Shake 4 Jake 2008

I have gotten to where I look forward to this event every year. Yeah yeah I know it is only in it's 2nd year but I love it and I have so much fun. This year was incredible. The band was called Fly By Radio and if you are anywhere near where they are playing I recommend that you GO! I actually left and came back because I loved it so much. Just incredible! You can go to their website at http://www.flybyradio.com/ to check out tour dates and such! They are actually faster than I am...they already have pics up from the Shake. Speaking of pictures and the Shake...oh yes I took pictures! Wanna see? lol! here you go!
I LOVE SNAPFISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOST MY DANG PICTURES! So now it will be tonight until you get pics! I am so sorry. I know you all are patiently waiting pics and I was so excited because I used my sister's computer and thought it would be faster....NOT!!!

On a serious note:
Please remember this is not a short week so we can have fun and pop fireworks but please remember why we have this short week!
Wave your flag along with me very proudly!
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
Much love,
Erin

Deason Hewitt Parker

I have finally gotten all my pictures of the precious one downloaded and ready to share with you all. I hope you enjoy this picture post. Katie is very excited and very hopeful about the baby coming home tomorrow. She is ready to get Deason home. I must say that Aunt Erin is anxious is ready as well. I am getting tired of having to go to the hospital and see my angel. I would rather go to West Monroe to see him at home! Here are the pics! Enjoy and I will soon have pics up from tomorrow night...maybe Sunday! I wonder if I will beat Mo to it! lol! Bet not!

This is when his Daddy first brought him to see the family right after Katie's C-Section.

This is Deason in the Incubator right after delivery.

Mama with her precious angel!

Until next time...wave you red, white & blue!

Much love,

Erin

New Family Member

We have a new family member as of Tuesday, June 24th at 12:49 PM. He is a precious baby boy. He weighed 6 lbs and 5 oz. I know all of you are anxious to see pictures and well...I don't have any for this post just yet but I will have some soon. The baby is having to stay an extra night in the hospital tonight so she is going to stay with him in a courtesy room and I am going to make sure she has everything she needs. I will try and post perhaps on Sunday.
For all those other pictures I promised to post...forget it! These are way better. Nothing beats the birth of a child. It is just amazing the love that I have for this child. He is my angel. I love him so much. He gets to where he will make the funniest faces and it makes me think that he may recognize my voice from when I would talk to him while Katie was pregnant. It is so cute. I am counting down the minutes until I get off so that I can go see him.
I had a horrible episode on Wednesday because Katie was able to keep him in the room all day and I went by during my lunch and only got to stay a few minutes and it broke my heart so bad to have to leave him. I cried. It was harder than I thought it would. He is so precious and I know my friends want to see pictures! I want to thank all my McGraw friends that read this! You made me feel so good the other day when I read your post on the boards that you are reading! It put a smile on my face! Thank you for that. I am going to get pics up here as soon as I can! I was hoping to get them done tonight but Katie called me and told me the doctor wanted the baby in another night. She has been discharged so whenever the baby is able to go home tomorrow they will leave. Hopefully in the morning sometime. I am so sorry for the lack of pictures but they always say pictures say a thousand words and the pictures that I am going to post on (hopefully) Sunday say a million words. They are just adorable! I hope you all had a great week! Please remember our brave men and women next week and those that are without their brave man or woman.

Until next time....wave your red, white & blue!
Much love,
Erin

Aunt Tootie?....

Yes ma'm! That's my name! As many of you may know I have been looking for a funky name for my new nephew to call me. I didn't have to look very far. Tootie is a name that my family calls me and I am not sure why. I love it though and thought it would be a great name for the baby to call me. It was a busy weekend preparing for Baby Deason's arrival. We laid out this weekend with the mommy-to-be and had a great girls weekend! It was my mother, my aunt Donna, my grandmother (Maw-Maw), Whitney (Donna's daughter), my mother (which is Donna's sister & Maw-Maw's other daughter) and me! Just the girls having a great time! My brother finally came home from Connecticutt on Saturday after being up there for 3 weeks. It was so good to see his huge smile when he got off the plane. It was awesome!
Ok now for Believers....Shake 4 Jake is this weekend and I am very excited about it. I hope all my friends come out to support this organization that I am just in love with. It is an incredible cause and I see the awesomeness that is brings children and their families! Make plans to attend! I believe you won't regret it! You will however regret not going! Tickets are just $50 and well worth it! Well I better get going! "Talk" to you all soon! I hope to have pics up soon!

