Dodgeball Domination

Hey friends!

Sorry that I have not posted for a long time. My camera battery was dead and therefore I just never posted anything. I have some pics posted of dinner tonight- Reese's puffs :-).

The t-shirts are shirts I made tonight for this weekend. Jimmy and I are chaperones of the high school dodgeball competition. I thought it would be fun to not only "chaperone" by PLAY! (plus I thought it would be a much better deal to get Jimmy to commit to. So I made faculty shirts for our team. I didn;t have too much time, but it was kind of a fun little project I did this evening. Took me back to our freshman J-term volleyball team when we made t-shirts. Ha. Love you!

Amy Nose

Hi girls,

You probably remember Amy - she was one of our housekeepers in English. Her husband shot her today, then committed suicide. He took her hostage early this morning, and it wasn't over until 6:00pm or so tonight. They have a daughter who's a freshman at Taylor, and a daughter who is in high school and is on the UCC youth group Florida spring break trip. He had been abusive for awhile, I guess, and she was in a safe house for battered women, but then moved to her mom's house (near the baseball fields in Upland), and that's where he got to her this morning.

Just please be praying for their whole family, especially the daughters, and for Amy's co-workers and the students at Taylor (she was the Bergwall housekeeper this year).

Here are some links to read more info about the whole thing.

http://www.taylor.edu/community/news/news_detail.shtml?inode=158685&pageTitle=Taylor%20Community%20Mourns%20Amy%20Nose

http://www.wishtv.com/

Love you all - so thankful for you, and for all of our wonderful husbands who love the Lord, and love, honor, and respect us. It breaks my heart to think of women and children who aren't as fortunate as we are.

Love, Kelly

Neti Pot

I bought a Neti Pot today. I think it was on Oprah or Dr. Oz or something. I have always wanted to try it and have never followed through with trying it. I heard the radio show talking about it this morning and figured I really needed to do this thing for myself. So I went to the neighborhood Walgreens and got one. I just finished it and am impressed with how clear and clean my nasal passages feel. It didn't hurt or feel that weird. There is, however, a slight feeling of getting water up your nose when you go swimming- but I mean very slight. (Isn't this a weird post? At least I didn't post a pic of the actual rinse process. EWW!) I don't know if is really as great as everyone is saying, but my nose does feel good right now. I also don't know if I would recommend every go out and buy one. Give me a week or so to let you know. Does anyone else use this thing? Do you think I have been scammed?

Inspired (and ditto on the healthcare bill)

Jacki, I have to echo your comments on the health care bill.  I watched our President sign it into law this morning and it saddened me to hear him talk about a "victory" for the American people...which people exactly?These sort of government mandates are essentially the beginning of the end of freedom in our country.  If they can mandate health coverage, what is next? But, like you said, it is important to remain cognizant of the fact that our God is bigger and stronger and we know who has the ultimate victory.

So, on to the inspired part of this post :).  Jacki, you inspired me to get some live flowers in our house.  I picked these up yesterday as I was grocery shopping and I'm excited for the Fishers farmers market to start at the beginning of May because I'll be able to get fresh local flowers there! I laughed too, because when Kirk came home from work yesterday and saw them he said, "Did you get inspired by Jacki or something?"  Sounds like someone has been reading our blog!

Here they are...bright and springy :).

There's some pink roses in there too that you can't see because they are in the back.

Kirk and I also felt inspired to tackle a puzzle the other night.  I haven't done a puzzle in years and this one is tough!

We are making progress, as you can see, but the bottom part of the puzzle is all sunflowers...not going to be easy to finish this one off!

Boo Healthcare Reform

Hi ya'll,

I stayed up last night to watch the vote and was supremely disappointed in our government once again. I know God is in control - but I wish more Christians realized that we have power to elect people into office that are more closely in line with God's principles and standards. A number of Christian teachers at the school I taught last year voted for Obama because of random things he said he was going to do, like make it easier for kids to go to college. Okay, that is great - but is that more pressing than abortion, gay and lesbian rights, healthcare rationing, tax raising, spending our money! In my opinion no. I also realize I am very opinionated and part of that is thinking everyone should agree with me. SO I will move on.

Today was a good day. Our company quality audit guy came in today unannounced so it shook things up. But I think I did well on my portion. I came home and cooked/baked ziti with Italian sausage.


I also bought a new CD on iTunes. Her name is Meaghan Smith. I like her. Finally, I finished the Hawaii scrapbook. Oh and I got the most wonderful package in the mail today. My mom brightened my day by sending me a new purse! You all know how exciting that is - to me at least!

