Best Christmas Present Ever!

All of this talk about"A Christmas Story" has me remembering about my childhood memories and some of my favorite gifts. My Memaw was always great about getting me something I longed for. She got me the Western Barbie and Ken that kissed. It even had a little red ink pad, so it left kiss marks. She also got me the Twister Hair Barbie that had a tool that twisted Barbie's hair together. And she got the SUPER COOL parachute pants that I just HAD to have! I tell you, I looked freakin' awesome in those pants! LOL! But, I have to say my favorite gift came in 1979. First I opened up 2 awesome posters for my wall. One was of Bo and Luke Duke in front of the General Lee. And the other was of Ponch and John from CHIPS. At the time, these were my favorite shows and I had huge crushes on these guys! Especially Bo Duke! But, my very favorite gift of all was a little record player that folded up like a suitcase, so I could carry it around. I can't even tell you how much I loved that thing! We would listen to records and sing and dance. It wasn't long before records were replaced by cassettes, then cassettes were replaced by CD's and now CD's are slowing getting replaced by Ipods, but my memories of that little record player will last forever!

A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story is my all time favorite Christmas movie. I remember the first time I ever saw it was in 1986. Memaw and I had gone to Franklin, IN to see Uncle Mark's new baby, Markell. While we were there, he rented this movie. He said we HAD to see it! From that moment on "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!" became one of those movie quotes that you just never forget! I was so happy when TBS started showing the movie for 24 hours starting Christmas Eve at 6pm. We always had it on at some point on Christmas Eve at Dad's. And it was always playing while we opened gifts on Christmas morning. But the kids were never paying very close attention to it. Well, 5 years ago, the flu kept us from going to Dad's on Christmas Eve, so we all sat down and watched the movie from beginning to end. The kids LOVED it. For the next 3 days, Jordan did his "Ho,Ho,Ho" impression of the Santa as the elf shoved Ralphie down the slide at the mall. He cracked us up and sounded just like that Santa! From then on, it has become a tradition that we all sit down and watch it together at least once during the Christmas season. Last year, we were having a hard time finding it on TV. Christmas Eve and day is just to busy to watch it all. So, I talked Steve into letting me buy the DVD. He didn't want to buy it because he was afraid that having it to watch whenever we wanted would take away some of it's "specialness". Kind of like when we bought the Wizard of Oz on DVD. Bryson watched it over and over. She would never get to appreciate it like we did as kids when it only came on once a year. That was the one night we all got to stay up late and watch the movie. We just looked forward to it. So, I promised Steve if we got the DVD, we would only watch at Christmas time. It's fun to gather as a family, with popcorn, M&M's and twizzlers and watch this movie together. It fun to hear the kids quote their favorite parts-"Daddy's gonna kill Ralphie", "Only I didn't say "Fudge." I said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the "F-dash-dash-dash" word!", "Fra-gee-lay. That must be Italian!", "I TRIPLE dog dare ya!", "It's a major award" and of course, the Fa, ra, ra, ra's at the Chinese restaurant on Christmas day. Have I mentioned how much I love this movie???

Veteran's Day

November 11th is Veteran's Day. Please take a moment to thank our brave men and women who have fought and are still fighting for our freedom. And please enjoy my Veteran's Day video! Thanks Ashlee for telling me about this perfect song!

It's Halloween!!!!

It's Halloween again!!! The kids have been busy getting their costumes together and carving pumpkins. They all ended up with some pretty cool pumpkins. On the 29th, Attica had trick or treat. Dusty dressed up as a waiter from the "Walking Dead Cafe". Jordan decided to stay home and hand out candy. He dressed up as a zombie gangster. He ended up handing out LOTS of candy. In fact, more than we ever have before. Bryson was trick or treating with the student council. Every year our student council trick or treats for canned goods to go to the local food pantry. Bryson went as a 1920's flapper girl. She had a party to go to on the 30th. The boys and I decided to go to Williamsport for round #2 of trick or treating. It was a beautiful fall night. PERFECT trick or treat weather. They got loads of candy and I am having a hard time staying out of it! Darned butterfingers! Sadly, I put the costumes away in the garage, because our Halloween is over for the year. :(

Dustin Sullivan, the head waiter at the Walking Dead Cafe

Thanks to my dear friend Lori for making our menu and designing our iron-on for Dusty's apron!
Anyone hungry???