Until next time....keep waving your red, white, and blue!
Much Love,
Erin

B12 Shot & Life

Some sad news to begin the day. I had my last B12 shot today. I love those things! Today it has me all pumped up and ready to go eat at Eskamoe's! I am so ready for a chili cheese dog! We tried the other night to eat one and it just didn't come out like I thought it would. I am so excited this week because my summer worker started her job here where I work and she is awesome! She gets to spend most of the summer with me and I love it. They are a lot of help when I get them. City Hall has not been that busy this morning but I am not complaining. I AM READY TO BE AN AUNT! I am so nervous for when I do get the call to go to the hospital! It will be an exciting time in my life and I can't wait to post pictures. Oh speaking of pictures....I have one....well I went and found one anyway but at least I have one! It is what I had this morning.....

That is a B12 shot! Did I tell you that I love those things! Ok I have begged and pleaded so I am just going to assume that people are reading my blog! I am trying really hard to make it a good blog and I don't feel the love. I am just going to pretend! Don't be scared to sign up! You won't have to post a blog....you can just tell me you love mine!

At least it is Tuesday...it is one day closer to Friday! Closer to Friday than it was on Monday! Hopefully I will get the all important call soon and I can start posting pictures of my precious nephew!

Until next time...keep waving your red, white & blue!

Much love,

erin

Friday is here....

and I am so excited. Katie's shower was awesome last night. It was a very special night and today (after the phone call I got) has proved to be even more special. I can't spill the beans yet but I think I will be posting baby pictures before you know it! I am just filled with emotions and can't wait. I will post pics from the shower soon if the mommy-to-be will approve! I hope that one day little Deason will look at his aunt's blog as a way to "track" his life. His aunt is going to try so hard to make it the best. I am so ready to be an aunt and spoil that baby. It means so much to me. It makes me proud that my sister has grown up to be the person she is today and the wonderful mommy that I know she is going to be. I can't wait to see her in action. She's already got some mommy instinct in her. It is so funny. She will grow up even more and it saddens me that we are all growing up to be the men and women we are today but we can all sit around and recall the memories of growing up and we can laugh and cry at the same time. Boy we had some memories for a lifetime in the Stephens household! For now I leave you pictures of beautiful girls that made beautiful memories in Nashville one week ago today! I love you!

Until next time.....

keep waving you red, white, and blue.

Much love,

Erin

Happy Friday Eve!

Hello and Happy Friday Eve on this marvelous day (I am being so sarcastic!) I have had a heck of a day and so ready for...

It has not been the greatest day ever. I had a great morning but it went downhill after lunch. It is a long story but if you want to hear about it just give me a ring! It is going to get better. I am very excited. I am going to my sister's last baby shower before I am an aunt tonight! I am so ready to be an aunt and spoil that baby rotten. I want to be just as good as my aunt. I couldn't ask for a better aunt. She is almost like another sister to me. I can just about (I said just about) tell her anything and trust her when she doesn't get mad and just start pouring her heart out! I love her so much. I want to be the cool aunt that one day he can go on the back porch with and have a drink with. I think that is so cool. I can't wait. I have a long time until that happens though! Katie knows I am going to spoil that baby rotten and I have already started spoiling him. I love going to see my sister and talking to the baby and giving him kisses. That makes me so happy. I will soon be sharing pictures so that all of you that read this and know Katie you can see the first pictures of little Deason Hewitt Parker right here! I hope to be the exclusive! I hope to get them up before the hospital gets them up but I doubt that will happen. I will be too busy being a sister and aunt! Oh I can go on and on about that! I am just way beyond excited! Well I am about to get out of the office for the day...it is almost 5! It's 5 o'clock somewhere anyways...it's 5:45 here! I hope everyone has a great evening!

Until next time....keep waving your red, white and blue!

Much Love,

Erin

A Clark Family Experience in Nashville

So my first full day in Nashville started off incredibly. Me and Cousin Anna Beth headed out to Loveless Cafe. I know some people have heard of Carol Faye the Biscuit Lady from Food Network's Throwdown with Bobby Flay.

Well we ordered our wonderful food....It was so good and trust me...Ms. Carol Fay knows how to make those biscuits!!! Well I am not a shy person so we get to start talking to this gentleman seated next to us and we ended up talking for a good while. Well by the end of the conversation I ended up knowing him. His name is Mr. Bulldog and I forgot his sweet wife's name. They are incredible people. Mr. Bulldog's brother-in-law is the fiddle player for The Clark Brothers formerly The Clark Family Experience. Several years ago The Clark Family Experience toured with Tim McGraw. They also came to Swampstock with Tim and put on a great performance. Me and Anna Beth were so excited and she knew somehow in the conversation I was going to make a McGraw connection somewhere and we did it right off the bat! Oh they had their most precious grandson with them....he was so cute!