Meet Justin

Our friends Nathan and Francine officially are the proud parents of their second little boy (as of 3-somethin' in the AM today). It was fun to visit them at the hospital, although the room they were in was boiling...even for me! Justin looks nothing like his older brother Jonathan, but their birthdays are just 4 days shy of each other (almost exactly two years apart). Whenever I see newborns, I'm amazed at how tiny they are (I'm sure it doesn't feel that way when they're...well...you know...coming out!). What a miracle babies are. And what a treasure when you know they will be raised in a home where God is honored. Congratulations, Nathan and Francine!

GAWSA baby

Today was one of those nice days where relaxation is the number one thing to do. You know stormy and like 50 degrees. I did that and watched La Vie en Rose. Sad life this Edith Piaf lived, but I liked the movie. After that Brad and I did some grocery shopping. And of course, I have to picture my flowers for the week. This is more for me than you all. I want a record of all the flowers we have had this year.


So GAWSA means something like Georgia Athletic Women's Soccer Association. I have really been wanting to get active, but I wanted it to be something fun and something I would look forward to. So I researched soccer leagues and I found one for 25 bucks and you play every Sunday afternoon. I sent in an app and the gal e-mailed me back they would love to have me. I am so pumped! Here are my soccer cleats. I just pulled them out of the closet and they still have dirt and mud on them from Upland, Indiana. I might not wash them off because Upland gives good luck you know.

Tunes and Balloons

Brad and I decided to spend the day outside of the city and drive down to Macon, Georgia for their cherry blossom festival. They have 300,000 cherry trees and I wanted to see the pretty pink blooms. Well, we got there and the trees had not bloomed yet. I wish the festival had a hotline or something to check the status of the trees. But we made the most of it anyway. We went to a thing called tunes and balloons and had a picnic. They had a band and hot air balloons and lit them up every time a fog horn sounded. It was really pretty and definitely nice to sit outside in the sun.








We also stopped by the town of Juliette, Georgia where Fried Green Tomatoes filmed some. The Whistle Stop Cafe is where the cafe scenes take place for the fried green tomatoes and the BBQ. I have included some of my favorite pictures.

Picnic in the Park

Yesterday was yet another beautiful day. I emailed some of my girlfriends and asked if they wanted to go picnic and walk in the park.  As you can see, Jacki, I didn't wear green...sorry! E was wearing green under his jacket though :).  Anyway, I feel so blessed to have become friends with these girls in my small group.  The Lord knew what we needed by putting us in this group.  We have all had babies within 13 months of each other...I think that was one of the things God gave me to support me with having that unexpected pregnancy with Elijah.  Anyway, here we all are!

From left to right: Lily, Owen and Aubree, Casey (her brand new 4 week old daughter Sophie is in the pink stroller...you can't see her because she was knocked out the whole time), Bethany and Hunter and me and Elijah.  

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope you all wore green today or I will pinch you via the blog.

We had our Blarney Breakfast I was telling you about. Oh my word it was so fun. I wish I could post resident pictures on here. But I don't want to without their permission. I will e-mail some. I woke up at 4:30 to get to work by 5:15 to set up for our breakfast at 7:00. I stayed late last night decorating too. Someone said it looked like the dining room threw up green. It really did. Everything was green.

At 7:00 AM we had a bagpiper and a snare drum player. Bagpipes are traditionally Scottish, there are Irish bagpipes, but we couldn't find anyone - so we pretended. It was so loud and great! I felt like I was watching The Fugitive in the parade part. We also a magician and balloon sculptor go from table to table to entertain. Goodness, it brought one woman to tears. She said it made her feel like a little girl again and brought her back to so many good memories of celebrating it in Toronto when she was young.

Of course you know me, I hit a wall at 10:00 AM and had the rest of the day to go. I made it though. and when I got home I took a huge nap. I was also kinda bummed because John Mayer was in ATL tonight, but no way could we have made it with everything going on. I will just have to catch his next show.

One pic is of most of the managers at Atria - we are missing 2. The other is of the dining room before peeps showed up.

