Coffee with Kel

Building relationships, encouraging hope

Home

Meet Ed, the Snow Guy

By 1 Comment

We wound up getting more than a dusting of snow today. Not MUCH more than a dusting, but enough to make Macey want to get out and play in it a bit. Mickey can never resist playing in snow either, so the two of them set out this afternoon to enjoy what little snow we got before it melted. They had been outside maybe 20 minutes when I heard two snowballs thud against the front door. I figured they either wanted me to open the door so they could pelt me with snowballs OR they just wanted my attention. Thankfully, they wanted my attention. (Whew!!) They also wanted me to get my camera. The two of them had built a really TALL snowman. I grabbed my camera and my zoom lens so I could stand in the front door and still shoot good pictures of their lovely creation.

Here they are putting the finishing touches on the snowman:

Love this one – can you see Macey? She discovered that I had come out with the camera:

Posing with their TALL snowman:

Mickey shows just how tall their snowman really IS:

Snowman huggers:

An adorable Miss Macey having fun in the snow:

You might wonder where Mariana was during all the snow fun. She was inside. Somewhat surprisingly, she wasn’t interested in going out to play in the snow today. She’s a little like her mama that way. We already played in it once this season, after all. 😉

Macey and Mickey had a ball building this big snow guy. When Macey came inside as I was uploading photos, I asked her the snowman’s name. She didn’t hesitate before she said “Ed.” So, he’s Ed…the tall snow guy. Hopefully he’ll still be standing tall in our front yard in the morning. I’ll keep y’all posted.

Busy Monday…

By 2 Comments

It’s been a busy Monday here at our house so far. Nothing out of the ordinary, really, but just staying busy around home. I feel like I’m perpetually in “tidy up” mode around here and nothing every gets clean and stays clean, so that adds to the busy factor. But, hey, it’s better to be busy than bored, right? That’s what I keep telling myself anyway.

We’re getting ready for PePaw’s arrival tomorrow. He’ll be leaving Michigan early tomorrow morning and driving all day to get here. It’s about a 13-hour drive. Whew! We are all excited about him coming to spend the week with us. The girls can hardly wait! One of the things I’m working on today is preparing the guest room so he’ll have a nice place to sleep. I have a BAD habit of making our guest room a “collection” room for clothes, photos, etc. So, I have to declutter a bit for him to have the room to himself. It needs to be done anyway, of course, so this visit is just the motivation I’ve been needing.

Today I get to help one last time with driving a Kidz 2 Leaders intern home from work. K2L is the organization that runs the camp we went to a few weeks ago. They help children who have an incarcerated parent (or parents). These kids get to start the program in third grade and K2L is there for them all the way through college, etc. The intern I am picking up today is about to be a senior in high school. She wants to go to college to become a registered nurse and I know she’ll make a great one. I look forward to our visit in the car today.

I know this is a random tidbit to throw in about my day, but I had tomato sandwiches (yes, plural – two of them!) for lunch and they were SOOOOO good!! Oh, I do love a tomato sandwich. I love them on white bread (I use White Wheat) with low-fat mayo. I use fresh tomatoes and sprinkle them with salt and black pepper. Perfectly delicious!! YUM! And, I justified two because they aren’t high in calories or fat either. Gotta love that.

Guess I should get back to cleaning, decluttering and organizing. Wish me luck!

Well…Hello, August!

By 1 Comment

My goodness! August has arrived already. Does this seem surreal to anyone else? I seriously feel that summer has just flown by. It doesn’t seem real to me that school has been out for two months already and is VERY close to starting back again. Wow. We have had an incredible summer and have had so much fun – maybe that’s why it’s flying. Still, it does baffle my poor brain that it’s August. Already. Woah.

So, what have you all been up to lately? That is, if anyone is still out there checking this poor neglected blog. (Sorry about that!) Here are some recent happenings with our family:

