Emotional Week

This week needs to hurry up and end so I can start again on Monday.  I'm so tired of dealing with banks! It is a dang process to get what you need from a bank.  I'm so happy I don't work around this all day every day.  We are down to the wire on this closing for our house.  We locked in the 90 day interest rate, well 90 days ago.  We ended up getting a 15 day extension (PTL).  And we are still down to the last week.  Stressful isn't even a good word.  It's been beyond stressful.  The rain we had in May and June absolutely hurt us (and now we are praying for rain in July-Crazy stupid Texas weather). It kept pushing us further and further back to where we are now.  And, honestly I'm done.  I can't take it any longer.  Thank goodness I have Leven who handles this type of stuff better than me.  I just wish the bank would say "here, y'all pay this" and let's get on with our lives. I'm ready to have all our invoices paid! I'm ready to just relax in our new beautiful home.  I love this house more than anything.  I lay in bed at night and look up at my ceiling and think about this whole process.  From designing the plans to picking out colors to now enjoying a bathtub!  It's ours.  All ours! Now let me enjoy it.  We were at the bank yesterday signing MORE papers and we will finally close on the house next week sometime.  Grrrrrrrrr!!

 {it doesn't help that I'm PMSn this week as well}

 

Tonight we are going over to my friend Brittany's house for dinner and HAIRCUTS!  She was the one that always cut my hair (since I was 19!).  Then she had two babies and decided to be a stay at home Mom.  She now cuts family and friends hair at her house.  So after plucking about 10 grey hairs out of my head this past week, I called her up! (Stress people, stress.  And I'm almost 35!)  Taydem's hair is so thick, so she's going to thin it out some for her.  So it's now turned into a family affair. And she's cooking us dinner---SCORE! 

 

Taydem had softball practice last night.  This age is so hard to watch.  I KNOW she's learning.  But, it's still gut wrenching at times.  Taydem is more interested in the rainbow she saw in the sky then learning to catch a fly ball.  I constantly catch myself yelling at her to pay attention (the entire practice).  I probably need to drop her off and come back.  If not, I will be coaching from the fence! I'm so glad she is playing this Fall. 

 

Tenlee is attached to my hip! I really think way more than Taydem ever was.  She now knows when I start putting on my socks and shoes, I'm about to go somewhere.  So she immediately comes and crawls in my lap and starts the whining.  Since being in the neighborhood, I walk around the circle a lot with the other ladies.  And she knows this! Most of the time she gets put in the stroller and gets to tag along.  And then, she only wants me to rock her at night.  If she's really tired, Leven can rock her. She's our blonde, curly headed, laid back, smile ALWAYS on her face, baby girl!

 

My new bag of Shakeology came in yesterday.  I'm so ready to get back to drinking my shakes.  I can't tell you enough how much better I feel every day.  And then the following week is when my first Challenge Group will take place.  We are doing the 3 day refresh!  There's 12 of us total that ordered the 3DR!

(www.beachbodycoach.com/devinbarker)

 Last night Taydem had a friend spend the night and I took Tenlee in the room to let her play with them for a little while.  {She's starting to think she's big these days.}  One of Taydem's dolls has a wig, so I put it on Tenlee.  We all got a kick out of it.  So funny!

 

After this crazy emotional week, I have to remember who's in control.  And let him guide me each and every day and for me to always trust in him.  This is one thing I pray about...a lot.  Patience and guidance and trust.  Every day I read my Jesus Calling devotional book (it's at work with me) and on today July 31, read what it says:

 

This is exactly what I needed this morning.  Happy Friday to you all. 

 

~DB~

Hot summer sun

Taydem had a softball tryout yesterday for a select fall ball team.  We were hesitant in letting her tryout because they play every Saturday in Henderson from Sept 12-Oct 31.  That's right in the middle of volleyball season.  But I don't want her getting behind.  So we headed to the fields in the hot hot time of the day! I have never seen Taydem sweat that much.  She did really good fielding the balls but she has seriously lost her swing.  She swings like she is golfing.  And yes, she has been with Leven a few times here lately playing golf! She made the team (13 tried out and they were only going to take 12 on the team, but decided to keep all 13).  No turning back now!

 Now it's time to get outside and practice on that swing!

 

Before we left for the tryout, I had a cleaning lady meet me at the house and go over what I want done and pricing.  I paid $70 in Pine Tree and I loved my little lady that cleaned for us.  So I knew with a bigger home I would probably have to pay more.  She said $80.  This is one thing that I have missed.  Even if we were living in that tiny apartment, it's just nice to come home to a CLEAN smelling home.  So she starts tomorrow!! Whoo-hoo!

 

This picture will melt anyone's heart! She adores Taydem

Who is this baby?  We still don't know who she looks like! Little stinker for sure

 

 

Austin in a flash!

We traveled back to Austin this past weekend for Terrie's wedding (Leven's sister).  We couldn't leave until about noon on Saturday because Leven had volleyball camp going on that morning.  So we rushed 5 hours down.  The wedding was casual and beautiful.  It's always nice to see Leven's family and friends.  Congrats Jimmy and Terrie!

