FREE STUFF! DON'T YOU LOVE FREE!

So, my best friend Lynn gave me something for FREE! Now we have been busy working outside. We have been digging dirt. See the coal. We have lots of it in our dirt.Austin was clearing out some old junk behind the garage. He broke this old pink chair apart and made giant horseshoes. He and Aaron also made a jousting game from the rungs.Why were we digging all this dirt? To make a spot for our 'new' free hot tub!I didn't look very comforting to begin with.....but after much hard work, a lot of bleach, a lot a sweat we were ready to relax........ I tried to capture the ambiance of the lights at night. LOL! We still have more work to do before I show the completed thing, but we just couldn't wait to get in it.


And on a side note. Look what I saw in the mirror this morning. Gray hair!!!! Oh my!!! Can you see them??? Well, I can........YIKES!!!

WELCOME SARA TO THE WORLD OF BLOGGING!

My sister has started a blog. She never seemed interested in this before but now that she has a new grand baby she is ready to join us bloggers! LOL! Honestly, it is so much easier for her to share her pics and things with my parents this way. Please stop by and say hey to her and while your there you can see all the pics of my great niece. Click HERE to visit Sara.

CHECK OUT THIS KID

HEY MOM, THIS IS JUST FOR YOU!!

Remember this kid with all that hair?

Look at him now!!! Handsome guy- huh??

YARD HAPPNINS

Look what has been going on in our back yard! We have had a group of 10 turkeys stopping by to visit on several occasions.
I have no idea where they are coming from.
This guy seems to be the leader. He always checks things out first before the others come tagging along behind.
I am not sure what they are looking for. Aaron said, "Good thing it's not turkey season or he might have to get his shotgun!"
Also we have had a stray cat that has taken up home in our backyard. We were soon to discover that she was pregnant. Last week she had 5 kittens. Sadly one of the black ones did not survive. But all the rest are doing well.
She did not have them in a very safe place and we kept trying to move them. Of course she just moved them back. Here they are on the porch inside my Christmas manger. She finally found a good spot in the cool dirt next to the garage. It was Aaron's idea to use the manger to give them some shelter. They are much happier in the dirt than in the box we used here. Oh, well. She is such a good mama.Hope you all are having some fun times in your backyards this summer.

HOLLY HEMBREE 2

I found the following paper that my son wrote. He does not know that I have read this. It brings tears to my eyes each time I read it. I only wish that the boys could have the chance to have even more memories.

Off The Edge
By:Aaron Carey

I can still replay that dreadful day over and over in my head like a slow motion instant
replay. It was September 16th, 2008 and it began like any normal day. I woke up got ready for school and prepared myself for a day that I won't soon forget. School was going the same it usually does and as i reached the lunch room I take a seat at the table and began my meal. My cousin walks by letting me know she is on her way home but, not knowing why her mother was here to get her. I thought that was a little unusual so I began thinking what could be happening.
Then a girl comes out the office points to me and says, "Aaron they need you in the office." With a look of confusion and fear I grabbed my bag and walked slowly to the door. I saw my uncle was there also and at that point my heart sunk quicker then the Titanic because I knew something was out of order. My uncle grabbed my shoulder and said, "Aaron, your grandparents were in an accident" my face was filled with fear and shock as I looked over and my aunt and cousin both had tears flowing down their cheeks. As my lips trembled I asked, "What happened? Are they okay?" His eyes began to water up and he looks me in the eyes and says, "No, Aaron your grandparents were killed" my face turned blank and I was shaking and sweating.
The next thing I remember was leaving the school and as I walked to my car my knees
shook and my gut was tied in knots. It seemed as if everything was moving in slow motion as I approached my car. I opened the door and climbed in and then placed my head on the steering wheel as salty tears began to slowly drip down my face. I started up the car and drove to meet my family and as I pulled up I wiped away the tears so that I could stay mentally strong for everyone else because they dearly need it.

I remember all the years that we would gather with my grandparents for holidays or
Sunday dinners. I can still remember to this day the way things were at the Carey house. You
would knock on the door and hear the soft voice of an angel on earth as my grandma opened the door. The smell of food cooking always filled the air and after a hug and hello from grandma, you would walk down the hall and look in the living room as my grandpa sat in his favorite seat watching football. He would give you a firm handshake and catch you up on all the games going on in a minutes time. Then you walk back across the floors that moaned beneath your feet as you took a step back toward the kitchen. My grandma then fixes a plate of food, putting a small amount of vegetables to keep us healthy, and everyone would take their seat and the dinner would ensue.

I remember all the summers spent in their swimming pool and all the days spent on the
cement shooting basketball. My favorite summer was when I was ten and everyday summer day my grandma would pick up me, my youngest brother, and cousin. We would all head over and the first thing we would do is hurry downstairs to get dressed to go swimming. We would hurry to the pool jump in and the water was always as cold as the ice cream that my grandma would prepare us after lunch. We would swim for a couple hours as my grandma looked down on us from the kitchen window and she would just smile. Then when we finished she would make us all any lunch we wanted and ice cream atfer we gulped down our lunch. All of us would then go out in the front yard to play basketball on that old orange and white clemson basketball hoop.
Those days were the best days of my childhood by far.

