A little pumpkin in the patch...

I'm no Crystal Garcia...that's for SURE!  But John Cole and I had so much fun in the Pumpkin Patch today.  He was so excited to take home this little pumpkin and I am happy to get these pics even if they aren't professional...

More later...

San Fran Weekend

Sorry I am almost a week late!  Whew.  So much going on......

Preston got to "skip school" on the Friday before Columbus and joined Mommy and Daddy on a quick trip to San Fran.  Our official reason for the trip was to visit the Dykes family who live in Berkeley because Daddy is still their banker.  We had to squeeze in some touristy stuff too, of course.  And the icing on the cake was that Preston had his class mascot--CHAMP--home for the week so we got to show Champ a really good time :)

Trip Friday was fairly uneventful--as far as commercial air travel goes these days.  We didn't realize the reason we sat on the runway delayed for 45 minutes in Houston until we found out...

President Obama was staying one block from our hotel Friday night!  So the entire airport was shut down for a time for him to land.  However, we had a super fun adventure walking around town and meeting a REAL Secret Service agent and barely missing the Presidential motorcade.  We were super tired but it was very exciting.

Saturday morning we squeezed in a couple of rides on the historic cable car.  It was a GORGEOUS day.  Around noon we rode the BART (or the Subway as P called it) to Berkeley.  I can't TELL you how precious the reunion was between Preston and Ally.  Really, it was so cute.  The game...well....it wasn't so great. Cal was just not having a good game.  It was  a fun day anyways. The boys and I had delicious grass-fed burgers after the game.  Then we were in for the night...

Sunday was jam packed and FUN!  We took out some of the first bikes from the Fisherman's Wharf bike shop ready to "Bike the Bridge."  I was so PROUD of how Preston handled himself on the bike.  Were there some sketchy moments...um....yes.  But he really did GREAT considering there were HUGE crowds because of the holiday weekend.  We biked all the way to Sausalito then rode the ferry back to the city. And what a TREAT the air show was going on so we saw basically the whole thing!
Next was Alcatraz.  Preston would report this was his favorite.  He so cute wearing his headphones listening to the tour.  He really was into it and I think it made quite an impression.  That night we cleaned up and went to a nice place for dinner.  My favorite morsel of the trip--the YUMMY brussel sprouts :)

Monday, we got up at 4:30 am and were SUPPOSED to be HOME by 3:00.  John Cole had been home this whole time as was with a high school sitter on Monday because Jeff's mom went to work on Monday. I really, really don't want to type out the MISERY that was our travel day Monday.  And I am certainly aware that we were blessed to not be affected by the horrible storms that caused our travel nightmare day.  But I will say we finally made it home in a CAR at 1am with no luggage.  It was a car we were lucky to have because there were NONE at the airport.  Preston was a TROOPER. He did get airsick once---super NOT FUN--but bless it he had nothing on his stomach and we had been trapped in the hot plane for ages. Poor baby.  Anywhoo, you can see from the pic that after a chocolate shake and hot dog he rallied.

So much fun with my boys.  Hope we can take John Cole one day.  But I will shop while they go to Alcatraz....

A September to Remember

Boy was it!  SO sorry I am behind on blogging.  My mom has always told me that although I thought my life would get LESS busy as my boys get older, it does actually seem as if life gets more complicated by the year....and I don't think that's changing anytime soon.  You know what?  I wouldn't have it any other way :)

One of the reasons that I have had very little computer sitting time is that I have been working A LOT!  Someone quit and I've been doing some extra but I'm REALLY hoping to get back to my very limited schedule soon.  We will use the extra money for our two big trips coming up...more on those later..

Back to September.  Well, I was leaving work on a rainy Tuesday afternoon going South on Hwy 33 from Farmerville.  I was not being reckless in the least and all of the sudden I started hydroplaning and completely lost control of my vehicle.  I will NEVER forget that helpless feeling.  I ran off the opposite side of the road, struck a fence--the post from which went through my windshield-and spun to a stop in a cow pasture.  If you look at that picture you can see the board should have severed my head.  Not trying to be morbid, but it should have.  I KNOW that GOD had his hand on me and knew my boys need me here on this earth.  I was pretty shaken up mentally--maybe I still am--but I was PERFECTLY FINE physically and have a renewed faith about my purpose on this earth.  Oh, and I got a new car.  This one wasn't totaled, but I just couldn't get back in it.  I got...drumroll...the same car in a different color!!  I'm so exciting, huh?  Well, I just feel so safe in that big car.

What else have we been doing?  Well, we celebrated Pop's birthday in grand fashion, have been cheering on the Bulldogs, the boys have been doing church choir and Mommy helps out, Preston is playing golf after school on Mondays, has started piano lessons and is doing SO WELL,  has finally gotten mature enough to be up late for Wednesday night church activites (and I go to choir!) and doing Lego after school on Thursdays, John Cole is POTTY TRAINED, we went to see the Chinese acrobats at the Dixie, Preston played in a tennis tournament......oh and Kindergarten and MDO are in full swing.  However, on these gorgeous afternoons you can find the Parkers chilling in the outdoor room or playing catch in the yard.  Loving this sweet time with my boys.

More exciting posts to come...lol....

LOVE TO ALL!