Kelly Times Two

Fifteen years ago today, I had just arrived at work when my boss had told me that I had just missed a telephone call from "some guy," who said he would call back. I had this rather bizarre feeling that the call was from Paul Garrett, our social worker whom we had been talking to about hoping to adopt a baby. Moments later, the telephone rang and I answered. On the other line, it was Paul. I knew it! He then uttered one of the most memorable, vivid sentences I've ever heard my entire life, these words, "This is the call you've been waiting for!" Speechless. All I could do was cry. My boss was staring at me like something horrible had just happened and I couldn't say a word because I was sobbing. Another girl from a nearby office gazed at me while holding the telephone in my hand, trying to determine whether it was good news or bad. I somehow managed to get the point across when I gained a bit of composure. Then the question came to me, which I ask...

We had the best time ever on our 20th anniversary trip to New York and rather than spending a long time writing about it, I'll just provide a link to view a slideshow of our photographs we took for your enjoyment. As the cliche goes, that I use all the time, a picture is worth a thousand words! Just go to this Shutterfly link if you have a spare moment. K & K's 20th Anniversary Photos If you want to be a part of it, New York, New York! Here's your chance!

Twenty years ago, Kelly and I were married here in the Salt Lake Temple! Our anniversary was yesterday and we spent the past four days in New York City celebrating. We flew to the Big Apple on Friday morning and got back LATE last night and had an action-packed weekend seeing two Broadway shows, within walking distance of our Times Square Marriott Marquis hotel room, sightseeing around Long Island, enjoying a leisurely horse-drawn carriage ride through Central Park, peering over the city from the Empire State Building, dining on delicious food, and spending the time together, loving every minute of it. For the past twenty years, I have been the wife of a wonderful, unique, intelligent, handsome, talented man, who I am MUCH more in love with NOW than I was in 1986, (which was immensely back then). I love the things we've learned together, the experiences we have enjoyed together, being able to hang in there through the uneven journey of life, being parents to two wonderful child...

Changing the decorations in my home for the holidays and seasons is one of my hobbies. I've accumulated a number of tchotchkes for Christmas, Halloween, Fourth of July, and some for Easter. While it's a bit too early to move into Halloween decorations, I wanted to fill my hutch with some pretty fall decor, so I bought these plates at Hobby Lobby today as accent pieces, but only seven were available. I prefer the beige background ones to the black background, but I called all the other Hobby Lobby stores in town to search for more of either color, to no avail. So, if you step into a Hobby Lobby in the near future, give me a call if you spot more of these plates! It's never a matter of life or death, but I like them and hope to finish what I started. The green plate is one I'm trying out too. I have a weakness for seasonal plates and such. Also, I found these fantastic sunflower shaped bowls and will be getting the final two tomorrow hopefully. It's a festive ...

Once a month, for the past half a year, I have delighted in having a house full of women gathered around my kitchen, dining room, and family room tables, passing around ink pads and rubber stamps, designer papers, deckle-edged scissors, eyelets, ribbons, and all manner of embellishments. As we discuss our events of the day, our feelings about parenthood, the best restaurants in town, our favorite music, the nice things our husbands did, and any other topic that crosses our minds, we absorb this high dose social time, doing what we do best, talking and listening to each other. And yes, we whip up some adorable keepsakes on paper. Some may even call this group therapy. It is fulfilling to share the two to three hours doing what can be done in factories in Asia for pennies, but no one can put a price on what we leave with. And the benefit or justification for time well spent doesn’t end there. Afterwards, the hundreds of cards we have created, end up being sent to loved ones around the...

Lindsey started high school today! Here's a shot of Lindsey being dropped off at school last week for freshman orientation. Unfortunately, I didn't take her picture today because she OVERSLEPT on the first day of school and missed the bus. I was downstairs in my office and didn't realize she had not gotten out of bed yet, poor girl. When I finally woke her up, she took a quick shower and I dropped her off at school with her hair, wet, in a ponytail, and she was bummed. We were laughing and joking about how she'll now be affected for life, being late on the first day of high school. Years later."It all started when I overslept on my very first day of high school." I'm hoping she wasn't late for class. We'll cross our fingers that it will be a wonderful year. How in the world will she be able to hear her alarm go off next week when she starts early morning seminary two hours before school even starts?

Today was the first day of school in our school district and we're all excited about the new school year. Our first pick for Christopher's teacher came through! Yippee! Out of the seven third grade teachers at his school, we had hoped for Mrs. Jordan, who Lindsey had in third grade. She is such a wonderful person and a fantastic teacher. She's very loving and delightful to be around, but she also is firm and has high expectations for her students.

My amazingly talented husband worked as a whitewater river guide in Moab during the summers while he was a BYU student. We got engaged on this beach twenty years earlier and this was our first time back to Sandy Beach since he popped the question. He was working in Moab while I was enrolled in summer school at BYU. I missed him so much, as we'd been dating all through the school year and spent nearly every day together. We'd write letters or call each other, then one weekend when I drove down from Provo to visit, he said he had a gift for me, but I had to wait to open it until we got by the river. He had this huge box for me, gift wrapped. After opening the box, there was another gift-wrapped box. And another, and another, and another. It was like the Russian nesting dolls, with a smaller version nestled inside the larger one. As I was opening the boxes and as they were getting smaller and smaller, the thought crossed my mind, "Could this possibly be an engagement ...

