PICTURES!

Quite often I take [a million] pictures and then they just sit on my camera/computer and I am upset I never post them. Well, since baby girl is being an absolute PEACH today [I finally woke her up at 9, and she is currently into the second hour of her morning nap!], I finally took a little time to put up some pictures from this summer. Enjoy!

This was back in May. She has changed quite a bit since this but I still love this picture. 

Caroline still loves her "baby cousin." This was taken the day we got to Nashville. 

I love this picture [minus the fact that Kali isn't in it]. I love that Brent and Dan call each other "brother" and that we all have such a great, relaxing time when we are together. 

This girl loves her Daddy! 

oh this face… 

If Blythe looks concerned it's because she is. Ellie is all energy and sometimes B just didn't know what to do with her :) 

I LOVE this picture because it really shows their relationship well ;) 

Just a typical day at Nana and Papa's house. 

In the midst of all our travels, Blythe was also dedicated at church. It was VBS Sunday, hence all the kids in the background. 

with my parents after dedication…B was getting tired. 

With Brent's parents

My grandparents

Blythe's cousins: Myka, Kylee, and Trace

Blythe's cousins: Dawson, and Hawkins [Luke wandered off]

Brent's Grandma Pat [saying, "I'd rather go to the dentist than have my picture taken] 

With Kali
Others were there, but I just didn't get a picture snapped with all of them. Thank you all for making the effort to be there as we dedicated Blythe. We pray we will be Godly examples in her life

Second time being measured at Nini and PopPop's! Sheis growing! 

Okay….so after I got married we never got my dress cleaned, because I thought it would be fun to get out from time to time. Well, it has become the "traveling dress." Kali wanted to put it on and take her turn at pictures in it. [It was exactly 2 million degrees when we were taking these photos.] 

traveling dress: Kels

Traveling dress: Paige 

Traveling Dress:Torri

Kali and I thought this was funny. 

Couldn't pass up the lighting on this one. Caroline painting. 

Trying to get a picture of three squirming children is difficult. 

Add caption

At her 4th wedding of the summer 

Congrats, Michael and Jenny! 

I got to see some of my very favorite people and some truly wonderful friends from college. Thanks for the fun night, Jess and Becker. 

Congrats again, Jen! Love yoU! 

Our favorites. THis was from our trip to Kentucky. Man we hate leaving these people! 

My coworkers from Kentucky. We had a wonderful dinner at Jenn's house and realized anew how much we miss each other. 

If you haven't gone to MEAGAN'S WEBSITE and checked out the PHOTOS OF BLYTHE: CLICK HERE 

by the numbers

If you could get inside my brain right now [I'm thinking "Magic School Bus" style] you would be amazed at the amount of "stuff" I want to/need to write about. You would be pummeled by bits and pieces of thoughts and worries, concerns and praised. You would attacked by fodder of stories I want to get written, of pictures I am thinking about posting, and of cute anecdotes about raising my baby girl the past four months [anecdote: any students of mine reading this and remembering how I taught you to remember what an anecdote is?].

So for now, since I'm pretty sure Mrs. Frizzle and "The Magic School Bus" have long retired, here is what I'll give you:


FIVE trips: Since May my little family of three has spent a significant amount of time in the car. I have learned why my mom said she may as well have painted a smiley face on her rear end when Kali and I were little because that is what is always in the window for everyone to see. :) Blythe has done awesome. Brent has done awesome. And I like to think that even I have done awesome.

Trip one was to Columbia to accompany Brent on a business trip for a week. One week in a hotel with a two  month old. Aye yie yie. However, it was fun and we celebrated our FOUR year anniversary while there.

 Trip two was to Iowa to marry off one of my college roomies. It's always fun to go back and reminisce with people…and to see Deb in a dress. ;).

Trip three was THE trip in which we went to Nashville and Kentucky. We laughed and cried [sometimes at the same time] with wonderful people whom we wish we could have stuck in our pockets when we left. We also married off Justin and Heather [Brent and Justin were interns at Southeast together], and they were beautifully happy.

