Welcome to The Parish Family Website

Time for an update......

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:05:00 +0000

Hello everyone and happy spring! We hope that you are all doing well. Ben has been home for a few months now and we are all settled into a routine and a feeling of normalcy. We are so glad to be back to normal! Ben is enjoying his new job where he gets to travel quite often. While traveling, he spends his time inspecting the vehicle maintenance shops at all of the AMC bases. While he is home, he likes to join the other inspectors in trying out every local restaurant possible, oh, and of course, preparing for the next inspection!

I continue chugging away at nursing school and am maintaining a 3.75 GPA! I am excited to get to start the good stuff this summer and am looking forward to the next two years flying by!

The school year is coming to an end for the kiddos. Brittney will be graduating 8th grade in less than two weeks and is so excited to be starting high school next year. Christian is wrapping up his junior year and is ready to be a big SENIOR! Wow... I can remember those years like they were yesterday, yet my 20th reunion is this summer.

Wow, what else have we been up to? Well, here you go.......

There are still many homes being built in our neighborhood, so we took advantage of that and have been recycling the builder's scraps of wood. Here is a pile of some of the wood we were able to find.

This is what we did in the basement - so much better that before!

This is our wall we built in the garage. There is more to the right of the door as well.

We have been working some in the yard and the latest was putting in the landscaping around the trees. We did both trees in the front yard, but still have two more trees in the back that need done. The garden is also planted and we already have some different things coming up; squash, basil, spinach, carrots, zucchini, sunflowers, some great vines that will bloom beautifully, some other wild flowers, and much more. Again this year, we will have a garden surprise - there is really no telling what it will be!

We are so proud of our Brittney as she had the leading roll in her school's play this year, "Mothergoosed". She did a great job and the play was very funny. They all did fantastic!

This was after the play.....hanging out at 54th Street Grill - Christian, Jenna, Sydney, Brittney, and Bailee

In April, we all drove to Memphis, TN to be at my cousin's wedding. Everything was just beautiful and we had a wonderful weekend! Congratulations Anna and Nick!

Hanging out on Beale Street in downtown Memphis! What a trip that was. This is a pic of my brother Jonathan, Me, and my sister Lauren.

The Parish Family at the wedding

On the roof of our hotel - The Peabody - Jonathan, Ben, Christian, and Uncle Brian

Our Lexi turned 2 this April....we just love her so much and are all so glad she is apart of our family.

In the garden where she isn't supposed to be.......

Announcing our working boy.....CP got his first job at Domino's Pizza! Way to go son...we are proud of you!

We bought a new bike in February and just love it! It is a 2008 Suzuki Boulevard M190

We have been spending many of these nice weekends exploring Illinois with friends. This photo was taken in Chester, IL - the home of Popeye!

We hope all is well with everyone! Hugs and Kisses xoxox.....The Parish Family

It's ALL about the BALL!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:05:00 +0000

If you weren't aware.....it is, has always, and always will be ALL ABOUT THE BALL! We look over the other day and this is what we saw....Lexi was laying there, waiting patiently.....with her BALL!

The ball is her best friend. She takes it EVERYWHERE with her....she takes it outside to pee, she sleeps with it, she puts it in her bowl while she eats so she doesn't loose it.

And IF she does lose it? Oh Holy Cow! It is a crisis and everyone in the house has to help find it! And she has more than one, but only has one favorite. IF for some reason, she can't find her favorite, she will settle and play with a different one. We had to just throw away her favorite becuase she had busted a hole in it. So, now she has a new favorite. If you are in the shower, she stands at the shower door with her ball and begs you to play. The minute you open the shower door, she runs to get the ball and brings it to you. I have to play ball while I am doing my hair and make up...getting ready for the day, while getting dressed, and any other time in between. Lexi would play ball non-stop all day if we let her. Sometimes we have to HIDE the ball!

He's home!!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:50:00 +0000

Well, the moment we were waiting for all year finally happened on Jan 9, 2012.....Ben finally got to come home after being stationed in Korea for ONE WHOLE YEAR! This is a picture of the kids waiting for him at the airport. Everyone is so happy he is home....including him! Ben took a few weeks of leave and is just now getting back to work at his new job here at Scott AFB. He will be the lead vehicle maintenance inspector for the IG; he is very excited about this job and he will be traveling quite a bit (although we can handle a couple of weeks to a month every now and then over a year anyday).

The night he got home, he had to open his Christmas presents ;)

A week after Ben got home, him and I took a five day get away trip so we could reconnect! Don't laugh when I tell you where we went. The whole idea was to just get away...together.....even if it were down the street. So, Ben looked around and found a great old hotel in Dubuque, Iowa....and that is where we went. It was right on the border of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. And niether one of us had ever been to Iowa or Wsiconsin and we like to explore new places. So, here is a picture of Ben having a nice relaxing beer on our trip........

The hotel we stayed at was called the Hotel Julien named after Julien Dubuque, the founder of Dubuque, Iowa. This hotel was 150 years old and has recently been remodeled. It was beautiful and our room had a big jacuzzi tub right in it. They even had the most plush, comfy robes for us to wear while we were guests. The hotel had a spa in the basement and we enjoyed a couples massage together (this was Ben's first and I think he will have more;). It was SO cold while we were there, but we still had fun exploring the area, we just decided to skip the snow skiiing we had planned to do. We also forgot our snow boots, so the next day, we went to the mall and bought some. We are so glad we did, because we LIVED in them for the rest of the week.

Here you can see Ben....or can you tell it is him? That frozen river behind him is the great Mississippi!

After just getting out of the car for a 2 minute photo shoot, our hands and faces were F.R.O.Z.E.N! The Mississippi was behind us here, but we didn't have the tripod piece that hooked the camera to it, so we had to just set it up on the wall that was there.

On our adventures, we drove to a little town called McGregor, Iowa. This is the town my Grandpa (mothers daddy) and Great Uncle Dick grew up in. I had never been here before and it was so neat to visit. What a cute little town.

Just across the river, we drove through Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. While in Wisconsin, we bought a ton of cheese and had lunch in a great little town called Shullsburg, Wi. I had a 6 cheese grilled cheese sandwhich and cheese soup! Yummy.... I ♥ Cheese!

During our travels, our car got very dirty!

This photo was taken in Galena, Illinois. What a cute little town. We shopped at the little shops and bought some great sauces at the Galena Canning Company. We got some yummy BBQ sauces, rubs, salsa, and jellies! We also made our own candles at a place in the little town.

This photo was what we ended up driving home in. It was awful and Ben didn't think my idea to just stay another day was any good. Warm cushy hotel, great company, some more wine..... I thought it was a great idea;) We drove for a couple of hours in weather like this, and then the last two hours before we arrived home, we drove on one big sheet of ice! Very dangerous! In a matter of 1 hour, we saw 12 different accidents/jack knifed big rigs/and people in ditches.

Oh, and we found some dirt with the jeep the other day...just had to share;)

Happy New Year!!!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:48:00 +0000

Happy New Year and Welcome 2012!!! We are so happy that Brother came to visit and was here to ring in the new year with us! This is the first time since we can remember that we were all together for New Years.

Jesika and Mark came over before we went out and we ate some goodies and had a drink or two.

We went to our local fav....Silver Creek to celebrate. We had a great time!

Jes' feet hurt....lol

SC had a photo booth set up...it was a lot of fun! We love our brother!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:40:00 +0000

Merry Christmas everyone and we hope yours was great. Thank you so much for all the wonderful Christmas cards....it is so great to hear from you all!

