Christmas Giving by Cheryl Parvin

Christmas is for giving, like Christmas gifts and cards.
And giving smiles and hugs, and giving help with things too hard.
Why is there so much giving? Is it just for fun?
We give gifts of love because God gave to us his son.

That sums up why I love to give gifts to my family.
It was such a joy this year to give our sweet four oldest granddaughters their own lap top computer. We hope to read lots of news as they work on their blogs this year. To make sure the two little girls were not left out we gave them a Leapster TV game system to enjoy with a Kindergarten game to interact with. Rachel and Perry IV will be sharing a Little Leaps Grow with me Learning System. Since we could not be with them to see their delight in opening their gifts their dad has preserved it on a movie that we can't wait to see. To make sure the girls could get online we sent Kim a router to make their house wireless and Perry a Bluetooth headset so he can talk hands free while he makes the hour commute each way to work and back.
Our son Benjamin was here for Christmas and he and Thomas and Abigail helped me shop til I dropped on the day before Christmas Eve and then we had a nice quiet day on Christmas eve and ended it attending the fourth Advent Service at Dr. George Grant's Parish Presbyterian Church in Franklin. Dr. Grant made the message of Christmas so alive while he preached and we could not help be excited to celebrate the most wonderful gift ever given to mankind, the birth of our Savior.

Why is there so much giving? Is it just for fun?
We give gifts of love, because God gave to us his Son.
Amen

My Two Perry's

After seven precious granddaughters we now have another Perry in our lives. He looks just like his grandpa and dad. When he was only two days old we flew to Texas and looking at him was like going back in time to when I held his dad as a baby. Now the girls can't keep their hands off him and he is truly spoiled. If he lived closer there would be no hope for him indeed. 

Happy New Year! 

Merry Christmas
To all of our family and friends

Christmas Joy

For the first time since 2002 we spent Christmas at home. It felt so funny being here and not being with our grandchildren. We stayed at home this year and traveled to Texas instead at Thanksgiving and Perry and Kim and the children joined us for Thanksgiving with our families. We arrived the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and stayed until Saturday morning and headed back to Tennessee. We had Catherine and our sweet little Byson with us as well. He was quite the traveler and slept most of the way to and from. Since we made the trip then our son promised if we stayed home at Christmas he would bring the family to Tennessee after his work slowed down after the first of the year. We can't wait until they get here. Our son Benjamin came and spent the holiday with us, but it still was quiet without our little sweetie around. They are visiting his other grandparents. Perry took his sons and Abigail along with two friends to see the new Rocky movie and I shopped for last minute gifts. After the movie we talked Dad into joining us at TGIF for a late lunch and then hit the mall for more last minute shopping. Considering the day before it was not very crowded at all. We had a quiet Christmas day eating our traditional turkey and ham dinner and watching the DALLAS Cowboys get stomped to death. We just could not believe how badly they played. Just when we think they are back to a winning streak they lose. What a day. We finished it watching George C. Scott's "Christmas Carol".

WE DID IT!

What a game, Thomas' team won the national 8 man football championship game Saturday night 46 - 32. The game was a cliff hanger. We took the lead early in the first quarter. When half time arrived the score was 26 - 20. We had the lead until in the third quarter they got a touch down to take the lead. The score was 30 - 32 until the last 3 minutes of the game. We caught a punt return and Taylor Huskey returned it all the way for a touchdown and that brought the score to 38 to 32. To clinch the win when Redemption kicked off the ball bounced off their player who just stood and looked at it. David Swift who was the best player all around did alot more than just look at the ball he jumped on it and it was Knights ball again, we got another touch down in the last seconds of the game. We won 46 to 32. What a night.
We had traveled down to Birmingham with the team and stayed at the Drury Inn. We had quite a turn out of other students to support our Knights. After the game we returned to the hotel and hooked up our dvd of the game and watched it again until almost midnight. What a night it was we really had a good time and celebrated all the way back to Franklin.

