mini road trip

In the midst of the beginning of a lot of mom's family coming in to help after my grandmother had her stroke, I got to sneak away for a day and go on a mini road trip with the best friend. 

This is one of my happy spots.  Sitting in my car with the best friend driving. Especially when the sky is blue with happy clouds.  He would prefer to drive anyways.  The only downside for him is that I always pick the music.  :}

Hanging out up in KY with Rylie, my friends' little boy.  

And Rylie's dad Butterfly...er...I mean Tommy....!  ;)

(sorry...inside joke...)

Later we went to have a picnic dinner of delicious pizza and hung out by this creek.  That's my friend Angie from college.  She is quiet and shy when you meet her...but those of us who lived in the dorm know the other side of her...!  :}

Rylie and Michael discussing the art of rock skipping.

Great day spent with old friends on a muuuch overdue visit.  Quiet ride home on some crazy curves (.........).  Almost got hit by two deer. Saw an official URA (unidentified running animal)! Lol

Perfect. 

Thanks for letting us come see you Ang and Tommy!  Hopefully it won't be so long in between times now!

catching up on june

Well, once again I am behind on blogging!  A lot has happened in the past month but for a while blogger was being dumb and not letting me upload pictures and what is a post without a picture!?  Just boring, that's what.  Lol.  Anyways, I will try to catch up over the next few days.  :)

Here are a few pics from Lauren and Reegan's dance recital that was actually on May 27th! Ha. Better late than never, right?

with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength

My sweet grandmother was a perfect southern lady who willingly followed her husband and her God across the ocean to 6 different countries and 40+ houses to share the good news of Christ.  

She and my grandfather were married for one month short of 67 years and in that time never once had an argument or a fight. Honestly. My mom and her sisters can testify to that. 

Grandma was an excellent house keeper, cook, and hostess.  One of my favorite memories of her is the time when I was in high school and mom and I went to stay with them for the weekend.  We were in the middle of eating a delicious dinner with fresh veggies from my grandfather's big garden when she kind of gave a little gasp and looked at mom and said, "Oh, Margaret! I just realized! I forgot to dust the hangers in the room you're staying in!"  I cracked up! Who in the world thinks to dust the hangers?!  My grandma did. :)

When I was little (elementary age) and we would visit their house, I can remember getting so excited as we would finish a meal because I knew as soon as we were done, she would follow me back to the bedroom I used to sleep in and play with me.  We would sit on the edge of the bed and pretend we were in the car driving to somewhere oh so exciting.  I don't remember much more than that but I remember how she made me feel so special by taking the time to play from me when there were dishes to do and other things to get done. 

Grandma was my last living grandparent.  On June 28th, with my mom and her sister by her side, she went home to be with Jesus and her husband and my little brother and my cousin and all the others that have gone before her.  I am sad that if I ever get married I won't have the privilege of having any of my grandparents there.  But I am proud of the legacy and faith and testimony their lives and their marriages left behind as role models for me to follow.

And I'm proud of my name.

Kathryn Virginia.

Kathryn was my dad's mom.  Virginia was my mom's mom.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." 

Mark 12:30

Thanks for doing just that, Grandma.  I love you. 

grrrrr!

In case you are wondering where in the world I am...I'm right here but blogger and/or my computer is being dumb and not letting me upload any pictures!!!  Grrr!  I have several posts to share but without pictures...there's no point!  So...until I can figure it out...you'll just have to wait.  :-p

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the life of spice

If you read my Mother's Day post, then you read that I would be more formally introducing you to my friend Abby soon.  And if you come here often, then you may have noticed the new blog buttons on the right side of my blog here that say "The Life of Spice".  Well, today is the day to fill you in on Abby and what she's up to and how you can help!  I set up a "magazine style" Q&A type interview with her to help you get to know her and her new show...so without further ado...meet Abby:

(ok, so I didn't exactly ask permission to use this pic...

I'm going on the theory that it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission....lol

...hope you don't mind Abby! ;)

Abby Chelian

 on

The Life of Spice

Tell us a little bit about yourself. You know, the basics...where you're from...your family...if you could be an animal what animal would you be....how you decided to become a comedian/actor/singer/etc...where in the world is carmen sandiego??...etc.

As a kid, my dramatic and funny bones were hard to tell apart — I would accidentally make people laugh, then cry about it. So I had a decision to make. I could continue crying when people laughed, thus making a career of being actively avoided, or I could turn this people-laughing-at-me phenomenon into a vocation. Now I cry when people don’t laugh... I’m a comedian.

I was born white, and certainly haven’t forgotten my roots... I’m still white. I grew up in St. Louis, but when I was 14 my family moved to Dayton, TN. Talk about culture shock! Midwestern big city to Southern small town – not the easiest transition, but I made it through all right, I reckon. Well, I did become a comedian, so you be the judge...

In all seriousness, though, when I was 16 I read a book by Bob Briner called Roaring Lambs. The book encouraged people who love Jesus to be involved in the "culture-shaping arenas” – to be the movers and shakers of social change. The day I finished the book, I began pursuing a career in entertainment. That’s my calling – comedy is my gifting. So that’s what I do!

