Got to love that mountain air!

This past weekend we took a road trip!

Woo HOO!

I feel like such a dork for getting so excited over a day out of the house but it was a long time coming I tell ya! We went to Dahlonega to the Gold Rush Days. We had a lot of fun. Jacob adores being outside. He just kicked back in his stroller and took it all in. We also visited Kev's alma mater.

Kevin graduated from North GA College & State University after 4 years in the Core of Cadets, Hooah! He was on the course to commission but the Lord changed his heart and showed him other plans. However his experience at NGCSU is something that he'll never forget. He loves that school and what it stands for. I went there as a freshman and I have to agree that there's just something about mountain air that revives your soul!


It was insanely crowded! Evidently this was the 50th anniversary for the festival and everyone on the planet decided to come and celebrate. They had lots of food. Kevin got a gi-normous hand-dipped corn dog that was at least as long as his arm. Then he went into the ice cream shop and came out with a "Banana Royale"...darn high metabolism. I'm pretty sure I gained 5 lbs just because I was sitting beside him when he ate it! This brings me to my only grievance of the trip...NO TRUFFLES! I love truffles. I love to pick them out of the pretty glass cases at the Fudge Factory. I love to watch as they place each precious chocolate covered piece of smooth creamy yummy yummy-ness into a white paper bag for me to take home. I take the selection of my truffles very serious as do I with anything that involves chocolate. However, much to my dismay, the only ones they had were pre-packaged in large boxes and were very expensive. I settled (begrudgingly) for a caramel apple instead. The apple was delightful.


After the festival and visiting the college we stopped by and visited with friends that we hadn't seen in a very long time, Joseph & Sonya and their little guy Jayson. Kevin and Joseph were roommates in college.


We were so busy buzzing from one place to the other that I nearly forgot to take any pictures. I did however manage a few and here they are...


Here is Kevin and Jacob watching the fire trucks in the parade. As loud as they were we could barely get Jacob to pay any attention to them.



Here is Jacob doing what he did the entire parade...staring at the little girl behind us that was clapping...6 month olds!



The boys are standing in front of Price Memorial with the golden steeple. Fancy, huh? We had to show the college to Jacob. This is also where Kevin proposed to me in 2005.

We just happened to be on campus at Retreat and got to see the guys retire the colors for the day.



Jacob was pooped. This picture was actually Sunday, the day AFTER we got back! LOL He pretty much had to sleep a whole day to recover.

 All in all, we had a great time and enjoyed reliving old memories and making new ones.

Later
-K

Feeling the Love...

I am looking out the window of our office. The sunshine is gorgeous and there's a cool breeze that's been blowing all day. I have been working on a care plan for school/clinical and have had to stop and take a break; a much needed break. Over the past few weeks I have been focusing on prioritizing tasks & my roles in life so that maybe, just maybe things can run a little smoother and I can stop being late to every appointment, event, etc in my life! This is a constant juggling act! Trying to understand my role as a mother of a very stubborn 6 1/2 month old (very stubborn) and asking God to help me better understand my role as a wife has proven to be a daunting task indeed! And take it from me, when you ask God to search your heart, you better brace yourself for what He may find. I will say that through this journey of self-evaluation I discovered that I had lost focus of just how much I really love my husband. I mean really...like giddy as a school girl, love him. It's so easy to get wrapped up in day to day madness (not madness in a derogatory way but just the pleasantries of life) that romance and lovey feelings can be pushed aside for what, at the time, feels like more important things. SO WRONG! I have had so much joy today in remembering why I fell in love with Kevin in the first place. So, I urge you to reach out today and hug or kiss or whatever floats your boat, your husband or your wife even if you only have a second...

Kevin is my best friend. Seriously. I share everything with him and pretty much always have. This is a big deal because I am a pretty closed person these days. I wasn't so much as a teenager but as I have gotten older I find that I have a harder and harder time maintaining "girlfriends" because of my inability to open up. Kevin sees through that and he pushes me to be honest. We have gotten so close over the past 4 1/2 years of marriage. We've been through a lot and our marriage is stronger because of it. He's there. He's present as a husband and present as a father. He's a gem. He works hard for our family and loves me and Jacob like crazy.

This is how it should be with your husband, so a part of me feels a little redundant posting that I find completion (a little Jerry Maguire, I know) in the man that I married but I have seen too often that this isn't the case in a lot of marriages. So I post this today to say that I am blessed with a sweet family and a loving husband. The End.

Here are some pictures of us from PCB last year. The day before we left for this vacation I took a pregnancy test and found out we were having a baby. This was the best vacation I've ever had. We had so much fun! I love looking at these because it reminds me of the fear/excitement we were feeling at those moments...

