AREN'T I LUCKY?

Do you 'scrub' your floors or just mop them? Nothing does a better job than an old fashioned hands and knees scrubbing! But look who does mine! Aren't I lucky? My sweet hubby is so good at cleaning. Yeah for me.


Oh, and then look who messes them up. Austin. He is making homeade ice cream! No, he put a towel down and made sure to clean up the mess. He loves homeade ice cream. It didn't churn quite as long as it should have but it was nice and creamy. YUM!!

I HATE CHARTER

I don't know what cable service you all have in your areas, but here we have Charter.Usually when I am not blogging for a few days it is because of my lousy internet/cable carrier. Where I live used to be 'out in the country' so we were late in getting things like cable and trash pick up. We still do not have city sewer. I do not know if this has anything to do with my ongoing problems or not. We always lose our signal. The internet goes in and out ALL the time. Sometimes certain tv channels do not come in or they are fuzzy. I do PAY for this service and it is not CHEAP. When you call in most of the people do not speak good english and they never tell you the same thing. One weekend I spoke to 4 different people in a row who all told me something different. Our local news station even did a story on how bad the customer service is for Charter. Anyway-yep- its been acting up again and I have not been able to visit you all.
I am here for the moment, but they will be here tomorrow to take a look at it AGAIN! They never really fix it when they come. Aaron knows more about it than they do :)
SORRY- JUST VENTING HERE!!

MAGGIE

The longest standing job I have had my entire life is the 7 years that I spent at an upscale private school here in our area. I was the food service manager there and worked with a small close knit group of women. Being surrounded by many snobbish rich kids, it was a joy when you could find that small group of special kids who did not just look at you like a 'lunch lady'. One such girl was Maggie. Maggie was so special and treated all of us like her friends. Sometimes she would hide in the kitchen if there was someone she was avoiding ( students were not really allowed in there but Maggie got special treatment). We would put her special salad dressing or her spray butter in our fridge for her. Many times she would just come by and talk to us about her struggles as a teen and would always ask about our kids too. On the day of her graduation we were catering all the food. She was all dressed up and ready to put on her cap and gown. She came over to us 'lunch ladies' and kept asking us if she should wear her hair up or down. She would pull it up and we would say "Yes, it looks good like that." She kept asking if we were sure :) It was so sweet that she valued our opinion even for a bunch of older women. The day after Maggie graduated she was killed in a car wreck just a few minutes from her home. It was such a sad and tragic day. We went to the home and all the services. One young girl gave a speech and mentioned in her speech how Maggie touched so many lives and made everyone her friend- even the lunch ladies. We all just cried.

Maggie's mother has been making sure ever since, to keep Maggie's spirit alive. She donated Maggie's organs and even brought sight to someone by donating her corneas. She has had a book of Maggie's poetry published and a CD of songs that Maggie wrote lyrics for. She has opened a scholarship fund at the school. She has done many other things in her honor too. I am not aware of each and every one. I proudly have Maggie's bumper sticker on my car that simply says- reMEMber. MEM is her initials.

Today I was so excited to see the following story on the local news. Maggie now has a school in Kenya that was made in her honor. Please watch the video on this. It is just so special. Just like Maggie.

Please click on her name and then you will have to start the viedo.

Maggie

$$ Yard Sale $$ Money $$ Vacation

So last year we did not get to take Aaron and Austin anywhere for vacation. Our finances have been very tight. The two boys are really hooked on theme parks and roller coasters. Austin will ride anything. He has no fear and began to ride the big rides as soon as his hair barely touched the height limit line :)

The year before last we drove all the way to Ohio to go to Cedar Point. It was well worth it. Long Drive. Great park. They would love to visit all theme parks in the USA. Hubby and I are not big on rides but I love to do what makes the boys happy. Well money is tight again this year and they really wanted to go to Busch Gardens in VA. I have really been trying to figure a way to do this and the other night I even had a dream that a large check came in the mail for me. LOL! Yeah- right. Anyway- my sister and I decided to have a yard sale today. She moved and had some excess stuff. I told the boys to help me gather some things and all the money we made would go toward our trip. After a late night, early morning and terrible hot sun it was not looking good. Sara made off with a good bit but I only made about $27.00. Sad :( But now I just got back home and grabbed the mail. You won't believe it! There was a check in the mail! It was a check from a medical overpayment from the insurance company! AMAZING! INCREDIBLE! That was so strange. Dreams do come true- huh? I know that God is always looking out for us- even if it is such a small thing as a trip to the park.