Tenlee and Taydem both did good in the truck ride to and from.  That's a long drive for anyway, but especially a 16 month old.  She talked and talked pretty much the entire time.  Drove us a little bananas.  It was so nice when she fell asleep! But overall, it was a good trip.  I'm glad we could be there.  We made it home yesterday around 1. 

We put hydro mulch on our yard last week and Leven has been watering the mess out of it.  We can now see little sprouts of grass popping up through the dirt.  Once we have a green yard, we are pretty much finished with the inside and outside.  I can't even imagine what our water bill will be like this month. 

I'm just ready to close on our house and figure out what our final monthly payment is going to be.  I'm ready to be done!! We LOVE our home!

Leven had his mini vball camp today.  It's 4th-8th graders. Taydem goes with Leven every day anyways so I told her she had to actually go through some of the drills.  For a 2nd grader, she's pretty good.  She was not happy with me this morning.  She did NOT want to work out!  lol  I'm ready to see how it goes.  Praying he had a bunch of campers!

Tenlee still loves to be rocked.  And now she's old enough that she will let you and
anyone else know when she wants to be rocked.  And I'm the one that usually has to do the rockin'.

Austyn spent the night with us last night. 

I'm BBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!

I haven't blogged in months, maybe even almost a year.  We started building our house and well....we started building our house! I have never been so busy these past 6 months and I'm so happy to say the house is built and we have been in it for a week now.  I'll post pics of the house soon. 

 

We owe so much to my family.  My mom and dad have been amazing in this whole process.  My dad can do ANYTHING! Read my words....ANYTHING! And not only that, he can work circles around men half his age.  My mom cleaned and cleaned and cleaned! I called my parents daily on advice and decisions.  We owe this house to them.  I told my mom last week that the only possible way that I can come close to repaying them is taking GOOD care of them when they are old!

She said she would take me up on that!!

 

My parents weren't the only ones in my family that we owe so much too.  I know our family is special.  Everyone around us knows we are special and NOT a "normal" family in our day and time (we know we are normal, everyone else is different!).  But for 4 siblings to ALL live in the same neighborhood in a small town of about 1,300 people....this ain't normal.  And we chose to live by each other.  We love and adore each other.  We are best friends.  Not only are the 4 of us close, but our spouses get along and love one another.  The 4 of us have our parents to thank for this.  Our parents wouldn't want it any other way. 

My brothers, along with my dad, drove that bulldozer for us over and over again.  The texts and phone calls that were exchanged over advice from these three men are too many to count.  Darin builds homes for a living so I probably spoke to him daily.  His wife, Chrissy, helped me so much in the beginning.  Which size front door to get, which colors of paint we should use, the type of textures on the walls, the size and colors of windows, etc.  The list goes on.  My SIL, Molly, spent one Friday night after we moved in decorating my shelves in my living room (major!) and helping unpack boxes.  My sister, Danin, helped me unload about 15 boxes one night (then we burned them all and I thought we were gonna set the neighborhood on fire!).  She helped me also with her opinions and decisions that needed to be made.  Also, the numerous times she let Tay and Tenlee come play while we worked. And her husband Eric, helped us move furniture! And borrow tools and whatever else when we needed it! Whew...again....long 6 months.  I will have to cook them all supper soon.

Leven and I are truly blessed.  We prayed for this house (me, probably more than Len) and now it's ours.  I told Leven I'm going to die in this house.  I will NOT move again.

 

I can't begin to tell you all that has happened these past few months but here are a few of my favorites pictures.      

 

 

My cousin Channing is getting married on October 3.
 We spent one weekend in Fredricksburg celebrating her! Love these girls

We take a picture every year for the Tatum football program.
 This is too cute. 

We all attended the ACM's this past April.
 It was the 50th year and worth every penny!

Love these 2! They celebrated their 42 anniversary by going to Dallas and watching the Rangers, the Hallsville Bobcats (high school) playoff game and then a college game.  I think the Longhorns.

I had a painting made of Tenlee to hang in her new room.  This is so beautiful.
  I teared up when I saw it!

Leven went and visited Trever in the spring one weekend.  Love this picture of the two of them. 
Trever is in his 2nd summer session right now and will start his JUNIOR year this fall.
 He has grown up so much! We love and miss him and are so proud of him.

And here are my girls.  They couldn't look more different!

I took this pic this past Monday, sitting in one of our new chairs.  In May, I became a Beachbody Coach and
started working out hard again and drinking Shakeology every morning.  My body changed so much. I worked
out for 6 weeks straight and felt better about myself than I have in a long time.  I stopped once we got
down to the last of the house stuff.  And I'm mad at myself for stopping, but I couldn't work out AND
do all the house stuff.  So I'm ready to jump back into it.  August 10th is my day that I have set. 
 

This was 4 weeks worth! I'm ready to jump back in!

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