TGIF

Thank goodness for the weekend and Monday being a holiday! This weekend we have volleyball tomorrow and college football! I love this time of year. Cool weather show your face.

Taydem has been sleeping on her floor all this week. Not sure what's going on but she sleeps all night! Last night she was wore out. Kindergarten is so tough!!

This semester for Trever is pretty important. He is three away from being in the top 10% of his class and this semester will determine if he gets in. We told him we would pay him $20 for every "A". But for every "B" he loses $15! He's pretty pumped about the challenge. I will keep y'all updated in about 6 weeks!!










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Back to school

Yesterday went so well for Taydems first day of Kindergarten! All she could talk about was the HUGE playgrounds and the big yellow bus. I'm gonna have to get use to checking her back pack every day. This is all new to me!

I was more worried about her having to ride the bus to her daycare. She is now considered an "After Schooler" at her daycare. But she got on the right bus and made it to the right place! Thank goodness.

I took a few pictures before school and her sweet teacher sent me 2 pictures during the day. Made my day!















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Mommie and Me

Friday I took off from work and spent the day with Taydem.  Since starting daycare/Pre-K she has NEVER had a summer off bc she just goes year round because of us working all summer. Poor child, right? So right now she is tired of school.  So last week Leven picked her up early from school or stayed home with her on some days just to give her a break. So I wanted to spend all day with her on Friday.  First we started off getting her favorite: donut holes! Then it was off to get a mani and pedi (thanks to Aunt Chrissy for the birthday giftcard) while I just got a pedi! Then after getting pampered we headed to the Splash Pad here in Longview to play in the water with our cousins.  My sister and her little girl and my cousin Peyton and her two boys met us there.  After getting all wet, we went home and got dressed for the volleyball games.  Leven and his girls were playing in the Wills Point tournament and we drove up to watch all their pool play games.  They ended up WINNING the tournament Saturday night! Go Lady Pirates!! Busy Friday (what's new?) but loved every minute.

 

Saturday Taydem was invited to a birthday party out at Lake Cherokee.  She seriously had the best time.  The party was supposed to be 11:00-12:30.  Let's just say we didn't leave until 2:00!! Who knew a really big slip n slide would be such a hit with little kids!! ha And to mention it was straight down a hill. I wish I would've counted how many times they ran back up that hill. I was tired watching them. 

Tomorrow's the big day. Say a little prayer tonight for Taydem's first day of Kindergarten and Trever's "last" first day of high school. Big senior!

Happy Birthday....Tay

5 years old! So hard to believe this. We are all so blessed to have this little girl in our lives.  She is the sweetest, funniest little human on this earth. I know that she will grow up to do something amazing with her life.  She's so full of life and ENERGY! She runs circles around her daddy and I. Everyone that crosses her path, remembers her and her smile.  I love watching her at her daddy's volleyball games. Everyone wants a hug from Taydem or just wants a wave from her.  Even as a baby she had a personality to die for.  I thank the Lord every night for putting her in my life and bringing me JOY! Happy 5th birthday baby girl!

Today Leven and I are picking her up from school at 12 and taking her to Toys R Us to let her pick out any toy she wants. Then she gets to spend the rest of the day with her daddy while I head back to work.  I am taking off Friday from work to take her to the water park for the day.  I am loving this "cooler" weather but I hope it warms up just a little bit by Friday.  If it rains, we will figure something else out for that day.

Tomorrow is "Meet the Teacher Day!" I am really excited that Taydem got the teacher I requested. They start August 28th!

Letter from Grans

When we head to Mexia for a visit, Taydem loves staying with her Grans and Mike.  One of her favorite things to do is jump on the 4 wheeler with Mike and head to their mailbox down their LONG driveway to get the mail.  The past few times, they have put a card in their mailbox with Taydem's name on it.  She is so excited to see her name on a card! Inside the card there's usually a few dollars inside which makes her even more excited. So............Grans and Mike couldn't make it to her birthday party on Sunday so she mailed Taydem a card.  So I took a video of Taydem helping me get the mail that day. Taydem loved that card (it was a music card that sang Happy Birthday).  She loved it actually too much where it drove me crazy her opening it up and closing it.....over and over and over!! hahahah She brought it to her birthday party too.  So thank you Grans and Mike for the card.  I hope you enjoy the video.  The video was too long so I had to make it shorter.

 

Party girl

Yesterday we celebrated Taydem's 5th birthday with all her friends and cousins. She had the best time and I swear that smile never left her face.  Her actual birthday will be this Wednesday (22nd), but thought Sunday would be a perfect day to celebrate.  Everything went so smooth and this was the first time I wasn't stressed!! The only thing that went wrong was the spelling of her name on her cake. And I didn't even realize that until I got home and looked back on all the pictures I took. Which is a good thing, I guess. There are a few good perks to having an August birthday. One being that you get stocked up on school clothes. Taydem is ready for Kindergarten!!

