Jimmy turns 5!

My little Jim turned 5 on December 6th! We had a great time celebrating. On Tuesday we had Krispy Kreme for breakfast. He took some Batman cupcakes and napkins to school for a special snack and we had Mellow Mushroom pizza and cupcakes that night. We had his Batman birthday party at Bouncing Angels on Wednesday right after school. Ten of his little buddies came and they ran around like little maniacs for two hours. I think that he had a great birthday! He got lots of fun things: a new scooter, Batman cave, Batman backpack and lunch box, his own special cape, and a Star Wars light saber.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I finally feel free to blog...my class is officially over as of today. I completed my last exam tonight. I still do not know about 50% of my grade for the class and my attitude from undergrad of "I hope I got a B" returns each semester. Nevertheless, it is nice to know I don't have to do any more reading, discussing, posting, commenting, etc. until after the first of the year!

So yes, it is beginning to look like Christmas at the Kelley house.

I must back up to Fall...I can't have my blog entry go from Halloween to Christmas...what about Fall and Thanksgiving?

I made a whirlwind trip back to Virginia the first weekend in November. I flew up Saturday morning and Jenn picked me up, later that evening we went to Heather's where we met up with Stacey and Beth and then we trekked to Berryville to Krissy's house for a fun little get together. I came back Sunday (almost missed my flight...for some reason my name didn't print on my boarding pass, security caught it so I guess that is a good thing!). It was so much fun and those were the times that I wish I lived closer. I see more little trips in my future for sure. And to my LoCo buds...an open invitation to Savannah!





The weekend before Thanksgiving we headed out to Ottawa Farms to experience our first "corn maze." We had a such a great time. Not only did they have the corn maze, by a corn gun, corn pit, train ride, bounce house and hayride. The kids loved it! The corn maze was more difficult than I expected. I am glad we had a map!







For Thanksgiving we headed to West Point, Georgia. A small town, north of Columbus on the GA/AL line. Random fact: It is now home to the largest KIA plant in Georgia. Who knew? I thought they all came from Korea, but yes, they are now made in America. We stayed in a cabin on lake West Point and had a great little mini vacay. The drive is not always the most fun (5 hours) but the memories are worth it. Unfortunately, I failed to take any pictures at Thanksgiving. Cardinal sin of a blogger, but hey...I am not that serious, right? We did manage to experience Fantasy in Lights at Callaway Gardens. It was so cool! Little Jimmy kept saying..."I cannot believe my eyes!" You drive though the light displays and each scene has music playing. It was truly spectacular!




Now, I can move to Christmas. The tree is up and decorated. Hopefully this weekend I can decorate outside. A special visitor from the North Pole arrived today...Elvie the Elf on the Shelf. He brought a special message from the Big Guy himself!




and for the first time...Jimmy finally would sit on Santa's lap. It must be something to do with making sure Santa knows that he wants an "Octopus Crime" Transformer, a new bike and the Batman cave. Cecilia would have nothing to do with "Ho Ho Claus" so Jimmy made sure to tell him that she wanted a tricycle, a pillow pet, and a dollhouse.



I hope to be back before the New Year!

Halloween

I am feeling pretty lame. Just getting my Halloween pictures uploaded and onto the blog. I felt really lame on Halloween and the day after seeing everyone's pictures on FB (including those people who never FB!). To be honest, I was so ready for Halloween to be over! It is crazy how many school parties, birthday parties, festivals, etc that happen in the month of October. The candy treats are overwhelming and honestly, Jimmy only asked for candy out of his bag once or twice after Halloween. Of course, that left the candy for me to eat and I finally just threw the rest of it away. That is not to say that we did not have a great time on Halloween. We decided to skip the madness of Isle of Hope and the Bluff (I was the grinch with my light off!) and we went to Jimmy's parents neighborhood on Wilmington Island. It's small, they know all the neighbors and it was much easier for the little ones to trick or treat. There is no age limit to trick or treating on the Bluff (or anywhere for that matter) so the little ones can easily get trampled in the quest for candy.

I am wrapping up my class for this semester and I turned in my major project on Thursday so feeling a little bit of breathing room.

Jimmy was Batman (or "matman" according to Cecilia) and Cecilia was Snow White or according to her "no white."






We did get home in time for some late night trick or treaters. I think Jimmy enjoyed the trick or treaters coming to our house just as much as going trick or treating. He would get so excited when the door bell rang.

Happy Birthday Cecilia!

Our sweet Cecilia turned TWO on October 12. We had a fun few days celebrating. She got a pumpkin donut from Krispy Kreme on the morning of her birthday. She only ate the icing! She loved the Happy Birthday song and kept saying "happy to me." She had pumpkin cookies at school on Wednesday and got to wear a birthday crown. We went to Wednesday night supper and everyone sang happy birthday to her there as well and then we had a family birthday party on Sunday. Her favorite things were her princess dresses (Snow White and Cinderella), a tea set, a "fur real" kitty, her first barbie, two new purses (can never have too many!) and a new music box.







What a difference two years makes!

2009:



2010:



2011:

In Memoriam

Last Saturday, Pam, the wonderful, graceful and amazing leader of our admission and communication department at SCAD passed away after a long battle with cancer.