Making old new again

I had these old metal flowers out under my porch. They were rusted and faded so I painted them. I am going to put a clear coat on them and put them in the yard. Aren't they cute? Next I think I will paint my frogs. They are metal too. The golfer one is Austin. The basketball one is Aaron. I think I will keep his shirt pink!!
Do you remember these old photo cubes from the 70's. I bought this at the goodwill for 20 cents a long while back. I finally put some pictures in it.

Today is hump day! Yeah! It has been a real rough week at work :(

WES

WES IS PACKING!

WES IS SO SAD! HE WILL MISS US! NO, REALLY- HE IS VERY HAPPY TO BE GOING.
HE IS GOING TO:

Yep, he is taking off to Florida. He is hoping to find a job there. Jobs are very scarce here and he is just ready for a change. His friend Sean and his mother picked him up today. If this doesn't work for him maybe I will send him to Australia :)

Weekend Happ'nins

Wes was still trying to earn money, so he helped my sister move. They started around 8 am and were still hard at work after 8 pm.

Look at this cute little shelf/ nicknack cabinet that her mother in law was going to throw away! I love it.
Ok, so I was helping Sara unpack some of her things. This girl was WAY to attached to her dog. Her dog died 2 years ago.In the little fabric box is her dogs ashes! The paper that you see is the dogs death certificate! You have got to be kidding me! LOL!They even made her a cast of his paw print!Here is Dodger. MMM, I really did not like that dog. He growled at me all the time and tried to bite me once. I was blown away by the death certificate thing so of course I had to grab my camera. OH, and she wants his ashes put in her coffin when she dies. Good grief :)Aaron did a load of laudry for her. Had to grab the camera on that one too cuz he never does that at home.So, I was giving her a ride to work and the traffic was at a stand still. As we got closer we could see why.
Duck crossing. And she had just asked me if I carry my camera all the time. Now she sees why! You never know!


Dropped her off at the store she runs. Of course we ran in to get some free pizza and wings.Wes, Aaron and I were having a good time singing in the car. Wes and Aaron were using the cell phones as mikes so I grabbed the water bottle. It has been pouring down raining all day and I know I look like a drowned rat!So, in a little while I will be posting as to why Wes is working so hard to earn some bucks!

WHAT WILL 5 BUCKS BUY?

Here I am paying Wes 5 bucks- for what? you might ask. Well, for this.

2 Fried bologna with melted cheese sandwiches!!! Well, all natural bologna and gluten/egg free bread- but they were yummy. I wish I could have a fried egg on it. Oh well. Wes is trying to earn up some bucks for something-- something that I will blog about later.

I had to go to the eye doctor today. For the past few weeks my eye has been hurting. Everytime I blink I have this sharp pain. At first I thought maybe I was getting a sty but it never went away. The eye doctor said that I have way too much baceria in my eye. More than normal. But I do NOT have an eye infection. Confusing. Anyway he told me to use warm compresses and to take baby shampoo and mix it 1/2 and 1/2 with water and "scrub" my eyelids and lashline with the mixture. He also gave me a rx for some eyedrops but they were 60 dollars after insurance and I really do not want to spend that much.

I am happy to report that my blogger is finally uploading pictures in the correct (and easy) way. It has been over a month since I have been having problems with it.

Much more to blog about- maybe tomorrow- I am tired and going to lay down with a book I got from the library. See ya'll tomorrow.

I GOT AN AWARD

Look at this beautiful award that Kathi gave me. It is called Arte y pico.

And then this is what she wrote about me.
1. Sondra: I love Sondra's blog because she loves her husband and boys so much. She is a devoted Christian, friend, wife and mother. She is real and shows her real life. Her blog shows this. She has pain and she has joy. She expresses her real self, and has great faith in the Lord, and I appreciate her honesty and encouragement.
Kathi you are so sweet for saying such nice things about me. I really started my blog as an intention to show what life is like for us with 4 teenage boys. However, most of the time the blog strays from that intention and I am not as honest and forthcoming about everything as I would like to be. :)
Now, I am supposed to pass this award on to five people. The blog is to show creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community. Well, all my blogger friends are special like that or I would not be reading them- right! I am going to break the rules a little and only pass this on to three people.
First I have to pass this on to Sharon. Sharon was one of my very first blogger friends. She has four boys also and that made a quick bond for us. Sharon's blog is always so fun to read and filled with great variety. She also shares a special scripture with each of her posts. What a great encouragement she is to all of us. She is so devoted to God and her family.
Next I want to give this award to Crystal. Crystal's blog is so much fun. There is always so much stuff going on over there. At one time she had so many blogs I could not even keep up. Crystal is young and has numerous serious health issues but her spirit is always up! She is crafty and I love seeing all of her new craft endeavours. She puts a lot of fun games, surveys and youtube videos on her posts too. There is always something new and different at Crystal's blog!
Now, I would also like to give this award to my Australian blogger friend, frogdancer. Yes, she loves frogs and so do I! But of course that is not all that is great about her. She also has four boys and deals with nasty ex husband issues like I do. I know I can always open up to her about real life issues and she understands. She is also teacher. And a very special one I might add! She seems to stretch a 24 hour day twice as far as I can. I do not know where she gets so much energy. I love having a blogger friend in another part of the world. I love to read her words and see the differences in the language. Sometimes I wish I could actually hear her voice. I bet her accent is just way to cool!
Ok, so now I am running late for work and have to cut all this short. There is so much I could say about all my friends out here in blog land! I love all of you! :) Here are the rules to the award should you want to pass it on to someone else. I understand if you are not able to pass it on.
The rules that apply to this award are as follows:1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.2. Each award has to have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that presented her/him with the award.4.The award winner and one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y Pico" blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.5. To show these rules.

