Myrtle Beach...Here We Come!

I hope you all had a great week! We are leaving on Sunday to go to Myrtle Beach, SC! We are very excited and desperately need a break! We will be at a 4 day ball tournament all weekend and will leave after that, depending on the time. Last year, we left after the same tournament (World Series) and planned on being there at 1AM. Well, our plans did not exactly work out! We got into a THREE HOUR traffice jam behind a wreck and got there at 4AM! I have never been so tired in my life! I could not go to sleep because I was worried about Derek. And Mom, who was waiting for us at the beach, couldn't sleep because she was worried about us. Hopefully this year will go a little more smoothly!



Look who made it back to us this week! It is Aunt Cindy (Marine Mom)!! We missed her!

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Ok, if you are ever talking to my Mom in the evening and she blurts out something strange, please do not be alarmed. She is probably watching Wheel of Fortune. That is probably her very favorite game (besides Scrabble with me at the beach ;) and I don't think she misses it much. I was getting a tutorial from her this week about blogging and she, completely out of the blue, said "debit card". Of course, I said "huh?". Then, before she could splain herself, I said "Wheel of Fortune?" and she said "yep". She is so cute.

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Moving on... Austin had to do a project at school that involved him (and me) making something useful out of a recyclable object. They called it "Trash to Treasure". We actually had fun doing this project, because to be honest, they are not all fun.Here is the project.

Well, I heard a bird chirp the other morning early, before we let the dogs out, and look what I saw!

How about that?! It was the prettiest Red Bird! I thought of PawPaw Howell. He loved to "Bird Watch". He was moving alot and I did not put my camera on action, so it is a bit blurry (or maybe my windows are dirty..hmmm). Hopefully you can click on it and see it better enlarged. Thanks, Mom, for that tutorial! He is the first bird I have seen on our project, which by the way, WE got a 100! Hooray for US, I mean, Austin. ;)

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I let the kids, and Munson the American Bulldog, play in the sprinklers alot. Here are some pics from that.

Avery had a lot of fun this evening! She was drenched!

And above is BB the English Bulldog not getting anywhere near the sprinklers! That would require running around and as you can see, she is not exactly fit. She tends to guard her food when you get anywhere near her. Are you thinking maybe she needs to stop doing that? Hey, I just had an epiphany! If you are struggling a bit with weight, maybe you should start sharing your food more! Think of BB the Bulldog for motivation! Her real name is Big Bertha! We nailed that one, didn't we?!

And here is one of those "View from a child's world" stories. We had a pit bull come into our yard one day and fight with BB (above). Derek not only ran him off, but also went looking for him :0 It really bothered us that a pit bull was running loose around here and our dogs are out all day.

A week or so later, Alex came to me and told me that she was afraid that a pimple was going to come. Of course, I am thinking "Girl, you have a long time before you have to worry about pimples!". Well, I asked her why she was worried about pimples at such and young age and she said "because they come and fight with BB!" ....ohh! Pimple...Pit Bull! Cute, huh?

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After Autumn, who slept in our bed with us until she was 4, the other three Parrish children have slept in their cribs until they climbed out. Avery is still in hers at 3 because she likes it, but because of that, she wears a pullup at night. Below is Avery the other night so proud she got herself ready for bed! What's wrong with this picture?

Well, she tried!

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Friday is my Wonderful Husband and Father of the four Parrish Children's Birthday! He will be 35! I am 6 months older than he is and he never lets me forget that, so for 6 months of every year, we are actually the same number age! Happy Birthday Honey!

Keep eating healthy foods and walking around with those ankle weights so you will live a long and healthy life.

And get plenty of rest!

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By the way, alot of this blog was done on Saturday, the day after my first post! I was afraid I would not have enough to talk about. I do! This is fun! I am actually taking more pictures (not as many of the older two children because they are on the go). Suzanne, BLOG! Even once a week is a great start! You are so witty, just like Kelly. Anna, BLOG! It is a great way to keep us distant relatives up to date on what those sweet little girls are doing! Love you all.

We will be at the beach!

Until Next Time....

My First Blog!

Well, here I am! Not quite sure how this works but I will try and figure it all out. I decided to "dip my toes in the water" and just do a weekly blog. Maybe I will really like it. I am so busy that I feel I cannot do one every day like some of you. Weekly sounds like my speed! Anyhoo, here goes...

