A trip to Mamaw and Papaws

Since we took a big vacation last spring, we didn't have the funds to take another vacation this summer.  We have kept the kids very busy with lots of summer activities here in town.  One of their favorite things so far has been going to a few youth camps.  Our kids are still too small to be campers, but we did attend a few services and they loved it.  Youth camp was a big part of my life growing up and I hope it will be a big part of my kid's lives too.  I loved watching Amelia and how she sat in her chair and then took her hair and put it behind her hanging down over her chair.  She was acting just like the "youth camp girls" as she calls them.  Anyhow, saying all that to say this, we decided to go stay with my Mom and Dad a few days and to attend a few services at Etown Camp.  That is where Maynard and I met and not only that, but where he got saved too.  So Etown camp is a very special camp to us.  We hadn't been in several years so we were excited about visiting.

We got to Mamaw and Papaw's house and Mamaw had a yummy supper layed out for us.  The kids played with a few cousins while we enjoyed the front swing and counted all the loud vehicles that drive past their intersection.  We decided that it must be a requirement to have a loud vehicle in that neighborhood.

My Dad had a dr's appointment in Louisville the next morning and instead of him going by himself, I decided to go with him.  I was up and at 'em at 5:30 a.m. I drove him to Louisville on a few conditions that he wasn't allowed to scream, holler, or grab his chest while I drove.  Poor Dad.  He's the one who taught me how to drive and I'm not quite sure he has completely recovered.

We went to the VA hospital and we kept getting wrong information where we were supposed to go.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't down this hall, but we had to stop and take a picture anyway.

After we left the hospital Dad said he always goes to Frisches to eat so was that ok with me.  Well, techinally it had been 10 days (who's counting) since I had eaten out so Frisches sounded great to me.  We ate and then headed back for home.

The kids were having a blast swimming, playing, and visiting all of Papaw's critters.

They loved feeding Honey Girl carrots and even got rides around the yard on her.

That night we all got dressed and headed to Youth Camp.  It was awesome seeing so many of my good friends I hadn't seen in years.  My kids got meet my friend's kids and I just loved everything about it.  We went to Burger King to eat with my brother and his family and we got home about midnight.

Once again I had to get up at 5:30 a.m., but this time it was to take my Mom to the hospital for surgery on her foot.

We shared a lot of laughs while we waited for them to come get her.  I wish their was an occupation to where I could actually get paid for sitting in patient's rooms and just watch them while they are under anethstesia.  You seriously never know what they are gonna say.  Now after her surgery the laughing stopped because she was hurting.  I got her home and she went straight to bed and that's where she stayed for a few days.  Me and my sister Melissa did a little competing on who could take the best care of her.  We were a bit extreme at times, but it was fun.  Not sure Mom remembers most of it anyway though.  We had one little problem.  Josiah and Cameron kept cutting in and sneaking to check on her without us knowing about it.  Ha

I fixed Mom's breakfast and set it up real pretty for her.  Josiah was bound and determined to help so I let him pour the milk for her.

That evening we went back to youth camp and this time stayed until late visiting and talking with lots of friends. 

We got back to Mom's late and Nurse Melissa was there taking good care of Mom.  She may have had a few complaints at to how well I was taking care of her, but all she had to do was lay in bed next to her and feed her pain pills.  I did all the cooking and cleaning.  I'm sure Mom was always dissapointed when it was time for Melissa to take over and me to leave.  Ha Ha

Saturday we just stayed in.  I think at one point all of my brothers and sisters, (except Jacob, he was in Haiti) came over.  I fixed a big dinner for everybody.  Well for Mom and Dad, but everybody ended up eating and that was fine.  My kids were overyjoyed to be able to play with all their cousins and were having the best time ever.

Saturday night Me and Amelia went to stay all night at Melissa's apartment.  My nephew was getting baptized the next morning and I wanted to make sure she got up and out the door so we could attend.

Amelia was tired and sleepy by the time we got to Melissa's.  I figured she would be happy to be there, but she continued to cry that she wanted to go back to Mamaw's and Papaw's.  Until.......Melissa mentioned that she had popcorn.  Not only did she have popcorn, but she let Amelia sit on her couch and drink pop and popcorn.  How cool is that?  Amelia was happy as she could be until it was time to go to sleep and then she wanted Mamaw, Papaw, and Tanner (mom's dog) again.  She finally drifted to sleep.

