Thankfulness

First, a confession – I wasn’t even sure I should post this yet because it’s going to be about Christmas and, seriously, in my opinion, it’s too early for Christmas yet. BUT, here is where I give myself a disclaimer and valid (to me) excuses to post about it. No Christmas music has been played in our home so far this year. The nativity scenes and other decorations are still in the attic. In fact, I have not decorated a single thing inside or outside of our home yet in anything other than autumn decor. I haven’t so much as looked at Christmas card lay-outs, let alone picked out our’s for this year. I haven’t purchased the first gift. The “elf on the shelf” is still the elf in hiding. We also still need to buy our angel tree gifts. So, I’m totally NOT putting Christmas ahead of Thanksgiving. Except for today, on this blog. That’s all. 😉

I am thankful for Christmas.

As a Christian, I am thankful for Christmas because it is the celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. What a miraculous and awesome gift to celebrate! I adore the Biblical Christmas story and love reading it and sharing with the girls. That is truly what Christmas is all about and we celebrate that first and foremost.

We also incorporate other traditions into our Christmas. And, yes, even Santa. Although Macey knows the truth about the big guy in red (read that story here), she still goes along with it all. It is all in fun. We look forward to getting the girls photos done with Santa again this year. (Here’s the part where I admit that I goofed and thought they had portraits today when, in fact, I had the date wrong. Oops!) While Santa is a nice legend, I like that he stands for sharing and giving, rather than receiving. In our home, Santa brings three gifts — just like Jesus received three gifts. So, while we do use some “secular” traditions, we tie them in with the Biblical truth of Christmas. That’s what works for us and we love our celebrations.

Editing to add – I wrote this a few days ago and saved it in the queue to be published to the blog. Since then, we have found out that Mariana’s friend Bea is in hospice care and is in her final days on this earth. Bea has bravely battled a rare brain cancer and is now resting peacefully in hospice care. Her wonderful family has decorated her room for Christmas since it is a favorite season for her. So, I am thankful today that Sweet Bea gets one more Christmas. God bless Bea and her family.

So, while I wish that Christmas were not so commercialized and that stores would wait longer than October to decorate, I still have lots to be thankful for when it comes to Christmas. It’s a time of sharing, as well as being with family and friends. I’ll choose to celebrate the great things about the real meaning of Christmas rather than grump about the things that bug me. Here’s to the coming Advent and Christmas season – hope it is blessed and beautiful for all!

Happy Saturday, y’all…
Kelly 

I am thankful for being a stay-at-home mom. 

This is a recent photo of me with our two beautiful girls.

(Photograph by Falco Photography.)

When Mickey and I were newlyweds, we already knew that when we started a family, we would love for me to be able to stay home. At the time, we were DINKs – you know, Dual-Income-No-Kids, and we couldn’t see how we’d ever do without my income. It’s not that I was rolling in the dough, by any means, but it was just a matter of us being accustomed to having both paychecks coming in on schedule. The way it was back then was that we each got paid every other week, but were on alternating pay schedules, so we had money hitting the bank every Friday. For a young couple that was basically living paycheck to paycheck that was a nice set-up. So, basically, we had tucked the idea and dream of me being a stay-at-home mom away for safe-keeping at that time. We had not given up on the idea, but we couldn’t see a way to make it practical for our needs.

In the late summer of 2001, we moved to Dothan, AL. Mickey had wanted to find a job in youth ministry and an opportunity opened up for him there. He was hired as assistant youth director and web guy for a church in Dothan. So, we turned in our notices at our jobs in Atlanta, left our new (to us) condo, sold his Mustang GT and moved south. When we moved, we assumed I’d get a job down there once we got settled into our new place. Well, guess what? Two blue lines came up on a test before I could ever even get  a job offer. I had one interview at a hospital, but then I didn’t hear back from them for awhile and later found out that the lady that interviewed me had some sort of family or health emergency. Anyway, here we were brand new to that area, carrying a mortgage in Atlanta and rent in Dothan and we found out we were expecting our first miracle. We decided to buckle down on finances and if I found a job, that was fine, but otherwise we would do our best. I was offered a temporary position filling in for a lady that was going on maternity leave herself. This was about halfway through my pregnancy. When she came back, the job dried up for me. Rather than be stressed about it, we came to realize that this seemed to be God’s way of showing us that we could, in fact, make it and I could stay home with the baby. It wasn’t always easy, I have to say. There were sacrifices to be made and we didn’t have a lot of margin, so to speak, but, we made it. And, I still feel blessed to be at home today.

