I’m Baaaaaack

February 3, 2014 by Kelli

So apparently I’ve got this burgeoning bandwidth that cannot contain the awesomeness of this website anymore. I’d like to say it’s because of my massive traffic to the site, which would, naturally, point to my spectacular blogging prowess these last few months, and the unendingly hilarious posts that have brought hundreds of thousands flocking to my little square of the internet.

But you and I know that’s not the case.

So why the exceeded bandwidth?

Turns out my laziness does indeed have bounds. One of the things I have never been good at in this blogging journey is dealing with photo issues. The time it takes to resize photos so that they’re smaller has long been a suggestion by top bloggers for several reasons, the biggest being it’s much harder for someone to steal your images if they’re smaller.

I just figured that my images were never really good enough to be worthy of theft, so I didn’t pay close attention to it. Turns out, I should have, because large files also eat up your bandwidth, and I have six years of large images in my archives that are munching on my space at an alarming rate.

Super Duper.

So this week I will be figuring out how to deal with that. Neither one of my options for handling the issues are overly appealing, so I have that going for me. While I head off to figure out how to best crawl out from this hole I’ve dug, here are a few pictures from the last week. And yes, I took the time to resize these images. Live and learn, eh?

Also, I’ve got some news regarding this here site to share soon.

Consider that your teaser to come back and visit.

*wink*

This sweet girl turned 8 yesterday. So, apparently, did her American Girl doll, because the doll got the best gifts.

I got a lens for Christmas that attaches to my iPhone and allows me to take macro shots. To say I love it is an understatement. I love the way your can see the world through this lens.

Today was the 100th day of school, so Landon dressed like a 100 year old man. He is the cutest 100 year old I’ve ever seen in my whole long life.

A spider web hanging from a tree, covered in morning dew. This world is really magical, isn’t it?

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: a post about nothing, Blogging, dealing with exceeded bandwidth, Photos

Insta-Wednesday is BACK!

November 20, 2013 by Kelli

My dog ran off this morning and came home covered in crap – LITERALLY. She’s an old woman, but when she sees a pile of poo, the puppy in her comes out and she cannot resist. So I spent a solid fifteen minutes chasing her around the yard with the hose, and now I smell like a wet, crappy dog.

You’re jealous of my glamorous life…

Insta-Wednesday photos for you to view while I go clean up.

Tia’s cheering square at her meet Sunday. Sweetness.

We served a Thanksgiving meal to people in need at our church’s food pantry Saturday morning.

You know…just monkeying around. And still loving’ our St. Louis Cardinals!

I just don’t even have words to describe this photo…

Lovin’ this Florida Fall Weather!

And last but not least – video evidence that my growing addiction and need for strong caffeine is warranted and justified. This was shot before 7:00 am, and before I’d completed my first cup of coffee. Their energy exceeds mine by miles….

Filed Under: Family, Florida, funny stuff that happens, Instaram, iPhone, Kids, Landon, Photography Tagged With: Insta-Wednesday, iPhone Photography, Photos, What does the fox say?

Another Typical Mom Blog Halloween Post

November 1, 2013 by Kelli

I’ve written a lot of words this last month, so today I’m sharing photos because yesterday was Halloween and this is still a Mom Blog! Capitalize Mom Blog to show respect, yo…

Have a G-R-E-A-T weekend, all! Go eat some candy!

Duck Dynasty

Rock Star Gymnast…of course!

Robber

These kids are awesome.

Filed Under: Halloween, Holidays Tagged With: costumes, Halloween, Kids, Photos

Throwback Thursday: A repost with added pictures to make it totally random

June 6, 2013 by Kelli

Between end of the year craziness (Yes, we’re still in school because apparently Florida hates children) and a tropical depression that has settled on top of us (it’s like a cruel joke to have to get up and out to school on a day when it’s dark and steadily raining – I think Mother Nature is mad at Florida…probably for hating kids), I just don’t have any decent blog posts in me.

But I have pictures and I have an old blog post that still makes me laugh…and cringe. Pictures first:

Remember when Landon looked like this?

