MARCH

March brought Spring Break & what better activity to do during Spring Break than go camping?! Well, at least for Erik & the girls. I had to work, so I enjoyed an evening alone. They had quite the eventful night. Apparently, Jay got sick multiple times in the afternoon upon arriving where she ended up going through all of her extra clothes & had to go "commando" the rest of the trip. Then, Kylie woke up in the night throwing up all over everything. I'm so glad I wasn't their & wasn't aware of it until well after it happened. They still had a lot of fun though.

BITTER SWEET

May 25th is a bitter sweet day for me. Let's start with the bitter because who doesn't like getting the yucky part over with first.

May 25th is my brother MICHAELS birthday. He would have been 40 years old. Quite a milestone. I can't believe 40 - that's just nuts! I paid a visit to him & took a pic for my mom who couldn't come with me..

I brought the orange flowers, but the yellow ones were already their. It's nice to know that others remember him & care. That others remember the goodness of him is very comforting to me. He is deeply loved & missed!

Now for the sweet! Yesterday was our 14th wedding anniversary! HOLY COW!! 14 years! If I didn't feel old already - that will do it. We've gone from this...

To this...

So what if we're a little bit older & bigger! Overall - we're happy! I love Erik dearly & he is a wonderful man. After all of the hard times we've been through I feel like we can make it through anything. And the good times are just the icing on the cake!

GO CARDS!!

In honor of the Cardinals participating in the Super Bowl this weekend I'd like to post this little picture...
This is Erik with Deuce Lutui. He's a Guard for the Cardinal's & he was in the Easter Pageant in 2007. He was so nice to take this picture. I asked if he would mind taking a picture with Erik & he said,"No - can I take MY picture with this guy? Check out this costume." I'd love to see the Cardinals win if it was just for his sake because he seems like such a nice guy! GO CARDS!!!

CHRISTMAS CARD

For those of you that did not receive this via email for whatever reason - here you go...


Dear Family and Friends,


We are taking the easy way out this year & emailing our cards. Much better than last year when we did nothing! So, here's a little peek into what we've been up to...


ERIK - Erik still works for Bell Photographers & enjoys his job. He's working hard to pick up new schools for next season. He also has a new passion he's busy working on. It is "Mob Wars" on facebook. If anyone has a facebook account be sure to find Erik & join his mob. And if you don't have an account - consider opening one so you can join in the fun. He's also been moving our house around. He moved our office into our loft & separated the girls. Which turned into quite the project of reorganizing the whole house. He is also enjoying this season for another one of his loves - Basketball season! He is currently the Sunday School teacher for the 14+ year olds in our ward.


MELANIE - Melanie's been busy teaching away. Her studio is closing though & that comes with mixed emotions. Sad to see it go, but happy to be home more. She lost her older brother Michael this summer & that has been hard. Thank goodness for the gospel & the knowledge that she'll be able to see him again. She just received a calling as the 1st counselor in the Young Womens & is excited for this opportunity. She's even started to work a little more for Erik.


KYLIE - 9 years old - Kylie is our little social butterfly still. She just turned 9 this month & loves having her own room. She's growing up so fast it's just unbelievable! She is now in 3rd grade & was chosen as Student of the Month in September. She was chosen to play "The Dead Girl" in the Easter Pageant this year & loved every minute of it! She was elated to see a clip of her part on the news even. She did so well with her big part. The directors must have thought she did a good job as well because she has been cast in the same part for this coming year! Erik's just hoping he'll be able to carry her up the ramp this time without falling since she's so long. Keep your fingers crossed for us.


JADYN - 5 1/2 years old - Jadyn is still our little princess. She is a girly-girl through & through. She loves anything to do with make-up, hair & fashion. (Poor kid picked the wrong mom to have with those passions.) She started Kindergarten this year & is very proud that she gets a 100% on almost everything she does. She's our little genious & school is not tough for her at all. She loves that her school is a little harder than the normal public school because it's still too easy for her. We'll see how long that lasts. She also received the priviledge of being chosen as Student of the Month for November. She lost her first tooth yesterday & is happy to show everyone how her tongue can now stick out of her teeth.
We are so blessed in many ways. We love & appreciate all of you! We would not be who we are without any of you. We are so thankful for this season & for the Savior in our lives. We love this time of year to be reminded often of His birth & all that He has done for us. We hope all of you are happy & well. We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!


Love - The Parkinson's

MY WEEKEND

First off, I'm going to do this a little out of order. I'm going to start with Saturday. I spent most of the day at the boutique mentioned in the previous post. It was fun. Not as busy as I'd hoped, but still good. If anything, it was worth hanging out with Shelley all day. She's a blast to be with.


After the boutique was over I rushed home to host a combined birthday party. Actually, Mignon did all of the work - we just used my house. It was for my nephew Carter, my Erik & my Grandma Smith. It was quite the occasion since it was my Grandma's 90th! She's such an amazing women. We're still trying to decipher all of her crazy stories in life.


Yes, Erik's birthday was last Thursday. He is now 35 years old. He's getting up there & we love to tease him about it. Especially since he really doesn't care. I am blessed to have him in my life. He is wonderful. Here's just one of the many reasons why he's great & how I will now tie in my Friday night.....