Then Friday we decide to go to the house (Steven & Charlie's house) after breakfast and get a shower and get dressed to go do the tourist thing. Man that was so cool to see all the places that your favorite artist got their start.

That is a pic of us down Broadway. Very cool! When we were hopping around Broadway we decided to hit Tootsie's and we of course had to rename the place. My family has always called me Tootie. I don't know why but that is the family name for me...well that is now the name of Tootsie's...in our family anyway. We met some incredible people of Nashville and this is another person......

Here we are toasting the town! His name was Tim. He plays in bands and he has played with several of my favorite country music stars. Very nice gentleman! Tim had some of his friends with him and please forgive me because I don't remember their names. We had so much fun. After that we got a little hungry so we stopped here....

It's a little big joint called Jack's Bar-b-que. And yes they were better than my Dad's bar-b-que ribs!!! They were so good! There is just something about Tennessee bar-b-que that tastes so dang good! I love you Dad! Had to do that. I have to have somewhere to sleep tonight...lol! Before we even left to go to Nashville I got a message from Steven and he had just one request....please take a picture of my girlfriend in a cowboy hat. Well Steven your request has been fulfilled!

Well we went on to see the Ryman Auditorium....had to make my Opry Debut...what an awesome crowd I got to play to! loL!

Well I have come to the end of this post...I want to leave you with some beautiful pics of the city of Nashville Tennessee. If you are a country music fan and never been to Nashville please start planning your vacation! It is imperative. It is so awesome. The picture above is so awesome to me because that is the same stage that Minnie Pearl, Gene Autry, Hank Williams, Sr., Elvis, Patsy Cline and all my favorite country music stars once stood. It was just an emotional experience.

I also need to take time and thank each and every person that we met or had anything to do with planning and helping me make my dreams come true during my trip. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. It truly means a lot. I love Nashville and one day I will be back again. Not to sing but to have a great time! Thank you Steven for loaning us your home, Charlie for being an awesome tour guide and making sure we ate great food, Anna Beth for being the awesome cousin and most excellent tour guide, Uncle Gray for helping me get on that plane and just being there during my travels to make sure I always got to the right gate and on time! THANK YOU!

I leave you now with awesome views of the city and just awesomeness! Enjoy!
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I am sure I have repeated pictures but it is so beautiful I can't help it!

Until next time....keep waving your red, white, & blue!

Much love,

Erin

Excitement is building!

I can feel all the excitement that my readers have wanting to know how the Nashville trip went! Even my family is reading!! I am so honored! Lol! I am trying to hold off and hide my excitement...I said try Ab! Anyways I am trying to wait until I get my pictures on the computer before I blog. I am really excited about sharing my pictures because they pretty much tell the story. I am going to make several entries regarding my Nashville trip.
My little angel Jake was with me all the time. It was so special to look up or listen in and hear "Live Like You Were Dying" or look and see that it was 2:11. Very special to me. Me and my cousin and tour guide Anna Beth were walking down Broadway and I heard this music and couldn't really understand it but I knew where it was coming from so I started walking a little faster so maybe I could understand it better and it was the song...LLYWD. So awesome! Then we were walking out of Steven's office building from our "afternoon meeting" and I was hot as fire because it had to have been 108 degrees outside. So I asked Anna Beth if she had a ponytail holder...she had one and it was green....Jake's favorite color. That Jake was all over. I told Anna Beth all about that sweet angel because I would always say Jake Moment and she would start grinning because she knew that angel was watching over us. It was incredible. I just felt like he was there with us. Thank you for being my Spiritual Guide Jake!
All in all Nashville was great. I may have had a few bad flight attendants, sore legs from walking, but we had great drinks, great times and great company and met some awesome people! I do have plenty of pictures of the wonderful people we met! I hope you are reading this Bulldog! We are so grateful to have met you! Tim...we had the best time at Tootsie's and Kevin! Tim...I am so sorry I couldn't remember the other gentleman's name that was with you! We had a great time! Can't wait to share pictures!

Note to Steven Godfrey...my pictures of Miranda aren't so great but I sure did try.

THANK YOU FOR MAKING MY TRIP AWESOME!!!