Life is Good

Here it is the start of a new work week. Everyone was up early getting ready. On Monday's Abigail goes in early with her dad to catch a ride for her 8 am Algebra class. Catherine and dad have to open each of our schools and Byson is sleeping like a little bug in his bed. He is so cute when he wakes up in the mornings. We have to be there by 8:30 today and it is the count down until the big game Saturday. Thomas' check up was postponed until today, so we still don't know how his knee is. We do have a prayer praise tho, after the game and before the players got on the bus to return one of our mom's placed her hand on his knee and prayed and for him and the swelling started to go down. Mrs. Bannister said Thomas said she had to pray for him so he could play in the playoff game.
Well, the Dr. visit was good. He said in light of this being Thomas' senior year he would approve him to play if he put a brace over the bad knee. He did not ask him to get a mri since he probably will not be playing anymore games. This will be the very last game of his senior year. We are soo excited that he will indeed be playing. Life is good.

Our Little Sweeties

After 9 years we finally have a grandchild close by. When our oldest son and his wife started their family 13 years ago I was in heaven. Their first daughter was born on my husband's 40th birthday. We were so excited, they were living about 30 miles from us which was close enough for them to come over for Sunday dinners and we could babysit if they wanted a night out. It took about a month for them to be willing to leave her overnight but their dad and I just loved having our grandchild in the house. I remember Kim nursed her and put her to bed and she slept until they came back the next morning. Seven months later our youngest daughter Abigail, was born and she and Deanna were almost like sisters. Then the next year they added Kaitlyn to their family and what fun we had with 3 little ones on weekends. I remember keeping the children and working in our garden and they kept eating the strawberries even before they were ripe. Those were the days indeed. Sometimes we even kept our friends children and would have as many as 4 extra little girls running around and, bath time was a hoot.
The next year #3 Lydia was born and she came over on week-ends too. My friends would say boy are you a gluton for punishment, and I would say "you know someday I may not get to live around my grandchildren and I want to keep them as much as I can now". Little did I know when Lydia was 9 months old God was going to move us to Florida and for two long years we did not see their family. Since then they have had 5 more little ones but we have not had the pleasure of living close by since August 1997.
This past August God gave my oldest daughter a precious little boy and it is fun having a baby around again. When my son's family traveled to Tennessee in Sept. what fun we had with 10 little ones in the same house. It reminded me when I was little and all the fun my 6 sisters and I had growning up.

Fall Happenings

Here it is the end of October and boy have we been busy. I don't know what I would do with myself if we didn't have two teens in the house. To start with Thomas in his senior year has kept us busy with football. His team Franklin Classical Knights are the Tennessee Conference champions and ended their regular season last night with another win 56 - 20. They are the only team in the history of Franklin Classical School to be undefeated. It was a hard game the field was wet, it rained just minutes before kick off time, it was muddy and the winds turned out of the north to give it a little chill. The first touch down the other team got Thomas was too far to keep him from catching it. After that you just couldn't keep him stopped, he sacked the quarterback, tackled another guy who was trying to carry the ball and just was going strong when he came off the field after a hard tackle and sat out a play, he returned to the game and only to return to the sidelines complaining of his knee. He said his knee cap popped out of socket and popped back in on that play and he was sidelined with an ice pack to reduce the swelling that was beginning. He is on his way to get it checked out this morning, hopefully he will be fully recovered by this coming Saturday when they face the Alabama champions for the national title of 8 man football.
Meanwhile I should be in Chattanougha today but I am fighting a sore throat. Abigail and her dad are traveling there for a Black belt tournament. Hopefully our little ninja will return with some medals. This is her first one being a black belt.
We finished our week at the preschools with Harvest parties yesterday and they were so much fun. The children spent the morning decorating their treat bags, doing art projects, and filling their bags with treats after saying their letters, numbers, colors & shapes, Bible verses and blends. Everyone had a blast.