As far as what animal I would be, the best answer I’ve ever heard to this question came out of a high school freshman boy. Without hesitation, he answered, “I’d be a fish so I’d never drown.” I can’t beat that, and I refuse to try.

And as for Carmen San Diego, has anyone ever tried... San Diego?

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What exactly is The Life of Spice?

The Life of Spice is intended as a new sitcom series for network television. The show picks up the lead, Aimee Pandya’s, story as she comes to that point in her marriage when all the little things she used to find fascinating and adorable about her Indian husband and his family are now still fascinating, but not even close to adorable!

How could I possibly write such a story? I am the story. The Life of Spice is a sitcom based on my life.

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How did you get the idea for it?

As a stand-up, I have always drawn from family life, with material on the intercultural confusion between myself and my in-laws (on both sides!). One night, as the audience was doubled over with laughter at one of these stories, it hit me -- there's something to this. A sitcom was born.

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What does your husband's family think about it? :)

Good question -- after you tell them about it, be sure to let me know! I kid, I kid. I am blessed to have an exceptionally good relationship with my in-laws. They know all about the show, and even attended a staged reading that we did of the pilot episode. My mother-in-law told me, “When I watched that thingy (she means the promo), I laaaaghed and laaaaghed.” And my father-in-law is kind of an amateur comedian himself. They both have a great sense of humor and understand that the characters are based on them, not actually them.

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What is your goal in being out in LA and hopefully taking the show all the way?

It’s simple – I just want to love God and love people. Working in this business is not an easy life. In fact, it’s grueling! Being a genuine friend to someone who’s hurting speaks volumes. Jesus’ command to His followers to be salt and light isn’t purely evangelistic. I mean, think about the practical use for salt – it brings out the flavors in food. As Christians, our job is to bring out the flavors of life – to make life “taste” better! If we do that well, people are bound to notice, and that gives us the opportunity to tell them Who’s behind our... well, our spicy life. Yes, that was a shameless plug, but also relevant!

Also, while I don’t plan to beat people over the head about this throughout the series, my desire is that The Life of Spice would foster racial reconciliation. This country is becoming an ever "meltier" melting-pot, and television should represent that. We have to learn to celebrate other cultures rather than fear them. Keep in mind that celebrating a culture doesn’t mean you have to embrace all of it’s customs as your own. It just means you can appreciate the way they choose to do things.

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What are the next couple steps for you and the show?

Getting a foot in the door of some network executive or production company is the hardest part of this process. Networks these days are scrambling to figure out how the market is going to change now that the internet is a major player in entertainment. One way of getting a foot in the door is to personally produce the first season of a web series version of the show that is so good, so honest, and so funny that it blows everything on television out of the water. So that is what we plan to do!

I already have an incredible director and several actors on board, ready to begin shooting, but lack of funds is a challenge. At the very least, we need to raise $5,000 so that production can begin. Right now we’re a little less than halfway to that goal.

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How can people help?

I thought you’d never ask, ha!

• Pray for us! There is nothing more powerful than prayer – not even money. That said, God can certainly use money! Read on...

• Watch our promo video and after you LOVE it, donate financially so that we can make The Life of Spice, Season 1 (web version)! To do this, visit our website at www.TheLifeOfSpiceShow.com. Look to the right of the page for the PayPal or IndieGoGo buttons, follow them, and donate. Hurry – the IndieGoGo campaign ends on June 17th!

• Like our Facebook page, and while you're at it, tell everyone you've ever met to do the same. (You can also find this along the right-hand side of our webpage – www.TheLifeOfSpiceShow.com)

• Hey, why not follow us on Twitter too? Yep – website. Just one click!

• Most importantly, please, please, please spread the word about the show! If you have a blog, you can add a The Life of Spice blog button to your page (thanks to Kathryn!). The code is available on her blog or on our website. Don’t have a blog? Word of mouth also works!

Thanks so much, and God bless! Hope your life is spicy, but like you took Prilosec!

So! What do you think??  Will you help Abby out in one of the ways she suggsested??  If you have a blog, grabbing the blog button is quick and easy!  And definitely go watch the video! lol  And then go grab the nearest person and make them watch it too...although if you happen to be sitting at Starbucks or some other public place, you may want to refrain from any actual grabbing...  lol.  With all the crap out there on TV these days, how incredible would it be to have a show written by a fellow sister in Christ who will be striving, I'm sure, to keep her testimony strong!

