Hello, is this thing still on?

Long time, no post! No really. Like the longest hiatus ever. Going on 9 months of no blog posts. So unlike me. This past year has really been a year for the books. I just lost my love for blogging and had to teach myself how to navigate this website again. Can I tell you how busy we have been? Just thinking about it is exhausting me. I have so much to document, but will only hit a few highlights. Last April, we suddenly lost my mother-in-law. Her passing was such a huge shock and surprise to all of us. It was such a deep, deep hurt that just really doesn't fade away. Telling the kids of memaw's passing was the hardest conversation I have had to date. I know Adam can agree to that as well.  Nancy was in the hospital for about 2 weeks prior to her death, and the kids knew she was sick and in the hospital, but we didn't go into full detail. We finally learned she had been having seizures that no one knew she was having. They weren't your typical "shaking" seizure, they were quiet and still. Anyway, April was a long, tough month for all of us.

 The month of May is crazy with end of the school year activities and such. Oh, and we sold our house at the end of May/beginning of June... in 2 days! I posted pictures on Facebook on Memorial Day and the house sold for full asking price 2 days later. We give all the glory to God for how it all worked out. His hands guided us the entire way and just worked out perfectly. We closed in July, moved in with my parents on July 15, and broke ground on our house on July 17. June was full of Vacation Bible School, taking cows off and picking up beef, swimming with friends, visits to the Library, a long weekend trip to Helen, GA and then a full week spent in Panana City. July 4th quickly came. We had family visiting and spent the day on the lake and the rest of July was focused on packing. We are staying upstairs at my parents house so we have 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom to share. 98% of what we own are in 2 storage units. We had to pack only what we needed to live on while at my mom and dads. Most of the kids toys are boxed up. We brought our movies, board games, books, arts & crafts for Adalyn and superhero toys for Landon. We are very limited in space so we have had to learn to do "deal" without having all the other things with us. Which to be honest, I have learned what we can live without so it will be interesting to see what I do with some of our belongings once we empty out our units and start moving into our house. Be on the look out because I have a feeling I will be selling a lot of random stuff.

August came around and school started back. We were use to a 5 minute ride to school for Adam and the kids but now have about a 20 minute ride. Still not bad, but something we had to get use to. The start up of school is such a BUSY time. I always welcome September with a big sigh. By then, your routine is established and you just feel like things are running smoother. 

September was another month, much like April was, that I wish we could forget about. Our nephew, Hunter, lost his battle to cancer. At 15 years old, we watched him suffer with cancer for over a year. Was given a clean bill of health at one time but then learned a few weeks later he now had leukemia. The outcome for him was not a good one. The doctors told us upfront. Monday morning, September 18, Adam called me at work crying. His dad and aunt had just gotten to Vanderbilt to visit with Hunter and he passed away as soon as they arrived in his room. We knew death was in his future, but nothing alerted anyone as to his sudden passing that morning. Oh our hearts. First Nancy, now Hunter. We again had to sit the kids down and tell them the news that their cousin had passed away. It hurt so bad to watch them grieve for him. The very next day, Adalyn was signed up to be in the Junior Miss Coffee County pageant at the fair. I contemplated what we should do. Do we still go on with it? Do we pull her out? What would Hunter want for her? We decided to try and keep our lives as "normal" as we could for the kids sake. Lots of family was in town by that point so she had a huge cheer section rooting her on. She went on to win the pageant and we could not have been more proud. Backstage as we were sitting and waiting, we were looking over at our family and Adalyn said, "Momma, I'm pretending that Memaw and Hunter are sitting in the stands right now." I assured her they were looking down on us and she just smiled. Adalyn ended up winning the pageant! I think our whole family needed something to be happy about at that time so it was refreshing to smile. We were happy when September came to an end. I do want to say my sweet boy turned 6 years old September 16! We had a fun time at Jump Street with a few of his buddies and dinner at Chick-fil-a to top it off. It was a wonderful day celebrating Landon! Oh, I need to document this as well. Landon lost his first tooth in September! He was so proud.

October-December feels like a big blur. We had Wonder Woman and Superman (and Spider-man lol) for Halloween. Celebrated Adalyn turning 8 and Adam turning 32 during the month of November. Those fall  birthdays were hard without Nancy and Hunter there. We experienced a lot of "firsts" that's for sure. December was a fun and busy month. Adalyn was in the Christmas parade. We shopped, visited with family, cooked and celebrated the birth of our Lord and Savior. Upwards basketball also started with practice once a week with yours truly coaching ;) I need to rephrase, Adam was the head coach, I was the helper haha This was Adalyn first year playing basketball and she LOVED it and I so enjoyed watching her do her thing! Man. She did so well! Basketball has never been a favorite sport of mine so I was shocked once I realized how much I enjoyed watching and learning the game. I seriously cannot wait to watch her next year and I believe Landon said he wanted to play next year as well!

January came and we had a week of freezing temperatures and snow that closed our school system down for an entire week! We took advantage of the snow and played outside in the morning, took a break around lunch time, then would go back out late in the afternoon and stay out until night came. My parents have a huge hill in their front yard and we have lots sleds and tubes to play on. Levi and Shelby also came over to play with us as well. It was a fun week! Upward games also started in January so every Saturday morning at 8:30, we had a basketball game. Martin Luther King weekend is always "Christmas in January" with the Clark side of the family. It's such a fun weekend FULL of good food! It was sad not having Nancy and Hunter with us though. It will always be so different. 

February came and we made our way to Pigeon Forge as we do every President's Day weekend with my side of the family. We had wonderful weather and was able to spend a lot of time outside walking around shopping and eating! Our basketball season came to an end at the end of February as well. 

Here we are in the month of March. March 1 was Nancy's birthday. I think about her all the time, but I seriously thought about her all day that day. Also within this month, Adalyn finally hit 200 points for her AR reading. She loves to read and has a book with her all the time! She well over 200 points now, but what a big accomplishment for her. T-ball practice has started up for Landon and Adam is helping coach his team this year. With 2 practices in, I can already tell he has grown SO much since last season. He can throw well, stop grounders and just has more of a clue of what is going on, haha. It was comical and cute last year and I know will be the same this go around, too, but I think he definitely has more of an understanding about the game. I signed up to help coach Adalyn's team with Heather so our Spring is about to get super busy. Oh, and I turn 31 tomorrow. (March 23) Looking forward to a new year.

So, that was long. If you made it through, congrats. You have officially been somewhat updated with our life. We don't get home during the week until after 6:30 due to Crossfit, sports, Church or an after school activity at North.   I'm a little overwhelmed from time to time but can thankfully say our house is almost finished. We do not have a contractor and are subbing every single thing out to individuals. I have never really shared our story about this whole house building thing, but we started on this in November 2016. Met with an architect off and on until our plans were finalized and finished in February 2017. I then started contacting people to receive bids on everything from the start of building allllll the way to the end of building a house. It took months. Adam and I said at the beginning that we were not going to rush this process. We didn't have our house on the market but knew sometime during the summer of 2017 we would try to sell. (read above)  A lot of things had to happen before we could break ground. We bought an acre of land from my parents last Spring (2017), then had to get it surveyed and perked and like I mentioned above, broke ground July 17, 2018. So, here we are. My counter tops are actually being installed today!! As I sit and type this. I can't wait to see everything finished. This long road we have been on will be over with hopefully sometime in April. I will leave you guys with lots of random pictures from the past couple of months. There is no rhyme or reason to the order they are in. Just a big ol' mixture of our life from the past couple of months.  I can't guarantee I'll be back to my normal blogging, but I will try to post again soon. Maybe in less than 9 months hahaha