The Sun is the Devil

This past Friday night we had us a girls night! We don't get these very often so we went all out.  We were celebrating my friend's birthday (Shout out to Alicia!) and her hubby and BIL (brother-in-law) have a catering van with their BBQ restaurant. So they hired us a driver who drove us 13 girls around in Longview all night in this van! Tons of fun! Really! Tons....

We had to have a silly one!

Twinkies...

We had a really good Memorial Day weekend. My boss has a lake house about 1/2 mile from my parent's lake house so it worked out perfect.  Early Saturday morning we went out on the boat for some wake boarding. I had never done it before and have always wanted to try. I got up on my 3rd attempt (go me!) but fell trying to signal to Leven to take my picture! So I tried a few more times and finally got up again and got my picture!

Later that afternoon we went back out on the boat and did some tubing! My mind really still thinks that I'm 16, but oh my body...my body was hurting the next day. Thank goodness I've been doing boot camp or I think it would've been worse. Leven was bummed because he had to stay covered up all weekend avoiding the sun. But I was proud of him. He never complained, he just knows this will be his life from now one. We also spent some time out at The Maxey's new lake house! One word: BEAUTIFUL! I'm in love with that house and I know they are happy with their new purchase. Here's a picture of Taydem swimming in their swimming pool (yes, they have a pool as well!). Over all...wonderful weekend with family and friends!

Here a just a few pictures from this past week of my baby loves:

Tyler Grace

Ally "Miss Thang" Austyn

Baby Brittyn

My baby love, just love it when she sleeps! So sweet

So Vegas is now exactly 15 days away and us women are still working out like crazy! We are really down to countdown mode! Here are some recent pictures of us:



Not really sure what's in this picture with me. Looks like a ghosts arm!





Yesterday by far was a stressful one. I have been sick with a cold for about 10 days now. I just wouldn't go to the doctor bc I kept telling myself it would go away by itself. Well I felt horrible on Monday. I had already taken off yesterday to be with Leven and Taydem for their doctor appointments so I went in that morning to have a steriod shot. My blood pressure was also way low, but he said it's from the cold. My body was just tired and weak.

So after my appointment I took Leven to his. Leven was diagnosed with Stage 2 Melanoma last Thursday. They took a mole off the back of his neck about 3 weeks ago and sent it off to be tested. It came back Melanoma...the bad skin cancer! So yesterday he had it cut out. Left him with 40 stitches, a sick feeling in his stomach and wishing he wore sun screen. We are still waiting to hear back from one of the main labs testing the skin. Say a prayer for him.

After his appointment and getting him settled at home I went to get Taydem from school to take her to her appointment. She got her new hearing aids yesterday. She hasn't stopped smiling. I never knew that my poor child wasn't hearing everything I was hearing. She was more excited about hearing herself. She kept kissing me bc she liked hearing the "pucker" sound she was making with her lips.

This instrument around her neck was programming the hearing aids (syncing them) to the computer.

Starting May 1, everyone is in crunch mode trying to work out and get their bodies looking right for our Vegas trip....including ME! We are serious too. Danin and Chrissy just had a baby 3 months ago so they are working really hard, well Danin is! haha. Chrissy hates working out...but she looks great to have just had a baby! I started boot camp back up May 7th and I've gone every day so far (except this past Mnday, bc I was SICK!) My sister in law, Molly, is really working hard too. I told them when we started that we should take pictures of ourselves every time we work out just to try and motivate the others. Letting the others know how hard we are working!!! So far so good. Molly and I are the best at it! We send all kinds of crazy pictures. She and I are the only ones getting up before the sun makes it appearance so our pictures are ROUGH! I think I'm going to make a photo book of all our pictures when we are done. Take a look at a few:

Before

AFTER

Chrissy not liking it!

Molly at like 4:30 AM!

Molly and my brother are doing a Biggest Loser video together!!

one morning before boot camp...around 5:15 AM

this is the best one!! hahaha

all smiles!

one night at their boys baseball game...they were telling me how hard they were working out!

red face!

rough

after running on her NEW treadmill!!

ok...anyways. I probably think this is all way funnier than you reading about it! At least we are trying! Here are a few pictures of Taydem this week. She is always ready for the camera!

