Daily Life

Wake Up, Blog!!

September 22, 2009 By kelly Leave a Comment

My poor blog. If it had feelings, I’m sure it would feel abandoned. And, for good reason, right? I know I haven’t posted in ages. I don’t mean to NOT post, but days just get so busy lately. Between school(s), PTA, gym, church, etc. I am on the go a lot. It’s just crazy busy. Things are good here, just busy.

Things around our area are not so good lately. We had massive amounts of rain in Metro Atlanta over the last week and there is flooding in many areas. Our home and neighborhood haven’t been affected, but we have several friends with water in their basements and/or yards. Some areas have been really hard hit. It’s really tragic for so many. So, please lift up this area in prayer. We are supposed to get MORE rain soon, but it’s sunny here today at long last (first time in over a week), so we’ll take the sun while we can get it.

In happier news, some of our recent happenings are:

Mickey is now working full time for himself. He left his job at the church to run his own business. This is both scary and exciting, but we have every trust that it’s the absolute best move for him and our family. He has worked SO hard doing two jobs the last few years (church and his own stuff) and has really wanted to do his own thing full time. He has finally been able to do that and started this week. GO MICKEY GO!
Macey is absolutely loving first grade. She has already gotten into the “220 Club” which means that she has correctly read all 220 of this year’s sight words to her teacher. WOO HOO!! She really loves reading, so this was a big honor for her. She is now working on her challenge words for the year.
Mariana is in preschool three mornings per week and absolutely has the time of her life! She especially loves going to Spanish on Wednesdays. Everywhere we go, she counts out things in Spanish. So cute!!
As for me, like I said – BUSY. But, doing great on the whole. I am doing better about working out and watching what I eat and I’m loving the results!

Hope all is well with everyone…

Kelly

Well…Hello, August!

August 2, 2009 By kelly 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

It’s Sock Hop Saturday!!

June 13, 2009 By kelly 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

Praise Reports…

June 10, 2009 By kelly 2 Comments

I am going to do better about updating my blog.
I am going to do better about updating my blog.
I am GOING to do better about updating my blog.
Seriously…I am.
I hope. 😉

In all honesty, I have every good intention of writing more here, but the days are so busy lately. Life is good, in fact I’d say its mostly GREAT, but also very busy.

I have some praises to report since my last update.

Macey had a wonderful week of dance camp at our church last week. Two of her friends from school attended also and they all got to be in the same group. They just loved it! Friday was their recital and it was entirely too cute for words.
We got to spend all day Saturday with some great friends and we absolutely had a ball. We were as tired as could be on Saturday night, but it was the good kind of tired that comes from having FUN FUN FUN all day long!
On Sunday evening we got a house full of company. My best friend Terri came up from South GA with her two daughters. Also, our friend Hannah came to visit us from Missouri with her three daughters. So, we had a house brimming full and it was just incredible!! The girls ranged in age from almost-six (Macey) down to seven months old (Hannah’s baby girl) and they had so much fun playing together. Terri and I get together several times a year when I am in South Georgia, but neither of us have seen Hannah in several years. So much has changed in our lives, but the friendship has remained. God sure blessed us with a wonderful time together over Sunday evening and Monday morning.
This week Macey is attending the afternoon VBS sessions at our church. They are doing “Camp E.D.G.E.” this term and she is having a blast! In her crew, she has four friends from school so that is also exciting. She comes home each day telling us about what they did, what she learned, etc. It’s such a blessing! And, from what I have heard, over 900 (!!!) kids are in attendance. All those seeds of faith getting planted just makes my heart sing!
I have joined a Wednesday morning Bible study at our church. I have been wanting to do this for quite some time and it finally worked out. I am LOVING it! Our group is so sweet and we have all ranges from moms of young ones to grand-mothers and maybe even some great-grands. It’s absolutely blessing me more than words to be there!
We have a great babysitter that is watching the girls this summer so I can do things like go to Bible study. Her name is Kayla and Mickey and I have known her since we were Youth volunteers at the church several years ago. Kayla is fantastic with the girls. She is so much fun and so creative. Today she did tie-dying with them. How cool is that?!
The weather has been beautiful and summer is officially upon us. That is always a praise in my book as I just love summer. We’re getting a bit of rain today, but that’s always needed around here.
We have also planned a mini-vacation for our family. We are going to Nashville, TN for a couple of days and then back down to Chattanooga, TN for a couple of days before heading home. We are SO excited about this trip! I have used some online sources like Hotwire and Expedia to score some really great hotel prices as well. Can’t wait!!
This coming weekend is the Father/Daughter dance at our church. That will be Saturday evening and Mickey is taking both girls. This year it’s going to be a sock hop and the girls both have their cute poodle skirts, tees and scarves ready to go. I have been asked to take candid photos, so I can’t wait to see it all!

