Update from the weekend.

Another busy weekend has passed.
A few new things to share.
First off with some prayer requests.
To start, My best friends here in town, the Keefer's. Terry's mother passed away last Tues very suddenly and it has been very hard on their whole family. I went to the visitation and funeral yesterday and it was very nice. His mom, Jean, who I didn't know all that well, but it was obvious by her friends and family, was a VERY loving and friendly person. Which if you know Terry, she did a great job of passing that on. I am such an emotional person anyways, and I haven't been to a funeral since my Grandad's, so it was REALLY hard to be there, but I was there for my friends. We know can meet them all in Heaven someday, which will be an amazing day. God Bless Jean and the Keefer family and keep your thoughts and prayers with them if you could.
Next, my friend Lisa, last week had informed me of a dear friend of hers who was just informed that her 3 yr. old son, has been diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. So please keep Mark, Debbie and little Adam in your prayers. It's not fair in general, but it's JUST NOT FAIR when little one's are sick.
Lastly, Brett's grandma just had surgery yesterday to get rid of some polyps, not sure the extent on the type, but some sort of cancer ones. She is in ICU overnight, but doing great, Brett talked to her last night. So please keep them in your prayers as well.
Thank you guys!!
On Friday my co-worker text me telling me that she was in the ER and she'd get back to me later. Well as the day went by and I was out at Cooper's Cause golf tourney, Julie had gone to the ER, been dismissed, gone to her regular doctor, got put back in the ER and had surgery all in a few hours time!!! She had gall stones, 2 bigger than the size of a marble, and tons of little pebbles. So they removed them and then just removed her whole gall bladder!!! She is doing well, just sore right now. GEEZ, how'd you like to wake up one night with that pain.
Cooper's Cause golf tourney went AMAZING. Tom Pollard and the gang did a great job putting that one on and I was so happy I got away from work to help out for a couple hours. Tatum, Steph and I went around in the golf cart and sold raffle tickets, it was so much fun. Everyone there was VERY generous and had sooo much fun.
Sat. we had our c.c. meet out at Rim Rock. That event didn't go so well. Our girls team this year is just struggling, and it didn't help that it was REALLY hot for them to be running. Two of our varsity girls dropped out, the rest didn't do great, so we did not place well at all. Our varsity guys team did ok, but one of the top guys weaved his way and fell, weaved and fell all the way to crawling across the finish line and then was put in the ambulance and eventually to the ER. There were lots of kids in the med tent that day. So we have to work a little harder these next few meets to redeem ourselves.
Brett had fun in Wichita for his friends bachelor party and then drove home Sunday and went straight to the Nascar Races at the Speedway. He had lots of fun there too. Kaden and I hung out sat. finally when I got home, he had fun with his Granny most of the day and coming to Rim Rock for a bit, then we went to the KU volleyball game for a little bit after I got him from mom's house. He liked that and even saw Baby Jay up close, although he was clenching onto my arm pretty good.
Sunday we did church and some errands and then just cleaned the house, and I finally got some shelves up on the wall that I've been meaning to do. I know I know, I'll post some house pictures soon!!! Got that done, laundry, some cleaning and then after the visitation for the Keefer's, we went to Grandma and Papa's for some dinner. Gram likes to try new recipes on us, and we love it. She never cooks anything bad. So we got stuffed over there and had lots of fun. Kaden was funny, he LOVES Papa, and I went out to the garage one time and he and Pop were sitting on stools eating Frosties!! This was before dinner!! So now he really loves Papa!! It was cute though. He even sprayed them with the hose when they were in the garden, accidentally, but they both got hit pretty good!!
That's about it for now, more to come I'm sure. Love you all, keep in touch!

Great weekend!! Lots of pictures!

Ok, here we go........Lots of pictures, out of order, but we had a GREAT weekend.

The 5K run was amazing. We had about 48 people walk up to register and had a great turnout of around 150 runners!! It went really well and it was great weather. Next year will be even better.