And then trip four this past weekend back to OC to marry off another set of college friends. My mom traveled with us this time and she and Aunt Linda babysat Blythe so Brent and I had a wonderful baby-free evening with some of my very favorite people. A midnight tour of NWC campus was definitely a highlight. And now we we are back home and I have a million pictures I want to share but may never get around to, so this blurb may be all you get.

 Brent took another trip in the midst of these without us with 43 high school students from our church. He went to south Missouri for "adventure camp." He canoed, rock climbed, cliff jumped into a river….and shared a nasty 24 hour flu bug with about 15 others while on the trip. Ugh. Blythe and I were happy…and hand sanitizing like crazy…when he returned.

FOUR months: Blythe is four months old. Shocking. Yet at the same time, Brent and I feel like she has been with us for a long time. Time is a funny thing. You may have noticed I never took/posted her 3 month pictures :( …. I was busy DRIVING somewhere. Four month pictures will come soon. She is a beautiful daughter who is growing into a fun little personality. She loves to giggle and snort, and has also started to let us know, quite loudly, when she is not happy [luckily this is not very often]. She rolled over last week, has her four month appointment tomorrow, and has so many fans we can't even keep track of them. Brent is thinking maybe in another 16/17 years she will be in the olympics. We don't dream big at all in our household.

22 years: In a few weeks schools everywhere will be starting up and it will be the first time in 22 years that I will not be going back. There is a post a-brewing on this one.

THREE girls: Kali, Caroline, and Ellie visited us for a week. They all have my heart and I miss them so much. Caroline decided to drop "Aunt Kelsey" while she was here and now simply refers to me as "Kels." "Come on, KELS!" "Look at this, KELS!" Ellie decided to start walking and grow up way too fast. Kali decided to move back home and live close to me forever….oh wait, that was just a dream :(. Love you ladies.

THREE seasons: Softball season number three as assistant coach starts for me next week. I'm excited I still get to coach and interact with the girls, especially since I won't be in the classroom this year. We have a truly good group and I know it will be fun. Blythe will be traveling a lot again as the season starts up, and soon enough she'll be our bat girl! :)

I'm sorry you've had to look at MALL MADNESS for a month now :). Hoping to get back to blogging soon. At the moment, Blythe is finishing her nap so I am going to do some dishes and laundry and then have a cup of coffee and finish "Little Women." [Can you believe I've never read that book?!]

Hope you all are having great summers.

slumber party memories

For some reason when I woke up this morning some words popped into my head from long, long ago. They may seem foreign to some of you, but for others you will know exactly what I'm talking about when I say that the words on my mind were, "There is a SALE at the KITCHEN STORE." This was followed by me laying in bed for a minute longer…and sure enough I was then totally THERE. "There" being a teenage sleepover playing silly board games targeted completely, one hundred and fifteen percent, at girls.

Does anyone know the game referred to above? I know my sister will, as we spent ours huddled over its electronic speaker, telling us when and where to shop next.

Yes, this game is just what it looks like. I  giant, plastic mall that encourages girls to shop with plastic cards boasting such things as "easy money." And I am not even being the least bit sarcastic when I say: IT WAS AWESOME. The premise of the game was to buy certain things from different locations around the mall, and then be the first "shopper" back to the parking lot. However, you only had a certain amount of money…sort of… if you ran out you had to waste precious turns to walk ALL THE WAY back to the "bank" in the center of the ball. Once there you had  to swipe your card, and the bank would tell you how much it gave you. That simple. Sometimes it said, "Sorry! Come again later!" That was a real bummer, let me tell ya.


This game did not have dice; instead you simply pushed a button on the "bank", and it informed you how many spaces mall tiles you were allowed to move. Now, the crazy thing, the thing that kept everyone on their toes, was that sometimes when you pushed this button the speaker would start balking out new SALES! And everyone had to frantically scoop up the sale signs that had previously been placed and move them to the new stores. "There is a SALE in the KITCHEN store. There is a SALE in the ARCADE. And there is a CLEARANCE at the TOY store." And then the race was on…. to try and get to these stores before the sale or clearance left, so we could get the most bang for our buck [and therefore not have to go back to the bank as often].