Thanks Aunt Terri for my awesome skirt!

Oh my...she told me to take a picture of her!

I've really been MIA here lately! It's been over a month since my last post. Time just continues to fly by. So let me catch you up:

Leven: He is done with track and pretty much everything else for this school year. He will start working on volleyball for next year. He usually has several volleyball camps this summer and he opens the gym up for the ones that want to lift weights and play volleyball together. His 40th birthday is coming up next month and I'm taking him to Las Vegas! We are so excited for this trip. We have our family and friends going as well.

Trever: Trever is now finished with his junior year of sports! His baseball team won the first round of playoffs but fell short this past Saturday against Waxahatchie for Area. This time next year they should be unstoppable! The whole team is coming back except for 3 seniors. And they will have a new coach!! Next on Trever's agenda...a job! He has his choir pop concert this Friday. He is singing another solo this year. Will post video next week!

Taydem: Taydem has had a lot going on with her this past month. She graduated from Pre-K this past Saturday! I never thought I would be the one to get all teary eyed, but my gosh. How I'm I suppose to make it 18 more years of this stuff?? Her Preschool did such a good job with graduation. I was so proud of her. She starts Kindergarten next year. We went and signed up last week. Another dang milestone!

She loves her Aunt Dain



Her Papa and Nana

We found out a little over a month ago that Taydem will also need hearing aids. I say "also" because her Bubba has them as well. Trever got his hearing aids around the age of 2.  I have always worried about her ears since she first started having ear infections. She had 7 before she turned 1. They finally put her first set of tubes in her ears at the age of 15 months.  Those soon fell out (they were actually stuck in her ear canal, lord knows exactly how long) and she got a second pair of tubes last March (age 3).  Around January, I started noticing her reading my lips more and asking me to repeat everything we said to her. Lots of "huhs", "what did you say," "I didn't hear you Momma." I took her to see her ENT and he found that her left tube had fallen out and was stuck in her ear canal once again. Her ear canals are smaller than most he said.  So the right tube is still in place doing its job. So I took her back to the Audiologist to have her tested. The entire time I sat there watching my poor child repeat after him and not even coming close to what he was really saying just broke my heart. I knew right away that she wasn't hearing clearly. She has moderate hearing loss. This does not mean she's deaf or is even close to being deaf. It simply means that she has a hard time hearing certain sounds and more importantly what is said to her.  Everything she hears is muffled. This is why she doesn't sing songs well. She is always on the right key, but makes up her own words. Words + music doesn't go well with her. With her starting school in August, it's a must to get her wearing the hearing aids. She is super smart and I don't want her to fall behind in school bc she can't hear what the teacher is teaching. I left that day crying all the way home (I had my sun glasses on so Tay wouldn't see me!). You want your children to be perfect in every way. I don't want her to go through life being picked on, and asking herself, "why me?" Right now she is exctied about the hearing aids, bc her Bubba wears them. But 10 years from now she will probably hate them. Trever is a super young man and a class act compared to other 17 year olds. And I know one of the main reasons for this is because of those hearing aids. Leven and Trever's mom have done an outstanding job with Trever. They never felt sorry for him or treated him any different. And Leven will have to help me with all this. Trever told me that at least Taydem has LONG hair. I had to smile at this and agree with him. We got fitted last week for the hearing aids and they should be here next week. I keep telling myself....it could be worse Devin. Taydem is beautiful in every way possible and I'm so lucky she's mine.

He was creating her ear piece with this pink mold!

Devin: I feel like all I've been doing is running around crazy being MOM.  I went to buy Trever new clothes today on my lunch break for his choir concent this Friday. Running Taydem back and forth to different doctor appointments (she got a really bad ear infection this past Friday, go figure...and now I'm sick!) I started boot camp back up again last Monday. I got my new friend, Suzy, to tag along with me. It works out great. I pick up her every morning so it's a must that I get up! We went all 5 days last week. I didn't make it this morning bc I didn't feel good so I will go tonight. Gotta get this body ready for Vegas! I am still loving my job. A couple of weeks ago we went to the Texas Ranger's baseball game. My company has season tickets! We had a blast. Danin and Eric also came along with us.