Pretty Girls

On the way to volunteer at the Angel Tree at the mall.

Thank You Aunties and Uncles!

Auntie Shelagh sent our Mom and Dad birthday money from the Aunties and Uncles. Of course, Mom did the shopping, but we wanted to show you what we got and say thank you so much!
(we got shelves to put multi-color canvas bins in for college, we also got huge picture frames we are going to use to make collages of our friends, families and pets to have for college, the third thing we go was an iHome which is a portable iPod dock which is also an alarm clock plus it charges your phone!)

Love,

Anna and Katie

Turkey Tradition: A new Recipient

HA! They got Anna and she thought she was in on the secret!

Ps. I thought for sure I was getting it.

Happy Thanksgiving filled with love and laughter and (cooked) turkey.

Happy Birthday, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy, Happy!

The most important mail Katie has ever received

Do you think her hands are shaking?

Anna framed for Katie

What a huge accomplishment
We are so blessed

One Happy young lady!

Family Party

Katie gets a Barnes and Noble
gift card

Anna gets a hair roller thing
Jia now has Taylor Swift hair

Huge frames for a college collage

Anna's A Vest

Katie wanted to have combat boots
to wear with her pretty little dresses
No, I'm not kidding

Jia and Katie made a huge amount of the Parnham specialty
Anna just had to get her face in yet another picture

The production line

Jia was truly a big help
Katie and Jia worked together without one fight!

The work continues
People actually order these from us!

Jia has her own cow apron

Friend birthday at Olive Garden

Katie with her Stetson balloons

The party girls

Balloons: Stetson colors, University of Central Florida colors
and the hoped for
University of Florida balloons in the middle

Katie and friends

Anna and the yearbook girls

Going to the party

Lots of pictures, but a lot of things have been going on with us recently. I have just loaded all the pics.

We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, we have so much to be thankful for.

"I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving." Psalm- 69:30

University of Central Florida-Go Knights!

Anna has been accepted into the University of Central Florida which is her second choice. Acceptances for University of Florida don't come out until February. We have decided to get into the mindset that Anna will be attending UCF and then if UF comes through plans will change.

University of Central Florida is a well respected university near Orlando. It has a huge hospitality college because it is so close to all the theme parks. There are a lot of job opportunities as well because of the same parks. They also have a Journalism department which is what Anna wants.

The good thing for us would be that Anna would only be about a half hour from Katie at Stetson. I am adding the link in case you want to take a look.

In all honestly, she has her heart set on University of Florida, but time will tell and this is a great second choice.

http://www.ucf.edu/

Give this a chance! Please....

I tried to start a book blog but it didn't work out, anyway, I know some of you are readers, please come over to www.goodreads.com sign up (easy) and friend me. The site is great, has many good features and you can see what I have been reading this year. I met my New Years Goal of 100 books! (don't ever do this--too many, you won't enjoy them...) Just check it out, it is a great site, and I need some friends...lol.

Ps. Next, friend Birthday Party at Olive Garden- I didn't take the pics but it seemed to be a great success!

I Know an Author!

I actually know someone who wrote a book!
It is called: Brainsteering: A Better Approach to Breakthrough Ideas
It was written by my friend from high school Shawn T. Coyne
(Can I mention his little brother was my high school sweetheart,
oops, I already did)

A New Jia-Ism Before the Birthday Festivities Begin!

Yesterday Anna asked Jia to say "The Pledge of Allegiance" with her to see if she really knew it or was just mumbling it like a lot of the kids actually born in the US do :

Here is part of Jia's version:

"And to the Publix, for which it stands,
One Asian, under God, indivisible, with liberty, and justice for all..."

Guess her way is correct as well.

The End of Homecoming

In the van, ready to roll!

Anna and Shannon have been friends since
7th grade

Both girls at the game!

Well, Homecoming week is officially over, they won their game, a good time was had by all at the party. They all went back to a friend's house and their parents made chocolate chip pancakes. Then the night owl (me) went to get Anna at 2:00 a.m. By far the latest she has ever stayed out, but there was a parent we knew with them at all times. Here are a few pics we didn't catch that came from Anna's camera.

Next up--Birthday Party at Olive Garden for lunch this weekend. I think there are 17 girls. Then Thanksgiving with Ellen next Thursday. We surely have much to be thankful for!

On Black Friday-the day after Thanksgiving we will start working 3-4 hour shifts at the Angel Tree in the mall, this will continue almost up until Christmas. You may remember we did this last year. It is sponsored by the Salvation Army, there is a Christmas tree in the mall with tags on it containing a child's age, sex, a wish for a toy and sizes for clothes. People chose a child-they become that child's angel, we write down all the information and the people bring the gifts back by a certain date. Katie has expanded her involvement this year to include shifts run by the Flanagan High School Honor Society. She LOVES doing this and we have to keep her from using all of her own money buying gifts for children!

I can't believe it is that time already! Trying to figure out birthday gifts/Christmas gifts that equal in number and price is no easy task. We are buying a lot of college things, but we have some fun stuff tucked away too. I don't think towels and sheets are going to cut it for Anna. Jia just cuts things out of magazines for me...When I say we may not be able to afford everything, she says "that's alright, Santa can."

Anna's Homecoming

Our beautiful Anna

Katie Just says no!

Our family

Pretty Anna-Katie pictures

Editor-in-Chief
and
Managing Editor

The Gang! Lots of blue dresses because the theme was
Oceans 11
Personally, I don't believe in matching your clothes to the theme.
Kind of like an actress wearing a red dress on the red carpet.

I am posting just a few of Anna's homecoming pictures here. For the entire experience please visit me on facebook! the pictures are really good. The kids all went in a van both ways. All the girls had sore feet. Katie did not want to go so the two of us went shopping and out to dinner. One of the girls families had them all come home and made them chocolate chip pancakes. Every single kid in this group is really nice and the majority of them have been friends since elementary school.

THE HUGE NEWS

Katie at the very moment she was telling her Nona the wonderful news!

I am sure that most of you know about Katie and Anna's HUGE news as we thought that it was worth a phone call, rather than just a blog post.

Katie heard on Tuesday that she was accepted to Stetson University with a $21,000 dollar scholarship! This was her first choice school and she was ecstatic to say the least.

Later on the exact same day, Anna heard that she was accepted to her second choice school, the University of Central Florida in Orlando, very close to Stetson. This is where she will go if she does not get accepted to the University of Florida, UF does not make their decisions until February.They are a very good school, but in my opinion, a little cocky, even though I love it there. (GO GATORS!) The public universities do not give out scholarships until January, so we won't know anything about Anna until then. Both girls have applied for numerous small scholarships as well so maybe they will hear about some of them before that time. as I write this we still have not heard if Bennyfoo, the pug has been accepted into Stetson as well. lol.

We thank our families and friends for supporting the girls and being excited right along with us: All the Parnhams, the Sardachuks, the Harltons, the Parkers, Erin, and Ellen. Your exuberant responses meant a lot to the girls...