Melissa

A few months ago I posted about my sister, Lora, and now it is Melissa's turn. Melissa is my second  sister, and from the moment she was born I was in love with her.  She was so patient and very smart as I had to teach her everything I learned while in school.

(This is Melissa and Grandpa W.)

She left us after she graduated high school to the rocky mountains, and has stayed there since. Still as smart as ever. I still remember when I helped her move into her dorm room.  In Kansas we saw a dirt tornado that I have never seen duplicated.  Good memories.

Her love and passion for music is certainly something I share, but perhaps not our taste.  However, there are a few we do agree on: Placebo and Mumford and Sons. There might be more, but Melissa's a dancer and I have two left feet.

Her ability to calmly argue with anyone on anything is remarkable. She is always funny, and has a unique outlook on the world and the way it works.  But like her Twitter describes her, she is a slow driver, but her commentary while driving makes up for it.  You should hear it sometime.

Always an original, and following her path with Christ Melissa is unlike anyone I have ever met or known. I'm blessed to have her as my sister and I pray that her burdens be light.

So for a song she introduced me to:



The New Sound
by: The Capricorns

Much Love to Melissa,
From Kelli



Lora

This beautiful girl/woman is my sister, Lora. She was my first sister. When my parents told me we were adding to our family I wanted a girl. I remember at five being excited when she could roll over and sit up on her own. I thought that was awesome.

We did not always get along. And her ability to sell ice to Eskimos allowed her to convince our younger sister, Melissa, that I was, in fact, the Boogieman. We have quite the past the two of us, but it has been great to be her sister and friend.

Lora is amazing because of her ability to rescue you at moments you didn’t know you needed to be rescued. She has been there for me more than I can possibly put in this post, but I’m certainly glad she is my sister. Plus, she is ridiculously funny. I’ve never known one person who thought Lora was anything but.

She has recently moved out of the state to start a new adventure.  She is very much missed here, but we are so excited for her.  We hope that she has the best time while she is out there.

(Dad says her room might or might not be available when she comes back, but I'm sure that's just teasing... right Dad?)

Meanwhile I'll just call her after Sons of Anarchy and we can discuss what we just saw. If she isn't too busy.

Much love to my sister!

I'm so very proud of her!

Love her awesome music taste!

This will always remind me of her (and there were many to choose from)

Me & Bobby McGee

by Janis Joplin

Much Love,

Kelli

Happy 4th!

My deepest gratitude to those who have allowed me the freedoms I so enjoy.  And to my Savior, who has given the greatest freedom.

Much Love,
Kelli



Battle Hymn of the Republic

Saturday Fun

So, as I continue to navigate and find my voice I think Saturday's should be reserved for more fun.  I love the weekends, not that I know anyone who doesn't, but sometimes I think it needs to have a little more fun.

With that thought in mind I have some fun Saturday blog.  At least I will attempt to have that.  My humor doesn't always come across the screen correctly.

Now these titles will change as I get bored easily, but you know I'll find the best of whatever.

The Best From Twitter:

I spend a lot of time on Twitter because I can actually be on it at work without my work suffering (unlike Facebook).  And it was a great week on Twitter:

1. Gary Sinise re-tweeted me for my mom.  His awesomeness took an even bigger leap in my mind.  I didn't think that was possible.

2. The Wall Street Journal had the best article title this week on the NPR scandal: Video Killed the Radio Czar.  That made me giggle.  Loudly.

3. Pastor Paul Sheppard is back to doing his podcast sermons.  I clapped. 

4. I failed at 'Name That Movie' Quote Game from The Pioneer Woman.  Badly.  Just a future warning I fail at the game 95% of the time.  Unless the  movie is The Sandlot.  I get that one.

Fashion Finds of the Week:

1. Charming Charlie - a necklace and pair of earrings are only $12.97.  That's pretty good.

2. Adorable black dress from Torrid.

3. A great royal blue summer dress from Forever 21+ (formerly known as Faith21)

4. Like I would ever pass up great shoes:  Black Wedges, which I fully intend to buy for summer.

Best Video of the Week:



Narayanan Krishnan

(I saw this on Bethany Joy Galeotti's blog.  It truly is inspiring.)

Enjoy your weekend!

Much Love,
Kelli

Quick Thinking - I Would Like To Be

These are the kind of articles I love to read. To still see goodness in the land of the living brings a smile to my face. Okay, enough sap, but please read the article. You won't regret it.

Teen who pulled mother and children from train's path says he's no hero - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News Sacramento Bee

Posted using ShareThis

Ambition and Mondays Don't Mix

Shout Out: To Shasta whose birthday is tomorrow! Happy Birthday my dearest friend!!

