Kellogues

I Tried…and Sometimes That is Good Enough

kellimcgill — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:11:12 +0000

Most of you have probably heard of Operation Christmas Child. Well our church is participating and our children’s ministry is doing a big emphasis on it with our kids. Elle came home from church on Sunday with her shoebox and was on a mission to rummage through her bedroom to find things to donate to a child in St Louis. Well…the heart was in the right place but she got the details a little mixed up.

This afternoon I was telling her more about the program & how we will go shopping tomorrow and buy gifts for a child in a different county. We talked about how blessed we are to live where we live, to have a warm home filled with toys, food and clothes. The conversation was good…but it quickly went down hill.

I was specifically talking about how the gifts will to go kids in other countries and she insisted that HER gift go to a girl in Antarctica. Sigh. So I shift to gears and started in on a geography lesson talking about how it’s too cold for people to live in Antarctica. Yada, yada, yada… Then she interrupts with this gem of information, “I’m wearing 2 pairs of panties!” What? 1. What in the world made you think about that at this moment. 2. Why are you wearing 2 pairs of underwear?

Sometimes I really try hard to take my parenting out of survival mode…and sometimes I get nowhere.

Marital Woo

kellimcgill — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 01:24:12 +0000

Me: Pais, that smell’s awful! Did you poop?

Pais: Yep.

Me: Ok, let’s change your diaper.

As I am laying her down to changer her diaper, my phone rings. I glance at the caller ID and notice that it’s Joe.

Me: Hey, can I call you right back. I’m in the middle of a BIG poop.

Joe: Ok?

Me: WAIT! I mean a big poopy diaper. I’m not pooping. I promise. This is awkward. I’ll call you back.

I continued to laugh through the entire (non-poopy – that was some nasty gas she passed) diaper change. And then I called him back and we both laughed.

Happy Birthday, Mr McGill. Welcome to 30. Can’t wait to grow old with you.

Birthday Boy & his Old Lady

Craft Fail

kellimcgill — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 01:33:39 +0000

The actual time that I have for a good craft project is severely lacking, but that doesn’t stop me from “pinning” away like crazy on pintrest. My list of dream projects is growing by the minute.

This mirror stole my heart and I immediately knew that I wanted to recreate it in my kitchen.

Adorable, right?

So I bought all the supplies, rolled up my sleeves and got going. The red spoons I bought weren’t quite the right shade of red…so spray paint to the rescue. Yes. I spray painted 150 plastic spoons. The mirror I purchased as a party store. I used hot glue to attach the spoons to the mirror.

All went well…at first. Joe helped me hang the mirror (not something easy to do when the exterior edge is covered with hot glued plastic spoons). It was hung perfectly so I quickly grabbed the window cleaner and wiped the finger prints away. We stepped back to admire our handy work and LITERALLY 4 seconds later about 5 spoons fell off. Plink, plink, plink. AND the plinking hasn’t stopped. Daily. We’ll be quietly sitting in the living room and “plink, plink, plink”…followed by some groaning on my part. I’ll close to door to the garage and “plink, plink, plink”. This what is currently hanging in my kitchen.

Mirror Fail

I’ll be trying to find another glue option is weekend…otherwise I’ll be patching the holes created to hang the mirror.

One entertaining thing is that the girls have decided to take the spoons when they fall to decorate the potted plants. So our plants all have spoons planted in the soil.

15 Minutes from Bread Co

kellimcgill — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:57:15 +0000

I have 15 minutes to myself (I escaped work early to hit up Costco without children. You’re jealous of my exciting life, aren’t you?). I have 15 spare minutes so I swung into Bread Co to blog. Just wanted to share my stellar moment from last night.

Last night I was alone in the car, stopped at a 4 way stop light. It was late. No one was at the other 3 parts of the intersection yet our light was red…and seemed to stay red a bit too long for my tired body. I may have started talking to the red light. Politely asking it to change to green. ”You know that you want to turn green.” At that point I glanced to my right only to see a car full of high school boys staring at me. Lovely. So what does any self-preserving 30 year old mom do? I continued to talk to myself. Surely the boys next to me would think that I had one of those fancy cars with a built in phone system, right? Yup, I continued to fake talk to myself self in the car so a bunch of 16 year old wouldn’t think I’m crazy.