I can't wait to see what God has in store for you, Abby, and your show!  :}

craft room mini makeover

Last week I house sat for Cake Leah.  It was fun to be in a house by myself again!  Laura and I had conspired together before Leah and family left that if I house sat, we would give her craft room a desperately needed mini makeover.  Those of you moms with kids know that life with two toddlers leaves only precious few moments here and there to grab for a passion such as a craft of any kind...much less the time to actually keep a craft room looking spotless! On top of that, when she does grab those few moments here and there, she quite often ends up making things for US! Which of course we love :} don't get me wrong!  Then there's the fact that while Ben has an AMAZING music room downstairs that is solely for music...Leah's craft room triples as a craft room/office/guest room.  Laura and I decided it was high time that Leah have a room that felt more like an escape like Ben's music room.  And while it wouldn't end up looking like a room out of a magazine like his does, we did our best to make it cute and functional.  :)  

Here is a before shot:

We knew Leah needed an actual curtain over the window lol.  And I made the executive decision that that bookshelf should be pretty much dedicated to Leah's craft stuff.  We took over a couple shelves in the closet for all the books that were on the bookshelf.  Her window sill was lined with crafting odds and ends and we took care of that as well.  The material on the bed needed it's own place to go...so hello pinterest idea!

Here is an after shot:

We needed items for the wall so we added three things: in the left corner we went "shopping" in their basement for wedding pictures they had hung on the wall (hello! they should be hanging on a wall for everyone to see!!), we simply used a piece of contact paper above the window to add the word {create} for inspiration (contact paper was my idea...the word and {}s were from pinterest), and we used some beautiful little tapestries that our sweet friend, Jing, had brought back to Leah from China on the right side of the window.  

The sun was so bright at the moment that you can't really tell in the above pic, but there are matching pink baskets lining the window sill ($ tree!) plus a little green bucket that Leah already had for all her pens.  The larger pink basket on the sewing table is also from the $ Tree.  We added slips of scrapbook paper in the front of each drawer in the two drawer sets to the right of the table to hide the contents and make them all coordinate.

Here are some close ups of other things we did:

Wedding pictures from the basement...except the small one in a gold frame of just Leah...remember that one for future reference...

 Pinned and organized all ribbon.  Yes. That would be me who did it all in rainbow order...as much as I could.  :}

Pinterest idea of cool paper on the back of the bookshelf.  Baskets from the $ Tree for holding fabric scraps.  Cardboard (gift boxes also from the $ Tree!) to make mini bolts of fabric - yes, again in rainbow order...hey, it just makes sense! lol.  

Ok, remember I said this room is also the guest room?  And remember I told you to remember that one picture of Leah?  Well, this is how the guest bedroom side of the room used to look:

One tiny picture on that huuge white wall!!  And the bed the general fabric and scrap and odds and ends holder.

But not any longer!  This is probably my favorite part of the room now...  :)

 Laura found a way awesome Pinterest idea for those two biggest pictures kind of at the last minute...and of course we had to try it out!  You can order online at some office stores (we used Staples in OR...and found out later that the one in Knox can't do it...which is weird but whatever.)  an "engineer print" of a picture in black and white.  It cost $2 per picture at this size - this was the medium size - 24"x36"!  It prints out just on "regular" paper and then you grab some foam board (they said from home depot which cost $11...we grabbed some from...yes, the $ Tree...for...well...$1!), painted the edges black, used spray glue and set the pictures on it and voila!  huge cool and very light pictures for the wall!!  

We had a ton of fun working on this surprise...even though I about gave Laura a few heart attacks just taking over their house like that ("are you SURE Leah and Ben won't be mad that we're moving these books??  What if they need them?!" "Laura...we're only setting them in the closet! It's not like we're gonna get rid of them completely!...and AGAIN....have you SEEN Ben's music room?!")  :}

Hopefully Leah really enjoyed the makeover and will get a chance to enjoy the room...after she and her kiddos get over being sick!  :-p  Fun way to spend a trip, let me tell ya!  :-p

We love you Leah!  ;)

(abby...don't worry...i haven't forgotten about you...your post is coming!)

may recap

My two days a week with Big Brother and Little Man consist of a lot of routine - bottle time, play time, nap time, repeat.  Which is great for little ones who thrive on routines.  But it doesn't make for very interesting blog posts every day.  So for now I'll do monthly recaps on some of our activities.  Here's a camera dump of what we did in May.

Laundry baskets make great playpens! Ha!

Going on walks is always fun - especially now that Little Man can sit up by himself in the wagon!!

Big Brother cracks up Little Man! :)

 Little Man loves his jump up toy!  He also started eating cereal!  He thinks eating like a big kid is fabulous! 

Little Man also started wanting to hold his own bottle.  He likes to hold it until almost the very end...then he likes me to take over for the finish.  :)  Which of course I am happy to do!  

One day while I was feeding LM his bottle, BB sat on the floor and looked at his Bible story book.  His story of choice that week was David and Goliath and he sat there for a loong time "reading" the story while talking on the "phone".  So cute!  And of course he was done as soon as I could pull out my phone to record it on video! lol oh well!

BB loves orphans too!  :)  

This laundry basket is the exact perfect size for LM to sit in - and he usually thinks it is great fun!

This  is BB playing the piano like Jon Schmidt!    Go here to listen and watch!  He makes me want to play again.

And it is officially warm and summery outside and that means lots of water play!  Kiki's favorite! There is no point in being outside in the hot hot weather unless you can get soaking WET!!  :}  The only problem is my cute little baby tub/pool has a hole in it and didn't hold water for too too long.  :-p  Don't worry...I had another plan...that'll be in the June recap!  :)