2009 - The Year In Photos

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Christmas Tree Love

awfully fond (because addicted and obsessed sound so negative)

of spending massive amounts of time on etsy these days. wishing i was creative to come up with something to sell. will settle for browsing and adding to my favorites...sigh.

Life With A Soon To Be Teenage Girl

Miss Madison will be turning 13 soon. February 20 to be exact. Living with a teenager is quite an experience. My days are currently spent listening to this song over and over.

I believe I have heard this song at least 2,694,301 times. We've all heard it so many times even Elek can sing it. I suppose it could be worse it could be gangsta rap or death metal.

Life also involves lots of discussion of whether Edward or Jacob is better. (Personally I'm team Edward...lol. Yes, I am one of those Twilight moms.)

Mad's bedroom currently looks like a tornado hit it. Clothes as far as the eye can see. Clean clothes, dirty clothes tossed here and there. Every event requires numerous outfit changes until just the right combo is achieved. For Thanksgiving dinner alone she needed to try on no less than 10 items of clothing. She finally settled on a red plaid skirt, black leggings and her New Moon shirt. Maddy has a unique sense of style and makes sure that she always looks different from everyone else.

We hear a lot of "you're ruining my life" and "you just don't understand". Oh yeah, these phrases need lots of eye rolling to go along with them. The "you're ruining my life" is used when we won't give in and give her what she wants. It usually has something to do with hanging out with her friends. I'm sorry, but I am not dropping my 13 year old at the mall and letting her walk around unsupervised with 4 other 13 year olds. It's just not going to happen. And as for the "you just don't understand" I think she forgets that I was an almost 13 year old girl once.

Mad has been a complete drama queen since birth and everything is cause for major dramatics. She got her progress report from school a couple of weeks ago and she had a B+ in math. You would have thought that she was failing the way she carried on. Maddy has never gotten a B, she's always had straight A's and apparently the thought of a B was more than she could take. She sobbed and whined and moaned for an hour. It got to the point where I had to leave the room and ignore her. (She did get the grade up to an A.)

Even with all the aforementioned fun we wouldn't trade our Maddy Beth for anything. She is a constant ray of sunshine in our lives. She blesses us beyond words.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Today, I'm thankful for:

* Jesus Christ, a loving and patient Father in Heaven
* An amazingly wonderful family
* Friends who care are always there and love me no matter how many quirks I have!
* For my body that is healthy for the most part most of the time.
* For talents and gifts that make life fun!
* For the peace and safety of living in a free nation.
* For the little tender mercies that come my way each day!

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.

Question

Is there an official name for the fear of opening a can of biscuits? Because there should be. Why must they be little firecrackers? Will I need the spoon? Will it pop when I least expect it? SCARY!

I updated my other 2 blogs today and thought I should probably do the same here. It's actually semi hard to concentrate right now considering there are helicopters circling outside looking for some guy who escaped from the city jail, which is about a mile from here. He apparently really liked the handcuffs and green jail pants and is still wearing them. How hard to find is a man wearing handcuffs? Just curious.

I went back to work last Tuesday. On one hand I was ready to go back, on the other hand not so much. I love my job, love the kids (for the most part). After 3 months off though, all I really wanted to do was stay home with my baby whose not so much of a baby anymore. Instead of the sweet baby, I've got an almost 2 year old who replies with "no way" when he's asked for a kiss. I really shouldn't complain though, he really is an extremely good boy.

Mad and Ian started school last Wednesday, 7th and 4th grades. Am I really old enough to have a 7th grader? Wasn't I just in 7th grade? People are right when they say that time flies.


Maddy tried out for show choir yesterday and made it. She was thrilled! She's also still playing viola in the school orchestra. Ian decided that he didn't want to play cello this year. Swimming season started back up on Monday so he's back to that routine and Mad will go back once softball is done at the end of the month.

Other than that not much is really going on. Life is pretty good right now!

Not Me Monday

It wasn't me who spent over 12 hours at the softball field this weekend watching her daughter play in a tournament.




But, I suppose it was worth it!

I know this blog is really going down the tubes. Several times a week I sit down in front of the computer and attempt to post something. Usually it doesn't happen. Sorry.

Our lives as of late have been fairly busy. Lots of Maddy's softball games, lots of Hot Wheels races across the living room floor, lots of "adventures."

We've actually done quite a few of our "adventures" lately. An adventure is basically when we pile into the van and just take off not really knowing where we're heading. In the last week we've done 3 of these and we've ended up at Pointe Mouille, Sterling State Park, outlet mall shopping, Cracker Barrel and the State Fair. Lots of fun.

Facebook friends these pics will look quite familiar...lol.