What have you done recently to cover up your crazy???

Odds and Ends

kellimcgill — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 22:05:10 +0000

Who in the public school system decided that a soft pretzel and cheese dip is a good idea to serve as an ENTREE to our children? Seriously. (FYI: Elle will be bringing her lunch that day.)
My friend Aimee is blogging. And she’s such a gifted writer, you must check her out.
Elle came home super excited on Thursday because her class got “THREE RECESSES!” I asked why they received the extra recess, assuming they had earned it for good behavior. Nope. H threw up in the classroom. H,you know, the kid that sits directly across from her at their table. Lovely. And so it begins.
My husband is a saint, people. I am going out of town on 2 separate girls only trips on back to back weekends in October. You would think that if I could convince him to solo parent 7 days then I would be able to sweet talk him into a new blog header. Wrong.
Elle & Paisley are participating in a charity fashion show later this week. People, this is going to be epic. One of Elle’s favorite things to pretend is she is a model on Project Runway. She has the model walk perfected. I promise to have the camera ready and the video camera fully charged.

Good Different

kellimcgill — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 21:36:50 +0000

I’m officially a week late for sharing Paisley’s birthday BUT that’s early compared to her first birthday that never got mentioned. Mother of the year.

I have decided that Paisley is a mystery to me. She and I are so different. In fact, I feel like she is so different from everyone in our house. I love it, but at the same time she is going to take a lot of work. Most of that work is just going to be mental as I’m trying to figure her out.

Joe, Elle & I are very independent people. We’re completely happy to be solitary, Paisley however needs to be with someone at all times. But more than that, she needs to be touching someone at all times. If I’m sitting she needs to be ON TOP OF ME. I could be sitting here typing away on my laptop and she walks up to me and requests my lap. Clearly my lap is occupied, this does not stop her. And 95% of the time my coveted lap becomes her space. In fact, she likes human contact so much that is will walk up to complete strangers at church and raise her arms asking to be held. Now, once she in their arms she won’t even acknowledge their existence, she won’t even give them a smile. It’s kinda funny.

She is sensitive and I…well, I’m not. For years Joe has claimed that I “have no soul”. It kinda stings, but he’s right. I am just not overly emotional and in-turn I don’t have a lot of patience for overly sensitive people. I have a feeling like God made Pais this way on purpose. I may need her to soften me a bit. We have noticed that she is going to take a whole different type of disciplining than Elle. Pais fights to hold back tears if you simply give her a stern look.

Everyday with her I realize that God gave her to us to help better us. She is helping to make us better people and I couldn’t image our family without her.

Pai Rae

kellimcgill — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 01:15:23 +0000

This little girl has had her little world rocked this week…and she doesn’t quite know what to do with herself. She cried the whole way this morning to her babysitter’s house because she wanted Elle to be with us. Then when we got to her beloved Ms Laurie’s house, there were other kids there. This had not been the case all summer. So not only was her side-kick gone, but she had to share the attention of the baby sitter she adores.

Laurie said she was a mess all day. The whole drive home from Laurie’s she laid her head of the side of her car seat. I’m fairly certain you could hear my heart tear in two.

There is something powerful about being sisters. Watch my siblings, I think the same is true about 2 brothers. I was the only girl in my house so I didn’t ever have the sister bond…and from my vantage point right now, I missed out.

I pray she adjusts to this new routine quickly. Not sure my heart can take it for very long. Elle told me tonight that she’ll be happy soon because her birthday is coming and presents make everyone happy. Let’s hope that Paisley shares Elle love language of gifts!