Dancing Queen

All week Taydem has been doing a mini dance camp at the school.  It's a fundraiser for the drill team and this year they had around 120 kids attend the camp.  Today was their last day and it was their "Show Off" day. As much as she likes to dance, I'm not sure if she likes sharing the spotlight with 100 other little girls.

Getting ready for the high kick line!

Volleyball is underway at the Barker household. Leven's girls had their first scrimmage last Friday and I will honestly say, after losing 5 really good seniors, this team looked pretty dang good! It will be a really fun defensive season to watch.  Our back row players are pretty tough! I'm excited...I'm always excited. Tonight is their first game of the season. AND.............they are ranked in the top 10! How does this happen after losing 5 seniors?

This past weekend we spent the night over in Shreveport with my seester and her hubs! Good time as always. 

And here's a little video of my cra cra daughter!! Cra cra means CRAZY! (btw)

Work it

Today I went out and took some gps shots of the oil spill we are cleaning up. Hot ain't even the word. More like- can't breath, sweaty and wet and straight up funk coming off this body. Interesting to say the least.













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So nice.....

This weekend was such a nice and relaxing one. Saturday we SLEPT in then headed over to my parents to let Taydem do a little swimming. She is so close to swimming on her own.  My sister, her hubby Eric and Baby B also came over for a visit. There were quite a few red wasps that joined us for a swim.  And Eric thought it would be "cool" to slap his hand down on one of them and kill it.  Well I think the wasp got to Eric first.

Sunday afternoon I was craving a roast....so I cooked one! And it was delish. Thank you Lord for the rain we got last night. The last item on Taydem's school supply list was PAINT! While I was at the grocery store buying the roast, I decided to pick up the paint as well. Taydem begged and begged for me to buy her some paint for the house.  I finally gave in.  She painted me three pictures.  That took about 45 minutes and then she wanted to play bubbles. She is so busy.

 Today was the official start to volleyball season.  Leven was up and out the door before I woke up.  This is the time of year where Leven stays STRESSED OUT and loses about 25 pounds! It's crazy I know, but it happens EVERY year.

Happy Monday folks! Have a wonderful week.

TGIF

Thank goodness it's FRIDAY fo sho! This week has been a crazy one.  The only week out of the summer that we have had car issues. NO, there's nothing wrong with our cars, we just don't have enough! Leven had camps all week (not at Pine Tree), Trever worked every day, and of course I had to work.  So Leven had to drive me to work every morning and then come and get me after 5. So that meant that I had to stay at the office all day without leaving on a lunch break. Makes for a long day for sure.  Next week Leven starts 2 a days, but thank goodness he can just walk to and from the gym. Hopefully in the spring Trever will have a brand new truck!

I am trying to decide what to do about working out. I'm getting kind of burned out on bootcamp. I want something different. Not that I don't like the bootcamp I've been at (seriously they are awesome, check them out http://staffordbootcamp.com/), but I need to push myself harder. I've been going to Stafford Bootcamp on and off for 2 years now. I have been wanting to try CrossFit for sometime now, but I'm scared to death of it! Don't ask me why, I think I'm just intimidated I guess. There's one here in Longview and I've heard really good things about it. So I may give it a try.  My sister and SIL are doing Insanity and they love that.  So I've also thought about trying that before CrossFit.

A few weeks ago I walked into my house one day after work and it was pretty warm.  I knew something had to be wrong with our AC.  So I thought, let me check out our filters. Leven had changed one out about 2 weeks before this, but we didn't change the other one because I didn't think it needed it.  What do you think?


OMG. My dad would be so proud....NOT! 

For once, we have nothing planned this weekend.  I'm looking forward to cuddling up on the coach in my big, oversized pajama pants watching the Olympics and catching up on all my TV shows from this past week.  It's gonna be a good weekend!



My sassy DOLL!

My job over all is a pretty good job, but every now and then we get stuck doing something that is not so fun! Tuesday we had to go do some work for ExxonMobil and it was the first time we were at this plant facility. So of course, we got stuck watching a video over saftey, hazards, emergencies, etc. We were thinking it will probably be a 15 minute video at the most. Nope, it was an hour long! I left my phone in the car so that hour really took a long time.  But Paul had his phone and he took this video.

I'm laughing right now at where this video stopped!

Shop to you DROP

Sunday afternoon about 15 of us ladies took a hummer limo to Shreveport to do a little shopping and have dinner together. It was considered a mother/daughter trip and I enjoyed every minute of it. We did our shopping on the boardwalk and then headed to Superior Bar and Grill! Taydem got hooked up on school clothes! (Thanks Mom!)

Leven starts 2-a-days on Monday. Wow! His summer will be officially over (finally!). I know he is looking forward to the new season. He lost 5 really great seniors but I really think this team will be just as good. Defensively, they will be a fun group to watch! Let the games begin!