I'm SUCH a Mean Mommy

Does any one else hear on a daily basis how mean they are? I mean really, since Noah turned five I get lectured daily about the injustice of having me as a mean mother.

Here are just of the few ways that I am mean...

-I will not let him hit, kick, bite, or sit on his sister

-I make him take showers or baths when he's dirty

-I will not let him eat candy for breakfast

-I force him to take allergy medicine, and heaven forbid VITAMINS...the nerve

-I will not let him stay up until 10pm watching Spongebob

-I make him sit at the family dinner table and eat, talk about his day, and turn the TV off

-I won't let him leave the house without a hug and a kiss from me....

Hmmm...come to think of it, I had a pretty "mean" mom myself!

So hope all of you other "meanies" are having a good day!

Beware of the Goose...

Me and my two babies got bored in the house so on Friday we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and have lunch and play at the park. (Basil Griffin park where the pond and the ducks are). Well, should I say me and my two babies and the rest of Warren County Elementary school aged children...

Anyway, we unpack our lunch and eat at a picnic table and have a lovely little time except for our food kept trying to blow away and then Lilly decides to throw some at some birds and I think a lady at a table next to us thought we were trying to throw some at her...

So we decided lunch was over and we took our left over bread bags down to feed the ducks. Did I mention there were 967 kids at the park that day? Needless to say, the ducks were not hungry. We threw bread and threw bread and the ducks were not interested. This is very frustrating to a five year old I believe. In his frustration Noah decides to chase a very LARGE goose, and I yell to Noah, "Noah stop! That goose will flog you." Because the goose looked like it was considering just that very thing.

Noah stops dead in his tracks and says," What does flog mean?" I think about this for a moment and then I say, "Well, uh, they get mad and flap their wings on your head and stuff.." I know this sounds very intelligent but it was the best description I could come up with on the spot...

Noah seems satisfied with the explanation and goes on his merry way. I forgot about the goose and the bread and the threat of my son being flogged....UNTIL...

A group of elementary schoolers and their teacher walk by and they're going to feed the ducks. One of the kids starts to chase the very same goose that Noah did. Noah, being the good Samaritan that he is decides to warn this unsuspecting child and yells"

"Hey guys, don't chase that goose it will "FLUCK" you..."

WHAT?!? "Flog, Noah, it's FLOG!!!"

"Oh yeah Mom, I forgot the word..."

GREAT...that concluded our duck feeding adventure...

And the Winner is...

CAROLINE!!!!

Congratulations to Caroline!!!! We had a lot of fun during this session and her "fan club" absolutely flooded my inbox with votes for her! There were some very close runners' up but I and some other people retallied the votes several times and she is our model contest winner!!!

Caroline (well actually Caroline's mommy with receive a 16x20 wall portrait and Caroline's pictures will be featured in some ad campaigns coming up for the studio.

I had so much fun doing this contest and I've already had several people ask about another one, so I'm considering running a similar contest in the fall with some outdoor shoots.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of you guys who participated with your beautiful children and thanks for all of the votes...I've been a busy busy girl counting them all up!

I promised you the story of the drive home...

OK guys, you read the vacation story and are recalling the loveliness of the beach and the not-so-loveliness of princess Lil so here is part deux of the Parsley/Stevenson family gulf shores vacation. We decide that since the Huntsville Alabama space center is over half way home it would make a great stop for the kids to get out a stretch their legs. And since Noah is currently fascinated with all things space related it seemed perfect.

So we get to the space center and we are touring the museum. We head outside to see the outside "rockets" as Noah calls them when it starts to rain a little so we head back inside to peruse the overpriced gift shop where Noah proceeds to beg for a $55 polyester space suit...but that's another story...I'll try to focus...Anyway, they announce over the loud speaker that they need everyone to come to the IMAX theater room...uh OK...

So we get in the theatre and they flash the WEATHER Channel up on the IMAX screen. OK, have you ever seen an IMAX screen? It's enormous...so in huge huge letters we see that we are currently under a tornado WARNING and there has been a tornado spotted along with softball sized hail. Well great...

Then they announce that they want the families with small children to proceed to the restrooms on the underground section...OK it's a SPACE MUSEUM...everyone has small children...however I take a quick look at Lil and decide she is one of the very smallest so me and Nana dash with the children to the bathroom (We leave poor Daddy and Papa in the dust...the Mama bear instinct is kicking in you know.) Travis is not about to let us out his sight so he somehow catches up to us in the mad rush (there was a ton of people there). Basically we file into a huge public bathroom with about 200 other people and get this. Me, Mom, Travis Lilly and Noah have to share a stall. We're trying not to panic and here is what's funny about this situation. WE are wedged in that bathroom and lo and behold the toilets are on a motion sensor so anytime one of the 5 of us move, yep the old toilet gives a big flush! Let me just say that it gets hot in a bathroom really fast and a preschooler and a toddler don't take well to being squashed in like sardines in a can. Poor Lilly was banging her head against the stall before it was over. they finally announce that the danger has passed and we are released from the bathrooms.

