8 Months Tomorrow!

School and volleyball have been keeping me on my toes this fall. So far we are undefeated; and I might add that no one has came close! Since last time I wrote we played in a tournament in Buhler and Parker got to come and watch the girls take first place. Grandma Lisa came to watch him during the games; he did a great job being patient all day! Personally I think he just likes to flirt with all the older chicks on the team. He sure does get a lot of attention from those girls! The weekend of the 13th was supposed to be another tournament, but Friday was the day of the "Kansas Monsoon." It started raining Friday morning and by the time it was done Friday afternoon we had about 10 inches of rain. Thanks a lot Hurrican Ike! It rained so much that they even let school out at noon. They canceled the volleyball tournament because rain got onto the gym floors. It was nice to have a weekend off to hang out with my boys! And it worked out perfect...I had wanted to surprise Kevin with a night out; just the two of us. With the tournament off and no other plans, I took Parker over to Grandma Lisa's house late afternoon on Saturday. I dropped him off for the night (first sleepover!!) and Kevin and I went downtown. We ate at Heros and then went to Mosley Street Melodramas. It was a great time; great adult time that is!! Of course all we did was talk about Parker and how much we missed him, but the no crying, no feeding, no worries was much needed! After the melodrama, we headed over to the Loft where it was Kevin's 10 year reunion. He orginally didn't plan on going (the whole thing was not well handled. No invitations were sent out, just posted on MySpace, and the whole reunion was at a bar. It would have been nice to meet everyone's families!), but he was glad that he went. We stayed out WAY past our bed time, but it was fun to see everyone again. Lots of old faces, old and new stories to tell, and new spouses to meet. The next morning I picked Parker up at church; it was so nice to see his smiling face again!

Parker has been seeing an audiologist as a precaution. Kevin and I have just been trying to stay on top of it because of some hearing problems on his side of the family. We have seen two different audiologists and both have been saying the same thing. There is fluid in his ear and he is not hearing quite like they would like him to be. It is nothing serious yet, but as his speech develops, we don't want that to fall behind. He has been on a couple different medications and we have another appointment coming up in the next month. He must not be having too much problems because this week he started saying "da da." No, he doesn't know what it means, but he loves to repeat it over and over again. He is pretty proud of himself!

And I need to get some more pictures of Parker going on, but he just so quick, it is hard to catch him! He is crawling like crazy and loving every moment of it. He will follow us around the house and play beek-a-boo around corners. Kevin got all the cabinets secured and the baby gate put up just in the knick of time. Parker likes to push the TV remote around on the wood floors in the kitchen. It is his evening workout as I'm cooking dinner. He also does a great job of pulling himself up on chairs, the coffee table, and anything else that will support him. He is really showing off his personality - so far not scared of anything!

Kevin got some exciting news last week for him and Grandpa Tom's lawncare business. They put a bid in to maintain the grounds for the Maize schools and THEY GOT IT! YEA!! They will be mowing for 8 schools and in doing so will double their business. The contract is for 3 years! Very exciting news for the M&M Lawncare business...congrads to Tom and Kevin!

In the last week, we have had several birthday celebrations. Grandma Lisa turned 49 on the 20th, Bryan Shields turned 60 on the 21st, and Aunt Cassie celebrated her 24th birthday. On the 20th, we had Grandma Lisa over along with Aunt Loni - Uncle Eric was out of town for an umpire clinic and Aunt Cassie had to work :( - and ate LeMonde's and watched What Happens in Vegas. Pretty low key night, but gotta have one of those every once in a while. Bryan's birthday party was held at Players. It was a lot of the Fox Lake crew, but we got to see the whole Meirowsky gang - Uncle Jason, Aunt Denise, counsins Brittany, DeShawn, Miles, Brileigh, Jase, Lily, Aunt Jenny, (little cousin "bun in the oven"), Uncle JD, and Grandma Chris and Grandpa Tom. Parker enjoyed the evening, especially sitting out on the patio watching the ducks. Then we didn't get to join the fun for Aunt Cassie's birthday. I had conferences at school that night; so we missed everyone at Emerson Biggins.

Lastly, I have a warning for all. PLEASE always back up for photos!! Last weekend, Grandma Lisa took engagement pictures of my friend Megan and Layton - who is getting married in May. Grandma took her camera and I brought mine as well that Great Grandma bought for us. To make a long story short, I somehow misplaced the camera bag and it disappeared. I was so MAD at myself! The bad news was that the flash drive of our family photos was in the bag (still gets my blood boiling!); the good news was I still had the important thing - the camera. And I had all my photos backed up on Walgreens website as well as another flash drive. Thank goodness!! So all in all, it was okay, but I'm still mad that I made that mistake!

And sorry, lots of words this time and not very many pictures. Next time I will do better!