This was the best we could do with the Christmas lights this year without the help from daddy. It will look better next year.

The girls had fun making Christmas cookies.

They were so yummy and last quite awhile......we don't know how?!?

We had WAY too many presents under the tree this year....especially after Uncle Jonathan came!

We had fun opening presents....it took us an hour! We just were missing Ben :(

Christian, Sydney, and Brittney on Christmas morning

Uncle Jonathan

Sydney and Brittney in the trash.....

Ben sent me his squadron "Trans" jersey he had made in Korea. It is so cute!! I love it!

Boy did we have a super yummy Christmas dinner???!?! Roast Beef, home made mac and cheese (Paula Dean recipe), Cheesy augraten mashed potatos (Rachel Ray recipe), slow cooked fresh green beans, and rolls.....mmmm mm GOOD!

Our little girl in her jammies on Christmas morning!

Britt and Lex

Sydney, Lauren, Jonathan, Christian, Me with Lexi, and Brittney

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Holy Cow - does time fly? Merry Christmas Everyone!!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:15:00 +0000

I do realize that it has been awhile since our last post. We have been busy!! I just want to say that I just finished our Christmas cards today. I am freaking out because normally I have them out by December 1st and this year things are just much different than normal. This is also the first year in about seven that I haven't written a Christmas letter to go along with our cards. It just wasn't going to happen this year. Did you see the part at the beginning of this post that "We have been busy!!" So, I am sorry if you were disappointed when you open our card and all you get is a dumb picture of us. Plus, it is kind of redundant when you can just come here to our blog and have a digital newsletter anytime you want? As much as I hate to not have written a newsletter this year, I know we will all be just fine :)

Oh, by the way.....The Parish Family was Elfed! Click here to watch the video......and enjoy!

So, if you need to see it again, here is the picture we sent out in our cards.......

We hope you all are doing well and this Christmas/Holiday season is great for you and your family. We are all doing well and are all enjoying having a house full of family. You might not know, but my sister Lauren and her daughter Sydney moved in with us in June. We had the basement finished for them and they are very comfy in their "hole", or so we call it! It has also been great having "two" moms around. It has been nice while trying to juggle the kids as well.

Our brother Jonathan is coming for a week and will be here for Christmas and New Years. I am sure we will have a great time and always enjoy spending time with our brother. We ♥ him!

We are also counting down the days to when Ben returns from his year tour in Korea!! He will be home in early January and are so ready to have him back home with us. This has been the hardest thing we have ever had to face as a military family. We are very lucky and thankful that he has never been in harms way.

Ok, so now back to the busy part. Since I wrote last, school has of course started for the kiddos and Sydney has adjusted well and likes going to school here. Here are the girls on the first day of school. Sorry, none of Christian.

Christian and Brittney both played soccer at school and they all did really well this season. Britt is below in red......

Christina is in white.... he is on the bottom right of the picture going after the ball.....

School is going well for me and I am just taking it week to week. Oh yeah, not sure if I mentioned it before, but I started nursing school in July. Anyways, I got a note the other day from the school saying I had made the Dean's list for the summer term. Yay me! I take my finals this coming up week and am really looking forward to my break over Christmas!!

Britt and Syd

The girls are having a great time together and spend many hours doing girl stuff......crazy makeup, pretty make up, hair, nails, trying on clothes......they just have a great time and get along 95% of the time! So awesome!

So, these next pictures are pretty cute. This first one was in November of 1999 and then we had them do the next one this fall. See how much the have grown.....lol....too funny!

These next few are just more from our garden - these were taken in late August. We had so many pretty Jenni sunflowers this year. It was so great!!

We also harvested about 50 or so cucumbers. We had so many we were giving them to neighbors and taking them to school and work!

This next picture is of our sweet Lexi enjoying a beautiful day.

We had ourselves a cute little pumpkin patch this year. We will try and get them to grow bigger next year.

We also enjoy our little butterfly visitors. When this one was hovering around and stopped on the sunflower, I just had to take a picture. For those that don't know, these are Jenni's sunflowers and we are pretty sure she is a butterfly.....any butterfly♥

Lauren and I took the girls to the Sugarland concert in October. They had a great time......

.......until Sydney fell asleep!

We take the train into St. Louis periodically. This day we went over for the Oktoberfest. Apparently they were tuckered out....this was the ride home.

Our mom and step dad came for a very quick, last minute trip in October. We went apple picking and went to the pumpkin patch.

Paw Paw and Britt found the perfect pumpkin!

Lauren, Britt, Grandma, Syd, and Paw Paw and ALL of our pumpkins!

The girls.....

Lauren and I took them mom and Jer to the Brewery. This was our first visit too and it was very cool. I wonder how many more times we will have to go there? lol

Lex got a new sweater and of course, mommy had to take pictures......isn't she cute?

So, if you didn't hear.....the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series this year. This was a picture of the Arch on the way to the game....so pretty!

We didn't go TO the game, but were down there to help celebrate and be a part of all the festivities. There were SO many people and it was such a huge party!! It was great to be a part of it all!!!

Halloween......

us with our friend/hairdresser Ann!

and just look at this pumpkin and the background....great picture!

We saw these flags in Tennessee. Each one was donated by a local business in the area. They were all saying "Thank you" to the military. How nice!!

In November, I got to fly to San Francisco to meet my new twin nephews. They are so cute and I had a great time visiting with my step sister Susie and loving on the boys.

I just love this picture......Colton and Wyatt! They are such happy, precious babies!!!

This is Ben's new jeep!!! So cool..... He is so excited to get home so he can play with it.

It looks like Christmas at our house :)

Well, we hope you have enjoyed our update and pictures. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy 2012. Please be safe and stay happy and healthy!!

With love,

The Parish Family

Ben, Christy, Christian, Brittney, and Lexi

The Parish Family was Elfed! Click here to watch the video......and enjoy!

Summer is almost over; we're ready for some cooler weather!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 01:36:00 +0000

Hey there! How is everyone? So, this has been a great summer. Continuing on from our last post......if you remember, we had a long vacation in Florida, and once we got back home to Illinoin, Ben flew in a few days later from Korea.

We were all so happy to have him home, even if for just a very short time. We spent lots of time having fun, and of course, Ben had a huge list of "honey do's" that he worked on. I think he was just happy to come home and actually get to see where home really is. If you will remember, we moved here and then two weeks later, he left. He got to meet a lot of the neighbors when we would go on walks. We also had a BBQ promotion party for him, and a lot of neighbors and friends came to that as well. Ben was promoted to Master Sergeant on April 1st of this year, but hadn't had time to celebrate. We had a great party and we all enjoyed the day getting to know our neighbors. Thanks to all who were able to make it.

Ben spent a ton of the BBQ right where he normallly does! We had TONS of food....murphy burgers, hot dogs, and brauts! YUMMY!

It was a hot day, but everyone enjoyed themselves. Luckily we had a little bit of shade before the storm blew it away a few days later....we said bye to our second awning....thanks to Mother Nature!

Everyone made such yummy food....if anyone went home hungry, it was definitely their own fault!

Congratulations baby! I am so proud of you and all that you have accomplished!

Ben and I went for a relaxing getaway at Rend lake in Southern Illinois. We spent a few days there, all by ourselves and had a great time. We walked through antique shops, went horse back riding, did a wine tasting....and buying, and went on a very nice bike ride one afternoon.