God's Providence (continued)

Alot has happened since my last post, but to continue my story, we lived in Texas for 2 years until my husband felt God was calling him to be a preacher so we packed all our belongings and moved to Florence, Ms. and stayed until 1981, he gratuated in 1979 and we stayed another 2 years while he attended seminary. Meanwhile we were blessed with another son, Christopher in 1977 and then 3 years and 10 months later another son Benjamin who was born in 1980. We probably would have stayed longer in Missisippi but 17 months after Benjamin was born our first daughter was born in 1982. We moved back to Texas 6 months before she was born and stayed there until 1988 and then moved to a little town in Ohio and lived there for 9 years before we moved to Florida to learn how to own and operate a Christian preschool. Our youngest son Thomas was born in 1989 and our youngest daughter Abigail was born in 1994 on Valentine Day both in Ohio. They keep us busy trying to keep up with them as Thomas is a senior this year and plays football for the FCS Knights and Abigail stays busy with Taekwondo where she is currently a probationay black belt at 12 years old. It seems that God had prepared us all these years to operate a preschool. As a pastor Perry has ministered to many families and now he still is ministering to young families as he counsels and helps with child rearing questions with the many young families we serve every day. Even when he was a pastor I was involved with children's ministeries. I have served as Sunday School teacher, Vacation Bible School Director and with six children we have helped care for not only ours but our children's friends were frequent guests in our home. We both love our job and are thankful God has given us the privilege to work with these precious little ones.

Grandma from afar

Five Things

My sweet daughter-in-law tagged me so here are my five things:

Five things in my freezer
1. Ice Cream, vanilla (Abigail's favorite)
2. Chicken tenderloins
3. Bob Evans Sausage
4. Coffee Beans
5. Popsicles (waiting for my granddaughters)

Five things in my closet:
1. My husbands chest of drawers (it fits nicely)
2. Stacks of notebook paper we bought when it was on sale
3. Abigail's projects from Eagles Nest Academy
4. Clothes we wear and some we hope to wear again someday
5. Hats my husband has collected over the last 35 years

Five things in our van:
1. The weed eater Thomas was suppose to take to the shop to get repaired
2. Mats for our preschools
3. Flash light
4. Napkins in the glove box from various fast food resturants
5. Dad's tool box to have handy for the many items needing fixing at school

Five things in my purse:
1. Make up
2. Gum (a necessity with teen agers still around)
3. Lots of change (see # 2 for the reason :)
4. Debit cards for our personal and preschool accounts (my favorite things)
5. Keys with all the store ids for discounts

Five things in my school bag:
1. Markers, pens, and pencils
2. Thank you cards
3. Magazines, (such as: Better Homes and Gardens, The Tennesseean, etc.)
4. Info for my next pampered chef party
5. Directories for church and FCS the kids school

Five People I tag:
1. Catherine, my eldest daughter who is experiencing motherhood for the first time
2. Kimbra, my friend from church who has two beautiful little girls
3. Karen, who probably has a school bag too (she had a grandchild born the same day as our last one came (Aug. 11, 2006) and she teaches at my children's school
4. Anne, another friend from church who is a great artist (she painted a Noah's ark on our preschool wall for us)
5. Rachel, my nephews wife whose little boy looks just like his daddy

