Our Fun Family

Pumpkin decorating, Sesame Street friends, Shamu and friends, and trick or treating in the neighborhood.  That pretty well sums up our Halloween family weekend.  Gram and Grandad took the girls to the pumpkin patch earlier this week.  They each came home with little bitty pumpkins to decorate.  The intense focus they had as they colored on their pumpkins absolutely cracks me up.  They are too, too precious. Pumpkin Decorating VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Goodness gracious!  It has been forever since I updated this blog.  What a fun and busy summer this turned out to be.  Let me recount some of the highlights since my last posting... let's see, 4th of July in Tyler with a family fireworks display and blueberries; a second trip to Sea World (my girls are still talking about it); Grace started kindergarten; Grace turned 5; we became a "diaper free" home, and Hailey got her ears pierced.  Grace loves school.  After her first day, I asked her what her favorite part of the day was, she told me it was running in the gym (during the YMCA's after-school program).  The conversation went something like this: Daddy:  So you liked running in the gym, huh? Grace: Yep.  I can run fast. Daddy:  You are faster than all the boys, right? Grace: Yes. Daddy:  Good.  I want you to always be faster than those silly boys.  I don't want them catching you. Grace:  Yea, I am faster.  They are easy to catch... That conversation

Like 99% of Americans, the family dollar isn't stretching as far  as we would like.  And with 2 toddlers, the name of the game is lots of bang, lots of options for a quick change of plans and as little money as possible.  We are very blessed to be centrally located in Texas.  Last summer we camped near Houston, so we could take advantage of the zoo and children's museum all while camping in our travel trailer at a nearby park.  This year, we stayed even closer, opting for San Antonio.  This year, SeaWorld San Antonio opened Bay of Play, a Sesame Street themed play area and splash pad, perfect for toddlers like ours.  A great big playscape of tunnels, tubes, slides and cargo nets for Grace, and a large collection of sprinklers, gushers, sprayers and waterfalls for Hailey.  Toss in a handful of toddler-size rides and coasters and shows and it was more than enough to fill the calendar for 2 solid days.  When we take our travel trailer on the road, it usually means we are headed

My cousin Suzanne got me thinking about my family heritage sometime last year.  As we began re-connecting and acquainting ourselves and our families, a common bond was certainly our shared legacy and family history.  She has done some wonderful and extensive work on Ancestry.com, tracing our Cornish family back to the earliest days of America at Plymouth.  With the passing of my grandmother last week, and a visit to family grave sites in Muskogee, Oklahoma, my curiosity was re-stoked as I got busy updating the maternal side of my family tree.  The data available online is quite extraordinary really.  To date, I have traced the Parker family line all the way back into the 1200’s, when King Richard II deeded property to a monk named Robert LaParker.  There are still plenty of leads to follow up on, and items to analyze, but the initial findings are amazing.  Interestingly enough, finding the details of the family from abroad, even dating back several centuries proved far more reliable th

Because the trip to Tulsa was such a long drive with the girls in the truck, it was important to us to have a few days to spend in Tulsa.  The last thing I wanted to do was pack up the girls for a 8-9 hour drive up there, go to Mema's funeral and then just turn around and head home.  The extra day or so before and after the funeral gave us a chance to drive around, see some of the old haunts and also take in a beautiful spring day in the parks of Tulsa.  Tulsa really is a pretty city, and I have great memories from growing up in Tulsa, particularly parks like Woodward and La Fortune.  Woodward Park is a beautiful park full of seasonal gardens.  This park is almost always packed with people getting their wedding, engagement, senior or prom portraits done.  Its a little bit early in the spring there, but we did get some nice pictures of the dogwoods, azaleas and tulips in bloom.  This park is definitely a city treasure, a crown jewel for the Parks and Recreation department.  La F