But seriously, it did get very scary for awhile and I was very thankful that we were OK because it was the very same storm that then ripped through Murfreesboro TN and killed a young mother and her baby.

So after the excitement we made it back home without any further complications. So in the words of Paul Harvey I guess you've heard the rest of the story. This concluded my rambling on and on about gulf shores for this vacation!

Before I forget...

My precocious five year old sometimes comes off with the funniest stuff. For example, this is our conversation on the way home from preschool yesterday.

"Mom, Where are we going today?" Asks Noah.
"Well, we're going home like we usually do." I reply.
"Well see Mom, I was hoping today we could stop by the music store and get a trombone."

Ahem, what? Where is the music store that we can "stop by" between Chalybeate and our house? and how on earth does Noah know what a trombone is? I just give him a confused look and say, "Noah maybe another day, but we're not going to get a trombone today."

Then a few days ago he comes running out of the bedroom and says "Dad, you'll never believe the great idea that just hatched in my brain..." I can't remember what the great idea was, but the "hatching in my brain" part had me and Travis laughing our heads off. He is too much fun sometimes!

Gulf Shores...

After the long bout of sickness that our family has endured this winter (remember stomach virus, flu, ear infection, upper respiratory infection, the diarrhea that wouldn't end?) we decided on one day's notice that we were going to spend Spring Break at the beach...any beach....somewhere that wasn't here in the wet and the cold and the snot and the well you get the picture!

We called Sunday evening and found a condo in Gulf shores that we could check into on Monday. We loaded up the van along with Nana and Papa and off we went at 5 am! The kids actually did relatively good on the 9 hour drive. The just got a little crazy the last 30 minutes or so.

Anyway we finally made it...and this was the view from our beachfront condo...

LOVE IT!

Anyway, we shopped for groceries on Monday night (eating out with the kids on vacation is pretty much limited and out of the question...) Then by Tuesday we spent the rest of the week doing a whole lot of nothing. I mean nothing that had any schedule or planning. We played on the beach, hunted for shells, watched Papa fish off the shore, and I managed to get a little reading done while the kids napped each day. It was so nice to not have any place to be but relaxing.

Fast forward to Wednesday...Nana and Noah were up for another full day at the beach, and Travis volunteered to occupy Lil in the condo so I decided to sneak off to the outlet mall for a little while, and I had one destination in mind....Strasburg Children's clothing. You see I had packed up my camera equipment and had my mind fixated on a portrait of my children holding hands walking along the beach like the little angels that they are in my daydreams. Well I find Lilly two perfect outfits and I disregard the price of them, I mean it's an investment in my photography endeavors right? (Nod here to make me feel better...) I had already bought Noah's beach outfit and so the next day we waited until sunset and off we went to the beach to capture my picture.

Oh but wait...I forgot to tell you that our little diva HATED the sand and really wasn't fond of the wind or the water either. She is basically a little pampered princess and really doesn't like anything grimy or dirty or gritty and I'm pretty sure she thought the sand was one big dirt pile and she was highly offended that we dared to plop her precious little naked toes in it. So me and Nana and the love of little Diva's life (aka Daddy) decide we can make this work. To no avail, we beg, we plead, we threaten, we bribe, there was no getting Lil to stand and look happy...heck I gave up on happy...just not look mad... At the Strasburg store the tagline on their door and ads and such said "Strasburg....in the business of dressing angels..." Oh no strasburg... not this time...

Notice her highness is much happier when her shoes prevent that offensive sand from getting to her feet...

So we gave up that night....and I (being a glutton for punishment) decide that I am not giving up. I dress them up again the next day and parade them back to the beach...now they're both mad and Travis wasn't too happy either at this point. Long story short...there is no fairy tale picture of my kids strolling by the sea shore. We however did get a lovely one of Noah dragging his crying baby sister across the sand kicking and screaming. I'm pretty sure I should have it enlarged in canvas to hang on the Wall...Oh wait I get to see that in person every day!

After I gave up my pipe dream of creating the perfect beach portrait the rest of the vacation was great. Stay tuned for the next post about the trip home...it's a story in itself! And I got over being upset with the contrary little princess who ruined my artistic vision...I mean who can stay mad at a face like this? OK maybe she is an angel after all...and alas, the perfect beach portrait can wait until next year right? Hellooo Travis...right?

Start Voting....NOW!!!

OK guys, quick post to let you know I'm taking votes on the model search.

Here are the rules.

1)You must email the votes to me jparsley@windstream.net

2) You may only vote one time per gallery. (Vote for one picture number only)

3) Anyone is qualified to vote but I will only accept one vote per email address per gallery.

4) All votes will be kept confidential. I will try to update as far as who's in the lead but I will not reveal who was voted for by whom.


