firefighters burning houses?

firefighters burning houses you say? i thought that may get your attention. my brother, a firefighter/paramedic in cordele, called me last week and said they were gonna be setting a house on fire for  "practice". he said he'd let me know when they were gonna do it for sure since the weather has been so unpredictable. i've kept the lines hot hounding him about "when". well, he finally called this a.m. about 9:30 and said "come on"...and we did!!! and it was AWESOME!!!

this was the scene when we pulled up. pretty cool i might add. they always have the trucks so pretty and clean and shiny. i can see why kids love them so much!  mine sure do  :) 

side view. i couldn't fit them all in here. i took all of these pictures from inside the car. i was afraid i'd be in the way if i got out and walked around so we stayed put. it was a nice windy day also so we stayed warm inside.

at first we were parked here behind the fence but that was just not gonna do. there was another firetruck parked right in front of the house they were burning. (that's my little brother standing there in front of the truck :)

don't have a clue who this is other than "jackson". lettin the water loose!

a few of them came to check out the water situation...it was leakin a bit but they fixed it! 

i guess they decide they needed another hose(just in case), so "firefighter cook" went to fetch it  :)

....last week when i asked justin how long it would take to get it started, he laughed and said "we're a lot beter at puttin out fires than startin them". i thought that was funny!  :)

i was beginning to wonder if i needed to send my boys in to show them how to do it but then i saw some flames.

no more flames but lots of black smoke

flames and smoke...good deal!

BIG BAD orange flames!!! the amazing thing was sittin there knowing my little blonde hair brother was inside there the whole time!!! and i was calm.

now this is what i'm talkin about! i know he was havin a ball in there. he loves to play with fire!

 fire has pretty much covered the back of the house now and smoke is pouring out the front

meeting.

they are starting to put water on it now. there is another house right at the back corner of this one and i think they were being cautious.? the ppl kept comin out to the porch to see what was goin on.

all the smoke and fire comin out was actually pretty. maybe notsomuch if someone had been living there.

the boys got really interested when they saw them using the truck to shoot water all the way over the top of the house! that was pretty cool. what kid wouldn't want to be a firefighter after seeing this? i mean, getting to play with fire AND water and not get your behind beat for it!!! 

you can barely even see the house now!

it was a little sad to think this used to be someone's brand new house...

even with all the water they were spraying, it was still burning pretty good.

this is the house on the corner i was talking about. and there are a lot of buildings and a street and stop sign down there too...somewhere.....

the baby brother/firefighter

it's starting to fall in

keepin a watch over things

flames comin from the roof and attic

WOW!!! BIG flames coming from the roof and attic!!!

justin again. they kept walkin around the house...i guess to make sure things were okay on all sides.

the back part of the roof is fallin in.  all kinds of crackling goin on......so cool!

making sure nothin gets away from them....they did a really good job!

this was the last part of the roof caving down on the house. it took a lot longer than i thought it would for an old house like that to burn.

here comes the man! maybe i should've gotten his autograph :) his little boy is gonna be so proud of him when he's old enough to watch him

work. maybe one day i can babysit and take him to watch like we did today........

back to work...

almost the end. we were gonna stick around and watch them roll up hoses but i figured it took them half the afternoon to get that done with allllllll those hoses they had stretched out there!!!

see what i mean? and there were more on the other side of the truck.....better safe than sorry i guess  :) hope you enjoyed. i think the cordele fire dept. needs to start a blog......

:)

I love you little brother!!! thanks and God bless all you other guys who run in to a burning house to save people you don't even know!!!

jake's 9th birthday and this and that.....

since it had been a while that i had a really good post, i decided i would whip up a really good one......so here goes. i have lots and lots of pictures and i am gonna get them on here and hopefully it won't take alllll day!!!

startin of with these pretty pictures of when the ice came through.
everything outside was so pretty and it even got the boys up and out early in the a.m. to check out everything. the above picture is one of my sweet little blueberry bushes. i think all 59 of them survived the freeze and maybe they'll be plentiful this summer because i'm planin on goin to the market with them in hopes of doin a little horse tradin. i need to stock up my freezer with okra, peas, butterbeans.  and corn. 

here's my little little sleepy head benjamin!!! he was fresh outta the bed in this picture. can ya tell? see all the other pretty bushes in the background behind jake?

and here are my beautiful icicle lights...literally. i thought these were really neat. but that's just me  :)
and these next few pictures are really off the wall but i told map i was gonna put them on here because when we were in the super wal the other nite, we totally had our minds blown!!!

compare. really?

we had the above frosted flakes and passed by the below special k and had decided we were gonna start eating a little healthier this year; oranges, apples, grapes, special k? maybe the first 3 but ? on the special k!!! is this for real? same serving sizes, almost same everything else too......i mean really, have you seen the sugar on frosted flakes??? idk? anyway,  we came home with the frosted flakes because special k was also in a smaller box and cost the same!!??  special k, you may sucker some but not ME!!!
now after all that talk about tryin to eat healthier....

