Addition to the Family

August 13, 2012 marks a very special day in the Parker house.  Grandson Chevy John-Thomas Lemos arrived into the family.  Some babies arrive quite normally without a hitch, while others just want to give everyone a bit of a scare as they make their way into the world.  Chevy came 4 weeks early and weighed in at 4 lbs 7 oz and 17.75" long.  He spent his first 17 hours in the NICU at the hospital before they decided he was perfectly fine and brought him to room-in with mommy and daddy.

Mommy had very high blood pressure and had to be put on medication that wasn't very nice to her.  She was quite loopy for a while and for her I know that was not fun as she couldn't tend to her little man as she would have liked.  But, the doctors finally took her off that medication and she became more like herself with each passing hour.

Meme' looks a wreck.  At the taking of this picture, I'd already been at the hospital for 17 hours with Allie and Aaron.  No hair brush in sight.  Over look that and just take in how small this little bundle really was.  

 

Uncle Randy was quite excited to hold Chevy for the first time. 

Pawpaw came to see Chevy at the hospital during his lunch hour one day.  He'd spent the first night at the hospital with Allie, but had to get himself back to work before long.  So, sneaking in a visit was what he had to do.

So precious......

These photo's started Chevy's journey at "home," which for the first two weeks was at Meme's house while daddy and friends did their best to get the rest of mommy and daddy's stuff moved to their new house.

Can I say Uncle Caleb is a very proud Uncle?  He is.  He loves when he "makes Chevy smile."

More of proud Uncle Caleb and look how much Chevy has grown!!  His little face is SO much more full!

There will be more to come of this handsome little man.....Meme' won't be able to help herself from keep everyone updated!

Love and blessings,

Momma/Pam

More Than A Backpack

This is my first year to coordinate the More Than A Backpack Ministry along with my dear friend and adopted daughter, Lucy.  When I heard about this ministry I immediately felt God pecking on my heart.   Back in the day when I had four kids in school and school supply time came around it was such a heavy burden trying to get everything everyone needed in order to comply with the requests from the school.  This ministry touched me in a very special way.  I knew I wanted to do what I could to impact our community as much as possible.

I went straight to Lucy, my daughter's best friend and a member of our church.  This young lady's heart is on fire for the Lord and recently became a stay-at-home-mom like myself.  I knew she would be willing to co-lead this ministry with me.   She said yes and off we went.

What's involved in this ministry?

1) Displaying flyers all over the community announcing the ministry and it's intent.
2) Taking calls for several hours a day over the course of three or four days in order to schedule a time for registrants to come by and fill out a registration form.
3) Being available over a scheduled period of time for families to stop by the church and register their children.
4) Logging all registrants onto the Google Docs program so that Second Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, the main church coordinating this ministry, could keep track of all registrants from all the participating churches.
5) Going to Second Baptist Church in Corpus Christi to stuff backpacks.

The entire procedure has definitely been well thought out.  When our church members arrived to stuff backpacks last night, the 50+ backpacks we were to take back with us were already done and ready for us to load.   The pay-it-forward method was firmly in place for we then filled 150 5th grade backpacks.  So cool.  We stayed in one room.  Didn't have to think about different materials for different age groups. We just sorted and filled 150 of the same backpacks.  The only difference was color - dark colors for boys and bright colors for girls!!

Here are two of my biggest helpers.  Caleb and Meghan.   It was a little hard for Caleb to sort and stuff the backpacks but he discovered he WAS able to carry them to this room after the rest of us stuffed them.  He hauled and stacked over 100 backpacks by himself.  Somewhere over the 100 backpack mark, Meghan switched tasks and helped Caleb carry backpacks.  She also helped count them out and keep track of our finish line.  Who knows how many she stuffed on her own but I'm sure it was a huge number.

These two also sorted and stacked the empty boxes as we depleted the school supplies out of them.  Never a lazy moment.  We were there for over 3 hours and busy the entire time.

