Army Spc. Larry Shaffer discovered this when he returned to North Carolina after being deployed in Afghanistan for a 12-month period.
He was stunned when he was greeted by his wife at the airport, who had shed a whopping 100 pounds.
“Wow,” Shaffer reportedly said. ”This is icing on the cake because I’ve been happy with the way she’s looked since day one, but it’s something she wanted to do and she reached her goal.”
Misty revealed she kept her weight loss a surprise by keeping photos of herself off Facebook.
“When I did send him pictures, they were from the shoulder up,” Misty told WECT in Wilmington.
And that was not the only surprise she had for her husband — she also purchased a new home.
“He’s been wanting to buy a house now forever and I went and did it while he was gone,” Misty reportedly said.
The couple has a 3-year-old daughter named Nevaeh.
“Everything’s new,” Shaffer told WECT. “I pretty much have a new wife. My daughter’s three times the size she was and we have our own home now.”
He may have not been able to be there in person, but the love Capt Matthew Krivohlavy felt for his brother as he tied the knot over the weekend, was felt all around.
In this heartwarming video, the Marine pilot with Marine Attack Squadron 231, who is currently deployed in Afghanistan, sent his love from the skies to his sibling Brandon and his fiancée, Mandy Takacs as they prepared to tie the knot in Austin, Texas last weekend.
Matthew used flash cards from the cockpit of his Harrier jet to express his joy over the wedding and offer also shared some brotherly advice.
Brandon Krivohlavy, 30, married Mandy Takacs over the weekend in Austin, Texas, but his brother’s presence was felt on the big day
The high-flying tribute concluded with the pilot sliding down his visor and performing a dizzying 360-degree roll in the sky Top Gun style, before waving goodbye to the camera.
“Everyone in the room was either crying or completely speechless. It was a very moving moment for everyone there,” Brandon Krivohlavy commented on Reddit.
The video, which was posted to YouTube on April 9, has already garnered over 360,000 hits.
“We enter a little coffeehouse with a friend of mine and give our order. While we’re approaching our table two people come in and they go to the counter:
‘Five coffees, please. Two of them for us and three suspended’ They pay for their order, take the two and leave.
I ask my friend: “What are those ‘suspended’ coffees?”
My friend: “Wait for it and you will see.”
Some more people enter. Two girls ask for one coffee each, pay and go. The next order was for seven coffees and it was made by three lawyers – three for them and four ‘suspended’. While I still wonder what’s the deal with those ‘suspended’ coffees I enjoy the sunny weather and the beautiful view towards the square in front of the café. Suddenly a man dressed in shabby clothes who looks like a beggar comes in through the door and kindly asks
‘Do you have any suspended coffee?’
It’s simple – people pay in advance for a coffee meant for someone who can not afford a warm beverage. The tradition with the suspended coffees started in Naples, but it has spread all over the world and in some places you can order not only a suspended coffee, but also a sandwich or a whole meal.’
(By Scott Sonnon, posted on Facebook.)
Why not start this in your community? If the coffee shop you patronize doesn’t know about this tradition, tell them about it and tell all your friends.
Here’s a wonderful story in The Independent if you want to read more about this tradition.
Life just got a whole lot richer for Billy Ray Harris!
The homeless man, who captured the attention of the nation when he returned a diamond and platinum engagement ring to a woman who accidentally dropped it in his beggar’s cup in February, has finally been reunited with his estranged family.
Billy Ray had not seen his relatives for nearly 16 years, but his act of honesty helped propel his story into the spotlight and enabled his family to track him down.
“I never would’ve thought this,” Billy Ray Harris of Kansas City, Mo., said. ”This was a total shock.”
“I’d been worried sick about my family since the last time I saw them,” Harris told TODAY.com. “I totally lost contact with them back in the 90′s…I was kind of down in the dumps, and on the verge of giving up.”
Since his act of honestly February 8, which saw him on return Sarah Darling’s ring, Billy Ray has seen good fortune smiling on him.
Having previously lived under a bridge, thanks to 8,000 well-wishers who have had donated more than $183,000, Billy Ray now has a home and a part-time job.
“I got an air mattress now, it’s like living like a king compared to where I was,” he said.
We are all guilty of taking the simplest things in life for granted, such as the sound of our loved ones voices.
This clip, which features a 26-year-old deaf woman, has gone viral over the weekend and it is easy to see why — it really tugs at your heartstrings.
Amy Arnold had never even heard her six-year-old son before she had a cochlear implant and understandably, she becomes emotional when she hears sounds for the first time, such as her boy saying, “Hi mom!”
Her aunt posted this clip back in September and wrote the following;
Our niece has been deaf since she was born. She has never heard the sound of her parents voice or her 6 year old son, Blake. Every day for the next several months she will learn how sound works and where it comes from.
Update: thank you to everyone that appreciates and feels what a beautiful time this was and continues to be for Amy and our families. She is continuing her hard work of speech and sound therapy to distinguish what sound is. Her pronunciation has improved vastly and she can hear words and especially music! Naturally, after a lifetime of lip reading and signing, it is still necessary for her to rely on that skill to have conversation in a group. Every day is new and sometimes an exhausting experience. She loves the challenge to improve yet more and she is a joy to be around. By the way, Amy has a high school diploma and college degree! This girl never let anything get in her way to be her best!
