Merry Christmas!! Love, The Parkers

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! 

We are approaching our six month anniversary of moving to Texas and we are loving it! For the most part. The weather has certainly helped with the transition. Fortunately, we knew some dear friends upon moving down here and our realtor helped us find an amazing and friendly neighborhood. Our sanity thus far is attributed to friends, alcohol, Mexican food and FaceTime.

We're smiling because of the margarita in that cup ...

Mike is loving his job at Ocwen. He's enjoying working for a company that gets a lot of negative press. Most of all, he loved his trip to India. He's always bragged about having a strong stomach but alas, India proved to be harder, better, faster, stronger. When he's not working he's working and when he's not working he's sweating his a$$ off or offering me a shoulder to cry on. Literally. He hasn't brewed a Texas beer yet but I am sure it's on the horizon. 

Angela is enjoying summer vacation with the kids. It's true what they say - summer really IS a vacation for Mom's too!! Not. She finds that she has a good ugly cry about once a month for what appears to be no reason. Her proudest moment is finding the perfect rug for the family room and getting Abigail an American Girl Doll from Jill's Steals and Deals. Since we now live closer to the equator, she finds she doesn't yell at the kids as much. However, her consumption of margaritas has greatly increased.

Matthew finished a great year in first grade. He's so smart he's translating his books into Latin and doing geometry for fun. JUST KIDDING!! He's struggling in Math like his Mom did and is seeing a math tutor over the summer. He starts golf camp in July and we are SURE he's on his way to becoming the next Tiger Woods. Every mother's dream amiright?!?! He loves to entertain us with random bits of information, mostly about the life cycle of a frog, and talks constantly. He's been a huge help to his mommy this summer and is sometimes the only one who can get his sisters to do ANYthing. He's loving riding his bike, going to the pool, watching and acting out American Ninja Warrior and making up his Christmas list. 

We pick our battles here in TX ... 

Abigail is as feisty and sassy as ever. She is still obsessed with ninny milks and checks the status of hers each morning. When she's not yelling I LOVE NINNY MILKS in the gym she's talking loudly or dancing around wildly or going to the pool but not wanting to submerge anything but her legs in the pool. She starts a ballet camp in July and we are so excited for her to have more dance styles in her repertoire than twerking. She finished her first year of preschool and will probably not retain any information over the summer. She doesn't know her letters but she DOES know every word to Fight Song, Heartbeat Song and most Katy Perry songs. *high five*

Mae is super busy and keeping us super busy. As I type this she was just running with scissors up and down the hallway for the record they were blunt edge kids scissors. When she's not running with scissors she's climbing on everything - the table the outside edge of the steps going upstairs, the center island, etc. She loves the pool and is such a little fish. Like her Mommy, she loves to eat and when she's not eating, she's throwing her food on the floor. She's talking some but continues to sleep through the night. She's our favorite child because did I mention she's not talking yet?!? 

Running sans scissors but with scarves around their waists or as they call them Peacock Tails

Hopefully your family is doing just as well as ours is!! We miss and love you all! 

The Parkers

Mike, Angela, Matthew, Abigail and Mae

Judgement Day

Recently, while my husband was in India, I was blessed with being on the receiving end of judgement regarding everything that I am doing wrong from how I am raising my kids, to how poorly I keep my home and how I am creating a poor relationship with my husband. Aside from hurting my feelings, it was an eye opening experience that still has me reflecting. As a result of this self reflection, I can tell you one thing: 

If you are going to judge, the best kind of judgement is the kind you keep to yourself. 

Now stop right there. Don't even think that this doesn't apply to you because you never judge. We all do it. It's human nature and not a bad thing. Usually, the first sign you're judging someone is saying that you're not judging them or anyone else.  

With the judgement that was passed along to me, my perceived poor relationship with my husband is probably because I am a Straight Up Bitch. I think I've known this all along, it was just a matter of admitting it.

When my husband got back from India, he had dysentery.

Fever. Chills. ETC etc. It's like he was living the game, Oregon Trail: Third World Country Edition. He was sick all weekend. Like so sick, I've never seen him so sick, sick. So, when Monday rolled around and he was miraculously better like able to go back to work better  I channeled my inner Straight Up Bitch. To get bitchy quickly, since I have poor time management, I first got cocky because I am so good at doing everything. Second I accused him of faking his dysentery. Then third I told him to get back in the GD covered wagon because I WANT ALL OF THE DEER AND BEAR MEAT not the 10% you tried to bring.

Congratulations! You were only able to bring 10% of the deer meat home and your family died of starvation. 

Told you that I had it in me all along.

After I apologized for being a bitch, I realized that it's OK for me to enjoy being around my husband. It's OK for me to feel overwhelmed from plowing the path alone for 17 days. It's OK to be a bitch sometimes. And it's OK to not be perfect at everything. But it's also 100% necessary to apologize.

xoxox