Dinner at the Parris Home

Brother Sam and Mrs. Anna have held a special place in our hearts since we came to Faith. Mrs. Anna is a wonderful story teller and Brother Sam is one of the most dedicated Clemson fans we have ever known!! (one toilet in the house has a Clemson toilet seat on it...need I say more?)

It surprised us when they invited us for dinner for this weekend and we were happy to go, looking forward to spending time with them. The last time we spent time with them was at the Clemson/UNC football game, which you can read about here. That was the very sad day our wonderful tarheels lost MISERABLY. We will NEVER forget that game. It was terrible. Last night was a lot more fun for us, I promise!


Mrs. Anna cooked up a delicious meal of roast, beans, mashed taters, corn, a WONDERFUL broccoli casserole and fresh veggies and cantaloupe. Not to mention the four desserts of chocolate chip cake (too sinful), banana pudding, cherry cheesecake, and moose track ice cream! Trust me, we did not leave hungry!


After dinner we talked at the table for a little while, sharing stories of how we were saved, stories of Brother RJ and Katie when they were little, stories of the grandchildren, etc...

Hannah and I helped Mrs. Anna clean the kitchen while Bruce watched Brother Sam and Harrison put puzzles together. Then we retired to the living room for more talking, story telling, and looking at the numerous picture books Katie has made for them.


Justin tried not to be rude, but just couldn't help falling asleep. At one point he was even snoring and we had to wake him up because we couldn't hear ourselves talking.


Hannah was tired too and very quiet through the evening. But she did a lot better than Justin and was able to, at least, stay awake.

Thank you, Brother Sam and Mrs. Anna for opening your home to our family. We had a great time and enjoyed the fellowship. It was a blessing spending time with you!

Dinner With Tim and Angie

As I said in the post below, we had dinner at Don's last night with Brother Tim, Mrs. Angie, and their youngest son, Logan. Their oldest son, "Todd," is in Puerto Rico too.


Angie and her sweetheart son, Logan. He is soooooo funny! He definitely has his own personality. lol And Angie has the sweetest voice. She's so nice and fun to talk to.


This is Brother Tim. He's a "special" case, this one. By the way, the wall tile in the background is not tile. I'm not sure what the wall was, but the tile markings were done with a magic marker. Pretty wild, huh?


Logan was hiding from my camera, but I GOT HIM!


At Sonic, Logan and Harrison found fun on the merry-go-round.



But then it was ice cream time. They were very serious about their ice cream!



These were Bruce's kin folk that showed up. From left to right is Aunt Diane, Uncle Robert, Uncle Richard, and Aunt Sylvia. Uncle Richard and Aunt Sylvia are my mother-in-law's brother and sister. These here are all good people and we love them so much!!


Theresa and Tammy were at Sonic too. They are so fun to be around. When you need to be around happy people, these are two that you look for!


And then of course was Brother Tim. Here he was showing his dog, Malachi, to someone at Sonic. The dog was not happy. Keep in mind, peeps, that these K-9 dogs are NOT pets. But I will say I have great respect for the dog. LOL.....Tim too, but I'm NOT telling him that!

Happy Birthday To Me!

ETA: The song with the video CAN be muted if it becomes too much. Which, after hearing it run through several times it does become annoying. However, you do need to hear it at least once.

My birthday was great! Thank you to all who took part in it. Those that wished me a happy day by phone, emails, blog comments and those who saw me today.

Bruce came home from work and gave me a really cute bubblegum pink external hard drive by Simple Tech. I had my files on it in ten minutes with 210GB left. I LOVE THAT!!

I received several phone calls this morning from family and friends. At 10:30 I was still in my jammies. Pam called first to see if I wanted to go to lunch. Duh! Then Janet called and asked if I wanted to eat lunch at the Tea Room. She knows I love their broccoli cheese soup. We called my mom at work to see if she could join us since the tea room was right there close to her bank. Everything was set. Now I had to fly to get ready. Janet picked me up in the church van along with Pam, Mander, Amy, Celine, Carissa, and Cameron. I was surprised and happy to see them all.

Unfortunately when we got to the tea room, they were closed today through the fifth. How dare they close on my birthday! We ended up at Pizza Hut, which was really good too. You know I love Pizza Hut. Anyway, there was way too much laughing going on. I'm surprised a couple of us weren't thrown out. The girls gave me presents, which I wasn't expecting....especially my gift from Pam. When I had told her Bruce bought me a bubblegum pink external HD, she misunderstood and thought he bought me bubblegum. We had a good laugh at that, but then we really laughed when I opened my gift bag from her and it was full of bubblegum. Very funny! The fellowship with them was what meant the most to me. I had a great time, y'all. Thanks for helping me to have a great birthday.

This evening, we met daddy at his house while we waited for mom to get off work. My mother in law was there too and Bruce would join us later after visiting the funeral home. While we were celebrating life, his best friend mourning the loss of his dad. Thankfully, his dad was saved and having his best day yet after fighting cancer these last couple of months.