Friday night we had the dinner banquet and everyone got their Championship rings and the wives got their pendants. The pictures below are not very clear, but they are NICE pieces of hardware!!!

Saturday after the race we hung out a little w/ Brett's parents and then headed to the tailgate at the football game. Kaden saw Big Jay and Aunt Steph took him over to give a high-five. He did well, but didn't want to let go of Aunt Steph! The tailgate went well, the guys were introduced on the field during the game and the stadium went nuts and it was pretty cool.

Sunday we went to church and then we had our Fall Kickoff party outside. Kaden's favorite part was playing and splashing with the rubber ducks in the baby pool, and then eating the snow cones, yes he had 2!! And with the bright idea that mom (me) had to put him in a nice little white polo, quickly became a white polo with red stains all over, oh well that's why there's bleach. He and Raelynn loved to dance to the music and eat their snow cones, they were soooo cute.

The other pictures at the end were ones from the trip to TX. My brother and Amber suiting up for their skydive jump. The other one is with one of my very best friends Lacy. She got to come up from Houston b/c she was a little evacuee, which I was sad about that, but very happy to get to see her. We don't get to see each other hardly anymore since she's moved down there. She had fun watching the skydiving events with us and hanging out with Kaden, who she hadn't seen for about a year. She's having a little one of her own in about 3 months, so she's learning the ropes!!

So overall the weekend was VERY filled, but VERY fun and always good photos to share. Sorry about the mess they are in, but I was posting them quickly and got them a little backwards of how the events ran through. Enjoy anyways!!!

Daddy's help!

MMMM, Kaden enjoying his snow cone!

Kaden eating his second snow cone!!

Raelynn and Kaden at our Church Kickoff

Raelynn and Cooper Keefer







Me, Kristi and Tatum

All the kiddo's that are Coop's friends..................................................

Most of the volunteers that helped at Cooper's Cause 5k
The Keefer Family

Bananas!!!

After Cooper's Cause

Kaden at Cooper's Cause

Kale and Kaden at the football game

Kaden getting ready to give "JuJu" a high-five!

other side of ring with Brett's name on it(sorry hard to see)

One side of ring

My necklace!!

National Championship ring

Here is me and my friend Lacy.

Brett getting ready to sky dive!

Amber getting ready to skydive!

Big Day!

