We are all winners in my eyes...

Ok, so I was only going to pick 3, but then it made me feel sad for those of you that wouldn't win. Because I know that I am going to make, or semi make something really cool! SO, without further ado...

YOU ALL WIN! Which sucks for me (having to figure out what to "make" for 7 people) and it awesome for you! So, this means that:

Amanda
Whitney
Jessi
Melinda
Lisa
Annalee
Shanna (she is exempt, because she has done this 3 times, and mine is somehow linked to hers, because Melinda won on hers, and I won on Melinda's...don't ask. And, she is doing one on her blog, so go check it out, much cuter than mine!!!)

You all have to do the same on your blog, and link it to mine!

I have been racking my brain (ok not really, but I have been thinking) about what to do for this. I promise to have it out in the next 6 months, hopefully much, much sooner than that! I promise that it will be *semi* homemade, and I promise that you will love it (well I don't promise the last part, but I hope :) that you will!)

So, because I have 7 peep that like me, (or just want to win, either way I am ok with it) you are all winners in my eyes! I need you to email me your addresses to: merileeparke@hotmail.com

Oh, and one more, you bet I am signing up on all of your blogs, so get going!

Winner's Circle

Ok, so Melinda posted this on her blog, and I entered...and I WON!!!! I am excited, because I never win anything, well actually I never enter anything, so therefore I never win anything. BUT, I don't care, I am excited I won!!! The only down part of winning, is that I have to do the same on my blog (that is so seriously neglected!) (Not that it is a down part, just that I am not the craftiest of them, so it is down for you all!)

So, since I have so many loyal readers, I will randomly pick 3 winners from everyone that comments here. If you win you have to do the same on your blog. Sometime in the next 6 months you will receive a gift from me. I am not a crafty person, so this should scare all of you away, and I am going to change mine a little from Melinda, and perhaps mine could be "semi" home made?!? I will try my darndest to make something that is home made, but in an effort of not wanting people to hate me, I may do "semi" home made (which could mean a plethera of things ;)).

Good luck, and I don't want my blog site to crash, so don't everyone go on at once and sign up.
One other thing, the doors will close on this lovely drawing on Wednesday @ 9:00 pm. AND, if you win...you have to do the same thing on your blog. Now if there aren't 3 people who leave comments, then that will make me sad and you will all win!:)

(Oh, and you know another good reason to do this every so often? Because when you have a blog that not many people read/comment on, it is good for one's feelings to see that people will actually read/comment on your blog. Unless of course no one does!)

Good LUCK!!!

St. George...again

We were in St. George last weekend for another soccer tournament. I was not excited to go, because the weather was supposed to be horrible.

We left on Saturday morning, and drove through the scarriest storm ever. I am not kidding when I say I was white nuckling it the whole way down. We saw jack-knifed semi's, cars that had slid off the road and into the median, accidents...you name it. I was so scared that I told Clay we should turn around and go back. He quickly informed me that he wasn't going to drive back through that mess.

As soon as we got to 15 miles out side of the Beave, it cleared up and the roads were just wet. We got into St. George around 11:30, and it was beautiful!

Kylee was guest playing for another team, so she was a little nervous about the whole trip. They played 2 games on Saturday, and won both of them buy at least 5 goals. It was Valentine's night, and St. George was PACKED, because there was 2 baseball tournaments, 2 soccer tournaments, the arts festival, the Dixie Parade of Homes, and Alpine School District principal's conference. We ate with the whole team at the Pasta Factory, and then headed back to our hotel...

We were invited to play in this tournament 2 weeks ago, so we had little time to find a hotel. We ended up staying at the Hilton, which was nice, other than we had a room with 1 king bed, and 1 roll away...not so nice with 2 parents and 3 kids! The first night was horrid. Halle slept in between Clay and I...or should I say she thrashed in between Clay and I all night. Kylee got the roll away, and Cayden was on an air mattress, in a sleeping bag on the floor. Now for those of you who know me at all are probably thinking...Cayden on the floor of the hotel?? Worry not my friends, he had 4 blankets, covering the floor, so there wasn't a chance in you know where that his body would actually come in direct contact of the floor. Kylee woke up at around 1 saying that she couldn't sleep on the roll away, because the springs were poking her in the back. Lovely. So we switch Halle and Kylee and now I am sleeping between Kylee and Clay. I am clostrophobic, and didn't sleep a wink all night.

Sunday we planned to go to church, and then go to the visitors center of the temple. This plan came to a hault as I was laying in bed that night/morning, and realized that I had packed all of the church stuff, except for my shoes/nylons/slip. I nearly had a panic attack, thought about going out and purchasing new and still going to church...and then realized that was silly. So, we ate breakfast, and tried as hard as we could to not really "do" anything because it was the sabbath. Yeah, that lasted about 1 hour, and then I thought I was going to go insane. 5 people in a hotel room the size of my bedroom. We decided to go see a movie, so we went to see

"Paul Blart Mall Cop", um...ok, that was a super funny show. I guess you had to be in the mood to see it, but I thought it was hillarious! We then did what any real american would do...we went to Walmart and bought some snacks for the next day...much cheaper than the gas station. We did some serious people watching, and then we grabbed dinner and went back to the hotel.

