The sinks are here! They're really here! And we love them!

They were worth the wait. The granite people come on Monday to do measurements and then we get to go to their warehouse to pick out our slabs. We'll probably take the little sink with us so we can visualize the colors and how it will all come together.

Here are the cabinets - pre-finish. We have LOTS of drawers. 26 to be exact. I know because we had to haul them all outside to be sanded and finished.

Here they are with their first 3 coats of lacquer plus some sanding. Now they're ready for their last 3 coats. I will have to post some more pictures later because now all of the cabinets are covered so that the walls can be primed.

Progress is good.

One if by land, two if by burro?

Here's a quick update on the kitchen.

We've been (im)patiently waiting to hear something about our sinks. We ordered beautiful (we hope) custom hammered copper sinks for the kitchen. We ordered them online. From an eBay store. In Mexico.

Yes, really.

The company's eBay store has their standard copper sink, which we liked. But then we decided it would be better if it had a place for towels...and was a little deeper. So we emailed them and they made ours special. We didn't know that special would also mean SLOW. Maybe we were in denial. Over a month ago, we ordered and paid for them. About 2 weeks ago I started wondering if there was a guy in Mexico having a little "I love American suckers" fiesta in our honor. Were we ever going to get our sinks?!?

The good news is that the sinks are supposed to arrive today. I am so excited to see them I can hardly type.

There's been some other stuff done in the kitchen. Doors hung, cabinets finished, trim, blah blah blah. The SINKS are coming! Wohoooo!!

A little shopping trip for Mom

My neighbor, Tracy, and I went to Canton for a little shopping adventure. (for those of you not blessed to be in the area, Canton is like the BIGGEST flea market shopping adventure...ever.) It's only once per month and I typically space out and miss it. It's about an hour and a half drive from my house but so. totally. worth. it.

We didn't buy a lot of stuff. I think my favorite purchase was the hair bows I got for the girls. Let me tell you that hair bows are freakishly expensive. Like $3 for a bow. Well, at one of the booths, they had them for $0.75 so I bought a bunch. However, now I'm wishing I had bought more. Ah well, I suppose I'll have to go back again.

Here's Stinkerbelle modeling the bows...can't you tell she was thrilled.

Red flags stink.

We were delayed a few days by our city inspectors. They came out on Wednesday and "red flagged" us on a couple of minor framing things and didn't inspect the plumbing at all.

Call drywallers. Can't start on Thursday as planned. New start date: Friday.

Lovie and our neighbor fixed the framing issues Wednesday night so we are ready for the inspection on Thursday.

Thursday - no inspectors. Eesh. Call dry wallers. Can't start on Friday. New start date: Monday.

Friday - no inspectors. Are you %&!@# kidding me??

Monday - Now we have to fight dirty. We meet the inspector at the door with Baby M in hand. She smiles and coos for him. Poor sucker. Never knew what hit him. He was hit with the Parker Charm! We pass. No more red flags.


Interior view looking over the future island toward the pantry.





Exterior view of the new patio and door. (You can see the same door in the picture above.)










Interior view - standing in the new pantry looking out.







Interior view with the big island. The range will go where the red ladder is now.

Welcome to Evelyn Renee!!

Here is Courtney with her little bundle of joy:

Evelyn Renee Humphrey

Born 5:32 pm, November 17

6 lbs, 13 oz

19 1/2" long

Courtney and Shaun talked several times during the day. Soon after the delivery he was off of work and able to join us by web cam. You can see Courtney showing Evelyn off to her daddy.

The delivery went very well, with Courtney having an epidural when she was at 5 cm. The baby was born about three hours later.

Shelly, (Courtney's mother-in-law) will stay with her for the first week. Gram (My mom) will stay from Thanksgiving through the first week of December. Then Courtney will come to Gram and Hey Dad's house to stay until Christmas. Yeeeaaa!!

I'm an aunt (again!)

Courtney had her baby girl this evening. Welcome baby Evelyn Renee!! We can't wait to meet her. Courtney and baby are doing great. Mom and Dad are up there with her. We're going up there to spend thanksgiving with her in Oklahoma City. Hooray for new babies!!

New family members

My little sister, Courtney went in to labor this morning. We are anxiously awaiting news that her little one has officially arrived.

I'll keep you posted.

Our befallen friend, er, tree

Stinkerbelle has recovered. She has a runny, snotty boogery nose but no fever. Yeaa!!

One of our trees met its demise on Friday. We've always hated this particular tree because of the huge amounts of droppings it creates each fall. Not just leaves, but these feathery wispy branches that suffocate the yard, pile up on the roof and clog up our gutters. Well, if we HAD gutters, they would clog them up!

Our neighbor's son came over and chopped it down for us. And Saturday night we had a little bonfire in its honor. The stump is still there but it will be gone soon.

We're going to plant 3 new happy trees...one for each kiddo. So don't go gettin' all tree-huggy on me.