I see now how God used our move to open various opportunities for our family. I really think that if we had stayed in the Atlanta area, we wouldn’t have seen a way for  us to give up my paychecks every other week. With us moving to Alabama for two years, we learned that we could, in fact, get by and I could stay home. I have to say that it’s been an incredible blessing for our family. I am so grateful to be home with the girls. Now that they are older, I do work part time as a substitute teacher, but even that allows me to be on their schedule.

I know that being a stay at home parent isn’t for everyone. I certainly have a lot of respect for moms (and dads) that work outside the home. So, please don’t ever think I am speaking against that because I am not. I think every family has to do what works for them and I respect doing what works for your own family. For us, having me home has been an answer to many lifted prayers and I could not be more thankful for my favorite full time job.

Blessings,
Kelly 

 

I am taking today to be thankful for friends. 

Mickey and I are blessed to have really great friends. I won’t start naming names here because, well, I don’t want to inadvertently leave any names off the list and hurt any feelings. We have some really dear friends that mean the world to us and I can’t even begin to say how thankful I am for each of them.

There are some friends in my life that I have known basically as long as I can remember. There have been gaps in communication throughout the years, but the friendships have remained. And, I have to say, I just love that. It’s so cool to me to look back over the years to see how we’ve all grown as people and as friends. Now that some of us have our own children, it’s pretty fun to share stories of “back then” when we were kids and young friends too.

When I moved to the Atlanta area in 1998, I moved alone and didn’t really know anyone in the area. But, I figured, hey, in a metro area of more than four million people, I was bound to meet some friends, right? Well, I did. Over the years, I have gotten to know so many great people here and now we have a great network of wonderful friends. There are friends that I’ve known quite a long time as well as friends I’ve been blessed to meet more recently and they all mean so much to me.  I have to give a shout-out to Facebook in this post too because that social outlet has allowed me to reconnect and stay in touch with family members, as well as friends.

This is a very abridged version of what could be a long post because I know how blessed I am to have great friends in my life. So, I want to say a heartfelt thank you to my amazing girlfriends, to our family friends and to Mickey’s friends too. Thank you for adding so much to our lives.

With gratitude,
Kelly 

12 years ago, sometime around this date, Mickey and I had been dating for about three weeks and the three magical words came into our relationship. That’s right, we said our very first “I love yous” three weeks into dating. But, we knew then and we still know now. 12 years of being together, 11 years of being married, having lived in two states, having lived in five different homes and now with two amazing daughters. It was already love then and it’s even more so today.

A recent photo of Mickey and me, taken on our 11th anniversary by the very same photographer (and now friend) who shot our wedding pictures:

(Photographs in this post by Falco Photography.)

I am thankful for my wonderful husband, Mickey. 

It all began on October 24, 2000 when a very shy Mickey walked into my office. A good friend had recently moved and he was looking for her former office and somehow wound up in mine. We talked, picked on each other a little bit and he was on his way. I shot him a quick email – some one line quip, don’t even really remember what it said. He wrote back with some other quip and a joke about why my email signature was so long.  We emailed a few times and in the context of one of his longer emails that afternoon, he buried in a brief mention of him having a softball game that night and if I wasn’t busy I could go. Something like that. I simply wrote back and asked what time he was picking me up. 😉 I did go to his softball game that night. It was a 9pm game and I was the only spectator in the stands. So, I did what any reasonable mid-20’s girl at that time would do — I sat and talked to my friend on my cell throughout the game. He took me home and we wound up talking until well past midnight. (And, we both had to be at work EARLY the next day, not to mention.)  That was our first date. Simple, easy going and…well…perfect for us! As I’ve already said, three weeks later, we knew and exchanged those three amazing words that we’ve said countless times since. We got engaged on May 13, 2001 and were married on October 27, 2001. From a work-related starter conversation to being married in one year and three days. Here’s to Divine Intervention, no doubt about it!

