Get Out Of Town?? ...We Will!!

My wonderful Husband of 13 years (as of Monday, September 14, 2009) and fabulous Father of our four beautiful Children has decided to wisk me away for a long weekend! We are going to The Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina. We have never been there, but I heard it is really nice. He got us the Romance Package with wine and flowers upon arrival, breakfast, afternoon cocktails and much more! Hope we will have a grand time! Thanks to all who are making this trip possible (Ganky, Cindy and families)! I love you all!

Isn't it beautiful?

The Spa. I am getting a "Carolina Mud Wrap" and Derek is getting a massage. I am not crazy about massage and I get a facial alot when we go to spas so I decided to do something totally different! I hope I like it! maybe it will remind me of the mud pies Cindy and I used to make in the yard under the big tree as kids! :)



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I have been doing some decorating at the house. For a couple of years after we moved in, I had the "Less is More" mentality when it came to decor. We came from a three bedroom, two bath ranch with no bonus or basement. We had four kids and a dog that was bigger than the two younger ones. We were cramped! Kids were everywhere! Toys were everywhere! I worked in the kitchen where the table had been. It was tight. So when we moved and got more space, I had been overloaded with clutter for so long that I refused to hang things and sit things around. I have to say, I have recently finally come to the point of adding things here and there (baby steps). Counter clutter still bothers me but I am slowly recovering! ;)



Here is Avery looking at herself in a mirror I was about to hang. She just sat down and I ran for the camera, of course! As always (if I did it right) you can click my pics to enlarge.


I liked the idea of the picture so much that I called for Alex to do the same pose!



And Mom was there helping me so why not her too?! Isn't she cute?

I did not get this little trinket at an estate sale!

I have had it my whole life.

How does it look on this piece of furniture?

Bet you wish you had one of these little beauties! ;)

Should I center it? Turn it a bit?

Sometimes decorating can be so hard!

So many decisions to make when you put something new out!

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I love to exercise. I don't love it because I like to get all hot and sweaty! I love it because it is good for me! It makes me feel better, eat better and well, I want to live as long as I possibly can! Don't you? I have P90X and like it but I also like to mix it up. I found this trainer on the Comcast On Demand Channel and was doing this workout until they took it off the channel, so I bought it. It is called Less Is More Cardio. Her name is Cindy Whitmarsh and the video lasts only 30 minutes. She works you out for a solid 30 minutes, but it is only 30 minutes. I liked her so much, I found another video with her as the trainer. It is called 10 Days to a Better Body. I love them both and hey, if there is a slight possibility that working out will make me look like her, isn't it worth the work?




I got an aerobic step and wanted to attempt to mix that into my workout as well. I bought Stepping Up Seasun Zieger and holy cow! Can you dance? Are you even the least bit uncoordinated? I thought I was decently coordinated until I did this video. I am a clutz! The video is 50 minutes long (if you do the whole circuit) and I kept rewinding the first five minutes because I could NOT keep up (Don't expect a youtube video any time soon)! Hey, I wore my heart rate monitor and burned alot of calories doing the first five minutes for 30 minutes! I WILL do it until I get it. I never felt like I was working out! It was great! And look at her!

Here is the website if you want to take the plunge! http://www.collagevideo.com/

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My friend Michele, who works with me, came back from lunch the other day and locked her keys in her car. She called a locksmith and it was about 85 dollars to come get her in! Patty and I told her to call the Sherriff's Department and see if they will come unlock it for her. Ok, confession time: I know the police will come help you because I locked Austin in the car in our driveway once. I know that sounds really bad-mommy-like, but I had a keypad on my car and never had concerns of locking myself out (or my son in). I was not in my car, though. I was in Derek's truck for that day and he had no keypad, no remote and Onstar was not available at the time. An officer came out and helped me and gave Austin a stuffed animal, trying to help him get over my neglect, I guess! Austin was fine. It was not hot or cold that day and he thought it was kind of funny. Back to Michele....It turned out to be a phone call that saved her alot of money! We still have officers who will help and one came out and unlocked her car! She was so humiliated, and frustrated because her sweet tea getting watered down. Of course, I snuck out and took her picture! Hello! I am a blogger! We take crazy pictures!