We also got windows and doors installed. And plumbing and electricity. This week we'll have an inspection done and then we can schedule drywalling and insulation.

screaming fits, smiles and giggles

Stinkerbelle woke up with a fever today. She didn't sleep well at all, so neither did Lovie and I. We gave her some Tylenol and she perked up. She drank some juice, ate a little breakfast and chilled out watching some Sesame Street.

She got comfy on the chair with a warm blanket and fell fast asleeep. Hopefully today she'll get plenty of rest and kick her fever.






Baby M slept great last night. She fell asleep in the middle of Stinker's screaming fit! Today she's all smiles and giggles.

Blog Names and Waterproofiness

In the first category of random thoughts...This blog's URL is really not accurate anymore. There are FIVE Parkers. I need a new family email address too but I have this intense white-hot hatred of changing emails. So I don't know that anything will really come of the blog name.

On construction front...we have a new roof. The finished on Wednesday morning and it looks very nice. We even got some rain on Wednesday so we got to test its waterproofiness. It passed and that is so a word.

Today (Friday) the plumbers are here plumbing. And a brick guy is on his way over to give us an estimate for putting the brick back on the house. The electrician is supposed to be coming over today too. Woohoo!! Progress is good.

Rough Roof

Our first two weeks of construction went so smooth. Contractors showed up on time and worked hard! We had concrete guys, plumbing guys, electricians, framers, roofers, dumpster delivery guys, porta-potty delivery guys, and probably some others that I am forgetting. Great progress, great service, everyone is happy.

Yesterday began week three of construction. Roofing materials onsite? Check. Roofers? Roofers? Hello? Roooooofeeeeers? Hmm. Okay, no problem. We're also ready to measure for cabinets. He's supposed to be here today too. Um, yeah. He called and rescheduled. Plumber? We can schedule the plumber so he can come and do the next step. He's booked all week. Our "smooth sailing" project has come to a screeching halt.

The roofers are supposed to show up today (Tuesday.) We're hoping to get back on track today. So far, no sign of them. The cabinet maker is supposed to be here today too. The plumber has us tentatively scheduled for tomorrow.

How I am doing with all of this? Great. Just great. I just LOVE having no kitchen. I love washing dishes by hand. My butt seems to love eating out every night. It is rewarding me by g-r-o-w-i-n-g. Not exactly my desired outcome.

Oh! Parker dog just went nuts barking. I think that means the roofers have arrived! YEEAH!!

News Flash: Two foot mermaid spotted on land!

Stinkerbelle has a very generous Aunt Kiss that mailed her this very cute Mermaid costume all the way from Florida, because that's where all the Mermaids live! It meant that Mommy didn't have to go shopping for a costume!!! Yeeeaaaa!!

We went trick-or-treating to one house, our next door neighbor that used to babysit Stinkerbelle.







Her favorite part of the holiday was sliding on the slide in her front yard. She didn't really know what candy was so there wasn't any whining when I wanted to "share" her candy.










The costume kind of restricted her climbing abilities so we didn't stay dressed up for very long. The costume is now in the "Dress Up Box" collection to be saved for when she discovers the magical world of Disney movies and Ariel the Mermaid Princess.

Under Construction: More Chaos

Here in Parkerland, we like to keep on our toes. Having a 12-yr old middle-schooler, a toddler, and a new baby just isn't quite enough. We decide that we need to remodel and expand the house.

Here's how this stuff gets started. In April, we get hit by a very bad hail storm. The insurance adjuster and decides that we (along with everyone else in our neighborhood) need a new roof. We had been thinking about making some changes to the house and now, thanks to Mother Nature and our friends at Allstate, we have the seed money to get them started.

So now it's November and we're in this for real. Here's some pics of the progress.

This is the current kitchen, emptied of all the contents and preparing for demolition. We're doing a bunch of the demolition ourselves to save some money.

We got our neighbors involved too. Here they are chiseling brick of the side of the house.

Next is an exterior shot of the house with the forms laid for the new slab.

And here are the framers putting up our new walls.

They finished the framing in a day and half. It was amazing to watch. Here are some interior shots:

This is a view of the Play Room. It's basically a bedroom with three large windows overlooking the back yard. Someday it might be a formal dining room since it is off the kitchen.









This view is of the kitchen looking over the island and toward the sink. The sink will be centered under that large bank of windows.











This is a view of the island looking toward the pantry in the right corner. The blue wall is a temporary wall that we put up to keep the dust and noise out of the house during construction. That wall, along with another wall not in the photo, will come down and will open up to the rest of the house.

This is the view you'll see when you walk in the house. The short wall is an island with a prep sink. The wall directly behind it will have a large gas range/oven combo with windows on either side.

Catching Up

Let's see if I can catch up...