Jake's 9th birhday!!! yeah, i don't know where the time went either!!!

mama (his grandma) made his cake (he requested a chocolate layer cake). i was busy with this and that and she's good and fast at these cakes so i put it off on her. and it was good!!! as always!

9 candles. i think he blew them out one at a time ;)

we were all anxiously waiting to dig in...we knew what was hiding in there. chocolate, cakey, yummy goodness!!! i was a bad mom and didn't get any pix of him opening his presents but he got lots of good stuff...an ipod (filled with all his favorite church songs ((about 200 or so of them)), a new dsi game, some clothes, lights you wear on your head at nite and a dvd, and money, money, money, money...it was a good day for many.....map and i also made it to town before the party to donate blood. he gave two units and i gave one. they were very happy since i have o neg and he is o pos. they're really gonna be happy to see us roll up in there with our kids one day.....5 at a time with o blood type. it really gives you a good feelin after you do something like that and knowing you can help save a life for free!!!

been a while.....

it's been a while since i've posted anything so i guess it's been pretty boring around here, although it can never too be boring whith 3 or more children running around!!! a couple weeks ago the boys had their first ever spend the night guest. this little boys mom and i are A LOT alike when it comes to our kids. he had never spent the nite with anyone before but his grandma ...pretty much same as mine. i was a little skeptical about how he was gonna do over nite but i've come to the conclusion that it's just us mom's that FREAK OUT and worry about our kids.....i mean, can we really be good moms  if we don't worry about our babies at all??? i think not!!! charlie did great and he wasn't even ready to go home the next day and that made me happy b/c i know he had a good time  :)

this picture was actually taken yesterday...charlie had so much fun last time that he decided to go home with us after church today!!! they got to play outside this time b/c it was nasty weather and raining last time he was here. they really had a lot of fun this time....we rode the golf cart, they jumped hay bales and we visited some old houses. doin mostly "boy stuff"

charlie decide for this one he'd scale the fence.....after yesterday i've come to the conclusion that he LOVES to climb. i told him he could just stand by the fence but he informed me that he could climb up and sit on top....so he did....and it turned out really good....boys!  :) he's a mess....and a half!

ben and charlie thought it's be a good idea to go up into the playhouse and check things out. i wish the spring would hurry and roll around. it was a great day!!!

pretties for ms. ava

the past two days i have worked off and on making these pretty crocheted hat for ms. ava. she is the newest  addition to our family (my mom's side). she arrived yesterday around lunchtime and i decided i'd make her some "girly things"  

please try to ignore the baby/alien life form in the following pictures. her name is rose and my daughter seriously thinks she is one of the family. she used to have eyelashes and notsonappy hair.....but, well, she is goin on 2 years old and she's been through the mill as you can tell.... anyway, she made a good size model...

this little tobogan/hat/beanie is very pale pink and baby soft. i added a tiny multi-colored flower and ruffle around the bottom and it's ready for ms. ava!!! fit for a princess, i think  :)

okay, so i got a little carried away and decided to make the princess a "diva hat" also, ya know for those days that she feels a little sassy! oh, and i did think of something cuter than a sleeping baby wearin a hat.......a sleeping baby wearing a hat WITH A BIG FAT FLOWER ON IT!!! i think so!!!

heaven knows i hope she and her mom like it.....heaven sakes it so looks like i have a death grip on a real baby's neck!!!

anyway, this is a front view.......i know it'll be 1000x's cuter when ms. ava is wearin it.......can 't wait to give them to her   :)

12 WHOLE years!!!!!

it is so hard to believe that 12 years ago i was a newly married woman......it truely seems like yesterday.....if time flies when you're havin fun then we've obviously been havin too much of it!! map and i hardly ever go out or do anything on our anniversary, especially since we thought january 2nd, a week after christmas, was a great time to get married. actually it was a great day to get married just not such a great time to celebrate an anniversary since some time down the road you'll eventually have kids and be BROKE since it comes right after christmas!!! anywhoo tonite we actually got to go out to eat and it was FREE!!! 

low country/shrimp boil, whatever you wanna call it......it was good and one of my favorites

 along with what else, but a glass of sweet tea  :) and to top it all off for dessert....

                                                               POUND CAKE!!!

and with my most favorite people in the whole world!!! it was the best 12th anniversary EVER!!!