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This week, we have to put Munson in the Kennell so we can go out of town. BB will just hang out, but not crazy dog! He has to be babysat! I had to get him current on his shots to go to the kennell. As we were there, he posed for a picture! We were there for a long time because a dog came in with his eyeball popped out!

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My littlest Angel is growing up too fast!

Have a great weekend! I hope you guys have good weather, wherever you are! I will be on my Anniversary Trip! I think I will take my camera! What do you think?

New youtube videos posted this week. Here is the link to all our videos.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=parrishpartyof6&search_type=&aq=f

ENJOY!

Until next time................................

What Do You Wish For?

Alex and Avery had their first day of preschool this week! They were so excited.

Avery was stressing about school once she got there.

Alex was so happy to finally be in Mrs. Pauline's Class!

Alex and Mom

The first day of School made Avery tired :) Ohh how I love a sleeping baby!

Precious

The girls got to test out the playground at the baseball fields this week. Think they liked it?

They do not stay like this for very long. Trust me.

Derek and his two littlest sweeties at the ball field.

Alex was "blowing a bubble".

Do you have any "Phobias"?...Spiders, the dark, heights? Alex has one you may not have heard of: Portopotophobia! Yep, she is deathly afraid of going into a Portable Toilet! The other night, that is all we had to choose from at Autumn's ballgame! She comes close to breaking out in hives.

The NEVER look like this, do they? I wish they did.

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This week, we went to see my lifelong friend, Christy, and her Mom. Her Mom is not expected to live much longer. She has had brain cancer for about four and a half years, surgeries, chemo, radiation. They say they can do no more. It is so sad. Mom and I went to see them and it was an hour and a half drive to Butler, Ga. On the way there, we went through Barnesville. Ahh that is where it all began for me and Derek! When we met, he was going to Gordon College in Barnesville and driving through really brought back some memories! By the way, this Monday is our Anniversary! Thirteen years!

Here I am with Christy. She has had to be so strong through the past four years. She has two kids and her Mom lives far away from her. She goes when she can and is just exhausted. Please pray for strength for all involved.

And here we are with my Mom and her Mom! We all met when we moved next door to them. I was 5 and Christy was 4. So sad the way this turned out. Cancer is one nasty disease. The saddest part is that she never had any type of quality to her life from the very day they said "Cancer". She immediately went into brain surgery and never got better. Some people are able to travel or do whatever they desire to do before they die. She never even got that. Sometimes it just does not make sense. My wish for this Family is that they will have the strength to deal with what is ahead.

When we returned home, we felt we had to have a picture of us. We are close, just like Christy and Teresa have always been... I can NOT imagine.

I wanted a picture of me with my handsome boy! Tell people how much you love them! I wish he only knew how much I love him!

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Ok, moving away from sadness... The office guys all went on a golf trip Friday morning, so I decided to take the two girls that work with me to lunch. Michele, Patty and I all went to Longhorn. We had the best lunch. We never eat like that, so we enjoyed every minute! In the parking lot, we saw this truck. We see alot of things like this in Rockdale County these days! I bet this driver wishes to never see a speed bump!

We decided to go to the craft store across town that we never go to. Patty would not let me park next to this car. Wonder why... She actually made me move.

Of course, Patty and I had to play while we were there! Laugh while you can, people! I wish for many more laughs with friends and family!

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I wish grocery stores had bigger buggys! Don't you get sad when your baby gets too big to ride?

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With Fall coming, I have gotten the urge to do things, DIY stuff. Some of the blogs are really motivating me. Some to hug my kids more and some to make things! I started making hairbows this week. I have two girls with long hair and bows are expensive... and hard to make. I wish they were not so hard to make. Here are two my little Model Avery got to try on.

And I made a Fall wreath with Candy Corn on it. I really like this one.

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I know kids wish for a lot when the Christmas commercials come on tv. They have started already. I was hearing the little ones say something every time toy commercials came on and I finally went in to check it out and try to see what they were both saying. They were saying "I want that from Santa for Christmas" OVER AND OVER. It is literally a chant they say when a toy commercial comes on for the whole time it is on. It is like they are wishing out loud. It is actually really cute.