Joel was the one who planned out the Moab trip. They had friends meet them there, and Kelly and I did too while our kids visited my family in the Salt Lake area for a couple of days. Joel enjoyed his weekend birthday party so much that he told everyone he wants to plan an annual trip to Moab so we can all celebrate his birthday.

Kelly & his two outdoorsy sisters, Deb and Brenda, Deb's husband, Mike, and some of their kids were camping in Moab while Kelly and I "camped" in a hotel room at the Moab Inn. We gave them a little visit to celebrate Uncle Joel's birthday.

Happy birthday, to Kelly's mom! Lindsey took this picture of her grandma while the kids were there visiting for two weeks. They live on a small lake in Colorado and the kids have so much fun at their house, spending time skiing, knee boarding, riding on Big Bertha, kayaking, fishing, going on walks with grandpa while looking for bunnies, and playing with their cousins. Kelly has two awesome younger sisters (he's the only son) who both live near his parents. I couldn't ask for a better mother-in-law! She's wonderful. HBTY, Marlene!

As a jogger was passing by our house on Saturday morning, he warned Kelly that a snake was heading toward our garage. Kelly spotted the slimy, speedy Texas native, and quickly tried to recall the rhyme, "Red on black, friend to Jack, red on yellow, kill a fellow." Oh no! It's a kill a fellow! He suddenly grabbed the nearest lawn tool, a garden hoe, and called me out to the garage to keep an eye on our visitor. Then he started whacking the concrete driveway, and the snake started hissing at him. He missed it a few times, knocking a chunk out of the cement, then chopped it in half and both sides were still wiggling all over the place. We left it, hoping something would claim it for lunch, and several hours later when we returned home, noticed there were no takers. Here's what I found out about coral snakes: "The coral snakes are relatively small snakes that spend most of their time underground. Their primary food is other snakes. Despite their small size an...

While among his little girl cousins and a big sister, Christopher was the recipient of a make-over. These were taken on Lindsey's camera and when I was scrolling through pictures, I found these and started cracking up. I'm just glad school starts in a couple of days!

My husband plays the piano and organ at church. It's really wonderful for me and for others to enjoy his talents. The only problem is that he's never had any formal training to play the organ and kind of wings it when he deals with the footboard. He found a bargain on a retro organ on the far side of our very large state and decided buy it. Today he took me on a road trip across the state of Texas to pick it up. We spent the entire day from 9 am to nearly 11 pm in the car and left the kids behind to fend for themselves. It was actually quite a nice day and now he's up past midnight playing hymns on the new organ. The funny thing is the bargain organ has cost us much more than it's actual pricetag. You see, there was the U-Haul trailer rental, the hitch to put on the Pathfinder be able to PULL the trailer, not to mention gas at $3 a gallon. Fortunately, he'll now be able to get some practice in and really figure out those foot pedals since he can practice at ...

My office is in need of a good cleaning, as usual. A friend of mine in Colorado said that a messy desk is a sign of successful person, or in other words "business is good." A clean desk is the opposite. Well, I'm out to prove that I can have a successful business, and keep my desk clean! Although I've found that it is VERY DIFFICULT! So, that's my goal. Clean my office, keep my desk clean, and keep my business running well, and not neglect the family or the rest of the house! Is that too much to expect of myself?

Lindsey had her annual interview with our bishop tonight and had a nice conversation with him about her life and progress since last year. They talked about friends, music, seminary, etc. He told me I have one more year before I have to start stressing over having a teenager behind the wheel. Yikes! Lindsey and I had a nice little dinner at Chili's and since she thought our waiter was cute, I made sure he was in the picture too.

Here's my bishop and his sweet wife, Heidi, at a school event where their son, Kenneth, and my daughter had a choir performance at the end of the school year.

Conni, Ruth Ann, Jenny, Shana, Jeff, Sierra, Joe, and Scott posing for a photo before cutting the cake. Aren and Michelle are getting the ice cream cake ready. Chris, Kelly, Jared and Jim eagerly await their sugar rush. Jenny & Jared hosted a night of board games and Pictionary, which was WAY too loud, but still a SUPER FUN night. A few of us went to dinner at Johnny Carino's beforehand in celebration of Scott's big day as well.

Here's my friend, Caroline, with her mom, Debbie, and her three kids, Max, Adam, and Olivia, celebrating Adam's birthday (riding Grammy piggyback) at the Main Event. Caroline has been through so much the past 21 months dealing with cancer and she's still going through chemo. I've talked about her to a lot of my family and have prayed for her for 21 months and want to show how beautiful she is and how blessed with an adorable family she is. Max and Christopher were in kindergarten together and it would be fun if they had the same third grade teacher. We'll know soon.

Here I am in Chicago at the King Tut exhibition at the Field Museum, dining at a special event for Pampered Chef directors. I'm there with two of my PC colleagues, Beth from Colorado and Phyllis from Maryland. I love visiting Chicago in the summer. It's gorgeous and a fun metropolitan city to visit, great architecture, shopping along the Magnificent Mile, Navy Pier, etc.