God's Providence

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God's Providence

Life is full of surprises. When I began my married life 35 years ago, little did I know what roads God would take us on. I want to tell you a little about the beginning of our marriage and show how God's providence has brought us to this place in our lives where we are the owners and operators of two Christian preschools here in Tennessee.
It all began one Sunday when my husband was 12 year's old and he and his family decided to visit the church my family was a member of. The first impression was what kind of family is that, the boys are wearing shorts to church. Of course back then nobody wore shorts, I have to add they were his boy scout uniform shorts, but still it was a scandal. The little Congregational Methodist church we attended provided the youth a reason to fellowship after church. We either went bowling, movies, miniture golfing or a trip to the Pizza Hut. When we wanted Perry to go with us sometimes his family would not let him, so we would pick up snacks (like a watermelon) and go over to his house, and fellowship on his patio with the record player blarring the Beatles or some other hit song of the hour. I can still remember his dad doing the twist to the chargrin of my husband.
I remember thinking he was pretty cute but never did I think we would end up being married. His parents must have had other thoughts because one Sunday after church when my precious mother would go and sit in the car and wait for her girls to visit with their friends was approached by his mother and she asked my mom "what do you think about a woman being older than the husband?" then she confided she was older than Perry's dad.
We continued to see each other at church and on church outings, until the summer he turned 15, I had graduated from high school and made plans to attend our Bible college in a little town close to Waco, TX, and left for two years of junior college.
Meanwhile he did not lack for girlfriends, but every time I was home for a visit he always called me and we talked for hours on the phone late at night. When I returned home and started to attend UTA in Arrlington, TX we continued our friendship. We started dating the October of 1970 and a month later on November 21 (my sister's birthday) he asked me to marry him and gave me a diamond engagement ring. Two months later we broke up and to make a long story short he joined the Navy in Feb of 1971 and when he returned home from boot camp we were married a week later. In our 35 years of marriage we have moved an average of every two years. We have lived in Mass., Texas, Mississippi, Texas, Ohio, Florida, Illinois and finally Tennessee. Our first son Perry III was born in Fall River, Mass. close to Newport, R.I. when he was 6 months old my husband moved us back to Texas because he thought he was going to be stationed in the Mediterrean for two years. He was released from the Navy in 1975 and sent home in the spring of 1975.Until September of that year he was given full pay and benefits and his duty station was our apartment. While I worked at an oil company in downtown Fort Worth he stayed home and babysat our son Perry III. (to be continued)

 

Grandma from afar

Life Around the Preschool

How did my husband and I end up in middle Tennessee operating a preschool. When we first married 35 years ago we had big plans. He was in the US Navy and I was in my third year of college. We planned for him to do his four years and I would live at home and finish my college and become a history teacher. right? WRONG! After three months of tortue of being apart I moved to Mass. to be close to the navy base at Newport, RI to be there when his ship came into harbor. Thoughts of teaching never entered my mind until 26 years later Perry read a book about owning and operating a Christian academic preschool and asked me to read it too. When I finished my book I thought I could do that, in fact we could do that. We had 6 children, as a pastor's wife I had taught Sunday School, vacation bible school even directed one, and had baby sat other people's children every since I was old enough. So having a preschool was as natural an idea as breathing. Off we moved to Florida and began our journey to learn how to have one of our own.
While there we tried to learn as much as we could and in June 1999 we left and relocated to a small town in Illinois and thought God wanted us to open a school there with a dear friend but that was not to be. The week before Christmas in 1999 with Y 2 K looming over us we packed all our belongings and moved to Tennessee to live with our dear friends, the VanGorden's and began working for them at their school in Franklin, TN. We just knew if we were to remain in preschool we needed to be working in one until we could have one of our own, and we served there 5 years before God opened the doors here in Spring Hill and we started our own academy with 5 precious children. Now almost two years later, we have our first one running and opened the doors of our second school in June and Lord willing will have kindergarten when the new school year starts in August. It has been hard work and long hours, but if you could see their little faces and see how they love us and learn so much about God and how He loves them you would see why our preschool's were God's mission for my husband and I to minister to his little children.

Grandma from afar: My Thoughts

Grandma from afar: My Thoughts
I have been absent from my blog lately but I will try to catch up on all that's happened since I last blogged. We made it through 20 and 40 hour projects for Thomas and Abigail and finished the year off for them with very good grades. My husband and I started our second preschool about 5 min. from our first one. And to top it off we are celebrating the birth of our first grandson, Perry IV who was born on his mom's mom's birthday. Since they had their first girl on his dad's birthday it only made sense to have the first boy on her mom's birthday.
We made a fast trip to Texas and held him before he was a week old. It brought back so many memories of when I held my son, Perry III when he was that little. We were so excited to have a boy named after his dad and his great grandfather.

