Dog Bed

Earlier this month our Dallas Dog and Disc club had our annual Christmas Party. The gifts are, appropriately enough, for the dogs. This year we scored a very nice dog bed. When we got home we set the bed down and guess who immediately claimed it?

That's right, we know who the real master of this house is!

JOJO SLEEPING POSITION #3

A Boy and his Guitar

Jaden's Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt gave him an electric guitar (sized down for kids) for Christmas. This afternoon after our hike, Jaden sat on the floor and strummed on it for about an hour! Not the correct way of course, but he thought he was jammin' out! It was funny because we were in the kitchen making dinner and we heard him start singing "we will, we will, rock you!". Freddie Mercury would have been proud. Here is a little clip of his guitar playing. Can you guess who's tail that is at the end?

Hiking on Parkside Property

Today Jeremy, Jaden, the dogs and I went hiking on our property in Pilot Point. Jennifer met us there with her two dogs. We walked the perimeter and took our cutters to trim branches and thorny vines along the path. It's pretty overgrown again among the trees, but the open field areas looked nice. Jaden was excited to wear his brand new Camelbak. It can hold 35 ounces of water. He thought it was so cool because it looked like daddy's hydration pack. Here is a pic of Jeremy and Jaden with their Camelbaks and also of the dogs enjoying the hike.

We hope everyone has a very safe and happy new year!

Christmas in Big Vic

Dec 23-26:

We all went to Victoria this year for Christmas - Jaden, Jeremy, myself and the two dogs, Sprite & Lucky. It was an opportunity to see my brother again since I last saw him in the hospital in Houston. He is now living with my parents and they take him to therapy Monday through Friday. He is walking and can move his right arm up and down. He can not move his fingers in his right hand yet and he still has a long way to go with his speech. He can understand just about everything you tell him, he's just having a very hard time taking what he's thinking in his head and getting that point across because he can't say the words and he can't write the words. There is a connection missing. But we all feel that with a lot of time and patience he will be able to strengthen this connection and hopefully improve it.

The weather was beautiful in Victoria! Temps were in the high 60's, low 70's and the days were sunny. We swung by downtown Victoria and Jaden ran around the gazebo in the center of downtown (don't all small towns have a gazebo in the center of downtown?). Here is a picture my niece, Tifany, took of Jaden and I in the gazebo.

ROCKBAND!!!

Jeremy, Jaden and I went to George and Diana's house to play Rockband on the XBOX 360. This is a video game in which you play guitar, drums and sing. If your band is good and hits the right notes at the right time you get to play the whole song and get a rating afterwards. If your band is not any good, you will get boo'd off the stage! You can pick the way your "rock" person looks, the name of your band, etc. It's like karaoke but with the instruments and talk about FUN! We "jammed" all night. Even Jaden got to play the drums!

If you can get past my very annoying laugh (yes, I had a few glasses of wine) this is a cool video clip of all of us playing Rockband. George's mom, Aspa, is visiting from Greece and she gets Diana to dance for the song. Jeremy is singing and tapping on the microphone (which is equivalent to playing the tamborine).

Update on Mark

Mark was moved to Victoria about 2 weeks ago! He is now in a rehabilitation center. It took a few days to settle in and there was not a lot or progress initially, but once they took that darn catheter out, he started to progress by leaps and bounds! He was doing so well they took the IV out of him too. So, with no wires attached to him anymore, he focused on his therapy. I am very happy to say that he can walk now! Amazing. I haven't seen it yet, but I talk to mom and dad and Lisa daily. Mark was doing really good for days, but there is still the depression to deal with and also the speech which usually takes the longest to come back. Sometimes he has sad days or angry days when he doesn't want to do therapy or have anyone in his room. I pray that he finds the strength within him to not give up and keep trying to do the best he can in therapy as its the only way he'll be able to get around by himself in his own home.

Christmas Parade

Dec 1 -

We went to the Neiman Marcus Christmas Parade in downtown Dallas. They have it the first Saturday in December every year. My friend, Karin, got me started going as a family tradition. This was our second year to go. I don't think Jaden remembers last year, but he did enjoy it this year. I think his favorite part was seeing Spiderman! He did get a little ancy there towards the end where he wasn't paying much attention to the parade. But it was a fun day. Not too warm, not too cold.

Here is the opening dance routine to the parade. Happy holidays!

Some good news!