Here are the contestants...

Evan
Olivia
Ethan
Eli
Jackson
Josie
Ellie Claire
Emma
Caroline

You can view their galleries by clicking www.jparsley.zenfolio.com
Scroll toward the bottom of the page....they are the most recent listed.

VOTING WILL END AT MIDNIGHT ON SATURDAY THE 18th. I will announce the winner on my blog and they will win a 16x20 wall portrait as well as their portraits being featured in some new ad campaigns for the studio. Good luck and have fun!!!

Happy Easter!

"And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye; for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here; for he is risen, as he said..." Matthew 28:5-6

I'm sure that I'm like all the other Moms out there and I spend way too much time stressing over the perfect Easter outfits for the kids, the perfect baskets, the perfect this and the perfect that. This yearI have really tried to keep in perspective the meaning for this sacred holiday. I hope that everyone has spent some quiet moments this Easter truly thinking about what this day stands for. Jesus died on the cross and rose again that we might eternal life.

We spent the weekend with family and church friends. We had church Saturday night and Sunday at Beaver Dam and then we had an Easter Egg hunt for the kids. Travis and I had decided to just let our kids hunt eggs at home due to their egg allergies but thanks to my wonderful sweet friends Lesley and Stephanie and some other great Moms at church they decided to provide plastic safe eggs for the small kids to hunt so Noah and Lilly got to participate in the festivities as well. (Thanks girls, it's so great to have friends who are concerned about my kids being included on the fun!!!)

And another note about Easter festivities with kids with severe food allergies. Because of Noah's level 6 peanut allergy, he had never gotten to have a chocolate bunny. As many of you may be aware, kids like Noah who are allergic to peanuts can not eat chocolate produced in the same facilities as candy that contains peanuts or tree nuts because of the high risk of cross contamination of the candy. Anyway, we were able to find a company this year (Peanut Free Planet) that sells all kinds of candy for peanut allergic individuals. The chocolate is made by a company called Vermont Chocolate and it is AWESOME! It was so much fun getting to watch Noah enjoy his first chocolate bunny and to know that it was completely safe for him!!! We had gotten candy before from different companies that were allergy friendly but the taste wasn't good at all but I can say without a doubt this is some of the best chocolate I've ever tasted period. I would highly recommend them if your family needs to purchase candy for a nut allergic person. It is heavenly!!!

We then got to spend time with Travis' family and our sweet baby nephew and then it was on to My mom and Dad's house and visiting with the great-grandparents. I'm not sure when Easter became an actual gift giving holiday but by the time the day was over our kids had racked up 6 (yes I said 6) Easter baskets as well as sweet gifts from their aunt Kimberly and uncle Michael (my children are very loved by their family but also very spoiled!!!)

Anyway, after way too much fun and sugar we made it back to home sweet home and it's off to bed for the little ones because Spring break is officially over and it's back to preschool tomorrow for little Mr. Noah. We have had a great break, spending the entire last week at the beach. (More posts to come, stay tuned for vacation pics)

Contest Preview...

So all of my beloved readers who read my previous post know that as a person with asthma since I was six years old, know that when I get under the weather, cold, sinus infection, etc. instead of getting over it in a few days it often travels to my lungs where I end up on a nebulizer, or in the worst case in the ER. This is a scenario that has been repeated numerous times since I was a little girl. Fast forward to 2009. I now see a wonderful specialist who keeps a tight rein on my asthma symptoms...we haven't had an ER trip in 2 years!! Yahoo!!! The second that my lungs start getting "gunky" we go antibiotics and sometimes oral steriods, like I am today.

Has anyone else ever taken steriods (legally I mean, not as an athelete HAHa!) Basically you can go for days with out getting tired. Seriously, I started taking them yesterday and I went to bed last night at 1 am and didn't get to sleep until 3 am. Then I got up with the kids at 6. And seriously, I'm not even the least bit tired. I think that I should live on steroids, (oh except they really make you hungry and I'm sure it's not healthy to get three hours of sleep a night) but anyway... And I have went over 24 hours without having to be hooked up to a breathing treatment AWESOME!!!

The kids are much better today. Aside from having to wrestle Noah to get him to take his eye drops, all seems to be getting better. Lilly was in a much better humor today and didn't look like she had been rolled around by a cat or something.

I have promised them that after their house arrest is up for the week (meaning when they're pink eye is not contagious anymore) we will go to see Monsters VS Aliens on Friday. So if anyone else is going then you might want to rethink it. Lilly Grace in a movie theatre is fun for us, not so much for the other movie patrons. But they deserve it!!!

I'm posting some preview picks for the contest. You voters have a HARD job. I'll keep you posted when voting begins. I'll also post the rules to keep it fair. Just keep in mind, I'm NOT judging the photos. They will completely be tallied by your votes. Enjoy the beautiful kiddos!