There is a lot to love about Mickey. It would be incredibly difficult to sum it all up in a blog post, actually. So, here is a glimpse of what I love and adore about this husband of mine:

• Even when I have bedhead, pillow marks across my face and breath that could knock someone out, he will still say I’m beautiful. That’s some serious love, people.
• He plans amazing surprises and dates for us. I am hard to surprise and he has found ways to do that many times.
• He is a completely awesome daddy. These girls are seriously crazy about their daddy and, well, they should be. He is the best daddy I could ever have imagined.
• He is a wonderful provider. Mickey is a small business owner and works hard for our family.
• He respects my “me” time. There are times when I just need time to be alone and quiet and he gets that.
• He has a strong faith. One of the first things I knew and respect about Mickey is that he is a man of God. He has a great faith and exemplifies that for our family.
• He never hesitates to help someone when help is needed. He has an amazing heart!
• We can be silly together. I love having inside jokes and such that are just our’s to share.
• He would go on the Amazing Race with me if we should ever actually enter and get chosen.

Suffice it to say that this list is FAR from complete. I don’t have enough blog space to write all the wonderful things about Mickey. I am so glad that God lead that Michigan-raised boy into this Georgia-raised girl’s life. Rather than two world colliding, we have had two paths intersect to go through this life together. And, I couldn’t be more blessed and happy.

I love you, honey!
Kelly

This is a scan one of our favorite wedding photos:

And a similar pose on our 11th anniversary:

I am one blessed girl. 🙂

 

Today is my Granddaddy’s 85th birthday.  Although he won’t see this since he has never been online in his life, as far as I know, I do want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY, POP!

Here is a photo of Pop and me last Christmas:

Since it’s my granddaddy’s birthday, I’m taking today to be thankful for grandparents.

I first want to honor the memory of the grandparents that have passed away already. I lost my paternal grandfather, Papa Louie, back in 1995.  We lost Mickey’s maternal Grandma Lois when I was expecting Macey and his maternal Grandpa Vic passed about a year later. In the last couple of years, we have lost his paternal Grandpa Frank and his Grandma Charlotte, as well. I wish my Papa could have known his great-grandkids as I know he would have loved them. I also wish that Mickey’s maternal grandparents had gotten to know and love our girls as well. The girls got to know and adore Grandma Charlotte and Grandpa Frank, Mickey’s paternal grandparents. We all have such wonderful memories of visiting them on our trips to Michigan. I am so thankful for each of these grandparents and am thankful to celebrate the legacy of love that continues down through the generations.

I feel so very fortunate to still have three grandparents. I haven’t seen my dad’s mom, Grandma Joyce, in awhile, but hopefully will see her over Thanksgiving break. I talk to my Gran (my mom’s mom) almost every day and she relays messages to Pop, usually, because he isn’t the world’s biggest fan of talking on the phone. (Of course, I will talk to him on his birthday.) I have always been close to my grandparents and I am so thankful for them. And, it’s just amazing that the girls get to have great-grandparents, as well.

As I said above, our grandparents have handed down a legacy of love and I am thankful for each of them. When I was born, I was the fifth living generation on my mom’s side, so I have had the blessing of even having had a great-great grandmother living in my lifetime. Amazing, right? Having such wonderful grandparents has been a blessing for Mickey and me and now we are truly blessed that our girls have such awesome grandparents too. In fact, our girls have LOTS of grandparents and could not be any more blessed to have each of them.

God bless the grandparents of the world! I wish I could hug mine every day.

Blessings.
Kelly