Mayan Math

Okay, so I'm not sure how much you gals know about the Maya, but the 7th grade social studies curriculum is covering their history right now. Personally, I find it dry and absurd...mainly because we spent so much time covering their mythical view on how creation came to be, and it was...well...disturbing when you know what the true story is. Well, yesterday the teacher decided to introduce Mayan mathematics. And let me just tell you, I was at a loss to understand. Our mathematical system is based on 10's...there's is on 20's. We write numbers left to right...they wrote their numbers bottom to top (and with dots and lines and shell-looking things). It was actually becoming very frustrating to me that I couldn't figure it out (even after having it explained to me). And it was then that I began to understand what the kids I work with must feel every day of their lives. How unbelievably hard it must be for them to always feel a few steps behind. I found myself understanding why they shut down, say things like, "This is boring", and refuse to pick their heads back up. In fact, I found myself trying those same "coping skills". I'm so thankful to have had that experience, to better be able to empathize with the kids I work with. And it was also very revealing of this ugly quality of mine: if I don't know how to do something well, I'd rather not do it at all. What a poor way to live! How could I ever expect to be an expert in everything?


I decided today to humble myself and ask Chris (the kid I work with all day) if he could show me how to do the Mayan math (he understood how to do it right off the bat yesterday!). He patiently taught me, and low-and-behold, I now understand! Perseverance. It's a tough thing for me, yet something God has been teaching me a lot of these days. Being a branch that's pruned by the Father certainly doesn't feel pleasant, but I know He's only leading to further fruit in my life. Praise the Lord!

Bells of Ireland

I have had a fascination with flowers lately as you all know by my weekly posts. Something about flowers is so inviting, peaceful, beautiful. I think it is especially nice because I live in a concrete and asphalt world, so it is nice to have real living beautiful things in my midst. I was reading a book on flowers and the author said we love flowers for their smell and beauty, but the reason they bloom is to keep the plant's existence, or to survive. Nature has an incredible way of staying alive doesn't it?

These green ones are my week's flowers. Yes, green for St. Patty's day. The white ones have lived since last week.



These with the purple hydrangeas, I arranged for work. We are having our first annual Blarney Breakfast to support the Alzheimer's Association. The Association's color is purple and of course green for St. Patty's day. I think they will be a great addition to the decorations. I even found purple shamrock plants. Yay!



Finally, Kelly and Mal - Bonnie now knows what it means to cone it.

Dr. and Target

I had my monthly checkup today at the OB/GYN.  Everything looks good and baby is doing fine! It never gets old to hear that little heartbeat.  Anyway, I wanted to take a picture of the dr's office (not that it is super interesting, just so you could see) but I forgot until I left so I just took a picture of the sign outside the office.

Dr. Ertel is my Dr.

This is through a window so you can kind of see my reflection taking the picture :).  Dr. Ertel is the one in the black with the pearls on the left hand side.  She is the one that brought Elijah into the world and she is (most likely) the one that will bring BD2 into the world. I brought E with me to this appt so she got to see him for the first time since she delivered him...he looks a little different :).  I really love her and I feel blessed to have been able to find her (sort of by accident...I just called the first Dr. listed in our insurance book).

After the Dr, we went to Target.  Sometimes I feel like I live there.  It is less than a mile from our house...I do our grocery shopping there, I buy most gifts for people there, and I buy a lot of our home decor there. I wouldn't want to know how much I've spent there! But anyway, I mopped and scrubbed the kitchen floor and floorboards today and felt that we were in desperate need of a nicer looking trashcan.  So, the one below took the place of a nasty white plastic one.

ps. I just realized this is a pretty boring post, but some days life is not that interesting, right?

Poor Bonnie

Saturday we took Bonnie to the vet to get spayed (thanks Bob Barker). The poor thing was pitiful yesterday. I felt so bad for her I even shed some tears. My boss said just wait until I have a kid... sheesh I can't imagine what it feels like to see your child in pain. Anyway, she has a huge incision on her little belly with staples and has to wear this cone for 10 whole days. She was so uncomfortable yesterday she couldn't lay down. She is definitely a lot better today. But I just want her to feel 100% ASAP.



P.S. I hate springing forward.

Mensa and Pizookie

No my title is not in another language. I am telling you about two aspects of my Friday night.

Brad is officially on spring break so he cleaned our apt and made me white chicken chili tonight. That was a great thing to come home to. After watching the worst kid on supernanny ever, we took a trip down the street to Barnes and Noble. It is fun to just spend time in bookstores. Of course, a very corny Josh Groban CD came on with Lean on Me and I just couldn't take it anymore so I asked the guy sheepishly to change the music. He snickered at me and complied.



I bought 3 mind/brain books there for work, but Brad and I have been asking each other riddles for about the past hour over a Toll House pizookie. So here is one riddle (#131) you should all do, if you can't figure it out I can post the answer tomorrow.



Here is Brad trying out another riddle (#189). Of course #188 is very mind boggling so if you want to try it you can too.

I'm back!