Yes, it was a crazy good time. Setting it up was a bit of a pain, but well worth the effort once we were off and shopping. This board game is still tucked away in the closet at my parents' house, so if you are ever up for a riveting good time, come on over and I'll race you to the sales!


However, no slumber party was complete without DREAM PHONE!

Oh my word did I love Dream Phone. Now the premise of this came was a little like Clue. There was one boy that "liked" you, and you had to figure our exactly who that crush was. You did this by calling different guys, and getting secret calls from "him" during which he would give you a clue like, "I like to play ball, but I'm not at the park." You could them eliminate every guy who was at the park, and any guy who was not playing ball of some sort. Yes, it took some mad deducing skills, but it was well worth it when you finally figured out that STEVE liked you.


This is a sampling of the cards. Sometimes you had to share something you learned with another player, and sometimes you had to share that awesome call to Bruce with all the other players when you put it on speakerphone. Sometimes you missed a turn when you drew a card that said, "Mom says to get off the phone!" Bummer. But seriously, look at that cutie Matt. 555-7557. He was at Jim's Gym too. He was my favorite.

And if we weren't shopping, or calling guys on a pink phone, we were talking…GIRL TALKing that is!

Basically GIRL TALK was a glorified game of truth or dare. You had to answer questions about crushes, or walk like a duck in front of all your friends! If you just couldn't bring yourself to answer a question or the dare was too mortifying though, you could always just pass. However, passing meant taking a "Zit Sticker." These were essentially red circles that you had to stick on your face, and if your friend had owned the game for longer than a year they were all gone anyway so you had to figure out some other way to denote that you "took a zit."

Yes, my early teen years were spent fluctuating between these three games. They taught me many things nothing. Unless you count racking up a credit card, calling random boys I don't know, and daring people into giving you the truth. And of course I also learned that zits are a punishment.

However, in spite of all of these things, I think I would be okay with finding some throw backs of these and letting Blythe play them someday. I mean, they were seriously, totally fun.

What about you? Do you remember playing these games? Or what were the equivalent of these games in your time? For my younger readers, are there any games like this any more?

traveling

Our little family of three has been traveling traveling traveling lately.

We drove 1937 miles over 9 days, were in 5 states [almost 6], and slept 5 different places.

We got to see some of our favorite people and had a wonderful time, but we are all recuperating now. Blythe was a trooper and did an excellent job, but is now trying to get back on schedule.

Here are a few quick pictures [the first several: I let Caroline discover photo booth! oh my.]

I will blog about it all soon hopefully, but for now we are resting and getting back in the  swing of life back home.

Unwritten

Her warmth against my skin
 reminds me i am breathing deeply
 Her wriggling toes and
          Squirming limbs
 are like laughter coursing through my veins

 So much of her little life
            Her big story
 is untold now
And I want to fill in the blanks spaces
scribble in lines that will make her
Happy and Comfortable all her days

 But though my imagination and pen could create a story
they are not what caused her lungs                         to suck in life
 And I could not weave a tapestry
 like the One Who causes her heart to pulse
                                                      so perfectly

 I look down at her eyes, fluttering awake
Happy And comfortable
I tell the Playwright            

Happy and comfortable

And as she lets out a little content sigh
 I hear in Reply
              No, dear mother.
 Simply ask that in her story she meets my son
Who did not always know
              happiness and comfort
And she will instead know
       joy and peace Everlasting.

 Her warmth against my skin
Her wriggling toes
Her untold story

 Does she get my worry for her with her milk?
 Or my blessed assurance in Him?

