Kodi, Cook's, Granbury, work, and everything inbetween!!

I have got to get better at updating my blog and downloading pictures so that it doesn't take 3 hours every time!!!!! :)

I went to Dallas to visit Kodi and the rest of the Tutt gang a couple of weeks ago. While I was there we took multiple trips to the playrooms, up to the 4th floor to the aquariums to see the eel, wagon rides out to the playground to play, and had a toenail painting party amongst other things. It was SO good to be there and to be able to hug them all and just hang out and love on them. Kodi is doing well. She got to go home on Saturday after I left on Friday. She has embraced her baldness and now only wears her hats to protect her head, but not because she's trying to disguise her bald head. She was pretty much back to her old self when I left, and it was good to see Tracy and Tracy relax a little as the real Kodi appeared. Right now she is still at home hanging out. She goes in on Monday to have blood drawn to check her platelet level, and hopefully her level will be high enough that she can get chemo. She is already a week behind because her platelet count hasn't recovered from the first round of chemo yet.

Cook's is a great hospital and they took amazing care of Tracy J and Kodi while they were there, and I know that they will continue to do that. It makes me want to work in a bigger Children's Hospital and makes me sad for the things that we don't have for our kids. (like a playground)

When I went to see Kodi, I also got to stay not just one, but two nights with my friend Shanan and her family in Granbury. They opened up their home to me on Tuesday night and then again on Friday night. It was wonderful to just sit and talk. It was the first time I had really spent any time w/ Shanan's husband and I can't wait for Billy and I to go and hang out with them this summer because I know that we will have a blast. Their girls S and B crack me up!!!!! B came into the living room on Friday night and got me to come and do a concert with her. We then proceeded back to her bedroom where she gave me a stuffed guitar and told me that I was her band and then she turned on her CD player, stepped up to the mic and went to town. It was so much fun, and I hope that if we ever have little girls that they will be as big of fans of "jamming" as Shanan's girls are. (oh, and we definitely belted out Miley Cyrus the whole way home from Babe's that night...it was good times!)

On Tuesday, I also go to see my sweet friend Whitney, however, I am pretty sure that she thinks that I am a horrible influence on her children and I don't know that I will ever get invited back to her house! :) She has two adorable little girls M and K and they both have lots of personality and make me smile. It was good to get to hug Whitney's neck, even if I didn't get to stay long.

Work has been draining in every way, shape, fashion and form the last couple of weeks/months. We are short staffed, and just seem to keep getting shorter staffed so we've all been having to change our schedules around and adjust to make sure all the days are covered, so most days, I have no idea what day it is! We have had some rough cases come through the last couple of weeks that have been very emotionally draining for us. The little girl I am taking care of right now is absolutely precious. She was in a car wreck and lost her mom, her brother and her sister. I just want to hold her and love on her, but haven't been able to physically do that because of her injuries, so instead I've been doing "the little things" as her dad likes to call them. I have washed and french braided her hair, made sure that her head bands have been in place to cover where they had to shave part of her hair, painted her fingernails and toenails multiple different times, and spending lots of time just holding her hand. She has already lived a life much more difficult than any seven year old, let alone any seventy year old, should have to endure and now to lose the people she loves the most in her life. My heart just breaks for her family as they are struggling with how and when to tell her now that she is starting to be more awake. I want to be able to fix it, and I can't, so I'll continue to do "the little things", and hopefully they'll add up to a big thing in that her family will see the love of Jesus.

We had a house guest for a about a month and a half. It was nice because I knew that when I was at work at night, Billy didn't have to sit at home by himself. And we had lots of fun all hanging out together. We bought a new grill a couple of weeks ago, and have already more than gotten our money's worth out of it. We use it every day at least once a day if not more. We also got a fire pit and some patio chairs so that we can actually sit outside and enjoy the evenings. (The fire pit also has come in handy for disposing of our shred pile!!!)

Not a whole lot else going on around here. I head to Dallas again next week to hang out with the Tutt's and to spend some much needed girl time with Whitney and Shanan. I'm at work right now so I can't add pictures to this post, but once I get up this afternoon I will upload all the pictures that go with this post so that you'll have something to look at instead of just my rambling!!!