Sickness...

Well a few days ago sickness decided to join our family. I felt bad all weekend, but thought I just ate something that upset my tummy. On sunday night the stomach bug kicked into high gear with Alyssa and David. We all just layed around on Monday and by Tuesday no on else was sick so I rejoiced that the rest of us had not been attacked by the bug. Well, I type this blog as I lay in bed with as little movement as possible. Yep, the bug got me. I am hopeful that tomorrow will be a more healthy day. Hopefully we will get to go outside and get some fresh air. I wish it were spring or fall so that I could open my windows and get rid of all the remaining germs. But I guess I'll just have to wipe everything down with a Clorox wipe instead. This is one product that I think could be considered a mom's bestfriend!

Battling UnBelief by John Piper

I am reading this really great book by John Piper, called "Battling UnBelief". I think I honestly thought that I didn't struggle with unbelief, but I'm beginning to realize how much of my sin has unbelief at its root.

Yesterday, I read the chapter on Battling Impatience. It is wonderful! I reread some portions of it this morning during my devotions and meditated on the scriptures he referenced.

This is one of the quotes that he had in the book that I really enjoyed.

"Infinite wisdom has arranged the whole with infinite love; and infinite power enables me - to rest upon that love. I am in a dear Father's hands - all is secure. When I look to Him, I see nothing by faithfulness - and immutability - and truth; and I have the sweetest peace - I cannot have more peace."

He then continues, "by faith in future grace he (the man who wrote the above)had learned to wait with God in the unplanned place of obedience, and to walk with God at the unplanned pace of obedience. With the psalmist he said, "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope" (Psalm 130:5). "The Lord is good to those who wait for him" (Lam 3:25).

Hope this encourages you in whatever you are facing right now.

Meet Kim...

Here is the long awaited introduction to our new friend Kim who moved in with us at the beginning of June.

I've asked her a few questions so that all of you could get to know her as well!

Enjoy!



I am currently 25, but will be 26 years old July 23. I'm from Boone, NC, which is in the very northwest corner of the state, in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. I have one older brother and one younger sister.


I am a photographer; I studied photojournalism at UNC (go Tar Heels!) and graduated with a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication in May 2004. I worked as a photo intern at a newspaper in Hays, KS for three months that summer, then that December I found a full-time photojournalist position at a small newspaper near Hilton Head Island, SC, where I worked for two and a half years. In August 2007, I had been looking for a new newspaper job for a while, but then decided I would like to focus on portrait photography for a time. So, I moved to Raleigh, NC, and worked at a portrait studio for about 8 months. Things weren't working out like I'd hoped--I had to work two jobs and it left me no time to meet any people or build a life outside work. So I began looking for another job, again.�


I had had the thought of working at Disney World in the back of my head for several years, and thought I might someday do it just for fun for a while. But, I already had an aunt and uncle, Gail and Charlie Walker, living in the Orlando area, and when I heard that a cousin of mine, Samantha, went to a job fair and was hired on the spot to work for the summer, I decided to go ahead and pursue a job as a Disney PhotoPass Photographer. I was hired to work full-time, put in my two weeks notices at my jobs in Raleigh, and moved down!


When I came down for an interview during a week long Disney job fair in early May, my Aunt Gail mentioned a couple in her church that may be looking for a renter. She put me in touch with Kelly Traugott, and after some communication and prayer, she and David graciously opened up their home to me for the summer! I had emailed Kelly and spoken to her on the phone only a few times before I actually met them when I drove up with my car full of stuff �=)


Aside from photography, I absolutely love to travel. I really enjoy experiencing new cultures, observing and interacting with the people in places I go. I have studied abroad in Italy, and have been to several other European countries as a result--Austria, England, Scotland, Holland, France. I have also been to Chile, which was wonderful. I love camping and hiking, and recently fell in love with "paddling"--I took a week long canoeing trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota. I also enjoy reading, watching movies and just spending time with friends.


I hope to eventually get back into more documentary-style photography. I would like to work for an organization like the UN, or an humanitarian aid organization, to help show the need of people suffering in places all over the world. I pray that the Lord gives me the opportunity to serve Him with my visual talents--to show the more fortunate of the world the needs of individuals struggling with poverty, hunger, natural disaster, etc, and how they can be helped.

Fishin' on Lake Toho in Kissimmee

Here are the pictures from our Father's Day with my dad. We had a blast. We woke up at 5:45am and hit the road at 6:15am. It was an early morning, but beautiful on the lake. Enjoy the pictures!

Happy Father's Day!

We have a three day celebtration of Father's Day this weekend.

It started out with a day with David, the best daddy. We took Daddy to Disney's Fantasia Golf and played putt-putt. It was extremely hot...The girls stopped playing after like 7 holes because they were so hot. We were hot and sweaty, but at least we were together. Then from there we picked up lunch and came home to each and take naps. Once we woke up, we all got ready and took our daddy out to dinner to Chili's. It was a fun filled day. (I remembered to take my camera, but I forgot to charge the battery - not a good combination!)

Today, we spent the afternoon with David's dad. He came to church with us, then we went out to lunch and back home for the girls to nap and the guys to watch golf.

We planned to go swimming after our naps, but it is raining.

Tomorrow, we will celebrate with my dad. We leave early in the morning to drive to Kissimmee where we rented a boat. We will be fishing, eating, or catching some rays :) We are really looking forward to that. Once we are home, we will swim and have a cook out.

I'll post pictures of that when I can.

But to David, Wayne and Mark...

We love you! Thank you for being a wonderful dad!

Love, Us

Anniversary Gift Ideas

Okay, so my 7th wedding anniversary is just around the corner (July). We are celebrating early because of a youth retreat at the end of the month. But we are also thinking that we will take the girls with us and try to have a babysitter a few nights so that we can go out to dinner by ourselves. Not really sure if that is practical or not but that is what we are leaning towards.

So here's the question... got any really good, but inexpensive gifts to give a husband? He's into golf, but i feel like that is all i ever give him. I'm sure if you read this you know at least a little bit about my dear husband - so give me a "shout out" (ha, that is so old school) with some ideas.

Alpha, Beta...

Well some of you know some of the letters of the Greek Alphabet. I think I only know them because Kristen had to learn them in High School and they taught her this song that makes you remember them better. Well that certainly worked then, but now I can only remember the first few. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta...

I'm sure you are thinking, "why is Kelly talking about the Greek Alphabet"? Well, because Jasmine is a Beta Fish. I know, I know the connections couldn't be further apart, but it's my blog afterall, isn't it :)

So here are pictures of Jasmine. Our first pet. The girls wanted to name her Katelyn, then Hallye, then Kenzie (are girl cousins names). So after we told them that they could not name our fish after their cousins they settled on Jasmine. "Why", you ask? Beacause she looks like the Disney character "Jasmine". At least to a 5 and 3 year old it does.

We have some people to introduce you to...

Well I know it has been a while since I last posted. We have been super busy.

We went to New Attitude (which was AWESOME) last weekend and right after that hit the ground running with home projects and a garage sale. By the way, you can log on to the NA website to listen to messages. They are pretty much worth listening to about a bazillion times. I think the site is www.newattitude.org (pretty good guess, right!)

Who are the people to introduce you to? Well one is a person, one is well - not a person but she deserves a post all to herself.

I will be posting in the days to come about a new friend who is living with us. Her name is Kim and she is a niece of a family in our church. She moved in Sunday night and will be living with us for the summer, approximately 2 1/2 months. The other girl we need to introduce you to is Jasmine, but we will leave all the details about her a secret for now. You can certainly guess if you'd like, but I will try to post about her soon too. I think she is feeling a little left out.