My Little Cowboy

Just a short post with a few photos I recently took.  Kaleb is loving Toy Story right now so he was really excited to put on his new cowboy hat and his boots. We grabbed Bullseye and headed out to the pasture for these photos.

I had a little help from Kyle.  I set the camera and he took the next two pictures for me.

        I even got a shot of my big cowboy too!

I will be away from the blog for a week or so. We have lots of things going on around her but I will hopefully have a great big blog post by then! Thanks for looking!

Happy 4th of July

Let Freedom Ring!

                                                                  
   
                                                                       

                                                       

                                                               Happy 4th of July!

The Color Run

One of the things on my life list that I made earlier this year was to run a 5K.  I thought the Color Run would be the great first 5K to run.  The money raised was to go to the Ronald McDonald House, which is one of our favorite charities.  What a blessing the Ronald McDonald House was for our family,  both in Kansas City and in St. Louis when Kyle had to stay there waiting for his transplant.  Saturday Kyle and I went to the Color Run in Kansas City.  It was held at Arrowhead Stadium on the outer roads and parking lots. Our original plan was that I was going to run with a few girls from work and that Kyle was going to go along to watch and take pictures for me.  Several things changed our plans.  First we found out that the crowd was going to be huge.  In the two days that the race was held we heard that they had 25,000 people registered.  I had no idea how I would find Kyle in that huge crowd.  One of the girls at the last minute could not come so we talked Kyle into taking her place.  Mind you, Kyle is in pretty good shape.  He just had a treadmill stress test  last week and passed with flying colors.  But he was in no shape to RUN a 5K.  So we opted for walking.  We did run some especially through the Color Stations.  With the weather being as hot and humid as it was, many people opted to walk.  I didn't run my first 5K, but I got to spend some fun time with my boy that I am sure that neither of us will forget!

Here we are waiting in line, yes, in front of the porta potties.  We waited in line for about and hour to get to the start line. 

 This is just a small view of all of the runners ahead of us.

 Music was playing and everyone was getting in the mood.  The theme song for the day seem to be "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen.

 Some people came in wonderful, colorful attire.  We got a kick out of this wig!

Finally at the start line.  Count down from 10 and we were off and running!

Some of these people already had gotten into their color packets!

 I think this was about half way through the race in front of the K, home of the Kansas City Royals!  We had already been through a few color stations.  Kyle and I are with the girls from work that we came down with.  Most of them are ER nurses and a couple are nursing supervisors.  They were so much fun!

 These girls in the tutus took our picture for us.  Loved the tutus!

Going through the pink station!  We had to stop for more pictures!

 Things got pretty wild by the time we made it to the finish line.  I don't know if you can tell but there is a huge crowd of people behind the finish line sign.  More music here.  "We are Young" by Fun.  Love that song.  Every 15 minutes or so color was thrown up into the air in the Festival Area.

 Kyle at the end.

 And yes, here is me at the end.  I know I look kind of scary.

This great photo from the Color Run site tells it all!

And here is a great article from the Kansas City Star that I found that tells you a little more about the Color Run.
Article from Kansas City Star

The Color Run will go down as one of my favorite memories from 2012.  I am so glad I got to experience it with my son, Kyle.
Anyone game for next year?

Telling Your Story in 5 Photos June Edition

 I am again linking up with Jenny Meyerson for Telling Your Story in 5 Photos.
Weekend Routine

  For a long time I had to I work weekends until I switched from floor nursing to case management.  Now I get to enjoy a Monday through Friday work week and weekends off with my family.  It is better for all of us.  Weekends are busy with stuff the kids have going on, doing fun things together like camping, and of course if there is farm work to be done, Kenton is busy with that.  We do not have a set routine except that mass is every Saturday night.  I grew up  in a small farming town that was predominately a Catholic community where we had a big church, three different mass times each weekend and at times two priests.  We are so lucky to have our little church in Bedford.  Our members are not that many and we share a priest with two other small towns.  Mass is every Saturday night.  We have grown accustom to our little church and Saturday night mass is something we try to attend.

Your Ride

I currently drive a 2007 Chrysler Town and Country mini van.  It is not the dream car I had hoped to have some day but it gets me to and from work.  I put on average 80 miles a day on it.  Thanks to a great husband who know a lot about vehicles it keeps going.  It is great for hauling lots of stuff or when we all need to go somewhere.

A Place You Get Your Food 

Normally we grocery shop at Walmart or HyVee but I am currently anticipating some garden fresh produce.  Kenton and I have been babying these tomato plants along.  In the summer we love garden fresh produce.  We planted several varieties of tomatoes, several types of pumpkins and sweet corn.  I usually plant some peppers, onions, peas and such but we tried to make this year's garden more kid friendly with things that Kaleb would like. I can't wait for the first BLT with garden fresh tomatoes!

