Archives for August 2013

Today I Choose Different

Yesterday was pretty sucktastic around the Kelley household.  It actually started out good.  Amon had his first speech therapy yesterday and I really like our therapist.  Amon loved it.  Huddy and Sol loved it.  There was lots of paperwork and bubbles and it was fun.  I feel like we are on the edge of finally hearing the thoughts running through his brain and I am soooo waiting in anticipation for those moments.

After therapy our day went down hill and I let it.  I let it slip from my fingers without much of a fight and I let Satan win the day and steal my joy.  Amon refused to sleep…not sure what’s up with him because he loves to sleep…but the dude was a hot irrational mess.  I wanted to yell out to Jesus…”Jesus come now.”  He was a spit fire, tired mess.  Lots of tears.

I had one gazillion things I needed to get done and I accomplished approximately one of those.  I needed so badly to run errands too…Walmart, Target, Michaels, the post office, Rite Aid, Kinkos and Hobby Lobby.  Yep, that was my errand goal yesterday and we didn’t even leave our house.

Amon was suppose to be having minor out patient surgery this morning and then the hospital called and said we would have to re-schedule because our insurance is unsure of what initially they were going to cover with the surgery.  Hmmmmm.  Yes, this sent me right over the flippin’ edge.  I may have used curse words once I hung the phone up.  So now we’re waiting to get the official word from our glorious insurance company and then we will re-schedule.

I have decided there will be a level in hell in which people are given medical bills they are “suppose” to pay…I even used my quotation fingers when I typed that…and they will have to talk it over via phone with hell’s insurance company of choice.  If you are one of those nice insurance people, well then I tip my hat to you and want to buy you lunch because 9.9 times out of 10 I get someone who has clearly had a bad day and they want to make me pay for it by trying to make the phone call as difficult as possible and making me feel as stupid as they possibly can while they are at it.  There will also probably be a level in hell called “The Car Rider Line”  Just sayin’.

Then Amon slipped and fell like a tree right into the corner of a door frame.  The result was the most blood I have ever seen come from a kid.  It was literally fountaining out of his forehead.  A paper towel would not hold up and we had to use a dish towel.  He was absolutely pitiful and we then monitored him for a concussion.  No one wants a concussed kid.  The picture does it no justice…the goose egg is huge and purple.

I then had a fight with our computer over pictures which had to be printed because they were due this morning.  #procrastinationatitsbest

Finally won that battle after an hour long fight and headed out to Rite Aid to print the pictures Harper needed for school.  And remember the long list of errands I wanted to run, well finally after 7 o’clock I got started on all those places.  My one saving grace I had decided upon would be Target and I would end this no-so-great-day with a coke and Target popcorn.  I am afraid I need to join Emotional Eaters Anonymous.  And then, NO JOKE, after I paid for my Target goods, the concession area was closed.  I wanted to fall to my knees and yell out in despair.  But I held it together and walked out to my car.  I called Ashley and told her I didn’t get my popcorn and coke.  And then I saw three people walking out of Target with their popcorn which they apparently snagged before the concession place closed for the night and I may have voiced out loud to Ashley something along the lines of, “I could probably just run them over with my car and take their popcorn.”  We laughed, but I was clearly not my best self yesterday.

I cried lots and lots yesterday.  I made bad choices and said things I shouldn’t have said.  If you saw me out last night, well I have no words.  I know I was rockin’ those dirty sweats and giving off a very frazzled, smeared mascara around my eyes, this day is for the birds vibe.

But when we went to bed last night, Josh Kelley and I laughed.  We laughed at what all had unfolded and we talked about the good things yesterday held because there were actually lots of good things, but I had chosen to camp out on all the undesirable things…the things which had not gone my way.  I made the wrong choice yesterday and today I’m thankful for grace.

Today I’m making a different choice.  I’m rolling with the punches and I’m trusting God with this crazy thing we’re doing called life.  I’ve opted to celebrate the victories…the joys…big and small.  Like the fact that dinner is already simmering in the crock pot despite it being incredibly hot and humid today.  Soup on an August day, boom.

They boys and I are having lunch with Josh.  I’ve been able to work on orders lately and I’m planning on creating today too.  That makes my heart fly.

There are just too many things to be grateful and thankful for…we are crazy blessed in so many, many ways.  Today I choose different than yesterday.  Today I thank God for His goodness and mercy and for His grace…His grace which I so very much need.  To heck with yesterday, today is a new day.

Happy Tuesday.

