It is official - I am the Mom of a teenager - post 11

My oldest son, Avery, turned 13 on December 13th. I am in the midst of 13 memories of him…I know it is a silly Mom thing…but, it is therapeutic for this silly Mom!

Our life took a turn in 2004. A BIG turn. The Lord 100% confirmed to Clark and me, after much prayer and fasting, that we were to move our family to Maryville, TN. It was one of the hardest things for us to do. However, knowing that we were in the perfect will of the Lord, made it doable. It was a HUGE change for Avery, even though he was only six years old. The hardest part for him was leaving his Nana and Papa Presson and favorite cousin Drew, as well as close church friends. He and his Papa were BIG golfing buddies! Nana was his CONSTANT source of entertainment. Whenever he was at her house, he and Riley had her undivided attention. She also took them for weekly trips to the Dollar Store and McDonalds! After the heartache of saying many goodbyes to our Jackson family, Lighthouse church family, and friends, we settled into a brand new city and church.

Avery quickly made new friends. My parents had retired here, so he got to spend time with them, which he loved! His new school was awesome, thought his new 1st grade teacher (Sis. Kirby) was absolutely the coolest, and talked often about the pretty girl he sat by in class (Savannah Coffey). However, six years later he still longs to make more trips to see his grandparents in Jackson, and says that one day he might attend college there. So, I know a part of him will always love his hometown. Roots go deep.

If you have been reading along on this 13 blog journey, you now know that Avery is very energetic. He went though a cart wheel phase. Everywhere we went he turned cartwheels. When I say everywhere, I really do mean everywhere. The aisles in the store, the parking lot, and even in the bathrooms at the restaurants. My main concern was all of the germs getting on his hands! It was a constant “discussion” among the two of us.

One of my main cartwheel memories happened at our new church. Our pastor would ask us to walk to the front of the church to put our offering in the plate. You guessed it, Avery cart- wheeled up the aisle one service on his way to give his offering. Although it was great entertainment for those around us, I failed to find the humor in it! So, off to ladies room we went for much more than a “discussion!” Thankfully, the cartwheel phase soon came to an end.

Soon afterwards, our offering “plates” were changed to offering bags. They are velvet bags with a ring around the top. Avery was a bit fascinated by the new offering bags and one service decided to see if his head would fit in the opening of the bag. In case you are wondering, his head did fit into the bag (and thankfully back out again!). Again, I failed to see the humor, although the usher enjoyed it tremendously. Needless to say, off to the ladies room we went, again!

Life has taken a lot of turns since 2004 when Avery left his “hometown” and I’m sure it will take many more. As a mother of a teenager, I am constantly praying that as he begins to make his own choices and decides for himself which of those turns to make, he will always make the turns that lead him closer to the Lord.

This was taken 2 months after our move.  Avery, 7 - Riley, 4 - Landry 2 months.  It is one of my fav of my 3 little guys!

It is official - I am the Mom of a teenager - post 10...3 more to go!

My oldest son, Avery, turned 13 on December 13th. I am in the midst of 13 memories of him…I know it is a silly Mom thing…but, it is therapeutic for this silly Mom!




There are many moments in motherhood that I would love to remember but day to day life seems to fade the memory. Then there are those memories that are forever stamped on our heart. The births of our children, those first days of school, the baby teeth that are tucked away in a box, and the many x-rays of all of the broken bones…we have several those at our house.


I have one particular memory of Avery that I will never forget. It happened the summer that he was six. As I have mentioned in a previous post, Avery has never had a lack of energy. He played hard and long…all day, every day! Our goal was to run off as much energy as possible before bedtime each night.

One summer afternoon, Avery had exhausted my 3 year old Riley so I carried him into the house to put him down for a nap. It only took a few minutes to get Riley to sleep, and I headed back outside. As I opened the door, I saw my son laying face down in the middle of our busy street. To say that time stood still, my heart stopped beating, or that I felt all of the life drain out of me would NOT be an exaggeration. I instantly started screaming his name and running down our steep driveway. Even as I type, my heart starts to beat faster just thinking about seeing him laying there. I just knew that he had been hit by a car. As soon as I got down to him, I rolled him over. His little batman skateboard was underneath him. He opened his eyes and looked at me, and my heart started beating again. At this point, I was sobbing, looking for blood, and feeling for broken bones.

With a very puzzled look on his face, he told me that he had fallen asleep on his skateboard at the top of the driveway. Apparently, he had rolled down the driveway into the street - all the while sleeping soundly. My legs were shaking so badly that I had to sit in the grass for awhile. I wanted to kiss him and spank him all at the same time. Later that evening, the batman skateboard mysteriously disappeared. Hopefully, it is buried deep in a landfill in Jackson, TN.

Avery has given me other major scares, and I am sure that there are more to come. However, I can only handle blogging about one heart stopping moment at a time.