We spent time with the kids and enjoyed a few days at Six Flags in St. Louis and visited the City Museum. We really enjoyed having him home and it was even harder to say good-bye to him the second time around. He has been back in Korea for 3 weeks now and we miss him dearly. But, every day that goes by, is one day closer to him being home and we only have 5 months left!

I have been spending a lot of my time in the garden and have enjoyed watching everything grow. We have been able to enjoy several vegetables so far and have many more growing. We are also anxiously anticipating the sunflowers to bloom!! I will post pictures, don't worry!

This photo was taken last week, so this week the sunflowers are all as tall as the fence.

We have gotten several sqaush and zuchinni and they are yum! This is our one and only tomato so far. We have a good batch of lettuce growing and all had some in our salad the other night. We also have tiny little green beans growing. I sure hope they get bigger! We have cucumber plants that are beautiful, but so far, they haven't given us anything to eat!

This is our first pumpkin, but I think we will have quite the patch! There are vines all over the place with little pumpkins starting to pop up on them. This was taken a few weeks ago. It is much bigger now and already turning orange! Pictures to come soon!

This is our home a few weeks ago with a gorgeous backdrop of the evening sky.

This was one of our old, very worn out cushions.......

ta..da....! Nice and new and I recovered them myself!

School is also going well for me and I am almost finished with my first term. In a few weeks I get to take my first nursing class and am really looking forward to that. I also got notification today that I was awarded another scholarship...for $3000. This makes $6000 so far and I am so excited!

We are all excited because my niece Sydney comes home on Friday after spending the whole summer with her dad. We can't wait to have her home! School starts for the kiddos next week and they are very anxious to get back to their friends... I mean, learning.... =) Oh, and Britt made the soccer team at her school and Christian/Will has his team tryouts this week. We are busy, busy....but doing great. We hope you all are doing great as well and would love to hear from you anytime! All for now.....more updates and photos to come soon. Oh, and Lexi is still so cute and as crazy as ever....we have had her for one year and we just love her♥ Happy August Y'all!

Wow, an update that is long overdue!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 03:35:00 +0000

Sorry this took so long. I guess we have been busy. This has been a good thing and has made our time without Ben go by a little faster. Starting in April, we have had construction guys in the house, finishing our basement. Originally, it was just concrete walls and not finished at all. This first picture is of the framing and insallation.

These next photos are of the finished product....without much furniture. We had to basement finished so that Lauren, Christy's sister, and her daughter Sydney could move in with us. We are so happy to have them here and we will post some pictures of the basement once all the boxes are unloaded and they are settled in their new home. This will be the perfect place for them to have their own space and to call home. Welcome guys...we love you!

I recently spent a ton of time making new clothes and hair bows for Lexi. This one was made from scratch, but some of them were baby clothes that I altered to fit her. She wears size 3-6 months and I bought all the cute ones at the Goodwill for $1.00!

We have NOT been enjoying this weather! Why didn't we get one of our first 10 choices of bases to move to? Everytime we turn around there is a huge storm, sometimes with tornado watches or warnings, and no matter what, this is what we find once it is over....crap everywhere! We have come to realize that we have to keep everything outdoors in storm mode, all of the time, unless we are outside using it! We have spent many nights in the basement, hunkering down when the tornado sirens go off. Oh, and it is always windy here too. But, we do like it:)

At the end of May, as soon as school was over, the kids, Aunt Lauren, and I hopped in the car and drove to Florida. For the first week, the kids stayed with Ben's parents in Panama City. They spent tons of time fishing and making great memories. This is just one of Brittney's many catches...some were bigger than others.

Christian caught his share of fish as well.

Brittney got to make a cake, they helped cut down trees, spent lots of time playing board games with their grandparents, and got to visit with a lot of the Parish side of the family. It was a great visit!

The kids with Grandpa Parish

I was very excited to meet a new little girl named Montana Avery! She belongs to our very good friend, Melissa Ann and her hubby Matt. They are really doing a great job of being first time parents! Montana was 3 weeks old when they came for the BBQ.

I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days at their home in Navarre and had some good quality time loving on the baby and catching up with my old friend. Lexi did a great job of babysitting too and enjoyed playing with their dog, Allie.

For Memorial Day, we remembered our Uncle Billy who just passed away this past February. We all painted our big toes with his polish that he used to get his big toes painted with when he got a pedicure! Too funny......that is our Uncle Billy! He was also a Veteran!

Pensacola has all these different painted pelicans all over downtown. We had to go get our picture taken with this special one!

We of course got to spend a ton of time with our baby brother! We love you Jonathan!!!

We spent every Tuesday night at Pensacola Beach for the Bands on the Beach! All the music and great company was awesome!

More with the brother and sister....there are a ton of these pictures :) We love him!

There was a lot of this going on.......at the beach and the pool. Ahh...what a life!

There was also a lot of this going on... we sang Karaoke about 4 times during our vacation! So much fun! Lauren is just chicken and won't sing by herself.

There was a lot of this going on too.....two of my sun bathing beauties!

One Thursday, we got to have lunch with our Mom's Uncle JE....he is 93 and is just as funny as can be! He toured us all around where he lives and treated us to lunch in the beautiful dining room. Before lunch, he showed us his little apartment and made everyone have a beer. (Beer is not for me, so Mom and Lauren enjoyed one with him) Thanks for a great afternoon Uncle JE...it was so great to visit with you!

During one of our days at the beach, the cousins were fishing and they hooked a sea turtle and were able to let him go. It looks like we weren't the first to catch him, because he had other hooks connected to him.

The kids enjoyed their time with some of the cousins and their friends! What a great day!

We spent a lot of time on Cory's boat. He is a friend of our brother and now a good friend of ours! We had a great time and the kids were able to get up on the wake board. Mom wasn't so lucky!

picture perfect.............

What a great day at the beach.........Christian, Lauren, Christy, Jonathan, and Brittney (L to R)

I also got to drive Brother's car! Holy Cow! He doesn't let anyone drive it. He gave me 4 chances and I only needed 1. I didn't stall at all.....came close, but I didn't! After driving it around the neighborhood, I was shaking like a leaf! I am a great driver, but was so nervous to drive his race car! And I am serious - he tunes cars for a living at a performance shop and his '02 Camero SS has Nitrous in it! Of course, I didn't use the NOS, but you get the idea. And then a couple of days later, he let me drive it again...on the real road! Talk about nervous. I was soooo worried I was going to stall out in the middle of traffic. But, I made it back safely!

Well, we are so excited that six months has almost past, and that Ben will be home for his mid tour from Korea ...in just two days. He will be home for almost a month and we are really looking forward to having him home. This has been the hardest thing we have ever done, but we are making through. We hope to have a great visit with him and let him get to know where home is now.

I am also happy to announce that I have been awarded $3000 in scholarships from two different awards. Very exciting!!! And I am excited and scared......nursing school starts in two weeks! More updates to come soon... I promise I won't wait as long as last time. Oh, and we finally got our grass put in. Pictures will be posted next time :) Hope all is well with you and your families! ♥ the Parish family

2 Months Down, Mom's Birthday, Ben did it again, and more.....

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 22:15:00 +0000

Well, two months down and a few more to go until Ben comes home on his mid-tour. Hopefully things will go by faster now that Spring is arriving. This is by far the hardest thing that we have had to do, but I feel this will make us all stronger. Brittney and I have really been able to have some good quality time and our relationship is growing. We were really worried, because she is such a daddy's girl.

Ben is doing great in Korea and actually just re-enlisted. He did this so he could transfer his GI Bill to me to help cover nursing school.

I'm proud of you baby!

