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Girl Falls in Love

April 28, 2010 by Kelli

Lee and I are just months away from our 10 year Anniversary (July 22). Last week, I purchased our tickets to Milan, Italy for mid-September where we will spend ten days driving through Switzerland, Austria and Italy (we may even try to swing through France if we have time) to celebrate. As we ramp up to this big milestone in our marriage, I will be recording some of the favorite memories of our life together…

Read part one of this story here.

While I was in Kiev, Lee and I emailed back and forth several times. We both had the purest of intentions, of course. I mean, obviously, I was concerned with how his first few months as area director for K-Life were going and I was emailing him solely to encourage him in his new endeavor. And he was clearly concerned with how I was coping in a foreign country all by myself and just wanted to encourage me in my endeavor.

Ahem…

I still have those emails, by the way. I printed them off and saved them. Because I knew I was going to marry this man. Turns out that the night I left for Kiev, Lee called his parents and told them he was pretty sure he had just met the girl he was going to marry.

So when I returned to Waco in January of 1999, I prepared myself to see Lee again for the first time. We worked together in ministry so I knew I had to tread carefully. I couldn’t let on that I had a mad crush on the new guy. So when I arrived at that first K-Life meeting, I made a very concerted effort not to look down the aisle at Lee. We met in an old movie theater and he was standing right up front and it took every bit of willpower to not head straight for him and say hello. Instead, I very slowly meandered my way down to the front, stopping and talking to friends along the way.

Two of my sweet friends had caught on a bit to Lee’s crush and told me later that they were watching Lee when I walked in the room to see what his reaction would be. Apparently he was a little obvious because they both say that their suspicions were confirmed by his point blank stare.

Lee says he still remembers what I looked like when I walked into the theater. Short hair (due to a very unfortunate incident in a hair salon during one of my side trips to London that involved an orange-haired stylist from New Zealand…), orange coat and blue jeans. I don’t remember what Lee was wearing – probably jeans, a t-shirt and a baseball hat – but I remember that when I finally got to the front of the room and spoke to him, my heart started racing and my palms sweating.

After the meeting, I hung around a bit to catch up with my future husband. I believe we talked for about an hour. He sat on one side of the aisle, I on the other. I left on cloud nine and practically floated back to my apartment.

That second semester of school found Lee and I dancing around one another, both coming up with random reasons to call each other. I worked really, really hard to hide my feelings for him. And, for the most part, I succeeded. The only person to figure out what I was up to was Dana, Lee’s partner. Lee, however, did not do as good of a job hiding his feelings. Almost everyone suspected that he had a bit of a crush.

Lee and I both led Friday morning Bible studies that semester – I with the senior girls and Lee with the senior boys. My girls were supposed to meet me at the K-Life house at 6:45 and Lee’s Bible study started at 7:00. I would always arrive around 6:40 so Lee and I could have a few minutes to talk. My girls caught on to this and decided to take it upon themselves to hook us up. So they conspired to show up late every week. They never showed up before 7:00. I did not know about this until much later. Turns out they were certain that Lee liked me, but they weren’t sure how I felt, so they wanted me to have some alone time with him to figure it out.

Brilliant girls.

In April of 1999, I drove with Lee to Conway to interview for a position as a youth intern at his home church. Even though I had offers that may have been a little more exciting for the summer (I had a job offer coaching gymnastics at Bela Karolyi’s camp in Houston and I also had an offer to intern at a church in Orlando), I really wanted to go to Conway, Arkansas so I could get to know Lee’s family and have easy access to him for the summer. On the way home from that trip, Lee asked me if he could keep in touch with me over the summer – he would remain in Waco for part of the time and then go to Germany to play basketball for a month.

That was as close to a DTR as we got. And that day, I bought a journal and began secretly writing letters to Lee. I gave him that journal a little over a year later the day we got married.

To be continued in which I will share the first time Lee told me he loved me. Definately a story worth recording…

Filed Under: Family, Lee, Letters, Life, Marriage Tagged With: Girls Falls in Love

Girl Meets Boy

April 26, 2010 by Kelli

It was March of 1998. I was a 19-year-old sophomore at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. One of the things I did with my free time was volunteer with a youth discipleship organization called K-Life. Our two area directors were getting married and moving on, so they brought in a new guy, who would start serving as the Waco area director in the fall.