I remember getting out of my car and walking to the house that I always knew as my
grandparents and slowly opened the door. The looks of fear in everyones face sent a sharp
piercing pain threw my heart. I walk up to my dad and he grabs me up and bear hugs me as tears flooded his eyes and he kept repeating, "It is not fair. It's just not fair." He let go and I walked to my grandpa's favorite chair and took a seat with a blank look on my face but inside the pain was overbearing. The next couple days as everyone mourned and cried, I sat with a blank stare but, a helping hand still for anyone who needed anything.

The funeral was a fuzzy memory as I sat in the church and my mind was replaying
memories and telling myself that this is all a bad dream. The moment I helped lift that coffin is
the moment I knew this was not a dream and even after lying down the coffin I still felt the
weight of the world pushing down on me. Nothing would ever be the same again.
It has been a couple months since my grandparents passing and things in my life have not
been looking up. All those emotions I bottled up during their passing, and other life events, began to come out in a weird fashion. It all led to me sitting in my room with an empty face and my music playing. I feel into depression and the pain was unreal and life was not going my way at all. As more things piled up the more depressed I became and even now I am still in a depressed state and trying to find a way to deal with all of this pain I am suffering. The death of my grandparents was the boiling point for all these emotions and it sent me off the edge.

Also I want to post this. So many of Holly's friends just keep saying over and over that Holly did not know that she hit anyone. She first said she thought she hit a curb and later maybe a telephone pole. This is the one part of the whole thing that I have the most difficult time with. I really do not comment on the local sites because I think it is best not to, but at this point I felt I had to say something. I wrote this- I just wanted to short and to the point but yet express what I really felt. I hope I accomplished that.
I am sorry but I really have to say something here. I really do not want to banter back and forth with people about this case but I just really have to say this because of all the things that bother me most -it is this fact that you are talking about here. Honestly, think about this. If you clip a car, the jolt of that in it self will alert you. Then to hit the curb and then hit two grown people....how can you NOT know. Honestly, how can you not know. I think the first jolt or second jolt would surely startle you enough to realize that the final 'bump' is that of two people. Those bushes over there are really small. I have been behind the wheel of a jeep liberty. There is just no way that she did not know. I am sorry, but no way.

HOLLY HEMBREE

Holly Hembree- this name and this face will forever been ingrained in my mind. Even today I am still at such a great loss for words. I just can't express all the emotions that are churning in my head. This is the woman who has changed our lives forever. This is the mother, who on a Monday night should have been at home with her two young children instead of at the bar partying. This is the woman who hit a car and then ran up on a sidewalk and ran over two grown people and says she didn't know she hit anything. She has changed her story so many times.
Yesterday we went to court for her plea bargin. The state had agreed to drop the two charges of leaving the scene, which to me is just absurd. She LEFT THE SCENE. How can that part even be dropped? But they dropped it and charged her with two counts of reckless homicide. She will serve 7 years for the one death and will do 5 years probation for the second death. Most likely in this state she will only serve about 3 years of that sentence.
We were so shocked to hear her long- very long list of driving offences and accidents. I can't believe she could even afford car insurance. That fact that her bar tab showed she purchased 7 shots at 5:30 am and then killed them around an hour later did not seem to stir the judge. The judge said he sees stuff like this all the time. He said that this incident DID NOT warrant the maximum sentence!! Holly asked our family for a second chance! What second change did she give Bill and Ruth by leaving the scene? The bodies were not found for 45 min to an hour later and Ruth was still breathing. If she would have stayed who know if the outcome would be different. We are all just so upset by the injustice of this whole thing. What does this teach my boys? That you can be reckless and drive drunk and kill some one and maybe you can even get away with it with just a slap on the wrist. I know I am rambling.....I just can't get my thoughts organized right now......I am sorry.
You can click here or here or here to read some more of the local coverage. Even the news media got some of the facts wrong, but what do you do? You can also see that so many people in the community have posted comments and agree that justice was not served.
I can't think straight right now but I did want to update you all. Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers.

Big Tuesday

Tomorrow is a big day for us for it is the day that they will sentence Holly Hembree. She is the girl that ran over and killed the boys' grandparents. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we hope justice WILL be served. I will update tomorrow. Thank you.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

We had a great time for the fourth. First we grilled out at my house. Chicken, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, mac and cheese, rolls, cupcakes and icecream. Then we took off to downtown Easley to hit the antique stores and join in the festivities. Here we are eating boiled peanuts.
Here is nana with Kasdie in her little red white and blue dress.
Ice sculpture down town Easley.
Me, Sandy and three of the boys.
They had a beautiful fireworks display.

Hope you all had a wonderful July 4th celebration.