Dear Katy Perry

Dear Katy Perry,

I may have spent Saturday night searching for you on Instagram and then shamelessly throwing you a shout out and tagging you in Amon’s roaring video.  Oh yes, oh yes I did.  Maybe you’ll decide to throw him a shout out back…he totally deserves it.  And if you decide to bring him on tour, well Josh Kelley and myself will be right along with him and we’ll bring our glow sticks and I’ll wear my teal eye shadow.

You see, I shamelessly kind of totally dig you.  I may rock out often to your catchy, pop music.  And your most recent song Roar…well hold up.

It’s my fave.  It’s my jam with Amon.  Amon and I don’t do a whole ton of communicating right now, but I have big hopes and our roaring is kind of a big deal.  When I heard your Roar song…well, I may have teared up.  Oh yes, oh yes I did.

So here’s to you Katy Perry.  You may not be my dream pop star roll model for Harper and all your videos, according to youtube, may be ridiculously cheesy, but you sure can sing some catchy songs and make me all ridiculously emotional over some of your smash hits.  I’m shameless…really and truly…shameless.

Rock on KP.  Rock on with your poppy tunes.

Sincerely,

Laura Kelley

5 Big Things

Dear Friday,

I liked you.  You are almost over now, but you were a really good day to the Kelleys.  Big things were accomplished.  I look forward to seeing you next week.

Sincerely, Laura

1)  Nutter Butter Balls are one of my most favorite treats to eat and share.  They are super easy and way delicious.  I did some baking today to spread some love and when I was just about to purchase a second bag of Nutter Butter cookies to make 2 batches I made a very good, big decision…I went with Fudge Striped Dark Chocolate cookies instead.

Well Shut.The.Front.Door.  Good golly, me oh my.  Insert any other shocked wording because these little things are amazing.  Just crush the whole package up, blend it with 8oz cream cheese and then dip them in white chocolate.  I just have no more words.

2)  Today we set a yard sale date…a yard sale to help raise money for our carepoint Ngungwane in Swaziland, Africa through Children’s Hopechest.  So locals mark your calendars…September 13-14…Friday and Saturday.  All the money made will go directly to the kiddos at the carepoint.  I’m thinking a bake sale will probably be in order as well.  If you would like to donate items or bake some treats or help us sort and price, shoot me a message.  The memories I have attached to yard sales are so very fond of Mom, so my heart fluttered a bit as we set the official date.

3)  We have been looking for a house since last year.  We continue to press on looking…ALL.THE.TIME.  Today I decided to branch out…to take a chance…and cross my fingers.  The kids and I may have driven around…road by road…and when we spotted a house we thought might fit our needs I dropped them a little note.  We’ll see what happens.  Ignore the toothbrush.

4)  It was recently made known to me by my cousin Rebecca that if you add a melted stick of butter to the filling part of Gooey Butter Cake magic will happen.  Gooey Butter Cake is straight from Jesus, but throw in the extra butter and The Trinity shows up.  I will always recommend making it with the extra stick now.  Always.  I told you, big things happened today.

And 5)  Today I set up our fundraising pages for the American Heart Associations Heart Walk in Nashville this October 12.  We have so appreciated all your love and support and prayers for Amon over the past year.  The 1-year-anniversary of his sweet little repaired heart is coming up and we are celebrating by walking, raising awareness and funds in support of the American Heart Association.  We have set quite the lofty goal…I probably didn’t think it through very well, but hey, it will be a nice challenge.  If you feel so inclined to make a tax deductible donation in honor of Amon you can CLICK HERE and see our personal fundraising page and all the details.  If you would like to join our team Ace Of Hearts and raise money by sharing information with your friends and family, you can CLICK HERE and join our team.  We would be extremely honored and appreciative of any help at all.  And locals, please mark your calendars to come out and walk with us on October 12.  Register HERE for free to walk with us and join our team Ace of Hearts.  I know it will be a great day.

So those are my 5 big things.  It was a pretty great day.  Hope your weekend is crazy blessed.

Happy Friday!

Classic II

That Tuesday when I kind of needed a coke before 10am and needed to get some things totally accomplished with three crazy Kelley boys in tow.  Sometimes you just need to push the limits and go all the way in and declare the day to be one where you accomplish a lot…like a lot, a lot.

Dishes and laundry and figuring out dinner for the next 2 weeks and grocery shopping and post placement reports and customer’s order details and 1st grade requirements and the list went on and on.

Yes, 10am sounded like the most perfect time for a coke.  And maybe a big one.

