the stroke

On May 30th around 10pm I saw I had missed a phone call from my Mom and my big brother.  I knew something wasn't right.  I immediately called my Mom back and I could just tell in the way she answered that something was terribly wrong.  She couldn't even really form sentences but I got the gist of what was going on.  She had walked across the street for maybe 20 minutes to give my grandmas something and when she came back my Dad was on the floor.  He couldn't speak and couldn't move half of his body.  

I freaked out because I didn't really know what all that meant and if he was going to be okay.  I got down on my knees and cried out to the Lord to save him and for there not to be any permanent damage.  I hated to bother my Mom because I could tell she was so stressed so I began calling and texting my big brother.  He had followed the ambulance to the hospital and knew all the details of what was going on. I will never forget the conversation I had with my brother that night.  We were both in tears as he explained to me what had happened and that Dad had suffered a stroke.  We both knew then, that our lives and especially our Dad's life would never be the same.  I had lost it at that point.  He sent me a sweet text to later on to "Be strong sis".  

Once the doctors knew that he had had a stroke, the took him into surgery to remove the clot.  He couldn't have the "clot busting drug" they typically give patients who suffer a stroke because he had just had a recent trauma. Thinning his blood could make things even worse for him which is why they had to go in physically and remove the clot themselves.  

Matt and I decided that we needed to be there for my Mom so we woke our boys up and left our house around 1:45am and arrived at the hospital at about 3:30.  Matt took the boys to our sweet friends, The Raneys, and then came back to the hospital to wait in the waiting room with all of our friends and family.  When we first got to the hospital I just hugged my Mom for the longest time.  It was like we were in a nightmare that we just couldn't wake up from.  I knew I couldn't do anything by coming back to Dallas, but I just knew I had to be there for my Mom.  I honestly didn't know how that night or morning was going to end.  It was one of those Grey's Anatomy moments where you are just pacing in the waiting room waiting for the doctor to come out and give you news.

He made it through surgery, but that was just one of the many hurdles we would have to jump in the next few months.  

on the market

Our house officially went on the market Friday, April 10th.  It was a crazy month until we closed on May 13th, but we are super blessed that it was only a crazy month and that our house sold super quick.  

We decided to skip out of town and visit Grammy & Grandaddy the first weekend our house was on the market so that it would be available for showings non-stop and we wouldn't have to keep cleaning it for showings. We had an open house from 12-4 on Saturday and another one from 2-4 on Sunday.  Sunday evening our realtor called us and present 13, yes THIRTEEN, offers to us.  All were above asking price except for one, but it was a cash offer.  We ended up choosing one that was 5K above asking price. There were some that were higher but this one just seemed the best.  Part of the reason we chose them was because they wrote us the sweetest letter saying how they were newlyweds and couldn't help but notice the beautiful family pictures all over our house.  They said they hoped to start their family in this home just as we did.  It definitely pulled on my heart strings.  The very next morning we got a call that they were backing out because they found out that they couldn't put a shed in our backyard because of our HOA rules.  

Thankfully we had 12 other offers to fall back on.  And I think we even had a few more roll in after Sunday night when our realtor cut them off. We immediately went back under contract with another family, but for some reason I didn't have a good feeling about it.  I guess I was just a little more afraid of getting burned since it had already happened once.  They decided not to have an inspection, so we just had to make it through our option period that would end on Saturday evening.  Friday night we through we were pretty much good until we got a call from our realtor saying that they too were backing out because apparently he got an out of state job.  Grrrrr……we were so frustrated.  

We stayed up late getting the house all clean and ready to put back on the market and ready for showings Saturday morning. We stayed out of the house all day Saturday having a fun family day and then stayed at my parents house all day Sunday to allow as many showings as possible.  Again, we had multiple offers but one really stood out.  It was 15K above asking price.  It was also a friend of a friend and we felt safe going with her because we felt like she wouldn't back out like the previous two had.  Thankfully she didn't!!

Looking back, we are so thankful the first two offers fell through because if they had we wouldn't have been able to see the better offer that God had in store for us!!