 I close my eyes and whisper in her tiny eardrum
                                                      JOY EVERLASTING

Lightning

Last night as I lay listening to the thunder and thanking God for the rain we so desperately needed, I was reminded of a poem my friend Jenny sent to me. She is a NWalum-EnglishTeacherDearFriend. A year ago she decided to pursue a new degree in counseling. She struggled a lot with "giving up" teaching. This past year she decided taking classes just wasn't enough for her and she started working at Street School in her city in January and fell in love with teaching again, only to "give it up" again at the end of the year. Her fellow teachers had a poem engraved and framed for her and she passed it along to me with this note:

"I want to share this message with you because just as I'm not done bringing the lightning, neither are you...no matter what the Lord has you doing."  

For those of you who aren't teachers or poem people, it may seem odd, but it is the perfect combination of odd and wonderful, strange and beautiful, that makes poetry like this great. I'm posting it here as a reminder to myself to continue to be a lightning teacher, even if I no longer have a classroom at the high school. [I've italicized the lines that I really love]. 

To the Lightning Teachers by Derrick Brown

To the teacher that said 

"The world is your oyster...'

These poems are the pearls I spit upon your plate.  Thank you.

To the other teachers, prepare your flints.

Speak with the hum of Fahrenheit in your dazzled hearts.

Teach us to be artists.

Teach us that artists make people aware

of what they already know and forgot

and really know

what they themselves think they don't know.

Teach the champions the necessity of losing 

for the sake of personality.

If these kids are hard to reach

wearing flak-jackets made of knives,

maybe it's time that we 

dressed up like porcupines

to show there's a bit of them

still inside us.

Hey you prickly mothers!

The kid under your bed is dying every day.

Dying to play in the mud swamp lava, dying to snap all your friggin'

    pencils and end the war,

dying to understand fireflies in the treeline.

Go get them, teachers.

We should all be lighting kids on fire

unless you are a literalist,

or are from Salem.

You will always deserve more money.

Keep bringing them more than you are worth.  New tree babies!

Bring them an astral storm of ideas.

Lightning strikes the tree--

the tree is budding with pinecones--

the pinecones explode--

the seed spreads across the forest--

new trees are born.

Bring them the lightning.

Bring them the sauce.

I was a bag of dirt pennies from the year 73

and one teacher, Mrs. Shin, rolled me around in hot sauce until I was 

     clean. (try it)

She knew I wasn't the Ivy League type, but she still brought the ignition.

"Oh, you all went to the school of business--

I went to the school of none of your business.

I'm different."

She taught me that the word is the good-dangerous.

That it's good to look a dream in the eyeball and not look away.

It's good to have a voice that can speak the language of resuscitation.

It's good to be beat down daily, like the fighting sun

to prove you can rise.

The future is our youth dressed as roman candles

ready to burst open the gray evening sky.

12 pens in a bandolier!

A vending machine on campus full of envelopes 

addressed to the White House!

A red megaphone inside each lunch pail!

Tell kids everywhere--

The world is your underwear.

It's time you changed it.

4

Four years ago on a very windy and hot day, Brent became my husband at a little ceremony in my grandparents' backyard. It was exactly as I had dreamed it would be.

If you weren't around over the past 2 years on my blog, you may have missed the little story I wrote: Our Story. The story of how I became "BrentandKelsey". So on this fourth anniversary of mine, I'm going to sit back and sip some coffee, read my brand new Kindle Brent surprised me with for our day, listen to the other gift he gave me this year make her little sleepy snorts and link you up to OUR STORY if you haven't had a chance to read the way that the Lord brought our lives together for better or for worse.

Click HERE and scroll to PART I.
[And click HERE if you want to read any of my musings about marriage].

Brent, 
You are kind when I don't deserve it. You are funny when I need to laugh. You are patient when I'm being stubborn. You are a leader when I am wandering. You are humble when I need reminded of what that looks like. You are God-fearing when I've forgotten how to be. You are my husband, lover, partner, and friend. Thank you for deciding that I was worth taking along on this journey with you. 
I love you. 

dreams for my daughter

Yes, I dream that Blythe will know the Lord. Yes, I dream that she will get a job she loves, a husband she adores that treats her right, and lives a fulfilling life.