Until next time...
keep waving your red, white, and blue!
Much love,
Erin

Flight....Nashville!.....and LOVIN IT!!!!

Well the day finally arrived! I was boarding a plane for the first time headed to Nashville. I thought this was going to be an experience. It was but it was a great one. I was a little intimidated when we were about to land in Atlanta because I saw how big that place was and got so scared! I got off the plane not knowing where I was going but luckily we landed in the same terminal that I would be departing from to go to Nashville. It was great. I was just a little nauseous when I got off the plane so I wasn't sure if I needed to eat or not. Although I was hungry. I was just a little afraid. Everything went great though. I ended up eating Krystal...remind never to go there again! It was absolutely horrible. The service was great but the food was terrible with a capital T! So I go to my gate number and I am not shy so I start talking to these people and they are so nice. The gentleman that I was talking to wants to come to Louisiana and eat Crawfish and I want to go to Tennessee to eat down home southern cooking! I thought that was too funny. They were on the same flight as I was going to Nashville. Oh there is a very touching story I MUST tell about the flight to Nashville. I was so honored to be on that flight. There was a soldier coming home from Afghanistan that had never met his newborn son and it was the sweetest thing. The flight attendants announced it to everyone towards the end of the flight and it was so cool because everyone started clapping and cheering and you could hear people yelling Thank You. It was incredible and a very moving experience. I tear up just writing about it. We (Anna Beth Stephens...my tour guide through Nashville) are about to leave and go tour downtown! Also we are going touring tomorrow as well. It is going to be mall shopping day tomorrow. I should have some exciting pictures to share next week as soon as I get them downloaded to the computer. Hope everyone is doing well! I have a Clark Family Experience to tell you all about too but I am going to wait on that! Oh I can't wait to get back to Monroe and just blog away about this trip! That is only the beginning....there is so much more to come!

Until next time...

Keep waving your red, white & blue!

Much love,

Erin

B12...Nashville....Life.....Ain't it GREAT!!!!

Ok so I woke up this morning and really didn't want to get up so early and now I am paying for it...I am yawning! Well I knew I was going to be happy soon. I was getting my favorite B12 shot today! Bright and early at 7 AM. So I get the shot I feel great. I am ready for.....

like never before! I can't wait. I am all packed. I knew my mother was going to Cheer Camp with her girls and then taking a shopping trip to Dallas and I wanted her to be at ease and her know that I am packed! I can't wait to get on that plane and take off. I am not sure what I am more excited about...seeing the Atlanta airport or Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream! Life is just so great right now. I get some test results back on Thursday and very anxious to get them. I told the receptionist at the doctor's office this morning that I planned (or my cousin planned) our trip perfect or at least Dr. Leary planned for me to get my B12 shot at the perfect timing! I won't find out until I get to the airport in Monroe what gate I am arriving at in Atlanta. I am going to do some studying on that plane! When I get to Atlanta it is going to be a glass of wine and on to the next flight! Then on to Nashville and another glass of wine with the cousin...maybe.....I get in at 10:43. I maybe kinda tired. I just want to be relaxed when I get on that flight out of Atlanta. I hope my brother checks in on life with me while he is in Hartford for the next 3 weeks. I already miss him. I am used to him calling around 6 or so to ask what is for supper. It will go by fast. I hope so anyway! I am about to punch the clock and go to lunch. I hope everyone has a great week. I am not sure if I am going to blog about the trip while I am there. I will wait until I get home and get my pictures up and I can share them with you all. Hey....don't be scared! I won't hate you or anything but let me know you are reading.....leave me a comment!

Until next time....

keep waving your red, white and blue!

Much love,

Erin

Wow!

Sit down, go ahead and get angry, frustrated or whatever because once again I have a post with no pictures. I have been away for a while. I had to have a procedure and I was recovering. I did sneak on internet for a little bit at the house while recovering but didn't feel like posting here. Well I am ready to leave for Nashville! Getting so so ready and excited! First I get a B12 shot in the morning and then doctor on Thursday morning. I am going to get my nails and toes done on Wednesday! I am going to be impressive! lol! I hope everyone is doing well since I so kindly asked! I am becoming a bigger fan of Miranda Lambert! I love that woman! Well I am at work and have been very busy today so I have had no time to play around so I am going to play on the computer and I will "talk" to you all soon. Please pray nothing serious is wrong with me. Also pray for our good friends...Rosemary and Debbie and all our men and women overseas.
Until next time....
Wave your red, white and blue!

Much love,
Erin