The next morning by the grace of God we finally were on the road to church and was only 10 mins late.  Melissa gets up does a few things and then lays back down.  She had me a nervous wreck.  I think she was somewhat taunting me though.

My nephew got baptized and it was wonderful.  He lifted his hands up and the Power of God fell in that place.  I'm so thankful that God still saves!

Sunday night Maynard got to preach for my family's church and we had a great service there.

Monday morning we left early and headed to the creation muesum.  I will wait to do a post on that next time.

Why let rain ruin a fun filled day?

Can ya'll believe all the rain we have had?  I mean we can handle rain, but the thunder and lightening kind of puts a damper on things ya know?

Fourth of July fell on a Thursday this year.  We have church services on Thursday normally.  We asked nicely and got permission from our pastor to let us have a youth night instead of a regular service.  We haven't gotten to do much with our youth at church because when we plan stuff we normally get rained out or something comes up unexpectedly and we have to cancel.  They have been dissappointed over and over again.  So on Thursday morning the rain began to fall.  It rained and rained and rained.  I asked Maynard if we were going to have to cancel our plans for the night.  I dreaded it.  I did not want our youth being dissappointed again.  His reply was, "We are gonna have a waterslide anyway so it's not like they aren't going to want to get wet.  So who cares if it rains, we are still going on as planned."

I made us a big breakfast for the Fourth.  We rarely eat breakfast like this so my family was excited!

After breakfast we got busy planning for our youth festivities.  I was in charge of getting the ice at sonic.



For the life of me this pic will not rotate properly.

 If you can possibly tell what happened here, I was given 2 bags of crushed ice through my van window.  One bag just happened to not be securely fastened and I was given an ice bath.  This is an after picture of me already stepping out of the vehicle.  I was covered in ice.  It was literally everywhere.  Too bad it was such a cool Fourth of July or that may have actually felt good.  And a big "YOU'RE WELCOME" to all the people in their vehicles surrounding me who really needed a good laugh that day.

Finally!  Let's go play in the rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you know that heavy rain falling on a makeshift waterslide makes it even better than just a water hose or sprinkler?

We could not keep the boys off.  We tried to split the boys and girls up, but they kept reappearing.  For some reason I mainly only have videos of the girls coming down.  I love how we just put 2 tarps down and a waterhose and rain, and the kids seriously played on it for hours.

They took a small break to have a water balloon fight.  I spent FOREVER filling water balloons up and they were all gone in less than 3 minutes.  I didn't get very good pictures of that because it was all a blur.

We had built a fire to roast marshmellows and hot dogs, but that wasn't going so well in the pouring rain so we had to fix them inside our sunday school building.

Look at my perdy patriotic strawberries.

After everyone ate, a monsoon of rain became more like tornados touching around us.  Our phones were going off like crazy and things started getting greenish, dark looking.  We hollered for everyone to get in the church quick.  So here we all stood, most the kids soaking wet, in the foyer of the church.  We got most of them changed and into dry clothes while we were waiting for the storm to pass.

Then we went back to our Sunday School building and played games with them.  I don't know what you call them, but like prank games I guess.  We had a blast.

This was our game of our Elephant prank.  A big thank you goes out to Bro. and Sis. Allen.  They made a great elephant. Ha Ha

We played several and finally it was after 10 and the parents were wanting to get the kiddos home and into bed so we had to call it quits for the night.  Of course, there were no fireworks because it was raining too hard.

I'm just glad we went ahead and didn't cancel their fun night.  They all had a blast and was sore from the slip and slide the next day too.

Here's pics of my kid's with sparklers the next night at their Mamaw's house.

Hope everyone had a good Fourth in spite of all the rain.

Our drummer boy keeps us in stitches

Here's a riddle:

What do you do when your brother won't stop playing the drums when you are trying to listen to stories on the radio?

A: Ask him politely to stop playing so you can hear.
B: Hide the drumsticks.
C: Haul off and hit him with the first thing you can find.