-K

Rainy Days & Mondays

I hate rainy days. There, I'm just putting that out there. I can barely stay awake and I feel like I need to drink more coffee than usual. "We sure needed this rain," well maybe we did but I still cannot love a day where the ground is so smushy that my heels sink in, a day that my hair will inevitable frizz to high heaven and force me to go to school looking like a chia pet, a day where huge giant gargantuan earth worms rise from below and take over my screened in porch (I would post a picture of this if I weren't too freaked out to open my back door. I would post a picture of my frizzy hair if I weren't afraid YOU'D be too freaked out to finish this post). Take the rainy and add in a Monday and I'm hard pressed to get out the door in the mornings...as a matter of fact I did not this morning. I'm still here in my PJ's working on school stuff. Some (my husband) would say that the mere fact that I am posting on a blog means that I am not efficiently using my time. This might appear to be the case, however, I would argue that I MUST take a break every couple of hours to prevent sticking my pencil through my eye out of sheer boredom and/or frustration of reading one kajillion pages in a sitting. So, as a part of my down time in between readings I would like to share with you a clip from Tim Hawkins. He makes me laugh and I'd like to pass that laugh on to you on this rainy Monday. Cheers!







-K

WARNING

 **WARNING: View at your own risk. While taking in such cuteness you might experience shortness of breath, inability to stop smiling, desire to go out and buy a puppy, a sense that you should be pinching someone's cheek, actually pinching someone's cheek, getting pinched back for the former, wishing you would have just kept your hands to yourself, wanting to bake some homemade biscuits to sop up the syrupy sweetness, etc.  **

Fat cheeks and drool...gotta love it!

-K



Whew!

I am a terrible blogger! I have just realized that one must actually BLOG to have a successful BLOG...weird huh?!?
Well I'm working up something really great.
I'm thinking of some kind of blog post that will blow your mind. (maybe not)
It's gonna be good...
It'll be worth coming back for...
It'll be sometime tomorrow because I'm absolutely pooped!

But since you're here, adore my child's face. I mean, why not? It's right in front of you!

Later!

-K

When are you getting up???

So this past week has been a total disaster. I got home from Saturday clinical (where I let my patient die I might add- no worries it was a simulation! LOL) to find Kevin with a sore throat. Now anyone who knows him knows that it's just a matter of time before he crashes once that darn throat is sore. By Sunday afternoon he was feverish and it was all downhill from there. He kept a fever of anywhere from 10o to 102 until Wednesday evening. He was zonked completely and lived on the couch. Poor thing! The fever literally wiped him out. Meanwhile, Jacob starts coughing and sneezing and gets so congested that he can barely drink his bottles. Kevin was too sick to be around Jacob so the little man clung to me and felt so rough he didn't want me to put him down. Also, I am in nursing school and that tends to require you to attend class and take exams, neither of which was I able to do. I just prayed I wouldn't catch whatever they had and powered through as best I could. Sunday night Jacob nor Kevin (which equals "nor Keri") slept. Monday I had to miss both of my classes and stayed home with the guys. I called my mother in law to come and stay for an hour or so to give me time to run to Kroger and get essentials and formula and some more meds for the coughing twins. I got a call, oh about, every 5 to 10 minutes from Kevin wondering when was I going to be home because Jacob decided to have a total meltdown in my absence. Now, only having an hour to drive to town and do all that I needed to do was already pushing it but you factor in the interruption of a phone call every 5 minutes and I was about to lose my mind! By Tuesday morning I was pretty sure they were both dying (according to how pitiful they acted) so I made Kevin an appt w/ Dr Robinson to make sure he didn't have the flu and took Jacob Tuesday afternoon to make sure he was okay and didn't have an ear infection. Thankfully, no flu, no ear infection but a sinus infection. All week has been nursing the sick and trying to get Kevin everything he needs while keeping Jacob satisfied and settled down. These are the times that I really feel useful and I love taking care of my family but man it was exhausting. School didn't stop just because I wasn't there. I found myself sitting up till very late trying to complete assignments by the deadlines and then finally laying down only to get right back up with Jacob crying. Things finally got better by Thursday. Kevin was still coughing and dealing with sinus drainage but the fever was gone. We left Jacob with Kevin's mom Thursday so I could catch up on school stuff. I was/am so behind. While I was working on my assignments Thursday I developed a little tickle in my throat (GREAT). By yesterday morning my throat was super sore and I had a cough. Last night I was struggling not to just crash I was feeling so rough. I told Kevin I wasn't feeling too great and he said "me either can you bring me some Tylenol and some water and the rest of my cough medicine please." Sure I can, dear, right after I die from coughing and exhaustion, resurrect myself, and get myself some Tylenol...Ugh. Which brings me to this morning- Jacob slept till 8am (Hooray!) and I got some much needed sleep. Kevin got up at 8 and started feeding Jacob his bottle (Hooray!). I laid in the bed and ached and coughed and just soaked up my pillow and how nice and cool it felt on my tired face. Then at 8:15 I hear "Keri...When are you getting up? Have you fixed any coffee? What's for breakfast? Man I still feel kinda rough..."

cough...cough...
-K

ahhh...

today I am reflecting on a past time...a time when I wasn't fat, my feet didn't hurt and swell, my house was clean, my car was semi-clean (okay okay my car was never clean), dinner was cooked and eaten before 8pm, dishes were in stacks that didn't stand taller than I, sleep only happened in my bed and not in my car or class or church or any given time that I am breathing, a time when i didn't feel like shooting people in the face simply because I forgot my travel mug of coffee when rushing out the door to Carrollton, a time before my laundry became what seems to be an actual living creature that multiplies constantly and follows me to every room in my house (I swear it has eyes)...

Deep breath (inhale, exhale)

Thank you Lord for this day and every opportunity. May I approach every situation with an attitude that is pleasing to you.

Alright, moving on.