Don‘f be surprised if you find yourself becoming emotional after watching the clip below….
Former “Toddlers & Tiaras” Isabella Barrett is already richer than most Americans will ever hope to be and she is still in first grade.
The six-year-old has made more than $1 million in the past year with Glitzy Girl, a line of kids’ jewelry and makeup she created with her mom, Susanna Barrett.
And posing up for this photo for In Touch magazine she reveals that being a mini-mogul is a blast.
“It’s a lot of fun,” the little entrepreneur tells the new issue of In Touch. “I’m the boss!”
When the outgoing Rhode Island native isn’t in school or rocking out to Justin Bieber tunes, she can be found at the jewelry factory or testing new products at home.
“She picks out the designs for our charm bracelets, and she’s tried on every color in our lip-gloss line,” says Susanna, who oversees the company full-time. “She is the guide for what’s cool!”
And her mom insists that Isabella is the brainchild behind the brand.
“When Bella would win a pageant, we would print the title she’d won on a charm and put it on a bracelet, so she could brag about her accomplishments,” Susanna proudly tells In Touch, adding thatGlitzy Girl grew slowly, largely through word of mouth. “When Toddlers & Tiaras filmed at our jewelry factory,” she says, “I got a lot of response from fans — it took off from there!”
With the US Government’s Fiscal Cliff looming around the corner, Junior Achievement of Southern California (JASoCal) is educating high school students on some money basics. (Don’t we wish most of Congress had a rudimentary course?)
JA Finance Park is part of the Junior Achievement program, a national organization that was founded in 1919 whose “focus is to create programs that engage, enrich and educate kids so that one day they will own their economic success.”
Housed in JASoCal’s facility, located on the edge of Griffith Park, JA Finance Park offers 7th- 12th grade student’s hands-on experience with relevant financial experiences. Sponsored storefronts create a mock city with banks, car dealerships, utilities and more, that give kids a real-life environment to navigate. With the guidance of volunteers, the students learn how to budget, purchase goods and survive and thrive with the income they are provided.
Here’s 5 Tips to teach your child:
1. Teach them how to create a budget and talk about the difference between a Want and a Need. Even with a small part-time job salary or babysitting income, the importance of budgeting can still be relevant.
2. When talking about a budget, stress the importance of creating goals. Why are we saving money? For college, a car, summer vacation? Is it a long term or short term goal? What are my priorities? Setting and prioritizing goals will always result in better choices.
3. If your child has a job, help them to understand their paycheck. Look at the deductions, taxes and talk about what these mean. This will help them understand the value of their net pay and how it can affect their budgeting.
4. Saving is crucial: always pay yourself first! This habit is important to instill early. Even if they only get cash for a birthday gift, ask them to consider putting a few dollars away in the piggy bank before they put it in their wallet.
5. Use credit wisely. Give your teen a small account debit or credit card, so they begin understanding the consequences of their spending habits. Help them understand to never buy what you can’t repay right away. In addition, learning how to use a check register will help them track their usage with a debit card. Put a timeline on this usage (6 months) so if they run out before the 6 months is over, it will help reinforce the important concept of stretching out their budget.
Meet the four-year-old boy who is not letting a debilitatingcondition get in the way of him living his life.
Gavin Robert Stevens suffers from Leber Congenital Amaurosis, which means he is essentially blind.
For the past few months, Gavin has been using his cane independently, but he has now achieved his greatest accomplishment so far — he has walked down from the sidewalk curb to the street for the first time by himself.
As he slowly inches to the very edge of the curb, he asks his mom, “I can do it?” to which she says, “You can do it baby, go ahead.”
It is truly a touching clip.
To read more about Gavin, and LCA, the condition that has caused complete blindness, please visit:
“Mom, you should write about Skylar,” she said. Skyar is the little boy pictured above who is full of life and laughter, but has a very rare birth defect called Schizencephaly. His Mom started a Face Book page, where she showcased her handmade items. Here, let her tell it:
This shop was created for the pure intention of helping out my son Skylar who has an extremely rare developmental disorder called Schizencephaly. All proceeds from every item I sell goes directly to my son, to contribute to his medical bills, therapy, and every necessity my little miracle needs. All items are handmade by me.
Bianca, aka “Mom”, makes everything from sweet rings ($4.75) to festive bows ($7) to floral turbans ($10-$13.) She features items on her Face Book page and also at Store Envy (like a small Etsy.)
To put it simply, Schizencephaly meant that Skylar’s brain never fully developed while he was in the womb, and consequently he’s missing about 70% of his right side of the brain. Still, Bianca calls him her “miracle baby” and writes with such joy that you can’t help about smile.
Mackenzie told me that when her package arrived — she bought a pink rose ring – it had a big ”thank you!” and a red heart scrawled on the outside. That sounds about right.
Do a little shopping and help out an adorable little boy named Skylar. What we call a win-win.
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