A bit of good news for my brother - last night they transported him from Houston to Victoria via an ambulance. He is now in Warm Springs Rehabilitation center. A place were the sole focus is rehabilitation. Yeah! This is where he is going to get all the attention he needs for therapy all day long. And the best part is my parents can finally take turns spending the night in Mark's room while the other gets to sleep in their own bed in their own house instead of on a bench in the hospital in Houston. He's still having a rough time because the catheter is hurting him so much as you can imagine. He can't focus on therapy because of the pain from the catheter. But if he can just make it past this hurdle, I think his therapy is going to produce great results. Thanks everyone for your kind words and prayers. They mean so much to my family.

Also, I had my blood drawn this week for another check on my hormone level. It went down again from last week's level of 128 to this week at 5 !!! yippee! Another check in a couple of weeks should have us at 0. It feels good to be on the road to recovery. I'm ready to start trail running and biking again (now if the weather would just cooperate). :o)

Stroke

With my hCG levels going down, everything was started to look good again until I received a call from my sister on Nov 16th. My brother, Mark, had gone to Houston with my dad the day before to repair his right arm that he broke during a fall he had two nights before at his home. After the surgery he did not wake up out of his anesthetic. As the hours passed my dad started to panic and the surgery staff (he was at an outpatient surgery center, not a hospital) did not know for sure what was going on. It took 9 hours before my brother woke up and when he did he exhibited all the signs of stroke. His right side was paralyzed and the could not speak. We weren't even sure he knew who or where he was as he was very violent and they had to sedate him. He was quickly transferred to St. Joseph Medical Center in downtown Houston.

For 4 days they kept him sedated because each time he came out of sedation he was violent and tried to pull the tubes out of him (he had a feeding tube in his nose he kept pulling out). The MRI and MRA showed massive damage to the left side of the brain which controls not only the right side of the body, but also speech and cognitive thinking. He had the worst kind of stroke, a massive stroke that usually results in the person being in a vegetative state. We thought he would never come out of it, but on Tuesday a miracle happened. Mark came off his sedation in a more calm mode and they did not sedate him again. He was able to focus on everyone and he even nodded 'yes' and 'no' when asked simple questions. He was responding! The neurologist was impressed. He said this was a very good sign. Because he is so young (44) he had a greater chance of recovery.

On Wednesday they removed the feeding tube because he showed he could swallow on his own and he was moved from the ICU to a regular room. Since Wednesday he has had good days and bad days. He knows what happened to him and you can see the sadness in his eyes. But he has lots of family and friends who supply support daily. He works with three different therapists - physical, occupational (to re-teach him how to do life's daily needs like bath, brush your teeth, etc) and speech. He has a very long road ahead and all our lives have changed forever. At the present he has to have someone with him 24/7. The goal now is to get him moved back to Victoria which has a great rehabilitation center. With lots of hard work there is a small chance he can learn to walk again on his own and speak again (although never the same as before).

This has been so very hard on my parents to see their son in this state. Please keep Mark and my parents in your prayers and hope that Mark is able to progress quickly.

Gestational Trophoblastic Disease (GTD)

As much as I try to keep this blog cheerful, I feel it's time I share with my family and friends the medical issues we have encountered recently. One involves myself and the other involves my brother. I'll start with myself...

As some of you may know, we were able to conceive again in late August. We were very excited and hoped that this pregnancy would hold since I had two miscarriages in the last year. All the signs were good throughout the month of September - the pregnancy hormone hCG was rising appropriately and I was experiencing lots of nausea (a good sign, but not a good sign if you know what I mean). But late in September I started spotting again, just like the last two miscarriages. We were crushed as each day produced more spotting than normal. A sonogram in early October showed no movement from the fetus. It was definitely another miscarriage. I had a D&C on October 4th to remove the fetus.

The doctor called the next day and said the pathologist said I had had a Molar Pregnancy (also known as a hydatidiform mole) - there are two types Complete Molar and Partial Molar and I had a Partial Molar. I am posting here a definition I found on the internet: "an abnormal growth of the membrane that encloses the embryo and gives rise to the placenta. If a mole develops, the embryo is usually either absent or dead. The mole itself is a collection of cysts that contain a jellylike substance and resemble a cluster of grapes. Hydatidiform moles may change into a type of cancer called choriocarcinoma or gestational trophoblastic tumor. " In very basic terms, the cells of the placenta are growing at a high abnormal rate. My doctor had Jeremy and I go through a chromosome test to make sure there were no abnormalities, but the tests came back clean. The hCG level now had to be monitored. It should go back down to zero when a female is not pregnant, but after having a molar pregnancy, it may keep rising which means the cells are still growing thus leading to Gestational Trophoblastic Disease (GTD). Once a person gets GTD, if they don't act quickly, it can progress into a cancer called chriocarcinoma and spread throughout the body. The good news is it reacts well to chemotherapy and the cure rate is extremely high if found early. the bad news is, once you get GTD, regardless of whether or not it is malignant, the only way to cure it is with chemotherapy medication.

