Happy Birthday Jared

Jared turned 7 today. He has been excited for his birthday as presents from Grandma's, Grandpa's, Aunt's, and Uncle's have been turning up over the last week. He loved everything he got and says thank you to everyone who remembered his birthday.

Pumpkins and Personalities

We decided to paint pumpkins this year instead of carving. The results were interesting.
Anna painted hers with every color of the rainbow in swirls, dots, and lines. The colors were bright and there was no rhyme or reason to the patterns she created. This is our Anna. She is so full of life and personality that most of the time I have no idea where she came from. Kevin looked at it later and commented that it was a real work of art. He claimed he could see a hiker climbing a mountain with the sun setting in the background symbolizing the struggle between adversity and man (or something like that) I just looked at him and said, "Uh-huh." Then looked away shaking my head. Kevin and Anna are so much alike, very creative and free spirited. Jared painted his pumpkin orange and the stem brown with a jack-o-lantern face on the front. Jared is creative too, but in a realistic way. He is so serious and down to earth and good (just like his mom :) ri-ight). It is always interesting to see what the kids will come up with when we give them an opportunity to express themselves in a creative way.

Picking Pumpkins

We made our last trip to Baughers Farm for the season and picked pumpkins. It was a little chilly but lots of fun.

A New Bundle of Joy

Yep that is right. We are having #3 sometime early April. We have been patiently waiting for this chance to bring another sweet spirit into our family and are really excited that it has happened. Anyway cats out of the bag and we are making the official announcement. Baby #3 April 6, 2009!

Really Fun Weekend

The weekend started on Friday at Jared's school. He was chosen by his teacher as a Terrific Kid that displays responsibility. We went to an assembly where they honored the Terrific Kids and Jared got to give a speech. His teacher wrote it out for him and he read it all by himself. I was so nervous for him, but he did a really great job. This is what his teacher wrote: "Hello, my name is Jared Parks and I am a terrific kid. Mrs. Kachura chose me because I am responsible in the classroom. I always try my best on my class work and when I make a mistake I work hard to fix it. I never talk when Mrs. Kachura is talking. I set a good example for my friends when I follow directions. This is why I am a terrific Kid."


Following the assembly we drove down to Buena Vista for SVU Homecoming. We saw a lot of old friends from school and old friends from the town. Homecoming happened to be on the same weekend as Mountain Days. MD is a fun all day event that is held downtown where their are all kinds of vendors, treats, and fun games for the kids. We spent the morning walking downtown and visiting with are old friends and neighbors.
Later we went to the SVU football game. The kids got their faces painted and Anna got to go down with the cheerleaders (groan) and help cheer for the team. She was of course in heaven.


Later that night Kevin played the the alumni Basketball game. The old men lost, but no one got hurt this year. Some of the old boys that came back were, Ross (Gary Ross) (and Ellen), Killer (Ryan Killinger), Hindu(Ryan Henderson) (and Carla), Emilliano, and Kevin.

We stayed for church on Sunday and then drove back to MD later that night. It was so nice to visit with old friends. We hope to get back down there soon.

Apples, Apples, Apples!

We went to Baughers farm today to pick apples. The Kids had a lot of fun. We will go back again in the next few weeks to pick pumpkins.

Confessions of an Unbalanced Woman

My mom got me the book Confessions of an Unbalanced Woman by Emily Watts a few years ago for my birthday and I loved it. I found it again recently and Kevin and I have been reading it together. There are a few quotes I want to share from the book because they are so funny and so true! Most of the "she" "woman" and "mom" quotes are interchangeable with "he", "man", and "dad".
Quote 1:
"If you consistently wash fourteen towels in a machine that was designed to hold ten, what will happen? You will break your machine! Maybe not the first time, or the second, but ultimately...I am a fourteen-towel woman in a ten-towel-capacity life. No wonder I feel so out of balance! I have lots to do, and all of it is good and worthwhile and important, but I simply can't do it all at once."
-I love that analogy. Sometimes I feel there is so much on my plate and I have no idea how it will all come together in the end. The rest of the book talks about finding that one thing that brings balance.
Quote 2:
"Burnt toast is actually fairly symbolic of motherhood. If you're the one who burned the toast, you scrape it off and eat it yourself. If they burned it, you eat it because they burned it specially for you. However you look at it, you're going to end up consuming a fair amount of burnt toast-and loving it."
-So true, even the loving it part.
This last quote had me laughing out loud because it was as if it was taken strait from our own home. As far as household chores Kevin only has one-take out the garbage. It is the one chore I refuse to do. I think it goes back to when we had a dog that use to get into our trash cans and I had to clean up the mess. The result is I cannot go near a trash can or dumpster without gagging. Anyway...there was a time I fell into the trap that if I had to ask it didn't count so the trash sometimes got stacked above the brim of the kitchen trash bin. "Because, you see, if he really loved me, he'd do it without having to be asked." (I know ridiculous)
Quote 3:
"I have learned that my husband would do just about anything for me. He runs hard and fast, like a train on a track, and the only problem is that if the track doesn't happen to go past the garbage can, he genuinely doesn't see the trash piling up. Now I say, 'Honey, could you please take out the garbage?' and he says, 'sure,' and he does it. It's a miracle!"
Anyway I thought I'd just share these fun little quotes from the book. I should probably mention that in the end of the book the way to find the balance is to first find, feel, believe, and act on God's love for us. When that happens everything else falls into place.