How big of a geek are you? I am...

10% Geek
Okay I finally did it! I took the geek test. I was pretty excited that I only came up as 10% geek, and I think it is because I do like to read a lot, I am enjoying my blog as well as others, and I like to e-mail. So, if that makes me a bit of a geek, then I guess I am and I am having fun being one.

24th of July

With Ethan, finally feeling better (yea!'bout time!), we headed to my parents yesterday for lunch to celebrate my Dads birthday and also the 24th of July (a day set to honor our pioneer heritage) with my brothers and sisters. We meet around 1:00 pm, ate lunch and hung around catching up with everyone. It was very relaxing, especially for the Men....

So I caught Jim napping...

Rick Napping...

John napping...

And my dad napping!

So, I know you are all just so jealous about what a lively group we are! So I went on a quest to see who else could be sleeping....

I then found Ciahlee catching up on a few zzz's

then I found Lauryn, Taylor and Katie pretending to sleep.

I told you, we are just so lively! We are available for your next family gathering! HAHAHA! I did find a few people awake and alert (mostly the women folk, who preferred not to be pictured..)....

Tyler goofing off

and Drew playing cell phone games.

The other kids I believe were running around and playing with the kitty, Mike and Robin had went for a walk. Cathy, Terry and kids had to leave early (Cathy still does daycare and those who ever has done daycare you rarely have a day off).

So seeing that we were at my parents, I got to see Taylor's black eye. She told me she hit it on the car door. And she admits the car won!

Ouch! It Looks like that hurt! Grandma says she never cried though.

So after staying awhile at my parents we went to visit the Keegans. Declan and Ben are so cute together!

So that was basically our day. It was nice and relaxing. Today, though we are back to the 'ole grindstone.

When will the sickness ever end?

Ethan still has a fever. He has had this since Friday. I'm done to say the least. As soon as We think he is feeling better, suddenly his fever spikes back up to 103.5. The poor kid is getting restless, which is a good sign I suppose since he wants to get up and do things. He still isn't eating and that is starting to get to me a bit. On a brighter side, Taylor, who has been staying at my parents since Saturday, hasn't gotten sick. However, I did hear she gave herself a black eye. Apparently she got in an argument with a door. Poor kid! Haven't seen it but I hear its quite colorful!

A New Home for Lucy

So yesterday we said goodbye to Lucy, our cat. We found her a new home. They kids were all able to say their goodbyes, and even begged to keep her until I reminded them it was their job to take of her and they hadn't been and if we did keep her they would ALL need to share the responsibility of taking care of her. That quickly changed their minds again. We will all miss her at least a little bit, even John who doesn't really like cats. What we won't miss is her litter box, her getting on the table after the numerous times we get her down, her scratches on the kids and furniture, the kids hording her and chasing her (just basically not leaving her alone), and the tattling on her (yes you read that right, my kids added her to their list of who to tattle on).

Any-whoo, she is in a better place where little kids won't be harassing her constantly. I loaded her up in the car with Taylor and Ben and took her to her new home. She went to live with my parents. I know shocker! I was shocked too, my dad just loves her though and now she is his responsibility (yep you read that right too, Mom said its Dads cat and he has to take care of her). She will be well taken care of , and the kids are glad they are able to visit and play with her. We are now back to our pet -free life. Goodbye Lucy! We will miss you, sorta.

A ROUGH WEEK!

Well, this week has been pretty rough on me to say the least! It all started with Ben getting sick. He still had a fever of 102 degrees, an hour after he had ibuprofen. He wouldn't eat ( at least he drank LOTS of water), barely slept ( which meant I didn't sleep), and would just lay around whimpering. So, off to the doctor we went on Tuesday to see what was wrong with our little man. We thought, strep throat? Since Katie had it about three weeks ago. But no, no strep (Whew!). So what could be wrong? Well the doctor was in no way concerned and sent us on our way telling us to come back if his fever wasn't gone in the next couple of days. Now I don't want to sound like hyper on line one (remember from the Home Alone movie), but a Mom knows when something is just not right. We did however leave and a vow I will never see that doctor again. Now I'm not saying that I want medicine for my son (heaven knows how horrible I am at remembering to give it!), but none of our concerns were even addressed.

So, that being bad enough, Katie, who had been having an extended sleep over at her cousin Lauryn's (gone since last Saturday wasn't coming home until this Saturday WAHOO), isn't feeling well. Lauryn too isn't feeling good, so Shellee takes Lauryn to the doctor and guess what? Strep throat! So we make arrangements for Katie to get home. I decide to take her to the doctor, (a different and better one) and low and behold Katie too has strep as well as an ear infection. We go to fill her prescription she has two, and her ear drops are a whopping $97.00 (ummm yeah right!). Sorry, not going to happen.That was my Thursday. Oh yes and Ben was still burning up.