Here are the official pictures our realtor posted online.  

 And huge shout out to our realtor Misty Forehand.  She was absolutely amazing to work with throughout the entire process.  We would use her again in a heartbeat.  If you are looking for a realtor in the Dallas area, definitely give Misty a call!!

home tour tuesday {misc. spaces}

I missed my last Home Tour Tuesday with the craziness of Dad's wreck and stroke, but I still wanted to finish this series so I could have our first home all documented.  

Here is our hall bath/kid's bath.  Since our house only had two bathrooms, I wanted to have it decorated more like a hall bath rather than a kid's bathroom since it was used by more than just the kids.  

 My Mom made the beautiful valance for the shower.  It really added so much to have a valence along with the shower curtain.

 The previous owners painted the walls and the ceiling.  It's not exactly what I would have picked but I didn't want to have to repaint the ceiling so we just went with it.

This is the view when you come in the front door.  The door on the left is the door to the linen closet which is where I kept my stockpile from couponing!

Also on the left was the boys rooms and the bathroom.  Pearson's room was on the left and Nash's was on the right.  

Here is my little entry hall table.  I got this off Craigslist for $50.  It was such a good buy because it was nice to have a piece of furniture that provided extra storage for our little house.  

On the opposite side of the wall was my favorite parts of our house……my big black and white gallery wall.  

 Here is a view looking from the living room into the entry hall.

This is a little nook in the hallway between the entry hall and the master bedroom.  This changed over the years.  For a while it had a trunk with our blankets, then a train table for Pearson, then my little black desk and last as a play area for the boys.  It was so nice to have a piece of furniture that looked nice but held toys.  This piece of furniture was originally in Pearson's room, but there wasn't enough room for it when we converted his crib into a full size bed.

 A closer look at the decorations……..

 

Our back patio was such a nice little place.  We didn't use it near as much as we should have, but when we did, we really enjoyed it.  We had a beautiful view of the pond behind out house.

There was  nice covered patio where we kept a couple of chair, our hammock and Nash's swing.  

 About a year ago I bought this cute little picnic table for the boys. It was pink and I painted it grey. I just love the way it turned out.

 The rest of our deck had a pergola on top of it and in the spring our wisteria bloomed and gave us awesome shade.  The roots around the poles were just absolutely amazing to look at.  It was just so crazy to see how the twisted and turned and grabbed on to the poles.

 The last room of our house was our laundry room, but I forgot to take pictures of it before we moved.  It wasn't anything special.  It was just a walk through laundry room.  My laundry room in our new house is much more impressive because it's actually a room!!

We only have two rooms in the house completely decorated.  It will probably be a while before I get this house exactly the way I want it, but when I do, I will be doing a Home Tour Tuesday 2nd Edition!!

dad's car accident

On Memorial Day, May 25th, my sister in law Ashley called me and told me she had some bad news.  

My Dad had been in a pretty serious car accident.  She didn't know many more details than that but paramedics had said he was lucky to be alive so we really didn't know how bad it was.  

My Dad was traveling back from Arkansas.  He had been camping with my brother's family.  He was alone hauling the camper and my brother and his family were in their car hauling the boat.  My Mom always goes with him, but she didn't on this particular weekend because she was in Tennessee watching my cousin graduate from High School.  

Some pretty bad storms had come through on Memorial Day.  When Dad was probably less than an hour away from home a huge gust of wind caught his camper and he started to swerve.  He began to fish tail and then he ended up rolling over a time and a half.  Praise the Lord that my Mom or my niece or nephew weren't in the truck with him and thankfully no one else was involved in the accident.  

Some passer-byers stopped and helped get Dad out of the truck.  They got a chair that had flown out of the camper and sat Dad down on it and one lady even stabilized his neck.  While they were waiting for paramedics to arrive a few people even got knocked down by the wind.  It was that strong.  Dad was in pain but he was fine enough to be able to call Mom and tell her "Don't worry, but I've been in a car accident." Mom was boarding her flight to come back from Tennessee when she got the call.  