The 1920's flapper girl Bryson! The real Bryson would never touch a cigarette!

The zombie gangster

The two dead guys sizing each other up!

Dusty with the Galloway Gang-Addy, Mallory and the scary werewolf, Mitchell!

The cat ate the mouse!

Jordan's alien pumpkin

Jordan's big tooth guy

Jordan's last creation

The boy in the Steeler's jersey carving the Colts pumpkin

Bry working really hard

Dusty's haunted house

Dusty's Zero dog from Nightmare Before Christmas

My tombstone pumpkin. Yes, I had a stencil and traced mine!

Bryson's spooky graveyard pumpkin

GO COLTS!!!

Dusty's Jack Skellington pumpkin

The day Lori's kid's costumes were delivered at work, we couldn't resist having a little fun. That is one scary werewolf! I asked her if she could morph into Jacob Black.... I'm still waiting for that!

Fall Pictures at the Potholes

National Honor Society

A few weeks ago I got an email from the school telling me that Bryson had made it into the National Honor Society and I was supposed to keep it a secret! What??? How could I possibly keep such a big thing a secret??? I did tell a few adults and they were all sworn to secrecy. Sharon couldn't hardly stand it! It was tough, but I managed. Well, I almost let the cat out of the bag when I suggested she wear something nice that day-just in case she got in. She told me they don't tell the kids, they tell the parents. I told her I hadn't received a call or an email telling me she got in. So, she just thought she didn't make it this year. So, they snuck all of us parents in and hid us until the kids' names were called. We came out and met them at the front of the stage as they were going up. She was surprised and promptly called me a liar! Hee, Hee! I am so glad I was able to keep quiet! Surprising her was so much fun!Afterwards, they had a brunch for the new members and their parents. The new members got clean up duty! I was soooo proud of her! And I might add, she was the only sophomore this year that was selected. She has worked so hard for this. She has always been an honor student, but NHS looks at other things besides grades-Leadership, volunteer work, other activities. She's active in student council and has volunteered for bible school and was also a counselor at Hanging Rock Christian Camp for the 3rd and 4th graders. I say she worked hard, but she actually enjoys every second of all of these things! We are so blessed to have this fabulous young lady! Even if she has the messiest bedroom EVER!

I Guess We Can't Have Everything

Bryson is an almost perfect teenager. What I mean by perfect is that she's smart, she's sweet, she doesn't talk back, she respects others, she's just an all around great kid.Her one flaw??? Her bedroom! It's awful! It's scary! I am seriously afraid she will grow up and I will see her on one of those Hoarders shows. Now my parents will tell you that I had a messy room as a kid. I will admit, I was no neat freak. I'm still not. But I think my parents will agree, that my room wasn't anywhere close to being as terrible as Bryson's! A pair of jeans and shirt on the floor is nothing compared to the room that looks like the entire closet puked all over the floor! But I guess, we can't have it all. So, I will stick with the sweet, respectable girl with the disgusting bedroom. I do feel the need to share a few pics, just so you can get an idea of what I am talking about!

That suitcase has been there since we got back from vacation in August!

This is her bed. She sleeps on it just like this every night. Just pushes everything over.

She has 2 closets and yet all of her clothes are strung all about her room!

Probably the cleanest spot in the room. This is where she does her hair and puts her makeup on. The other day, she made the comment that she needs to clean this area up! Doesn't matter that she takes her own life into her hands just to walk through her room to get to this area!