Green Party

Happy St. Patrick's Day was the cry all over the preschool today. We arrived to see a sea of green all over the preschool. Our little ones were busy in the advance class with handwriting with their green attire that looked so pretty. "Hello Mrs. Coghlan" they cried when they saw me come in the door. In the beginner class the teachers and the children were busy in their green garb having morning snack. After snack time and bathroom duty was over it was time to party and we started the day preparing a green leprechan hat to wear the rest of the day. Another craft that was edible we had a blast making was one Miss Coghlan found for us. We took a slice of bread and spread peanut butter all over it, next we put three banana slices arranged to look like a three leaf clover, a pretzel stick was added for the stem and green sugar crystals were sprinkled over the bananas. What a tasty treat the children put together and then ate. When naptime was over we brought out all the green treats for the children to eat. They included: green jello jigglers, green rice crispy treats, green grapes, white cheetos, green cookies, green cupcakes, brownies with green candies on top, and green apple drinks. We had a blast and were throughly green when the day came to an end.

Karate Kid

Our youngest daughter loves Taekwondo, we have the privilege to have her Taekwondo school located next to our preschool. She loves the sport. Six days a week you can find Abigail in class for herself or often helping with the younger students as a Tiger team helper. March 10th she and her dad traveled to Baton Rouge, La. to participate in a National Tournament held there. She competed in the two competitions, forms and sparring. We were excited when she brought home two silver medals. She placed second both in forms and sparring. A year ago we traveled to Bowling Green, KY and she competed for the first time and did not bring home any medals. The next tournament was in Birmingham, AL and she placed first in forms but did not medal in sparring at all. She is getting better with every competition and Saturday March 25 she will be testing for her senior red belt. Way to go Abigail!

Saturday Happenings

Saturdays are the best day of the week. At least from the viewpoint of getting to do whatever I want. All of my other days are structured, i.e. they are pretty much planned for me. Such as Monday through Friday I am at the preschool at least 9 hours a day, then there are the things I have to do with two teenagers (well Abigail is almost a teenager) in the house still and no drivers license yet. Sundays are our day of worship and where else would we use our gifts but in the preschool Sunday School class.
So here I sit typing instead of the usual Sat. cleaning or shopping that has to be done. What can I say except Kim has me hooked on this new experience of sharing on the internet. A typical Saturday for me means waking up around 7 to 8 am. I stumble to the kitchen and get a cup of coffee.
While I get the cobwebs out of my head, from the night before, (a saying my mother-in-law use to say) I click on the TV to catch the morning news and weather, ( a ritual I got from my dad). Then with my husband off running errands (he's a very early riser) I get to catch up on email and other computer readings. By then it is almost 9:00 and I fix some breakfast or grab a bowl of cereal and wake Abigail to get ready for her Saturday morning taekwondo class. Usually she has class at 10:45 am and that finishes the rest of the morning. After getting back home and getting some cleaning Thomas and Abber and I head into Franklin for our regular shopping.
Last weekend I planned a late shopping trip so Abigail could attend her parents night out at Mr. Rodgers Taekwondo shop. Returning home late my Saturday disappeared so quickly I retire tired but happy for the day.

