Girls are Great at Multi-Tasking

On May 6th, 2007, I went to the BMV to get a little slice of my own freedom, my driver's license. There were things that I learned in driver's education like how to use a turn signal, to keep both hands on the wheel, and check your rearview mirrors regularly. Things that I wasn't taught to do while driving is how to put makeup using the rearview mirror, change a pair of pants, and paint my nails using the steering wheel as a makeshift table. Hey, I am always running late so sometimes it's easier to do these things in the car!

Those listed above are things I have done while I have been behind the wheel. Other things I have done would include text (not anymore), read a book, eat a bowl of cereal, drive with my left foot (this was just fun), and many other things that are probably considered unsafe.

What kinds of crazy things have YOU done while you were driving?

Someone I talked to recently (no name needed), said she had changed her bra in the car on her way to work!

When You Say "I Do..."

Saturday, June 26th, 2010 was a very big day for Emily and Kyle Campbell! They exchanged their vows and said, "I do."

Everything was green and the bride, Emily, looked absolutely gorgeous! I arrived at the church around 2:15 and took my seat among other guests waiting for the doors to open and for the bride to be revealed.

The famous music played and the doors were opened and Emily stood there with her father and they began to walk down the aisle. She looked amazing, the dress was a sweetheart cut line and kinda ruffled down to the floor.

After the ceremony was the reception, my favorite part of the day! Much more fun-filled. There was lots of dancing, music, food, and of course, cake! My best friend was in the wedding as a bridesmaid and my friend, Audrey, was a bridesmaid as well! I met some fun people there who were in the wedding and we all danced to the great music that was playing! Overall, I had a great time!



May God bless Emily and Kyle as they start their new life and adventures together!

Obedience

Tonight at church I learned how to be obedient, and why you should be obedient to your elders, and most importantly, God. There are some times in your life, I'm sure, when you have been given a task and you wondered why you had to do it because it wasn't going to benefit you in any way.

In the bible, Noah (you know, the one with the ark and the animals and stuff) was given a task by God. The task? Build the ark. Because Noah was very obedient to God and always did what He told him to do, Noah agreed to the task at hand. Now, let's think about this for a second. God told Noah that he has to build an ark, an ark that is three soccer fields long, for the rain that is about to come. But, the bible says that it has never rained before this time. So, Noah is told to build this ark (God tells him it will take 120 years to build) for the rain that is coming, and spend 120 years of his life building it, for something that he has never heard of or seen (the rain). Are we following?

What would you say to God if He asked you to do this? Oh, and I forgot to mention that Noah has to gather two of each animal to put on the ark. No big deal or anything.

Seriously, who would want to spend 120 years building an ark that is three soccer fields long for the "rain" that is coming soon? That would be hard to agree to. But Noah did it, he even hung in there when it rained for forty days and forty nights. What a trooper.

Think of a time you have disobeyed your parents commands and think of everything that happened when you didn't obey them. Didn't everything go wrong after you disobeyed? What happens when you do what you are told? Everything seems to go according to plan. Weird how that works out.

We have to obey God's commands and God will bless us.

Vampires and Warewolves

You CAN have the best of both worlds, right?

P.S. Crazy I know, but I am not a Twilight fan. Thanks to Alex, my best friend, I am going to the premiere on June 30th. Gotta have a shirt to match the other crazy-obsessed fans!

My Sister's 21st

My older sister, Courtney, turned 21 today! Happy Birthday "Tortni!" :)

I love birthdays. I love going out to eat with my family and spending time with them. Tonight my family and I dined at a restaurant in Bloomington called "Ami." For those who don't know what this is, it's a sushi restaurant, and sushi just so happens to be one of her favorite foods, right sis?

My two younger siblings, Lexi and Christian, don't eat sushi because they have no taste for fine delicacy. So it was just myself, my parents, Kyle (sissy's boyfriend), and Courtney, the birthday girl of course.

I ordered the Philadelphia Roll which is rice, seaweed, cooked salmon, avacado and cream cheese.


And I also got a Spider Roll (that was super yummy!) which had seaweed, rice, cooked crab meat, shrimp, and cucumber in it.


