Merry Christmas!

Love,

Marc, Molly, Carly, and Conrad

It's an Oklahoma Christmas...

Parrish and I happen to live on the Parade route for the Sand Springs Christmas Parade. We missed the Parade last year, but caught it tonight...

There were all the normal, cute floats. The local square dancers. The guys riding horses (one of them was sending a text while on his horse.) There were the Shriners in their funny cars, the local pageant winner, the weatherman, the State congressman, the boy scouts, etc.

And then, just as I was telling Parrish about the giant Piggy Bank float that we once constructed out of chicken wire and pink kleenex for Fritch State Bank's float in the Howdy Neighbor Day Parade (circa 1988), along came the 4H Group. They were all piled on a trailer, and behind the trailer...A GIANT SEVERED PIG HEAD.

And it was being chased by a bull dozer....

'Tis the Season!

New Baby Poling

Our son, Landon...

Carson and I are proud to annouce... it's a BOY!! By that I mean, we inherited a new roommate in September, here a few shots of our little guy. He's growing up so fast!

Here he is helping Carson make dinner...

He helps do the dishes...

Here he turns 21, growing up to be such a big boy...

And here I helped him find the perfect Halloween costume! Isn't he precious!! Don't worry, you didn't miss the baby shower, but all gifts, funds of support, or food are gladly accepted. Please send checks or cash to:

4500 Angus Drive. - Momma J

Late Halloween post...

Sorry my life has been crazy and I'm just now entering a post! I've never really done this before so here goes it... here are some pumpkins that Carson and I made one year. Mine is the spider! Impressed??

Carly's Pumpkin

"My pumpkin is very cool and sweet." -- Carly Morris

Cousin's Crazy Costume Carnival

I may not have gone all out on a pumpkin, but atleast I have a sweet costume!

The McDaris Pumpkin...

We worked long and hard last night and whipped this baby into shape:

Confession: We've been sick all week and never came within 10 feet of a pumpkin. I stole this picture from Google. But isn't it neat? If I did carve a pumpkin, I'd want it to look like this!

Yes, here's our entry!

Ok, here's the entry for us! Gen painted it at school yesterday, and she is very proud of it. She keeps picking it up ("Oooh! Heavy!") and bringing it to me to tell me "I paint that at school!"

Justus' Pumpkin

this is my entry, its a few years old, but its def not as cute as Monica's or as intricate as Molly's

Monica's Poling Pumpkin Showdown Entry

Okay, so the carving isn't as creative as Molly's cat, but I had to scrape out every last seed inside!

Pumpkin Throwdown

I would like to challenge all of you fantastic and talented people to the First Annual Poling Pumpkin Carving Contest. Here is my entry.

I can only come up with one rule for you wiseguys: Don't even think about copy/pasting from any professional-type carving websites. We won't be fooled.

The winner receives bragging rights and the satisfaction of personally smashing everyone else's sub par entries. Of course, you have to come and get them yourself. And you have to wait until Halloween is over and the pumpkins are saggy and gross and/or have already been stolen and smashed by a raucous group of high-schoolers.

Good luck to all.

No longer unemployed

I have not posted on this blog spot in a while and said I would when I had news. Well I am employed now working as a landman. I am preparing lease packets and working with Mineral owners to sign that lease. I currently work from home, which is nice that I am not driving 1000 miles a week any more. Thanks for all the helpful ideas on my job search and hope to see yall soon...

Little Girls Love Chuck!

Channing and Parker Burton were so cute with Linda's dog, Chuck! Channing thought Parker would enjoy being locked up in Chuck's crate with him. Seeing her enjoying it so much, Channing climbed right in with her. It was quite the site to see all three of them bonding!

Linda, we all had a great time at your house! It was neat for me to see my cousins, second cousins, aunts, etc. The shrimp pasta was delicious. Send out the recipe if you get a chance. Thanks for hosting the impromtu reunion!

The Peggy Gathering

We had a great time at the gathering and loved seeing everyone. Thanks for the special entertainment provided by Chuck, Channing, and Parker (does someone have a cage picture to post?). It was a very fun day. Welcome to new family bloggers - please add.