The week started with ballgames on Saturday (My "blog week" will run to Friday! I consider Friday the end of my week since I work and the weekend is fun time!). Autumn's little ball team is tough. She got some really good hits (she needed that) and pitched well. They ended up taking third, but played some really great teams; not to mention BOTH of our catchers are injured! We threw kids in that don't even catch and they did their best! The worst part of the whole day was that there is a football field below where we were playing and some "Einstein" decided to drop (what smelled like) 10 truckloads of manure (I have to admit I have never typed that word and it really does not look right) on the football fields below us. It stunk ALL DAY. It was not a smell you could just get used to. The breeze that you were usually thankful for on a warm day would kick up the smell even worse!

Sunday was a "project day" for me. I organized the pantry and cleaned my closet. Not too exciting, but it made me feel good. Had I known I was going to do the blog thing, I would have taken some pics of that. I will learn!

Well, those of you who know me know that Cindy (Marine Mom) does my grocery shopping and since she was gone on vacay this week, guess who had to do it??? OMG! I had Alex and Avery in a car buggy and Austin and his friend, Andrew, ended up having to go get an additional buggy (not because of the amount of groceries, but to separate the fighting toddlers!). I had a LOT of groceries by the time we left (shopping with kids costs more money) and was completely frazzled!

Well, those of you who know me also know that Cindy does my laundry! Well... I have had to do some too! Will do more today since I am working from home, but I washed a load of towels the other day. I got out of my nice hot shower and as I was drying off with what felt like the world's largest piece of SANDPAPER, I realized that I forgot to use fabric softener! Apparently, Cindy uses that all the time on my towels! God love me... I guess she has really spoiled me. I am anxiously awaiting her return!

MUST. USE. THIS!

Well, Cindy also makes my bed! I keep going back there to make it and getting distracted. I would notice that toys in my room needed to be put away and when I went into the girls' rooms to do that and clean up the toys in their room too, I noticed that a sippie cup needed to go to the kitchen. Then when I got into the kitchen, I needed to wash the dishes. Before washing the dishes, I needed to unload the dishwasher. Some of the dishes needed drying, so I went into the laundry room to get a towel I had washed (it was scratchy too!) and noticed that a load of clothes needed to go into the wash. While treating some stains, I noticed that we needed laundry detergent. I went into the kitchen and added that to my list. Then I started thinking about the list and went and sat down with recipe books to work on that. While I was looking for recipes, I thought about meat in the fridge that I needed to check the date on and went to look. While I was in there, I decided that the fridge needed to be cleaned out for the groceries to come in. So I started to bring out things that needed to come out. I got to the sink and realized I NEVER washed the dishes. Hey, I had NOT made my bed, had NOT cleaned the girls' rooms, had NOT emptied the dishwasher, had NOT started that load of laundry, had NOT made the grocery list and did NOT even check the date on the meat that needed to be cooked! What had I done??!! I walked a cup to the kitchen and treated some clothes! That's it! I have seen similar stories about other people, but never realized I am just like that! I should get busy!

I decided, spontaneously, to take my four kids to a movie. We went by WalMart and loaded up on snacks to stash in my bag (against the rules, I know, but movies cost a fortune!!). I paid almost 50.00 for the five of us to see a 3D movie because they add a "surcharge" to the price of the ticket for the 3D screen! HUH?? Anyway, when I got in there, I was glad we smuggled snacks and did not give them even more of our money! The movie was great! We saw "UP". Very cute, even for Autumn and me! It is nice to go to a kid movie that you actually enjoy. I know my Mom has sat through some excrutiating ones! The trip to the movie was fun. Avery is like a fish at the lake that you feed to keep it around and if you stop feeding it, you lose it! We figured out that (close your ears Dr. Proctor {the dentist}) she loves gummy worms! I know that is bad, but she LOVES them. We don't eat much candy, especially chewy sugary stuff, so she was in Heaven! She ate almost a whole bag but sat there the whole time!

By the way, I figured out this week how to get a 99 cent smile!!

That was easy!! ;)

And a 150 calorie smile....

Yummy!!

Cindy will be back next week... woohoo!! I have enjoyed some extra time with the kids, but need to get some work done too (not to mention, we REALLY miss her)!!

Until next time.....