Jessica Kelso

Happy Anniversary to the love of my life!

Laptop - check.

Phone charger - check.

Every other electronic - check.

Shorts - check.

Shirts - oops.

Seriously. I gotta call my husband out on this one! He was just a little too excited for our weekend getaway that he could only think about packing the necessities. Like electronics. We had quite a few instances like that happen this weekend. I topped all of it off by leaving our pillows at the hotel, so now I can’t actually say too much to him All was well since we were able to find a mall and get him some new clothes. That’s always fun for me.

We had a blast! It’s been YEARS since I’ve been to Daytona beach, but it was exactly as I remembered. We rented jet ski’s, went surfing little kid style (boogie boards!), putt putt golf, lots of delicious food, frisbee’s, and climbed over 200 steps to the top of Florida’s tallest lighthouse. We definitely filled up 2 days with a good time and I’m slightly bummed it’s over. A ton of funny things happened that I just don’t feel like explaining, so just trust me. . . it was great! We came home to find our A/C was running on 71 all weekend and froze up. So after grabbing some food and attending a foster care orientation class tonight (have I mentioned we’re starting the process to become foster parents? Well, we are!!) we prayed a little prayer for our future plans along with the air conditioner. Came home and it still wasn’t working. Planned to spend the night at my parent’s since it was close to 90 degrees in our house, got a bag packed and then started to feel cool air. We laughed in amazement at how silly and perfect it was.

Let’s back up a little bit. Before the A/C started to work, we decided to open our anniversary presents early because that seems to be a ritual for us. We are always way too excited to wait until the actual day. So I got K some books and clothes he wanted (boring, I know) and he got me a little sewing starter kit. I thought it was cool but was slightly confused. So on the back of my card it had a sticky note telling me where to go next. Turns out he made me run all over the house like a crazy lady looking for what I thought might be a sewing machine. Turns out I was right! I’m so excited but have absolutely no idea what to do with it.  I’ll probably stare at it for a couple of days until I have enough guts to put it all together. I still can’t believe he picked it without my help. It’s the exact one I would have gotten for myself. He is the absolute best.

Tina finished the photos from the shoot on Sunday. . . so I thought I’d go ahead and share them. Sorry there are so many, I just couldn’t pick my favorite! Oh, and would you believe me if I told you my gorgeous friend Rachel is 4 months pregnant in these pictures? Yeah, probably not.

It’s already Wednesday and I’m wondering where the week has gone. This weekend was perfectly busy. I say perfectly because it was busy with all the good kind of busy. Surprise parties, meeting new people, photo shoots, exploring an amazing farm, eating pizza after a long week of overly healthy eating, and the start of a new journey.

Sunday afternoon I brought out my wedding dress and got to play dress up with my friends Tina and Rachel. Tina is an amazing photographer here in town and with her busy schedule it’s been hard finding time to get in a “fun” photo session. After Rachel’s wedding, she had been wanting to do something high fashion and I just had been wanting to get dirty and have some fun pictures in the process, so Tina found a farm and that’s what we did. It was somewhat of a “trash your dress” type photo session without being too messy. Her husband’s family has a farm out in North Lakeland that was perfect for what we were wanting to accomplish. Apparently when you step foot on to a farm, the mosquitoes grow a couple sizes. They were massive! So we were all pretty bit up by the end of the night. Despite that we had a lot of fun and I’m so excited to see the results! These pictures are just ones Kevin snapped with our camera.

Oh and my handsome hubby was in some of the photos, but mostly he was hanging with the other guy’s exploring the farm and climbing this big cylinder. Apparently they even came across wild pigs. If only Tina had been around for that, she could have gotten some amazing shots of them chasing the pigs.

Monday I started shadowing a client advocate at the pregnancy center. I was also able to explore other opportunities to volunteer at the center without being a client advocate. I’m going to give it a couple tries, but I’m not so sure if I’m going to feel comfortable in this position. The women who do it are absolutely heroes to me and I respect them so much, I’m just not sure if I feel ready to take it on. We’ll see.