Hello girls! I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything! Last week was CRAZY - very good, but so busy. We have 19 new MAHE students coming in the fall (we usually have 15...didn't expect so many people to actually come...but that's a good problem to have!), and we hosted them all on campus on Friday to interview for their assistantships. it's a long story, and I don't feel like typing all of it, but it was a huge day, and it seems like it was a success, so that makes it all worth it. Jess Cuthbert was there! So that's fun to have her in the next class :)

But anyway, things are going well! Mom and Dad are here - they closed on their house in MN last week, have their apartment up there (Darla posted a picture of it a couple weeks ago), and their apartment here, and then they just bought some land here and are going to build! It's exciting!

Other than that, not much to update on. As you saw in Chrissie's post, the weather is AWESOME!!! So here's a picture of Max in his bike carrier thing. We have gone out twice with him in it already! Last summer we had a car seat in there, but now he's big enough to be in it by himself! Which is just fun to experience his growth like that.

LOVE and MISS you girls!!!

Ok, I know he doesn't look super thrilled, but he really does love it, I promise :)

Sunshine!

We are loving the warm weather.  Below is a shot of the cutest boy in my life on our walk today!

ps. Check out the Duncan blog for updates on what's he's doing these days and my pregnancy (and more pictures!).

Flower Power

Today at school, I saw these beautiful flowers sitting on my desk. A fun surprise from the hubs delivered to school. BRIGHT SPOT to my day. Just about to settle down and watch some AI.

Rain!

There was something so fun about carrying in my umbrella to work this morning...anticipating the afternoon showers. It's been so long since we've experienced precipitation in the form of rain! Made me excited for our first thunderstorm of the year:) Here's me looking up at my umbrella. Yes, I still use the one I bought at the Marion Wal-Mart. It's amazing how many times I get, "That umbrella just looks like you" from people I encounter from work in the parking lot. It's a great conversation-starter. Ha.

Blast from the Past

Tonight after watching AI, I spent some time reminiscing about funny things at Taylor. I found these and I have some video links for you all to go see. And please spend about 10 minutes doing this. You will be glad you did it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrpTF5-mFuw - My fav American Idol audition. Can you dig it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPKYbBBzimg&feature=related - I can just hear Mal's laugh now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlurgF8KhsU - where did he get these dance moves?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge7mozA-ptI - I can hear this playing in the 2EZ halls.

Productivity

I just told Kirk yesterday that I feel like I have not been a great steward of the home God has blessed us with. I have been trying hard to be more productive with my time, but I think I have a long way to go. Well today when I woke up, I made a commitment to God and myself to use Elijah's naptime to be a better steward of our home. I decided to start with the entryway. We have a shoe rack that serves no purpose because Kirk and I don't take the time to put our shoes on it. So, what ends up happening is a big pile of shoes and a lot of dirt that got tracked in on those shoes. I decided to remove the shoe rack and just put our shoes in the closet. I also put way our winter coats and scrubbed the floor boards and sweeped and mopped the floor. I think this is a good start to a more productive, God-honoring lifestyle. Enjoy the before and after pictures :)

Big mess...not that welcoming to our guests either :).

Please note the rail on the floor...that is one of the racks of the shoe rack...it's one of Elijah's favorite toys :).

Sparkly clean!

It smells like lysol!

Hawaii Scrapbook and Weekly Flowers

So long time no talk.

Brad has been using the computer nonstop for a research paper, but he is off and I am taking the opportunity to update you on what is going on. I had a nice weekend. Went to the license branch on Saturday and it was so packed I couldn't change my license over. I am going to make an appt and go back. Sunday I had to work. SO today it was like 70 degrees here and freakin amazing! I left work at 5:28 so I could spend as much time in the sunlight as possible. I took Bonnie for a walk and then came back and downloaded a new CD on iTunes, Basia Bulat - if you like singer/songwriter - folksy stuff, you would like her.

I wanted to show you my weekly flowers, ranaculus (sp?) and mini white carnations.

And this is the Hawaii photo album/scrapbook I have been working on. I love how it is turning out, but I am literally having chest pains I miss it so much. Miss you all!

Spring is in the air

This weekend, PA has been hit with gloriously spring weather. The sun has been out, the air as been crisp and clean and the snow is melting! Yesterday, Jimmy took his dog down to his parents to let him run all day long, which gave me a chance to do some hard core cleaning and organizing. Still LOTS to do,, but I put away some of my Christmas/Winter reds and got out the oranges, whites and greens and hung a few things which were waiting to be put up. So excited for some warm weather and FLIP FLOPS! Off to take the dog for a walk. Hope you all had a chance to be refreshed this weekend and ready for a new week. Love you