Thursday, April 28, 2011

Senior Prom and Easter

I guess it's better late than never, right? I had a few pictures from the past couple of weeks that I wanted to put here on my online diary. That's what it sort of is, right?

Cam's senior prom was two weeks ago. Look at the beautiful wristlets the girls wore! I couldn't get over how pretty and colorful the flowers were. And, of course, the girls' dresses. They were just gorgeous.


And I thought my handsome fella dressed up pretty darned nicely! Daddy brought his '55 Chevy over for Cam to make pictures with. He didn't drive it to the prom, though. Um, no.


Isn't youth a beautiful thing? I was happy with the way his suit looked on him and well, his date was darling. They complemented each other so much.


Bright and early the next morning, we headed south. Vidalia, home of the world-famous sweet onion is where we landed for our Kimball Easter.

Almost everyone was there and we couldn't have asked for a prettier day. The kids had their egg hunt. Just look at this look of excitement on my cousin, Rick's little girl. Priceless. Once again, isn't youth just wonderful?

But we can't be kids forever. Here is my mom with two of her three brothers. They look pretty good, don't ya think?

The following weekend was Easter weekend. Another exhausting, but wonderful time. Easter Sunday morning I went to my first-ever sunrise service at the square in McDonough. It was another gorgeous day and when the sun was rising in the sky, it just gave me chills.

We listened to a wonderful sermon and some amazing music. I really, really enjoyed it.






Jeff''s mom had lunch for everybody for the first time in a long time. There are so many people and she never let us bring anything before, but this time we all brought sides and it worked out good. She still made most of the food and probably worked hard the day before, but it sure was good.



Kristi got Jeff and his brothers, mom and dad together for a picture. I love the way Jeff is holding P-Nut's arm. Such a sweet picture.



Sunday night we had my family over for Easter supper. After a few weeks of pretty nice weather, the kids decided it was time to try out the pool. Here's my first swimmer of 2011.




Y'all know how sentimental I am, right? My kids and my nephews and niece range in age from 22 to 7 years old. But they KNOW that when they come to MY house for Easter that EVERYBODY hunts Easter eggs.



Since the excitement has died down for most everybody with the exception of Eli, I decided to try something a little different this year. We had our egg hunt at dark. Everyone brought flashlights and had to hunt their eggs in the pitch black. Which, BTW, I thought it would never get dark that night.



This was a good picture of everyone except Cam. Not sure why he felt he needed to make such a face, but, oh, well. It's great of the others.




It was a huge success hunting eggs in the dark. And it did make it a little more challenging for my 22-year-old son! Ha!!!




After all the eggs were found -- or so we thought -- they checked out their loot.



Jeff found three more eggs Monday and Cam found one of the silver eggs last night. Thankfully, none of it was chocolate. That would've been a terrible thing to waste. It was jelly beans. Which I ate anyway.



There is nothing on our schedule this weekend and I am SO glad. I'm sure we'll be working around the house, but no big event to get ready for.


We had very bad storms in Georgia last night. Tornadoes skipping all across the state. I'm thankful that all of my family and friends are okay. It was pretty scary for some of us. Jeff slept through most of it. I kept watch, knowing that if I tried to wake any of the three of my Kelly men, they would probably just roll over and tell me to leave them alone. But I kept watch just in case. Thankfully, we didn't have to hit the basement.



I only intended to work on my post for a few minutes, but here I am two hours later. Ugh.



Till next time...

Friday, April 22, 2011

In Your Easter Bonnet

Music: Irving Berlin
Lyrics: Irving Berlin
Premiere: Saturday, September 30, 1933

Never saw you look quite so pretty before
Never saw you dressed quite so lovely what's more
I could hardly wait to keep our date this lovely Easter morning
And my heart beat fast as I came through the door
For
In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it
You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade
I'll be all in clover and when they look you over
I'll be the proudest fellow in the Easter parade
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm planning on going to an early sunrise service Easter morning. I've never been to one before, but I've heard it's very moving. The weather should be just perfect. This will be the first Easter in my recent memory when the weather will be so nice. All the sweet little girls won't have to cover up their pretty smocked dresses with a drab, old sweater. It's sure to be a beautiful day.

Happy Easter everyone. I hope your Easter weekend is filled with celebrations of our living savior, lots and lots of laughter and even more love.

Till next time...