We both have Ipod’s with an incredible amount of music on them, like 60GB or something crazy. Half of which we probably don’t listen to because we always get in the funk of listening to the same stuff. But I quickly learned when I started running, that my big bulky Ipod wasn’t exactly ideal to use. So we got these cute little Sansa 2GB MP3 players that are awesome and just clip right on to your shorts. I think Kevin put some of the music on mine when we got them and I’ve added a couple of things since, but I’ve never really sat down and added songs that I thought would be fitting for when I run. Some of what was on there just wasn’t cutting it. So today I’ve gone through our enormous music collection and added 2GB worth of totally random, awesome, high energy music. From Queen, to Andrew WK, Electric Six, The Faint, Chiodos, and The Sleeping. I should probably just have 2GB worth of Andrew WK on there, but I thought I might get slightly annoyed after a couple of days. I sure do miss him though. Listening to certain music brings me back to different times in my life and makes me so happy. Perfumes do that too. Sunflower perfume. 7th grade. Ohhh man. Anyway, lots of good times were had listening to Andrew WK and going to his shows. I even have the proof forever tattooed on my arm.

Along with updating that, I’ve decided to try and make my own video of our wedding day. We paid good money to have a videographer at our wedding, and that’s definitely one thing I wish I could take back. It would have been so much better to just have a friend going around with our video camera catching little things happening here and there. The videographer made everyone uncomfortable and you can totally tell in the video. And his style just wasn’t our style, at all. I definitely take 100% of the blame for it though considering I picked him out. I am glad we have it all on video, just wish it was done differently. So I’ve been working on trying to find a program to take bits and pieces from his video, add pictures and music to it and make a decent one. So far I haven’t had much luck but I’m determined to make this happen before our anniversary so we will have something fun to watch.

The other day I was having a conversation with Kevin about the jobs that I would love to have. I started talking about how I would love to one day open a pregnancy resource center that was free to all who needed it. Just a couple weeks previous he had told me about a program we have here in Lakeland that does the same thing and it really got me thinking. A lady from the office attends his Rotary meetings and he has spoken with her a few times before. So after going on and on about my dream center, he said I should call and see if they are hiring or needing volunteers. How come I hadn’t thought of that? Ever since I was laid off in December I’ve wanted to volunteer, but have kept putting it off thinking I should be getting a job any day now! Six months later, still no job so I figure it’s time. And with Aidan starting school full-time next week, I will no longer have any commitments during the week. (Which is just scary!) So I called and they said they were definitely needing client advocate volunteers. So I started training last night, and I go again tonight and most of the day tomorrow. I’m in a complete awe of the things God is doing in my life right now. It’s absolutely amazing and I am so excited. With the abortion rate as high as it is, the fact that we have a place like this to help empower women by giving them ALL the information and letting them make an informed decision is just so great and I have to be a part of it. Last night I had to miss our Thursday night small group in order to attend the training, but I stopped by after wards. I was in the kitchen getting a drink when I saw the verse Exodus 4:10 written out, “Moses said to the Lord, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” The Lord said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Is it not I the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say”. Here I was wondering how in the world God was going to use me at this pregnancy center. I don’t know how to share God’s story, I can hardly even remember bible verses. I have a terrible memory and have never felt to be very good at speaking. What in the world did I sign myself up for? Why did I think this was a good idea? And here it was written out for me. It’s not my words I need to find, it’s His. So tonight I will see and hear things in the training in a new light and I am so happy about that!

Yesterday I turned 24. So far so good. I woke up to find blueberry pancakes, a princess balloon, and a couple of awesome presents from my husband waiting on me. We had plans to go to Islands of Adventure for the day, but the rain seemed to have other plans for us. We were slightly at a loss as to what that was. . . so we ended up going to lunch, getting some new plants for the yard, and then I was actually able to drag Kevin along to go shopping with me. My birthday is pretty much the only day of the year he will step foot in a clothing store without complaining! Which I’m more than okay with. Afterwards, we went to Tampa with friends to eat at my favorite Thai restaurant. It was delicious as usual. Our little nephew Owen even called to wish me a happy birthday which was the cutest thing ever!

Every year on my birthday my mom seems to talk about what a miracle baby I was and the story of my birth. I’ve heard it quite a few times by now. How badly she wanted a girl, but had convinced herself it was going to be another boy (I have two older brothers). How the doctor wasn’t quite ready and told her not to push, but I wasn’t very patient (hmmm, so that’s where it started?) and came out like a football and the doctor had to catch me. I always like hearing the story especially since I’ve never seen pictures. My parents weren’t the best at taking pictures when we were little, especially when we were born. I’ve always missed being able to see that time. But there was something about the story this year that really made me realize the extent of how truly special I was to my mom. Now having gone through the roller coaster of emotions in trying to have a baby, it all kind of overwhelmed me and made me sad to think of the times I was mean to my mom and gave her a hard time. She wanted me so bad. I mean, I’m sure if she had her choice she would minus out the tattoo’s and a couple of the different stages I went through, but she wanted me and has completely accepted who I am today. It only took me 24 years to figure that out. Thinking of that also reminded me of the love God has for me, and how it’s 1000 times more than my mom’s and that just absolutely blows my mind. It’s amazing. And realizing all that made for a great 24th birthday.

