We Spy

We spy with two eyes...a hawk in the backyard. He's right in front of the bottom fence post. He was eating a lizard. He's a semi regular visitor in the Parker Backyard. Everyone who's home at the time creeps onto the (newly screened and painted) back porch to watch him. We caught this awesome action shot while he was in midair. *Photo obviously not taken by Shelly Parker Nature Photography.

Name Calling

You might sit at your home on a Saturday afternoon and picture Ma & Pa Parker getting their house ready to sell, loving each other, loving other people and following a bigger calling in life. BUT if you know them, you know that it actually looks like this...

Dad was being efficient with his yard work (All you Type A people, lets hear 3 cheers for efficiency!) and Mom was working with him (All you Other Type people, lets hear 3 cheers for "working with" Type A people!) Mom was sneaky and gave Dad a pat on the back/put a name tag on his back. Classic. The man in this picture was Meany on Saturday.

Family Fun at 21

We had a family birthday party to celebrate Benji's birthday. Mom found the greatest wrapping paper ever. Soak up this joy... Birthday boy opening presents

Ben got the boots that everyone wants. Well, if you like these kind of boots. Don't play duck-duck-goose with this guy...those stompers could get your fingers real badly. Ouch. Trying out the boots. Mom said she couldn't remember the last time (if ever... no offense Dad) that Dad actually carried a cake out. Not that it's the end-all-be-all to be the cake carrier, but it does carry some significance. *Please note Ali's SpongeBob painting on the side of the fridge. Very accurate and a bit creepy. Mom made the best lemon cake. It'll make your taste buds go ca-razayy. Hope you made a wish...... HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY BEN!!!

So Long Squince

We are sad to say that Squince died this afternoon from liver failure. The vet thinks he ate something that caused it. He was 3 months old and the new baby of Kent & Kait for just 3 weeks. He was an American Bulldog Mix from Florida. He didn't appear all that much on the blog, but here are some pictures to show you how much Squince was loved on in such a short amount of time.

He grew a lot in 3 weeks!
Kent taught him how to walk with a leash, to sit and he was still learning to fetch & return (the "return" part was still kind of tricky for him :)

Kait was the official snuggler and picture taker (and yes, there's a lot of pictures)But this lady really held the power. Grandma had the secret stash of chewies that she gave out when he visited her.
Some of his favorite activities included... dreaming about food
Hanging out in the laundry piles on Laundry Day
Posing for his Mom's pictures. He was really good at stopping for pictures, but this face looks like "Geez Ma, another picture? C'mon..."
Driving around town
and watching his Dad make incredible looking (and smelling!) sandwiches that he never was allowed to eat.

Honestly, this is not how it was supposed to happen. We were supposed to have years and years with this small pup. He was going to be Kait's company while Kent logged long hours downtown taking Seminary classes and he was going to welcome home his 2-legged siblings someday. We were going to watch him grow up to be a handsome guy someday.

Squince, we would've let you chew on all of our milk cartons and spill milk on the carpet if we knew that this would happen. (P.S. Who has 2 dogs that die within 2 months of each other? Seriously.)

Grandpappy

While Anna moved into college, Squince stumbled upon Grandpappy's furry slipper. Surprise Grandpappy!!! While the Grandpappy is away, the dog plays.

Move 'er Out

On Sunday we shipped Anna back to college. Here's some of her stuff. She did a good job with packing. She didn't go PackCrazy and pack everything but the kitchen sink.
But she did pack a few things...including the Fragile(ish) things. Ah, the oh-so-important-can't-forget fragile(ish) things. Mom, Dad and Ben drove down to help her unpack. Happy 2nd year of college Anna!! GO GET 'EM!!!

Ben the Builder

A bed frame: Can we build it??....YES WE CAN!!! Dad and Ben spent Saturday morning making a bed frame for Ben's apartment room. They're so handy.

Hands Down

Hands down the best t-shirt we've seen in awhile. Ma and Anna snagged it for him at Khol's. He needs to step out of the puddle jumper plane in 2013 wearing this shirt.

(*Please note: 2013 is a made up year for Africa send-off. The Africa send-off is also made up completely. Our plan is just to throw out random ideas, dates, goals, dreams and countries until God opens the real door. We want to try and throw everyone off a little. Just for fun.)

The Eldest

A warm Happy Birthday to the eldest, Wesley, who turned 26(26?!?) on Wednesday. They had us over last night for dinner. Here is the hostess, Sara, who was also sick. That can make celebrating birthdays not as fun. Feel better soon!
Sara makes a delish carrot cake.
Make a wish!!!
One of these pretty ladies did NOT call Wes on his birthday. We'll give you a hint..you can spell her name forward or backward the same way and she did NOT just have knee surgery (so she really has no excuse).

Youth Sunday

Last week Kenneth organized Youth Sunday. The worship service was run entirely by the youth group. There are some talented music people in this group!

Flashback Friday

High school student

Class president

Total Babe

Shelly Guillard

Twas The Night...

Twas the night before school starts...



YOU know you wanna be an elementary school teacher!

Queen for 2 Days

Shelly was the Convalescent Queen for the past 2 days. She had outpatient surgery on her knee to remove some build up. She had to keep it elevated and straight for 48 hours. She had a wonderful nurse (Chuckie). She had the nurse apprentice (Kait) when the nurse was at the hospital being a doctor. Ma was a great patient- very cheery and not overly demanding. We're glad she's at least able to hop and hobble around the house now.

Enjoy

Grab one of these and go enjoy your summer!

Missions Moment

This is Chuck and Shelly's first speaking engagement as they are open to the possibility of going to ****** full time. (We don't have to "bleep" out the country, but by doing so we probably look really intense and spiritual, right?)

What does it look like to be open to the possibility of going to ****** full time? Selling a house, contacting mission agencies and walking through doors (or we say pushing down dominoes) until they either hit a brick wall or walk onto a puddle jumper plane.

You can pray for us.... and that is your Missions Moment in a nutshell!

Pick a Winner

Last week the PWGUE Club went to pick blueberries. The PWGUE Club stands for People Who Get Up Early. Anna is not part of this club. There's a big, cute blueberry patch(patch? field? meadow?) near our church. If you live around here, you missed it this season but make sure you catch it next season! Ali did a taste test to make sure they were good
Shelly is a blueberry picking machine. She could work all day and she always fills her bucket quickly.
Ali on the other hand is not a picking machine. He's not really an outdoorsy kind of guy either (unless water is involved)
Workin' the fields... (sorry, couldn't resist)
So far we've made a blueberry pie and muffins. We've also frozen some so that on a cold winter's night we can make pie again. We'll eat it in front of the crackling fire, wear our flannel shirts and read Little House on the Prairie.

Twins!

Like Father, Like (adopted) Son.

The End

To say we had a fun time at the beach would be an understatement. Two people stand out in this picture. We have Plantation Owner/Relaxed Chuck and Thug Ali. We did miss Benny in this picture! It was right before check out. What a bunch of nuts. See ya next year!