If you guessed C, then you have guessed correctly.  Now let's try another riddle.

If you are the brother playing the drums and you don't want to stop playing, in order for your brother to hear his radio, you do what?

A: Tell him politely that you really want to play the drums, but you will try to be quieter.
B: Go and turn your brother's radio up just a tad louder.
C: Turn around and bust your brother's mouth with a drumstick.

If you guessed C, then once again you have guessed correctly.

Since you all are doing so well, lets try another one.

If you are the mother of 3 kids whom have argued nonstop since the first day of summer break you do what?

A:  Polish the old paddle.
B:  Go to Sonic and order a limeaide and the kids get water.
C:  Call your husband near tears while he's working asking for help.
D:  Spend a little more time in prayer begging God to give you back the control you need to stop the 
      bickering.
E:  Oh, and drive to ER with 3 kids in tow so your child can get stitches in his mouth.
F:  All of the above.

Yes, F is the answer.

It was a nasty 2 cuts.

Yes, they needed to admit me too.

As many trips as we have made in the past, (past as in what, 2 weeks ago?) I had to get a bracelet too.  I was like, "Yes, please admit me too because I'm nigh a nervous breakdown."  I was also dealing with blood and drama on top of having all 3 kids in the ER by myself.  Josiah ended up getting his mouth stitched and he done really good.  We had a fabulous dr who Josiah actually had the last time and was really good with him.  I never even passed out.  I got a little weak, but gripped the hospital bed and fought my way through it.  I just don't do good with needles and blood, but when its your kid something just kicks in!!!

*Thanks ya'll for all the encouraging words when I see ya'll out about reading my blog.  If you haven't yet joined, please sign up as a follower.  I like to know who all is reading.  Please feel free to leave comments as well.

Memorial Day 2013 (lot's of fun)

Sorry for the delay in posting, but I have tried.  After having so many technical difficulties I tend to give up rather quickly.  I haven't posted about our memorial day yet so I have to back up and get caught up on that before I blog about anything else.  Even though nothing really exciting has happened since, but that's not always a bad thing for our family.

Maynard had the day off for Memorial Day and we were excited to have a long weekend with him.  We left the house Monday morning without a clue where we were headed.  We wanted to do something fun, close by, and cheap.  That narrowed down our options real fast.  Maynard said, "I know what we can do.  Let's go to Camp Wildcat Battleground and look around.  I've always wanted to do that."  So I turn my head, look out the window and roll my eyes. 
Maynard:  "Did you just roll your eyes?"
Me:   "No, Honey, of course not."
Maynard:  "Do you have a better idea?"
Me:   "I have lots of ideas, but none of them include cheap and close by."

So Camp Wildcat it is.  My boys were absolutely thrilled so I gave in.

After driving a narrow, long curvy road in the middle of nowhere we finally arrived.

Then they had a nice area for a nature hike.  It was all mown around and just looked lovely.  So we headed down the path.

We started down the trail and we realized I left the windows down in the van and my purse was in there.  Plus, I was wearing flip flops while trying to hike.  I kept worrying about my purse so we finally turned around and walked back to the vehicle.  There were a few more vehicles up there by the time we got back so I was glad to recover my purse.  I'm beginning to act like an old lady when it comes to my last $3 in my purse.

We got back in the car and continued up the narrow roads.  They had lots of other historic things to look at.  We followed the trail all the way through until it ended in sand and a river.  We put the van in park and everyone of us jumped out and headed to the river.  So many memories came flooding in.  We always traveled alot when we were little and it was nothing for Dad to stop by a creek and let us kids out to go wading in the creek.  We would catch minnows and tadpoles.  It was a lot of fun.  Even though I'm typically the scaredy cat about almost everything, I was the first one in the water and Amelia was close to follow.

Maynard showed the boys how to skip rocks across the river and then I showed them how to catch minnows.  We were having a ton of fun and then this happened.

Yep, I lost my flip flop.  I tried my best to catch it, but the current picked it up and took it down the river pretty fast.  After that we decided to go home for lunch and then maybe come back later better prepared.  Like water shoes, ya know? Ha!

