It's a girl!

How awesome was my Halloween shirt?!?  I can say that because I didn't design it or make it.

21 weeks preggo

Cody and I had our 20 week sonogram where they check a lot of the anatomy of the baby.  We were seriously thinking about not finding out the sex of the baby this time around.  I have almost all the toys/accessories/etc that I need.  Plus, with our circumstances, I'm not really able to decorate a nursery much--and the kids will be sharing a room.  So we figured it would be fun to make it a surprise on baby's birth day!  The trouble was that once the sonographer started scanning the baby, I couldn't turn my head away.  As she was scanning the baby's legs, Cody and I both saw what we were SURE were boy parts (just like what we saw with Caden).  We both looked at each other and smiled... but neither of us said anything to the sono tech.  A minute later, the tech was showing us a shot of baby from below and between the legs when she said "and I don't see anything here so it looks like you have a little girl!"   I guess that shows how much Cody and I know...

So how did we react?  Well I was laying there wondering if I would know what to do with a girl and trying to think of a way I could avoid ever having to fix her hair and mess with bows.  Little girls are so cute, but I wasn't sure if I was cut out to raise one.  I'm trusting God knows what he's doing with this.  :)  Meanwhile, Cody just beamed in excitement.  I found out right then that although he never admitted it to me before, he was hoping to have a little girl of his own.  It was cute.

We found out that we were having a girl right before Halloween.  When a friend and I were talking at work I told her that I thought it would have been fun to have a Halloween shirt that somehow revealed the sex of the baby to family but that I didn't have time to order anything online.  To my surprise, she text me late Friday night and said she had made me one!  She had gone to hobby lobby, bought all the supplies, and FREE HANDED it.  It took her a very long time to make, but it turned out perfect!  Plus, I got to wear it to work on Halloween and all my patients got a kick out of it.

Halloween 2011



I was super excited to carve a pumpkin with Caden for the first time.  I really thought he would have fun getting his hands messy.  As it turns out, he didn't care much about the pumpkin at all, especially after we had to tell him not to eat the pumpkin guts.



Pitiful, right?!?  And not just our pumpkin carving skills...

Love the water hose!

The Saturday before Halloween, Seymour has their city 'Trick or Treat'.  It all starts with the fire department cooking hamburgers and fun things to do for kids.  Then everyone goes trick or treating until 9:00.  It's fun to do these things in small communities, where you know most of the kids and their families.

Look who spotted Daddy as soon as we got there.



My little monster man!

My hairy child, Bailey.



Caden 15 Months

Weight: 25 lb. 8 oz. (50-75%)

Length:  31.5 inches (50-75%)

Head Circumference: 19.5 inches (95%)

My big boy turned 15 months old on Oct. 22.  He is one funny kid!  We can't help but be entertained by Caden's love for music, which he usually feels the need to dance to (if only I could catch it on video).  He loves playing chase, peek-a-boo, patty-cake.  Bailey (our dog) is his favorite and he loves to crawl all over her.  Thank goodness she's patient even if she's clearly annoyed. 

Caden's favorite toy to play with are trucks/cars.  I think it's so cute to watch him push them around making car noises.  It's also a little sad to see him transforming more and more into a little boy and less of a baby.  Strangely enough, Caden also really likes to play with brooms, and the fly swatter.  I'm not sure where this fasination came from?

He has really started to become shy around unfamiliar people/places, but usually warms up after about 5 minutes, although he will let anyone hold him.  When in his comfort zone he talks ALL THE TIME!  Although we can't understand what he's saying, I can tell he's actually trying to say something real (not just making sounds and babbling).  In fact, the only words I can actually make out are Dada, Mama, Bailey, Bye-bye, and bless you.  He has other words that he says frequently but I haven't figured out what they are yet (for example, he always says something that sounds like "applejuice" but I really don't think thats what he is trying to say).  He won't repeat words on command after us.  It has to be in his own time.  In fact, Caden is VERY independent and everything has to be in his time and only when something is his idea. 

Cade Man has put some miles on this dump truck.