Well we have a fun filled weekend ahead of us.
Tomorrow I'm excited to say that the 5K myself and Tatum have been working on for a long time now, is finally going to happen!!! I have run so many road races over my lifetime but have never been a part of one, let alone put one on!!! So.. we are sooo excited and ready for it to be here. We have right about 100 people so far and I have had lots of people call me to tell me they are going to sign up the day of too!! How exciting huh! I was on the WAY low end when we started this, I only anticipated 50-75 runners, Tatum on the other hand was the optimistic one and hoped for around 200, we'll get right in between there I think.
Besides the race, we have Brett's parents heading in to town tonight to watch Kaden and then run/walk in the race tomorrow, but to also just help us out b/c the basketball team is getting their National Championship rings tonight!!! We have a dinner at the Naismith room tonight to award them and even us wives get our pendents!! I'm pretty excited and am going to brag a little right now....Brett designed the whole thing!!! How cool is that. He's just sooo amazing! He said all the rings came in yesterday and all the pendants and he said we'll be "blingin"!! We have some former players, old and new, coming back for it. Brett's pretty excited also to be able to hang out with Nick and Kirk and Wayne and those guys for a little while. And since we all have kids now, I'm sure that'll be somewhat of our conversations!
Then Sat morning bright and early we go set up for the race. Race starts at 8am, then Brett leaves w/ Kaden to go to a brunch for the recruits in this weekend. I will finish up and clean up at the race and then head home for a bit. Then we head to the tailgate for the football game with the recruits around 4:30 or so, then the game. In between the 1st and 2nd quarter, I think, the team and coaches are getting announced on the field for their ring ceremony!! It will be so much fun and really cool to see everyone go nuts!!! I think the old players and hopefully the recruits will think the same!!
Sunday we have late church and then the Fall kick-off at church right after. This is a really fun event at our church and we are hoping for 1,000 people to be there. It's LOTS of fun games, entertainment and food for kids and families to enjoy. My sister and I went last year with Kaden for like an hour and he was still so little, he was in his carrier, well they got video of it and during the last few Sundays at church they play a video to show everyone what it's about and at the VERY end, there is Kaden sitting in his car seat smiling away!! He's sooo cute, he was so little. So we will do that this Sunday too.
I'm hoping after that, Sunday afternoon will be somewhat calm.
After getting registrations after registrations, putting t-shirt proofs together, getting them approved, ordering the right amounts of t-shirts, picking them up, organizing and stuffing each individual participants bags myself....I'm ready for a little "down" time. (which means drink a diet coke for a second, then start cleaning my house!)
This has been quite the process, but I'm sooo glad we are doing this for Cooper's Cause.
Which by the way, I forgot to tell a few people, but I am now a member on the 5 person Board of Directors for Cooper's Cause. Kristi and Terry Keefer called me this past Monday and asked me to be their last person on the Board. I was honored and of course said yes. Sounds pretty important doesn't it!! I don't know all my duties yet, but I am just proud to be a part of it for them. It's becoming a big thing and is a LONG process for Kristi to get this going. Attorneys, CPA's, etc. are all involved in getting the process done right for the IRS and getting Cooper's Cause a official non-for-profit organization.
Life is good, life is busy, but it all works out.
Hope everyone is doing great and please keep in touch with us!!

PS-our trip to Texas was great!! We got to see my brother and other family members for the weekend and had a blast. Sunday was my brother's bday and for it, they decided to jump out of planes!!! Yes, they went skydiving and it was sooo much fun to watch, now I have to do it. We were out there all day long and Kaden was SUCH a trouper. He just played in the airplane hanger and watched people fall from the sky! He didn't' really like the look of it though w/ the parachutes, I think they scared him a little bit. But he is now LOVING airplanes, if we hear one or anything like it, he looks in the sky and says "pairplane?". It's pretty cute.

Season has started!

Well we had our first cross country meet this sat., so I have officially started having no Saturday's...oh well. We did ok. Again, this year is a rebuilding process, as we lost 5 of our top 7 runners. The girls did well though. Our guys did really well and are going to be strong this year too.
Football has started too. So sat afternoon we headed to Memorial Stadium for the KU football game, and although it was raining, it was fun. (we get to watch in coaches suite, so we are spoiled) Kaden did really well and most of the time ate and ran around with the other little people.
Sunday was pretty low-key. Church, lunch with Steph and Granny, cleaning, laundry, running, meeting up at work, play with Kaden.
So now I am really excited b/c Kaden, myself and Steph are leaving Friday evening for TX to see my brother for his b-day!!! It was supposed to be a surprise, BUT Amber can't keep a good secret and Brett is tooo nosey. But we are headed there till Monday. Amber got Brett a sky-diving experience for his bday, so they will be participating in that, with some other friends, while Kaden, Steph and I, along with some others, will be safely watching from the ground!!! I figured Kaden needed a mom for awhile, so I'll do it another time. I would REALLY love to do it, but b/c of $$ and Brett not being there with me, I'll pass for this time, but I'm super excited for them. So we are going to have tons of fun, see family/cousins/friends, and I'll post and show pictures when we get back.
The rest of this week I'm getting everything in order for the 5K run for Cooper's Cause next sat. the 20th. I'm definitely excited about this as well. It's fun seeing the registration forms come piling in my mail box, I get excited to check everyday. This year will be smaller than we had hoped, but are excited nonetheless. Each year will get bigger and better. Tatum, my friend also helping put this on, has done TONS for this. She has gotten lots of sponsors and put in a lot of leg work that I couldn't' b/c of c.c. season and Kaden and everything else we have. So she's done awesome and we are ready for it to be here!!
That's it for now, gotta get back to work.
Take care everyone!!!