Instead of driving back through the long, narrow road again we went the opposite way where we could go straight to the river from the main road.  We had a blast.  I love when life slows down a bit and you can enjoy playing with your kids.  Even though I'm in my 30's, I still have a very active imagination.  We pretended we were on a deserted island.

We built this fort.

Fishing for survival

Their campfire

We really got into it.  The kids had a lot of fun.  At one point though, I realized Maynard and I were the only ones playing.  Ha ha

We played around in the water and Titus kept scaring us because of the current.  That kid is attracted to danger, I tell ya. 

We decided to pack up and head home.

But the fun wasn't over!!!!!!!

We built a campfire right in our front yard.

We roasted marshmellows and hot dogs.

While we were working, (Maynard was working) on the fire I gave the kids all a box of snappers.  Whatever they are called.  Those things you throw on the ground that pop?  Anyways, they love them! 

We finally forced the kids in the house to give them a much needed bath and then we all crashed!

So was going to Camp Wildcat a great idea?

ABSOLUTELY!!!!!

We wasn't out a dime and we had great quality time with our family.  So you can have fun, close by home and not have to spend a lot of money.  I didn't know it was possible.  Ha ha!!

Hope you enjoyed reading about our Memorial Day!

Happy Birthday to me!

Saturday was my birthday.  I turned the big 35.  Which is ok because I have been 35 now for a couple years.  I know weird, but I have kind of lost track of how old I was.  A couple years ago I told a preacher's wife that I was 25.  I was serious too.  However, I was only about 8 yrs off.  A little later I had to call her and say, "Did I tell you I was 25 earlier?" Ha Ha  So now this has become a joke at church and I'm known for staying in my 20's even though I testified to being saved for 30 yrs back in April.  So funny!

I was sent to my bedroom late Friday night by Maynard and the kids.  Which was such a blessing. Ha!  While I was in my room they were baking me a birthday cake.  They were going to suprise me.  I of course knew what they were doing because I had bought the cake mix and icing to help them along in their adventure.  Kids love suprising their mommy's so I knew they needed a little help.  It wasn't too much longer and Amelia came and crawled in bed beside me and said, "Mom, sshhh, we are making you a cake."  Then she fell asleep.  The boys began hollering for me and I came in the kitchen to find this beautiful masterpiece.

Sure was made with lots of love. (It tasted really good)

Saturday morning Maynard and the kids brought me gifts and their cards.  Then we had more cake for breakfast then headed out to some yard sales.  I found some really good deals and so that always makes going to yard sales fun.  Then we had my birthday lunch at where else than Shiloh's roadhouse.

We stopped by at the cemetery where Maynard's family is buried.

Amelia paying her respects to someone we don't know.  But hey, it had a bench to sit on.

Jerry and Lisa Parker

Maynard with his brother and sister's grave.  They both died like a year apart.  His sister was killed in a car wreck and his brother was burned in a fire.  Very tragic deaths and I am amazed at the strength of this family to be able to endure this kind of pain and hurt.

After visiting the graveyard, we dropped the kids off at Maynard's Mom's house.  I always call her Maynard's Mom.  I could say Mother-n-law, but that is just so awkward for me. lol  Apparantly, she has 2 names.  Some people call her Darlene and others call her Sue.  So I'm confused what I'm supposed to call her.  I am soooooo serious.  I avoid calling her by name and she is referred to as "Maynard's mom." Ha ha  So anyways........  Maynard and I headed to Richmond.  We got there and we kind of had noticed we were in a solemn mood.  I guess visiting a graveyard will do that to you.  We stopped at a Goodwill and then in real quick to Culvers to grab something quick to eat and then we went back to pick up the kiddos.  Sometimes I desparately need to get away, but when I finally do I just picture my kids choking or getting hurt and I just can't enjoy my time away from them. 

So that was the end of my special day.  But it was nice and shared with the people I love!!!!!!

Last day of 1st grade!

Josiah lives for awards day each school year.  There's just something about getting your name called and going up front to collect a trophy, medallion, or certificate.  He had to memorize the whole book of James this year and let me tell you it wasn't easy.  I constantly reminded him of that trophy waiting for him at the end of the year and that always seemed to motivate him.  We finally got it memorized.  Sheww, lots of hard work there!  He is in first grade and the all the other classes were memorizing the same scriptures as well.  I was pretty proud of him to be memorizing something that the high schoolers were memorizing too.

