Today was pig day!

What a great day! Today we bought a pig for Brittani to show at the fair in July. It was a new experience for all of us... they don't raise pigs on the West Side of Long Beach! It is truly another blessing and adventure for the Parson's of HANFORD!

Love Language

Our life group did a study about love languages of your spouse. Recently bogged down with time constraints, I wasn't able to mow the lawn when I wanted to. Brandi, knowing that I wanted to get the lawn mowed, decided that she would speak my love language and mow it herself. Brandi and I have been married for 13 years and during that time, I had never seen her even push the mower out of the way to get to something. She did mow the lawn and it looked great. She said she was speaking my love language. After hearing that, I figured I better get on the train! Brandi has been working on getting her garden together and has nursed her seeds along like she did our kids. Now in my world, the garden, flowers, things that go in the garden, don't really mean that much. But to her, they mean alot. So I went out today and got the two bird houses that were on the side of the house. They were weather beaten and broken but still had hope. I firmed them up with some wood I had laying around, sanded them down, and painted them with a special ladybug touch to suit Brandi. They turned out great and she was very happy. So happy that they are already in the garden among the future beautiful flowers and vines. Maybe this love language stuff actually works!!!!

Little hands make big problems

I posted awhile back that Colton was starting to get into my tools and actually removed my vice from the workbench. Today as I pulled into the driveway, I saw Colton sitting in the garage with his skateboard in his hands. As I surveyed the garage, I noticed that the drawers in my tool chest were opened and there were wrenches laying around. Now if you know Colton, he takes things from their original location and leaves them wherever it is that he gets interested in something else (I know that he doesn't get that from me....). There is no telling where some of my wrenches are! I asked him what he was doing and very calmly he said "taking the wheel off my skateboard." Of course I asked why? He said "I just wanted to see what it looked like." I had no choice but to ask him to take it off again so I could see. I wish sometimes that I took the wheels off things just to see what it looks like. This was a day that the 8 year old son taught the 30 something dad to slow down and experience the simple things in life once in a while. As far as worrying about the wrenches, that's what SEARS is for!

Being predictable!!!

First, I know I have not posted in a while. Sometimes I get too busy reading other people's blogs to write my own! Something funny happened in class today. I was working with a small group of students while the other students in class were working on something else. Because I wasn't standing right over the other students, they began getting a bit roudy. So just as I was clearing my throat to say something to the roudy group, a shy girl who was sitting right in front of me said in her best Mr. Parson voice "we have a problem here!" I kind of giggled and started to try and say something again. Again sounding just like me she said "we have an issue!" I started cracking up laughing! It was totally out of character for her and it made my day. It made me think....Am I really that predictable?

Parenting

So in my 13 years of marriage, I have made many changes to my way of thinking. Brandi usually has many things (did I emphasize many!) to enlighten my thinking about a lot of things especially the raising of our kids. Now, when I was a kid, I played sports. Any sport any time! When my cousins and I would go to the toystore with my grandma, they would get action figures and star wars toys. I would get a new ball. I just finished my 19th season of coaching football. My life is sports. So naturally, I wanted my kids to play sports (whether they wanted to or not.) However, my beautiful wife convinced me (demanded me) to let the kids make their own interests and choose what they wanted to do. Against my better judgement, I learned to live with this and it seems to have worked. I have been patiently waiting for Colton to want to play something. This week he came to me and said he wanted to tryout for baseball. I said ok but didn't put to much merit into what he was saying. Later, he came to me again and said he really wanted to tryout. That was all I needed to hear. I went out and bought him a glove, cleats, socks, the whole thing! I was like a kid again. I was really excited. When we got to tryouts, I was boiling over with nervousness for him. I have coached playoff games in front of 7000 people with my name on the line, but not even that matched the nervousness I had for my boy at these little league tryouts. Not much happened the first day. A few swings of the bat and a run around the bases. But the second day, they hit some ground balls at him. I couldn't stand watching it but I did. He stayed in front of the ball just like I had told him. He fielded the ball like a champ. Then came the batting. He got three pitches and he hit two of them and fouled off another. It was great. My chest swelled and it was a great moment. So now he wants to play catch every day. You can better believe I will get off my duff and play whenever he wants. Being a parent is pretty great.

False tales

On Brandi's blog she talks about how we met in high school while we were working at the theater. Most everything is accurate and it is a wonderful story. I fell really in love with her. However, there is something about her story that is a bit off. Actually it is way off! She says that I was standing there against the wall thinking I was cool. I have heard that for twenty years about that day and how cool I thought I was. It is so untrue and she couldn't be farther from the truth! First of all, I did have an ink pen stain on my back pocket. I had been carrying around a pen in my pocket at school and it broke. Second, I went right from school to the job interview. Lastly, I was terrified having all those girls looking at me waiting to meet with the manager. I mean Brandi was hot! I don't just mean kind of hot- I'm talking off the charts, on fire, burn your skin hot! Once we started working together, I deliberately tried to annoy her...I thought I was flirting! I must have done something right because that little chili pepper is still mine!!!!

13 years

This Monday will be our 13th wedding anniversary. I must say that with each year it gets better. Our lives get more stable, our love and understanding grows stronger, and our dreams grow bigger. I love you honey!!!

It was the funniest thing the other night at our life group. We were all sitting around having dinner and our friend Michelle said she used to live in Palos Verdes in So-Cal. Before I could say anything, Brandi said"we used to make out on Palos Verdes hill" (Sorry Jim and Bonnie). I explained to them how Brandi forced me to drive up there and how she threatened to break up with me if I didn't!!! It was a fun moment to watch some of the faces. It has kind of become my thing to say some things at our lifegroup to shake things up a bit, but Brandi beat me to the punch. Way to go honey!