2 Years – A Repost

Sunday was 2 years since Amon had his big heart surgery and got his little heart all fixed up.  I mark my calendar each year because it is such an important day for Amon and our family.

I went back and read the post I wrote on that day.  I remember the sheer exhaustion I felt.  Being physically and emotionally spent.  Wiped out.  Thought I would re-post because I love this small part of Amon’s story…God’s goodness and mercy on his little life.  And we’re still working towards our 5K donation goal for the American Heart Association for research because IT IS KEY.  Every advancement and discovery is critical.  They are making a difference.  If you would like to donate you can go to Amon’s page and use the ‘give now’ button.  I’m also mailing out thank you key fobs for donations of $15 or more.  After you make your donation just GO HERE and send me a message with your name and mailing address.  Please feel free to share Amon’s page and story.  We have until October 4th.  Eeeek.

Post from September 21 2012:

I’m Tired

What a day, what a day.  We got to the hospital around 6am…anesthesia took Amon back around 8…surgery started around 9…they thought they were finished around 1:30…then Amon had some bleeding issues and they had to re-open him back up…and finally close to 6 we got to see our incredibly amazing, sweet, sweet, triple sweet boy.

Can I just say that technology is amazing.  I am blown away with how everything is working for Amon…where all these tubes and wires and IVs and ports are going and what all they are doing.  It is absolutely crazy.

This is definitely Amon’s most fun tube.  Who new medical tubes could be so stellar.

Amon will have 5 super rad scars as apart of his story…1 nice sized one from the incision and then 4 smaller ones from tubes coming from his belly.  The ladies are going to love this guy.

Thank you for smothering him in prayer…we felt it.  It was a long, long, hard, emotional, but yet incredible day.  So thankful for this crazy sweet boy and his new heart.  So thankful for a God who ordains and holds and comforts and restores.  Amazing.

Now for some sleep.  And for the quickest recovery ever.  Thank you for praying…truly, truly, truly…thank you for praying.

May God receive all the praise.

**Thank you to everyone who has already donated in honor of Amon.  We are always floored by the kindness and generosity of others.  Happy Tuesday!**

Creature Of Habit & 3 Things

Yesterday I was a no show because my blog was in desperate need of a behind the scenes overhaul.  Things have been a bit wonky with my contact button and several other little things here and there.  Turns out I needed a serious update.  I get emails quite often about not being able to pin things onto Pinterest from here and I’m happy to announce the Pinterest button at the bottom of each post now officially legit works.  Super pumped about this.  There will be a few minor changes here and there over the next day thanks to Randy over at the Orphan Care Network.  A man who wears many hats!  Thank you Randy!!!

The dashboard where I type all my posts is also different now and wow…I am such a creature of habit and so opposed to change it’s a little hard for me.  I like what I know.  I like what is comfortable.  I like what I’m already well versed in.  Don’t throw me a curve ball and God forbid I have to learn something new or be challenged a bit.  How true this is for my entire life.  How comfortable I like life to feel, but God is moving us in a direction of taking us out of our comfort zones and showing us being a creature of habit is not exactly what He has planned for us right now.  It’s humbling and like a slap in the face to listen as God says “Why did you not trust Me with this?”  “Why did you not think I could handle this?”  “Have I ever left you or let you down?”  “Are My plans not the best for you?”.  I often wonder if I’ll ever learn.  Ha.

Today I’ve got a weirdly sick kid hanging with me at home, but it’s the young lady of the family and she is quite my jam.  It should be a lovely easy going day.  She’s been given strict “rest” instructions.  I’ve got more orders to work on and a house that needs a bit of tidying.  I did want to remind you guys of a few things today.  3 in fact.

1.  The podcast I recored with the kind Jamie Ivey is still up on her site.  You can head over HERE and give it a listen.  You guys have said some mighty kind things which of course just makes me smile and my heart flitter a bit.  Thank you.  Thank you for being just so so kind.  Also you can still enter to win some sets of key fobs just by leaving a comment HERE.  Thank you again Jamie for asking me to chat.  It was wildly fun!  Let’s do it again.