BUT...

I also dream that she has an imagination like I had as a child. An imagination that knew the sky was bigger than I could see out my window.

I dream she sees beyond a grove of trees and pictures a living world of fairies in their branches.

I dream she understands the art and grace of make believe, using it to turn dolls into her best friends for hours in her bedroom.

I dream she can look at a blank piece of paper and see it as a canvas for the story in her head or the picture on her mind.

I dream she can travel through centuries and seasons and epic battles while wandering in her backyard.

I dream she favors the pages of a book more than the flashes of pictures on a television.

I dream she can play follow the leader by herself, completely oblivious to the stares of anyone watching this miraculous feat.

I dream she crawls through mud, and makes recipe soup from plants, and catches snakes in the garden.

I dream she plants a piece of charcoal she steals from the grill, thinking if she checks back in a week it will have turned into a diamond.

I dream she has a box under her bed of scraps of paper, fabric, glitter, and hot glue that she uses to create masterpieces.

I dream she lays in bed at night creating poems.

I dream that she knows the land keeps on going beyond the horizon.

I dream she plays dress up, letting a grandmother's old hat and gloves transform her into a queen.

I dream she believes that Narnia exists.

I dream that her little years will be filled with wonder, and sparkles, as she frolics through the endless possibilities of her imagination.

engagement

Brent and I have a lot of friends getting married this summer. I received invitations number 6 & 7 this past week. I enjoy watching our friends excitement in this time of preparation. I had just started blogging the fall of our engagement and remember writing THIS in a little coffee shop about my own thoughts about becoming Brent's bride. However, it is interesting now to look back on that time, five years ago now, and think about it from this side.

As I see my friends, hearts all aflutter and aglow, dreaming big dreams about what their lives are going to look like as Mr. and Mrs., I think about what my dreams were during that time. I had been away at college for four years, and the simple thought of getting to see Brent every single day made me unequivocally happy. I pictured the big stuff: buying a house of our own someday, raising a family together. But I also remember dreaming of little things too:  washing the dishes while he dried them and put them away, making a meal for us to share together.

Others also told me they were nervous or anxious on their wedding day. I was anything but. I had no doubts in walking down that aisle, joining hands with Brent, and vowing my life to serving and loving him.

People warned me that marriage would be tough work. At first I didn't believe them because after our I DO's it was blissful. We got to see each other every single day. We got to sit on the couch and talk and laugh and just be with one another. It was all so very uncomplicated. I had him. He had me. We thanked the Lord daily.

But life kept on a'coming. Jobs, and moves, and this, and that. We still held firmly to one another, but those pointless fights crept in: "You know that THIS is NOT where I keep the spatulas.." etc. I still adored the fact that I was his wife, I still enjoyed seeing him every day, but life proved it would put us through the ringer a time or two to see if we really meant 'forever.'

And then we decided it was time to bring a baby into our lives. She came and, proving others right, it was and has been the hardest thing we've ever done. We have had to learn how to communicate all over again. We have had to learn to make time for us. We have had to learn how selfish we really are. And she is only two months old.

And then I think of all of my friends who are going through their engagements and on the brink of marriage.

Engagement. That word does mean to make a promise or attachment to something. But to engage also means to hold fast to something or to occupy the attention of something [i.e. "The book engaged her from the beginning."] And isn't this what we should strive for our whole marriage? To engage the other person in our lives? To be engaged by our spouse at every turn? I think it's the ENGAGEMENT that keeps the marriage going.

 I look around and I see his empty cereal bowl, or his tennis shoes. I turn on the TV and it is on ESPN. I pick up my toothbrush which is right next to his in the holder. I accidentally use his razor in the shower instead of mine. These are the little things about marriage that I didn't think about looking forward to; these little daily reminders of his presence in my life. Sure things aren't perfect, but I get to share this life with him. THAT is what I was ultimately looking forward to when he slipped that ring on my finger.

And the BIG things? The truly EPIC things like holding my sleeping daughter and knowing that this is a gift that Brent gave me that no other man could have…these are the the icing on the cake.