We were lucky enough to go out on Friday for Erik's birthday. What does he chose to do? Go see TWILIGHT!! Gotta love that man! I thought for sure he would have picked 007, but he didn't. He was interested to see how Twilight would turn out - as well as me being absolutely giddy about it, so we went to see it. He said it was OK, of course. And I LOVED IT, of course! I'm as bad as all of the swooning teenage girls that were in the theater with us. What I loved most was the fact that people were cheering & screaming in the movie. It was great! When does that ever happen? Plus, everyone I've talked to that has seen it said people were vocal in their showings as well. Sure, it was cheesey in parts & you could tell it was a low budget film. But, that was half the charm I thought. I'm actually leaving my home to see it again in an hour by myself because I can't stand it! I have to see it again! Another thing I loved was the fact that my sis RUBY called me last night to tell me that she might be in love with Edward. She's never read the books, but LOVED the movie as well. Thanks RUBY that really made my day! Now get reading!!

Hope everyone else had a fun weekend like I did. I can't remember the last time I had a weekend packed with excitement like this that I just had to write about. So, now, in honor of my new texting fun with REN & RUBY (We like to randomly text quotes from the movie to each other.) here's a quote for ya...
"I only said it would be better for you if we weren't friends. Not that I didn't want to." - E.C.

OUR LUCK

This is our how luck in life goes. Even though this all happened to Erik - this is typical for us.

So, here is the adventures of Erik & Chad...

Last August Erik & Chad (the other salesman that he works with) had to take a trip up to Ogden, Utah to pick up some stuff from the lab. They flew up on a Monday morning & were to drive home on Tuesday. So, they're off! On the way back home on Tuesday (they're also pulling a large horse trailor behind the truck) they break down outside of Lake Mead. Apparantly one of the wheels was wobbling & they got out to look at what was wrong. 3 of the lugnuts had broken off. WHAT??!! So, they wait for a few hours for a tow truck to come & get towed to Las Vegas. They get stuck in Vegas for 3 days waiting for parts & to get things fixed. Finally, on Friday they start to head home. On the way home they break down AGAIN in Wickenburg. This time the starter motor went out. So, they rent a van to drive back to town to wait for the truck to get fixed.

Last Monday Erik & Chad had to make a trip up to St. George & back. On the way back (it's always on the way back) they were driving through the Gorge when 100's of rocks come flying off the mountain & just shred the windshield to Erik's truck. (So I'm told anyway - I never got to see the damage.) When they arrived in Wickenburg it was time to fill up the truck again. So, they stop at the same gas station as they did in the previous story. They pull out after filling up & the truck dies in the middle of the intersection. They push the truck back into the parking lot to try & figure out what is going on. Keep in mind that this is around 9:00 at night.

While sitting in the truck figuring out what to do & making some calls they see another car do the exact same thing. They jump out to help the guy push his car back into the parking lot. (What good samaritans!) Anyway, it turns out that they had gotten some bad gas. Which, come to find out, is not an easy fix & does a real number on your engine. So, they call for a tow truck & wait for it to drive up from Peoria to get them & sit back & watch all the cars die. (Actually, I think they put bags on the pumps after a little bit, but there was a few that died before that happened & I can only imagine Erik & Chad sitting in the truck laughing their heads off watching the cars drop like flies.) The tow truck shows up around 11:30pm & they decide which dealarship to tow to. So, I being the good wife (J/K), load up my girls at 1:30 in the morning (with school for both of them the next day) & head out to pick the boys up at the dealership they got dropped off at.

Erik takes his keys in the next day & picks up a rental car for awhile & also finds out that the mechanic is a kid from High School he knew. FUNNY! On Fiday the truck is still not close to being done, so Erik still has the rental. He's driving on the freeway & he sees a giant rock come flying. With cars on the side of him he had nowhere to go. He just had to sit & watch it hit. It hits the windshield quite hard! It didn't go all the way through, but glass still went flying over the dash of the passenger side & even flew onto Erik's cheek & arm! This is the second windshield mishap in a week!!!

On Monday Erik finds out his truck is ready & takes the rental car back to them & tells them what happend. Story should end right? HECK NO!!!

Erik gets his truck & notices it needs gas. He calls me to let me know & tells me how happy he is to have his truck back! He finds a gas station & notices a tanker truck their & feels a little leary about filling up. He asks the tanker man his opinion on filling up & he says (now listen up because this is a good lesson for everyone) that he never fills up when a tanker truck is at a gas station. Apparently when a tank is being filled, if it has junk on the bottom, that junk will get mixed around with the gas. He said to always wait at least 30 min. to let the junk settle back down to the bottom of the barrel so it doesn't ruin your engine. So, he heads somehwere else to fill up. After filling up he notices that his gauge is still pointed to "E". So, he drives straight back to the dealership laughing & tells the mechanic what's up. Now, he has another rental & is dealing with insurance on getting the windshield replaced on the previous rental car.

This is now the end of our story - we hope!! The week is still young & he still has a rental car in his posession. Wish us luck!