2.  We’re still raising money for the American Heart Association in honor of Amon.  We set a super lofty 5K goal.  So far you guys have kindly donated $855 and that is awesome!  I am also mailing out “thank you” key fobs to everyone who makes a donation of $15 or more.  Once you click on Amon’s page and make your donation just shoot me a message HERE with your name and mailing address.  Last night I hit up the post office late and sent out lots of key fobs.  Crazy thankful you guys! And please feel free to share Amon’s page and story.

3.  And the last really super fun thing is my Noonday Collection party is Thursday from 6-9!  Come early after work if you need to.  I am seriously so excited.  I’ve made my menu…let’s briefly discuss how awesome it is:  Chicken minis, sausage balls, veggies and hummus, mexican dip with chips, carmelitas, snickerdoodles, whooopie pies, gooey butter cake and drinks.  What, what.  {insert raise the roof hands}  I don’t get the opportunity to fill our house with people too often, so when I do, I want you to feel loved and cared for and I want you to have fun and enjoy yourself.  If you’re local…come, hang out, eat your heart out and bring a friend.  I would love to meet some new people so don’t be a stranger…I promise not to do anything weird to you.  I also may have rounded up a stellar lot of fun things to give away as door prizes randomly through out the night.  I’m telling you, this is going to be a really fun night.  You can shoot me an email at pitterpatterart@gmail.com if you have questions.

And if you can’t make the party and still want to order some goodies you can!!!

All you have to do is go HERE between September 11-16th.  Add your items to your cart.  Then when checking out, put “Ashley Mills” in the drop down Ambassador name list and “Laura Kelley” under trunk show name.  Check out and then watch anxiously everyday for your mail person to deliver your amazing purchases.

You will not be disappointed.  I promise!

So that’s all I’ve got today.  Do you have any questions?  Ask away in the comments section if you do and I will answer them.  Thank you guys again for being awesome.  Thank you for being kind and loving and encouraging.  Hope your Tuesday is superb.

Totes Adorbs

I’m alone in our house for the 4th time in 2 weeks.  Holy smokes.  I’m afraid the rapture is coming soon.  It’s amazing.  I am working like crazy and loving every single minute of it.  After Amon ventured off to Mother’s Day Out last week and I blogged about how awesome my day was without him, there was one of those ‘guilty mom articles’ on Facebook and I about punched my computer screen.  I started to feel a twinge guilty for loving my time alone, but then I realized nope…no way…I’m not going to play that game.  I love my kids and I love my job.  Do I love my kids more than my job, yes, but do I still love and enjoy and find value in my job, yes!  What’s with all the moms making moms feel guilty anyways.  Everybody’s doing the best they can…everyone’s best looks different…let’s three cheers for that.  Now I shall exit my soap box.

Okay so, so many random things to tell you today.  Today has been awesome for packing up five thousand name pillows and some art and some key fobs and getting all those shipped out.  If you’ve paid and I’ve completed your order, they are on their way.  Hallelujah.  Car seats were made for more than just holding babies.

My August running mileage was low.  Back injuries are from Satan himself.  I’m feeling so much better and for September I have decided the running IS.On.  Like donkey kong.  Does anyone else say that…it’s on like donkey kong???  We say that way too much in the Kelley house.

Remember the 21 Day Fix I did a while back?  Well, I loved it so much.  It totally changed our eating habits and I picked up so many tips and tricks.  Here’s one of my favorites.  I like to call them “Nut Bags.”  Hilarious right?!?!?  I love when Josh Kelley comes home and I announce, “I made up some more nut bags for the week.”  Just so he know’s there are ample nut bags available.  I die.  Anyways, I pre make these up each week…peanuts, sunflower seeds and pistachios.  Want to know how super crazy I am…each bag has approximately 20 pistachios and 2 tablespoons of peanuts & sunflower seeds mixed.  I’m super cray.  The big thing with the 21 Day Fix was portion control and I loved learning what this actually looks like.  Now if you’ll excuse me I have to devour my Chickfila for lunch.

Every day they play Legos.  I’ve donated almost all their toys because hello, Legos-4-Life.  Everyday they talk about Legos and discuss what they are going to build.  Everyday Hudson talks about his birthday and he waivers between a Star Wars Lego themed cake or a Chima Lego themed cake.  Or, no wait, maybe a Ninjago Lego themed cake.  Everyday he worries and frets over which Lego set to officially ask Josh and I for for his present.  Everyday he asks to look up certain Lego sets on Amazon so he can really examine each piece.  This is stressful legit stuff people.  Oh to be a 5-year-old boy again…wait a second.

