Erica Erwin’s story in today’s Erie Times-News delves into the Millcreek Township School District’s $8.8 million deficit for the 2013-2014 school year.

Acting Superintendent William Hall announced the bad news last week. He mentioned he had a “wow” moment when he discovered the budget deficit in November. That was November, folks. In another report, a school director also said “wow” in comment to the budget woes last week. Here’s some media advice to the current board and administration:

Don’t say wow. If you want to regain trust among Millcreek residents, wow isn’t going to do it.

Go to the Jay Badams and Matthew Cummings School of breaking bad news. And hurry. Badams, leader of the Erie School District, presented plans to all the media in advance of laying it out to the public and school staffs. In Erie, before he suggested closing schools, Badams told everyone that the Erie district owned a lot of real estate and schools weren’t full. Is that the case in Millcreek? About 16 years ago, boundary changes sent my kids from Vernondale to the new Tracy school — we had heard that eventually Ridgefield and Vernondale would close. Now, we’re hearing it again. Bring out the stats.

Listen to Felix & Gloeckler. The accounting firm advised that trouble was ahead last year. Accountants know budgets. If someone had listened a little earlier — like November — maybe a plan would have been in place right now.

Give William Hall a chance. He lives in Millcreek and has a child in Millcreek schools, according to Marsha Marsh, who was critical of my cynicism on how Millcreek is going to handle this mess. Her vote of confidence is good enough for me — today, but this district needs results and fast. Hall has to get his administration, staff and board to lose the arrogant, know-it-all attitude it has sported throughout the last administration. Now is your chance to wow us, Mr. Hall. Go for it.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three — all graduates of McDowell High School.  

When my husband and I got married 10 years ago and merged two families, he made a point of entertaining the kids with eggstra special egg chatter. This year, the kids are 21 and older and scattered around the universe. We will only see my two youngest on Easter, but we are eggcited. Here are a few eggsuberant words to liven up your day.

Chocolate-covered strawberries are not eggstravagant treats.

There is no such thing as eggstraneous chocolate.

I will have to count on eggstreme eggcerise to burn off the eggcelent chocolate eggs I consume.

The treadmill often eggsacerbates the pain in my knee.

A coconut egg is eggsactly what I want.

My niece in New Mexico won’t join us for Easter because she is eggspecting.

It’s eggsasperating when we don’t hear from some family members.

I need to eggsamine the peanut butter eggs.

Eggstract those jelly beans from the bottom of the Easter baskets.

If it keeps snowing, we’ll have to eggscavate to find the daffodils.

If the sun shines, it will eggceed our eggspectations.

Dinner will be eggsceptional — my sister makes lamb.

My brother makes German potato salad, and he eggsagerates how much work it is. (Well, not really — it requires an eggstraordinary amount of time.)

My brother and sister love to cook. I make deviled eggs, an eggsample of how much I love to cook. We eggsemplify a modern family.

When my husband reads this eggcerpt, he is going to eggsclaim that I eggscluded a lot of words, but I have to stop.

This is … eggshausting.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three and step-grandmom to one. 

Look what’s happening in House to Home this week! Add red to a room — it’s often inexpensive, fast and you’ll be red-y for Valentine’s Day with some classy accents. Read the story by Decorating Den’s Marie Feltz here.

Garden writer Sue Scholz shares all the blooms that popped open last week in that heat wave. She had white Christmas rose hellebore, English daisy and other flowers. She wasn’t the only one —  Read her story right here.

We have quite a few additional stories that will get you in the mood to decorate — get the lowdown on all the trends for home decorating for 2013 — great ideas are brimming in House to Home.

Next week, I have a story for you on open houses at two huge homes in Fairview — a builder and interior designer’s home in Manchester Farms and a completely restored (by a local builder) 1800s beauty with a lake view on Dutch Road.

Touchless technology
Make a DIY snow globe
Mixing color among hottest trends for 2013
Counteract dark days with sparkle
Shine On
Around-the-World Interiors

And catch up with open houses this week.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three and step-grandmom to one.

Kids often want to make a change. It happens in a lot of blended families — ours included. All of our kids are now age 20 to 28, so hindsight is 20/20.

I can confirm that it was a good decision each and every time one of the kids moved.  My kids’ dad passed away 13 years ago, so my kids were kind of stuck with my hubby and me, but we had a revolving door for my stepsons. It may sound silly, but it worked.

I was reminded of all of this when I read one mom’s struggle of  letting her 14-year-old daughter go live with her dad on Blogher.com.

The story is thoughtful and insightful — a great read and a reminder that kids are way smarter than we think they are.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three and step-grandmom to one.

The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin has a report that says being good parents has a lot to do with being good partners. Compassion, caring and other no-duh words come into play in the Huffington Post analysis of the report.

It also separates us into three parenting groups: authoritarian old-schoolers who believe in strict discipline; permissive parents, who set few boundaries; and authoritative, folks who set boundaries but add some warmth and love.

I know lots of parents, and some of them scare me. Read my blog on the scary parents of Aubrey Ireland — the poor kid has a restraining order on her helicopter parents.