With the rolls, you get miso soup and delicious salad with great dressing on it! A+ meal!


Mmmmmmmmm. Buy me sushi, win my heart.

Oh! And I successfully used my chopsticks for the whole dinner! Usually I give up within the first 3 minutes of trying to eat my meal, then I get tired of eating so slow and trade the sticks in for a fork.

Four Minute Death Drive

Yeah, I know what you are thinking. It is usually a thunderstorm. Oh, no. Not tonight. This was straight up a lightning storm. There was no rain. Let me break it down.

Daddy calls me at 11:13 and tells me to come on home, because there is a storm a'brewin'. Soooo I grabbed my stuff Lightning McQueen fast and headed out Kayla's door.

I ran to my car which was no more than 50 feet from the front porch, turned the key, and quickly drove off.

In the neighborhood, I wasn't using turn signals, doing turns at about 45mph and almost ran a red light. There was lightning all around me, there was about a strike every 3 seconds. And seriously, the lighting was right on top of me. I could see it out of my front window, and literally, the clouds it was coming out of seemed like they were 5 feet away from me. And no, that isn't an exaggeration.

This whole time while I am basically driving through God's lightning storm, I was screaming and yelling and ripping my hair out because I was so scared. Every time the lightning struck, I screamed even louder and kept praying that God would keep me safe.

I made it home safely in a whopping four minutes, and for the record, this is usually a seven minute drive.

Thank you God for keeping me safe, and providing me with a great lightning show that (what felt like) was 5 feet in front of me. I just wish I was safe inside my home while the show was going on, but thanks anyway.

Happy Father's Day!

Found this poem today, hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

What Makes a Dad

God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle's flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so,

He called it ... Dad

I have learned the past few years to really not take anything for granted. Especially the time I have with my family. I know there are so many people without dad's on this wonderful day and I can't imagine what I would do without mine. My dad is such a great man. He always greets me in the morning with a kiss on the crown of my head and a "Good morning beautiful." Never fails. Or when I call him to say "Hey Dad, I gotta question for you.." and without a doubt my dad always responds with, "Is it a 'can I' 'will you' 'can we' 'may I'..." He always knows I am about to ask him for something, to do something, to go something, or to hang out with someone. My father is very smart and sometimes likes to call himself "Doctor Hatheway" in trying to fix people's medical issues with his own knowledge about the subject (he once came to the "conclusion" that if you workout more, you don't poop as much because all the poop sweats off while you workout). You get the picture.

I love my dad and am so blessed to be able to still have him in my life. This goes to every other dad on Father's Day.

And also to the dad's who are in Heaven watching down on us today.


I love and miss you Papaw 8-7-07
My papaw was an amazing man who loved to be outside. He loved to be in his huge garden outside growing those little green grapes for the grankids to eat. He loved to fish. He loved to golf. He always had his kitchen stocked up with candy for us kids when we came over to visit. My papaw was a great man who is now in Heaven, fishing in the biggest ocean ever, smiling down upon, with that cigar hanging out of his mouth.


I love and miss you Grandpa 3-18-08
I loved my Grandpa. he was such a funny guy, and always joked around with everyone. His smile lit up the room when he walked in. Always wearing some sort of IU apparel, my Grandpa was sure loved in the church, and especially in the family. I miss hearing my Grandpa read the story of Christmas on Christmas Eve and hearing him say how much he loved the sugar cookies I made him. My Grandpa is in Heaven, playing golf on the biggest golf course there is, watching down on us, wearing that bright red IU sweater.

Animal Crackers

A couple of nights ago, Lexi and I went shopping at Wal-Mart for some little snacks that she could take to camp. What was on our list? Gatorade, granola bars, animal crackers, puppy chow ingredients, rice cakes, and whatever else she saw that she wanted.

So there we were, in the snack aisle in the store grabbing the things we wanted. As we were finding the things we needed, it seemed like we were following another lady because whatever aisle she went to, we followed her. Not on purpose, just because we needed to be in the same place looking for our food.

We then proceeded to go into the cracker aisle; animal crackers were next on the list. Lex and I went about halfway down the aisle and found a box of animal with little individually wrapped crackers in it. That was so not about to cut it for camp. Last year we had bought one of those (what it seemed to be) 2 pound bags of the animal shaped crackers.