This little guy, well he has it made.  Harper is coiled so tightly around his finger.  They will be each other’s man of honor and best woman.  I just know it.

Friends who are fun and nice and easy going and no drama are the best.  Harper and Kylee are a match made in friendship heaven.  The conversations, the play and the laughter is amazing.  I love their little personalties.  They both beamed with time together.  And I so wish everyone could have heard their conversation about their school clothing policy…”Now what’s your school’s policy on shoes?”  Hilarious.

And you should have heard the excitement over matching PJ pants.  The best.

Speaking of friendships…aren’t these two just totes adorbs?!?! #middleschoolslang  They really enjoyed themselves at our First Tennessee Football Game Of The Season Kick Off Fish Fry.  <—–I just made that fancy title up.  I love good friendships.  I’m thinking about making up some Christmas cards with these…maybe “Have a totes adorbs Christmas.”

 

And thank you for the sweet response to yesterday’s post.  If you missed it you can READ IT HERE.  You guys donated $555 towards our family’s goal of $5K for the American Heart Association in honor of Amon.  For every donation of $15 or more, I will send you a thank you key fob.  If you want to get in on the key fob fun, go to AMON’s PAGE HERE and click the ‘give now’ button in the right hand side bar.  If you’d like your key fob, once you’ve made your donation send me an email at pitterpatterart at gmail dot com with your name and shipping address.  A big huge thank you for everyone who has already donated and for those of you sharing Amon’s story.  We deeply appreciate it.

That’s all I’ve got for today.  Hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

Happy Thursday!

Heart Donation = Thank You Key Fob

September 21st we will celebrate 2 years since the amazing doctors and nurses worked together to fix Amon’s heart.  This subject…thinking back on that time…makes me really weepy.  It brings about such emotion and thankfulness.  An insanely deep gratitude to Jesus for all the healing He has done in our family and in Amon’s heart.  Amon’s heart surgery and his almost month long stay in the hospital was such a hard time, but a time where God gets every bit of glory for how He worked and moved and healed and continues to work and move and heal.

Amon still has regular cardiologist appointments to check in on how his heart is doing.  He will need another surgery around the age of 10, so our family is passionate about the research being done about heart disease.  There’s a chance with the direction technology is moving, that when it comes time for Amon’s next surgery, they may not have to open up his chest, but instead go in through his thigh.  This is crazy to me.  And how awesome that would be.  This is why research is so important.  Working towards answers.

It’s that time of year again and our family is gearing up for the American Heart Associations Nashville Heart Walk.  This is a huge fundraiser for the American Heart Association and it’s our honor to participate.  When Amon was diagnosed with tetralogy of fallot in Ethiopia our family was immediately tied to the fight against heart disease…to work together, to help raise awareness and funds.  We will be walking this year again in honor of Amon.

We’ve done a lot of things together through this internet friendship.  You’ve raised money for tables and chairs for kiddos in Swaziland, you’ve paid for a years worth of school funds for the kids at the Ngungwane carepoint and last year you guys raised over $6,000 for the American Heart Association in honor of Amon.  You guys are crazy awesome.

And again I come asking for your help.  People have their passions…what pulls their heart strings…and this may not be one of them and that is totally cool, but if it is, would you be willing to make a donation in honor of Amon?  You can CLICK HERE and use the ‘give now’ button on the right side.  Easy, easy and tax deductible.  Our family’s goal this year is $5,000.  That’s lofty I know.  We can’t do it alone and need your help.  And if you can’t donate, you can always just share Amon’s page…share his story.  Share about God’s goodness and mercy on his little life.

Also if you make a donation of $15 or more, I will send you a free key fob as a small ‘thank you’.  This year I have an app for AMON’S PAGE so I can see who makes a donation, but I still cannot access your personal information.  If you would like your ‘thank you’ key fob, after you make your donation be sure to send me an email at pitterpatterart at gmail dot com with your name and mailing address.  I will gladly make key fobs until my fingers fall off for this cause.