A special thank you to Lucy Blasingame for all the time she spent helping me pass out flyers, answering calls, and helping registrants with their forms.  Additionally, Lucy entered all the registrants on the Google Docs program on-line.  She was sad to miss the filling of backpacks, but her little man had surgery and her priority was taking care of him.  Next year Lucy!  Next year!

More thank you's to my sweet husband who after working a full day at work came and filled backpacks until every last one was done.  Thank you to Bro. Rick and Sheila Vire as we would not have been able to complete 150 backpacks in 3 hours without their help!

This whole ministry has been such a blessing to my soul.  Meeting new people, reaching out into the community and filling a need, and as a result being a servant to my Lord.  We're giving out a total of 53 backpacks this year and I'm convinced that next year we will totally TOP that number.

Walking with the King,

Pam

First Day of School

It's already that time of year again!  First day of school...

For Randy that was July 23rd.  He is in public school and attends TM.  He was very proud to have lettered last year in Drama.

One serious.

And one with a cheeky grin.

For Caleb the first day of school was July 30th and had more of a relaxed feel.....Homeschool it is for us.

Here he is holding his Frog Habitat.  While that is not on our specific agenda for homeschool, it is something we've had sitting here waiting to do.  The Hopkins Family gave it to him last year.  We never got around to ordering tadpoles.  But, I mentioned it and he got all excited.  So, it's now on our list of things to do.

Standing up by his desk.  Ought to be fun watching him get taller here.

And one of teacher and student together.

Looking forward to a blessed year!!

Educating in Christ,

Momma/Pam

Oh So Sick....

Some households just have those times where everyone keeps getting sick.  We're probably one of those homes that gets sick more often than others.  We picked the unlucky straw I guess.

July 10th through the 16th was a really bad week for us.  Caleb started to get sick while at the zoo and rapidly declined each day after.  A trip to the doctor told us he had tonsillitis and that quickly turned into strep throat.  We had a very sick little man on our hands.  On Saturday, July 14th his fever spiked on us and I thought a trip to the ER was in our near future.  But, along with cool towels and fever med's we were able to bring his fever down.

It wasn't until Tuesday, July 17th, that Caleb finally started acting more like himself....It's my prayer that we can stay far away from another illness that affects us like this.  Praising God for healing and recovering, even if it was slow.

Blessings,

Momma/Pam

San Antonio Zoo

Our trip to the San Antonio Zoo was a hot, but very fun day.  Looking back on it, I'm certain Caleb was already getting sick as he just wasn't himself that day.  He really tried to have fun.

My three youngest kiddo's.

Caleb with little Aiden.  Our sweet family friend and my adopted grandson.

Totally blown away by this.  Sleeping and balancing on one leg.  Only God could create a creature that could do that.....

Lucy and Aiden feeding the fish.  One fish kernel at at time.  ;o)

Caleb and Aiden sitting on a hot metal hippo's.  Of course, not too hot yet or they wouldn't be sitting there.  LOL

The alligator exhibit had a session telling us all about alligators.  Of course, one of Caleb's favorite things.

Feeling alligator teeth on a skull.

Used Randy to show how alligators use the rolling technique to capture their prey...

Petting zoo!  Cool for little one's.

And bigger and big one's too!

Let's feed the birds nectar.  This will be fun.

Okay - we're getting a little friendly here....

Ummm, someone, anyone, help!  Love how her faee changes...heeheh

I think I had four birds on me at once one time.  They love that nectar.

Precious....Caleb just loves to help, especially when it comes to his little buddy, Aiden.  

Smiling boys.

Allie making fun of the hippo hiney's....then we laughed at her belly in the picture.

Definitely eyeing Caleb.  Wanting food?  Not sure, but he knew he was there.

Let's cool off a little.

What a fun day!  Everyone was hot, but for most of the day it was quite doable.  Just go with the notion that you will be hot and miserable, and anytime you don't feel that way will feel like a blessing!  A slight breeze and occasional cloud cover sure saved our day!  

Blessings,

Momma/Pam