So daddy has this thing he likes to do. He doesn't like to just give you a gift. He likes to make you work for it. So after finding clue after clue, which took me from one room to the next and ending at the mailbox, I finally got my gift. It was tucked in the mailbox, wrapped so pretty. I opened it up and it was a GPS....the MIO. Remember this post? I was so excited!! I've been wanting one forever. Then it was time to go. But where? Daddy gave me the directions and I used the MIO to get us there. Our final destination was Cracker Barrel. YUM

We had a wonderful meal and I opened my cards. Marie gave me birthday $$$. I'll be going shopping with that later. The kids and Bruce gave me some funny cards. And Bruce also gave me a charging home for my iPod. I was really thrilled about that gift because now I can listen to my iPod anywhere without my earphones. We made it back to the house for mom's delicious chocolate pound cake and ice cream. I couldn't eat but just a few bites of mine. She did let me bring the cake home though. I'll dig into it for real tomorrow. lol
Here's a slideshow of my birthday pics. Enjoy

A Hoppin' Place To Be

You've heard me mention my friend, Crystal, on my blog several times. Crystal has jumped on the bloggy wagon and has started her blog, A Hoppin' Place To Be. Crystal is a fourth grade teacher at a local school and, although I have never seen her in action, I am confidant that she is a great one. She has a true heart for the little ones and desires to see every child go farther in their education and life. She loves the Lord and has three great kids. She's also married to one of the nicest and craziest men I know, Terry.

Stop by and give her a holla! I know she'd love to hear from ya.

A Na-na-na-Boo-boo Lunch!

Today was Mander's birthday. One of our friends treated us all to lunch at Ham's. It was so delish and we had a good time. I hope you did too, Mander!


Carissa enjoyed her special Ham's chips and dip. As you can see she was wearing the dip.





Celine enjoyed her chips and dip too.




I'm not sure who started it, me, but someone, me, got Carissa saying, "Na-na-na-boo-boo" on top of sticking her tongue out. So we all joined in on the fun with her.....great role models, I know.

Just who ARE these people and why am I out in public with them?

It was an interesting lunch to say the least. Especially when Carissa started running through the restaurant yelling, "Na-na-na-boo-boo" while her mother chased her between the chairs and tables. LOL

Happy birthday, Mander! I love you!!

The youth group went to Carowinds today. Originally I would have gone, but Thursday is my babysitting day now. Mander didn't have to work, but I didn't find out for sure until Wednesday night. So I just ended up skipping this outing. These are some pictures of Cassie that Hannah took on the van. This girl is slap nuts.

The girl in the pink is Taylor, Cassie's best friend. These girls are always getting into something. Usually mischief. LOL

Hannah said they had a wonderful time. Justin said it was the BEST day he's had in a long time.

We went to Brian and Amy's tonight for a cookout. It was nice to sit in the living room and just chill while the guys grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. OH! While we're on the subject of food....does anyone out there put cucumbers in their potato salad? Just curious.

Batman flew through the house to the kitchen to drink his power juice. The commissioner had a job for him and away he went.

Unfortunately, Amy and Pam were still in Na-na mode. Will these two EVER grow up?

Birthday Party

Being a true blue Carolina fan, Justin wanted a TarHeel cake. How beautiful is that?


My friend, Amy, made the cake. She can make some YUMMY cakes. Her icing, especially, is so good. I could eat a whole bowl of it, it's so good.


BroKen always has some unusual facial expressions to share with the camera.


This is Pastor and Mrs. Ava. That's Jordan giving Pastor bunny ears. SHAME ON YOU, Jordan!!

Sweet Crystal. She has an infectious laugh and I love to hear it.

That's Justin's picture slideshow from birth to present that Bruce put together in the background. It turned out good. I'm going to try and figure out how to post it. His baby pictures are so sweet.

Everybody seemed to eat good, even though we had lots of leftovers. We had nachos and cheese, tacos with the fixin's, and mom's homemade sloppy joes (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH MANWICH) and of course cake and ice cream.

Tammy!

My Sweetie Pie

Haili, Nicole, Cheyenne, and Hannah were enjoying their food upstairs in the game room.

Justin C...poor thing. He opened up a strawberry 2liter and it erupted like Mount St Helen, spuing it's contents everywhere...including all over him.

Evan being as attractive as he can be for the picture he KNOWS will be on the blog. Yes, folks...one fine boy there!

His dad, on the other hand, smiles with his mouth full of....well....food.

Brother Joel caught me taking a picture of him getting ready to lick his fingers. We did have napkins, but why use a napkin when God gave us tongues?

Caleb is a sweetheart too. He'll be going in SIGMA this year. Hard to believe!

My Harry-boy with cheese sauce and chocolate all over him. He must have skipped the plates and ate straight from the trough.

Malachi, Isaac, and Joseph were so sweet sitting in the kitchen eating their food. Are they not cute?

Their little brother, Ethan, was content to sleep behind the couch.

My brother-in-law Barry came by and brought my nephew Zach. We were so happy they came!

Eventually, it was gift time. I thought this was a neat gift for a sixteen year old boy. He has a car sitting in the back yard ready to be worked on and I'm sure these gadgets and liquids will come in handy for that! Thank you, Corriveaus!

Justin was very pleased with the strings Gary gave him. Three sets for his banjo, fiddle, and mandolin. That's true musician brother-hood, wouldn't you agree?

Uh-oh! Gary + Evan + Jeremy = TROUBLE!

Brian and Amy were holding Baby Ethan. Ethan is a Douglass child, but we all share him. We just can't help it. lol Oh yeah, that's Brandon in the background. He's our "special" friend.

Naomi was so enjoying her ice cream. Don't you just love her hair? I think she's the prettiest when it's everywhere like that. Sometimes she'll take her little hand and brush it out of her face. I think that's precious.

Justin with the shirt and hat that Taylor gave him. I was so thankful that she bought him a new hat. The one he had was getting on my nerves. THANK YOU, TAYLOR!!!!!!!! It was definitely time for a change!

Of course, Justin was ultimately thrilled with the birthday cash received. It's his favorite color

and it always fits!

Some of us played air hockey, ping pong, and pool.

While some played video games.

Of course, Celine, just had to show off her new hair do. Isn't it lovely? She looks more and more like her mom everyday! LOL