We are homeless!

 

 

 

6062 Dunson Dr. We lived here 8 years.

 

Yay! We are homeless! Some people are probably trying to figure out why we are so happy to be homeless...Well it's a long story. After 8 years of living in the home we call the MONEY PIT, we finally sold it! Third times a charm!!! We put it up for sale three times and it only took almost a full three months to close the deal. We can finally relax and breath!

 

Everyone kept saying don't forget to take a picture in front of the house before you move, we didn't do it. I am ok with forgetting! I originally thought I would be sad since this was Blake and my first home, Parke's first home, and we really did have so many great memories there, but I AM ONLY HAPPY! Its hard not to be happy to sell something after spending $9050.00 just to make the sale. That number is no joke.

 

I am grateful for that home in lots of ways. It has definitely taught us to have faith and to trust in the Lord. We have had many emergency repairs over the 8 years and we have always been blessed to have the money or access to it for the repairs.

 

I am thankful for our Heavenly Father and the trails we are given to face. I hate trials and they are usually pretty difficult to get through, but the blessing of surviving them are endless. Selling our Watauga home was by far one of our bigger trails as a married couple. It was the most tiring, stressful, horrific experience ever. We also learned that some people really suck aka the guy buying our house and his awful realtor!

 

Enough about the Evil home we use to live in. Let the count down begin until our new home we are having built is done. Come on March!

 

 

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas despite all we have been going through, a few bumps along the way couldn't keep the spirit of Christmas away. I am thankful for our families who helped make this holiday season great.  We are extremely blessed to have been able to spend Christmas with three families.

 

On Christmas eve we spend the evening at our Aunt Karen and Deanna's home. We had an awesome Italian dish called mostacholi (spelling may be wrong) and then played games. we enjoyed being in the company of The Smith Family too.

 

On Christmas we spend the morning with the family we are living with, The Nuttalls. We ate a yummy overnight french toast and then opened presents from Santa! The kids loved their presents and we had a blast watching them play.

the kids enjoying their new toys from Santa!

 

 

Around 11 we headed over to my parents house. Parker was spoiled again this year! I am grateful for my family and the love they have for Parker. He adores them. They got Parker a ton of stuff and best of all they bought him a huge train set. He was so excited when he opened it, I really wish I would have been recording because he was squeaking like a little girl when he saw the train!

my brother and Amy got Parker a really cool Cars scooter.
he is still trying to get the hang of it.

opening his train!

he couldn't wait to put it together and play! He is obsessed with trains right now.

 

 

Christmas day evening was spent with Blake's side of the family. Rachel hosted again this year, she did a great job! We enjoyed a great dinner and it was nice to spend time with everyone. Parker had a mound of presents that proves just how much the family loves him. We are forever grateful for every ones generosity!

Parker is one spoiled kid. Thanks everyone!

aunt Karen gave him a cookie...what a cheese ball!

sharing with Cousin Devin. My baby can be so sweet!

 

Since we are in between homes right now we had to put most of his toys in storage. He will be one happy kid in March when we move into our new home!

 

Parker also turned 26 months on Christmas Day. He is a funny kid! I won't list out all the cute things he does, just one or two! So everyone knows that Parker is a challenge when it comes to sleeping, so recently he has been trying out some new tricks to keep himself up. he will start to dose off and then start singing. He will start singing his abc's, or he will sing DDDDora, or swiper no swiping. He cracks me up. It is a pain to put him to bed but most  nights its hard to get frustrated since he is so funny!

 

My Brothers Wedding

My brother finally got married!

 

On Saturday, December 15, 2012 he married Amy! They got married in Saint Lucia on the beach, and it was beautiful! Amy is a great girl and I am lucky to be able to now call her a sister! Ever since my brother met her he has become a different person. She makes him shine!

 

We stayed on the Coconut Bay resort. Parker had a blast. He loved the ocean and beach. When we first got there on Friday we had tons of wedding commitments so we actually didn't get to enjoy the beach until Sunday. It was worth the wait! We didn't go on any excursions but we didn't mind since they had so much to do for kids on the resort. The had two large slides, a splash park, the pools, and best of all we had the ocean and beach!

 

The first night we arrived in St. Lucia we had the wedding rehearsal and welcome dinner for the wedding. It was on the beach, so we didn't really get to chat with anyone because Parker was running around everywhere. He also hadn't had a nap, so he had more energy than normal since he was over tired. Silly boy. We did end our night early so we could put Parker to bed. Later that night I was reminded why we don't drink! It wouldn't be party if someone didn't get drunk and pass out...right?!

 

Saturday, was the Wedding day! Amy had all the girls get their hair done. We had all hoped we would be at the salon at the same time but we weren't. It was still fun! I was actually one of the first to get my hair done at 11 and the wedding didn't start until 4! I had so many bobby pins and hair spray in my hair that it didn't move an inch.
While I got may hair done, the boys had fun at the spray park. When I was done I got to take pictures of them having fun!