Great Weekend

Well, it never fails, as soon as Brett leaves town, Kaden gets sick!!! That's not the great weekend, but that's how we started on Friday afternoon when I picked him up after practice at daycare. He had thrown up a couple times there, and then on the car ride home (which is literally like 2 mins) and then again on my mom at the house!! Poor little Kaden, he got some sort of bug and was NOT feeling well. He was so lethargic, it was very sad. He actually had NO belly for the first time in a LONG time that I saw, it was strange. So that night he woke up a few times, but then the next day he was better.
So sat. we went out to Rim Rock to hang out with Aunt Steph while she was selling, and see the college cross country teams run. Kaden had a good time. Then we played and napped and then Brett and Amber made it to town. So we hung out with them a little before they had to get ready and we got ready for Bailey's baptism that afternoon. We didn't make it to their mass, which he wouldn't of sat through entirely anyways, but got there for the baptism, which was very important to me b/c I am her godmother!!! That went well and then we headed to Eudora for dinner at Katie and Dain's house. KU football had their opener, so we listened to that on the radio as well as KU bball playing in Canada(they played and won 2 games that day). We made it through the day/night and he was pooped when we got home.
Sunday we played outside in the morning and then got ready for church, and then ran some errands after that. Came home, ate lunch, napped and I put together some shelving units for our bathroom. I even got them hung. I arranged some pictures on the wall, cleaned, did laundry, oh and made a casserole before church for our neighbors that just had their second little boy a couple weeks ago. So I was busy, but I like to stay busy!
KU then played their final game Sunday night and won that one too. We hung out with grandma and grandpa Ballard a little before they left town and then headed to my moms for dinner. My grandma and papa, Brett and Amber, and Steph were all their. Mom had cooked out and it was very yummy. Definitely ate to much and didn't work out sat or sun.
My hip is causing some extreme pain again and it's almost excruciating to walk up and down the stairs with Kaden even. But, the stubborn person I am, got up today, Monday, and Kaden and I ran/rode 5 1/2 miles. It was really funny b/c Kaden loves to say "running, I running". So while he was in the stroller he kept telling me that he was running. So I tried telling him, "mommy is running, you are riding", and he just kept saying " running" , so I agreed and "we running" was the conversation. He likes to look at the water fountains along this one part, and I was gladly willing to stop and let him see it b/c my hip was hurting so bad. But then he would say, "mommy running", which meant, come on mom keep running. So I had to laugh and continue on. Then we made it back, went to the park a little and then decided to call Aunt Steph at 9:15 AM, which she said she was up, and we are lucky Kaden's so cute, b/c I told her we were on our way over to go on a walk and head to the park near her house. Kaden loves to say Mox, but he pronounces it "Moch", like he's German or something!! But he was very persistent in needing to go walk Mox with Steph. We did that and Kaden always gets a popsicle at her house afterwards, so he enjoyed that as well. Along with water the flowers and playing in the sprinkler.
Then we headed home, napped, at lunch, danced and played in the basement and then Brett finally made it home. He was excited to see him, but we were into bubbles at the time, so he had to join in.
We had a little family time and dinner out and then play, walk dogs, bath and bed. Then Brett headed up to work to do a few things. Now I'm catching up on internet things and getting ready for bed.
So that was our great weekend. Mostly Kaden and I just hanging out, but it was really good and I really can only thank the Lord that Kaden is soooo good. He really doesn't cause me any trouble, which is great since Brett is gone so much during season. I'm/we are, truly blessed. It was great to see my brother, Brett's parents, and the rest of family around here. Things couldn't be better right now!! I love my family.