This picture is of Ben during an exercise, where they have to practice for real world situations. During these many exercises, he has to wear his chem gear, often many hours at a time. During this particular photo, he was actually messaging with me on the computer. He had big rubber glovers on so he had to type with pencils. I thought this was halarious!

My birthday dinner was fantastic! The kids did a great job and prepared a special dinner for me. Christian was the host who seated me in a specially decorated chair. Brittney was the chef and they both waited on me. My drink (water) was served in a special glass and they had Mozart playing. I was given a menu with very expensive prices. I even was given cash, credit card, and checks because I had to pay for my own dinner! I figured out why they gave me all of that money, because my credit card was declined. Too cute! We even got to Skype with Ben while they sang Happy Birthday to me! What a special night.

This was the menu and all the other stuff that Brittney made.

Opening my birthday presents......

Me and my sleepy little girl! She is such a sweet baby!

The kids and I at the Mardi Gras Parade in St. Louis last weekend. It was very cold!

The house being built behind us - will be complete at the end of May

Britt got new braces and glasses in the same week!

Britt, Christy, Lauren - St. Patty's Day Parade in St. Louis

Lauren is here for a visit and we are having a good time! It is always great to have family or friends in town. We are going to have a fun week of hanging out and exploring the area. Oh, and our fence will go in this week as well. We can't wait for our yard to really be a yard. In the next few weeks we will have our sprinkler system installed and the grass will go in too! This is so exciting and Lexi will love to actually go outside off of her leash. We will be thrilled not just have a mud pit for a yard.

1 Month Down and ICE Storm!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Hello - I am writing from the warmth of my new chair and ½. It is so nice and comfy and is right next to the fire place, which we definitely need tonight. Today is February 1st, and we are having a terrible ice storm here in the Midwest. School let out early for Christian/Will yesterday, they were both out today, and it is closed tomorrow as well. Britt and I spent the day watching Desperate Housewives and eating the yummy cookies we made last night. Nice lazy day in the Parish household. Christian/Will has been on restriction, but I gave him the day off so he could play some video games. I think he was very happy!

Well, here are some pictures of our ice storm.......

There is just a thick sheet of ice covering everything!

The white that you see on the ground is NOT snow! It is only sleet! Everything is covered in ice and it looks like it snowed. What a mess. We will be getting 4 to 6 inches of snow tonight.

Well, Ben has been gone for one month today. It seems like forever!! We are doing well and have gotten all settled. The kids seem to be doing pretty well too. We were really worried about how Britt was going to do, but she is doing surprisingly well.

The other night, the kids and I went ice skating in St. Louis' Forest Park. It was an outdoor rink and we had a great time. I didn't even break my arm! After ice skating, we tried out a German Restaurant called the St. Louis Gast Haus, and it was WONDERFUL! We can't wait to go back and to take Ben there. I also took the kids to our mall for the first time and they really liked it. We have been trying to venture out and explore our new city, between the snow spells.

Ben is doing good in Korea, and has had his own share of snow. He finally got settled in and has been working a ton! Other than work, he is pretty bored. He bought a new TV the other night, so that should help. We miss him so much and get to talk to him once or twice a week. We are very thankful for SKYPE!

One Month Down!

I miss him♥

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:21:00 +0000

Well, Ben left on Tuesday, 1/4/11, and flew to D.C. He stayed the night and then flew to Korea the next day. This week has been busy for us. Brittney started her new school on Tuesday and then that afternoon, my mom and stepdad came for a visit and to see the new house. We visited for another day and then they left on Thursday. We had a really nice visit and mom and I got a chance to go find and explore downtown Belleville; it is filled with quaint little shops and is very cute! There is also a Mexican restaurant there that we have to try. I LOVE salsa and have to find the best in town. Christian was able to start school on Thursday, as it took a little longer to get him registered. Both kids are doing well, but Britt complains that all the kids in her classes talk too much and the teachers don't do anything about it. She also has been throwing her lunch trash in the wrong trash can at school. The story is - she threw her trash away and heard, "Oh no you didn't!" Then the "Divas", a group of girls walked over and introduce themselves and then proceeded to tell her that this was their trashcan and that she shouldn't use it. Well, she used it again yesterday; you go girl! Ha ha!

Well, pictures of the house will be posted very soon. We are still waiting on our new furniture to be delivered. They have said it is coming on Tuesday. So, once I have everything settled, I will be snapping some photos!

We did get to Skype with Ben yesterday and he is very jet lagged. It was so great to see him and talk with him. Gotta love technology! He arrived at his base at about 15 hours or so ago. Hopefully he is sleeping in a nice bed as I type. I don't have an address for him yet, but if anyone wants it, please let me know and I will get it to you. I am sure he would love to hear from everyone. We miss him but are doing well. Ah....the joys of being a military family. Signing out on day 4 ♥ Christy

Ben's Going Away, St. Louis, and Snow!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 03:23:00 +0000

Ben had his going away on December 10th, the week before we moved to our new home. Colonel Noto gave him a very nice send off from the Pentagon. First, she gave him his MSM, or Meritorious Service Medal. This is his second one. Good job baby!

Then, she presented him with a very nice picture of the Pentagon. On the bottom is a nice plaque and AFSO 21 coin. Everyone in his office signed the matte. It is very nice and is now hanging in our new living room!

Today, December 28th, we visited the Arch in St. Louis. It was really neat. There were a ton of people there, so we didn't go up. We will save that for another day. We also had a nice early lunch at TGIFridays! Yum!

So, we got about 5 inches of snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Very pretty! Our first snow on our new house (well, since we moved in, anyways!)

The kids had fun playing in the snow yesterday (12/27). They took turns burrying each other. Lexi was having a fit watching them out the window playing. We can't just let her out because we don't have a fence yet.

Someone is very spoiled. She was a tired girl and her daddy was giving her some lovin! Too Sweet!

Merry Christmas from our new home in Illinois!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 21:13:00 +0000

Well, Hello everyone. Just a quick note to tell you that we are all moved into our new home and are getting settled in nicely. We closed on our new home in Illinois this past Monday, 12/20 and the movers brought our things on Tuesday. Ben's parents arrived just after the movers did and have been a wonderful help. They are great at unpacking and helping to get things hung. They are also going to haul all of our boxes back to Florida and are going to have fun burning them. What a big help and it was great to spend this time with them before Ben leaves.

We have been so bummed this whole December and it hasn't felt like Christmas at all. We love to decorate but instead have been preparing for the movers to come and get us moved. So, we actually had our tree up (not decorated all the way) before the movers were even half way done unloading the truck. It was so great to finally get some Christmas and everyone was so excited to see the tree. Ben had just told me that we had to do something because it just didn't feel like Christmas. So, above is a little picture of what our Christmas ended up looking like....thank goodness! We also had our traditional sausage bread for breakfast. There is NO way we were going to have Christmas without that! We also made a nice dinner; PawPaw's ham, yummy fattening potatoes, green bean casserolle, and rolls. And now we are enjoying some homemade German chocolate cake that Ben's mom made, a yummy pumpkin pie that Britt made, and a pecan pie that someone's daddy bought at the store because his little girl doesn't like pumpkin pie (even though she made it). Yummy! Oh, and we have had Egg Nog all week long! Maybe I will have another glass?

Lexi has enjoyed her first Christmas and is enjoying her new home. She was a little depressed in Virginia when we took all the curtains down and pictures off the wall. She didn't eat for two days and didn't even want to play. Luckily, she has figured out that everything is ok and she loves her new home. We continue to enjoy her everyday. She is a bundle of energy and as sweet as can be. She keeps us laughing too!