Something You Can't Live Without 

 

There are lots of things we think we can't live without, for me in the summer it is my Taos Sandals but for Kyle it really is his medication that he can not live without.  For the rest of his life he will be on anti-rejection medication.  Right now he takes both Cellcept and Tacro.  He takes these twice a day like clock work. He was on a lot more medications right after his transplant but now we are down to these two.  They are pricey.  So thankful we have insurance. He does a great job remembering to take them.  For him what works best is to set the alarm on his cell phone and then he has another alarm go off a half hour later just in case he was busy and didn't get them taken.  Seems to work out well for us.  He has labs drawn every three months to see where the drug level is at.  Like other medications they have side effects but the benefits definitely outweigh the risk.  We are so thankful for modern medicine.

A Favorite Snack

  Kaleb is a "cheeseaholic" and his favorite snack right now is cheese and grapes.

 Again all of these pictures will be part of our Project Life album. Thanks again, Jenny for the great prompts!

Kyle's Confirmation and How We Serve

I am a little late on this post but wanted to share it anyway.  A couple weeks back Kyle had his Confirmation at our little Sacred Heart Church here in Bedford.  Bishop Richard Pates came down to confirm Kyle and 7 other teenagers.  Kyle, along with the others had been taking classes for the last six months.  

Here is Kyle getting confirmed by the Bishop.  Kyle's sponsor is a great friend of our family's.

Troy just graduated this year and has been a great friend of Kyle and Jessica's for a long time.  Jessica and him went to Prom together her junior year and they attended Catholic  Youth Conference together.  He went with Kyle for his Confirmation Retreat.  He has been such a great mentor for Kyle.  I wish there were more young men out there like him.

  Funny how things happen but the same week as Kyle's Confirmation I ran across this great blog post, at super hero journal, blog of Andrea Scher.  She talks about a transcript from a conversation with author, Rachel Naomi Remen. I have one of her books, Kitchen Table Wisdom, in my pile of books to read.  Here is the exert from the conversation that she was talking about:

How we Serve

We don’t serve with our strength– that’s helping people.
We don’t serve with our expertise — that’s fixing people.
We actually serve with ourselves. We serve with everything we are.

Our wounds, our own wounds, are the source of our compassion for the wounds of others. They make us gentle with the wounds of others, and able to trust the mysterious process by which we heal. Not as a theory, but as a lived experience.

Because we too are wounded, no wounded person needs to be ashamed in our presence or a lesser person.
No wounded person is alone.

Our loneliness recognizes the loneliness in others, despite the masks that everyone is wearing.

And it gives us the courage to reach out to others and to be present with them as they find their way out of places of darkness and constriction.

We are enough to make a change in the lives of others.

Service is not something that you learn. It’s something that you are.
-Rachel Naomi Remen

  I love this and printed it out to put in our Project Life album.  I thought this really summed up what Confirmation is all about.  It pertains to our daily life as well.  Sometimes I get tired and frustrated at my job,(I am a registered nurse at a hospital), sometimes I get tired and frustrated with all of the chores at home like the laundry, cooking and cleaning.  This little exert puts things back into prospective, doesn't it.  

It is in giving that we receive.

I hope that you all continue to have a great weekend!

Summer Manifesto

We went to the lake today and had a great time.  It got me thinking so I couldn't wait to write this down.

Hello Summer!  I recently read Ali Edward's Summer Manifesto post and thought it was a wonderful idea. Here is my Summer Manifesto.

I have decided that this summer we will go to the lake more.

This summer we will go camping more.

This summer we will channel our inner child and play outside more.

          This summer I will wear more dresses.  

                           This summer I will sit out on the front porch with a cool drink in my rocking chair.                               

                        This summer I will read from the pile of books I have collected.

        This summer there will be painting.

       This summer we will stay outside until after dark chasing the lightening bugs.

        This summer we will grill lots of steaks and eat outside for fun.

                                            

         This summer we will take Kaleb on his first trip to the zoo.

     This summer I will run my first race.  Well, lets hope I am able to run a good part of it!

This summer we will celebrate with other transplant recepients at Grand Rapids.

Here is to hoping we can afford it and the little one will travel well!  I am still a little nervous about that.

This summer we will act like American Pickers, (this one is for Kyle), and do a little

antiquing on our trip.

This summer we will play with baby kittens, sleep under the stars, roast marshmallows and eat

lots of popsicles!

                               

This summer there will be picture taking, lots of picture taking to capture it all!  

What are your summer plans?

Gratitude is the Key to Happiness

Linking up with Jenny Meyerson again this week.  All about Gratitude today. If you don't read any more of this post watch the video at the end.  It will be all the inspiration you need.
  I just put this in my Gratitude Journal today.