In the spring of 2000, I was a young, naive, inexperienced college graduate and she, along with my current supervisor, took a chance on me and hired me to work in the admission office. Eleven years later, I am still there because I love it so much and have never wanted to leave. I have been impacted by the many students, faculty and staff along the way. I have created and maintained friendships with amazing people over the years. She helped me realize that higher education is my career calling and now I am only 4 classes away from receiving my Master in Education. I am so thankful that she was a part of my life, a true inspiration. Most of all, I am so thankful I let her know how much I appreciated her by sending her a short message, which she replied to, just a couple of weeks before her passing.

Here is a link to a wonderful article HERE
Photo credit: savannahnow.com

Going Home

Yes, Savannah is home now. It is where my family is so of course that is where home is but I miss Virginia and I still have family and friends that I wish I was able to see more often.

Jimmy and I headed to Virginia last weekend for what was a whirlwind trip of visiting with family and friends and going to my high school reunion.

We arrived Friday afternoon and after getting sucked into the upsell at the Hertz counter...sure, we will take the Infinity SUV for an extra $50 bucks (really?!) we headed to Maggie's parents house in Woodbridge for the evening and night. I spent a lot of weekends at their house during college and it was so nice to go back there. It brought back great memories. It was so great to visit with the Piczak's, see Maggie and most importantly meet sweet Logan!




After breakfast we went Leesburg to pick up my brother. We headed to Hamilton, drove around the old neighborhood, stopped by and saw Louie and then went to lunch in Purcellville (after we sat in traffice in Pville for about 15 minutes...what happened to Purcellville!!).



The the reunion was Saturday night at Hiddencroft Vineyards in Lovettsville. What a beautiful place and the wine was very good! Loved the chardonnay. Saw some great friends and I spent so much time talking that I hardly took any pictures! Of course the talking was magnified by each glass of wine ;). It really was just a wonderful evening!!

Then and Now

I was having a hard time the other day trying to remember what Jimmy looked like when he was Cecilia's age. The way he would say certain things, the funny facial expressions and just what it felt like to hold him at 2 years old. When you are in midst of certain times and stages it is hard to realize that it won't be like that forever and then when you look back, you realize how fast time is going by! Here are a couple of pics of Jimmy at Cecilia around the same age.

Summer and School

It is hard for me to get used to school starting in August. While little Jim's preschool has not started school, most schools in Savannah, private and public, start in August. I always remember starting after Labor Day..but I guess we got out in June while most schools here are out by May. Still, August signals the beginning of school and a return to a schedule which can be good and bad. Before school started, we got in one last mini vacation with our friends at Lake Martin, Alabama. We spent time boating, looking at the beautiful lake houses (Maria's family's house included!) jet skiing, tubing, swimming and spending time with our good friends the Justice family. Little Jimmy went tubing and so did I!

Well hello there...

Whew...I have thought about writing a post for a while but get exhausted just thinking about all the stuff that has happened this summer and summer isn't even over yet!

The biggest news of the summer is that Spices Etc and Mo Hotta Mo Betta have a new home! And it is only 8 minutes from our house. That is right folks. We got ourselves a new warehouse. That meant taking our house off the market but it means much bigger things for the businesses and our family. It is 8 minutes and no traffic (those of you still fighting the traffic and commutes...move closer to work...or move to Savannah...life is good here...number 7 on Travel and Leisure's Top 10 cities in US and Canada!) and the other great thing...it has this mack daddy ice machine. I am talking about the kind of ice machines that you used to find in a hotel and you would lift up the door and see tons of glorious ice cubes. It is pretty awesome. It is the first thing the kids do when they visit daddy and Papa at work. They go straight to the ice machine. Heck, sometimes I go straight to the ice machine too. Lots of hard work went into getting the warehouse ready and even more moving two businesses but they are finally all moved in and getting settled.

This is the right side. There is the exact same warehouse on the left. The left is Spices Etc and the right is Mo Hotta:


I helped with vacation bible school. I was in the kindergarten class. Wow. I was exhausted after three days.

We had a bad storm and our neighbors tree fell in our yard. They were great and took care of the tree removal. Luckily it didn't hit any houses, sheds, fences or our new swing set. It did crush our old swing set and an chair but the damage really was minimal. We weren't home when it happened.




We had a family friendly fourth of July picnic and firework show with friends and neighbors.




We took Jimmy on a little mini vacation to Atlanta. We visited the Aquarium, the World of Coke and the Zoo. When we were at the zoo he told us that he was tired of seeing all of the animals so we headed home. His favorite part of the trip 1. the hotel room, 2. watching movies in the hotel room 3. swimming in the hotel pool. 3. Watching movies in the car. 4. Drinking lots of coke. So next time, we are just going to find a nice cheap hotel with a pool, drive around and let him watch a movie and then let watch a movie in the hotel room and drink some coke. It will be much cheaper.

First trip to the Varsity:








We had our first trip to the dentist. I was pretty nervous about this one but he did great! He let her count and polish his teeth but he didn't like the water or the suction straw so she just let him rinse his mouth out with a cup and water. That suited him and me just fine.






This past Saturday we went to Sea Island for the day to visit with Jimmy's uncle, aunt and cousins and their children. It was so much fun to see everyone.