So, we are ready for company and rememeber that our door is always open. We wish you all many blessings today and for this coming new year! Merry Christmas and love to you all♥

The Parish Family

The Parish Family’s Top Ten Highlights of 2010

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 16:59:00 +0000

The Parish Family wishes you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Please be safe and PLEASE don't drink and drive!!!

10. Blizzard of 2010 – We got SO much snow last winter. It sure was pretty and fun to play in. The second storm of the year dumped well over 2 feet of snow on us. Everyone but mom got a big break from school and work; nothing for almost the whole month of February. Good thing we had food, as we were snowed in for 4 days before they plowed the street.

9. Meeting new friends – Christy started a group for military spouses and families who live in our area. We had a great time getting to know everyone. Lunches, dinners, crafts, camping, adults night out, tours, coffees, and guys poker or video game nights were just a few of the activities that we enjoyed with our new friends. Total, we had 29 families as a part of our group and everyone was very thankful for the opportunity to meet others.

8. Easter – The four of us spent an awesome day in D.C. We started off by meeting some friends by the reflecting pool to have a picnic lunch. The rest of the day was spent visiting the Jefferson Memorial; a first for all of us. We were also in luck that the cherry blossoms were still in bloom – gorgeous!

7. Mother’s Day – We spent the day planting a garden at Ben’s Aunt’s house. Brittney had her first experience with driving the tractor and LOVED it and Christian became friends with the shovel. We planted two huge gardens thinking we would have tons of fresh vegetables, but that didn’t happen. Apparently we planted them to feed all of the deer and other animals.

6. Rolling Thunder – This was such an awesome, first time experience for Ben and Christy. We spent the whole weekend in D.C. Some great friends opened their home to us again, and took us to dinner one night where we ate fried green tomatoes for the first time. Saturday we spent the day on a motorcycle ride through Southern Maryland with Ben’s club, the Green Knights. On Sunday, we rode in Rolling Thunder and had an awesome tour of the Pentagon, seeing the 9-11 memorials for the first time. Being a part of Rolling Thunder was fantastic and we are so glad we got to experience this. There were 29 bikes in our group and it was so cool having the crowd cheer us on and thank us for being military.

5. Pensacola Beach Vacation – We spent the week at a beach house with family and friends. There were 13 to 16 of us at any one time staying in the house. The neighbors called us the “Clown Car” people because every time we went anywhere, we would load up the truck – sometimes 15 people at a time! We had a great time playing at the beach and pool, and enjoyed our time visiting everyone. We had a great 4th of July BBQ and really enjoyed our 8am fly-bys from the Blue Angels. We got to watch them practice all week and then enjoyed their awesome show on the weekend. One night, 8 of us got to see the biggest shooting star any of us had ever seen. The beaches looked beautiful, but we are sad to say the oil was there. To sum it up…. great friends & family + tons of food & alcohol + the beach = GREAT vacation!

4. Home Improvement – we replaced the roof on our new shed that was lost in the snow. The deck got some new wood and stain. We built a new flower bed on the side of the house by the garage. Some rooms got new paint, new bathroom floors, and we completed many unfinished projects (see #1 and you will know why).

3. A new puppy – We got a new Yorkie puppy we named Lexi. We got her when she was 12 weeks old, weighing in at 3.2 lbs. She is now 8lbs of mightyness and thinks she is a big old guard dog. She is very sweet and spoiled! Oh, and her favorite game is fetch and she can THROW a tennis ball.

2. Visitors – The guest room at the Parish house was very full this year. Ben’s parents came to visit and brought Ben’s Aunt Jean for her first visit to D.C. Christy’s mom & Jerry came, bringing two of the grandkids for their first visit as well. Jerry’s sister and husband were here from Illinois, making 10 people in the house for over a week. Tons of fun! Christy’s brother Jonathan came a month later and got to actually enjoy his visit this time; he was happy that we didn’t put him to work. We played tourist all week and walked for miles showing him D.C. for the first time.

1. The Parish Family is moving again – Someone messed up and Ben got orders to Korea (1 year without us); he leaves the first week of January. We were supposed to be in VA for 2 more years, but things aren’t always for sure with the military. Ben’s base after Korea is Scott AFB in Southern Illinois, right by St. Louis. Thank goodness things worked out (selling our home in just 2½ weeks) that we can get moved to our new home in Illinois and slightly settled before he leaves. By the time we move, we will have only known about this for 2½ months. Needless to say, our heads are still spinning, but as always are looking forward to new adventures, a NEW house (12/20), and new friends. We are very excited to leave Jose’s house behind, and to work on our new home because we WANT to! Home is where the Air Force sends us, and as always, we welcome family and friends to visit anytime!

We hope that this note finds you and your family well. We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2011; we are thankful to have you in our lives! Please come back often for lots of updates and pictures! www.TheParishFamily.com

With lots of love, hugs, and kisses, ♥The Parish Family - Ben, Christy, Christian, Brittney, and Lexi

P.S. We elfed ourselves - click here to see the video http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/AnLLkMuq905wf30E1Cte

We won't be homeless!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 03:49:00 +0000

Well, Ben and I drove all the way to Illinois on Tuesday 11/9 to find a new home. This also happened to be our 14th wedding anniversary. This traveling thing is becoming the norm. Last year, we were flying home from California on our anniversary. Our friend Jesika, that was in Germany with us, works at the base and let us stay with her while we were in town. It wasn't a bad drive, just 13 hours! We had a lot of time to talk about what we wanted in our new home and to listen to comics on the satelite radio.

We met with our realtor on Wednesday morning and looked at 5 houses. The first one was out completely. The second was ok, but would have needed a few minor things done. The third we loved, but it was a short sale. And if you know about them, there is nothing short about them....they take forever to go through and we don't have that kind of time. We then saw two more homes and we really liked both of them. One, was great....but 15 years old. It needed a few things done to it, but overall was fantastic! The other one, was a brand new construction. We did a lot of talking and tried to decide which one would be easier to sell in five or so years. So, we decided to go with...............

Our new home!

.....the new construction. It was a tough decision but we are very happy with our choice. It is all complete and ready to move in, and would cost us less money in the long run. If needed, it should be easier to sell in the future. We will close on it December 20th and can't wait to get settled. It will be so nice to be in the house and not have anything that needs to be done.........except for the yard. The builder is going to lay sod this week and hopefully it does ok with the upcoming winter. Once we move in, the first thing we are going to do is have a fence installed and Ben will hang blinds. I am sure I will paint some, here and there, but nothing will be a rush.

The house is very nice and has a great open floor plan with 2583 sqft. It is on a corner lot and is two houses from the neighborhood pool. The kids are very excited about that! Here are a few pictures from the model home so that you can see it with furniture. I will definitely post pictures once we move in and get settled.

Family Room

Eat in kitchen

Master bedroom

So, we found this on Wednesday, 10/10. We put an offer in on it and had an approval about 15 minutes later. This was after the builder called back from his tree stand to give the ok. Very nice! He is a local builder and doesn't do cookie cutter homes. Our neighborhood has several different builders and as of right now, our home is a one-of-a-kind! We came back on 10/11 and signed all of the paperwork and then drove back home to Virginia on 11/12. It was a very short trip, but our mission was accomplished. We will post more soon!

Things are moving FAST!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 18:23:00 +0000

Hello everyone! Well, I should start off by saying that two years ago today, we closed on this home we have here in Stafford. Two years....EXACTLY!

