The Life and Times of the Wagoners

Back in September I bought tickets to see The Magic Treehouse Live for Ty as a Christmas present. The Magic Treehouse is a series of books that Ty has enjoyed reading for the past several years. The musical was in Fayetteville, Arkansas, yes that is 4 hours away from us. The original plan was that we (Brandon, Ty, and I) would go down to Ft. Smith the night before and stay with our friends the Gibsons. Of course plans were changed and Brandon had to stay and work that Saturday. My mom said she would go with us, but she was working nights and wouldn't be off until midnight Friday night. Mom spent the night with us and we left our house at 6am Saturday morning. Once we went our friends at the Watson Center and went inside, we got an unexpected surprise. The author Mary Pope Osbourne came out on stage, she said that out of 53 cities this was one of the very few that she had come to. We brought one of Ty's books because we thought that the actors might sign autographs during intermission. Ty sit with the Gibson kids and dad Geoff, Stephanie sat with my mom and I. We couldn't get seats together, but we did all get front row balcony seats so we could at least look down and see their faces. During intermission I lost Ty, but quickly found him downstairs at the consession stand with Steph. I told her to go on back into the theater and I would stay with Ty while he finished his peanuts. For some reason when I left my seat to go look for Ty I picked up his book that we brought with us. As we are going back to our seats right outside our section, Mary Pope Osbourne comes walking past us. I asked if they were going to sign autographs afterwards, the person with her, who I assumed might be her assistant, asked if we had purchased tickets for the festival afterwards. I told her "No, we didn't know about the festival and that we had to start back home, we drove four hours to come see the show"". Mary Pope Osbourne said that she would love to sign his book, I gave her the book and Ty shook her hand. Ty was sooo excited!!! I was excited too! He had to tell everyone, he even called Brandon to tell him as soon as the show was over. The show was wonderful, and well worth the four hour drive there and back. As soon as I locate my cord to my camera I will post pictures!!!

Hey guys, Ty is going through something right now and I am not sure how to help him. He has been very sad lately. Yesterday on the way home from school, I asked him if he was ok. He said that he didn't feel like the kids in his class liked him. He said he felt like they were zebras with stripes and he was a zebra with polka dots (his words exactly). Brandon and I were talking to him and all his friends from elementary school are in different classes and he doesn't get to see them that much. I asked if he was hanging out with them at recess and he said that he had a hard time finding them. He has a friend in his class that the two of them were very close and Ty talked about him all the time. Ty said that since Christmas break his friend has a new friend and told Ty that he wants to hang out with his new friend. I believe that Ty is really upset that his buddy in his class isn't talking to him as much anymore. But last night he was in my room and he was crying and that made me cry. I know that this is a time of change for him but it still hurts when your baby (and he will always be my baby)is hurt and upset. We told him to reach out to his friends in his other classes. He said that he would, but that some of them don't have the same recess as him. Please pray for Ty...He was very sad last night and that is not like Ty. Most of you know that Ty has a lot of friends and very good friends, but those friends are not in the same class this year...

We are not big New Year's Eve party guys. This year we had my cousin, Amber, over and played the Wii. Remember my blog titled " The Wii". I finally caught a picture of Brandon playing baseball with Ty. Have I mentioned that the Wii can get a little dangerous??? The following pictures are of the gang playing Wii. The rest of our night was pretty tame... after playing the Wii, Brandon, Amber and I watched Mamma Mia... Then we were all asleep before midnight. I found myself and Ty asleep on the couch around 12:20am, so I HAD to take a picture of my sleeping son....We tried to make it til midnight but failed...Maybe next year!

Ok, the past few blogs have been a little serious. So I am going to lighten up a bit and share some Christmas pictures. This was Christmas at my wonderful in-law's house. The first picture is of Ty of course, the next picture is my niece Kayce, and the final picture is all the Wagoner grandkids; Dylon, Ty, Kayce and Jake. I LOVE Christmas!!! More to come...

My day yesterday....

woke up at 6am...
sub'd for a 6th grade teacher...
took crap from disrespectful 6th graders...
went to lunch with my friend Kathy...
went back and took more crap from 6th graders...
left school...
went home and fought with a 10 year old over math problems...
left at 4:45 to go to work at my part-time job from 5-8pm...
left work at 8pm....
went back home to go over the rest of the math problems...
sent son to bed...
crashed in my own bed..............

I have a new challenge for myself.... I challenge myself not to get too upset with my one and only child. I now know why God has only blessed me with one child. I believe that this is only the beginning of what is soon approaching, puberty! So this is my challenge: I will make it through the next several years without harming a hair on my precious son's head, I HOPE! I will continue to say to myself, "I LOVE him....I LOVE him..... I LOVE him", and then when that doesn't work I will say " 1, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10; then walk away!!!! If anyone feels my pain, PLEASE let me know!

We hope that everyone had a very blessed Christmas. My favorite time of year when we get to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, I hope that we all remember to celebrate the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ everyday of the year. Families come together at Christmas and I may be prejudice but our extended family is the BEST! Through thick or thin they are always there for us when we need them. This year my granddad gave me a touching, but scary present. My grandad will be 84 years old this February. This year all of us were able to be together at the same time, first time in a few years, my grandad took this time to give us a special speech. He started by telling us how proud he was of his family, tears, then went on to tell us that he had hardships and that he never imagined having a family as great as his. Next, he went on to say that he didn't know if he would be with us next Christmas, tears and more tears, but that he wanted us to know that he was ready to go and that he had been praying and made peace with his life and was ready to meet God. This was difficult to listen to. I thought that he was saying goodbye to us, I had to go outside after this speech. My family is everything to me, my cousins (Dusty and Erin) are like my brothers, but I felt that in the last several years we had grown apart. Outside my cousin, Erin, my cousin Michelle, Dusty's wife, and my Aunt Penni told me that my grandad wasn't saying goodbye but saying that he had strengthened his relationship with God. I explained to them how I thought that our family had grown apart especially since my Aunt Linda had died, and that I was afraid of losing grandad but also afraid of what it would to do our family. That night my grandad gave us the BEST Christmas present ever, he gave us our family back. I believe that God helped my grandad pull his family back together, but also preparing us for the time that grandad has to leave us. I know that my grandad has made things right with God and that is the most precious gift of the Christmas season. I also had the opportunity to really express my fears with the rest of the family, and this has brought our family closer to the way it use to be. You may be wondering why I shared this very personal story. I have decided to challenge myself and my extended family (friends included) to strength our relationships in the upcoming 2009 year. I know that relationships take work and trust, and my challenge is to be honest with yourself and then take that honesty into all your relationships, this is my New Year's Resolution!

God Bless and Happy New Year!