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Prom 1983 and Prom 2011

It's prom weekend here! Limos everywhere you look. Beautiful girls and handsome guys! But just look here at this lovely beauty in 1983. In case you didn't get the subtle clue, this is me! I'm in a bridesmaid dress I borrowed from my Aunt Theresa. And back in 1983, you didn't wear a wristlet, but instead you carried a big bouquet! Anyway, I remember the night well. I was very excited. I remember where we ate, what we did after the prom, but I remember nothing about the prom itself. Must've been pretty boring. Last night was my nephew Joseph prom. It was held at the Georgia Aquarium. I bet that was a lovely place to have it. I wish I could've seen it. My dad brought over his prize possession; his fully restored '55 Chevy. He brought it over for Ross, Joseph, and today will be Cam's turn. I took 106 pictures before they left. There was not one bad picture of Kelsey. I do believe she's one of the most photogenic girls I've ever seen. These are a few of the pictures I wanted to share with y'all. Kelsey, Joseph, and my dad. My dad with four of his six grandsons. So dang proud. I'd have given anything for Ethan and Eli to have been there. Joseph and his sweet mama, my sweet sister, Crystal. We all drove over to my cousin Tracy's beautiful house to make more pictures. Rain was a big concern and we knew she had a lovely front porch that would make a nice backdrop for the pictures. The rain held off, so we were able to make pictures all around her house. Her azaleas were in full bloom, as were lots of other pretty trees and shrubbery. It was absolutely gorgeous. These were two of my favorites that I made while we were there. And of the 106 pictures I made, this one was my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE! I'm not sure what it is that is so captivating to me, but I love it!
It was a fun, tiring night. And guess what? I get to do it all AND EVEN MORE again tonight. Tonight's Cam's senior prom! I've got lots of ideas of pictures I want to make here at home. Then we're heading over to a pretty tea room to make pictures with 17 other couples. Oh, boy, it's gonna be a long day! But one I'm sure I'll remember probably longer than I'll remember my own prom in 1983.


Till next time...

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Eli is 7 and Word of Advice

Today seven years ago, my sister Suz and Jason completed their family of five! Eli Marshall was born and I wonder now how we lived without him. What a sweet, happy, smart little boy he is. He's growing up so fast. I really can't believe he's seven years old today. Happy birthday, Eli Marshall. Yesterday I spent literally ALL day going through hundreds of pictures. Cam graduates in six weeks and I'm picking out pictures to use for his party. I wanted the first day of school for all twelve years. I finally finished last night after 7. And I started at like 10 in the morning. And worst of all, I still can't find his ninth grade picture. The search will have to continue. But not today. My heart can't take looking at any more old pictures. Looking at the old days makes me so sad. Anyway, a word of advice to all you moms out there. When you have a picture of a special day or a picture that you just really love and think you may want to use again someday in the faraway future, put it in a special folder on your computer and back it up, of course, on something external. Or print it and put it in a special box or something. Oh, how I wish I had done that. And another piece of advice. This one more important than the other one. Never be too busy or too tired or have too much work or have too messy a house to enjoy your kids. Because believe me, when Kenny Chesney sang the song, Don't Blink, it was for all us moms out here. Last night I just wanted to grab Cam and hold him and never let go. Of course, he would never have let that happen, but if I could've had one wish, that would have been it. These next six weeks are going to be long and hard. Pray for me. I'm a mom who blinked. Till next time... I'm headed to Buford to celebrate the birthday of my sweet nephew. I'm going to have a great day, that's for sure.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Our Staycation

Ross, Cam and a few friends spent a long weekend in Tybee. Jeff and I decided that rather than going anywhere ourselves, we'd just have ourselves what we dubbed a "Staycation." I have to be honest. It was a lot of fun. We did what we wanted, which involved more work than we had intended. We ate what we wanted. We slept with no interruptions. It was strange, but in a fun way. I'm in no way implying that I'm ready for my nest to be empty. But, of course, you all know that. Wednesday I finished painting the garage. It nearly killed me. Then Thursday before Cam left, we cleaned out the utility closet in the garage. If I thought I was nearly dead on Wednesday I was truly on the brink by Thursday when we finished. That closet hadn't been swept out in at least two years. Our cat sleeps in there and I'm so allergic to cat dander. Stupid me didn't wear a mask and so I inhaled so much dust and dander that I was coughing and felt pretty bad the rest of that day. It's so different having sons. They are funny about pulling out your camera to make pictures of things they're doing that you'd like to remember. For example, when they were ready to head out Thursday, I wanted a picture. But I was too embarrassed to ask. I knew they'd harass me. Because of the dust and dander in my lungs, I didn't feel up to the harassment. So I have NO PICTURE! They had a good time while they were there. There was only one minor glitch; Ross got a parking ticket for parking against the flow of traffic. Pretty minor I'd say for four boys, two girls and a three-night stay away from home. I was proud of them. Back to the staycation. Friday night we had dinner at our favorite mexican restaurant in Atlanta. Of course, unless I'm working, I don't go through Atlanta and pass this heavenly spot. So we stopped. Got a dozen hot donuts. I think I ate five. Maybe six. I don't think I want anymore for a while. I woke up Saturday morning and still felt crammed full of donuts. Luckily, I was hungry by that evening because we went to Outback for dinner. Oh, those cheddar fries are to die for, aren't they? I got my fall and winter clothes put away and brought out my spring and summer. That was a job that took a couple of hours and one that I have been dreading. Glad to have that done and over with. Now I need to go shopping. I'm asking myself what in the world I wore last summer. Jeff doesn't enjoy fishing. If he walks down to the lake with me, he usually looks for a shady spot to lay back and enjoy the peacefulness of the lake. Yesterday, while still on our staycation, I walked down to the lake. Look at this nice bass I caught. But don't look at me. I have on no makeup and look dang old. I was on staycation after all. Look how pretty the azaleas from MaMa Kimball's yard are this year.