His name was Lee Stuart.

He came to one of our leaders meetings and the memory of that night is seared into my brain. He was sitting on the floor, against the wall next to the front door of the K-Life house. He had on a baseball hat, shorts and a T-Shirt and I thought he was adorable. I tried not to be too obvious with my staring…

Did I mention that I was dating someone at this point? Yeah – I should mention that.

We were split into groups to write monologues for an upcoming Easter Cross Talk where people would portray different characters from the crucifixion. Lee was placed in my group and we were assigned Peter. He laid on a bean bag behind me and we contemplated what Peter must have been thinking and feeling during that long night. I fought hard not to be a silly, giggly girl. I was being all aloof and cool. I wasn’t going to be that girl who fawned all over the new guy, even though my heart was racing…

After the meeting was over, I stood talking with a couple of the other girl leaders about the new guy. “My only fear with him,” one girl said, “is that all the female leaders are going to see him as someone to date and he’s going to be a distraction.”

“Oh yeah, totally,” I agreed. “Hopefully people can remember that he’s not here to find his wife but to lead the ministry.” I said this while envisioning myself in a wedding gown. Nice.

It should also be noted that Lee does not remember this first meeting. Boys! *eyeroll*

Lee left the next day and I went about my business at school, dating my current boyfriend and planning for my next semester, which would be studying abroad in Kiev, Ukraine. I went on a tour with my choir in May to Spain, then came home for a little downtime with my family. During that time, I found out that Lee was working as the Program’s Director at Kanakuk Kamps, so I did what any self-respecting girl who had a little crush would do.

I wrote him a letter.

You see, I had worked at Kanakuk the summer before and I knew what kind of girls were there. Cute girls. Athletic girls who loved God. The kind of girls that would be very attractive to someone like Lee. And he was quite the catch so I didn’t doubt at all that girls would be after him. I knew I had to get my name out there before some other girl swept in and stole his heart. And yes, I was still dating someone else at this point – but I was keeping my options open. Clearly…

So I wrote Lee a letter telling him how excited I was to have him come to Waco and that I was praying for him as he prepared to move and change jobs. I was completely shameless and my motives were anything but pure.

I headed back down to Waco in June for a semester of summer school and while I was there, Lee and the other director, Dana, came down for a couple of days to meet some of the kids. I met up with them for ice cream. I laid on the charm and sent Lee on his way, confident he would be thinking about me at least for a little while. Turns out he was pretty smitten by the time he left Waco.

I’m good, folks. Really good.

A week later, my boyfriend and I broke up. I really liked that guy and I was very sad to see the relationship end, but I was equally relieved because I had a feeling, deep down, that Lee was the man I would end up with. It’s the terrible cliche that you always hear, but in my case it was true. I just knew.

I would see Lee one more time the night before I left for Ukraine. I went to the K-Life house where a group of the leaders was hanging out. Lee and I tried swing dancing together. We were flirting terribly, but both trying not to be obvious. I’m not sure we totally succeeded.

The next day, I left for Ukraine and I wouldn’t return until January. And the first time I saw Lee upon my return is a pivotal moment that both of us remember…

To be continued at a later date…

Filed Under: Family, Lee, Life, Marriage Tagged With: Falling in Love, Flashback, Girl Meets Boy

My Stud Muffin with his Stud Muffie

March 29, 2010 by Kelli

I can’t get enough of watching Landon handle a ball. From what I hear, he’s better at two than his daddy was, which is apparently a big deal. It’s just so fun to watch him get hold of a basketball and start dribbling. He is now starting to run and dribble and he gets a very intense look on his face when he does it. I love that the child who was named after his dad (his middle name is Lee) is so much like his dad. And I love watching the kids play with their dad. Landon shares his daddy’s love and skill in basketball. Sloan shares his dad’s love and skill in golf. And Tia shares her dad’s love for competition. They all got a little bit of him.

As you can see, Daddy gets a bit intense about dribbling a ball. So much so that sometimes he has to be reminded to share. Ha!

