Coffee with Kel

Building relationships, encouraging hope

Family

Ahhh…it’s good to be home

By Leave a Comment

We had a wonderful long weekend visit in South Georgia. It’s always great spending time with family, of course. We got home this afternoon and I have to say that it’s great being back. Now that Spring Break is over, we can fully get back into our normal routine which will be nice. Yay!

Just did our weekly grocery shopping at Publix. This week’s mystery coupon item was a 4-pack of Greenwise toilet paper. It’s not what we normally would buy, but for a penny I can’t pass it up. I managed to save almost 30% on my total grocery bill today which was great considering I bought vitamins ($8+) with no coupon and three cards to mail. I’m feeling good about those savings all around.

I have lots to do, but wanted to refresh my sleepy blog. I’ll be back in the swing of things tomorrow.

Away Down South…

By Leave a Comment

We are visiting family down in South Georgia for a long weekend. We came down yesterday and we’ll be staying at my mom’s (Nana’s) until Sunday. The weather here is incredible! Today it’s supposed to be near 90!! WOW!! We took the girls and our littlest nephew to the Flint Riverquarium this morning. We had LOTS of fun there and the girls just loved seeing all the fish, turtles, etc. It was rather crowded with school groups, but still lots of fun.

This afternoon we have big plans to fly kites out in Nana’s backyard. We also hope to take Macey to play her first round of miniature golf. Should be FUN! Tomorrow evening we are planning to see my best friend Terri and her family. This is just an exciting weekend for us!

It’s supposed to be a bit cooler here the next couple of days, so hopefully we can soak up all this nice warm sunshine today!

Happy weekend, y’all!

Spring Break

By 2 Comments

This week is Spring Break for the schools in our area, including our preschool. So, that means Macey is home all week and Mariana won’t have school on Friday morning. It’s both a blessing and an adjustment to have both girls home all day. I find myself looking for ideas to keep us all entertained and keep the girls from being completely bored. Doing this on a tight budget is a challenge, but is doable. Here are some of my ideas so far:

  • Trips to the park – Both to the “little park” which is just down the street in our neighborhood and also the “big park” which is a county park a few miles from our house.
  • A group outing to The Chattahoochee Nature Center which is fairly close by. We have never been, but I have heard great things and I think this would be great fun for the girls. They both love being outside and love animals.
  • Cooking and crafts at home – I need to research ideas on this one. I know we can make homemade play-dough, so that’s one thing.  I’m open to suggestion too.

We’re also planning on traveling to Nana’s (my mom’s) later in the week to be there for a long weekend. The girls are SO excited about that! The girls and I had planned to go down on Sunday and have Mickey join us later in the week, but we decided to be frugal and only take one vehicle to save money. With the price of gas, that makes more sense. Hopefully we can leave on Thursday afternoon and come back on Sunday to give us an extended weekend visit.

As much as we truly LOVE the girls’ preschool, it’s a blessing to have this time with them together this week. Macey will start kindergarten in the fall and Mariana will attend preschool three mornings per week, so having them together on a daily basis won’t happen as often. So, I am grateful for this Spring Break and I look forward to a nice long summer with my precious girls.

Happy Tuesday!

Go Braves!

By Leave a Comment

We went to our first Braves game of the season yesterday. My Dad (aka Papa) had four tickets and took Mickey and me to the game with him. My step-mom, Dorothy (aka MiMi), stayed home with the girls while we went to the game. We had a GREAT time!

Traffic was thick going through downtown Atlanta on 75/85, but it opened up pretty well and we made it almost on time. We parked way out and had to walk a bit in the drizzling rain, but that was okay. We all need the exercise. Once inside Turner Field, we stopped by a vendor stand and got a baseball cap for me since it was still drizzling rain. I got a cute pink Braves cap with an “A” in white on the front. It’s girly, but at least it’s a Braves cap, right? We then went to our great seats! We were maybe 15 rows up behind the Braves on-deck circle. We were right in prime foul ball territory, but none ever came close enough. Still, we had a fantastic time! It was a great game. There was even a bit of excitement as the Braves thought they had turned two on the Mets, but the call got reversed. Now, let me tell you, if you want to see my Dad get excited and animated, put him at a ballgame. He was giving the umpires a fit. In good team spirit, of course. The rain returned around the bottom of the 4th and we stayed until the bottom of the 6th before we left. The Braves had a pretty decent lead by then and we were getting wet and cold. On the way home we heard on the radio that Kelly Johnson had come in to pinch hit and gotten a grand slam to put the Braves even further in front. Too bad we missed that, huh?

Here is a picture Mickey took with his phone during the game:

It was a great day for baseball. So, it was a little drizzly, but I’ll take that over 100 degrees at the ballpark any old day!! We had a BLAST and can’t wait to go again!!

And, as an added bonus, the girls had great fun with Mimi. Although, I think she probably slept the day away today after they wore her out with their boundless kid energy. 😉

Thanks, Papa and MiMi, for a great Saturday!

The Church Book

By Leave a Comment

The time has rolled around yet again for our church to put together a church directory. (No small feat for a large church, by the way) Our family had our portrait session on Friday evening. Macey was so excited about this because she absolutely loves looking at the last directory which she refers to as “the church book.” She will get the directory out, flip through page by page and pick out everyone she knows. She has long loved this book! And, since the last one came out a couple of years ago, Mariana wasn’t even a twinkle in our eye yet and it’s been bothering Macey that her sister isn’t in the church book.

So, off we went on Friday. All dressed up and ready to shoot our church book portrait. We arrived a bit early and the photographer was ready for us, so we got a head start. We told him we have never gotten a good family portrait of all four of us, so his work was cut out for him. We have to give that photographer ALL the credit in the world because he tried so hard to get us that perfect family posed portrait. Didn’t happen. Mariana either wanted to get down and run around or she would sit stone-faced for the camera. Macey was smiling, but her pose position was a tad awkward for her at times, so she would have to shift. Yea, it was definitely an adventure. But, really, the photographer went above and beyond to try to get both girls smiling and all of us looking at the camera at the same time. The best we could do was a shot where Macey is looking somewhat startled, Mariana has a smirk and there sit Mickey and me, smiling like big happy cheesers. 😀 The photo was certainly good enough for the church book and we’ll take our free 8×10, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to buy extras. We wanted to because the photographer tried SO hard, but we just couldn’t bite that bullet.

The quest for a great family portrait continues. And, if anyone knows how to get an almost two year old to sit still and smile for photos, do let us know. 😉