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I sure did. It was fantastic to see my aunt and cousins. Poor Bobby went Day-After-Thanksgiving-Shopping with us. He did well though and there is always an invitation for next year.

As many of you know I like to march to the beat of my own drummer. Sometimes that drummer is really fast other times he is really slow, but whatever the beat it usually turns out well if I follow it. Which is why, four weeks before Christmas I decide to "turn over a new leaf", or more to the point, become that ambitious person I always knew I was.

I decided to enact this new found ambition yesterday, Monday morning. My ambition was there at 6:00 AM (not 6:15 per usual), but my body told my ambition to take a flying leap as it was tired and went on to hit the snooze alarm twice. To be fair to my body though we just had a major break and a road trip. Those do not make for good combinations when trying to start a new routine.

Then, my other ambition was to change my hours at work to go from 8:30 - 5:30 every day. As I had been working only 9-5. Again, this didn't quite work out the way I had envisioned either. Since I hit the snooze alarm twice it set me back, and I didn't start work until 9. Then, the day was a tad slow so I ended up walking out at 5.

You would think this might put a damper on things, but no it didn't. Despite the setbacks it was still a really good day. Then I decided to blog about it. This was another ambitious plan. See I'm starting my new business and I want to blog about that as well, so I set up my computer last night and blogged while watching One Tree Hill. Alas as I went to set the fonts for the post I ended up deleting the post... TWICE! I decided not to try a third time.

I was also going to watch, The Secret of My Success, because it is the Secret of My Ambition. LOL, oh come on, that's funny! However, I ended up going downstairs and hanging out with the family and talking with Melissa. That was by far the better idea, so again, didn't quite work out, but that's okay.

So here we are today. I only hit the alarm once. I got to work at 8:30, but obviously won't be starting until 9. However, I can stay late today. So that is all about me.

Now, I read this article yesterday. And it was such a sweet article. If you too want warm fuzzies, please read this. (I also like the fact that the picture displayed is the same as my phone.)

I hope you all have a great day and I will be chatting with you later! Love to all!!

Motivated for Halloween Specials?

Shout Out: Andi who made call backs for the musical audtions!

Good day,

Yeah, I didn't get this posted first thing, which might make you think the motivation seminar didn't do its job. That's just not true. I was motivated to do my job, which I think my boss would say that was a better motivation than this piece.

It was a great seminar, even Colin Powell was good to listen to. He was quite funny. Now, of course, the man of the hour, was George W. Bush, and he was as funny and wonderful as I remember. Terry Bradshaw was hilarious and there were several others that were wonderful to listen to. Since I'm on the political side for the moment I find it hilarious that although the left tries to defend their position of reporting on Obama they can't deny what they're doing. Here's a great article called, What If Bush Had Done That.

However, this is more of a Halloween update special. Now, I want to make sure you know that Charlie Brown's Halloween Special will be airing on both the 27th and 28th (today and tomorrow for those without a calendar) on ABC. So be sure to look for listings and watch.

Next, I found this link particularly funny: 65 of Sci-Fi's Most Amusing "One Letter Off" Movie Titles Now, if you think you can do better I feel you should submit them to me and everyone else as I'm sure we can all use the laugh. :D

Now, this is where I spent most of my time, 31 Classic Halloween TV episodes and specials, and you probably will too as this had some great clips. It includes my favorite Simpson Tree House Horror Episode, which is Tree House Horror V, and includes the clip:

So funny and soo good. I'll have to see if I can find one of my favorite Simpsons moment for another update. I think this concludes this week. Short and brief. Just like you like it. :-)

Also my church is having their Fall Festival this Sunday on the 1st. Stop by and support the academy. Or me, I have a fun game of racing ping pongs. I want tournament participants of each age.

I hope you all have a great Halloween!

Hello All!

So much to get to today! First a shout out to Morty who gave me a thumbs up on my musical selection last week. I though it was awesome too. :D On that note I have another list you might be interested in. Since one of my favorite people in the world was born in 1980 (hello Shasta!) here are the Top Ten Songs from 1980. Almost thirty years.... yes, it has been that long. I can't argue with number one song though...

So, Friday was fun. We went to watch Andi play N. Crowley, in Ft.Worth on that night. We determined there must have been a police convention there because we had never seen so many cop cars in one place. There were a lot of people there too. We joked that we would have to leave early just so we could get back to the truck before they closed up. Well we did end up leaving early but it really had nothing to do with where we were parked.