They first took him to Lake Pointe, but they were not equipped for his injuries so they took him to Big Baylor downtown.  All while they were transferring him, my Mom was still en route to Dallas because her flight was delayed because of the weather.  A friend of theirs picked her up from the airport and took her to the hospital to meet up with Dad.  

After all the doctors had seen him and tests had been run it was determined that he broke his sternum (chest bone),  C2 vertebrae in his neck and his T7 & T9 vertebrae in his back.  Needless to say he was in a lot of pain and on some pretty heavy narcotics.  The doctor didn't think surgery was necessary and that it should be able to heal on its own with him in a neck and back brace for 3 months.  He was to wear the neck brace 24/7 and the back brace any time he wasn't lying in bed.  

We were able to come visit him in the hospital on Wednesday.  They had just gotten his back brace fitted and he was able to get out of the bed and was starting to take some steps.  He was still in pain but making good progress to come home.  He didn't quite seem like himself because he was on lots of pain killers and I think he was a little down facing the reality of having to be in a back brace all summer.  He had a plans to drive across the country on his Annual Power Tour car trip with his best friend, a trip to Lake Greeson with my brother's family, a trip to NYC for a mission trip, and of course a few trips to Tyler to come see us.  

They were released from the hospital Friday afternoon.  Friday night was a little rough for my parents trying to settle into their new normal, but Saturday was such a good day.  They got his sleeping arrangements, potty arrangements, place for him to eat and sit to watch TV all figured out.   Mom and Dad had even taken a (slow) walk around the block.  I was in town for the day for a baby shower and a bachelorette party so I got to spend a few hours mid-day and then a few hours that evening with my parents.  Dad was a little loopy, but still his funny self.  I just knew things were already looking up and he was going to be just fine.  Right before I headed back to Tyler around 7pm I walked outside with my parents and chatted with all of their neighbors.  I gave my Dad and big hug and told him that I loved him before I headed home.  

Little did I know that I would be turning right back around in the middle of the night because my Dad had had a stroke.  I wish that the wreck was the worst of our problems but looking back.  The wreck was really no big deal.  

Here are some pictures of Dad's truck…...

This is what was left of the camper.  It literally just all flew off and only left behind a flatbed trailer.  The taller trailer in the back is not part of the camper.  To give you an idea of how much of the camper was strewn about, it was a $6,000 towing bill to get it all cleaned up off the highway.  Crazy huh?

 I'll write more on his stroke later and our journey thus far on his road to recovery.  

home tour tuesday {master bedroom}

We finally have internet at our new home so I can continue my Home Tour of our now old home.  

Welcome to our Master Bedroom!

Our bedroom sat just right off the living room.  

On my side of the bed I had a mirror that opens up to a jewelry box.  

On Matt's side of the bed he had a little desk that housed our printer. 

The furniture in our room was the first purchase we made for our house.  We loved it because it was big and oversized, but we didn't really realize how big it was until we got it in our house. It's HUGE!!

We love our tall dresser because it gives us so much great storage. 

There wasn't even really enough room for the amoire, but we squeezed it in the corner!!

I didn't get a good picture of it, but the window seat in our kitchen had a great view of our backyard and the pond.  

In between our bedroom door and our bathroom door we have a little bookshelf that holds our phone, baby monitor and toys for the boys when they come in our room in the mornings. 

Our master bathroom was nice and cozy. We both had our own sink but no extra counter space.  Matt was always complaining about my stuff being on his side!!

All my window treatments in my house were made by my Mom including this one. 

Our bathtub in our house literally got used twice in the six and a half years we lived there.

And here's our toilet…..ha!!

I forgot to take a picture of our closet, but it was nothing special, just a long skinny closet where Matt's side was taking over my side. His side was always cleaner than my side!!

I think I will have one more week of my Home Tour Tuesday.  It will be a tour of all the miscellaneous places in our house…..the boy's bathroom, entry hall, laundry room, and patio.  

See ya next week!!