What do you wish for this week, this year? I wish you all will have a wonderful week, that you are all healthy, happy and surrounded by people who love you and feel the same about you as I do!

Until next time................................

Are You Smarter Than An 8th Grader?

Ever feel like you need to be the one wearing the "Dunce Cap"? I did this past week several times! Autumn is in 8th grade Advanced Math. I was shocked to find that I could not help her until I taught myself! This math is hard, people! I like to think I am a fairly intelligent person (as I say that, the word "intelligent" does not look right :) Wouldn't that be funny?). Anyway, I believe you guys should have to share my pain with me. I am going to throw some of the problems your way and you try to figure them out if you want! I will have to take my "cap" off to see your answers...

Ok, here goes (and since I only post once a week, I will put the answers in comments later):

1. A container has 5 red balls and 3 blue balls. Two balls are drawn WITH replacement. Find the Probability and answer in a fraction.
a. P(red, followed by red)= ________________
b. P(red, followed by blue)= ________________

2. Show the number of possibilities for the following:
-The number of ID Cards containing one letter and 3 numbers (how many different ID numbers are there total?)______________

Which cap are you wearing right now? Thinking Cap or Dunce Cap?

Of course, once she heard the camera click, she just HAD to flash that beautiful smile at me! No matter how frustrated I get, these kids are my EVERYTHING!



These are the days I miss with Autumn... and still enjoy with these three!
Funny story about this picture. The first one I took, they were all reading in different positions. I took a picture and when I looked at it on my camera, I realized there was one problem with the "almost perfect" picture. Avery had no panties on! Ohh My! That is a normal event around here for little girls, but to put on the blog? It was funny, but I had to re-take!


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OK, ENOUGH ALREADY WITH THE GRAFFITI!

Most of you saw Alex's Graffiti on Avery's Dresser! Alex also wrote a big "X" in pen on my leather ottoman, and NOW, BANANAS!

Is this how children mark their territory?!
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We had a softball game this week and here are some pictures from that almost disaster of a game! Autumn pitched good, but if the ball got hit, we looked like the "Bad News Bears" without the cusswords (Well, I bet some of the parents were letting those fly freely).

We were down 6 to 2 and it was our last shot to win, which seemed like a longshot! The result of the game below!

While the game was going on, I looked over and saw Pa leaning against this sign. You have to be at any Sporting Event with Pa to know how much he gets into sports! When things are not going well, he goes away (remember the Bad News Bear watching Parents?). Not sure if that is why but....

Anyway, I instantly thought of the guy I see on the side of the road every day marching up and down the sidewalk holding a sign to advertise for a company. Why do companies get people to hold signs? Is there an ordinance that you can not put it in the ground? The problem is that he looks so ridiculous dancing around that I don't even look at the sign! Effective Advertising? I tend to think not.

Anyone who thinks little siblings of ball players get "dragged" around to the games does NOT have a little one! They absolutely LOVE going to the ball field!

Go Alex! Look at you pumping your arms just like Daddy says!

I got a little teary eyed when Avery made her own friends! So Sweet!

And this is Raven. She is one of the sweetest kids I know and she loves my girls! They also love her so much and she had her mom bring her to our game so she could see them! They were so happy!

We pulled it off in the last inning! We are the EAGLES! Yay!!!

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Moving on... I have been trying to add little accents to my house that make me happy! I found these "Lucky Bamboo" plants and thought they were too cute! They have found a home on each side of my Kitchen Sink!

Welcome Home Little Fellas!

And if you go to Mom's blog, you will see that I gave her one of these Christmas Wreaths I made. They are super easy and so cute! The supplies you see below are all you need!

I gave this one to MOM!

And this one to CINDY!

They really loved them. It made my day to make theirs! That is what it is all about anyway, right?


So anyone who wants the directions, go here: http://evangelines.blogspot.com/2008/12/diy-ribbon-wreath.html

I know the blog was long, but do your Math!

And have a wonderful and safe Holiday Weekend!!!

...........until next time!