It is official - I am the Mom of a teenager - post 9

My oldest son, Avery, turned 13 on December 13th. I am in the midst of 13 memories of him…I know it is a silly Mom thing…but, it is therapeutic for this silly Mom!

Avery and school went together like peanut butter and jelly, pancakes and syrup, Bert and Ernie…in other words, he LOVED it. Suddenly, he was in FIRST grade. I am proud to say that I handled it much better than kindergarten. It was also a presidential election year. If you know the Presson men, then you know that they are extremely political. It doesn’t take long for Clark, Uncle Bob, Blair, and Papa Don to get a political conversation going when we are all together.

Avery is, always has been, and always will be 100% Presson! At the young age of six, he stepped into the political storm with much enthusiasm! He knew many details about George W. Bush AND John Kerry, and had formed very strong opinions on each candidate.

The elementary school that he was attending held an election. Avery was super excited over the fact that he was going to get to vote at the young age of six! He even wore a red, white, and blue flag shirt on the appointed day. Each student was allowed to stand and make a statement about the candidate of their choice. Avery was the only one in his first grade class that had an opinion on the matter! He proudly stood and told his young fellow Americans that John Kerry did not believe in God, and that they would go to hell if they did not vote for George W. Bush.

Needless to say, George W. Bush won the presidential election in Mrs. Hill’s 1st Grade Class. Not surprisingly, I received a call from Mrs. Hill asking that I have a talk with my son about dramatically voicing his political opinion. 

Post Script -   All opinions in this article were strictly thought up by Avery Presson and NOT told to him by either his mother or father!

It is official - I am the Mom of a teenager - post 8

My oldest son, Avery, turned 13 on December 13th. I am in the midst of 13 memories of him…I know it is a silly Mom thing…but, it is therapeutic for this silly Mom!

If you think I am having a difficult time with one of my boys turning 13 then you should have known me when Avery started kindergarten.  I was a BASKET CASE.  The summer before school started I had myself worked up into a constant stomach ache.  Avery’s school had an all day kindergarten, and the thought of him being out of my sight for that many hours of the day was too much for me to handle.  Other than missing him, I was concerned that someone else, a stranger of all things, would be influencing Avery’s life for that many hours of the day.  Believe me, I thought of every worse case scenario that can possibly be thought of on that long summer before the elementary school years began.  I was one of those Moms that walked him to his classroom everyday with my other toddler in tow.  Avery would BEG me to let him go alone, and I finally gave in 4 months into the school year.  I quickly volunteered to be the homeroom mom and was always one of the first parents in the pick-up line.  I was so happy to see his blonde little head peek out the door at the end of the school day.  I laugh at myself now, but I had serious separation issues.  (maybe I still do, a little bit J)  After a long school year of many lessons learned for me, he graduated and looked beyond adorable in his little hat and tassel.  He received the “best all-around kid” award, and I stood and clapped and screamed louder than any other parent at the awards ceremony.  In a year and a half he will start high school.  Please start fasting and praying for me NOW!

It is official - I am the Mom of a teenager - post 7

My oldest son, Avery, turned 13 on December 13th. I am in the midst of 13 memories of him…I know it is a silly Mom thing…but, it is therapeutic for this silly Mom!




MEMORY #7 - I wrote this post severeal months ago, and want to use it for my 7th post of Avery's 13th birthday.  Click here to read about  Avery's glasses.  SIX more posts!!!  I am determined to finish this!!  :)

It is official - I am the Mom of a teenager - post 6

My oldest son, Avery, turned 13 on December 13th. I am in the midst of 13 memories of him…I know it is a silly Mom thing…but, it is therapeutic for this silly Mom!



I was the baby of my family; it is a wonderful position to be born in. My sister nearest to my age is ten years older than me, so I never knew about hand-me-downs as a child. However, as a mother I have learned how wonderful they are! I have friends and relatives that pass down bins and bins of outgrown clothes to my sons. They are in excellent condition and such a blessing.

I was sorting through a new bin one day and pulled out a pair of Spiderman jammies. Complete with the webbing under the arms. Avery shrieked in delight and ran to put them on. He proceeded to wear them for weeks and weeks. Not just to bed, but to the grocery store, to the post office, to McDonalds…and anywhere else that our day took us. I did draw the line at wearing them to church!

I am pretty sure he really thought that he was Spiderman when the red web jammies were on. He shot webs everywhere he went, and insisted being called Peter Parker at times. This superhero passion happened during the intense heat of July. Outside was his favorite place to be, so needless to say the jammies got VERY dirty and stinky. At times it was easier to peel them off of him once he was asleep and throw them in the washing machine instead of fighting with him to take them off. I learned early in motherhood to choose my boy battles wisely.

His best neighbor buddy, MacKenzie Brockmeyer, also had a beloved pair of jammies and they both morphed into Spiderman in the late summer evenings. Many hours were spent in our backyards conquering evil villains.

My favorite memory of the Peter Parker persona was the red cowboy boots that were found in the bottom of the box. They were worn right along with the pajamas!