Back to School

Happy Back To School!!! Here is a picture of Carly in her F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S new tutu from the Wendy Lee Collection. She loves it! And there's a picture of Conrad on his first day in 3K. Conrad only cried for the first day, and Carly has only had her name on the board about 20 times. I have only done about 7,000 schedule changes and I only cried for the first week or so.

The House is Done!

Yes, folks. Only a short 7 months later, the new home is completed and occupied. Walt moved in officially on Tuesday evening, August 26th, 2008. It is a beautiful home and just fits what Walt needs.

Happy Crappy!

Ok everyone!

We never got around to our big fun game at the reunion - Happy Crappy! Here are the ground rules...

1) Name a happy thing that has happened to you in the past year (or month or week), and a crappy thing that has happened in the past year (or month or week)

2) Start with the crappy...end with the happy.

3) You can have as many happies as you want, but only one crappy...no whiners, people!

Ready? Leave you happy / crappy as a comment to this post!

Here's where WendyLee caves to public pressure

Also, here's some rejected T-shirt designs:

FRONT pocket:
Back:

If anybody wants a shirt done and didn't get one, just send me a shirt you like and tell me what you want on it.

I have a good video of Linda playing the drums....

But since I am a VERY NICE NIECE and Linda asked me nicely to not post it, I'm posting Gen playing the drums instead. She IS the cutest thing ever! Here's a few other pics I got!

McDaris Update

Hi Everyone!

So obviously I haven't been checking the blog as often as I should! As for us, we have been busy, busy, busy! In April I went to New York City with my mom, Aunt Mary and cousins Michelle & Tonya. When they flew out, I stayed, Parrish flew in, and we spent a couple of days in Brooklyn with some friends from college that live there. It was all great fun! After that, I had the Walk for work, which went really well. We were able to raise over $65,000, which felt great...it was a lot of fun and a lot of work! I have also officially finished my MBA, and am just waiting on OSU to send my degree to me. Parrish is also getting ready to finish his degree...only 5 more hours and he'll have his M.A. in Ministry, Ethics & Culture.

And lastly...we have lived in Tulsa now for 4 years and moved here for the purpose of getting our graduate degrees. Since we are almost finished with that process, we are taking applications for our new city. Right now the top 2 contendors are New York (yes, we are fully aware that the cost-of-living there is quite high) and Denver. If you have suggestions, please let us know! One requirement...it has to be bigger than Tulsa.

Love you all!
Meredith & Parrish

p.s. Welcome Shelby!!!

Here are some pics:

New York Trip -


The Walk -

Gen waters the grass

Some of you may not know this, but Robert really loves to water the grass. He has a tractor sprinkler, and each night he sets it on its course. If time permits, he and Genny sit on lawn chairs and watch it. So last night, Gen learned to use the hose to water Mom and Dad and Daisy (and some plants too). You can also hear the panhandle wind blowing on the video!

To Molly: To upload video, just make sure your digital video file is on the computer somewhere, or plugged in the USB drive or whatever. On the toolbar, you can add a video by clicking the icon to the right of the "add photo" icon. Then the video uploads just like a picture, only it takes a lot longer (give it about a minute for every second or two of video, usually).

Rowland Update

We had a great weekend. Carson got us tickets to the Colonial plus an added bonus of entry to the Merrill Lynch hospitality room. Thanks again, Carson! We enjoyed the view above the 18th hole where we got to see the exciting win at the end of the tournament. We loved it!

This picture is of Jeff, Glenda, and Kent (friends from Amarillo) and our new curbing around the tree. Thanks for the challenge, Wendy Lee, to all post updates. Your turn Wendy Anderson!

Thirty pounds later...

This is the closest thing I have to a profile picture, one from my baby shower back in April. I really haven't gained much more weight since then, just a few pounds from all the cake and cookies I've been craving!

Life around here has been all about preparing for baby. Getting a new washer/dryer, installing the car seat, packing bags, freezing some dinners, and getting a new tv have been our excitement lately. Yeah, yeah...the new tv has nothing to do with baby on the way. It's just taken us a year to finally get one, so it was nice to mark that off our "to do" list. And, for those of you that haven't ever installed a car seat, try to avoid this task at all costs! My mechanical engineer husband threw the instruction manual at me after about 30 minutes saying he gave up. It's harder than it looks! We keep asking ourselves how we ever made it past childhood without car seats to keep us locked in place. Gone are the days of playing "Barbie" in the floorboards!