Today I am thankful for Little Hands to Hold and Eskimo Kisses!

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Melodie Beattie

  This poem stays on my side bar of my blog and has been there a long time.  I truly believe in it and use it as a constant reminder to myself.
  Last year my one little word for the year was "Happiness".  I did a lot of reading about happiness and what makes people happy.  I found that Gratitude is a key component in making someone happy.  Around Thanksgiving I read a book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voscamp.  I took her challenge and every day in November I wrote down something I was thankful for each day.  I posted my gift I was thankful for on my facebook wall each day.  By thanksgiving I had 23 things I had written about that I was thankful for.  Some were obvious and wonderful things and others were very simple.  I now keep them in a Gratitude journal.  Honestly it was my best Thanksgiving ever.  I felt so blessed and happy.  I began to think not about negative things, things we didn't have or troubles we were going through but I began to feel very blessed.  I began to wonder why God had been so good to me while others in the world suffered so.  I realized how truly blessed my family and I are.  Now, you can ask my family and friends and they will tell you that I can complain with the best of them.  I can rattle on and on about what I don't have or what we need. When I get in those moods I try to go back to my Gratitude journal.  Even when negative things are happening around me I found that when I showed gratitude I felt better.  During that month I think we had trouble with our van, I had hit a deer and did some damage or something.  I was pretty upset but later that day I sarcastically said to myself, "at least I have a vehicle to drive and it gets us where we need to go."  Inside I knew that everyone does not have a reliable car. It worked.  A little deer damage didn't seem so bad anymore.  It sounds too simple but yet it works.  I think God probably thinks we make a lot of things too complicated most of the time anyway. LOL!  Since reading this book and doing this exercise I now live life differently.  I try to slow down, catch and enjoy each moment and see the blessing that it is.  Life is way to short to not enjoy it.


I encourage you to start keeping a Gratitude Journal.  Honestly it has been a wonderful thing for myself and definitely a key to my happiness.


Here were the just a few of the things I listed throughout that month of November. 

Today I am thankful for my job.  Because of it we can have food on the table, a roof over our head and clothes to wear.  And every once in awhile I get to make a difference in some one's life.
Today I am thankful to have all of my children under the same roof for a few days!
Today I am thankful for my husband who helps me so much with our little guy in the evenings.  Kaleb wore me out today-must be the change in the weather!
Today I am thankful for my faith.  It has gotten me through some really tough times in my life.  I am so thankful for my parents who instill such faith in me.  Thank you God for staying beside me and carrying me through the tough times!
Tonight I am thankful for my hairdresser.  She is the best.  I don't know what I would do with out her.  Everyday she helps women feel better about themselves.
Today I am thankful for organ donation. In their moment of pain, sorrow and loss a mother and father thought how they could help someone else and give the miracle of life to my son.
Today I am thankful for all military women and men, veterans and their families,who protect our country and our freedom.  I sometimes think of you when I put my little guy to bed at night realizing that many of you are out there still awake, tired and working hard to protect us all. Thank you!
Today I am thankful for the abundance of food that we have to eat.  I know that I have never gone to bed hungry or worse yet put my children to bed hungry.  We go to the store and buy what ever food we want.  We have no idea what those who starve must endure.
Today I am thankful for my sight.  I have wore glasses or contacts for a good part of my life and I am so thankful that I have them.. Most of the things i enjoy I use my vision or.  Art, photography, reading and seeing my kids' beautiful faces are all thinks I can enjoy because God gave me my sight.
Today I am thankful for my parents.  They are amazing people who have always been such great examples of what marriage is all about.  Growing up we have always seen how much they love each other and stand by each other.  They have been there for me in some pretty rough times.  I am very lucky to have them as my parents.
Today I am thankful for clean, running water!  We take for granted in some parts of the world some people do not have this luxury.  I can't imagine not being able to go to get a cold drink when ever I want or not having a hot shower every day!
Today I am thankful for our home.  It is not big, but it is cozy.  It is not new but you can spill something and it will be OK.  It shelters the ones I love.  It is where we have shared our joys sorrows, hopes and dreams.  I am right where I belong.
Today I am thankful for little moments.
Today I am thankful for my children.  Being a mother is the greatest gift I have ever been given.
Today I am thankful for my health. I am able to go to work, do activities I want to do, sleep well, and keep up with the baby.  I realize so many don't have their health or they are fighting an illness.  Thank you God for my health.

Need more inspiration to start.  Watch this video.  If you read nothing else on this post just watch this video.  Cherish the Moments and see the blessings that they are.  Thank you Jenny Meyerson for another great blog link idea!