WES and HIS FAVORITE PRESENT

Wes thinks he got the best present of the year! Aaron and Austin got a big screen TV with surround for their xbox and even they think Wes had the best present! (well maybe not really). Here he is in his new hat waiting for his final gift. He loves that hat?! Crazy! So he ripped open the box with his eyes closed. Aaron got behind him and put the shirt on him.

Then he pushed his head down?! I don't know why but it was funny. He got this shirt that has the guitar from guitar hero on it. See- Wes is the king when it comes to guitar hero. No one can beat him. So I knew this shirt would be so appropriate for him. Now when he is out and about he can practice playing on his shirt.

Here is is doing just that!
All of his friends have begged him for his new shirt and have even offered him money! I bought it online so no one knows where to get it. Maybe when the newness wears off I will tell them so they can all get one!
Now I am just waiting for them to make shirts for Rock Band. Then we can all get one. That seems to be the favorite game around here even for the grown ups.

Happy New Year and Awards

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Well I slept right thru it again! I am never awake to see the new year in. When I was a little girl we would all go over to my aunts house who lived on the river. When midnight came the men would shoot guns and we would blow party horns and bang pots and pans together. It was so fun and crazy, but if my neighbors did that now- I would not be too happy! Guess I am getting old :( LOL!
A few weeks ago Kate over at http://ourredhouse.blogspot.com/ gave me this award.

This award was created by Kelley and you can read more about it here.She says:When the girls and I want to express our mutual admiration in public we say ‘Less than Three’ .
The symbol for 'less than three' looks like a heart sideways, so "I heart you".
How sweet of Kate to pass this onto me! I love reading her blog. It is always so full of variety and I love her pictures. She is in Australia so it is fun to see that she is enjoying flowers and such while we are in the middle of winter. It is neat to know that we are a world apart but just a keystroke away. Who would have ever thought that this internet thing would bring so many people around the world so close together.

I want to thank all of you who have been readers of my blog. It has been such a wonderful experience getting to know all of you and take a peek into each of your lives. When I set out to do this blog I had intended on dealing with issues that face me as a mother of teen boys. I wanted to be candid and honest about some things we have dealt with and will deal with. However, sometimes when I begin to type something inside of me says' what will people think-will this change how they look at you-will they support you'- and many other questions come to mind. I am not saying this because our lives are full of bad things. We are just an average family for the most part. We have dealt with some serious and painful issues. I know that none of our lives are perfect. Each of us have faced difficult times. We ALL have a story to tell. So here in the New Year of 2008 some of my posts may lean back toward the title of my blog 'real unscripted life'. Maybe this year will not hold any great and trying challenges for us- who knows! :)

I would like to pass my award to the following three blogs:

Diane at http://tomatosoupcake.blogspot.com/. She is a single mom of 5 and homeschools them! Wow! what an inspiration.

http://nannykim-nannykim.blogspot.com/. She is a mom of three and has a grandbaby. Every time is see a sock monkey I think of her! Sweet person.

Kimmie at http://overthemoonwithjoy.blogspot.com/. She is a mom of 6 and a wonderful inspiration. She is a true prayer warrior and is always ready to lift up my needs in prayer.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

BRIDGETTE GETS ENGAGED

Well, I guess it is official now. My niece, Bridgette got a ring for Christmas. I know she looks young but she is going to be 21. It is hard to believe that she will soon be married. They are planning for June. She met Jeremy thru my boys. It is so funny because they tease him about getting married. They tell him that he will be tied down and not able to hang out with them anymore. I told Jeremy that they are just jealous because they do not have serious girlfriends :)

Her ring is very unique but I did not get a close up of it. It has diamonds all around the outer edge of the ring itself. The big diamond is a square shape. I think it is called princess cut. That suits her! She is the only girl on this side of the family. She has always been the princess. It kind of looks like this one. I am sure when she reads this she will call and say "That is not my ring, mine does not look like that. Mine is prettier that that one." LOL!

