Proud Mommy Moment & a quick card

Steven is one of only 11 kids in his school that was chosen for the Duke University Talent Search for gifted children this year. I can not begin to explain how proud of him I am. Now that he is officially a teenager I've stepped into a whole new chapter of mommyhood..To be honest there are times when I had just rather skip this stage in his life..hehee. But with all the struggles he and I have been through over the past year it all seems almost worth it. He is going this morning to take his ACT. Did I mention he is in the 7th grade? The Duke program is sponsoring the test. To read more about the Duke TIP program go HERE .
He is so excited and scared to death at the same time. I mean there at things on the test that he just hasn't learned in school yet. I have no doubt that he will do a great job. So I made him a quick "good luck" card yesterday. When I say 'quick' what I mean is from the time I decided to make it to the moment I gave it to him was under an hour. I know had I had more time it could have turned out a bit better, but the look on his face when he got it made me feel like I had made the best card ever.

As another surprise for him today, after his test I am going to take him out for lunch and a bit of shopping.

Steven, Honey, When you read this I want you to know just how much I LOVE you and how proud of you I am. You are one awesome kid and I am blessed to be your mom. I love you Bub!!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek into my life.

~Monica~

My Valentine's Day gifts

I have been meaning to post pictures of what Trent gave me on Valentine's Day for a few days now but I've just not gotten around to it. So here they are.

Trent, bless his heart, has been working so many hours lately. 10 hours a day 7 days a week for the last few weeks to be exact. With no real end in sight. He's so tired when he gets home that he barely has time to eat supper, take a shower and visit with the boys and me before he has to get to bed for the next day. Much less keep his eyes open while doing it. Knowing how tired and sore he is and with everything he has going on with work I honestly didn't think he had time to go to the store to pick anything up this year for me. Or even remember it was Valentine's day to begin with. I wouldn't have blamed him in the least. Besides he spoils me enough throughout the year that he would be off the hook had he missed this one holiday. heehee.

At 5:30 am on Valentine morning, after getting dressed, he goes outside to start his truck to warm it before leaving just like every morning. But this morning when he came back in he was holding this adorable huge teddy bear. awwwwwww.. He had stopped on his way home from work the night before to buy it and hide it out in his truck all night just to surprise me... again...awwwww. Now as a little girl I was a sucker for a cute stuffed animal. I had tons of them in my room most of which were on my bed. And a teddy bear was the LAST thing I'd expect Trent to get. How sweet is he?? I fell in love with my big guy the second I saw him.

I took a pic of the bear with Rex (my 6 year old) just to show how big he really is.


Now like I said I really wasn't expecting anything for Valentine's this year and the bear was such a sweet surprise. Well it just got better. That night when he came home from work, he came in the house like any other night after work. Hugs and hello's to me and the boys and puts his lunch box up in the kitchen. Then right after that said he had to go outside to do something...(I can't remember what his excuse was now). He was only outside for a second when he came in with these......a dozen roses.....OMG!! I have to tell you this was one of the most special Valentines Days ever. He really showed me that no matter how tired he is...no matter how much he does work and is away from home...he is still thinking of ways to make me feel special. And believe me, he does make me feel special.

Now there is a bit of a back story to Trent giving me roses. We were together for a few years before he had bought me any. He felt that buying roses, or flowers in general are a bit of a waste of money because they die. Ok...Ok...so he has a valid point. BUT I don't know many women that don't love flowers.. I prefer wild flowers except for Valentine's Day. To me Valentine's = roses and chocolates...(and now an adorable big teddy) I don't ask for much do I?? heeheee. Anyway...a few years ago he came home on Valentine's with a dozen roses. They were so special to me knowing how he felt about flowers that I dried them and saved them in a basket. I figured that was going to be the only flowers I ever got from him....Low and behold the following year, more roses...woohoo. Then the next year, again,more roses. I have dried all the roses he has ever given to me so I could keep them for a very long time.

This year I decided to do something special with the flowers that mean so much to me. I put them in mason canning jars and tagged them. This is what I came up with.....

I've put them on a shelf in my dinning room so I can see them everyday. I even have the jar and tag ready for this year's roses. As long as he gets me flowers, I will dry them and put them in jars so I can enjoy them for a long time to come.

Well that was my Valentine's Day. Happy Late Valentine's to each of you, I hope it was as memorable and special to you as mine was to me.

~XO Monica OX~

New bloggers in the neighborhood Let's give them a big welcome.

Two very special people to me have joined the blogging world. They are both very creative and talented.

The first is Kristy. Her blog is Webfrndz. She has quickly became a very dear friend to me. The fact that she's married to my cousin doesn't have anything to do with it..heehee. Kristy is an amazing photographer and does not give herself enough credit. She dreams to become a professional photographer someday and I believe she will do just that. She's even started making some of the cutest props for photo shoots. I'm hoping she will share those in her blog someday too. Kristy is so full of creativity that I am green with envy. I'm just thankful she's passed on some of her ideas for photo shoots to me..heehee.

The second is my niece Jo Lynn. Her blog is Hair Bows from the Heart. This girl seems to be the "Go-To" girl for all things weddings these days. She helped me with the planning of my other niece's wedding last year and since has had people knocking down her door for help on their own weddings. I've told her more times than I can count she should start a wedding planner business. Instead she's started making hair bows. And beautiful bows at that. Seeing them makes me wish I had a little girl to buy them for. There really isn't anything she can't do or create.

If you have time, please stop by their blogs to check out some of their work. Tell'em Monica sent ya.

Keep those creative juices flowin'

~Monica~

Ice Storm Photos

An ice storm hit us January 26Th and 27Th. We were without power for the 10 days following. Not to mention cell phone service was out for the first several days. There were over 170,000 homes in Kentucky alone that were affected. There are still thousands of homes across the state without power. Power crews from other states came to Kentucky to work around the clock to help get utilities back on for us.

This one is looking down our driveway to the road. We had already moved several large limbs from the drive before I took this.

If you look closely in this shot you can see the slide from the boys swing set. These are trees that were so heavy from the ice they were bent over the swing-set. Luckily they didn't break and completely fall on the set. The boys are happy it survived.

Another shot down our drive.





The top of a tree in our front yard. Several large limbs had broken off.

This is a shot right out my front door. The limbs that had fallen from the tree above.

A shot of the tree-line and pasture.

The next few shots were just me playing around.

Trent's tractor...

Bird in on a limb.

My statues...

Red berries on a tree. I thought they were so pretty. I couldn't get much closer to them to get a better shot because limbs were falling all around me. I was afraid to get under the trees next to it to get a better shot.

Ice on the limbs with a bird house in the back ground.

Ice on the gate.

Ice on a Cedar Tree.

The ice and snow are now gone and the clean up has begun. It really does look like a war zone out there. But we are counting our blessing because it could have been much worse.

Keep the families who are still without power in your prayers.

~Monica~