One week after my D&C my hCG was down to about 1800, two weeks later it had risen to 2200 raising an alarm in my doctor. She wanted to act fast because the sooner you treat GTD the better the results. We picked an oncologist and started the paperwork. However, I requested one more blood test to see what rate my hCG level was rising. That test came back and it showed by hCG level had dropped to 950! This was extremely good news. My doctor said to hold off on the oncologist visit until we got more blood test results. Each time I have to wait a week between blood tests. The next test was the week before the Thanksgiving holiday and it was at 128. I will have another test this week and pray that it is close to zero.

Even though it looks like we may have skirted past GTD this time, once you have a molar pregnancy you are more likely to have it again and you are required to wait a minimum of 6 months before trying again. I may or may not get it the next time we try to become pregnant. If I get it again, this time it may turn into GTD. We have to make a decision on whether we are going to take that risk. If you would like to read more information i've included two very informative links below:

Gestational Trophoblastic Disease (GTD):
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_1X_What_are_gestational_trophoblastic_disease_49.asp?sitearea=

Molar Pregnancy:
http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic1047.htm
http://www.obgyn.net/women/women.asp?page=/women/articles/molarpreg_dah

Jeremy's Mtn Bike Race

So, while Jaden and I were at Boo at the Zoo, Jeremy was in Ruston, Louisiana for a mtn bike race. They also had a time trial that Jeremy competed in. Here is a cool pic from the time trial race. He did very well and I think finished in 4th place overal in his age bracket.

Dog Daze

Who's got it made? What a life!

The day Spiderman has been waiting for!

Oct 31, 2007 - Happy Halloween!!!

Jaden went trick-or-treating with his best friends, Grace and Elana. The were so unbelieveably CUTE! The three of them walking around so innocent and sweet. They couldn't even reach the doorbell at most of the houses and to watch their amazement as complete strangers showered them with candy was just so special. I got all teary eyed looking at them. They won't be this small for long and you have to embrace it while you can because before long it will be gone.

We made it home in time to pass out some of our special "treats". Knowing we would be eating most of Jaden's candy (there is no way a 3 yr old needs to be eating a Snickers bar!), we didn't buy any candy to hand out. Instead we bought glow-stick necklaces and handed them out. You can get them at a pretty reasonable price in bulk sizes over the internet. The kids were thrilled and I was happy to not have left over candy!

Here's Jaden with Grace and Elana. He's clowning around like usual!

And Still Another Reason to Wear Spiderman!

Oct 30, 2007 -

Jaden's school had their first annual Fall Festival. It was a celebration of fall all month long at Castle Hills Montessori. They studied different parts of leaves, flowers and trees and also food that is abundant in the fall. One day I brought home some fall flowers and Jaden pointed to the middle of one and said, "Mommy, that's the pistil." And he was right. It was the pistil. Amazing what these kids absorb! Anyways, the fall festival had all kinds of fun games and crafts with little prizes for the kids. No candy at this event. Just healthy snacks and oatmeal type cookies. Its such a great school!

Boo at the Zoo

Oct 28, 2007 -

Another gorgeous day and Jaden and I met Kelly and her daughter, Henley, at the Dallas Zoo for "Boo at the Zoo". This is another opportunity for kids to wear their halloween costumes and run around the zoo like wild animals while looking at wild animals. It was a festive day with music, singers, a magic show, treats for the kids and of course the zoo animals themselves. We stayed for almost 4 hours! Jaden was out within 5 minutes of the drive home. That ranks as a 5 star day in my books.

Jaden gives his best "Hi-Yah!" in this pose with some unknown super-fighter (or villian?).

Jaden and Henley hanging out.

Hiking w/ the dogs

Oct 27 2007 -

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and Jaden and I along with Sprite and Lucky met Jennifer (and her two dogs) and Tracey (and her one dog) and we hiked along the Greenbelt trail starting at FM455 (one mile from where our property is located and a 1/2 mile from Isle de Bois State Park). We hiked about 1.25 miles out and back for a total of about 2.5 miles. The amazing thing is that Jaden ran almost the whole last mile. We made him stop every so often so we could catch up and he could get a drink of water, but as soon as he was done he's take off again immediately with all the dogs in tow. Lucky stayed next to Jaden the whole time. When we were done we went down by the water to let the dogs cool down. They enjoyed Jaden throwing rocks into the water for them to chase!