My husband is hot. S’okay – you can agree with me. 🙂

I found this picture on my computer this morning and it made me smile. I love my family…

Filed Under: Family, Kids, Landon, Lee, Life, Motherhood, Random Tagged With: Basketball, Family

Beautiful Lips

March 22, 2010 by Kelli

It was October of 1999. I was a senior at Baylor University and Lee and I were an official “item.” We’d had the obligatory *DTR sometime mid-July and we had finally settled into calling one another boyfriend and girlfriend, although I must admit I giggled every time I called him my boyfriend. It sounded so silly and trivial for no other reason than I knew I was going to marry this man and “boyfriend” seemed to diminish that.

But whatever – he hadn’t put a ring on it yet so that’s what we were stuck with. You know what else he hadn’t done yet?

Kissed me.

Ah, he was a noble lad. He was ever the gentleman and I think he was trying to hold out until he proposed. But that could take forever for all I knew and, being the little minx that I was, I was doing everything in my power to break his will.

I put on shiny lip gloss. I bat my eyes repeatedly. I giggled and grabbed his arm when he made a joke. When we hugged I layed my head against his chest and lingered as long as he would let me. And he was weakening, I could tell.

Then came the crisp Texas October night. We were standing in the parking lot of my apartment complex saying our long, drawn out good-byes. It was after midnight and Lee had to get up early the next morning. I was feeling brazen and had made it some kind of subconcious mission to get him to kiss me.

We were discussing things that only those who are young and in love discuss. Those discussions that have a sole purpose of giving you extra time to stare into one another’s eyes and dig deeper into the heart of the one you adore. They are cheesy and innocent and sometimes I miss those conversations. We still have them but they’re usually laced with fecicious banter and laughter…which is also fun, come to think of it.

“What is your favorite physical trait?” Lee asked. Before I tell you my reply, I’d like to remind you once again that I had a mission to get him to kiss me. We had been an official item for roughly three months and I was so close to cracking through his gold plated chivalry.

Naughty girl…

“My kissable lips,” I said without missing a beat. His eyes widened and I grinned mischeviously. I blinked and gave him my best Come Hither.

“Gotta go,” he said and with a quick hug he hopped into his1992 fire red Pontiac Grand Am and tore out of the parking lot, dust and rocks billowing behind him. Like James Dean…only not as cool.

Dang! He was good. I was terrible, but he was good.

He finally kissed me about a week later after we had our first argument. I can’t even remember what we fought about but I do know it resulted in him looking at me and saying, “This not kissing thing is getting hard.”

We got engaged three weeks later. He was so close…

Fast forward ten and a half years to Friday when I sat on the couch with the kids watching TV. A Revlon commercial came on with Jessica Alba prancing around looking all catlike at the camera. She was advertising lipstick. When they zoomed in on her lips Sloan, who was nestled in the crook of my arm, shook his head slowly.

“Whoa,” he said. “She’s got beautiful lips.”

My head snapped down and he looked slyly at me from the corner of his eye with a devilish little grin and blushed slightly. Then he shrugged his shoulders all cool and said, “What? She’s a beautiful girl.”

He comes by it honestly folks…

*Define The Relationship

Filed Under: funny stuff that happens, Kids do the darndest things, Lee, Sloan Tagged With: Jessica Alba, Kids, kids say the darndest things, Motherhood, Revlon

He’s not having fun at all…

March 12, 2010 by Kelli

While his older brother and sister are galavanting about Florida with their grandparents, Landon is left here at home to experience something he has never known – what it’s like to be an only child.

I don’t think he likes it. I mean, he’s got his dad all to himself…

where he’s allowed to climb,

stand,

and jump

onto daddy’s belly

and he doesn’t have to fight

with anyone else for daddy’s attention.

Daddy makes elephant sounds

And Landon makes them back.

He’s got daddy’s undivided attention,

and he’s clearly not enjoying himself.

Nope – not one little bit.