We would be so honored to reach our goal with your help.  We have about one month to do so.  Thank you so much in advance!

Happy Wednesday!

Let’s Have A Party!

Almost every night I sit down at our computer, pull out my decorative paper, tape, heart washi tape and key fobs and begin addressing and packaging key fobs to mail out the next day to say ‘thank you’ to all of you who have donated to our heart fund in honor of Amon.  When I set the goal of $5k I honestly didn’t think it through and afterwards I realized it was a really lofty goal, but I figured, what the hey, we’ll give it a go.

Tonight when I sat down to start my little nightly routine, I checked our team page and I was floored.

Floored people.  Absolutely floored.  And yes, I did google ‘negate’ to make sure I was spelling it correctly 🙂

 I sit here tonight just completely humbled and honored.  I’m crazy grateful to everyone who has donated.  You guys are stellar!  Thank you for stepping out in honor of Amon and heart research and the many people and kids and families who have been directly impacted.  You are making a difference and it is an honor to experience.

I get an email every time one of you donates.  It never says the amount.  Sometimes it doesn’t say a name at all.  For all you anonymous people out there…thank you!  I wish I could send you a reply email and tell you so in a more personal way.  And for the people today that pushed us over our goal and then some…gosh, I just like you…like a lot…like a whole lot.  You amaze me.

We still have a month to go.  I’m still ready to mail out more key fobs.  So if you would like to join us in this fundraising effort there is still plenty of time to donate.  You can go to our personal fundraising page HERE and make your donation.  If you make a donation of $15 or more, I will happily mail you a key fob as a small thank you for your generosity.  Please do not forget to GO HERE and send me your mailing address after you make your donation.  I do not have access to your personal information, so I do not know your address.  Dang security and protecting your identity 🙂

Thank you again so much.  Humbled, honored, amazed, grateful, dumbfounded and all of those great kinds of words…this is how I feel.  This has been a really great Friday.  Thank you so much…from our hearts, to yours.

That Time I Asked You For Money

I’m smiling.  I really am.  A big smile too.  I shouldn’t ask you for money.  I mean, we’re internet friends and usually you only ask close, in person friends and relatives for money right?!?!?!  And I hear that can get pretty messy 🙂  Josh Kelley laughed when I told him I had set a $5K goal for this year’s Heart Walk.  And rightly so.  It’s a lot of money.  I definitely know that much.  But this is important to us.  Our family and Amon have been greatly impacted by congenital heart defects.  Amon and his heart are vital to our family.  He made us a “Kelley party of 6”.  I hope when I write about Amon…when you read my words…you’re able to see and hear and feel the love our family has for him.  It’s huge people.  Ginormous.  My heart is totally full…he’s our ace of hearts.  God blessed our socks right off with this kid.  And we could not be more grateful to Him.  We’re also over the moon about his doctors and surgeon and the hospital for all they did for his sweet little heart.  What they did for him, oh my goodness, we could never repay.

  Last year I literally watched out his hospital window as people walked to and from the Heart Walk.  I decided last year, that we would definitely walk and raise money in 2013.  I even put the walk and raising money for The American Heart Association on my list of goals for 2013.  It’s just crazy important to our family and many other families as well.  I know it might not be important to you or your family and that’s totally cool…I get it and no worries at all.  But if you feel so inclined, we would greatly appreciate any donations made in honor of Amon.

You can donate and check out our personal fundraising page HERE.  We are currently at $900 and that is simply amazing.  So a huge thank you for those who already donated.  I have already begun working on “thank you” notes…we are truly grateful.  You guys are the best!

So there you go.  We can now put this awkward post behind us…except when I bring it up again between now and October 12…but we can reminisce and laugh jolly loud laughs…”bahahahahahah, remember that time I asked you for money.”  Good times people, good times.

Oh and I totally forgot the best part.  If you make a donation of $15 or more HERE in honor of Amon, as a thank you, I will mail you a nifty key fob.  I stocked up on some brand new fabrics just last night and I hope I get to put them to use.  Maybe I’ll get to make 273.333333333333 key fobs and will knock this goal out together.  After you donate, just send me a message HERE and let me know your mailing address.  It would be an honor to reach this goal with your help.  Big, big thank yous in advance.

Happy Thursday!

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!