As parents, we need to help kids move along in the world — not smother them. I never chose my kids’ daily outfits and I never overanalyzed their friends. I didn’t like some of them (the outfits and the friends), but now that they are all in their 20s (the friends not the outfits — none of them kept an outfit that long — except my daughter, maybe), they all seemed to turn out OK — even though there were many bumps in the road. Many bumps.

Here’s a link to a feature on 10 great parenting tips. There really are only a few tips that matter though. Love them. Tell them you love them, and love them enough to remind them that everyone fails at something, makes mistakes and gets back up. We all fail at something. We have to learn from failures. And remember — kids are not you or your spouse. They are the best of both of you.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three and step-grandmom to one.

ABC News, the New York Times, Huffington Post, the Cincinnati Enquirer and a host of international media outlets are following a story out of Ohio about a parent/child relationship that has gone over the parental cliff.  See the footage here. It’s about Aubrey Ireland, a 21-year-old dean’s list college senior who has a restraining order against her parents.

There are two sides to every story, but this is just ugly from all sides. The successful theater major at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati is an only child. She alleges that her parents installed monitoring software on her computer and her phone, and they have embedded themselves in her life on campus — not in a good way.

Her parents claim she’s promiscuous, involved with drugs and has mental issues. The school and the courts have sided with Aubrey. The school  banned her parents from campus and gave her a scholarship to finish her degree, and the judge gave her a restraining order.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three and step-grandmom to one.

This Christmas, Disney-themed products from headphones to portable speaker systems to alarm clocks will delight kids.

We have a Minnie Mouse fan in the family, and she’s a little young for most of this stuff, but these are too cute not to tell everyone about.

All products are priced at $49.99 and under, and are available right here.

The alarm clock,  at left, is $29.99. Yo u can also find Minnie Mouse headphones, walkie talkies and more all under $30.

If there’s a mouse (lover) in the house, take a peek at the fun stuff!

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three and step-grandmom to one.

There won’t be many pilgrims around our Thanksgiving table this year. My oldest is in Virginia and has no time off. Sniff. My daughter is going to her boyfriend’s house in central Pa. Sniff. The stepkids always have their own plans.

So my youngest Ryan is volunteering to cook dinner when he comes home from Gannon University. This should be good.

In years past, we’ve enjoyed the George clan gathering in New Castle where my sister’s husband’s family — with four generations — celebrate a Lebanese feast at a hall that holds 100 in the middle of beautiful Pearson Park in New Castle. But this year, I’m not ready to see so many families together when mine isn’t.

Being empty nesters is all about adapting. Nearly every holiday will change, but it’s OK. It’s changed before. I hosted up to 24 people when my kids were young because I couldn’t stand spending time at one set of parents while the others ate Cornish game hens. Then, about 15 years ago, as a single mom, I worked two jobs to take my kids to Disney. We toured the Tower of Terror, sat by the hotel pool and ate Thanksgiving dinner at Perkins. It tasted just fine in 70-degree sunshine. Nine years ago, my hubby, my kids and I ate on a cruise ship.

Adventures are good. So if this “Cooking with Ryan” gig doesn’t work out, I know that some Tim Horton’s locations are open. So is Under the Clock Bar & Grill, Victor’s, Country Pride, Crowley’s, Colony Pub and Grille and some Bob Evans restaurants. I’m just kidding, Ryan. We’ll be fine.  Then it will be time for football and shopping. Some stores will be open at night, and it’s the perfect way to burn off dinner — no matter what dinner is. Yes there’s always room for new traditions at Chez Parker.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa.

Yes that is my son and my hubby wearing headphones and grooving to different tunes in the yard.

My son has been very generous in returning home from Gannon to mow and rake and mow and rake … He even enjoy’s my husband’s music — a mix of country, rock and roll, Beach Boys, 98 Degrees and 70s tunes. So Ryan borrows his stepdad’s iPod every time he’s on landscaping duty.

My hubby supervises while wearing his headphones and listening to Pandora on his iPhone. Well the funny thing about this picture is that to communicate, they have to hand signal, remove headphones and then talk.

These big honking headphones are another story. My oldest son got a set for himself years ago when he won some kind of gift card to Amazon. He bought these professional grade $150+ headphones. Everyone in the family tested them out, and fell in love with them. At the time, everyone in the family used them — including me, and we listened to my hubby’s music.

So if you need a gift that brings a stepfamily together to listen to one another’s music and leaves you laughing, get some headphones — and your camera.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa.

In case you missed it — today is the last day to enter the John V. Schultz pumpkin carving contest. All you need to do is carve a pumpkin and upload a photo! How about the one at left? And wait till you see the gory and funny submissions.

The grand prize winner gets a $250 gift certificate to John V. Schultz Furniture. Two runners-up get $50 U.S. Savings Bonds. And think of the bragging rights! Tomorrow starts the voting through Oct. 31. Winners will be announced Nov. 5.

You can click here to see all the entries. Currently there are 16 spooky-looking jack-o’lanterns. Take a look!

I remember carving some pretty nice works of art with my kids. Now they can do it on their own — you have to be 13 and up to enter.

Click here for all the info.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa.