Archives for June 2012

June 12, 2012 By Laura 16 Comments

Maybe The Weirdest Recipe Ever

My Aunt Linda & Uncle Tom are still in town and we have been spending everyday with them…soaking them up. My kids have missed their Grammy like crazy and Aunt Linda or Nina, has been a breath of fresh air. She invests in them. I love it. It is soooo Mom…it must be a Hall gene.

So while Aunt Linda is in town we have done a bit of baking and cooking. I am a HUGE fan of our family cookbook…The Dining Halls…From Our Halls To Yours. It has the most amazing recipes, from the most amazing women. All our Hall Family recipes collected together in one book. The other night Aunt Linda said she was going to make Aunt Lynda Lee’s chocolate cobbler recipe and Aunt Martha wanted to watch it go down 🙂 I thought, “Hmmmm, this may make a good blog post.” And sure enough…I thought it was blog worthy because it is in fact the weirdest recipe I have ever seen. The end result…well it’s just heavenly…for reals.

Let the weirdness begin…oh and bear with my late night camera lighting…

Melt 1 1/2 sticks of butter in a 9×13 pan. Aunt Linda did this by putting the 9×13 pan on one of the stove eyes and turning it on low. It melted while we got the rest of the recipe together. She’s a pretty smart lady.

Mix together in a bowl 1 1/2 cups self rising flower,

1 1/4 cups sugar,

1 3/4 T. cocoa,

2 tsp. vanilla,

and 3/4 cup milk.

Stir all those ingredients together.

By now the butter in your 9×13 pan should have melted.

Then pour the batter into the butter pan. DO NOT STIR.

Then mix 1 1/2 cups sugar and a 1/2 cup cocoa in another bowl. Stir together and sprinkle over the batter in the dish. DO NOT STIR.

And if all that “DO NOT STIR” stuff wasn’t weird enough…then you poor 2 cups boiling water into the pan. And…you guessed it…DO NOT STIR.

Put the pan in the over at 350 degrees and cook for 30 minutes.

30 minutes later…you have chocolate heaven in a 9×13 pan. This stuff is crazy good.

We ate ours in cups with vanilla ice cream. Don’t be hatin’ 🙂

Here is the full recipe…straight from The Dining Halls. Thanks Aunt Lynda Lee for sharing.

And this is why I should always have my camera with me. My Aunt Martha was getting a kick out of a can of Flarp…it makes really funny fart noises…if you were wondering what Flarp was.

Then my Aunt Tootsie called to talk to my Aunt Linda. Yes…yes, that is in fact my Aunt Martha making fart noises into the phone for her sister to hear. I suppose fart noises are the bridge between all ages 🙂

Happy Tuesday!

PS: Keep forgetting, but check our my friend Carol’s blog over at Love With Abandon.

They are working on raising money to host two sweet kiddos this summer from Lativa. Think about helping them out…and I think they are having a giveaway soon too.

Oh and speaking of giveaway…maybe the coolest giveaway ever on my site is going to start this Wednesday. It involves 6 art pieces, 10 keyfobs, 2 sets of anchor stationary and 2 Hall cookbooks…oh and 6 different winners. I’m pretty stoked.

June 11, 2012 By Laura 11 Comments

65

Yesterday would have been Mom’s 65th birthday. It’s been 6 months since I’ve talked with her and loved on her. My cousin Rebecca sent me a text this morning that said, “She’s bound to be having an amazing party.” How right she was. Can you imagine your birthday in Heaven? I would think it’s the ultimate…for sure.

But, it was a rough day as well. I started the morning with a good cry….and several more throughout the day. It’s funny what triggers those tears. Then Harper and I made cupcakes…pink ones at that. Harper loves that Grammy’s favorite color pink, is her favorite color too.

My Aunt Martha (one of Mom’s sisters) fixed a delicious lunch for us. My cousin Charlie prayed a sweet prayer including Mom…made me cry…of course.

