A busy week

OUR HOUSE GUESTS!!
This past week has been extremely busy for us, as I had mentioned in a previous post I worked all of last weekend and on labor day. Monday afternoon, David's brother Michael, his wife Jaime & their 4 children arrived in Grand Junction. Finally! They have been trying to move down here since the beginning of July. They are here now, currently staying with us until they both obtain employment, then they can rent a place of their own. I know its probably going to end up getting a little tough for all of us, its hard to have extra people living in your "space" but I think of this as a "pay it forward" kind of situation.
When David & I first moved down here almost 5 years ago, we were in a very sticky situation. Neither one of us had a job, we had very little cash and nowhere to live. Holly let us stay with her for several months. Honestly I don't know what we would have done without her. We also ended up staying with my dad & Barbie for a brief period of time before they had a vacancy in one of their duplexes(which we ended up renting for 3 years before we bought our house). I know that if we absolutely needed to we could have also stayed with my mom & Joe, but it never did come to that.
So knowing that they are in a similar situation as we once were, we are letting them stay here. Jaime had an interview at my work on Tues. afternoon, she spoke with my boss on friday who informed her that one of the other team managers would be contacting her for another interview, with the team that she would be potentially working with. Hopefully that phone call will be coming in the next day or 2. If that doesn't pan out, she does have a job offer from the nursing facility I worked for prior to my present job.

The day they got here I took Jaime to meet Holly. Jaime had some extremelyLOOOONG Hair...
.........until she met my sis! Looks cute,huh? She cut 17 inches off!!

They got their 3 oldest children all registered and started in school on thursday & they all seem to be adjusting. Lizzy, their oldest daughter who is 12 and in the 7th grade is having the hardest time with this change but she said she has made a few friends and I think by the end of the week it will be a lot easier for her.
We will just have to see how this all plays out & keep our fingers crossed that they both get jobs this week so they can eventually find a more permanent place to live.


THE DENTIST!!
Kaden getting his "laughing gas" he looks like he is having a good time!
Since I worked over the weekend I got Wednesday off. Well we had an appointment scheduled for Kaden to go to the pediatrict dentist in Glenwood Springs, he also unfortunately got teeth like me. He had a couple cavities and ended up getting 3 teeth capped. The dentist was SUPER nice & we are very grateful that he was recommended to us. He just treated Kaden, David & I like people, he explained everything & made Kaden feel comfortable with what was going on. He explained a lot about teeth & let us know that Kadens cavities weren't due to "poor hygiene", that there are other reasons that aren't always easy to prevent,like genetics. He even called us that night at home to make sure Kaden was doing OK & gave us his home phone # & told us to call with any questions/concerns or if Kaden started having pain. How cool is that? We are gonna send him a thank you card & I will definitely recommend him to anyone with children. I am always amazed at how kind some people are. Kaden was such a BIG BOY about the whole thing wich is great considering last year when we attempted to take him to the dentist he FREAKED out and wouldn't even let them look in his mouth. About a month ago when I went for my cleaning & exam, my dentist got him in, they did his xrays & cleaning & that is when it was discovered that he had some cavities. She (my dentist) gave us the referral & stated the reason she wasn't going to take care of them herself was because Kaden was finally willing to let her do something and she didn't want him to relate a possible "bad experience" to her & then we may have problems getting him in for future exams/cleanings.

Kaden & his "crooked" smile

SAD NEWS
Friday was a rough day for me. On Monday morning one of the social workers (Nan), who used to work for hospice lost her 18 year old son(Zachery) to a possible brain aneurysm, they are performing an autopsy, checking for encephalitis, meningitis and anything else that may have been the cause of his unexpected & untimely death . I went to his memorial service friday afternoon, to provide emotional support to Nan. I deal with death on a dailey basis, thats the line of work I am in so I attend a lot of funerals and have attended quite a few (personal) in the past. But this one touched me in a different way. It was really a reality check for me. I cried through the entire service (which was almost 3 hours long) and it wasn't that I "knew" this young man, it was more sympathy & empathy as a mother for Nan. All I could do was think of Ty, who is close to the same age & what I would do, how I would feel if I lost him or any of my children for that matter. Zachery graduated high school this past May & spent the summer in Florida working as a lifeguard on one of the beaches. He had returned home about 3 weeks before he passed and was actually supposed to be leaving in mid September for the Air force. This whole situation has really left me with a lot of different emotions & feelings and a new appreciation for all 3 of my special children. I hope that myself or anyone else I know never has to go through the loss of a child.

GOOD NEWS!!
We finally got a letter from David's brother Daniel, he didn't say much about what he is doing, just talked a lot about how much he misses his wife & son, how worried he is about them. He says he is doing ok but it is a lot harder than he expected. But we know he will be fine, he just needs to stay focused & strong & before he knows it, it will be graduation time & we will all be able to see him again!! So that was a nice thing to have happen this week, it sure did make Davids day & we can't wait to get his full address so we can begin to send him some letters & cards.