Ok, rewind a little bit and read the post before this one and you will see that originally we were going to put this house on the market in January. Well....we changed our minds. A few weeks ago, we decided to go ahead and get the house on the market ASAP! So, that is what we did. Ben thought it would be easier for him to be able to help us with everything before he left for Korea. Also, the timing would be perfect if everything worked out for the kids to transition to a new school. We worked NON-stop for about 9 days, painting, putting in some new flooring, staining the deck, and some little things here and there. We got the house on the market on Monday, 10/18.

We painted this bathroom and changed out the floor. We hadn't done it yet because we were going to completely re-do it, but just hadn't had the time yet. We also hung this new cabinet over the toilet and also changed out the mirrored medicine cabinet (that you can't see in this picture).

We updated the floor in the master bath.....

We painted this bath, and replaced and moved the light fixture, and replaced all of the towel bars, ect. We also hung the shelf over the toilet.

We painted Britt's room - it was Orange and white with a border of flowers.

And then we painted the basement rec room. It was bright blue and green.....fun for the kiddos! No more crazy colors for us though! What a PAIN! My hands hurt for days and are still peeling!

Well...hard work pays off. On 11/5, just 2½ weeks after listing it,we got a GREAT offer on the house! Whew! How relieved are we? The buyers are very nice and are moving from California with the Government. There a few funny things about that. The buyers of our home that we sold in New Mexico were from California too! The buyers of this home have two children, one is in fifth grade and the other is in eighth grade - the same ages as our kiddos were when we moved here. And they are moving right around the same time. It is all just a little bit funny to me.

We will be closing on this home 12/17 and then will go to Illinois to close on our new home. Where is that you ask? Well, we don't know yet. Ben and I will be going this week to find out! There are about 10 houses that we are going to look at and will decide this week. It is all very exciting and we can't believe how fast this has all happened. When it is all said and done, we will have found out about this crazy news that Ben is going to Korea and that we will be moving to Illinois, working on getting the house ready, puttting it on the market, selling it, having the movers come - twice, closing on this house and leaving Stafford, it will only have been 2½ months! WOW.... we are just worn out!

The kids are adjusting well. Brittney is very excited, although she is sad to leave her friends. Christian, or should I say "Will" is excited as well, but is VERY sad to have to leave his girlfriend. I say "Will", because he will be going by Will for good once we are in Illinois.....except for at home. I asked him if he was sure this time and wasn't going to forget what he wanted people to call him. When we moved here, he told half the people his name was Will and the other half that his name was Christian. What an identity crisis!

Well, new pictures and updates to come soon.....or our NEW house! Tschuß!

Lookout Illinois - The Parish Family is on our way!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 00:32:00 +0000

Well, we found out this week that we are headed to Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. This base is about 20 minutes East of St. Louis, Missouri. We are excited to know so now we can start researching and making plans for our move. We were hoping to get to Florida, but that just wasn't the plan for us right now. Scott was actually our 11th choice for bases, but we make the best of wherever the Air Force sends us. We are excited to only be 5 hours away from Memphis, TN where Christy's aunt and uncle live. We will also be about 4 hours away from Christy's Stepdad's sisters, and Chicago! We will also be 3 hours closer to home; Pensacola, Florida.

The plan is to put our home here in Stafford on the market in January, 2011. As soon as it sells, we will be on our way to Illinois, where we plan on buying another home. From what we hear, it is much slower paced than what we are used to here in Northern Virginia, but we will have the bigger city life of St. Louis right there if we need it. Slower is better. It seems like it will be a great place for the kids to go to high school. Christy's good friend Jesika, who was stationed in Germany with us, also lives there with her little girl. Jesika has already been helping us with the scoop on where to live and where we should shy away from. It will be so great to have a familiar face to help us out and to make it really feel like home. How exciting!

The kids are doing fine. Brittney is ready to move because she says she doesn't like it here. Of course, she only likes Germany because that is all she really knows. I am not sure if she will like it anywhere?!? Christian is having a little harder time grasping the concept of moving. He has a girlfriend here and doesn't want to leave her. Hopefully everything will work out. I think I need to remind him that he had a girlfriend when we left Germany too!

Well, as soon as we know more details, we will update here.

Nags Head Weekend, Jonathan's Visit, and Getting things in order!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 01:03:00 +0000

Well, now that we are done traveling, and all of our company has come and gone, we can get busy getting the house ready for the big move! We have been busy getting things ready for a yard sale in two weeks. Christy has been listing tons of items on Ebay, Craigslist, and Quanticoyardsales. It is amazing how much un-needed stuff you acquire over the years. This is even after you clean it out and go through it to move every couple of years. Imagine if we stayed in the same house for 20 or more years? What would we have? Why is it that Americans have to have so much stuff? I love my stuff, but would love to live a more simple life sometimes. If we didn't have so much stuff, I wouldn't have to clean as much, right? We will be spending the next couple of months painting, and making small repairs to get the house ready to list for sale in January. We want to have it all done and ready, BEFORE Ben leaves for Korea in January. Even though we have been working non-stop on the house since we bought it, it never seems to be complete. Oh, and we still don't know where our next base will be. We are very anxious to know and will post the news as soon as we get it!

Below are a few pictures and stories from our recent company and trips. Enjoy!

Well, Christy's brother Jonathan just came for a visit. We had a great time while he was here, showing him around DC for the first time. It is a good thing he came when he did, because we won't be here for long!

Jonathan, Ben, and I walked all over DC and had some very sore legs. We definitely fit a lot into our three day trek of DC. Here is a great shot we got of the Washington Monument from Arlington Cemetery.

This is a shot Ben has been telling me about for the last year. You can see this view on the way to the Iwo Jima Memorial, which I had never been to before. Ben finally took me too it on one of these days. To get there by foot, you walk from Arlington Cemetery towards Rosslyn. It is very close to Rossyln, and we ended up catching the Metro from there.

Iwo Jima Memorial - Arlington, VA

A couple of weeks ago, Ben's parents and Aunts and Uncles had a beach house in Nags Head, NC. They invited us to come down and spend a few days. We left here on the Thursday night and drove the 4½ hours down to the beach. It was a nice drive and the traffic wasn't too bad, which we are not very accustomed to. The house was huge and had 8 bedrooms, most with several beds. I don't know how many beds or bathrooms, but we all had our own bed, and there was a bath in our room as well. We had a great time visiting with all of the family. I don't even know how many people we had, but one night at dinner, there were 15 sitting around the dinner table, comfortably! Below are a few photos from that trip. The kids were able to swim in the Atlantic Ocean for the very first time. Enjoy!

A beautiful sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean

Christian and Britney up on our private little boardwalk

Brittney, Ben, and Christian trying to catch a wave!

Remnants of an old pier

Me and my baby

Britta and her Daddy

The Parish Family is on the move again!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 18:23:00 +0000

Ben has orders to Korea and will be gone for one year. We are hoping that our next base will be somewhere in Florida. The kids and I will sell the house and move to our new base once school is finished in June. This is very unexpected, but we know that everything happens for a reason. I was told by a friend that this is the double edged sword; along with his promotion comes more responsibility. We will miss Ben though, but hopefully we will be busy enough with selling the house and the move to make the time go by faster. We are excited about the move, as we are always up for new adventures, and it will be nice to be closer to family and friends again. We will just see what the future holds and will keep you posted as to where the Air Force is going to send us this time!

Our new baby, summer vacation, Ben's SRNCO Induction, and other random stuff!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:25:00 +0000

Hello everyone! Sorry it has been a while since we updated. It has been a crazy busy summer that has just flown by. We can't believe it is already August. We hope everyone is doing well. Here are a few updates and pictures from the last few months. And as always, we love to hear from you and your family anytime!