Congratulations Bridgette! I love you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BILLY

Christmas eve was my oldest son, Billy's birthday. He is now 21! Wow! I just cannot believe that. When I look at him I am just in awe of how he has grown up so quickly. And he has GROWN up literally. He is 6'2 and wears a size 13 shoe. I have to say that Billy was my difficult child. Even from the very beginning. I had a very difficult labor. He came into the world causing me great pain and continued to be a pain! LOL! No, I am just kidding. He was a little stubborn and bull headed as a child. He did not like to listen to mom at all. I was very young when I had him, so both of us had a lot to learn thru the years. However, he was so good in school and his teachers always loved him. They always said how sweet and helpful he was! Most the time I had to double check with them to make sure they had the right kid. All in all I have to say that I am very proud of him. He has grown up to be a very responsible young man. He has done a great job living out of the house. He pays his bills on time and keeps his place very clean. He does like to party a little too much and I just pray that he will outgrow that very soon.
Here he is a Christmas with one of his gifts. It is called a decision maker. You ask a question and swing the metal ball. Then the magnet will catch and give you an answer. Those boys had so much fun with that. They were asking crazy questions and then would just die laughing at the answers. It is so fun to see them still acting like kids. Billy loves Christmas and he is like a five year old all over again!
Here he is showing off his chin hair. Ever since I can remember he has been so anxious about getting facial hair. So funny. He thinks he is a man now. He even told us that we have to call him Bill now- not Billy or little Billy or Billy Randal or Bud. All those kid like names are out the door now. Well that will just be to hard for me. Happy Birthday Billy! I love you!

TAKING A BREAK

I am trying to recoup from Christmas. It was so wonderful! It was also very busy. I will be stopping by to visit all of you this weekend and updating my blog here.

TOUR OF LIGHTS

WELCOME! Austin and I headed out tonight to take some pictures of the lights around town. The other boys were at home- bah humbug on them! I do not have the best camera but I hope you still enjoy the pictures. As we were headed into downtown there was a beautiful full moon.
This is the big tree in front of the Hyatt.


This is a house that we admire every year. You can not tell by the picture but the large tree covers the front door. It is the most unusual and beautiful thing. As you can tell by the leaning small tree, it has been windy here. This is the tree inside the Mast General Store. It looks like they put 50 boxes of tinsel on this tree. That is all you can see! A must see tree for all those tinsel haters!This is the carousel downtown next to the hospitals festival of trees.These are some of the hospitals trees. We also have a trolley that you can ride on and it was lit up but we were not able to get a picture.This is one of the small churches in the area. It looks so pretty but once again not a good picture. We have so many beautiful churches here. One on every corner. There are literally hundreds of churches in our county. We did have a picture of the horse drawn carriage that you can ride in but it will not load :(The lights a Bob Jones University are breath taking! So very beautiful. No picture could ever do them justice.

This is the walking bridge at the front of the campus.

The BJ emblem.

A tree at the front entrance.More BJ lights.This is the large nativity that is on top of one of the buildings. So breathtaking.All the nations flags.Thanks for visiting my town. I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Christmas.

SHOW AND TELL FRIDAY AND RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS

It is time for show and tell at Keli's house. Click here to find out more. http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/

Today I want to show you my favorite vintage Christmas item. I found three of these guys at a yard sale. It is a little Santa looking guy playing a guitar. The metal guitar is actually a bottle and can opener. It is magnetic and held to his little metal stick body with a magnet. They were all in boxes and had a date on them from the 50's. I sold the other two on ebay but could not resist keeping on for myself. He is just too cute!

Here is another of my favorite vintage items that I got for free in a box of junk. This is real heavy and looks hand painted. I do not know if this is a handmade ornament or not but to me there is just something special about it.
My main purpose today is to share with you a story about a random act of kindness. My local radio station has been doing these stories all week. Yesterday 12/20 was the anniversary date of our house fire. In 2001, five days before Christmas our lives changed forever. Our house caught fire. As we all went outside to safety, I suddenly realized that all of the boys' Christmas presents were going to be lost. I began to panic. Somehow I knew that this was going to be an awful Christmas for us and those presents would be the only good thing. Out of nowhere two gentlemen came running up and along with my oldest son and husband they ran into the smoke filled house and began to throw all the presents out in the yard. Everything was happening so fast and I was in tears. When I turned around to thank them they were gone. I never found out who they were. I was so amazed by their unselfish act of kindness. I think that was the best Christmas gift I had ever recieved. I contacted a local news channel and a radio station, but noone ever came foward and said it was them. It amazes me that someone would endanger their own life for someone else who they do not know and then desire no credit for it! Wow! What a blessing.This is three of the boys looking at the reamains of all of their possesions. We learned a great lesson thru this. Material things do not matter, they can be replaced. Your life cannot. Live each day to the fullest for you do not know what tomorrow will bring!

I took an old window and put pictures in it from the fire. At the bottom I painted this saying-There is always, always something to be thankful for.

This hangs in our house as a constant reminder of that.