Friday had to be better right? It's Friday, the beginning of the weekend, what more could go wrong? Well, around five Ethan wasn't looking to good. I felt his head and he was burning up! I took his temperature and he was at 102.5. Called the doctor (again), but with Katie already sick, and after jumping through numerous hoops, they agree to call in a prescription for Ethan. On a lighter note, Ben's fever FINALLY broke today! WAHOO! Now I keeping my fingers crossed that Taylor doesn't get sick. She is suppose to have an extended sleep over at Grandmas starting tomorrow. There's always tomorrow.......

Reflections

Today I have been reflecting on family and how important each member of our families are, whether it's your immediate family or not. Today I received an e-mail from JoAnn (Ricks wife) and she had sent pictures of my brothers boys Hyrum and Isaiah. Heidi (the boys mother), allowed Mike to see the boys while he was on a business trip in Vernal. It was so nice to see how they have grown, since we hadn't seen them in five years. Ethan could remember the boys but Taylor , who was a baby the last time we saw them, had no idea who they are. It made me a bit sad that they may never really know these cousins of theirs, but it also gave me hope that maybe Heidi would also allow us to visit with the boys sometime.

Hyrum and Isaiah Kenney

That is what had started my whole thought process of families. We are so lucky to have a pretty close family, and not just in miles. We may not always get along or see eye to eye but we will always be here for each other and lend support when needed. It made me glad that I started this blog as well. What a great way to keep in touch with everyone. I love seeing what everyone is up to on their blogs and I have been able to connect with cousins I may not have been able to otherwise. It just makes me smile!

On a sad note though, unfortunately through a blog, we found that one of Johns Aunts has a incurable form of cancer. Our first thought was WHAT? Then came, how come no one told us? Then lastly we faced the real reason why we had no idea what this sweet family has been going through, and that is unfortunately we aren't really close to John's family. That makes me sad, but gives me hope that John and I can make a difference and try to our best ability to be more of the Parker family. So let us all reach out to our families, whether through a blog, e-mail, phone call, or whatever and try to keep in touch with those we love.

So for now we are sending well wishes to all, as well as hugs and kisses and a promise that we will try are best to keep in touch.

A little about me

So, I realized that I didn't say much about myself before. I guess it's because I get so involved with kids I don't take much time to focus on me. So, I'm doing it now :). I have two small home based business'. First of all I am a custom vinyl lettering/graphic distributor.

So you can order practically anything in vinyl in a whole range or colors. Price is dependant on what you order (size and such) It's a lot of fun. If you ever want to order anything or see my idea binder let me know, I'll be happy to bring it to you or you can come to me. A few ideas that I had and have around my house:

We don't have a fireplace, and the kids were concerned about where to hang their Christmas stockings, so I made this:For Mother's Day I couldn't find a better way than this to express appreciation for my Mom just being her and for being an AWESOME grandma to my kids.
My other business is Avon. I have been selling it for about three years. It's really good products for a decent prices. I have my own website to take web orders on. It is www.youravon.com/candiceparker. They sell so much more than just make-up :). Otherwise I am a stay at home mom who carts kids all over the place, but I wouldn't trade them for anything!

Here is Ben with our Kitty Lucy. He just loves to carry her all around.

In my spare time,(alright who am I kidding? Spare time WHATEVER) I love taking pictures. John use to say I took too many pictures, so he bought me a really nice digital SLR camera a couple of years ago. That way I could take as many pictures as I wanted. I have have definitely gotten my moneys worth. Here is a picture of Lucy

I know that this is suppose to be about me, but without my kids I wouldn't be who I am today. So I wanted to add in their spring school pictures:

Ethan fourth grade

Katie second grade

Taylor preschool

I couldn't decide which picture I liked best of Mr. Ben. Both of these show who is. He loves trains, any kind, and was excited to go and ride Front Runner. Last year we took him to ride Thomas the Train in Heber. He LOVED it, to say the least. This other picture was at the second grade Friendship program at the kids school. Ben wasn't to impressed with the program as you can see, so he decided to make it more fun!

Now this is a funny story, John asked me what I would pay him if he would eat a Habanero pepper I told him I would give him $20.00. He accepted the bet and here he is just before taking his first bite:I thought he was going to change his mind about our bet. I was wrong.

bite number one

It didn't seem to hot at first. But boy did it ever get HOT quick! He ate it in two bites though!

Man was it ever HOT! It brought tears to his eyes and rolled down his face. He drank lots of milk and ate some plain bread after to no avail. My poor man had a belly ache for almost a week after.

He said he wouldn't eat another one for at least two years and he better get paid more. I reminded him He agreed to the bet, but I did feel bad and gave him $30.00. He says it still wasn't worth it. The kids had a good laugh over it and we do have it all on video.