Yesterday I went to his end of the year preschool program where they had those babies in caps and gowns and I almost died from the cute. This is my Landon now:

At one point the preschool director got up and started talking about how we only have 13 years left with these kids at home and how quickly that time will go and I briefly envisioned throwing a shoe at her, but I refrained because that would be inappropriate.

But for real.

To make this post just a little more random and to not tie it together at all, I’m going to leave you with a post that I originally published in October 2010. I wrote this after a rather unfortunate incident that occurred upon cleaning out my minivan.

Not hot.

______________________________________

Saturday night found Lee and I in the minivan, kids in tow, heading out to the mattress store to purchase two new mattresses. Never mind that the kids desperately needed them. Never mind that Tia’s mattress was so cheap that is was literally falling apart and becoming a potential hazard. Never mind that both mattresses had been peed on so many times they could be deemed a health code violation. Never mind any of those things. The fact is simply this:

I went out on Saturday evening to buy mattresses and thought it was fun.

Hi, my name is Kelli and I am a bona fide minivan mom.

Ah, but we haven’t even got to the best part of the story. What? Surely you know there would be more to this story than the fact that I had a hoot buying twin mattresses on a Saturday night, right? A hoot!

It was the incident that occurred when we returned home that sent my world aspinnin’. It started simple. We came home so Lee could drop the kids and I off and return to the mattress store to pick up our most exciting purchases. We had to remove the car seats and fold down the back seats and clean up a bit. And it was during this event that I began to question my entire identity.

The title of my blog is Minivans Are Hot. With the operative word being Hot. I know, I know…Minivan and Hot together in a sentence is an oxymoron. And most days I would beg to differ and would launch into a diatribe about how it’s sexy to be a mom and how minivan moms have it goin’ on and I would work my hardest to convince you that I was right. Until Saturday night…

What I found in the back seat of my minivan was anything but Hot. Let’s start with what I found under the seat, shall we? It was sticky…it was brown…it had flecks of leaves and dirt stuck to it. What was that?!

From there I removed the kids car seats to find enough dried, crumbled food to feed a small pack of wild baboons. It was sealed into the lining of the seat fabric and had to be scraped out with my fingernail. *heave* Don’t even get me started on what I found in their seats.

But the piece de resitance came when I crawled into the way back and looked inside the cup holder. It is here that I gasped, looked at my husband and exclaimed, “Gross! This is why minivans are NOT. HOT.” Then I clutched my chest with the gravity of my statement and fell in dramatic Disney Princess fashion onto the seat, the back of my hand against my forehead…

No I didn’t. That last part didn’t happen – mostly because I wouldn’t want to lay on those seats for $100. Maybe for $1000, though.

In the cup holder sat dried, crusted, molded bread. It appears my children are stock piling food in the back seat of our minivan in the event that a giant meteor should come crashing down to earth and we need to seek shelter inside the car for a significant amount of time. It also appears that they have eaten portions of a sandwich and then shoved the remaining portion in the cup holder and have, every day for who knows how long, been looking at this rotting sandwich and ignoring it.

It’s like I’m raising little cave people!

I promptly dug out the rot and marched to the trash can. My husband, sensing my impending melt down went dashing for the Shop Vac in the basement. Being the super hero that he is, he spent the next half hour sucking the muck out of our minivan while I went inside and lectured my children on the importance of throwing away rotten food. I also tried to talk myself out of changing my blog title from Minivans Are Hot to Minivans Are A Place Where Horrors grow Beneathe the Seats and in the Cupholders While You Yourself Obliviously Drive From Here to There Thinking You Are Looking Fine When Really You Are Controlling a Moving Science Experiment.

But in typical Hero fashion, my man came inside just as I was certain that my entire online identity was going to have to be realtered and yelled “Ta-Da!” I walked outside to see the seats clean (hey look! The fabric’s grey…) The cup holders clean…er. They still have a sticky substance that I can only assume will need to be chisled out at some point (probably just before we decide to sell the car). And it smelled much more pleasant too. It was actually quite nice in there.

I smiled at him and jumped into his arms. Small birds flitted about our heads as he spun me around and when we kissed little animated hearts floated up into the dusky sky.

Alright…that last part didn’t happen either. Sometimes I wish I lived in a cartoon.