President's Day Weekend

For those of us who work in a preschool the holidays are looked forward to very much. This past weekend we had a four day weekend with the observance of President's Day. My daughters and I were to have the weekend all to ourselves but at the last minute my husband's trip was cancelled and he stayed home with us. We had some plans for shopping and movies but the weather decided we all needed to catch up on much needed rest instead. When we woke up Saturday we had about 2 inches of snow on the ground and ice on the roads. It didn't stay around long because by Sunday the roads were opened and the snow disappeared by lunch time.
Our son however departed on one of the worst airline trips of his life. He was going to check out a college in the northwest and left last Thursday morning around 7:30 am and had to change planes two times before he got to his final destination. His first stop was Chicago and of course the plane was delayed. (I should have known the plane would be delayed, we have a history of delayed planes in Chicago. In 1999 our family moved to Illinois to start a preschool. We had not visited our family for two years and when my sister who worked for an airline offered to get us tickets for a trip to Dallas, the children and I jumped on it. The only problem was the tickets were standby. We arrived at the little airport to fly over to Chicago and they only had 3 seats and we needed 4. The lady at the ticket counter said if you don't mind driving the 2 hours to Chicago we would probably have no trouble getting 4 seats as the flights to Dallas left every 30 minutes. We were so excited we jumped into the car and arrived thinking we would soon be on our way (wrong). When we got to the ticket counter there were about 150 other passengers trying to get to Dallas, too. We went to every gate trying to catch the next flight and by 10:00 pm my husband who had been telling us you won't get out of here tonight struck up a conversation with one of the reservationists and she had a co-worker give us a hotel voucher to spend the night. So around 11:00 pm we went to a hotel to sleep about 4 hours and then took a taxi back to the airport to catch the 7:00 am flight to Dallas. Abigail who was 5 years old then was so tired she lay down in the floor by our chairs and before she fell back asleep said "I don't care what you do just get us on this flight, I'm tired". We did get boarding passes for that flight and finally arrived in Dallas.
So when Thomas called and said he had missed his flight from Seattle to Spokane and was put on standby I did not have a good feeling about. Thankfully I had family living there and they rescued him and even drove him to Spokane the next day. On the return trip he arrived at the airport and was informed because he did not use the last part of his ticket the computer cancelled his return flight. After panicking and trying to reach customer service, he called and said they gave him his boarding passes all the way back to Nashville. Great I thought until he called and said his flight from Spokane to Seattle was delayed and now we wondered if he would get there before the Chicago flight left. At lease they gave him a seat close to the door so he could run leave the plane first. He barely had time to run from that plane and get to the next one before they left. I was so glad when he got home. Finally last night I got the best night of sleep since he left. It's good to have the family home. I just wish the rest of our children lived close by.

Valentine Birthday

My husband and I have six children, four sons and two daughters. I have always told the girls they were special because they were born on holidays. Our oldest daughter was born on Easter Sunday and our youngest daughter was born on Valentine Day. Every year since my husband and I have worked in preschool our youngest always had to compete with that holiday to celebrate her birthday. At all of the preschools we have worked and with the one we now own, we have a big celebration for this holiday with lots of candy, cards and party food. Our parents are known for their generosity with parties. When she was younger I would ask about bringing extra cake or cupcakes and they would look wild eyed which would suggest "are you crazy", with all the other sweets that day it would be lost on the kids. We usually celebrate on the President's Day weekend, like the year we had a surprise party for her in Ohio when we went for the weekend where our oldest son and his family lived. We had just moved to Tennessee after living in Florida for two years. Yes can you believe it we did not see those babies for two whole years and when we returned to their part of the country they had another girl, sweet little Megan. When we moved Lydia was the baby and she did not know us. It took some time but with some coaxing I eventually won her love and she understood that while we could come and visit we would not disrupt her family forever. So with time off from the preschool we headed north and surprised Abigail with a party at the local McDonald's and all her friends in the area.
This year we headed to the local Laser Chase for an afternoon of shooting and obstacle course and lots of pizza, with her friends from school. Celebrating on the President's Day weekend had its advantages. We had the place to ourselves and they let the kids have a few extra turns on the obstacle course. Even tho her sister and I froze the kids worked up a sweat trying to shoot each other with the laser's. After two hours of fun we were ready to head home and now Abigail is reading the book her dad gave her from B&N. What a day. Sure wish those grand children lived closer. :) hint hint

My Thoughts

I am a grandmother and I have seven beautiful granddaughters. It is so easy doing the grandma thing it probably is a good thing I live three states away. I love spending time with them either at their home or when they come to spend time with us. When we do get together I have so much fun watching them and spoiling them it brings back so many memories when their dad was still at home, or it reminds me of my girlhood when there was seven girls at our home too. Life was so much fun then but we were too busy trying to get out of work or trying to get some attention we didn't know it. Since my oldest son has been married we have only lived around their three oldest daughters and the oldest was only four years old when we moved away. She will be thirteen years old this summer and it seems like ages ago I was able to pick them up for the weekend and have the whole weekend to spend time with before they went home on Sunday night. I am starting this blog site so they will see what life is like for their grandmother who loves them so much, and doesn't get to see them each day. I love to read their posts on their sites and that of my famous daughter-in-law.
I will also endeavor to post some of my life when I was still living at home so they can have a glimpse into my past.