpet without him getting cut. In the meantime I noticed that a sliver of the glass must have hit my leg because I was bleeding pretty  badly. Bryson kept pointing to my leg saying "boo boo, boo boo."

So, I got all of that cleaned up, we ate dinner and Bryson had a bath. Shortly after that, in a matter of TWO seconds time, Bryson cut his finger on a can out of the trash. There was literally blood EVERYWHERE. I couldn't get it to stop. This was at about 8:30pm. I started panicking a little bit about Tetanus, and didn't know if he was up to date on his immunizations. He has been sick every time we have tried to get shots since his twelve month shots. I also couldn't get his finger to stop bleeding for long enough to tell how deep the cut was.

It was the Kenleys to the rescue. Jenny came over and drove Bryson and I to the ER in my car so that I could sit in the back seat and keep pressure on Bryson's finger. Scott and the Kenley kids followed behind us. This makes me realize {even more} how important friends are.

By the time we got there I knew that it probably didn't need stitches, and a nurse was nice enough to come out and talk to me about everything before we paid our huge co-pay. She checked an immunization schedule and said that he should be fine, but to follow-up with his pediatrician the next day just to get caught up.

Monday we went in for his 15 month shots. He did pretty well with them, until this rash broke out on his leg a few days later:

Poor kid! Luckily it ended up going away with no other major side effects.

When we got the shots I scheduled a well-check for the next week, hoping he would actually be well.

Saturday he started running fever. He seemed okay so I just thought it was probably a delayed reaction to the shots {sometimes that happens}.

We went in on Monday for his well-check at which time I was told that he has yet another ear infection. I've honestly lost track of what number this is. She said this is his third once since the one he had at Christmas. Let me rephrase that. This is his FOURTH ear infection in FOUR months. We were reunited with our good friend Omnicef and are hoping it wipes out this infection. The pediatrician couldn't believe how well he was acting when she saw how bad his ear was.

Here is the hard part. She said {and another pediatrician told us this with the last one} that he should out grow these ear infections around the age of 2 {in approximately 3 months}, and that when cold season is over with {which will also be with the warmer summer weather} the chance of him getting ear infections will dramatically decrease.

To wait on tubes or not to wait on tubes?

Surgery or no surgery?

Of course I would opt for no surgery if possible. Bryson is handling the infection really well- how sad to even write that!

But it's true- if we can hold out without being cruel to our child {I don't ever want him to hurt} then I think we should. In the same breath though, I can say that I think the actual surgery is quick and pretty painless, and is a great option if necessary.

Basically I'm just rambling on to document what we are thinking right now in regards to all of this. There are so many decisions to make as parents {and I know that we've only begun to scratch the surface}.

Next week we have a follow-up appointment to re-check his ears at which time if they are not clear I'm sure we will be referred to an ENT.

At this point we are just ready to know what we are going to do. Time to make a move one way or another.

We will see!

***On a side note--- the nurse practitioner I work with suggested that I give Bryson a vitamin C supplement to hopefully make his ear canal too acidic for bacteria to inhabit. She said this is the latest new thought on treating bladder infections- and thinks that it should also work in the ear. Makes sense to me. And any excess of vitamin C is urinated out {no chance of overdosing}. We figured that there isn't much to lose here, and have started him on some gummy supplements in addition to his Juice Plus.

Kind of hoping for a miracle...

San Antonio Zoo {3.18.11}

When Jason was in Bracketville and Bryson and I were at my parents' house, we went to the zoo! This was Bryson's first trip to the zoo and he LOVED it. It was so much fun to watch him react to the different animals. Aunt Amy went with us and Granny met us there. Abby and her boys William and Keaton met us there, too. We had a great time! Here is our morning in pictures:

 Sweet Friends

 Boys, boys, boys, and more boys!

 Love this friend!

 William tickling Bryson...

After we were done seeing all of the animals, we went to ride the train. William was looking forward to this part the whole time. He was so cute!

 Abby and her boys...

 Sweet Aunt Amy

 Grandma and Granny were so kind to swing Bryson in the air- all the way to the car! They were exhausted but Bryson laughed and laughed and laughed. I think he definitely has them both wrapped around his little finger. :) 

What a great day. Jason was a little bit sad that he missed this part of our trip, and said that we will be going to the Waco or Houston zoo very soon.

We are so thankful for this time spent with family and great friends!