We are working on learning body parts-so far he knows head, ears, belly, poopec (bellybutton), toes, and nose.  He started walking right at 14 months.  Prior to this we knew he was capable to stand on his own and take steps, but any time we tried to get him to he became really frustrated.  Suddenly one day he just started walking all over the place (although it was the monster walk with his arms overhead) and he has had no part of crawling since then. 

Caden is also a CLIMBER.  We are going to have to watch this boy... The good thing is that he is pretty tough most of the time.  After all, Cody has let him fall off our 2 foot tall porch, TWICE.  Don't worry though, he only ended up with several scratches and covered in mud.

Caden LOVES to be outside.  He will stay out there all day if we let him.  He makes a run for the door when he sees me grab my keys in the morning.  The problem is he throws a huge fit anytime someone leaves without him.  I love that he is already enjoys being outside and has NO interest at all in watching t.v.

LOVE.THAT.BOY.

Country Came To Town

Cody and I wanted to go somewhere before I started work. We knew we wouldn’t have another opportunity to go somewhere for a very long time since I was starting a new job and all my PTO needed to be saved for maternity leave. We planned on making a trip to Houston and to San Antonio to visit some friends and spend some time being lazy and enjoying the freedom from changing diapers. As it turned out, a nasty stomach bug ran through our house that week(end) so we had to cancel our plans.

We still wanted to do SOMETHING (without spending much money because by this point I had run out of student loan money and still hadn’t started working) so the next weekend we made a trip to Fort Worth.

Our first stop was to visit my sweet new nephew, Dylan and my bro and SIL.

Later that night we made it to a Rangers baseball game in Arlington.

We picked the perfect night to go! The weather was perfect AND it was a Friday night so they had a fireworks show after the game (which was one of the big reasons we chose to go to a Friday night game rather than Saturday afternoon). It turned out to be a good game (we saw an inside the park homerun)! After it was over, we waited for the firework show to start and finally this is what we saw…

…a bit of a disappointment for me. Cody laughs at me because sometimes I’m such a kid and get overly excited about little things like fireworks, Christmas lights, Zoo’s, etc. Needless to say we missed most of the show but the grand finale was large enough to see and did not disappoint.

After the fireworks show, they aired the rest of the Angels game on the jumbotron (the one that confirmed that the Rangers had clenched the division title). I decided that since I was so tired, we could just watch the rest of that game from the comfort of our hotel room. Had I known all the Rangers would be out on the field watching it too and then celebrating in front of everyone, we would have stayed. Oh well.

On Saturday we were pretty lazy (and I loved it). After eating lunch we strolled around the Stockyards. It’s a neat area but nothing exciting for us. In my opinion the shops are WAY overpriced, or just filled with little truck stop like souvenirs. The cattle drive and petting zoo is more like a lifestyle for us, nothing we cared to go see.

After walking around the stockyards, we made it back to the hotel for more laziness and a long nap, but only after stopping at a convenience store for an ICEE and a scratch off lottery ticket. Bingo, of course, because it keeps me occupied longer.

That evening we had plans to go to an improv comedy show at Four Day Weekend. We didn’t know anything about where this place was, how early we needed to show up, where to park, etc. So as we were driving by, I noticed a sign in the window right next to the Four Day Weekend sign that said something about “rooftop dining open”. Perfect! I assumed it was Four Day Weekend’s sign that I saw (because I knew on the inside they had a bar area).

This pic is just to show that we weren't completely crazy... This was on the corner of a block and the neon sign on the left there said something about "rooftop dining open".  The very first door next to sign is Four Day Weekend, which is where we went in to get tickets and to get some food (so we thought). 

After many almost wrong turns on to one way streets, we finally were directed to the parking garage. Throughout the night we walked ALL over that parking garage. We made it down 8 flights and realize we forgot to lock the car, back upstairs but forget which level we parked on, etc etc etc. Sadly, it was one of the best workouts I have had since being pregnant.