Halloween Playday & Chuckwagons

Oct 20, 2007 -

Jaden's playgroup had a pre-Halloween party at one of the mom's house. It was great fun for the kids. They got to run around the house in their costumes playing with each other and enjoying yummy snacks. Caroline decorated her house so cool complete with large boxes converted into playhouses and funny tombstones in the front yard. Jaden was Spiderman this year. It's funny how kids pick out what they want to be. Jaden's never seen a Spiderman cartoon or even read a Spiderman book, but he know's he is someone that is cool looking and, well...that's about it. Isn't that all you need?

Afterwards, Jaden, Jeremy and I went over to a park in McKinney where they were having a chuckwagon competition. Teams competed in two categories - 1) how original/authenic their chuckwagon was and 2) everyone made the same meal chuckwagon style (over a fire pit in the ground cooking in cast iron pots and pans) and submitted it to judges for tasting. We walked around and visited various chuckwagons and absorbed a little bit of history.

Yee-haw!!!

Pumpkin Fest

OCT 19, 2007 -

Okay, I'm having to play catch up here on a few weeks. So much happens that it is hard to keep up! On this day I took Jaden to get a hair cut and then we met Sarah, Grace and Grant at the Owen's Farm in Richardson to visit their fall Pumpkin Patch. (not truly a pumpkin patch since they ship inthe pumpkins, but you know what i mean) They have a hay ride for the kids, you can feed some farm animals and you get to pick out a pumpkin once you are done. It's always a nice day. I have time to post one pic. I'll post one or two more later.

Simon Says!

I am testing my ability to post a video link. Here is Jaden back in September playing "Simon Says" in the kids area at the Grapefest Festival in Grapevine, Tx.

State Fair of Texas

On Friday we went to the State Fair along with my mom, sister, niece and nephew. We had a great time. Enjoyed the fair food (corny dogs, cotton candy, etc.), played a few games, let the kids ride a few rides (including the ferris wheel) and watched some cool shows (the bird show is absolutely the best!). Here are a few pics from the day:

Jaden and I enjoying a corny dog.

Birds eye view of the fair from the giant ferris wheel.

Tifany and Stefan enjoy a water ride!

Happy 7th Birthday Sprite!

Happy Birthday to our super wonderful, super smart, super dog Sprite. One of the most amazing dogs I've ever met.

Ballet Folklorico

On Thursday we took Jaden to downtown Dallas to the Majestic Theatre where we saw a local dance group dance in the ballet folklorico. It is a traditional Mexican dance performance that highlights different regions of Mexico and usually starts with a dance of the Inca or Aztec Indians. This performance was perfect because it was only an hour long...just long enough for Jaden to enjoy before he started to show signs of fatigue. Jaden's friend, Elana, and her mommy, Monica, joined us and we had a great time! I'll post a picture as soon as my procrastination wears off and I dump all the pictures from my digital camera!

Okay, here's a picture of the kids posing with one of the dancers, but it didn't turn out very well. I didn't get Elana smiling.

Camping!

We finally set aside some time to take a camping trip. Jeremy, Jaden, Sprite, Lucky and I all went camping Sept 21-23 at Isle De Bois state park. We took out pop-up camper and camped next to my friend Monica and her family - Monica's mom & dad, Eric (her hubby) and their girls, Elana (Jaden's best friend) and Elyse. They stayed in Monica's parent's RV. So, yeah, we were all spoiled with air conditioning at night. So what!?!

(in this picture the little dot next to Elana's head is Sprite swimming!)

It was such a R-E-L-A-X-I-N-G weekend. It was so nice not to have anything to do but lull around in the water or take a hike or a bike ride. We brought our kayakings and went for a little cruise around the lake. Monica and I biked the roads. Eric went for a run. Jeremy went on a mtn bike ride. We read books. The kids played in the dirt and got bit by ants and stuck by sticker-burrs. The dogs barked at anything that moved. The mosquitoes were relentless. .... Wait a minute. I digress. We really did have a good time and the bugs weren't that bad. (well, maybe the ants) There were some cool spiders everywhere!