Filed Under: Family, Kids, Landon, Lee, Life Tagged With: Landon, parenting, Single Child

On Menopause

March 11, 2010 by Kelli

Our friends Scott and Marci invited us to a client appreciation dinner last night and afterwards we were treated to the play, Menopause: The Musical. A play where four menopausal (or post-menopausal) women sing and dance about all things menopause. Lee and I were completely unsure about this play as we prepared to leave. Lee in particular was preparing to meet the evening with a bit of trepidation. But we were assured by many (men and women alike) that it is indeed a hilrious program, no matter how old you are. And I will say – that is true. We laughed…a lot.

A few observations:

Gettin’ old blows. There’s no two ways about it. Oh sure, with age comes maturity, experience, wisdom and all manner of blessings. But with all those glorious blessings also come hot flashes, memory loss and, apparently, THE CRAZIES.
If you age with a sense of humor, it can be fun. And funny, as these women so aptly proved last night. I mean, really, singing about night flashes to the tune of Stayin’ Alive? Funny.
I’m glad that the “change of life” is still a ways off for me. Sweet mercy, I’ve already got THE CRAZIES. I don’t need THE CRAZIES accompanied by hot flashes and memory loss…
Actually, come to think of it I am having uncharacteristic memory loss. I think it’s kid-induced rather than hormonal, but it does prove that I’m only one hot flash shy of “the change.” Awesome.
No matter which way you cut it, middle aged women dancing in robes and nighties and singing about hormonal changes and sex is funny…and uncomfortable – but mostly funny.
Do not drink two bottles of water and a glass of wine before the show, then take your seat in the middle of the row without going to the bathroom first. There is no intermission…
Should you go see this play yourself be sure to sit directly behind two women who are in their sixties and cackle so loudly that you fear they may wet themselves. It will totally and completely enhance the performance and will cause your husband to roll around in his chair overcome with hysterics.

So, to recap – aging is inevitable; no matter how old you are, if you drink too much then sit down to watch a hysterical recounting of aging you will be uncomfortable and laughing will be dangerous; sit behind women who have already experienced “the change” – it’s way more fun; don’t get scared of “the change”, especially when you realize you’re one hot flash away from it; and aging blows, but it can also be funny.

I think that about covers it.

Filed Under: Family, Lee, Life, Random Tagged With: Menopause: The Musical

Nobody said we were smart

February 1, 2010 by Kelli

Tomorrow is a big day. A day when we will begin to see some of the mysteries unravel. We’ll find out if Juliet is still alive, if Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Jin and Hurley are back where they began, if time got rebooted, if Sayyid lives, and “what lies in the shadow of the statue?”

Oh – and our daughter turns four. Could the day be more exciting?!

In preparation for the final season of LOST, Lee and I have been staying up, ahem, rather late this last week rewatching all of last season. And last night, even though we knew that the boys would probably wake up in the middle of the night due to colds, we decided to watch two episodes because we had four episodes left to watch and we, my friends, know what’s important in life.

And sure enough, not two hours after I went to sleep, Landon was crying/hacking in his bed. It was 1:01 am. So I dragged myself up, gave him medicine, cuddled and rocked him and stumbled back to bed.

At 2:02 he was crying again, so I brought him to bed with me in the hopes that we could both get a little sleep. At 2:22 he was sitting up in our bed, his chubby face inches from mine whispering, “Hi Mommy. I yub you, Mommy? Yere’s (where’s) Woan Tia (Sloan and Tia) Mommy?” And despite the fact that I needed a crowbar to pull my fatigued eyelids apart, I had to smile at his cherubic little face grinning at me in the dark.

So I dragged myself back out of bed and took him back to his room. We rocked a bit more, then I laid him down and got back in bed at 3:03. At 3:23 I stumbled back to his room to give him his doggy book, which had fallen out of his bed and he was insisting be returned to him.

At 4:04 (I swear I’m not making these times up – it was weird) I looked at the clock for the last time as Landon moaned and whimpered from his bed. The next thing I knew, it was 6:26 and Sloan was standing over the bed.

The timing of all the wake ups was a little creepy and served as evidence that when you spend too much time lost in the mysteries of LOST, strange and crazy things start happening. Not to mention the fact that you dream about polar bears, time travel and smoke monsters.