So I squealed into Sonic’s parking lot on two wheels right at 9:59am and Huddy announced from the back seat, “Whoa Mom, you’re driving fast like a race car driver.”  “Thanks Huddy.”  I snagged the very first spot available…already had my window rolled down realizing I was cutting this one close…pushed the button and this conversation rolled out like pure insane awesomeness:

  Sonic Lady:  Welcome back to Sonic… (She may have asked me to try something new or said some other words, but honestly I was so focused driven at this point that I have no clue if she followed her intro up with anything at all.)

Me:  (Using my anxious, but trying to play it cool voice) Do I still have time to get your .99 cent drink before 10am

Sonic Lady:  You have 30 seconds

Me:  (using my yelling, anxious voice like she must hear me NOW or the world will end)  I want a coke.  A coke.  Just a coke.  Did I make it?

Sonic Lady:  That will be a dollar o’ eight.

And I gently wiped the sweat from my brow.  Boom.  I made it by the skin of my teeth.  Is that the right analogy.  I’m going to need to google that one.

Why yes, I nailed it…according to freedictionary.com at least:

by the skin of one’s teeth

Fig. just barely. (By an amount equal to the thickness of the (imaginary) skin on one’s teeth.) I got through calculus class by the skin of my teeth. I got to the airport a few minutes late and missed the plane by the skin of my teeth. Lloyd escaped from the burning building by the skin of his teeth.  I made it to Sonic’s .99 cent drinks before 10am by the skin of my teeth 🙂

Okay so I added the last one myself.  By the way, you’re welcome for the idioms lesson today.

That is how my Tuesday morning played out when I tried to take full advantage of .99 cent drinks at Sonic before 10am.  I saved a grand total of  .99 cents.  Just call me Mrs. Moneybags.

And because I have zero shame I’ll end this classic moment with me making out with my large Sonic coke.  Notice my caressing, tender but firm, romantic hands.  I know how to treat a coke right.  What you don’t make out like that?  Yeah, me neither.

#onlykissyourlargecokewithyoureyesclosed

Happy Thursday!

Tucking Them Away

Pictures help me remember when inevitably my memory fades.  I’ve tucked some moments away recently and am thankful for the photos that will help jog my memory one day.  I hope I’ll tuck them away in just the right place so I can remember fully…the people, the smells, the tastes, the words, the feelings, the emotions, the fun, the realness of it all.

Working really hard on us.  We’re not perfect…actually we’re extremely flawed, but God has been so gracious to both of us lately.  I’m so blessed by Josh Kelley.  We’ve really been putting in the time and energy and thought and work on us and I’m so grateful for this family thing we’ve got going.

A beautiful night full of birthday party celebrating with some dear friends.  A casino party which was amazingly fun and let me try my hand at craps and black jack and roulette.  The company who came up with the idea of setting up the real games and letting you gamble with pretend money and teaching those of us who are lacking in the casino rules department are genius.  And Courtney and Ashley who decided to host this fun party for their husband’s birthdays are even more genius.

How much my boys love Star Wars.  The way they play each character and go into fierce Jedi battle mode and mostly how they watch the movie.  Holy cow, I can barely handle it.

Huddy’s inventive ways and crazy awesome imagination.  I so hope I can fully remember his creative little kid ways.  He’s been carrying around this ‘bow gun’ for about a month now.  He constructed it from straw, twigs, one piece of dried up monkey grass, scotch tape, one pipe cleaner and the draw string from a pair of my running shorts.  He has truly embraced his MacGyver side.

Simple deliciousness.  My mom was the best at taking the most mundane and making it amazing.  Like rice krispy treats.  They’re still one of my most favorite sweets, but only because she made them so out of the ordinary by always dividing them out into bowls with spoons.  Who eats rice krispy treats directly out of a bowl with a spoon?  We did.  And I loved it.  Still do.  My most recent mundane love…plain old Cheerios with chocolate ice cream.  Crazy good I tell you.  Crazy good.  Please try it.

The way we still fit in Harper’s twin bed to read books.  But just barely.  And it takes clever positioning.  I know the time is coming like crazy soon when we won’t all fit.  I’ll choose to be in denial on that day.

Our movie night at home to celebrate Amon…being a family of 6 for a years time.  The movie.  The quilts spread out all over the floor.  The laughter.  The bowls of sweet treats.  The popcorn.  Amon’s 17-month-old inability to sit still and to only shove handfuls of popcorn into his mouth at a time or just knocking the entire bowl over all together.  The crumbs everywhere.

Baby teeth.  When they are all wonky and rounded off and half way cut through.  I love it so much.  I love when he smiles and I can see all 8 at one time.  His happiness is infectious.