You don’t reach the age of 87 without passing a few milestones along the way.   God chooses all women to bear the title “daughter”, and of those, many women bear the title of “sister”.   Mema took pride in the way she doted over her siblings.   The women in this family have an inner strength that supports a very strong backbone.   If you haven’t heard the opinion of a Chapman woman, then chances are you are both blind and deaf, or at the very least, several counties away. It was a special day, September 10 th , 1941, on the banks of the Truckee River in Reno, Nevada that Mema gained a new title and a new name.   Lahoma Chapman, at the young age of 20, was now Mrs. John Parker.   This little girl had gone from “daughter” to “sister” to “wife”.   To be the bride of John Elder Parker was an honor that my Mema clung to for her entire life.   I fully expect that on Monday afternoon, April 4 th 2011, when Mema entered the gates of Heaven,   St. Peter was merely the maitre d’, and as far

(A continuation from the post below) So we made it through our anniversary weekend.  Our eyes were clearly focused on the prize that awaited us at the end of the week.  Some much needed R & R at the Hilton Hill Country Resort and Spa was the prize we were seeking.  Gram was on the schedule the watch the girls for us and all we had to do was make it through 1 more week.  Traveling is a big part of my job, and this week had me making a return trip to Baton Rouge for meetings with our support teams in our corporate office.  This would be just a quick 2 day trip.  Up on Tuesday morning, back on Thursday evening.  Then, one more day in my home office, which was mostly blocked by a long webinar session.  So Tuesday, I was up bright and early.  I caught the 7am flight to Houston without issue.  When we missed the connecting flight to Baton Rouge, I probably should have taken this queue as my last chance to head home, crawl back into bed and try this week over again the next day.  But

Talk about a crazy week or so…  Last Saturday, on February 12th, Brenda and I celebrated 6 years of marriage.  Can you believe its been that long?  I am sure most people can relate to the feeling, some days it feels like it was just yesterday.  On other days, it feels like we have been together forever.  And no, I don’t mean that in a “prison sentence that just won’t end” kind of way.  Rather, being married to Brenda has been the greatest ongoing joy of my life.  We live real life together in a way that I just didn’t know was possible 7 years ago.  I would categorize this past week as a testimony to the strength of our marriage.  We are certainly living out some of the “for better or worse” moments right now. So let’s take a step back here.  Since our anniversary fell on a Saturday, and a Valentine’s Day weekend, my beautiful bride and I decided in all of our practicality, that we would celebrate our anniversary, not on the 12th, but rather on the 19th.  An kid-free overnight trip to

We didn’t’ get the 3 to 4 inches that were predicted for our area, and it didn’t snow all night and all morning as our weatherman said it would, but we did wake up this morning to a thin blanket of white fluffy snow in our yard this morning.  It wasn’t enough to make a decent snowman, and the snow wasn’t wet enough to pack a good snowball, but the girls had fun.  We slept in this morning and had a good hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham and cheese, biscuits and homemade jams and apple butter and then got the girls bundled up in several layers of warm clothes.  The sun was well up by the time we got outside and the snow was already beginning to melt.  The girls played outside maybe an hour, just long enough to get good and cold and then they came in to watch their Tinkerbell movie.  This afternoon, we will head over to the Y and hit the Family Pool to burn off some more energy and come home to make homemade pizzas and watch a cartoon movie before bed.  As they say about t

Today is Sunday, January 30th.  I am noting the date because I am about to lose big time, I mean huge.  A loss like this should be worth remembering, permanently etched in my mind.  Tomorrow morning, we begin our second “season” of Biggest Loser.  Last August, I accepted a challenge from two of my sisters, a weight loss challenge.  All three of us have struggled with our weight, and all three of us at times haven’t struggled nearly enough with our weight.  We got complacent, accepting our weight as a few extra pounds, and it is absolutely amazing how deceptive a mirror can be.  Some people look in a mirror and have some sort of epiphany about their appearance and the physical affect that extra weight can have on a body.  I didn’t have that sort of epiphany.  As a matter of fact, I honestly believe that my self-image allowed my mind to process the image reflected in the mirror as something different than what was actually there.  I actually “saw” a man in the mirror with a few extra pou