Lexi and I kept moving because we knew the big bag was close. Remember the lady I mentioned earlier? Well, it just so happens she was in that same aisle getting some kind of crackers as well, surprise, surprise. Her cart was kind of up against the side of the aisle so a lot of things that were shelved Lex and I couldn't see. Then I spotted the crackers on the bottom shelf just next to the lady's cart. i pointed them out to Lexi and (it seemed like we synced it out) sort of yelled, "ANIMAL CRACKERS!!"

How did our fellow Wal-Mart "new-friend" shopper respond? With a small laugh and said "It's the little things."

Love Wal-Mart.

For the Next Five Days..

..my good friend Kayla Grell will be in Indiana! I have missed you.

For those of you who don't know, Kayla just so happens to be one of my best friends and she just so happens to live in Minnesota. Unfortunately, we have had to get separated by, well, "growing up" aka college. But before we went off our separate ways, we had the opportunity to become the best of friends, sisters.

Kayla and I met the very first time I went to youth group (April 11th, 2007) at Life Church in Fishers just three short years ago. Feels like a lifetime. We have been through a lot together (I know that sounds very cliche, but it is true) and I am just happy I made that phone call to Kayla over Winter Break. Changed our lives. I am so happy that we are able to hang out now just like old times. But something about our relationship has changed, not in a bad way, though. Kayla is still Kayla and Kelsi is still Kelsi. We are just different, grown up (in a sense). We have both experiences college life, meeting new friends, living in tiny dorms, and eating cafeteria food for 200 days. Kayla and I are very different, but hey, opposites attract, right?

When we hang out, there is never a dull moment. There are so many good times Kayla and I have had together, i can't even begin to name all of them, but here are some of my favorites:

- getting pulled over after bible study
- all dances we went to together (around 9 or 10)
- "yea, yea yea."
- TPing people's houses
- dying hair
- "if you wanna be my lover"
- babyboo and b.o.
- "Big Girl's Don't Cry"
- when my alarm went off at 3 a.m. and we called the cops
- SB`08!

..and absolutely everything else we have experienced together.

Even though we live eight hours apart, we have managed to stick together with phone calls, facebook, and, Thank God, Skype.

So, this is to you, Kalya Grell.

The NEW you.

(Oh and p.s. Kayla had been using tanning lotion and used a bit too much, whoops)

Photo Shoot

I love my dog.

Zoey sometimes sits on my lap when I am on my laptop. Today I got a few snapshots of her looking cute. I think we should enter her in shows so we can win some moolah. What do you think? Mom says no.

Anyway, that is what the pics above are from; mine and Zoey's photo shoot. Enjoy the cuteness... :) of Zoey that is.

I Need a GPS

I am a nanny for two boys, they are 8 and 5. These boys pick up on information very quickly, things like my pet fish's name, my likes and dislikes dealing with food, and how old I am.

They picked up on something last week that just made my day. And because the boys and I make a trip somewhere around Westfield everyday, we usually get, well, lost.

We were en route to the bowling alley and I had been given directions to the bowling alley from the dad of the two boys. Because I am not from Westfield, where the boys live, I thought I comprehended the directions in my head but..

Wrong.

I had to call my dad about six different times. I turned around in three different parking lots. I got off the wrong exit on 465.

What did I hear from the boys in the backseat?

"Kelsi, do you get lost all the time 'cause you're from Fishers? 'Cause you get lost a lot.."

Gee, thanks.

Even Stevens

Anybody remember this show? It was one of my favorite's back in the day. Gotta love the fighting between Louis and older sis, Ren. Reminds me of my siblings and I.

My sister had the TV turned to the Disney Channel earlier and the Even Stevens just so happened to be on. I sat down and watched it with her, laughing at the crazy family. As I watched it, I reminisced back to when I was young and didn't have a summer job, and didn't worry about the future, just always worried about what mom was making for dinner. And I realized, I grew up too fast.

