Monday, September 15, 2008

Mom, this isn't really THAT funny...

Just remember.....I REALLY do love my children!!!!! Really,.....I do!!! This was just toooooooo cute to pass up!!! Can you see the cynical look he's giving me??? He's gonna have a dry sense of humor like his father.......and my sister Kim had this same dry humor.......oh me!!!!! Look at that cocked eyebrow! We're going to be in for it, huh?

Sunday, September 14, 2008

The Banner Family Renunion

Today, we went with Nana and Pa-Paw to the Banner Family Renunion. Nana's friend (and distant relative) Billie Church gets this together every year. Nana's maiden name was Banner before she got hitched to that old Parlier man!!! Anyway......we've tried to go for the last few years and it's always a nice day! We went to church at Billie & Ross's Church next door to their outdoor Fellowship area. The boys acted like they've never been in Church before!!!!! Oh me....After several threats against their very lives, they settled down for us.
Below is a picture of Dorothy and Jack Banner....I believe she told me he was the oldest Banner in atendance that day....

Below are three people who are VERY interested in what is being said!!!

Here is our Mackie trying his best to get a hold of Eli Church!

Here, Creston is aggravating a little girl and apprarently,....loving every minute of it!

I do see a resemblence here between the two Macks...

Here, Creston & Ethan Church are attacking each other with their balloons...

The End...

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Iris is here!!!

We're very happy to have Mark's Aunt (she is Mack's late brother Wayne's wife) Iris here visiting with all of her Parlier family this week! She and her sister came down all the way from Lockport(e)?, New York. Iris is staying with Mack & Dorothy's sister-in-law Mary Alice on down the road from us. We always love to see Iris come to visit! She is really a very sweet, and special person to us!


Now...........Johnny.....you get to feeling better and load up the family and get down here soon too, o.k.????? :o)

Thursday, September 11, 2008

September 11, 2008

Today is the 7th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on our Country. Since this is the first year that 9/11 has come since I’ve had my blog, I thought that I would write down some of my thoughts from that day. (Not that my thoughts are anything necessarily important for anyone else to read ~ since we all went through it together as a nation, but for my own benefit). I found the website for the National 9/11 Memorial. http://www.national911memorial.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homepage2 It shows the proposed new building information and info. about the Memorial and the Museum. It also has pictures and stories from that day.

I was at work that day and someone came by my office door and mentioned that they had heard that a plane had hit the World Trade Center in NYC. It could have been an accident….I immediately e-mailed Mark and told him what I had heard. (I think he still has this e-mail from me). There was a TV in the break room on the lower level of our building. I think we all wound up in that room watching everything unfold before our eyes. We actually saw the second plane hit, saw both towers fall, and watched in silent horror as it dawned on us that all of those people in those buildings and anywhere nearby had to have died. I remember saying “All of those people……they’re dead…”.

Nothing like that had ever happened in such a massive way on our own soil. We weren’t prepared to deal with it emotionally. I’m sure, like Mark & I did, everyone went home that day and sat glued in front of your televisions and watched and re-watched it all play out over and over before our very eyes. Technology is amazing with the fact that the entire attack was captured on cameras all over that city, but then to have the ability to sit and watch it all repeatedly did something to us as a nation. There used to be a time when the News wouldn’t show death, but that evening and many days and months afterwards, we were shown clips of those planes filled with all those innocent people slamming into those buildings and then we watched as more innocent people jumped to their deaths because they feared the type of death that they knew awaited them if they stayed in those burning buildings. Those are the images burned in my mind. I can’t watch anything about 9/11 without crying for all the lives that were affected on that day ~ those Mothers, Fathers, Children, Sisters, Brothers, & Friends who started that eerily perfect beautiful day without ever once thinking that their lives would change forever.