After lunch the kids collected plums from Aunt Martha’s backyard and did a bit of taste testing.

After lunch we packed the car for the cemetery…lots of balloons in tow.

We enjoyed cupcakes at the cemetery on one of Mom’s quilts.

The wee Kelleys decided to leave some of the balloons at the grave and to release some…totally cool with me.

Courtney and Jess brought dinner up to Mom’s house for us to all enjoy…along with some sweet gifts for me & itty bitty boy. And I ended the night chatting with 2 sweet friends, while the kids enjoyed a movie on Mom’s couch.

She was such a good, good Mom. Definitely one who deserves to be celebrated even after death. We said several times today, “She would have loved this.” She would have been so tickled with Harper’s preparation for today and the boy’s requests for balloons. I laid there on the grass where she is buried and could have cried a river, but did well. Kids make things different and definitely more comical. It is still very hard to wrap my brain around the fact that she is gone. Harper said yesterday while we were at Mom’s house, “It’s like Grammy’s just out of town.” Made me said that was where her little mind was while she was playing, but she must have been in my head. I was thinking the same thing…like she should be pulling into her driveway any minute now. But then Harper dropped the reality bomb, “But pretty sure she would have locked her doors.” 🙂

So yep…we just keep facing reality head on and celebrating in the cemetery 🙂 In fact, we will do as many picnics and cupcakes on her grave for as long as the wee Kelleys would like…I’m down with it. She was a crazy, amazing lady…full to the brim with love. We will celebrate her because she was just that incredible and simply…she deserves celebrating. How blessed I am to have had a Mom like her.

Happy 65th Birthday Mom.

Happy Monday!

Filed Under: family 11 Comments

June 8, 2012 By Laura 7 Comments

Friday!!

Friday. Take a deep breath. That’s what I am doing right now. Breathing.

Today was insanity, but our tickets are booked, we have house sitters lined up, made official plans for the boys and my Aunt Linda and Uncle Tom are in town to just be awesome! Unfortunately, me and the dang international clinic (which I want to use more harsher words than dang for them) have still not been able to talk…completely bummed, but I did get Harper malaria medicine. High-5 for not getting malaria 🙂

Before we left the house this morning I filled our mailbox with cards. 65 to be exact. Birthdays are pretty bittersweet now…all of them. Mom’s is Sunday. She would have been 65 and she loved sending out cards and letters to pretty much everyone. So I thought it only fitting.

We went to the pool first thing this morning, but just for an hour. The wee Kelleys sooooo needed some swim time, but we had a million other things to do as well. A little time was just perfect. The water was freezing though, so the boys just spooned.

We hit up Walmart and Target for more decals…and enjoyed some Target popcorn. Yes, please. Shortly after I took this picture Sol said, “What is all this junk doing on me?” I hadn’t noticed his personal space being invaded 🙂

And holy moly…there were super hero decals at Walmart. The boys flipped. Anyone know how to say Captain America in Amharic?

Harper finished her “Grammy” headstone bunting…yes, you did read that correctly. Harper is one quirky kid and if you want to eat a cupcake on Sunday, check us out at the cemetery 🙂 I love her.

We picked up some flowers to welcome Aunt Linda and Uncle Tom into town…well, really Aunt Linda. We got Uncle Tom some new Starbucks coffee. I was absolutely thrilled to see sunflowers at Kroger…awesomeness. Aunt Linda was greeted with big beautiful sunflowers. Love.

Oh how thrilled we are to see Aunt Linda and Uncle Tom…or Nina and Baba as the wee Kelleys call them. We all could barely contain our excitement. So, so happy they are here.

And how about a little Friday Flashback?!? While transferring photos last night to our hard drive, I found these little gems. They made me excited to have a baby boy in the house again.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Happy Friday!

Filed Under: family Tagged With: family 7 Comments

June 7, 2012 By Laura 14 Comments

Paralysis

You guys are just too kind. Thank you for all the sweet comments and emails and FB messages and everything else. There aren’t really a whole lot of words when you feel like people are genuinely excited for you. So all I can really say is thank you!

