Today

Today I am home sick with the flu. Very thankful that Mad and Ian have school off today and tomorrow and that Mad is a tremendous help with Elek. I am fevery and woozy and not much use. (Ian is a good helper, but went to work with Michael) Manda has offered to come swab my nose to see if I have the swine, but I'm not sure that I want something shoved up my nose.

Today I am mostly lying on the couch with my Snuggie, reading. I am reading Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall. She is the woman who pressed charges against Warren Jeffs. Very interesting book. It's a good thing that I was not born a FLDS, I would not do well with sister wives!

Today I am posting Halloween pics because I am too lousy feeling to do anything else.

Having A Meme

I stole this from Pat, so that I would have something to blog about.

Six names you go by:
1. Kelly
2. Kell
3. Kellerbell
4. Mom
5. Ms. Kelly
6. Hey You
Three things you are wearing right now:
1. Gray T-shirt
2. Jeans
3. white socks
Three things you want very badly at the moment:
1. quiet
2. elek to leave his clothes on
3. 3 children in bed
Three things you did last night/yesterday:
1. made dinner
2. watched 18 kids and counting (i love those duggars)
3. bathed a 21 month old
Two things you ate today:
1. hummus
2. pita
Two people you last talked to on the phone:
1. maddy
2. michael
Two things you are going to do today/tomorrow:
1. take a bubble bath
2. go to bed
Your three favorite beverages:
1. Iced tea
2. diet pepsi
3. orange juice
Here's what you're supposed to do. Copy and paste the questions into your blog. Then delete my answers and type in your answers.

It has been forever since I've done one of these, but I have a lot of stuff I did not do this week, so...

I did not say to my three children that I “was about to have a moment” if they didn’t get it together and my 9 year old did not respond “and it’s going to be ugly”. I did not laugh out loud at said response.

I did not utter the phrase “if you don’t all quiet down I am going to pull this van over and not move until its quiet”. No way would I ever utter such a cliché to children.

I did not join a cult this weekend. The Snuggie cult! I have not sworn up and and down that I would never wear a Snuggie because they look like something a cult would wear. I was not so cold on Saturday that I didn't buy one. I'm not totally looking for the comet I'm supposed to be following.

I am not about to go take a nap.

Oh yes, I am going to take a nap. I can barely keep my eyes open. Goodnight!

Unexpected Vacation

Monday started like any other day. I got kids ready and out the door, went to work, picked kids up, cooked dinner, did homework, etc. Once everyone was in bed I decided to stay up and watch a little TV by myself and enjoy the peace. Around 10:30 my cell phone rang. Thinking "who the heck is calling me at this hour?" I got up and answered it. It was my friend Sherri, who I work with. "Kelly?" "Yes." "Sorry to call you this late, but Greg just called me and Randall is on fire." (Randall is the school we work at and Greg is a coworker.) "Are you serious?" "Yes, Greg says he can see it from his house." "Are you going up there?" "Yeah." "I'll meet you there in 10 minutes." When we arrived this is what we saw.





I have to admit it's a bit surreal to see someplace that you spend quite a bit of time on fire.

Within a few minutes a group of my coworkers are standing outside the school (most of them were still in their pajamas). The fire was put out within about 15 minutes and the firemen did an excellent job. We ended up hanging out for 2 hours and finally decided to head home.

Tuesday afternoon Sherri, my other friend, Jen and I went to the school to see things after the fact. This is what we saw.







The smell of smoke was extremely strong throughout the whole building. This may be TMI, but after I had been home for a few hours I blew my nose and for a minute couldn't figure out why my snot was black. There was a layer of soot on everything. Ceiling tiles were being yanked down. Carpet was being ripped out. It was kind of like walking into The Twilight Zone.

Needless to say school has been canceled since then. We're supposed to go back on Monday. Depends on the smell in the building. I have to admit I'm ready to go back. Slightly bored and I miss my 400 other kids.

blame facebook and twitter

for my lack of blogging.

So, I was reading the Facebook news feed yesterday and I saw an update from a bloggy friend of mine. Seems she's been neglecting her blog because she is on Facebook and updates there instead. And you know, I'm the same way...

I've been blogging for a while now, but I've noticed that I'm not as in to this blog as much as I was in the past. I think it is Facebook! Think about it...update your status on Facebook, throw a sheep at your friends, play a little scrabble, tend your farm. A whole new life is over there, and I think it is making blogging obsolete.

In other news, it was a pretty exciting week at work. In case you don't already know, I work at an elementary school. i ♥ my job. really love it. On Wednesday, for the end of the month behavior incentive a real, live elephant came to visit the students! Her name is Laura and I'm thinking she's pretty old. (She looked it anyway.) The kids were so thrilled! They were able to bring potatoes and carrots to feed her and Laura probably ate her weights worth that day. I took Elek and Xavier up there to see her. Elek was not impressed at all, but Xavier loved her.



(sorry for the horrifically overexposed photo of xavie and laura)

Hopefully it won't be another 2 weeks before my next post, but in the meantime if you want to know what I'm up to feel free to find me at facebook.com/kellerbell or twitter.com/kellerbell...lol.

A Little Blog Meme

1.What's you favorite line from a movie?
That would be "Vous au moins, vous ne risquez pas d'être un légume, puisque même un artichaut a du cœur." That translates to "At least you'll never be a vegetable - even artichokes have hearts." for all you non-French speaking. It's from my favorite movie, Amelie.

2.What "group" did you belong to in high school?
Goth, jocks, prep, drama, nerds?
I didn't really have a label. I guess I was kind of, but not really a prep. I had a fairly diverse group of friends. After high school I went through a whole goth/emo thing.

3.If you had $1000 just for yourself, what would you spend it on?
a new camera lens!

4.What was your favorite childhood cartoon?
Hmmm...tough one. I quite liked The Smurfs, The Flintsones, The Jetsons, Shirt Tales and The Get Along Gang. Not sure that I really had a favorite.

5.What kind of sleeper are? Back, tummy, side, sprawler?
I'm a frequent flipper. I start out on my right side, but flip to my left, to my back and wind up on my stomach.

Yippee!!!!

It started when I saw this video. It was made by Amy Krouse Rosenthal the author of one of my favorite books, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life.


I then watched this video.
Thought it was cool and that maybe I'd send a submission to the movie.

I ended up sending this photo.


I proceeded to forget all about it until I got an email today and this is what it said:

Dear Kelly,

This is to inform you that you/your submission to The Beckoning of Lovely is officially a finalist! Bravo!

Forgive the expanse of time that has gone by since you first submitted, but we had over 50000 submissions from around the world. Four separate panels of judges (a Chicago-based panel; an international panel; a teen panel; and a just me, Amy, panel) reviewed the work. You might be psyched to know that you are one of about 70 submissions that have made it through-- congratulations!

Now let me clarify what I mean by finalist:

I simply won't know until we begin editing the feature film which pieces make it into the final cut. I'd love to use all 70 pieces-- and I very well might-- but I won't know til we're in the absolute home stretch of the project.

Please know that if we do proceed with your winning submission, you will absolutely hear from me again (or someone from the project) within the next few months. (I know, we're not operating at break neck speed here, are we...) We will want to ask you some questions, make sure we have all our details straight, etc.

Additionally, regardless of what happens next, as a finalist you will be properly heralded and credited in the film.

I want to thank you again for submitting to this project in the first place. It's been quite a journey, and you've played a prominent role.

here's to all things lovely,
amy k.r.