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.