This time we planned it a bit better...for some of us. We talked Halle into sleeping on the roll away, Cayden still had the best spot on the floor, and Kylee, Clay and I in the bed. A little wierd, but it was a King, and we didn't touch each other all night. Oh, other than me rolling Kylee over every 5 minutes for her to stop snoring. Fun times. Fun times.

Monday they had a game at 9am, so we were up and ready to go by 8. They played hard, but lost that game, due to some girls (most of the team) staying up too late the night before, and none of them able to focus on the game. It was sad, but we were told to come back at noon for our last game. We ran back to the hotel, checked out, went to In-n-out burger for lunch (we had to kill some time), and then back to the field to play. Oh, except someone forgot to check, and the finals were single elimination, and we DIDN'T HAVE ANOTHER GAME!!! So, frusterated that we could have been 2 hours into our drive home, we got in the car and headed home to miss the next storm coming in. It was nice, because we actually got home by 5:15, and still had enough time to relax, and un pack.

It was a quick trip, but the weather held up, and we had some fun while we were there. I didn't realize this would turn into a novel, sorry! I have pictures to post, but am too stinking lazy to upload them right now, so you will just have to check back!

In the spirit of Valentine's Day...

I found this, and thought it was cute! Enjoy!

Touching words from the mouth of babes.
A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8year-olds,
'What does love mean?'
The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined.

See what you think.

'When my grandmother got arthritis,
she couldn't bend over and paint hertoenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time,
evenwhen his hands got arthritis too. That's love.' Rebecca- age 8


When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.' Billy - age 4

'Love is when a girl puts on perfume
and a boy puts on shaving cologne and
they go out and smell each other.' Karl - age 5

'Love is when you go out to eat
and give somebody most of your Frenchfries
without making them give you any of theirs.' Chrissy - age 6

'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.' Terri - age 4

'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy
and she takes a sip before giving it to him,
to make sure the taste is OK.' Danny - age 7

'Love is when you kiss all the time.
Then when you get tired of kissing,
you still want to be together and you talk more.
My Mommy and Daddy are like that.
They look gross when they kiss' Emily - age 8

'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas
if you stop opening presents and listen.' Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

'If you want to learn to love better,
you should start with a friend whoyou hate,' Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on thisplanet)

'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt,
then he wears iteveryday.' Noelle - age 7

'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man
who are stillfriends even after they know
each other so well.' Tommy - age 6

'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared.
I looked at all the people watching me
and saw my daddy waving and smiling.
He was the only one doing that.
I wasn't scared anymore.' Cindy - age 8

'My mommy loves me more than anybody
You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.' Clare - age 6

'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.' Elaine-age 5

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty
and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.' Chris - age 7

'Love is when your puppy licks your face
even after you left him alone all day.' Mary Ann - age 4

'I know my older sister loves me
because she gives me all her old clothes
and has to go out and buy new ones.' Lauren - age 4

'When you love somebody, your eyelashes
go up and down and little starscome out of you.' (what an image) Karen - age 7

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet
and she doesn'tthink it's gross.' Mark - age 6

'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it.
But if you mean it, you should say it a lot.
People forget.' Jessica - age 8

And the final one The winner was a four year old child
whose next doorneighbor was an elderly gentleman
who had recently lost his wife.
Uponseeing the man cry,
the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard,
climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.
When his Mother asked what hehad said to the neighbor,
the little boy said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry'

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

YUM!

Ok, random post, but I am craving this food so bad! AND NO I AM NOT PREGNANT!!!! When we were in Cali a few weeks ago, we decided to drive about 15 minutes to eat at Olive Garden...not my favorite, but a heck of a lot cheaper than where are options were close to the hotel. We go there, and the wait was 45 minutes. um.no. We were starving. In the shopping plaza next to Olive Garden was a little place called "Rubios". It wasn't super busy, so we decided to go there. It.is.the.best! It is a fresh mex kind of place, the most expensive item on the menu was under $8, and you get tons of food! This is my kind of place! We had the best food, and we even ate there on Sunday on our way home. Needless to say, my kids loved it as well. When we were in Vegas we found one there, and had to stop! WELL, much to my surprise they have a few in UTAH! And, they are putting one in American Fork!!! Could I be much happier...I think not! So, if you want a yummy place to eat, that is cheap, kid friendly, and gives you lots of super yummy, food...this is your place! The website is : www.rubios.com. For all of my readers out of Utah (wow that sounded like I have a huge following!!) they are only based in the West. Check it out, try it, and leave me a note if you like it or not!!!