Cody and I then walked into Four Day Weekend and picked up our tickets for the show. The ticket lady handed them to us and never said another word… so we awkwardly went upstairs not knowing what we were doing. Once we got upstairs we saw a room with a bar and a few tables. No one else was up there except the bartender. I told him that we were there for the 7:30 show. He said we were about an hour and a half early and asked if we wanted a drink. I then went on to tell him we were hoping to eat a bit before the show and asked if they had a bar & grill upstairs. He said there was and pointed to an elevator on the other side of the room. Well we took the elevator to the top floor and found ourselves on the roof with several tables and chairs. A man then approaches us and asks, “Are you looking for someone?” I politely told him “no” and that we had never been here before but were hoping to eat. He replies, “Oh, well let me see what I can do”. He then came back and led us to a table.

We were feeling pretty awkward about our whole downtown experience… sadly yes, it was a whole new world from the lifestyle we know. Now at this point, we are still under the impression that we are at some bar and grill that is part of the comedy club. I’m expecting to order nachos or some other “bar” food. I thought it was strange that there was no obvious way to get to the grill from the comedy club but I just summed it up to be something that the locals knew and we were going along with it. This should have been clue #1 that we weren’t where we thought we were.

While I was admiring our view of downtown Fort Worth and the amazing weather, our waiter brought our menus. I was expecting something like Chili’s 7ish pages of food filled with sandwiches, appetizers, burgers, etc. We were given 3 menus, each just one page covered in a leather casing. Kind of fancy for a place like this isn’t it?? We start looking at it and slowly begin to realize that we weren’t just at some bar & grill. I started looking around a bit more and realize we were in the reserved section at the Reata! (Prior to this, I didn’t really know what the Reata was, or where it was, but I had heard of it before and only knew that it was a nicer restaurant that what Cody and I usually go to).

Once we get over the surprise of where randomly ended up, we became a little embarrassed that we just appeared on the roof in the reserved section stating that we wanted to eat. We laughed it off for a minute, and then decided to figure out what to eat… Our server came by and we had to apologize for our ignorance—then explained that we didn’t know which one was actually the menu. It was a bit of an awkward conversation. I guess the fact that there was a separate menu for appetizers and only about 10 meal options on the actual menu really threw us for a loop. Maybe I was still looking for a cheeseburger or a grilled chicken sandwich.

Once we saw the prices on the menu (keep in mind, I hadn’t had any sort of income for a few years) I told Cody I would just chew on a napkin. (You know, like Steve Carell on Date Night?? That’s really kind of how we felt when we first sat down that the restaurant). Cody decided to go for the $42 buffalo steak. With me being pregnant, I wasn’t in the mood for new and different foods like duck breast, etc so it was a caesar salad for me.

Buffalo steak

Bread pudding

We ended up having a great time. The weather was perfect and I loved eating outside on the roof! The food was a bit fancier than we usually like. We tend to like the simple things better—a good rib-eye steak, loaded baked potato and a salad with ranch—or even a greasy hamburger. We had a lot of laughs at our random appearance at the Reata and our slightly embarrassing ignorance. The comedy show was great! I love all comedy shows but I really like improv. The only downside was that we were out of the show by 9:30 and really didn’t have anything to do afterwards… Normally we would have sat on the porch of some place we had never been and had a drink BUT once again the pregnancy thing got me. :) Maybe next time Cody and I can actually go on a real vacation!

"...If He's Anything Like Me"

Watching Daddy and longing for the day he can be out of the wagon and dove hunting with him.

Despite the fact that Cody has no idea which of Caden's clothes are pajamas and which are regular play clothes, he really is the best daddy ever.  I'm impressed by him more and more every day.

Dylan Andrew Marten

He's here!  My nephew, Dylan, made his debut on September 12, 2011.  Cody, Caden and I made a quick trip to Fort Worth to meet him on the day he was born.  Because it was such a short trip we didn't get to spend a lot of time with the new family but I did get a few pictures from his birth day!

Kaelli entertaining Caden

8 lb. 12 oz.     19.5 inches long

Uncle Cody and Dylan

with Aunt Lacy

 

Work, finally!

I finally finished my clinical on July 22nd. Never again will I be forced to work for free! It was such a relief to be done with this stage and continue to move on, but I still had one major thing to accomplish...pass my board exam. This is a 5 hour national licensure exam that I have to pass before I can work as a physical therapist. I felt a lot of pressure for this test, it covered anything and everything I learned (or should have learned) during my 3 years of PT school. This means that I could have both a bachelors and doctorate degree and it still mean nothing if I didn't pass this test. Yikes!