We just had a house full of people - 10 of us to be exact! My mom and stepdad were here; they brought the kids back to us. They also brought my sister Katie's kids, Adelyn and Beau for their first visit to DC. My stepdad's sister and her husband came as well. We just love Auntie Chrissy and Uncle Mike! We all had a great time. Ben took us all, but PawPaw, on a very nice tour of the Pentagon. We spent many hours touring Arlington Cemetary, the monuments in DC, and other sights that DC has to offer over the ten days they were here.

Christian, Adelyn, Beau, Brittney, and Lexi

Lexi - Our New Baby

We are announcing a new addition to our family. On July 16th, we got a new puppy that we named Lexi. She is a 3 month old Yorkie and has been a great addition to our family. She is so sweet and funny. She doesn't shed and is hypoallergenic, so the kids are doing very well with her and they haven't had any issues with their allergies. It also helps that they are getting allergy shots. Lexi weighed in just at three pounds when we got her. The kids were in Florida with their grandparents and did not know about her. They met her when they arrived home and were very excited and happy about their new baby! She is doing great and knows how to sit and will even go to the back door to go out to potty (she does this sometimes and still has to learn not to go in the house). We are now training her to ring the bells to let us know she has to go outside. She also LOVES to play fetch!!! Sometimes we think she is a crazy girl when she seems to loose her mind while running around crazy.

Lexi's first camping trip

Lexi during her first trip to Washington D.C. Everyone just loved her and wanted to take her picture!

Summer Beach Vacation

In early July, we took a trip to Pensacola Beach, Florida, where we rented a beach house for 8 nights with family and friends. Our house was perfect. We were right across the street from the beach and we had a pool just one house away. We had a big BBQ on the 4th of July and lots of friends and family came out for the day. We watched the fire works later on at the beach. It rained on Monday and Tuesday and we spent onf of the days at the Pensacola NAS Air Museum, and the other day shopping. We did lots of eating out, hanging out at the different bars on the beach, drinking, and just having a great time! The Blue Angels flew everyday starting on Wednesday. That morning, they gave us a great wake up call and made sure everyone at our end of the beach was awake at 8:01 am. Thank you bird #4! It is always great to see them fly at home, on our beach! They never get old. It was a great week and an awesome way to spend our vacation. We were also so happy not to see too much oil. Christy got some on her feet and we did see a few tar balls on the beach, but other than that, there was just some dog poo here and there; right Scott?

Our house was the peach one you see there in the middle! Great house!

So, this is all who went - the four of us, Christy's sister Lauren and niece Sydney, Lauren's friend Jackie and her daughter Kennedy, Lauren's friend Alex and his daughter Jillian, Lauren and Jackies friend Cindy and her daughter Bella, Christy's brother Jonathan, his friend Eva, our friend Scott and his daugther Jessica, and Ben's coworker "Chief" Jonathan. Not everyone stayed the whole time, but we had 12 to 16 people throughout the week. It was such a blast!

This is the first night (not everyone listed above was there that night) and my friend Jessica that I knew in Germany came and stayed with her daughter for the first night. It was so good to see her. She is in yellow sitting next to me! This was at Peg Leg Pete's

Our neighbors at the beach house called us the "Clown Car" people because we always loaded as many people in the cars that we could. I was chosen to drive on this particular night! We had 15 people in our truck. Too funny!

Hanging out at "Bands on the Beach" - Christy, Lauren, Scott, and Jackie

Blue Angels Baby!!! What more can I say?

Celebrating Amy's birthday at McGuires! Cousins - Lauren, Christy, Jonathan, Amy, and Katie

Our last day at the beach - Uncle Ben, Brittney, and Sydney

Ben and Christy

SRNCO Induction

As we updated earlier, Ben was selected for promotion to Master Sergeant. We are very proud and excited for him. This past June, he had to take the Senior NCO induction course and these photos are from the induction banquet that was held afterwards. It was a very nice night and I was proud to stand by his side for this special night.

Random Stuff

We started a group back in March for military families in our area. We have met some really great friends and keep a busy calendar with functions such as camping, adults night out, scrapbooking, guys poker night, movies, crafts, kids play dates, and many other things. This is a photo of Ben and I from one of our adults night out with none other than Captain Morgan!

In June, Ben ran his first half marathon in Pennsylvania! He did a great job is such terrible heat and humidity, finishing in just 2 hours and 3 minutes. Christian ran the last bit with him to help get him to the finish line. This was a great accomplishment.

Ben and the Cheifs! Ernie and Jonathan both ran the full marathon! Great job guys!

Our flowers this year have been just beautiful. Ben calls them my "Jungle". My Jenni sunflowers were also amazing this year. It is hard when we go on vacation and have to depend on someone else to water them for us. They don't get quite the attention they are used to, but still have done quite well.

Rolling Thunder, Memorial Day Weekend, and 9/11 Pentagon Memorial

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 22:55:00 +0000

Well, we spent the weekend in Washington D.C. We stayed with some friends of ours; a BIG thanks to Kevin and Zach for the great hospitality. They took us to an awesome restaraunt called Georgia Browns in D.C. I was able to try fried green tomatoes for the very first time, and they were very good.

Saturday, we met up with Ben's motorcycle club, the Green Knights. You have to have a military ID card to be a member and any Air Force base can have a chapter. We went on a really nice ride down in Southern Maryland with the club and 3 other chapters. All together, we had 17 bikes. We had lunch in St. George's Island and it was a great day. Really, it wasn't even too hot!

On Sunday, we all got together along with some additional chapters for our ride with "Rolling Thunder". There were 29 bikes in our group and we all rode together to claim our spot at the north parking lot of the Pentagon to wait for our time to go. It was so cool and there were so many bikes.

While waiting for Rolling Thunder to start at noon, three of the guys, including Ben, took us on a very nice tour of the Pentagon. We spent a couple of hours in there and were able to see and learn a lot about 9/11. I had only been in the Pentagon one other time before this, so seeing the 9/11 memorials was really touching, especially on this Memorial Day weekend. One of the guys giving us the tour was actually in the building, on the same wing, and just a couple of floors up from where the plane hit. He gave a very touching recollection of that day and his memories of all the people that lost their lives that day. No photos are allowed inside the Pentagon, but I will tell you that there are cases and cases or memorabillia from that day. There are beautiful quilts hanging all over that were made by many different people, schools, or other organizations to show their support. There is also a map of that part of the building showing the path that the plane took on that horrible day. It showed the location of all of the people in that part of the building and if they died, were injured, or not at their desk that day. There really are no words to describe the overwhelming feelings you get from actually being there and seeing all of these things that are such a reminder of that day. They have built a beautiful chapel commemorating those who lost their lives that day. There is also a gorgeous outdoors memorial for 9/11. We didn't visit on this day, but have since. Here are some photos of our more recent visit.

If you notice, the benches are facing in different directions. Each bench has the name of a person on it that died that day. This bench with end showing (and all of them facing in this same direction) has a name on it of someone that was in the building. The benches facing in the other direction represent the people that were on the plane. The benches are in rows of the year of birth of the person. The rows are in order from the youngest person to the oldest person. The benches also are in the direction of the path of the plane and this is the side of the building that the plane hit. This was very well thought out and and is a very nice tribute to those who lost their lives that day.

This is with my back to the Pentagon facing the Air Force Memorial. That is the three pointy things in the background.