Unfortunately, the night before awards service I heard him in the bathroom throwing up.  Poor guy threw up every hour.  He got up for school that morning, but I sent him back to bed after a dose of Zofran.  I knew his heart would be broken if he didn't get to claim that trophy he worked so hard for.  I called the school and they said it was okay to bring him in just for the awards service.  So that's what we did.  I watched him from my seat and prayed to God in Heaven he didn't spew everywhere!!!

Josiah proudly rockin' his awards

He ended up with lots of awards.

Trophy-Memorizing the book of James
Trophy-Read 300 books in class
Blue medallion-Honor roll all year
Burgandy Medallion-Citizen award (good attendance and low demerits) Yeah, not sure why he got it.
Certificate-Spelling
Certificate-Social Studies
Certificate-Bible knowledge (most proud of this one)
Certificate-Christian Growth award
Certificate-Character trait was "Thankfulnes"

I was pretty proud of him and all of his hard work.

Friday was his last day of school!

We celebrated with a bike wreck and spent Saturday evening in the ER.  Of course ya'll know how much we love our special room at the ER.

Can't help but smile when I see the bible book on his bed.  Would you believe there was no t.v. in there. Ha Loved it!!

Josiah fell on his bike and took a hit to his chest with his handlebars.  He was hurt pretty bad and was gasping for breath and almost passed out.  He is very dramatic so it was hard to believe him, but after an hour of crying and seeing the big bruise on his chest, we decided to take him.  They took an xray, but everything was okay.  They just said he had bruised his ribs and would be sore for about a week.  I'm very thankful he wasn't hurt any worse.  Someone mentioned dressing my children in suits of armor.  It may be something I will look into for sure! Ha

Happy Summer Break!

Things been a little too normal too long so............

I know, I know.  Ya'll have been dissapointed in my normal postings latelty.  Things have been going pretty smoothly and I had began to think that maybe, just maybe my motherhood is about to calm down for a spell.  I mean I am actually braving trips to the grocery store now with 2 kids undertow.  They have been behaving pretty well for the most part.  Then it all came to a head one day........  We were desparate for a few groceries and I couldn't put if off any longer.  I dropped Josiah off at school and me, Titus, and Amelia went to the grocery store.  I got out, opened the side door and out they came.  Something caught Titus's eye on the ground.  I believe it was smashed, carmel candy or something.  Anyways, he and Amelia were really impressed with that mess.  So much that Titus had to gasp and step back the same time as I was shutting my van door.  I shut the door right on his upper arm.  Hard.....like, really hard.  Titus is not a crier.  When he does cry, I know he is hurt.  It didn't take long for the crying to come.  Not sure who cried the hardest, me or Titus.  I mean do you know how bad it feels to know that you caused your child to get hurt?????  We sat down in the van and I held him while he screamed and cried.  The look he gave me was so puzzled as to ask, "Why did you do that to me, Mommy?"  I pulled his sleeve up and it there was only one line on his arm.  It really didn't look to bad at the time.  He moved his arm around for me and I figured he was ok.  I asked him if he sill felt like going in the store and he did.  He stopped crying and we went in to get some groceries.  I kept watching him and noticed he wasn't using that arm.  As matter of fact, he was just holding it crossed across his belly like it was already in a sling of some sort. I finished getting my groceries, loaded up the van, and went a few buildings down and took Titus to the Dr's office.  Here he is waiting for the Dr to come.

See how happy he was with me?

 

The Dr came in and checked him arm out.  Titus never whinced or cried out in pain at all.  There was still only one line on his arm.  The Dr. declared he was fine and that it was just a deep bruise and didn't think he needed an xray.  I would have felt more comfortable if he had an xray taken, but I guess the Dr felt otherwise.  However, I am very thankful he wasn't hurt worse than what he was.  I just knew that his arm was broken.  I'm not sure how we have managed to escape any broken bones or stitches yet, but so far so good.
*Edited:  I forgot to mention that while our Dr was checking Titus's arm out and Titus was telling him what had happened, Amelia blurted out, "Yeah, she tried to get me too, but I jumped out of the way."  Thank you, Amelia!!!  The Dr just laughed and teased that he needed to call Social Services on me!  I was mortified!!!!!!

