First Trip to Texas

Shane and I both have been applying to several jobs in the Tomball, Texas area in preparation for our move. We have been applying at several different school districts, me for a school nurse position and Shane for coaching positions or other physical education positions that he is qualified for. He has every intent to get certified in other subjects, but is unable to do so until August. On Friday, I was scheduled to have an interview with the Director of Health Services for the Cy-Fair school district. So Thursday afternoon, around 4:00 pm, we headed for Texas with child and dogs in tow. Now Camden has been on car trips to Birmingham, but nothing more than that, so a ten hour drive was going to be interesting for all of us. We decided that the dogs would sit in the front of the truck with Shane and I would sit in the back with Camden. Let me just say that he did absolutely wonderful going to Texas. I say it is because he knew he was going to God's country, but I guess the reality of it is that he was able to sleep the majority of the trip. We only stopped twice on our way to Tomball, and Camden never cried and was asleep by 9:15 pm for the night. We arrived at my sisters around 1:30 am, unpacked all our things, talked to my Mom for a bit and then went to bed.

On Friday, we got up and Shane got dressed and headed to Cypress Christian school to tour the school. He has been in contact with that school and since it is a private school, they do not require their teachers to be certified. They invited him to come and tour the school, which he saw as a great opportunity to meet some of the faculty. He did indeed meet the secondary principal who took him on the tour, and Shane turned on his charm. Hopefully, he will be called in the near future for an interview. My interview was scheduled for 2:00 pm on Friday and let me just say I loved Mrs. Jones, my interviewer. She and I got along really well and she told me that she had two school nurse positions open at two different elementary schools. She said she would love for me to be a part of their team, and my job now was to convince the principals of those schools to hire me. I was instructed to call the two different schools on Monday or Tuesday and schedule an interview with each of the principals. Mrs. Jones said that in the meantime she would email both of the principals and inform them about me. YEA!!

Aside from the interview, I was excited about getting to Tomball so that my nephews could meet Camden. They have been asking their mother for quiet sometime when they were going to get to meet him and the time finally arrived. Mason was so good to hold him and feed him, and Braden did a great job holding him too. I can't wait for us all to be closer so that Camden can enjoy his cousins.

Mason feeding Camden for the first time

Braden holding Camden for the first time

Mason, Braden and Camden

On Saturday, Shane and I went and found the two schools that I would ultimately be interviewing with. Shawn had a meeting and Mom and Melissa went shopping, so my Dad was left with the boys until Shawn got home. He and Camden did just fine and when we got home we found Camden asleep on his chest. I asked Dad if he wanted me to go and lay Camden down in his bed, and he said that he didn't, concerned that he might wake up. I think Dad was enjoying holding him!! ; )

How I found Camden with Grandpa Key

Saturday evening we went and ate Mexican food. I was actually not looking forward to this since I can not have cheese due to Camden's dairy allergy. But let me just say, I ate and ate and ate and ate. We had some great Mexican food (minus the cheese). When we got back to Melissa's, we celebrated my birthday and had some birthday cake. Now let me just say this cake was very interesting. My mom had called me earlier in the week and asked me what kind of cake I could eat. Since Camden is allergic to eggs, I had to figure out a substitute for eggs in a cake mix. After researching on-line, I informed my mother to add 10 ounces of Coke to a cake mix and cook according to the directions, minus the egg and oil. Now it is a debate, but I thought the cake tasted fine, others didn't think it had any taste. My issue with the cake was the icing. Mom made her normal decorator's icing that she always makes, but she could not find Melissa's vanilla extract. She did, however, find some almond extract and added a bit of it to the icing. Now I was there when she was making the icing and I saw her beat and beat the icing, so it was definitely well mixed. When I took a bite of my cake, all I could taste was almond extract. It was so overpowering that I just scraped off the icing and ate the cake. Dad, Mason and Braden all agreed that it wasn't that great. Mom had no complaints about her icing, but didn't think the cake had any taste. Shane on the other hand ate his whole piece and didn't say a word, until he got a second piece of cake and took a bite and then knew exactly what I was talking about. Apparently, the end of the cake that my piece came from tasted very much like almond extract, while the other end of the cake tasted just fine. How weird is that???? I felt bad for my mom because she did everything possible for me to have cake I could eat. I appreciated all of her efforts!!!

Celebrating my 37th Birthday

On Sunday, we headed back to Alabama around 9:00 am and we had to stop numerous times due to Camden having a few meltdowns. Ten hours in a car seat was a bit more than he cared for - and who can blame him? All in all, I thought he did great traveling, but next time I think we will try to travel as late in the day as possible so he can sleep the majority of the time. We also decided that if I have an interview and Shane does not, that I will just fly there to make things easier.

Asleep on the way home

Enjoying the ride