For the past couple of days we have had nothing but dark and dreary skies with lots of rain which has made it almost impossible for me to get motivated. Yesterday while shopping outdoors and getting drizzled on for a couple of hours was enough for me. Enough frizzy wavy hair. And enough trying to hop over water puddles but just slightly missing. So today I need to go grocery shopping before I get my nephew from school, but right now I don’t really see that happening. And going grocery shopping with him is a task I stay far away from. I’ve learned for me to have a successful grocery shopping trip, I need to be alone. I like to read labels and concentrate on what it is I’m buying so I don’t just grab things in the cart and go. When Aidan is with me I somehow end up with cookies and scooby doo yogurt and pop tarts. He’s sneaky, that little one. So for now I think I’ll sit right here on this couch and take advantage of the fact that Kevin has lunch plans today and won’t be needing a delicious home made lunch (ham&cheese anyone?). Maybe I’ll go tomorrow since the rain has ruined our outdoor plans. What’s better than going grocery shopping on your birthday?

Wow.

That’s all I can really say. This weekend was a-ma-zing! Friday night Kevin went to see Star Trek in IMAX with some friends while I went out with some of my girlfriends for my birthday and our friend Beth’s “last night out” before her baby is due on the 30th. We went to Outback for dinner and topped the evening off with some uno and great conversation at Starbucks. Saturday we slept in, woke up and made a pancake breakfast, then just laid around and caught up on some season finales we had on DVR from the previous week. I was also able to get in a run and lay out and go swimming with a friend which was nice.

This morning we had a nice church service followed by a housewarming party for our friends David and Kallie. Burgers were grilled and then of course the rain came. It didn’t last long and all the guys headed to the park a couple blocks over to play Wiffle ball while some of the girls watched and took pictures. They ended up switching to kickball and I even played for a little bit which was a lot of fun! I love kickball, and I think we should seriously get a team going. The rain headed our way again and we all had to hightail it to a covered area where we hung out until it was okay to walk back. Overall, a great day and now we’re tired and looking forward to an evening on the couch while watching the rain fall. It’s weekends like this that make my heart so full. I couldn’t be any more thankful for the amazing friends we’ve had the opportunity to make. I’m sure I say that a lot, but they are all such a God send.

Tomorrow my mom is picking me up and we are doing some birthday shopping before I pick up my nephew from school. Although I’m only turning 24 and have nothing too exciting planned, I love birthdays. Not only do you get special attention ON your birthday, it seems like you get it all week! We haven’t even really decided what to do on my birthday besides going to my favorite Thai restaurant in Tampa, but I’m sure whatever it is will be just fine.

I did it!!! I am soooooo proud of myself. . . and you won’t normally hear me say anything like that! I ran the Mayfaire 5K last night in 35 minutes, a lot of it was up hill, and I didn’t stop to walk AT ALL. Not once! That was my goal when planning to do it but I hadn’t actually gotten to that point while training so I was feeling very unsure of myself. The last stretch of the run was up hill and I thought I’d have to stop for a minute, but Anna said to just push through it and I did. The last minute I pushed it with everything in me and ran it out. It was amazing! It might not seem like a big deal (especially to the ones who finished in 15 minutes!) to a lot of people, but for me it’s huge. I rarely ever finish anything I set out to do. I’ve been that way since I was little. It was the best feeling to reach the finish line and finally feel like I had accomplished something good for myself. I’m glad I had Anna to run it with, because I probably couldn’t have done it alone. She is what I would call a “professional runner”, having run the Chicago marathon (26 miles!). I can only imagine. I’m so excited to know I can do this and push myself even harder to do another 5K in a month or two. Maybe I’ll set a new goal for myself to do it in 30 minutes or less!

Happy Mother’s Day to all my beautiful mommy friends out there! You are amazing and should be appreciated more for everything you do. We were able to spend the day with both of our moms and my grandma in Tampa who I rarely get to see. She is not doing so good, but still beautiful as ever. I miss her. Hope everyone had a very special day!