1. Baby M (nickname under construction)

Born on July 23, 2008...happy and healthy. Here she is with Big Brother and Stinkerbelle

2. Baseball, Baseball, and more Baseball

Big Brother's baseball all-star team kept winning and winning, and winning. One tournament shy of the world series! They played in Florida the week after Baby M was born. Lovie, Big Brother, and Stinkerbelle flew to Florida and I stayed at home with Baby M. My parents came and stayed with me so I wouldn't be alone. My house has never been cleaner and I think my Dad achieved the impossible...EVERY bit of laundry was done. Amazing.

The baseball team did okay but didn't win the tournament. It was a fun experience but we were all relieved when it was over.

3. Big Brother is growing up too fast.

He had to shave his moustache, with a little help.

4. Big Brother started 7th Grade.

He's playing football for the school and loves it. He is the starting running back and plays linebacker on defense. We're on the lookout for college recruiters but so far, no one has approached us. :-) His games are on Tuesday nights. Mom comes over and either watches the girls so Lovie and I can both go to the games or she comes with us and we ALL watch Big B play.

Stinkerbelle likes the games as long as she has plenty of room to wiggle.

5. Halloween

Stinkerbelle was a mermaid, compliments of her cousins and her Aunt Kiss.

Baby M was an Adorable Baby...no costume needed.

Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooom

I am so behind on the events in the Parker household. Let me try to get you caught up.

1. Stinkerbelle's first birthday!! Yea! We had a party for her here at the house. It was basically a party for us more than for her. We had BBQ, sat outside in the yard and chatted and played washers. I think there was about 30 people here. She loved it, despite having to take a nap!

Here she is dressed in her funky "I'm One!" outfit.

2. Our 3rd Anniversary - we "celebrated" by staying home. Lovie was sick with a bad ear infection. I am hoping for a "make up" anniversary after the new baby arrives.

3. Baseball, baseball, baseball - Brockstar made baseball all-stars and has been playing in tournaments every week/weekend since school got out. It's a lot of fun, when it isn't miserably hot. His team is doing really well! They've won every tournament they've entered so far. The upcoming tournaments are the kind that move up a level until ultimately you play in Japan or somewhere like that.

Growing Belly...

Okay, this is not the most flattering picture but JJ took it today and it's a great view of my growing growing g-r-o-w-i-n-g belly. I have 6 weeks left.

Delivery date is scheduled for July 23. So far, so good. I have had to start taking iron supplements and my platelet count was low but it came back up with my latest round of blood work. Neither are serious, just something to monitor.

We're having another baby girl. Havanna likes to lift up her shirt and pat my belly. She likes to do it because it makes her Mommy and Daddy laugh. Havanna just celebrated her first birthday. She doesn't really understand what is going on yet.

Now that I think about it, neither do we.

Special Delivery from the Easter Bunny

It's very important to listen and pay attention when your body gives you signals about your health. Believe me. I know.

After going back and forth (and back and forth) in my mind, I finally decided to invest $8 in my sanity on Saturday night. I brought home my little investment and realized I had to wait until morning to use it. As you can imagine, sleep didn't come easily.

Sunday morning, I got up and tried out my investment and walked away to wait for the results. Lovie came in the living room a few minutes later and said, "well, you can quit worrying about it now" and showed me the results. I have attempted to recreate them here:






Not sure what that is? It's the result of a pregnancy test. The big blue plus sign? Yep, that's a positive. We're pregnant again!! I was surprised, but not surprised. Like I said, I kept going back and forth in my mind that there was something going on. We told our family and friends and were taking guesses at how far along I was.

With Stinkerbelle, we had been trying for a year and were watching for symptoms like hawks. We got the doctor's confirmation when I was six weeks pregnant.

I went to the doctor yesterday and he did a sonogram to take some measurements to see how far along I am. Go ahead. Take a guess.

Nope.

Try 21 weeks pregnant!!! Basically, I'm already halfway done! Right now, the due date is estimated at Aug 3. I go for another ultrasound in a couple of weeks and we'll find out the sex of the baby and whether the due date needs to be adjusted.

We're slowly recovering from the shock around here. Poor Stinkerbelle. She doesn't know that her little world is about to be turned upside down.

Happy Easter!!!

The Big Weiner...I mean Winner

The Brockstar played on the All-Star team for basketball. His team won the championship in the tournament!

Here is the whole team with their trophies:

Here they are hamming it up before a game. They had already played a game and were making their hair stick straight up.

The Childless Vacation

As promised, here is the story of the Childless Vacation...

A few months ago, we decided to take a long-weekend vacation with our wonderful neighbors, the Mills. After about 4 attempts to find a conflict-free weekend, we settled on the last weekend in February. Originally, we were going to go to Mexico...then we found out that we all had to have passports. Fast forward a little and we found a house to rent in the Florida Keys. The house was big enough for the four of us, plus some more.

We invited some other friends and ended up with a total of seven travelers. We had a great time fishing and relaxing. The weather cooperated and we all completely forgot it was still February! We rented a boat that was delivered right to our dock and cruised around the bay. (I think we maxed out at 13mph.)