I’ve heard it said that each generation has a horrible event occur that they remember forever. I wish that it wasn’t so. I wish that this world and all of its inhabitants could get along and live in such a way that wars and killing wouldn’t be necessary. I wish that I could promise my beautiful sons that they would NEVER have to worry about anything like this happening in their lifetime. I wish that these horrible events would just stop happening, but I know that will never happen. All we can do is make sure that we tell each other as often as we can that we love each other and let each other know the differences that we have all made in each other’s lives. Life is a precious gift and we only have a certain number of days to live it to the fullest. All of those people who died that day thought that they had more time…

To all of my friends and family, each and every one of you have helped to mold me and make me the person that I am today. Each smile, tear, hug, heartache, kind thought, and all that “other stuff” has had such an effect on my life. I hope that I have been able to be a good friend and daughter, grand-daughter, niece, aunt, cousin, mom, and all that “other stuff” to all of you. I often find myself spread very thin while juggling parenting, working, being a wife and all that “other stuff”. Life doesn’t make any more sense to me today than it did a few years ago, but I’m working on figuring it all out and will let you all in on my big AhHah! moment when I find it!

Thank you all for letting me be in your lives. Thank you for accepting me and my family and our quirky ways. Keep us in your prayers and you will all remain to be in ours.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The weirdest thing that I've heard of in a While!!

O.k......I'm all about Science Fiction. I'm all about advancement of our species. I'm all about knowledge...but...this thing?





The above picture reminds me of the movie Contact (with Jodie Foster). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kht_rJs38Y4 In that movie, we(earthlings) get blueprints from aliens to build a gadget that kinda looks like the thing above. Well...looky here! I found a picture of the Contact Contraption!!! See!! Kinda similar, huh?


Anyway, with the above gadget, us earth people can hope to travel to meet the aliens! Hey.....why in the world not??????? I mean,......sign me up to get into a big weird scary-looking contraption that will take me to only the Good Lord above knows where!!! :o)

O.k......back to REALITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The reason for my post is the following...The first set of pictures on this particular blog entry shows The Large Hadron Collider. It has been built somewhere near the Switzerland/France border, and it is supposed to change our fundamental understanding of the universe. How? Well....click on this link and you'll see!

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/the-bosons-that.html#previouspost

It's really kinda interesting, considering it's supposed to be the most expensive scientific "instrument" built as of yet. I'm still a bit unsure as to what it's supposed to do. Some have been a bit upset saying that it would create a Big Black Hole in the center of the earth and suck everything into it...ending life as we know it!!!! I actually didn't hear about this thing till yesterday when a News broadcast reported that "Life as we know it may end tomorrow!". Boy...talk about an opening line!
Well, the testing started today. We're still here, but they're supposed to be running the thing for a long while, so I suppose anything could happen.

If we all get sucked into the center of the Earth by a big man-made black hole, I just want you all to know that I've enjoyed knowing every last one of you!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The Republican National Convention

I just watched Sarah Palin accept the VP Nomination and her speech was really something to see. I also watched the Democratic speeches last week. All of our choices are great speech givers. This election is going to definately be one to keep up with!

I found a really great site for checking up on the candidates and their stance on certain issues:

http://www.ontheissues.org/default.htm

You can click on any nominee and you will find out how they voted & where they currently stand on many issues that we all worry about.

Check it out!

Goodnight everyone!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The Green Daewoo!

We finally got the Green Daewoo Tagged and taxed and titled and all that good stuff! This was my mom's car, and since they have been driving a truck all over the great green earth for the past 7 years, it has been sitting in their garage just waiting for someone to drive it! It's a 2000 and only has 34,000+ miles on it! As I mentioned before, MY Daewoo has over 125,000 on it!

This is it!!! (Here you go Crystal!)
I like it! It's got 4 doors and AIR CONDITIONING!!!! I know that I won't need it too much longer, but until the snow starts to fall, I'll be cool as a cucumber!! Weeeee Doggies!!!!!
Our weekend went well. Sunday we went to church, then ate at Arbys' (or Harbey's as Creston likes to go to Arby's AND Hardee's), then took the boys to Tweetsie! We had a good time and ran into a couple of our friends and two of their kids, Greg, Michelle, Jacob, and Tanner Hollars. We had a good time walking around and letting the kids ride the rides. The Train terrified Creston due to the over-eager Indians that like to whoop and Holler all over the place. He's scared to death of Indians!! Gonna have to work on that.
We were going to "Camp-Out" Sunday night in the back yard with the boys, but we were too pooped to party and decided to "Camp-In" in our own beds. Maybe in another week or two, we'll try it again for a day that doesn't involve anything else going on.
Hope that you all are having a good week so far! Take care!

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