 

 

During the wedding all Parker wanted to do was play in the sand. The airport was close by so you could see the airplanes taking off. Every time one flew by, you would hear Parker say "airplane, big airplane". People rode by on horses and he liked that. I am to see if on the wedding video you will be able to hear Parker yelling " sand, airplane, and horsey''. 

 

After the ceremony we headed to the reception. If things would have moved along a lot faster I think it would have been better. We waited forever to eat, and the food wasn't that great. Once we got passed that part we had a great time dancing! Parker hoped on the dance floor with Alexis (Amy's niece) and got down! They started out with some pre- dancing yoga. I guess they needed to stretch! I didn't have my camera so I hope someone took some pictures of the kids.

 

We spend our two last days outside under the sun, it was great. This was our first vacation with Parker, and we had a really good time. However, I really miss being able to just lay under the sun and read or sleep. You don't get to do that when you have a little one running around

 

 We had a wonderful time, but it was nice to be back in the country and eat real American food! It was awesome to get to go to St. Lucia, I just wish we didn't have such a long flight. Parker was a trooper on all four flights so I really have nothing to complain about! All in All the whole trip was worth it, you only get to see your brother get married on the beach once...well he better only get married once!!

 

 

 

BLAKE UPDATE

It has been a while since I have wrote a post on Blake. He comes home with so many stories and I  know everyone would love to read about them, but I just don't have that much time. Parker keeps me very busy.

 

Blake has been keeping busy at work, and he still loves it. I just want to share a few things and brag about him a little.

 

On December 4, Blake worked a assault call. Some guy got the crap beat out of him by another guy in rush hour traffic. The guy who got beat up was alone but the guy who beat him up actually had his wife and kids with him. Great example for those kids. Anyway, moving "forward with bragging about Blake! The guy who got beat up called Blake's Sargent and said " Blake did a good job on my call, and he was highly professional. I know he works hard but its always nice to know that others notice his hard work. Police officers usually don't get good remarks they usually just get bad complaints. So Proud!

 

So cops have a very interesting type humor, I guess for the line of work they are in you have to.

I find these sayings funny...

 

When someone commits suicide they call them sad pandas, and Monday is the day of the week they have the most suicide calls. 

 

They call old people Blue hairs

 

I thought I had more to share but I can't think of anything right now. It will come to me when I am not at the computer.

 

 

2 steps forward, 10 steps back

I have said this many times and I will say it a few more times. I never want to have to sell a house again.

 

Every time we get within a few days of our closing date something comes up and we have to push it back. It all started with the foundation needing work. We got the foundation fixed then their loan required them to have an engineer report, we got the engineer report, then they needed a plumbing test. We had the plumber come out on Friday and the test failed. We have a drain leak somewhere...GREAT! This will not be an easy fix more than likely. Cost can range anywhere from 1000-4000, just to find where the problem is will cost us 300.00. Who ever thinks we are made of money didn't get the memo that we are broke...WE HAVE NO MONEY.

 

So as of right now we are waiting to hear back from a few plumbers to see when they can come out and run a camera down our sewer line and find the leak. The buyers are 50/50 right now on moving forward with the purchase. Heck once they finally own the home we will have fixed everything. I hate this house, our biggest mistake in life was buying it. we wait until next week to see how much we will have to fork over to fix this, praying its not that bad. Somethings gotta give RIGHT?

 

If our seller backs out we will have to re list it and pray someone else comes and buys it quickly. We have already moved out because we thought we would have already closed, so the house is empty.. Maybe our house will sell fast if its empty. who knows....

 

PLEASE SAY A PRAYER FOR US.

25 months old (2 yrs, 1 month)

Parker is 25 months old. The older he gets he is so much more fun!

 

We have been pretty busy the past few weeks but we still managed to have some fun. He is a super helper and helped me pack!

 

I mostly have pictures to show what we did this month. I hope you enjoy them.

 

 

we went to Grapevine Mills mall to celebrate my friend Kristen's Birthday. The boys had a great time running around the mall and riding the Merry go round.

sitting in the tree.

he looks like such a big boy sitting in the tree

He like to play under the tree and pull the berries off the plants

Parker and his friend Zac pretending to sleep under the rug

Parker decided that instead of coloring with his markers he would eat them.
baby Joker

playing with Aunt Amy and Uncle Andrews cat Scout. He loves animals!

He loves to walk the curbs. Here he is walking them with his friend Wyatt.



playing in all the leaves.
We haven't raked since we are selling our house!

 

Happy Thanksgiving 2012

I realize I am behind on my post, give me a break we have been super busy!

 

This year we got to enjoy two Thanksgiving dinners...ok so maybe every year we get too!

On Thursday we had dinner with my family. Parker had so much fun helping make the cornbread stuffing and eating pie! This year we added a family member, Amy, my brothers fiance! The get married in December that close enough to call her family! Amy and I checked out the deals online while everyone else watched the Cowboys lose...sorry I am not a fan!
 

pre-Thanksgiving smoothie

helping

Parker loves playing on GiGi's phone...he doesn't get to play on ours often, so
 when GiGi comes over he takes advantage!