I am sitting here now in my younger sister's room as she packs for Camp this year. Lake Placid Camp is an event that I have looked forward to the past three summers. Gone just a week, this camp is the place where my life was changed forever. Camp is full of memories for me, both good and bad:

-Red Crimson Chaos, Black Hawks, Blue Rage (team names)
-paddle boats
-spending a week straight with Kayla
-the bus rides there (pee in a bottle anyone?)
-concession stand at night
-WINNING all three years I was there
-getting broken up with on the Wednesday (halfway through camp)...awkward yea?
-fun hair cuts, love you mikey
-boys coming to the window at 2 a.m. and me sleep talking "I'm not wearing pants!"
-getting saved by the One and Only
-NIGHT SERVICES, amazing to say the least
-getting in touch with God, away from all electronics or distractions
-leaving my house for a week
-coming back to my house after a week
-there are so many, many more

This year I am not able to attend Lake Placid Camp because I have gone off and graduated. I hope I (and the rest of my life church youth group) have left a legacy for the younger students to live by while they are at camp.

I will miss Lex (and everyone else who went) while she is at camp. I wish I was still a little sophomore in high school leaving in less than 24 hours to experience my first camp. But, I am all grown now, passing on the Camp legacy to my lil' sis.

Go Camp '10.

My Australia Fund

Next May, I will be going on a Tri-S trip to Australia with nine other people. The cost of this trip is waaaaay more money than I have saved up so I have decided to start a little fund.

A couple weeks ago, I started this fund and I have been putting all of my change/extra dollars in the "Australia Fund" bucket. So far I have racked up about fifty dollars in loose change from my car, my room, and pennies on the ground (it DOES add up when you pick up those pennies on the ground at Target and Wal-Mart).

I am doing my best not to spend a lot of money this summer, and I was doing very well considering I didn't have a job and all I did was stay at home for three weeks straight. This last week I was off from my nanny job so I spent a little bit of the money that I earned last week from babysitting. I have come to a conclusion about my money and why I spend it.

I have a life, so sue me for wanting to be social.

But, I did go to the mall today for a couple hours and managed to not spend one penny while I was there, thank you very much.

If I keep up this little Australia fund that I have going on, by next May, I should have about 400 bucks collected.

Look out Aussie, here I come.


Oh and Happy Birthday to my wonderful hubby, Morgan Harper.

Burnt French Toast and a Cup of Tea Later

I made applesauce French toast for lunch today. One of my favorite foods. Another one of my (new) favorites is chai tea, thanks Carrie Borchardt.

My mom had some tea already in the house so I decided what else would go better with my favorite food than my new fave drink? As the french toast was still on the burner, water went into the mug, mug went into the microwave and 3 and a half minutes later the water was boiling, ready for tea to be brewed in. I stuck my hand in the microwave only to realize that if I held on to the mug handle for too long, I would burn myself, and we don't want that.

So, I grabbed a nearby towel and wrapped it around my hand to prevent from burning. I grabbed the handle and lifted it out of the microwave. Instantly, a sharp pain spiraled through my hand and I quickly put the mug down. I looked at my hand where i grabbed the handle to see a blister already forming from the new burn. I immediately ran to the sink and ran my hand under cold water for the next ten minutes. A huge blister (see pic above) and 3 hours later, here I am, telling all of you about my great morning.

Note to self: Next time I take hot, boiling water out of the microwave, wrap my WHOLE hand in the towel, not just my fingers.

P.S. It is hard to type with only one finger on the right hand.

By the way, I burnt my french toast in the great effort to try and save my burning hand.

Lightning Bugs

I have always wondered why people blog. People put different things in their blog such as:
-what they did that day
-top 10 lists
-how they are feeling
-thoughts about anything
-conversations they had with people

Soooo..I have decided to start my blog and include of all that fun stuff. Enjoy!


And here is the first official blog post below.

Lexi, Christian and I took a little trip to Handle's earlier. Oh, and Zoey came for some ice cream, too. We ordered our desserts and took a little walk through a close by neighborhood and that is when I saw the bug. The lightning bug. That can only mean one thing, it's summer. Unofficially. The start of later sunsets, stargazing on top of my car, and the smell of a wet dog outside.

Hello summer, unofficially.