Our Sweet Family of SIX!

Y'all. How has another year already gone by? And seriously, has it really been almost five months since I blogged last? What the actual F?!? Where did 2017 go? I wasn't done kicking ass and taking names yet... honestly though, I'm not even a little sad its over. I got a whole new freaking year to kill it. Right? I'm pretty sure I have hit those years that my parents used to talk about 'time flying'. SLOW DOWN. Or, you know, speed the hell up, like, get me right to retirement, I'm moving to Honduras! jaykay, jaykay. I am loving all the kids, and soaking up all the memories. I know. It only happens once. all that. So many of my high school friends/acquaintances have either just had their last baby, or are about to. And I'll be honest, I'm super jealous. There have been tears. Many. And I don't even like to cry. But then, I start doing some simple math, and I'm like, I will not even be 45 yet when my youngest graduate high school... y'all

Remember last year when I went on and on about why I couldn't finish any of my books that I had started? When I had a plan to write so many words per day to finish my book, and how I had figured out what I was missing? Well, its done. I finished it. 192,327 words. I did it. And I'm not sharing it with you. at all. I worked on it for months making it about someone else, but the story, my story, was so painful and it left me raw and angry and dark; I simply couldn't pretend it was someone else's story. So, you know what I did? I wrote honestly. I used the real names and literal events. I wrote down every single thing, regardless of who did what to whom, regardless of whose fault things were and I got it all out. 192,327 words of it. It was the most cathartic experience of my life and it took me so much longer than I thought it would. Sometimes I would write for hours, and it left me so drained I'd have to leave it for weeks, re-healing wounds, putting it all

Near the end of 2016, one night while Stephen and I were lying in bed, I told him, "2017 is going to be our year. I can feel it. I know it. We are going to have all tha thangs," and then last night, he reminded me of this and *GASP* told me I was right! This year has been wild, but this summer has been bountifully, overwhelmingly perfect. Obviously, you know we closed on our home, which was hitting the biggest goal we have had for the last (almost) four years. We also bought a new vehicle, which we desperately needed, but were holding out until after we closed on our home, you know, 'just in case'. There is something else  that we have been wishing/hoping/praying for since I've known Stephen, and it has finally come to fruition. She's here y'all, and not just for her required 42 days this summer. She's here. She is going to school here, I just dropped her off for her first day this morning. She is making friends, learning to drive, and buildi

Y'all guys, ohemgee yall guys, WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! It's ours. I can not begin to tell you the elation that we feel being in a home of our own! It is seriously the greatest. We have been going non-stop since closing, but we are like >< this close to having everything put away, organized, decorated. Closing day was a little crazy, as the lender had the wrong totals on our 'cash due' so we had to get all that straightened out, but seriously, we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves if anything in our life went off without a hitch. We closed on Friday, June 30th and got everything moved that day, got up at 4am on the 1st and headed to Lake Eufaula in Oklahoma for our annual 'get the hell out of town and be crazy with all my Arkansas peeps' trip. It was wonderful and a much needed escape from reality. We came back to Amarillo on the 5th, and have been wildly unpacking and getting settled since then. We are madly, madly, MADLY in love with our home. I

Y'all guys, OHEMGEE, y'all guys! We are now less than THREE weeks away from closing on our home and moving in. WHAAAAT?!?! I need to get busy! Anyone wanna volunteer to come help me pack? This weekend, next weekend, or the weekend after that, I'm totally free... you know, for packing. Come on and make a trip to A-Town! We got wind and dirt for days, you can't even imagine! I'll wine and dine ya', take you to Cadillac Ranch, and tell you how pretty you are. SWEAR IT. Seriously though, so much to do and I want to do it all right now! We are beyond ecstatic. For one, our final rent payment cleared our account this week, and it was one of the best feelings in the world. Knowing that after 3 years of saving and planning, we are about to move into a home that is ours. Speaking of the rent thing, it got my brain wondering how much money we have spent in rent in the last 3 and a half years... Do you want to know? Its insanity. SEVENTY TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS. Gone, jus

Y'all guys, I know you have seen the photos I have posted of the progress on our house, and each time I add some, I have this niggling thought that tries to steal my joy. I truly hope that no one sees these photos and thinks I am being braggadocious, to borrow a word from my least favorite president. If you do think so, then hopefully you will choose to get to know me better, because that isn't who I am. This post is quite long, but it will give you a fair glimpse of why I am so damn excited! This house building thing is truly a dream come true and has been such a humbling experience. Stephen and I have learned a lot about each other, and we haven't even considered divorce yet! Well, maybe over my mirror wants...*joking* mostly. We have been dreaming about this for 3 and a half years and have spent that much time working our asses off to make it happen. We have scrimped and saved, we have given up extras and trips and other material things so we could do this for our