And sun on those rainy, dreary, thick in the sadness days.  When you need a physical reminder of God’s goodness and love for you.  How big and wide and deep His love is Just.For.Us no matter our circumstance.

Those are definitely things I am tucking away tight.

Happy Wednesday!

Classic

That time when Solomon used his $5 Target gift card he received from one of his aunts for his Gotcha Day to purchase a real hammer, Air Head Xtremes and a slinky which had already gone missing at the time of this photo.  A)  He debated hard between the hammer and a screwdriver, but the hammer won out when it was discovered there are multiple different sized screwdrivers tucked away nicely in the handle of the hammer like nesting dolls.  Score.  B)  Sol chose the Air Head Xtremes so he could share.  Be still my heart.  They are delicious, but most definitely made of only things which would probably slowly kill us over time or completely erode the lining of our stomachs.  I took my chances.  And C)  The slinky is no where to be found.  We have all agreed this is probably Amon’s fault and it’s also probably a hot mess anyways.

Then the next day as I watched Huddy eagerly run towards the neighbor’s house yelling at their kids:

Huddy:  Hey you guys, Sol got a real hammer.

Neighbor Kids:  A what?

Huddy:  A real hammer.

{Insert possible look of terror on neighbor kid’s parents faces.}

That’s when I hear Josh Kelley yell from inside the house, “Nothing says don’t come over to play at our house like…”  And I lost it.  He’s so right.  #parentsoftheyear

Oh and Sol found his slinky.  And it’s a hot mess like I thought it might be.  Slinky’s have zero chance of survival in our house.  Zero.

Happy Tuesday.

1 Year Home

I could write a book.  Forever and ever long.  God simply gave us our hope back through this kid.

Amon’s name means ‘faithful’ and God truly, truly has been faithful to Amon and our family.  It was a long, hard, beautiful road to Amon.  One that was long and winding and we got lost some along the way.  We did not come off the path unscarred.  But we serve a God who heals and renews and when I walked into Amon’s transition home that day with Ashley by my side and they placed him in my arms for the second time, but this time for forever, I took the deepest breath ever.  A breath of release.  One of true joy.  I looked him over so carefully and took in how much he had changed in a month or so’s time.  I cried overwhelmingly grateful tears.

Then we journeyed home on what were the most stressful plane rides ever.  Ashley and I were crazy nervous, Amon was sick and we were toting all our gear plus a big, portable oxygen machine.  And the next 18 hours were insanely hard, but I knew we were being prayed for.  That Amon and his heart were being lifted directly to God.  And we made it.  As we descended into Nashville’s airport I brought out my video camera and taped Amon sleeping in the seat beside me.  We had made it.  God had made a way.  He had gone before us and led us each step of the way.

At that moment I felt God’s love just absolutely pour over us and I sobbed with strangers looking on around me.  I wanted to tell them of Amon’s story…of his special heart…of the legacy God was creating in him even before birth.  I wanted them to know, but I just sat there and soaked it in.  We had made it.  God had finished what He had started in our family 2 years before.  He had renewed and fixed and healed and restored and I could not get off the plane and into Josh’s arms…the wee Kelleys arms…fast enough.

We were finally a family of 6.

God has done a mighty work in our family over the past year.  He has done a mighty work in Amon as well.  He fixed his heart.  He gave him life all over again.  He is truly a God of wonders who deserves every ounce of praise.  I feel so inadequate to be His child…to be so incredibly loved by Him.

So we celebrated Amon on Saturday…we celebrated our family of 6…we celebrated how amazing God is and what great works He truly does and has done.  Oh God, we are grateful and honored to parent this kiddo…this crazy sweet, amazingly awesome kiddo.  You have renewed our hope like we never imagined.

Happy Gotcha Day Amon.  We kind of totally adore you!

“They give us strength to hold on to the hope we have been given.19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, sure and strong.”  Hebrews 6:18-19

10 Custom Order Spots

*ORDER SPOTS ARE CLOSED*

I will take 10 custom orders at this time.  If you would like a custom order spot, please leave a comment on this post just saying you would like a spot (first ten commenters receive the spots) and then send me a message (“Contact Laura Kelley” button in top bar) with your order details.  Please make sure you are one of the 10 first commenters.  Again, the first 10 commenters will receive the 10 order spots.

All orders that require some sewing will take a little longer because my machine is in the shop.  I should be getting it back in about a week.  Excited to get started on custom orders again and thank you so much in advance.

*ORDER SPOTS ARE CLOSED*