4TH OF JULY

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July. Our day started off with WORK! Not at our jobs, but around the yard. We were clearing out more brush. Aaron is gone camping with his cousin and Billy was out and about with friends. It was so hot, so we did not get too much done.


We came in and all took cold showers then Wes and I took off to Steve and Barry's so he could get some shorts. After that I laid around and watched some stand up comedy on Comedy Central. Around 6:00 Austin and I decided to head out and see what we could get into. Usually we cook out here and do fire works but everyone was gone and I didn't have the money to waste on fireworks. We live right near the line of two different counties. When you leave my driveway you can go to the left and be in the 'big city' of Greenville or you can go to the right and be in a small town of Easley. We hardly ever go to anything on main street in Greenville. It is always over crowded, too expensive, to loud, to many drunks, no where to park....It is just not our cup of tea. So we decided to go to Easley and see what was going on up there.
They had main street blocked off and the streets were lined with vendors and crafters. This event was more family friendly and was alcohol free. They also had a stage. This older group was singing some 50's songs and the older people were dancing in the street. It was so cute.

We went in this great antique store. I had been in there once before and love this place. It is two stories packed with stuff.
I was not allowed to take pictures in there. You are not even allowed to carry your purse because things are packed so tight that people were breaking stuff with their purses. Austin has an appreciation for antiques and vintage things too. We were so excited when we saw that they had the old movie projector from the old Colony theater. This is the theater where we got our movie chairs and the reel from the Titanic. It closed down and is now a church.
We would have loved to have that projector but it was not for sale. They are keeping it for a piece of history.
Across the street a new auction house is opening. We were invited in to look around and I saw this real cute baby dish in the window. It is a ceramic type bowl with pictures of nursery rymes in each section. It sits in a metal pot with a handle and I guess you would just put it on the stove to heat up the baby food and then take the plate out. I thought about Sharon and how she loves old baby stuff! :)


Austin and I grabbed a funnel cake and cheese fries. Of course I am not supposed to have this stuff but I did take a bite or two of funnel cake. I love them! This is also when we realized that next year we should set up a food booth and make a killin in profits.
FUNNEL CAKE $5.00 CHEESE FRIES $4.00 DANG!!


Autin also thought they needed a street magician so I told him to practice up for next year. They had a lot of blow up rides for little kids. The church at the old colony had stuff for kids too like this rock climbing wall. I would have liked to try that.

I would also have liked to do this one. It was a portable trampoline thing that would bungee you up the higher you jumped. We thought it was funny because the name of this thing was painted down on the corner and it was called "Trampoline Thingy". Very creative on their part- huh?
We finally found a spot to sit and watch the fireworks. We sat right in front of the train tracks. A train came by numerous times during the evening- loud!!- but we made it thru the fireworks show without any interruptions.

My camera battery was starting to die, so I was having a difficult time getting pictures of the fireworks. Look at this great shot. There was a ring firework inside of the larger one. It happened so fast that some people missed it. I think you will have to click to enlage these to see them better.

I love this shot because you can see the moon.

Here are some more.









All in all we had a good time. I ran into an old friend of mine and got to see her baby. And Austin saw his math teacher. Other than that, we did not see any one we knew. Funny how two counties can be so close geographically but yet that invisible line keeps them seperated. I am sure most people were in Greenville celebrating. When we got home we stood on the front porch and could see the Greenville fireworks display. This is the only picture I could get. That red ball in the distance was one of the fireworks.
HOPE YOU ALL HAD A FUN HOLIDAY!!!