Are you allergic to poison ivy?

Last Saturday Joseph and Parker had a chance to go with their cousins, aunts, and uncles on a big church trip.  They floated down the river on a canoe and had a wonderful time.  Half of the way down there was a bluff that hung over the water.  They temptation was absolutely too great to resist.  They dove, jumped, and flung themselves off that bluff into the water below numerous times.  Then they found a rope and swung out and dropped into the river.  After they exhausted themselves, they then had to swim down the river to where they had left their canoes.  All in all they had a wonderful time.  They came home pooped and sunburnt.  The next morning I kept hollering for them to get up and get ready for church.  Everybody had made their appearance except for Parker.  After a while he came stumbling down the stairs, his eyes all puffy, nose swollen and lips all red.  I figured maybe he had some massive allergies flaring up so I let him crawl back in the bed and we headed off to church.   When we got home he was not much better, so I gave him some benadryl, told him to rest up because he WAS going to the first day of school tomorrow. 

Bright and early Monday morning I woke up the boys and Parker rolled over at me and I just about died.  His face looked like this.....

And this.....

We couldn't figure out what in the world he had gotten himself into.  It took us a while but we finally realized that it had to be poison ivy.  If he walks outside and so much looks at a poison ivy plant it literally jumps on him.  There must have been some on the bluff they were climbing and I can just see him wiping the water off his face every time he dove into the water with poison ivy infested hands.  I took him into the Dr. and they gave him a good ole shot in the rear of some massive steroids.  They kind of chuckled and said that they had Never seen anyone look that miserable.  Leave it to us to get some weirdo disease or some bizzare battle wounds.  Since school started on Monday, there has been at least 1 to 2 people home sick with something.  When all 6 of them finally get in school, I won't know what to do with myself!

Peek-A-Boo

After school yesterday everyone was looking for an after school snack to eat. I was trying to get things done that I hadn't been able to during the day and I walked downstairs into the laundry room. I heard a strange noise and I looked over toward the washing machine and dryer and saw 2 legs sticking out of the dryer. I got a little closer and this is what I found.....



Parker, a pillow, a bottle of water, and a bag of doritoes. I am assuming he needed a little quiet time. That or he really did not want to do his after school chores!

Friday Foto March 5, 2010

Parker's Baptism Day In 2001, we moved to Winchester, Virginia. I did not want to move there. All of our family was here and I was so homesick. We only had Joseph, Parker, and Caden up there. This was Parker's baptism day. We had a wonderful day, and all of our ward family came over to our house afterwards to celebrate with us. We made the best friends up there. When we moved back to TN after 2 years, I cried harder leaving Virginia, then I did when we left TN.

Would you hire this photographer?

This is what I found on the camera this morning. You gotta wonder what goes thru that boys head sometimes!

Fan Club

Today when I picked up the kids from school Caden opened up the van door as two girls were walking by. They looked in the van and started screaming at Parker. He literally melted onto the floor. I asked him what in the world was going on and Caden busted out, "They are members of the "Porker fan club!"

Apparently we have our own celebrity right in our midst! He has a following of about 20 middle school girls. Like I said, it is never a dull moment with Parker around!

(I don't think that they call hime Porker because they think he is fat, I think the girl who came up with the "club" has a slight lisp.) ; )

P squared

One of Parker's teachers at school likes to call him P squared. (parker pennington) We have taken up the nickname, along with P-Tar.
When the boys were younger we used to call Joseph, Joe-bugs, Caden, Cady-bugs, and Parker, P-Dog. One day Parker said, "Not P-Dog, Dog P." We all got a great laugh out of that one.
Parker keeps us ROLLING around here. He is the funniest person I have ever met. If you are down he will definately keep you laughing.

Parker got in trouble yesterday in gym.
Normally I do not brag about these kinds of things, but this time is a little different.
Parker was in gym and some kid said, "I bet that you can't kick the basketball into the net on the other side of the gym." SO, in typical boy fashion, he said "You want to bet?" In his words, "I took the ball and just let go and that ball hit nothing but net mom. It was SO AWESOME!!"
Well, unfortunately the gym teacher didn't think that it was SO AWESOME. He got a write off. (remember those? I didn't even think that they gave those out anymore) It may sound like I am griping. I am not. I am not one of those parents who think that they have "perfect kids". In fact mine are the biggest knot heads that are around. If a teacher needs to punish my kids, I say go right ahead. I'll do it too when they get home.

Anyway, this is his write off (in his words, not mine).

I shouldn't kick the basketball because it could hit the roof and the light can fall and explode and send shards of glass flying and hit someone who could bump the bleachers and the rail can fall and hit a book that can fall on the floor and make a loud noise and someone would flinch and their necklace could fly off and get lost. It is bad because people could get hurt and not participate later so we should be safe with gym equipment and not play around. We should be a dog and think what will happen to others that is why we should be safe with stuffs in Mr. ****** class or we will have to write a paper on how to be safe.

Parker says that his gym teacher likes to say "stuffs" a lot. Such as, "You all get ready and I will go and get the stuffs." He also said that he tells them to be like dogs. Not giraffes or pumas. Dogs. Because dogs look out for each other in the pack.
I asked Parker what the gym teacher said when he gave him his write off. Personally, I don't think that I could be that bold and brash. He said that he laughed and handed it back to him and told him not to be kicking any more balls. Parker said "Yes Sir!"
He has promised that it will not happen again.