 

On Friday we had dinner with Blake's family. Parker had a great time eating and playing with his cousins Ethan and Devin. Uncle Pa AKA Uncle Smitty made an awesome sweet potato casserole and Parker gobbled that down! Can't wait until next year to eat it again!

 

This year we didn't really do any Black Friday shopping, but thankfully my awesome sister in law Rachel picked up a few things for me from Walmart! Thanks again! I did go out later on Friday but everything was already gone or some places still had long lines. I ended up just going home and ordering everything off the Internet. I think I will stick to Internet shopping from now on.

We have a home!

We finally found a home!

 

After bidding on it for a week to get it for the price we wanted, we finally got it!

It just hasn't been built yet! We looked at so many pre-owned homes and we either didn't like the floor plan,they were over priced, or it wasn't the neighborhood we really wanted to live in. Well and few we missed putting in a contract by a few days.

 

We are really excited to have our home built and love that we get to live in the Dorado Ranch neighborhood! Our church is around the corner and I can walk there. I doubt I will but I can if I want!

 

The builder is currently still waiting on the permit to come in, should be next week or so. Then they will start to build our house. It should be done by the end of February. We are so excited!

 

 

 

The next three months should be fun! We are living with family and friends.

Fort Worth Half Marathon

13 weeks ago I was feeling like I needed a challenge. I needed to do something with my life...be careful what you wish for!

 

 

I decided that I should start training for a half, got on the computer and found the furthest but closest one out. November 11 ended up being the best race to choose, giving me 11 weeks to train. Ideal is 12 or more weeks to train.

 

Training went great, I had a few set backs along the way. I twisted my right ankle a couple times and had to take 4-7 days off each time. I bought an ankle brace and hit the pavement and trained as hard as I could to better prepare myself. Another set back in the middle of my intense training, We decided to put our home on the market. I ended up being super stressed from all the house stuff. That made my training harder, I was pushing myself to my emotional and physical stress limits. I don't recommend this! If I hadn't paid $60.00 to run, there is a good chance I would have sat this race out until the next one. The week before my race our house situation was no longer stressful, so I was able to just focus on my race. I got in a few short runs to keep me loose.

 

The night before my race my parents kept Parker over night so I could get a full nights rest. It was awesome! Thanks mom and dad!

 

Race day! I got up, ate a good healthy breakfast and out the door I went. The weather had been taunting us, so i was praying the rain would hold off. We had some gusty winds but nothing I couldn't handle.

 

I locked my headphones in the car, so I ran with no music...bummer

 

The race started at 8:30, I was going strong until I hit 9 miles. Then my hip flexors started to tighten and I slowed down quite a bit. The closer I got to 12 miles I was able to talk my self into picking up the pace, I was past failing, I was so close to the finish line! We had one small hill to run and then the finish line was in view...I got this! I rounded the corner and saw my dad, he cheered for me and I knew I had done it. Right before I past the finish line to my right I saw Blake, Parker, and my mom.

 

I did it! My goal was to finish, and I did! My second goal was to finish in 2 hours, I finished in 2 hours and 14 minutes. Not to far off, maybe next time. I also beat the rain, and it came down pretty hard for about 10 or so minutes. That would have sucked to get stuck running in a down pour.

 

My stats;

Age group 25-29

I finished 22 out of 46 in my age group

finished: gun time 2:15:12 and chip time 2:14:37
average pace 10:17 - I didn't run as slow as I thought!

I later found out that I may have ran 14 miles instead of 13.1. Something about the sign being moved back and they didn't catch it until after several people ran the extra  mile.

 

2 years old!

Happy 2nd Birthday Parker!  

 

Well my little guy is finally 2! It feels like he has been 2 for the past 6 months...terrible twos started early. Yay for me! Even with his tantrum I still love the little stinker!

 

On his actual birthday the 25th we went to the Fort Worth Zoo. He was joined by his best friends Wyatt and Zack. We got to see the baby rhino and baby giraffe. They were so cute! Parker's still loves feeding the birds the most. He thought it was hilarious when one bit his finger, and he also like running at them and scaring them. 100 pure boy! He still doesn't understand that he can't hold them. We went for a train ride and he did not want to get off. Looks like we will be going to ride the train soon.

 

 

Saturday we celebrated his birthday with all our friends and family. We rented a bounce house, the kids love them. So worth every penny to rent it. We had a Halloween costume party again. This year Parker was going to be captain America, at my fathers request. He refused to wear it, I actually got it on him and he acted like it was suffocating him. So instead he was his cute little self for his birthday. He had so much fun playing with all the his friends and cousins, I think he finally realizes he likes this birthday party stuff! I had to drag him out of the bounce house to blow out his candles and open presents. After the party and almost everyone left Kinsey and Devin stayed around for a little longer. We opened the sandbox for them and they had the backyard to themselves!

 

 

 Thank you to everyone who made his 2nd birthday so special. He had a wonderful time and loves all the gifts! We are truly blessed to have such wonderful family and friends! We love you all.