The only bad thing that happened occurred when I took Lucky for a jog...while on my bike. With no helmet. Going really fast. On the sidewalk. And then Lucky got in front of me, slowed down and I saw his leash sag to the floor. I thought I was going to run over it and get it tangled up in my bike so I clamped on my brakes. Know what happens when you do that? Your bikes stops instantly and your momentum keeps you going forward. I did what bikers call an "endo" (my end went over my bike). I made a nice flip, slide on my left side on the sidewalk into the grass and some how my bike flipped betwen my legs and scrapped my left thigh in the process.

I was in so much pain I couldn't move at first. Then I rolled onto my back and looked around for Lucky. He was sniffing something interesting on the sidewalk completely oblivious to my predicament. Where is Lassie when you need him? I grabbed his leash and just laid on the sidewalk until the initial stinging subsided. Then I got up and checked for anything broken. All seemed in place, but lots of road rash/blood on the left arm and leg. I got back on the bike and slowly pedaled back to camp. I scared everyone (including myself) and got treated with a hydrogen peroxide bath (ouch!). I didn't break anything, but I have a deep muscle bruise on my left thigh that is still there. I give it another 2-3 weeks before it's completely gone.

Moral of this story:
Never ride without your bike helmet (I was extremely lucky i didn't hit my head).
And teach your dog very early on how to follow you on your bike OFF LEASH.

The End.

Piñata! Piñata!

Well, here it is, Oct 5th and I've already started to fall behind on my blog. Though i've not given up yet! I've got a lot of things in my noggin i need to jot down including this dining experience...

We tried out this new mexican restaurant in our neighborhood. You know, the small one you can find on the corner shopping strip next to the donut shop and nail salon. The only thing that lured us there was the advertisement of a playground on their back patio. I couldn't picture it having a back patio much less a playground, but we decided to check it out anyways.

Well, it wasn't much, but the playground was perfect for Jaden. There was only one other couple on the patio and their son was also on the playground. Guess what his name was? Yup! That's right. His name was Jaden, too. What are the odds? He was a year older than Jaden and they played on the playground with other children.

So, it was the weekend of Mexican Indenpendence Day (Sept 16) and lo and behold, the manager comes out with a piñata for the kids to bat around. Yippee! Jaden's first piñata! (if you don't know what a piñata is you must Google or Wiki it!) They lined up the kids smallest to tallest and gave them a stick to "whack" that piñata. Jaden was third in line. He did really well (they didn't blindfold the kids). By the time they got to the last kid that thing was hanging by a string. He delivered the final blow in perfect piñata fashion - he hit it so that the candy flew out in a long line (versus dumping all in one spot). This allowed the candy to spread out enough that when the kids tackled it, everyone got at least one handful. Perfect. I had to grab some for Jaden as he didn't know what the heck was going on!

Anyways, about the restaurant...The food was "eh", the chips n salsa "okay" and the drinks were "okay". With ratings like that, we most likely won't be going back. But we still had a memorable experience for our one and only visit. Too bad we didn't have a camera!

Jaden's Quote of the Day

"Hey Elena, if you have boogies, just come see my mom!"

Apparently in Jaden's eyes, I'm the one in the know when it comes to getting boogies out of children's noses.

Introducing...JOJO!

Since they are also an important part of our family, I thought I'd introduce the animals one by one. I'll start with Jojo. Don't know why. He rivals Lucky as the most annoying animal in the house. But, he cracks us up.

JOJO SLEEPING POSITION #1

We got Jojo from our friends, Karin & Sid Sharma. They had taken in a stray cat and as luck would have it, she was pregnant. They were looking for homes for the kittens and we were actually looking for a new cat. I didn't really want a tabby cat, but I decided to do my good deed to society and take one of the kittens. Karin said she was a girl, so we named her Jojo. Well, after about 4 months two little round things dropped and we realized Jojo was really Joe. But we kept his name Jojo anyways.

JOJO SLEEPING POSITION #2

Jojo is big and tough. He's mean to Mina (the other cat), he chases the dogs and they chase him, he hides behind corners and attacks your ankles as you walk by, and he likes to wake us up at 5:30am by running his paws through the window blinds making an aweful racket. We sometimes lock him in the back room at night for a peaceful nights sleep.

But we love him because he's Jojo. He likes to sleep on our bed sometimes, he likes to go out and play in the backyard like a dog and he likes to curl upon our lap and watch some mindless tv. He's got cool stripes down his back and circles on the side. All in all, he's a cool cat.