And this makes me super excited. I found the first bloom on my hydrangea bush.


And the good news is that there are dozens of them! Each year I hold my breath because one year for no reason at all, they didn't bloom. Can't wait till the bush is hanging full of those big, pretty flowers.


Guess that's it for now. If you've never had a staycation, I highly recommend one. Very stress free and not super expensive. Gotta hit the gym. Just like I do on a vacation, I oinked like a little piggy on my staycation. Ugh.


Till next time...

Monday, April 4, 2011

All No Work and No Play

All work and no play could make A Girl Named Kelly Kelly a dull girl. If she had time to be dull, which she doesn't. I know so many people who are on vacation this week. It's spring break for most counties around here. It's making it very difficult to stay focused and work while lots of folks are at beaches and lakes having fun! But work I must. And I must so that we can have ourselves a beach trip in May and our family beach vacation in June. I'm not usually a jealous girl, but honestly, when it comes to the beach, I'm always jealous of others who are there when I'm not. Oh, well. This weekend I really didn't have too much time to think about being jealous. We worked our booties off at home. We had our house pressure washed on Friday. The guy did an awesome job and the house sparkled. Everything, that is, except for the windows. It seems that all the gunk that washed off the house washed onto the windows. They looked bad. I bought one of the Windex window cleaning kits. It worked quite well on the outside windows. Then I had to clean the ones inside. Some of them I couldn't reach, so Jeff cleaned those for me. Window washing is a job! But I have to say cleaning the windows made the biggest difference. Having clean windows makes the whole house clean. Ahhh, you know I love that. Yesterday was such a beautiful day. It wasn't as windy as it was on Saturday. I decided to go to the little lake in our neighborhood and fish for a while. I actually caught three. Then I got my line tangled up in a tree and had to break the line to get it loose. I forgot my tackle box at home, so I left. It was great fun while it lasted. While I was washing windows on Saturday, Jeff finished filling the hole where the tree I hated was. You can see what's left of the tree in the background of this picture. My sweet husband does such a great job at every project he works on. He is a perfectionist and I am so lucky, because perfection is what I like. Now we'll get a birdbath and a bird feeder and it'll be a bird's heaven. I've been working on Cam's graduation announcements a little each day. I don't want to be down to the last minute and stressed over getting them out, so I do a little at the time and it's not so bad. They sure are pretty and I get emotional every time I look at them. It's such a milestone for him and well, for me too, really. Speaking of the sweet lil' devil. He's painting the garage for me today. He's actually leaving for Tybee with Ross and some friends on Thursday for the weekend. I know he doesn't like to paint and I sure am glad he's doing it for me because I don't like to paint either. He had my debit card all weekend, so I had a little leverage when asking him to do it for me.


The worst part is that now that the walls are going to be nice and fresh, the baseboards look positively awful. That means they'll need painting, too. Something is telling me that Cam will not have time to get to those before his trip and we all know that I won't be able to wait for him to get back to get them done. I'll likely be painting baseboards this weekend.


So like my title says, all work and no play makes me a dull, but very busy girl! Busy is good, especially if you're accomplishing things that make you happy.


Till next time, peeps. Live, love, laugh!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Up Too Late

Last night I stayed up way past my bedtime. About 9 o'clock I discovered that the Betty Broderick story was on Lifetime Movie Network.



It is one of my all-time favorite movies. I've seen it dozens of times. It's a long movie, too. So I watched the entire movie again. Then guess what? It came back on again. And guess what? I stayed up and watched it again. This morning I could hardly pry my eyes open.


It's a fascinating movie to me. She was one mean lady.


There are several other movies that I've watched over and over. I'll even watch them back to back if they're played back to back.


Of course, if you know me at all, you know this one is my most favorite. I've seen this one more times than I care to admit. Even seeing this movie poster makes me want to pull it out of its case and watch it right now.


Driving Miss Daisy is one I'll watch anytime it's on, too. I love Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman. It's definitely one of my favorites. Such sweet southern charm. I love it.


Kathy Bates is one of my favorite actresses. I love everything she's been in. Misery is a great movie to me. If Jeff comes in the room and I'm watching it, he promptly turns around and walks back out. He hates it. In fact, I do believe he hates all of these movies that I love.


Ahh, Dolores Claiborne. Another great one with Kathy Bates. Dark and very disturbing. I love it.



I can kill two birds with one stone by watching Fried Green Tomatoes. I get a Kathy Bates fix and a Jessica Tandy fix all at the same time. Won't flip the channel if I come across this one either.



Not sure why I like this one so much, but I do. I'll watch it over and over too.



I'm not all morbid. Who doesn't love Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde? My favorite part is after she and her boyfriend break up and she's in the bed eating the chocolates. Love it when she comes across one she doesn't like and just throws it across the room. My kinda gal.

These are reasons why I might stay up too late. And believe me, there aren't many, but one of these movies will do it every time. How about you? What movie will you stay up late to watch, even if it's the one hundredth time you've seen it?


Till next time. Happy Friday!!!