This is one of the original stones from the building when it was damaged by the plane. It is darker than all of the new stones and they ingraved it.

So, Rolling Thunder kicked off at noon, and we didn't leave the parking lot until 1:45pm. It was such a great experience and I can't wait to be a part of it again. Here is a photo of us exiting the parking lot.

Ben and I were on the last bike of 29 in our group.

We first rode over the Memorial Bridge going into DC from Arlinton. You can see the signs here. At the beginning of the bridge, there stood an Army soldier, saluting, for four hours. We headed into DC and passed the Lincoln Memorial.

We rode all through DC and at one point, there was a Marine standing in uniform, saluting as well. There were tons of people cheering us and thanking us. They would stand on the side of the road and hold their hands out for us to smack! Ben would ride by and high five them! It was too cool and such an awesome experience that we were thrilled to be a part of.

Ben got selected for promotion to Master Sergeant!!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:34:00 +0000

Ben, I am so very proud of you. I know how hard you have worked to get to where you are over the last 13 years and you definitely deserve this! I love you very much and this is the perfect weekend to celebrate your achievements!

Congratulations
Master Sergeant (Select) Parish

I ♥ my Airman!

Home Improvement, More Soccer, Sister's Wedding, and other Fun Stuff!

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Tue, 11 May 2010 03:35:00 +0000

Hello and Happy May everyone! Boy have we been busy?! Soccer is still in full swing. There is constantly a soccer practice or game going on, six days a week. Work is busy for Ben and I. Ben left today for Jacksonville for a class. I have been so busy at work and today we saw 36 patients. A full busy day for us normally consists of about 31 patients. We are so ready for a vacation; my doc and I both! I am taking a vacation the first week of July and we will stay at our beach house that we rented at Pensacola Beach. We will be there for the 4th of July and we will get to see the Blue Angels fly! We are so lucky to be from the same hometown as them and get to see them fly over our beautiful beach. Well, we hope you and your families are doing well and enjoy your visit today! ♥Christy

I took this photo of the Blues during their summer beach flight of 2008

Home Improvement Projects - the most recent anyways......

We just got finished replacing some of the old boards on our deck, and now we want to stain it so it all matches.

The boys working......

Some stain......this will take awhile!

We finally decided to do our side flower bed here where you see the azaleas.

This is the before photo....and......

......after! Too Daaah!!!

Got all the pretty flowers planted! Now, we need to work on the garden in the back yard.

Play time!

We spent an April day in Hershey Park in PA. They had a special Military appreciation day and we got a great rate on tickets and free parking. We had never been to the park before and it was awesome!

We saw this ancient peice of technology, a pay phone, and we just had to take a picture with it! Have you seen one lately?

We love Reese's!

Soccer...Soccer....More Soccer.......

I just wanted to share some pictures of Brittney playing soccer. She is the only girl on the team and keeps right up with those boys. This past Wednesday during practice, she got kicked in the ankle and may have broken it. We are waiting for approval for her to go and see an orthopedist. She has been on crutches since the injury and we will keep you posted about that.

Do you have your shin guards on? The right cleats? The the ref check you!

Here are a few new ones of Christian/Will.......... This one was taken by Mr. Vinnie

Half time chat....

GO NORTH!

Corner kick

The stadium press box

Christian/Will playing "LEFT OUT"........what a good sport!

Fun Stuff.........

I never posted pics of our new car....so here you go....

It is a 2009 VW CC

♥We love our CC♥

And I just love my new plate too .....

Susie and Scott's Wedding - San Francisco November 2009

My sister Susie got married in November and here are a few of the pics....

I love my brother and sister! ....do you see Alcatraz behind us?

These next ones are just a few of the favorites that I got! Susie, you were a beautiful bride!

Ben and I at the Golden Gate Bridge

Pier 39

Easter Sunday, Neighborhood Reunion, JROTC Military Ball, Christian's Soccer

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 01:26:00 +0000

We spent Easter Sunday in Washington D.C. We had a picnic with some friends right by the Reflecting Pool. It was a gorgeous day!

After our picnic, we walked down under the Cherry Blossoms along the Potomac River. Most trees were still in bloom, but they were beginning to loose the flowers and won't be pretty for much longer. It was the perfect day to go into the District.

We then walked over to the Jefferson Memorial, which we had never visited before. It was really neat.

This was the view looking through the Cherry Blossoms.

This is why they call it the reflecting pool!

Ben's Granparents lived on Franklin Street in Hopewell, VA. Yesterday, all of the families that lived there forever, got together for a very nice picnic/reunion in Colonial Heights, VA.

Ben and his parents at the reunion.

Ben and the kids playing Bocce Ball

Ben's cousin's daughter - Kendra 7 months old!

Christian had his Military Ball last weekend and he asked us to chaparone. The kids really did a great job putting it all together and had a great time. We had a nice chicken dinner and then they danced the night away!

Bruce, Austyn, Ben, and Christian. Bruce and Austyn are Christian's friends that live in our neighborhood.

Christian and his date, Holley

SOCCER

Christian is in the blue right in the middle here........

Half time....

#2 on the bench......

Soccer Season is here! Yippee ☺

noreply@blogger.com (The Parish Family) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 01:42:00 +0000

Well, as I had posted earlier, Christian made the JV team at the High School! We are so proud of him; Go Wolverines!!! He has been having practice 5-6 days a week and has already had two scrimages against another local high school. He also had his first game this past Friday night, but lost after a good fight. He is really enjoying this new this new adventure and will have 2 games for most weeks. He has to wear a tie to school on game days - handsome boy!Ben and I are volunteering to work the concessions for a couple of the Varsity games. This should be fun and will help raise money for the soccer club at the school.

Brittney's team started practice last Wednesday. Ben is coaching and I am helping out when needed. She is playing on the classic team this year and had to try out for this. She is on a co-ed team but is the only girl. We will post pics too as we get them. She is very excited to get this season started, and so is dad!

This past week was a busy for us for even more reasons than just soccer practice. We hosted two boy soccer players from Argentina, Tote and Juan, both 14. This is the 7th year that our soccer association has invited them and they were able to see some of the sites in DC and played in a St. Patty's Day tournament. They stayed with us from this past Thursday night to this morning. Boy, was our grocery bill big this week with two extra growing boy's mouths to feed, but we really had a great time hosting them. They were great boys and very well behaved. They spoke pretty good English and our kiddos enjoyed having them hanging around as well. We were sad to see them go.

Will, Tote, Christy, Britt, Ben, and Juan

The boys celebrating because they won the tournament!

Tote, Juan, and Will after a game

Tote and Juan on Facebook!

Britt, Tote, Will, and Juan playing on the trampoline

We are also excited because we are doing some trading with some friends to get some of our sheet rock work done. They own a sheet rocking business and are going to help us out because Ben did some work on their lawn mower and got it running again. Ahh....this so great. Ben is going to help them so he can learn the right way to do sheet rock. We do have a lot that needs to be done, so we will have to tackle some of it ourselves.

We had a leak at the old sink that was down in the basement and there was nasty mold. Ben ripped out the sink, cabinets, and nasty drywall and put in this utility sink. Our friends will fix the sheet rock and we will slap on some paint and be good to go!

I got the tag for my new car and finally got a frame to let everyone know my Sgt is in the Air Force....isn't is cute? I just ♥ it and I ♥ my SGT!

A little visitor we had the other day....

Britt got her hair cut last weekend - very nice:)

Well, all for now - more stories and pictures to come!
Happy Monday!

♥Christy