Despite the cleanliness of my car, however, I couldn’t shake the fact that I had outwardly acknowledged the un-hotness of my minivan. And so I’m here to retrain my mind. And if any of you are having a hard time believeing that Minivans Are Hot like I am, then why don’t you join in with me as we repeat the mantra over and over.

Minivans are hot, minivans are hot, minivans are hot, minivans are not, minivans are not…

NONONONONO!!!!

Let’s try again.

Minivans are hot, minivans are hot, minivans are hot…

Do you believe it?

Filed Under: blast from the past, Family, Landon, Random Tagged With: Kids, Photos, Repost, Throwback Thursday

Thanksgiving was for…

November 26, 2012 by Kelli

Chasing

Cartwheeling

Giggling

Smiling

Sipping

Eating

Gathering

Playing

Flirting (ahem…boys!)

Snuggling

Running

Baking

Decorating

Grinning

Munching

Goofing

Together-ing

How was your Thanksgiving?

Filed Under: Family, Holidays, Thanksgiving Tagged With: Family, Photos, Thanksgiving, Together

Because I know you’re dying to see Halloween pictures

November 5, 2012 by Kelli

I mean…you lost sleep over the fact that I haven’t posted Halloween pictures didn’t you? Come on…it’s okay to admit it. I know you were beside yourself with wonder and curiosity. I know you have been waiting with bated breath to see how adorable my kids looked on candy night.

It’s cool. I get it.

And I will not let you down.

You.

Are.

Welcome.

Now if you’ll excuse me – while you look over these and ooh and aah, I am off to try and make sense of my house. I was out of town all weekend and…well….

Super Mario, a Butterfly and David Freese

She wanted to be a princess, but didn't try any costumes on until 5:00 Halloween night. Cue weeping and gnashing of teeth. Nothing felt right or looked good. Oy, the drama. So we slapped on a skirt, butterfly wings, some hair color and make up and BAM! A beautiful butterfly. Score one for mom.

I just can't get enough of this kid.

David Freese

So despite a complete and total lack of preparation, Halloween was still a smashing success.

I win.

Filed Under: Halloween, Holidays Tagged With: Halloween 2012, kids in costume, Photos

Because pictures speak volumes

May 7, 2012 by Kelli

I wanted to throw up another post because I felt like so much happened yesterday and it was too much for one post. This one is mostly picture heavy, because I’ve heard pictures speak a thousand words.

And also because it’s almost 1:00am and the last time I wrote a post on little sleep I ended up rambling on and on about Turkish Fish) which you guys should totally scroll down the comments because someone found the metaphor. She won a cyber high five from me for it…).

Me, leaping to victory. Have I ever mentioned that I'm a tad competitive?

There was a lot of fun to be had yesterday amidst the yanking and tugging of my heart. We played games (some form of Simon Says that I lost at and ended up in the mush pot because I swear the teacher was changing the rules during play…), we raced (let the record show I beat Shaun Groves), we taught the children the Macarena (you wish you were as cool as we are) and I stood in awe of Nester’s wicked Justin Bieber dance moves.

In the mush pot

This is us teaching the Chicken Dance AFTER we taught the Macarena. The parents of these children are probably soooooo glad we came and taught these.

Sure she can decorate your house on a dime, but her REAL talent is dance and Bieber is her muse...

We even put on an impromptu concert when the director asked us to sing a song. Shaun was all, “Oh they always ask us to do that.” I have to say, we rocked it. We may need to go on tour. “Lord I Lift Your Name On High” has never been more moving.

Again, you wish you were as cool as us.

Pictures. I came here to show you pictures. I’ll stop talking now…

Slamming coke. I'm pretty sure they could have beat me at this game...

The parents of the children sang and danced for us and presented us each with a unique gift that they had either made themselves or purchased.

Receiving a small wooden giraffe made her a happy Nester.

Samson, the director of this particular Compassion project, is a man of great vision and has so much love for the children. I deeply admire him.

This is what it's all about.

If you’re interested in sponsoring a child from Tanzania, click the image below. As always, you can follow along with all the other bloggers to hear what everyone else is seeing and learning. Thanks for all your support and encouragement, everyone. It means more than you know.