When we leave…oh so very soon…we will be meeting itty bitty boy for the first time. Oh my goodness…I really cannot believe the day is almost here. My heart has been racing the entire day. He will not be coming home though until after we get through Embassy…which is estimated to be around the end of July. I wish it were already the end of July 🙂 But nonetheless…we’re meeting him so very soon and WOW, that is just about all I can say, WOW.

After we talked with our director yesterday the paralysis set in. I remember with Solomon, they called and said we needed to be in Ethiopia in 14 days and I was instantly paralyzed. I mean, we knew this was coming…this is the day we’ve been hoping and praying for, but still when it happens and on short notice, I just freeze. I don’t know where to even begin. So yesterday was pretty much full of game planning. Josh got busy writing on our chalkboard and we started trying to work out details and today we were going to make stuff happen.

Well I’m not sure just how much stuff got really done, but I will say that at the end of the day Harper said, “Mom you have been on the phone and the computer all day.” Yep. She nailed it. I told Courtney that I was really unsure what my kids had done all day, but they were quiet while I was on the phone and they were all still alive 🙂 And that was success in my book. It took almost the entire day to book tickets…we have to do an in-country flight along with our flights from Tennessee to Addis, so that was interesting…and they’re not even officially booked yet. And don’t even get me started on how much time I was on the phone with a local international clinic about getting shots. We used them last time and it was so smooth…not today. I was a bit hacked off.

While waiting one bajillion minutes on hold to only get a voicemail, not once, but twice and at the end of the day still not hearing from anyone, I did start working on making room on our computer for the bajillion new pictures and videos that are about to find their way there. Lots of transferring of pictures to our hard drive went down today.

I literally had over 19,000 pictures in iPhoto…yep. My goal is to have iPhoto whittled down to only 2011 & 2012 pictures. I’m not ready to let 2011 go yet. I took 1,082 pictures in July of 2009 alone. That was the month we brought Sol home…the last time we were in Ethiopia.

I also wrote more letters. With all of yesterday’s excitement, I got behind on Mom’s birthday cards. Mom’s birthday is Sunday and I wanted to mail out 65 cards on Friday, so people would receive them either Saturday or Monday. So I finished up the last of her birthday cards…each card is for reals…written with love and intention and to send some encouragement.

The wee Kelley’s made messes. Big messes. And I just let them 🙂 All bets were off today…as long as they were quiet while I was on the phone and no one was bleeding…we were good. And can I just go ahead and say that Squinkies, whatever the heck they are, may be my new arch nemesis. They are just so darn tiny.

This is just the tip…I mean tip…of the iceberg…I wish I had a wide angle lens.

I had to make a few purchases on Amazon…a bigger card for our camera, so it can hold video. I was on a time crunch to get the order in so it would have a shot at arriving before we leave. And I just kept getting this…

I finally got it to process. Now crossing my fingers it arrives in time.

I received the sweetest card and apron in the mail. What perfect timing. Harper oooohed and ahhhhed. Thank you so much Lynette you are way too kind and it totally blessed my socks off.

Apron from Jessie Steele

Let’ see….I did some stress eating. Why am I so good at this? I wish there were emotional or stress eating contests…I would totally win.

And I got started on collecting wall decals to take to the orphanage. The orphanage where itty bitty is currently, just moved buildings and they are really wanting fun wall decals to decorate each room with. When I asked about donations to bring, our director told me…wall decals. They need monetary gifts to purchase beds, etc, but they really wanted wall decals. DONE! This is right up my alley. So we bought some today and will continue to buy them up or collect them until we leave. Thank you to everyone who gave me ideas on Facebook. And just so you know, I don’t have a Cricut or a Silhouette machine…it seems like this was the #1 recommended way to make wall decals. Way cool, but I don’t have either of the machines. So for those of you who said you would make some and mail them to me…THANK YOU! Way to put your crafty machines to work 🙂

So today was a bit crazy, but the paralysis wore off…even though I still feel overwhelmed. But I get to meet a very special little boy in just a few days. I am still just so humbled and honored. And tomorrow…well, I’m sure tomorrow will be just as crazy, but plane tickets get officially booked tomorrow…and that is totally rad!