Those are just some of the many things I have to be thankful for in my life. I just had to share.

And, if you’re reading along, please hold me accountable to posting. I need to and want to, so I should make time for it.

Blessings,
Kelly

What’s Happening??

June 2, 2009 By kelly 2 Comments

Wow. I have really been neglecting my poor blog lately. I don’t mean to, really, it’s just that life is so busy these days. It seems like things are GO GO GO which is good, but doesn’t free up a lot of blogging time.

So, what have we been up to? Here’s the abridged version. 😉

On May 14th, our sweet Mariana turned three. THREE! Eep! Our baby girl is three. It’s surreal. This is a milestone age in some ways because it’s around the age that Macey was when Mariana was born. Whenever Mariana was an eensy baby and Macey turned three, we’d just marvel at how “big” Macey was at the time. And, now Macey is going to turn six in a few weeks and Mariana is three and – woah – it just flies by, doesn’t it?!
Mariana’s last day of preschool was Friday, May 15th. I helped with the end-of-the-year picnic and party which was really fun. I thought I would cry, but I didn’t. I was nostalgic about Macey’s last day with the same teachers just three years ago. Macey’s preschool ended on Friday, May 12th that year and I was HUGELY pregnant with Mariana and delivered her two days later. Again I say, time flies.
We had Mariana’s birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese’s on Saturday, May 16th. Let me just say this, if you are EVER going to have a Saturday party at CEC, do yourself a huge favor and book the 10am slot. Seriously. I booked online and we received some extra tokens for that. Then, we got DOUBLE tokens for each child for booking the 10am slot on a Saturday. Score!! It was great because it wasn’t crowded and the kids had a ball. They played until around 10:45-ish and then ate pizza. Played a bit more, then had cake. It was perfect. Mariana said it was the best party ever. She really loved it all.
Macey wrapped up Kindergarten in May. It was a fun month for school. She got to sing at a PTA meeting, we had a Mommy & Me tea in her classroom and they had field day. Also, on the last week of school we got to go to an ice cream social in her room PLUS we had a picnic lunch the day before school ended. It was so sweet and we enjoyed it all. Poor Macey did NOT want school to end. She loved Kindergarten so much. She had the best teachers in the world and the best class too. She had so many friends, learned so much and just really loved it! Poor girl got off the bus in tears on the last day. She was so sad. So, I did what I could do to remedy that sadness. I packed the girls up and we went south to Nana’s (my mom’s) for the weekend. That was a fun start to summer.
At Nana’s, the girls got to paint, play with bubbles, go shopping with Aunt Liz and splash in mud puddles with Nana. Plus we went to the zoo one morning too. It was great and they had a ball!! When we were heading home, we stopped to have lunch with my Grandparents and they loved that too. (That Macey can tear up some turnip greens, let me tell y’all!!) So, it was a really great trip and got Macey back to being happy about summer.
I turned the big three-five on May 26th. Halfway through my thirties already. TIME FLIES, PEOPLE!! 😉
This week Macey is participating in dance camp in the afternoons at our church and is having the BEST time. It’s a great camp. When they get there, they are fed lunch and then they do warm-ups as a group. After that, the girls are broken up into age/grade groups for ballet and jazz. They also do crafts. It’s great and we love sending her because Macey loves it all!
We’ve been spending time with friends too and always love that. So far we have been to paint pottery and have lunch and also been to the zoo with friends. (Mariana and I went to the Georgia Aquarium with friends too while Macey was still in school.) We are planning on many play dates and pool outings this summer.
Speaking of the pool, ours is open and in full swing. It took Macey about 10 minutes (if that) to rediscover her swimming skills. She’s a regular fish again. She loves to jump in, cannonball, practice diving, swim underwater, get dive sticks, swim on her back and more. The girl just loves the water. We are hoping to get Mariana some private swim lessons, but for now she’s getting more confident in the water with her life vest and arm bands.

I guess that is a good overview of the basics from here. I’ll try to do better about maintaining updating my blog. If anyone is still reading.

Blessings,
Kelly