As you know bleachers are not known for comfort or room, but everyone tries to make allowances for that and be more curtious to each other. Not so on Friday. The place was packed on our side, which is really kind of unusual for an away game, but none the less we found a bench where the seating was Lora, Mom, Me, and Dad at the end.

Well this woman came and sat down behind us and decided her knee fit nicely between Mom and myself. So, Mom scooted closer to Lora and I scooted closer to Dad. Turns out that this was not enough space either for the woman as she continued to poke us with different body parts, and then swung her blanket around hitting us in the head. Never apologizing once! Then, thankfully not to me, but to poor Mom, decided that she was ready to get into the spirit of the football game and yell as loud as she could in my mother's ear. (It was for our team, but her timing was off and ended up being yelled when the other team took the field.)

So, we watched the half time show, where Andi did well AND caught her rifle, but left once the 4th quarter started. (Turns out it was a good thing the cops were there as someone got arrested in the parking lot when we were trying to leave.)

The weekend was nice as well especially because Grandpa W. and Arlene were able to come join us on Sunday and then took us out to lunch. Yum!

Now, yesterday I went to my first protest. We were protesting protesters actually. You can read the article here. You can even see video, and I looked, thankfully you can't see me either. (I was on the for prayer side.) I have been living with fear since I've come back, and it has nearly crippled me emotionally. I can't really explain it but I second guess everything and I'm terrified to do anything. As most of you know I'm usually a very forthright, honest, bold, and face fear kind of person, but I haven't been that way for nearly two months now.

I know God did not give me a spirit of fear, and I pray about it to Him because I can't seem to get past it. Yesterday was a prime example of that fear. I wanted to go, knew I should, but I was afraid to go and be alone. So as the minutes were ticking by I prayed and asked God to help me with that fear. So I stood up and went to talk to my dad. He said well why don't you go, see if you can see anyone, and if you don't come back. That put me at ease so I did just that.

I saw Mrs. Pat H. and stayed. There was also a few others that I talked with. It was fun. There were far mor of us than the other side. Plus it progressed like I think any good Christian get together does: There was some praying, singing, and people in groups chit chating, all while holding signs and having fun. The only thing not present was the food, but that's okay.

All in all it was a good experience and I'm slowly coming back to my old self again. Now, for someone who's boldness still inspires me I thought this article on Kirk Cameron was really good.

Meanwhile I have much more talk about, but I don't want to make this any longer. So I'll go but visit my blog and I promise more goodies. Well, stuff I like anyway.

I hope you all have a fabulous week!

The Good Are Out There

You may have thought my story on Kaleb Eulls was just a one trick pony. And for a while I did too, but I am happy to report that as of today it is not just the only good news out there. While Thamail Morgan's story may not be as life threatening as Kaleb's was, but it is no less heroic.

There is something that seems to resonate in all of us when someone takes the second chance offered and runs with it. It reminds us that we all need a second chance (and some of us more than two), and how people really can learn from their mistakes and go on to bigger and better things slightly wiser than when they started. You can read what I'm waxing poetic about here. The best part is, he's a football player. I'm not sure if that excites me because I follow football more than any other sport or because I'm from Texas and you know how we love our football. I'll let you speculate.

Meanwhile, I celebrated my own milestone today. My beautiful car (even though slightly dented thanks to someone who thought the Stop sign was just a suggestion) hit 90,000 miles today. At ten years of age she is still a great machine and when I do move onto another vehicle I will miss this car.

Also tonight I have a jewelry party and I'm setting my sights on not buying anything. After all I really don't have the money, but if they have a tricked out ring that engulfs two fingers I may be tempted. If such a ring exists and I buy it I'll post photos.

So enjoy watching The Office and Project Runway tonight. I know I'll be looking at them online tomorrow.

Bad news? Where?

Any more I think the world feels more like this Talking Head's song than anything else. With news coming at you everywhere about how bad it is getting it makes me want to bury my head in the sand. And I watch O'Reilly nightly! I live for politics and world news and okay a little controversy, but even I'm getting my fill.

However, today as I was lamenting my own frustrations with my life I read this and I teared up. Sure Hallmark cards make me cry, but with the news of the past year I thought I had hardened a little bit, turns out all it took was the right story and my humanity was back in full force. This story of Kaleb Eulls are one of those great stories that make you set up and walk a little prouder for being part of the human race. His selfless act and heroism certainly makes this blogger realize that all is not lost yet.

So to Kaleb Eulls, who for me helps keep my favorite quote at the forefront, "The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not try to reconcile yourself with the world. The heroic cannot be common, nor the common heroic." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet (1803-1882). Thanks a lot!