Happy Thursday!

Filed Under: Uncategorized 14 Comments

June 6, 2012 By Laura 82 Comments

12 Days!!!

I had an entirely different post typed out…one that consisted of cute wee Kelleys, Squinkie talk and toy decision making. And then the phone rang!

Yep, we’re Africa bound, with a backwards ‘a’, in just 12 days. Wowzers! My heart is overwhelmed…so overwhelmed. So many things to do and decide. I’m humbled and thankful. God is so good…I’m just completely honored at having a chance to be itty bitty boy’s Mom…so, so honored.

And there is one wee Kelley that literally squealed with excitement. She then counted out on her fingers while saying, “12 days!” She is feeling pretty special about being the first to meet itty bitty brother. Yep, pretty special.

We need to celebrate. I want to celebrate with you too! I’ve been working on a pretty great celebratory giveaway…I’ve got work to do now 🙂 Look for it soon. It involves 6 prizes…for our 6th Kelley family member. And the best part, each prize is meant to be shared…so 1 for you and 1 to share! It’s going to be good.

Happy, Happy Wednesday!

Filed Under: Uncategorized 82 Comments

June 5, 2012 By Laura Leave a Comment

Waiting On Court

Well here we are…one month in on our new waiting game for our court date. I feel like God is really working on my patience…goodness knows, I need it! Today everyone slept late. Harper slept until 9am. I told her I was really going to love her as a teenager…the girl likes her sleep. So we got a late start on our morning pool time and all the while I just couldn’t get itty bitty boy off my mind.

We were driving over to Josh’s parents pool and Blessed Be Your Name by the Newsboys came on the radio. Flashback city hit. Almost 3 years ago to the day we were in the exact same position…in June we were waiting to hear about Solomon’s court date and I was driving Harper and Huddy over to swim at Josh’s parents house and this same song came on the radio. I remember just sobbing over the song and I told Harper and Huddy…a wee 2-year-old and barely 9-month-old, how we needed to always praise God…good or bad…no matter what. As we rode in the car I told the wee Kelleys the story all over again. It was very surreal and gave my heart a bit of hope. God cares about those small moments of hope. I dig that.

(I still haven’t changed the clock in the van…hence it really being 9:51…and I may need to clean the van too.)

Then we got our swim on. I’ve decided swimming is pure joy to the wee Kelleys. They just swim their little hearts out. They always do a little people watching too. I’m afraid I am raising nosey kids 🙂

Harper is now a full fledged swimmer. She jumps in the deep end and swims all the way back to the shallow in. All she needed was a bit of confidence and to see my friend’s 3-year-old on Facebook swimming 🙂 She was super proud of herself. And Sol isn’t far behind.

And Huddy…well, he’s just Huddy. He’s brave and courageous and cautious all wrapped into one. He’s just a bit more concerned with pulling himself up on the side…I love his upper body strength…and staying warm.

He talked Sol into chilling with him for a bit. Sol is a good sport when it comes to showing his brother some love.

Sol may just in fact be a swimmer when he gets older. Can you see it? I can. Be still my ever loving heart…this kid kills me.

Then they all did a bit of sun bathing before we headed home for some lunch. I know just about every mother feels this way, but they just make my day. I cannot for the life of me understand why God allowed me to be their Mom. I am so honored. Some days I feel like I am dropping the parenting ball all over the place…making huge mistakes…and then I just take a good long look at the 3 of them and I think to myself, “We’re going to make it. We’re going to be okay.” And I believe we are.