Yes, the engagement period was wonderful, but I now realize that Brent engages me every day.

C.S. Lewis says it better [as always] from this excerpt in "Mere Christianity." We put a portion of this on our wedding programs:

"Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also many things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all. Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go. And in fact, whatever people say, the state called “being in love” usually does not last. If the old fairy-tale ending “They lived happily ever after” is taken to mean “They felt for the next fifty years exactly as they felt the day before they were married,” then it says what probably never was or ever could be true, and would be highly undesirable if it were. Who could bear to live in that excitement for even five years? What would become of your work, your appetite, your sleep, your friendships? But, of course, ceasing to be “in love” need not mean ceasing to love. ... It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be “in love” with someone else. “Being in love” first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.

open letter number 4

Peruse my MUSINGS section to read my previous 3 open letters to laundry, student loans, and the drawer under my oven. 

Dear Hotels of America [and maybe other countries too, I just have never visited you]:

I have a weird infatuation with you, and I feel like now is the time for me to make it known. So here I am, hotels, coming clean-- I love you. I love you like the old Savage Garden's song [truly, madly, and deeply, in case that brilliant simile was lost on you].

I know some people are weirded out by you, thinking that your sheets are never really clean, or that one shouldn't walk around you barefoot lest they pick up some disease. I even know of some people that feel the need to bring lysol and spray you down before they will sleep at ease. I need you to know that I, though a sometimes self proclaimed 'germ-a-phob', am not one of those people.

I walk into your majestic halls and smile broadly when handed a key card. I swipe said card with a smile and push open the door into your room which has been cleaned and prepared just for me. I survey the space, the slight smell of chlorine floating down the hall from the warm pool, and flop on the bed, totally relaxed at at ease knowing that I don't have to make it in the morning.

Hotels of America, your cable television and mini fridge inspire me to kick my feet up. I have no obligations, no errands to attend to when I am at your place. I can turn the thermostat to 'ice' and not worry about the bill. I can take a 30 minute shower. I can get service at the push of a button.

Thank you for also being concerned about my safety. As someone who grew up with a father who was always imposing fictitious scenarios to see if I was aware of my surroundings, I now live a somewhat paranoid life. So thank you for your triple bolt doors and your emergency exit map.

I also appreciate that you leave me pen and paper. You don't assume that since it is 2012 no one writes anything down any more, you simply leave me two of my most treasured ammenities. Well four, if you count the coffee and the paper travel mug to pour it in. However, you do understand that these times call for different measures also, and provide me with free and unlimited wi-fi. My instagram and blog followers thank you for this convenience.

Oh, and hotels of America, I am seven paragraphs into this letter and I haven't even mentioned your breakfasts! Oh your glorious warm, prepared breakfasts served until ten…TEN! I love breakfast food but never get to eat it because I don't want to waste any time that could be sleeping preparing breakfast. But you solved this problem for me. You let me sleep in. You let me roll out of bed, not pressuring me to fold the covers back up neatly, and attend your breakfast just as I am. I don't ever have to worry about brushing my hair or my teeth or putting on my makeup before hand, as I know I will never see any of those people ever again. So I load up with sausage and make a waffle and grab an omelet and some cereal, a muffin, some fruit, and a yogurt for later. Sigh. Thank you for this heartwarming experience every morning.

You are truly rest for the weary, hotels of America. On that night that Brent and I just couldn't drive a mile further, you opened your doors to us. On that family vacation when my dad finally gave up at the primitive camp ground and we got to stay in your hallowed halls, you were a friend during troubled times. Yes, hotels of America, you are wonderful. [And lest there are any MOtels reading this letter, it is not addressed to YOU, you filthy, yet sometimes charming in your uniqueness, place. ]

Hotels of America, I raise my styrofoam cup and my ice bucket to you for a job well done.

Love,

Kelsey

PS This is the first "open letter" I have written that has been positive. You should consider yourself lucky. Please don't do anything to screw up this romance!