If we were smart, we’d forgo the LOST viewing this evening and go to bed early. But that’s not going to happen. We’ve made it this far so we’re committed now. And so I shall drink my coffee, yawn so wide I suck the oxygen out of the room and power forward. Because life is all about priorities, people!

I’m off now to pack the make up under my saggy eyes…

Filed Under: Lee, Sickness Tagged With: LOST

This is why daddy is so much fun

January 26, 2010 by Kelli

Nearly every evening, our home is filled with delighted shreeks, hysterical giggles and the occasional tears – and all of it is caused by the man that our kids call “Daddy.”

He’s a good daddy. He knows how to love his kids. Even if he’s exhausted, if they come to him with big eyes and ask him to wrestle, he will almost always say yes. Particularly if Tia blinks her huge blue eyes in his direction. Usually I have to scrape his heart off the floor so he can answer her.

The wrestling is loud, it’s crazy and it’s rough. He doesn’t hold back – not even with the girl. And when she cries, he reminds her that if she wants to play she has to buck up and be tough. And she will take a deep breath, brush the tears off her face and dive back in.

And it’s not only wrestling – there’s also tickling, some hide and seek and a good deal of chasing. In short, it’s good, good fun. I leave you with evidence.

What about you guys? How do your kids have fun with their daddies?

Filed Under: Family, Kids, Lee

What was I thinking?

September 9, 2008 by Kelli

A few months into our marriage, I got the crazy, horrific idea that I wanted to be a brunette. This was during a time when several previously blonde movie stars had gone brunette and I thought surely I’d look as good as they did. I told Lee what I was thinking and he was all, “Cool! Great idea! Can I help pick out the color?”

So, we packed our classy selves up and headed to the local Walgreens because where else would a fabulous makeover begin but in the aisle’s of a chain pharmacy? After scouring over the different choices of hair color, we found a brilliant auburn that we both liked. The girl on the front of the box looked beautiful, breezy and very natural. I felt confident as I shelled out my 10 bucks that I was fast approaching a new, radient me.

Upon returning home, Lee had to head off to work and I decided to go ahead and get the process going. We had only one car at that time for some reason that I can’t recall, so he just dropped me off and I assured him that I would be a sexy brunette when he returned.

I quickly tore into the box and applied the hair color, then sat down and waited for the 25 minutes to pass. Finally, with much excitement, I rushed back into the bathroom and checked my hair. I knew immediately that this was not going to turn out as I’d hoped. My head had a blackish purple color to it. I quickly jumped into the shower and tried not to panic as I saw the dark, very dark color, swirling at my feet. Upon getting out and drying my hair, I began shaking and an actual panic attack set in.

My hair was not the sexy brown of the girl on the box, but was actually a dark, almost purple color. I looked like some punk goth kid out to prove to her parents and the world that reality does indeed bite.

So I called Lee and tearfully told he needed to come home now, which he did and promptly began laughing his head off. And, God help me, I tried to laugh with him, but it’s really hard to laugh when you’re bawling. So, after Lee composed himself, we headed to the mall (mistake number 2) and I walked into a Regis hair salon and shamefully asked if they’d bleach it out. Instead, they tried to just lighten the color so as not to damage my hair with bleach. An hour and a half later, I had red and orange stripes in my hair and I was sobbing…again. They finally bleached my hair.

At this point my scalp was bleeding and my hair was a very vibrant orange. Think Tony the Tiger – on crack. I paid my $220.00 and walked out with my head hanging low. I would go back the next day to try and correct the color but for the time being, they wanted me to let my head rest from all the chemicals.

Ya think?

Naturally, I had to work the next morning, and guess what? I was a gymnastics coach, which meant I couldn’t wear a hat. So I walked into the gym, my neon orange hair clashing horribly with my bright red cheeks. Of course, every kid in there stared unabashedly. And to top it off I worked with almost all russians. I love russians and their blatent honesty as every single one of them asked me what in God’s name I had done to my hair.

Humiliation in two languages! Perfect.

As soon as I got off, I raced back to the salon where they semi-fixed my hair. But I swear, it’s never been the same…
I know this is a terrible picture. The original is in a .tif format and I’m completely computer illliterate so all I could do was print this picture out and scan it in as a .jpeg. You get the idea though…