  • Macey turned six on July 1st. I posted about it on her birthday.
  • We spend the weekend of the 4th of July with family. On the 4th, we went to my Uncle and Aunt’s place with my mom’s side of the family and spent the whole day swimming, eating, playing games, swimming more, eating more, having a hayride and watching fireworks. It was a WONDERFUL day!
  • Both girls attended our church’s second session of VBS called “Crocodile Dock” in July while I worked doing “Logistics” for elmentary. We all had a great time! VBS was a huge success.
  • About a week after her birthday, Macey got her ears pierced. Our original plan had been to wait until she was older, but we have no regrets. Macey had been talking about it for ages, but never really wanted to go through with it just yet. So, the week after her birthday she revisited the subject, we talked about it in depth (how it would hurt a bit but short-term and how she’d have to take care of them, etc) and she was ready. She was SO brave! She held my hands and squeezed her eyes closed tight when they did both ears at the same time. Never shed a tear. She now has beautiful pink rhinestone flower earrings and is so proud of them.
  • I posted about camp in July too. Mickey and I were so blessed by being able to work at camp this year. It was just so incredible. Words fail to express how awesome it was! I cried and cried on the last morning when the kids left – it was just so emotional! The adults made a “prayer tunnel” to pray over the kids as they were leaving and that was SO powerful, beautiful and emotional. We really loved it and can’t wait to go back!!
  • We joined our local YMCA a couple of weeks ago. We’re going to love it – I can already tell! So much to do as a family there. We went to our first “family swim” today since it was rainy outside and we couldn’t go to our neighborhood pool. We had a ball!
  • PePaw (aka – Scott, Mickey’s dad) is coming to stay with us for about a week. He’ll arrive on Tuesday and we’re all excited. One thing he is going to do while he is here is build a “playhouse bed” for Macey. Basically it will be a playhouse underneath and a bed on top. Macey is so excited! It’s going to be so cool! I’ll have to post pictures of the before/after of her room.
  • Macey starts first grade one week from tomorrow. On Thursday of this week we have our “meet and greet” with her teacher. She is OH SO EXCITED about school! I’m serving as a committee chair for PTA this year, so that’s exciting too.
  • Mariana is excited about starting preschool in late August too. We hope she is in the same class with her sweet best friend, William.

All is well with us. Busy as can be, but great. I hesitate to say that I will update my blog more because that seems to backfire on me. So, I won’t say that, but I’ll hope it and try harder. 🙂 Thanks for bearing with me.

Blessings,
Kelly

Big Girl Room

By 3 Comments

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, we have recently updated Mariana’s room. Our friends Carey & Traci had a beautiful twin bed that their daughter Allie had outgrown, so they generously gave it to us. Mickey’s dad (aka PePaw to the girls) is going to be building a play-house bed for Macey this summer, so we decided that this new bed should go in Mariana’s room since she was starting to get too big for her toddler bed. Well, she loves it! She thinks it is so cool! And, we do too! Although, it’s sort of bittersweet because it’s hard to think of our “baby” in a big girl room. Anyway, I have a few photos to show her room before and after, so here they are…

This is the only “before” shot I have. It was taken standing in Mariana’s bedroom door and looking into her room. You can see her sweet little toddler bed there.

001

Now, here are a couple of “after” shots. Isn’t her new bed so pretty in her room?

002

Another shot of Mariana’s new bed. I got her new bedding at Wal-Mart yesterday and we just love it. It’s so soft and sweet.  I wish the sheets were showing so y’all could see them too. They are green with white dots. The whole set is really cute. I think it all looks so pretty and just perfect for Mariana.

003

Just for fun, here is one more shot of Mariana’s room. This is standing in her doorway and looking to the left. You can see her curtains and part of her dresser.
004

So, that is Miss Mariana’s newly updated big girl room.  Did y’all notice how the dollhouse used to be a book case and now it’s not? Well, we’ll see how tidy the actual book case stays once she gets used to it being there. Right now she is doing very well with the “take one book at a time and put it away before you take another one” thing. I’m sure there will be a time when I’m busy and she’s bored, so the book case is sure to be a prime target at that point. 😉

Kelly

It’s Sock Hop Saturday!!

By 1 Comment

WOO HOO! It’s Saturday!! We love Saturdays around here because those are typically family days. Today is no exception. This morning Mickey has already been out for a run at the river and now we’re all hanging out at home for awhile. Okay, we’re not “just” hanging out, we’re also tidying up around home. As soon as it warms up a bit (it’s only 71 right now), we are going to take the girls to the pool for awhile. Should be a lot of fun!

This evening is a big event for Mickey and the girls. It’s the Father/Daughter dance at our church and this year it’s a Sock Hop! The girls have their poodle skirts, tees and scarves all ready to wear. Mickey is going to sport a white tee, rolled up jeans and cool sneakers. I can’t wait to see my precious family all dolled up. Our friends Dave and Christie have been working so hard to get all this done and today they are going to be going non-stop, pretty much, to make it all happen. They are awesome, y’all. Just awesome! (And we thank them so much! Hopefully they will let us bring them lunch today.) The girls are just thrilled and can’t wait for the dance. I’ll be there taking candid photos, so I’m pretty excited too. Bring on the sock hop!!

Happy Saturday, everyone!

sockhop