Kindergarten

kellimcgill — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:16:50 +0000

Hi, my name is Kelli. Nice you meet you blog world. Sheesh. It’s obvious that blogging has not been my biggest priority the past…year. Maybe 2. There was a point in time when my day revolved around the blog post I was writing in my head. About the time Miss Paisley arrived I also started taking on more responsibilities and hours at work. (By the way, who does that!? Only me I think.) The blog quickly went to the bottom of my priority list. I mean, I hardly had time or energy to feed my children. It wasn’t pretty.

But now milestones are starting to happen & I miss documenting it. Honestly, I have gotten really crummy at taking pictures on something besides my cell phone. It’s time to get my act together…for both myself & my girls.

Speaking of milestones. Today was a doozy. A milestone that every mom dreads. Today Elle started Kindergarten. She literally got on a school bus with 40(ish) children that she had never met. Was she nervous? Elle doesn’t even know what nervous feels like. She marched right up those enormous steps, found an empty seat next to a boy, and immediately started talking. The child didn’t even look out the window as they pulled away for her momma! (Do I sound bitter?)

Paisley wasn’t a fan of Elle going to school this morning. She whimpered a bit & pointed to the bus. It was sweet! And honestly, it was good because I was too distracted by her to let myself get emotional. Besides I got a little emotional last night while talking to Joe so I didn’t need to do it again. The whole emotion of her growing so quickly, paired with the thought that she is going to have a whole little world at school that I’m not part of…whew…it got to me.

I am so thankful that God made her to be the brave, independent, bold little lady that she is. I don’t have to worry one bit about her blending into the background and being overlooked. She’ll never be lonely. She’ll shine and be in the center of the action (in both good and bad ways, I’m sure).

Let’s quickly take a walk down memory lane:

Preschool year 1

Preschool year 2

Kindergarten

Ok…so help me out by doing 2 things.

1 – Leave me a comment. Blogging is much for fun when you have comments. Your feel like you’re not just writing to no one. More comments means higher chance I’ll blog often.

2 – Bomb Joe’s facebook page with requests for a new blog header. Poor Paisley turns TWO this week!

More Mohrs to Love

kellimcgill — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 03:26:04 +0000

Raise your hand if you’re in the market for some amazing new music! Earlier this week our good friends Russ & Katie released Russ’s latest music project. It’s a collection of hymns and spiritual songs…and it’s spectacular. But wanna know the best part? (Of course you do.) All the proceeds they earn go straight toward the very quickly approaching adoption of their new son. Russ & Katie are amazing parents & I’m sooo excited to see Eliot as a big brother.

So go purchase this album. For $10 you’ll not only walk away with a some great music but you’ll also be supporting this family as they grow & fill up their couch. Go. Now. You won’t be sorry.

Eliot & Elle at the St Patrick's Day Parade (no they haven't been drinking, they just kinda look like it)

Me and The One And Only Mrs Katie Mohr (she's one of my favorite people ever)

Mia Famiglia

kellimcgill — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 15:16:09 +0000

Ok, I’m not even going to apologize for my absence. I’m lame, there is no excuse for my lack of blogging besides the fact that I am a full time mom of 2 young children & a full time employee. That’s it. I’m just busy. Oh, and tired…busy & tired.

Honestly, I don’t have much to post today except for a link and an explanation. Click over here to read this hilarious post about my family by my father. My nutty father. Well, honestly, we’re all kinda nuts. But I like us that way. For instance, the picture on the top of his post was taken several years ago while we were all staying together at a house in Colorado (we were there for my youngest brother’s (Chris) destination wedding). When we arrived at the house we did a grocery run & one of our purchases was of donuts. The donuts were not just for a snack, they were for breakfast. We spent the whole day keeping my brother (Scott) from the donuts. He was over the top about wanting a donut. Multiple times a day we’d find him hunting for the donuts we had to hide. It became the running joke of the day. That evening we spent time hanging out and playing games. It was a lovely evening, but Scott headed to bed before the rest of us. So, what did we do after he went to bed? We totally got the donuts out and took pictures of us enjoying them. It’s things like this that make me love my family. You should all want to be adopted by us.