Atticus Will Parker

At long last, Atticus Will Parker has arrived! It seems to have been a longer wait than usual for me for two reasons: one, because he is a gift from a selfless mother who wanted a better life for him ... and the whole process is fraught with a degree of uncertainty; and two, because this (thankfully) has all been happening locally as opposed to from afar (as was the case with Kaiya and Teague, whose births seem to come up fast from the time the pregnancies were announced). We are just so happy to have him here at last! Kris and Sterling will be such awesome parents.

Unfortunately, he has developed pneumonia, and will be in the NICU for a few days. May God watch over him and over Kris and Sterling until they can at last be united as a family.

But our Atticus is strong ...

Teague Oliver Turns 2!

Our handsome little man turned two on June 11. He had a party on Sunday, which was VERY well attended by all the people who love him. He was absolutely buried with presents, had a great cake and THREE kinds of ice-cream (including Toy Story Lemonade), and a pinata (which kept spinning around and bonking him in the head, so he wasn't too sure if he liked it until the candy finally came out with a little help from Alex). He was perhaps most enamored with his balloons and kept reminding us of the colors (blue and red) and noting that there were no yellow balloons. It was a lot of fun!

On his actual birthday, Steph and Mickel asked him where he wanted to go to dinner. First answer: Grammie's. But, since I was still in Las Vegas, he had to come up with a second choice. "Steak" he told his mama, so they went to Lone Star. Unfortunately, it was so bad that Kaiya and Teague ended up eating only their broccoli. :-/

Since I did not have the blessing of having a son, it has been a very special thing to have Teagie in my life. He is all boy! He's so sweet and loving, it melts my heart each and every time I'm with him. And soon we will have our next little boy ... Atticus William Parker. Stay tuned!

Rising Star 2010

Well, yet another Rising Star convention has come and gone. It's always so crazy to prepare for, and then over before I know it and all of the sudden it's a month later. We had a GREAT group this year ... smaller in size but they sure made up for it in enthusiasm! I'll tell you what - if you need a job where you receive love for what you do, you should go into event planning. Of course, you also sometimes receive unwarrented criticism, and you have to work long hours ... but all-in-all ... it's pretty uplifting.


The Japanese women are always so great to wear their kimonos. We love it!

Had to take a rest during the visit to the manufacturing plant. The participants are there for several hours, conducting quality tests, making their own formulas, and seeing exactly how Nature's Sunshine makes the best products available. They always leave with a renewed commitment to NSP.