The test is only offered 5x/year and my date was Sept. 7th.  I spent 6 weeks of nothing but studying. BORING. This also turned out to be more of a challenge since this was during my 1st trimester of pregnancy and I felt pretty crummy most of the time. But I made it through, took the test, waited a very long week for results and found out the good news that I was now Lacy Beth Coltharp, PT, DPT! Talk about such an incredible feeling of relief! It's been a LONG 8 years that I have been working for this.

Since my test I have stayed fairly busy catching up on some house cleaning, making a budget, organizing paperwork, talking with my loan providers and insurance providers…blah blah blah. The nasty stomach bug ran though my family so I also spent some time recovering and taking care of a very sick husband and baby. I did find some lazy time, too.

I definitely chose the right profession. Not only do I love what I do, but I had no trouble finding a job. I always thought as a PT, I would go in the neurological rehab direction, working with spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, etc. I kept an open mind during my clinicals and I enjoyed every setting that I came across (except for acute care and that’s only because I can’t handle vomit and I don’t particularly enjoy helping them with toileting tasks). I enjoyed elderly and pediatrics, I loved the challenge of neuro and vestibular patients, I even enjoyed the experience of the niche market in women’s health (pelvic exams aren’t exactly pleasant but this can be SO rewarding to see such a change in someone’s quality of life).

The truth is, I used to think that once I got through PT school I would know EXACTLY what I wanted, and that perfect job would exist with perfect hours, co-workers, etc.  Of course that’s not how it was… I have always lived by shades of grey, so why I thought this would be black and white is beyond me. I had several job offers, all of which I think I would have been content with but there was one in particular that really stuck out to me.


While still doing my clinical, one of my instructors at my inpatient setting gave me some advice. He knew about this other job offer that I had and told me that if I thought I had an interest in orthopedics and manual therapy, then I should take advantage of it while I’m fresh out of school. He said it would be beneficial for me to go out and really get comfortable with these skills, especially while I have the opportunity for others to mentor me. His thoughts were that if I ever changed my mind I could easily transition back to doing acute/long term care, but that it would be a lot harder to go from acute/long term care to specializing in ortho/manual therapy skills.

I went with the outpatient orthopedic setting, in particular one that specializes in sports therapy. Funny thing is that this is one of the settings I least saw myself in. My ortho classes were more challenging to me and I was intimidated by this kind of manual therapy. As it turns out, I loved the fast pace of outpatient ortho (I thrive under pressure) and I liked that you can actually see quick improvements and the patients tend to be more motivated (and less likely to cry)!

I took the job with the lowest salary offer (just by nature of the setting), and with the worst hours but I couldn’t be more excited about it! This place is sort of like a ‘Ma and Pa’ clinic that truly cares about their employees. They are understanding with my kids and I will have a flexible schedule when needed. I believe in what they stand for and how they run things. They strive to have nicest facility and the best therapists. I will have an unlimited budget for continuing education courses so I can really develop my ortho and manual skills. Plus, I’ll have 5 other amazing PT’s and some incredible AT’s to learn from. I’m lucky to have such a great opportunity to learn so much more!

So as of October 3, 2011 (also happens to be my and Cody’s 2nd anniversary) I will be starting my career here!!!

 
 
 
 



Annual Coltharp Dove Fry

Each year during the 1st weekend of September a lot of Cody's family/friends drive to Red Springs for a evening of cooking out, hanging out, and shooting dove/skeet.  It's always a good time and I'm bummed that I didn't get more pictures of this day.  I started out doing well early on, but the more people that showed up the more I got distracted by catching up.  Maybe next year I'll do better! 

Cody, Kache, Cory, Caden and Poppy






My Crazy Boy

His grin makes my day!

Caden and Pop at his first rodeo.

You know Caden is TIRED when he falls asleep while eating.

I walked in to get Caden one morning and found him like this.  This kid loves to be naked.

Falling into toy box at Nonnie's house

Climbing where he can these days.