Here is part of the bruise that showed up by that evening.  There is a fainter bruise on the inside of the arm that I couldn't fit in the picture.  It is looking pretty yucky, by now.


 

And you know what else happend to this little cutie Saturday morning?

What?  He isn't even in school  yet!!!!

 

We were in the car driving around to yard sales on Saturday morning when Titus tells me his tooth is loose.  I mean I've heard it a gazillion times ever since Josiah's teeth have been falling out almost daily.  I said, "uh huh, ok, Titus."  "No, really mom it is."  So I felt of it and it was a little bit loose.  I asked him if he had hit his mouth on anything to make it loose and he said no.  It could have only been 15 minutes or less when I heard, "I just pulled it out, Mom."  I looked back and he was proudly holding a tiny, tiny white tooth in his hand.  This goes to show you the kid's pain level tolerance.  He never whinced or cried, he just yanked that barely loose tooth right out!  He was thrilled about the tooth fairy coming to his house.  I think he got a little nervous about it when he yelled from his bed, "Mom, will Jack (our lab) bark when the Tooth Fairy gets here?"  Then Amelia hollered from her bed, "MOM, the Tooth Fairy won't see me will she?" ha ha ha  My kids make laugh so hard sometimes!!  And then other times, I won't to knock them out.  Because of crazy stuff like this:

Yes, he is in a hospital bed.  This is our special room at the ER.  No one is allowed to use it, but the Parker kids. (not really, a bit of sarcasm here)

This is back to Saturday.  The same day Titus lost his first tooth.  I got ahead of myself earlier.  I realize I could fix that being that I haven't hit post yet, but nah, that's too much trouble.

Maynard ran into the store real quick while I sat with the kids.  Titus unbuckled and leaned up front for some reason.  He can never stay buckled in a vehicle that is not moving.  Ya'll know how I am obcessed with ears, right?  Well, as he leaned over I decided to do an ear check.  Can't help it, yes I have a problem.  This time however, I was successful and all my ear checking was not done in vain.  As I looked in his ear I seen a peice of white something in there.  At first I'm like, "Wow, this is a big chunk.  Then I realize that is not wax.  Since I left home without my trusty bobby pin, I used my car keys.  I pulled it out and it was a peice of styrofoam.  I went through the whole spill, "What?????  Why is there styrofoam in your ear?  When did you do this?  Why did you do this?  Are you crazy?"  Then I asked to see his other ear.  He really put up a fuss and declared that that ear was fine and there was nothing in it.  So I yanked him back down and checked that ear too.  What did I see?  Another peice of styrofoam in that ear.  This one was way too deep for me to even try to dig out.  Maynard came back to the car and I had to explain our problem.  He was furious.  Just 2 weeks prior we had Amelia in the er for hurting her finger and now Titus had filled his ears with styrofoam.  He may have mentioned that he didn't enjoy spending his Saturdays off work sitting in the ER.  Maynard tried to remove the styrofoam, but he was making me nervous and Titus was scared for his life.  We went ahead and went to the hospital.  I asked the triage if that was really an emergency and if he needed to be seen before I registered.  They delcared that he did need to be seen because even a small peice left in his ear over night could set up a bad infection.  So I trusted their judgement and they took us straight back.  It was so deep that the DR had a hard time getting it out and was a bit nervous to even try.  He got it out finally and declared the other ear styrofoam free.  (I had already removed it)  Titus finally told me he had just put the styrofoam in his ear about an hour prior to me finding it.  Josiah said Titus told him that he was acting like he had hearing aids like Papaw!!!  This is the same kid who stuck a bandaid up his nose and we had to go to ER because he was gagging and trying to puke.  They never did find that bandaid.  They guess he swallowed it somehow. 

So all this happened from Tuesday to Saturday.

Oh yeah!  Amelia also ate a silicone packet out of an empty medicine bottle.  I had to call poision control about that.  Did you know that those things don't even hurt you?  They need to remove "Do not eat" off of the label if in fact you can eat it and not get hurt.

I knew we were too normal for too long for it to stay that way!