(Jojo on my freshly laundered clothes)

The Weekend

What a weekend it was! We went from extremely busy to extremely lazy. Here's how it unfolded:

SATURDAY - In the morning I took the dogs to our monthly frisbee playday. It's a chance for them to run and stretch their legs a bit. Jeremy and Jaden chilled out at home and had breakfast. I got home by 11am, took a quick shower and Jaden and I headed out to meet his friends for a playday at an indoor play center. We stayed there for about an hour and then we all went to have lunch at Campisi's (pizza). After we left there, Jaden and I drove all the way down to downtown Dallas to go to the Crow Collection Museum in the arts district. It was opening day for their Asian art collection, but more importantly, there were Tibetian Buddhist monks working on a mandala (sand painting). Depeneding on the size of the mandala, this could take days or weeks. Next Saturday they destroy the finished painting in a closing type ceremony. I found a website that has a pretty good link and description of a sand mandala:

http://community.berea.edu/galleryv/mandala.HTML

To quote from this website:

Traditionally most sand mandalas are destroyed shortly after their completion. This is done as a metaphor of the impermanence of life. The sands are swept up and placed in an urn; to fulfill the function of healing, half is distributed to the audience at the closing ceremony, while the remainder is carried to a nearby body of water, where it is deposited. The waters then carry the healing blessing to the ocean, and from there it spreads throughout the world for planetary healing.

They had some arts and crafts for the kids at the museum. Jaden got to make his own mandala (with elmer's glue and colored sand) and he also make a bracelet of Buddhist prayer beads. It was a fun day and a cool experience. Here is a picture of Jaden sharing his mandala. Like the statue I had him stand in front of?

After a quick break at home we went to a social party at a friend's house for the dog frisbee club (sans the dogs). Jaden was the only kid there, but he had a blast playing with their 5 dogs! Needless to say, by the time we went home (10 PM) he was out! Good thing we brought his PJs!

SUNDAY - We took Jaden to the park so he could ride his bike and play on the play ground. Other than that, we did absolutely NOTHING! We were so lazy! Oh well, I guess we needed a break.

An Adventure?

Okay, so I gotta tell you the story about our Labor Day holiday. So, we drove back to Carrollton that morning from visiting my parents in Victoria. We got home at 2 PM. Unloaded the car, reloaded the car with kayaks and bikes, Diana came over, loaded her bike and we all went to Isle de Bois State Park (you'll hear a lot about this park as we are there 2-3 times a month and it's right across the street from our land). Jeremy went on a mtn bike ride first and Diana, Jaden and I took the tandem kayak out for a cruise.

Not more than 30 minutes later, dark clouds quickly roll in and it starts to sprinkle rain. We turn the kayak around as quickly as we could and paddle as fast as we can (well, as fast as we can go in a zig-zag pattern). It starts to rain. Hard. And as we round a bend the wind and rain are blowing straight in our face and pushing us backwards. We are going nowhere fast and Jaden is starting to get scared. Next, we see a large lightening bolt in the distance followed by the usual thunder. Yikes! Time to get out! We paddle over to the closest piece of land and get out quickly. There were a ton of people picnicing and everyone is scrambling to gather their stuff and shove it in their cars. Unfortunately, our truck is not nearby. We drag the kayak 100 yards to the parking lot and Diana stays with Jaden while I run about a quarter of a mile to the truck. I get there at the same time Jeremy comes rolling in on his bike. We load up quickly, drive over to Jaden and Diana, load the kayak quickly and get the heck out of there. Course, by the time we pulled out of the state park, the rain had stopped.

My car smelled musty for days...

A picture of Jaden

Here is a picture of Jaden (although it's his back) on July 14 at the Japanese garden in Fort Worth. He's feeding the koi fish with his friend, Henley Sewell:

Testing...1..2..3

Okay, this is my first attempt at creating and starting a blog for our family. I've been inspired by Karin Sharma. There were many times I wanted to share a quick thought with friends or family and this provides a portal for those thoughts. So, we'll see how it goes. We'll see if we actually keep up with the posts! We had a website for Jaden once, but i think we stopped after a few months. It was too hard to keep up with!

On that note, i do have a funny thing to share about Jaden. We have an off-road race Playstation 2 game that he loves to watch Jeremy play. The music in the background of the game is rock or metal and one of the songs is called Fuel, by Metallica. Jaden has taken a liking to that song. He calls it the Monster Truck song. He was so surprised to find out that we have it on a CD. On our roadtrip down south this past weekend he (and we) listened to Fuel over and over and over and over again. He even knows the opening lyrics..."give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which i desire, ugh!" Hmmm, maybe not the best, but if it ever encourages him to play a guitar, he can listen all he wants....