After lunch, to keep my mind busy and off hoping and praying the phone rings soon with our court news, we made up some Bunny’s Cake to share. This may in fact be the best chocolate cake ever. It’s my Aunt Peggy’s recipe, which she got from a sweet lady named Bunny years and years ago. It is now known as Bunny’s Cake in our Hall family cookbook.

Go ahead and make some up today and thank me later. Oh and it totally needs to be shared…it’s just too good not to share.

Happy Tuesday!

Filed Under: adoption, faith, family, Uncategorized Tagged With: adoption, faith, family Leave a Comment

June 4, 2012 By Laura 2 Comments

Watermelon & Orange Sherbet

How was your weekend? Ours was busy and fun. So many things swirling in my head. I’m going to take a stab at getting a few of them out. Hope that’s cool with you 🙂

We are big funfetti cake fans in the Kelley house. LOVE us some funfetti cake, cupcakes or cookies. In fact, pretty much anything funfetti is a huge hit. My sweet friend Courtney completely agrees with me. Let me tell you the secret to good funfetti…first, just buy the Pillsbury boxed funfetti cake mix. Why mess with something that is perfect anyways? It’s delicious. And the real secret…the thing that makes funfetti heavenly…well, Betty Crocker’s Rainbow Chip Icing. It really doesn’t get much simpler than that. Box cake mix, can frosting…DONE!

If you took me and shrunk me down to little kid size again and gave me dark brown hair and such dark brown eyes they are almost black…I would be this kid. I adore her and yet, she drives me batty sometimes. We are so alike it is quite absurd. I realize more and more every day why she and Mom had the bond that they did. I absolutely love it…and her.

We had a small group Bible study pool party this weekend for Courtney. I have decided that pool parties should be held every single weekend. Every. Single. Weekend. We even decorated cups to commemorate the occasion. Paint pens may be my happy place. Happy B-Day Courtney!

My friend Susan threw her dad an 80th birthday party. LOVED the 80 done in all old pictures. Super sweet.

I bought our first watermelon of the summer season. The wee Kelleys are watermelon crazed. They don’t like to waste any 🙂 I personally love the little teeth marks.

I’ve had two surprising cry moments lately about Mom. Usually I know when I’m going to cry…I do it pretty often, so it’s no surprise 🙂 But today as I unwrapped our watermelon, the big hot tears hit me. Mom loved watermelon and I could vividly see her bringing out her economy sized container of cling wrap to cover the left over watermelon. I could see her scooping out every last piece with her spoon into her green tupperware containter. It was strange because I could hear her eating it too. Watermelon and strawberries were her favorites.

This started as a game of pretend sleeping. I laughed so hard because it turned into real sleeping. This never happens!!!!

Lisa Leonard…need I say more?!? Maybe my most favorite place to shop for sweet and sentimental jewelry…along with The Vintage Pearl. My most recent purchases consisted of these amazing pieces…all for amazing woman in my life.

(Pics via Lisa Leonard)

And speaking of cool jewelry. The wee Kelleys started VBS at our church last night. Harper came home with this really rockin’ bracelet. I love that they are learning how amazing God is and how amazing they are in His eyes.

And my other recent surprise cry came last night while the kids were in VBS. Josh mowed the yard and then we went and ran. Afterwards we grabbed something to eat at Arbys and were discussing their new Orange Cream Shake…I linked it so you could learn more as well. But you will see, there’s not much more to learn 🙂

We were trying to decide what it consisted of, but we’re basing all our assumptions only on the little table top advertisement on our table. And just like that I remembered Mom fixing me orange sherbet in a bowl and pouring sprite or 7up on it. Yes, there we sat in Arbys, with me streaming big tears and an employee mopping right along side us. I will say, it was a bit awkward, but when the tears come…there really is no stopping them. I text Courtney because the whole thing was a bit too funny not to share with someone. I admitted to her it might have gotten ugly and that I must get my crying in public more under control. 🙂