Wendy Poling has inspired me to start our on little Pfaff blog to keep up with our crazy life. Check it out at www.pfafftimes.blogspot.com. There is only one little post right now. We can't wait to announce her name to the world. All the guessing has been lots of fun!

We've had a busy spring with lots of parties and performances. This is a picture of Carly last night at her recital. She did well! She always has a way of finding center stage. The theme of the recital was "Fire." It was appropriate, since everything in Big Spring has either caught fire or exploded this year. Walt can relate all too well, I guess. Maybe if Robert or Wendy will teach me how to post a video, I can post one of her performances.
Conrad is doing well and is finally pulling out of the terrible two's. This is our last week of school and we're ready to get a break from teenagers! But -- Marc will do summer basketball camp for little kids, and I'll be working for a couple more weeks on summer school and transcripts. No big summer plans. We hope to go to the cousins' reunion; it all depends on TAKS retest. There is a chance that I will be District Test Coordinator next year and I'll have to do summer testing for the kids that failed (life would be so simple if everyone would just pass!) Even so, surely I'll be able to make the reunion...and maybe I'll let Conrad come this year since he is being a nice boy. I guess I better start saving up for the gasoline (isn't it CRAZY?????)
Take care, everyone!

Calling for updates!

Hey everyone, how about an update?

Things that I'm sure everyone need to know:

Monica -- profile pics, please?

Walt -- house pics, please?

Stan -- how long until you are looking for a new boarder?

Justus, Gary and Andrew -- Europe trip?

Robert -- tell us about your new job!

Parrish -- you too!

Landon -- you too!

Carson -- your new job as well!

Meredith -- pics from the big Bridges Foundation walk you organized so well?

Linda and Molly and Wendy and Julianne -- what big plans do you have once school's out for summer?

Quite a Collection of Fine Poling Women....

Monica's Baby Shower, 4/26/08

Bronco in Progress

This is Landon's "sexy" pose like the girls in the car magazines. He's been putting in a lot of hours on his little '67's new paint job.

Next is LineX (like Rhinoliner). Then it'll all go back together!!!

Site updates from Poling Amarillo

Here's Rob's cobra build site: http://robertbuildsacobra.blogspot.com/

And, here's my new business endeavor: www.twirlytutus.com
(Justy, I don't ship to Africa, so no tutus for you.... sorry.)

Finished my mural!

I knew I couldn't wait 3 weeks for the paint to dry to apply my tree mural. So, if it all falls off, I can only blame myself. This is my first attempt at creativity in YEARS, and I really had fun with it. I can only hope Baby P enjoys trying to figure out what is all over her wall! I thought you guys might want to see just how easy it was to apply, even for a fat pregnant woman.

Survivor

I thought you all would like to see one of the items that survived the house fire...this was in the trunk in Daddy's bedroom. And, it's TRUE, of course, even when it doesn't seem that way.
We are all fine in Kerrville. Gary and I worked on the plumbing all day, and then went to Lowe's to replace our grill...you know the one we paid $169 for several years ago. We could replace the disintegrated burners for a total of about $200, so...
Other than that, Landon is working long hours, and is back in the process of restoring the '67 Bronco. He painted it today, and we will have the long awaited photos as soon as it is all put back together. Andrew kayaked the Guadalupe with friends today...he's had a good start to track season, mostly running the 800 and the mile.

I still show up @ school everyday and do my one plus one is two thing. I am glad it's spring break!! No plans, really, unless one of you call with an invitation!!
Gary's been working in West Texas some, staying in Fort Davis. He loves it out there. The big plan is for Gary to meet Justus in London May 6th on Justy's out of Africa trip. They will part in Paris after reliving Dday in Normandy. Justus' plan is to hang around Europe until the end of June. He needs a travel companion for 2 weeks it anyone is interested in backpacking Italy. So, Gary, who missed his calling as a travel agent, is already having fun. They will ride the bullet train(Mission Impossible) through the chunnel, go see King Lear at the Globe Theater, and all kinds of good stuff. We are mostly doing this with freebie miles and freebie hotel points! I tell everyone that I'm sending Gary to London and Paris for our 30th anniversary! But, after all, I got to do London with Linda and Judy and Peggy a year and a half ago.