Jessica Kelso

Let’s recap the past week, shall we? Friday night we made another trip to Disney World…uhh, I mean Ikea and of course spent more money then planned. Kevin had received a $75 gift card to the Cheesecake Factory, so we went there after wards and had a lovely evening filled with delicious food.

Saturday I woke up and went to help set up the wedding with my mom. I’m convinced it was the hottest day of the year….maybe even my life. By the time we were done, I was exhausted and drenched in sweat. I sat infront of a fan for a while and luckily was able to look somewhat presentable for the wedding. It was beautiful. My cousin was beautiful. Despite the attempts we made to pin the aisle runner down, it failed us greatly. Her heels were getting stuck and the back of her dress was dragging the runner down the aisle with her. It’s one of those moments where you just want to cry for her, but she was so graceful. She just slowly slipped her shoes off, and kept on as she was. Here is a picture of the bride under the gazebo we worked ever so hard on. (Okay, not really it just felt hard because of the 100 degree heat!) Also, a picture of the back of her gorgeous dress…

Sunday we went to Islands of Adventure for a couple hours. Once again, miserably hot. They are open until 10pm during the summer, so next time we are going around 6 when it’s not so hot and crowded! I started to feel really bad anyway so we left before we got to ride everything. Monday I felt horrible. My throat was incredibly sore and swollen, and my tongue felt like it had been cut. I couldn’t figure it out. I made a doctor’s appointment since I can do that now. I forgot how nice it is to have health insurance! Well, I went and spent $30 for him to tell me I have a really nasty canker sore on my tongue. I felt pretty stupid to say the least. I’m the type of person to not even want to see a doctor when I have the flu. I’m sure I looked like one of those crazy people who goes and sees a doctor even when they have a cold. Oh well. It’s getting better.

Kevin became a member of the Rotary Club, which is really exciting. I got the chance to go visit and see what it was all about. We both want to volunteer and give as much as we possibly can financially, so this is a really great opportunity to do those things. I’m so proud of him. Along with working a full time job, and a part time job doing computers…he still manages to get involved with the Rotary club, wanting to spend any time he can volunteering his time and money. How did I get so lucky?

I’ve never paid attention to the lyrics in this Jack Johnson song Banana Pancakes . I think it’s my new favorite. I didn’t even know I liked Jack Johnson!

The last few days have tried my patience in every way possible, but I feel like I handled most of it pretty well. Tuesday I came home to find my perfectly clean house a wreck. Insulation, dust, wires . . . everywhere! I decided I couldn’t handle watching the mess, so I went left and went grocery shopping. It was also man central there. 4 guys from Brinks were installing our alarm system. Kevin’s dad nicely offered to come help install our new air conditioner thermostat. It’s one that you can program to turn up or down at certain times of the day. He’s been wanting to get one for a while, and we thought it would be helpful in lowering our electric bill. (Since last months bill was OUTRAGEOUS!) Well, the thing wasn’t as easy to install as expected. To make a long story short, our air conditioner stopped working. So now we have to pay money to have a professional come look at it and hopefully install the new system. All to save a couple bucks! Kevin’s parents were nice enough to volunteer their extra bed to us for the night . . . whew, we were saved from the long night of tossing and turning in the heat! So today the air is getting fixed. Tonight the house will be cleaned. Tomorrow we will hopefully go to Ikea and the Cheesecake Factory! Then we will enjoy our lovely air conditioned house all weekend!

In other news, this is my newest want . . . or possibly this . Can’t decide. I guess I have a while though since a new couch isn’t really on our agenda! HA. Isn’t it funny that once you make a couple big purchases you think you have lots of money and can buy everything? I hope I’m not the only one who thinks like that.

The same papers have been sitting on my desk for 2 days. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been working on other things occasionally throughout the day..but when I’m not busy, I should be working on these papers. Instead I just sit here in a daze and stare at them and then look at things I want on Etsy. Kevin is home waiting for Brinks to come install our new alarm system. Unfortunately they were out of a part we need…so they are just coming to hook everything up today but it won’t work until we get this part, hopefully by Thursday or Friday. That’s exciting! Friday we are most likely going back to Ikea for the curtains they were out of this past weekend. I’ve based our whole bedroom around these (annoyingly) cute curtains…so we’re hoping to get lucky this weekend. That’s my one frustration with Ikea. You’ll spend hours going through the showroom looking at everything, deciding exactly what you want and writing numbers down. Then you get to the warehouse and they are out of half the things you wanted! Such is life. I love Ikea, so I don’t mind going once a week to find what I need Still need a few new things for the wall too, but I’m waiting to see what goes well with those darn curtains! I’ll post pictures once it’s actually complete.

This weekend we’ll be attending the wedding of my cousin that she officially started planning TODAY! Her boyfriend is in the military and will be leaving in a couple of weeks to go back to Georgia to live on base, so I guess they made the decision to go together! I think it’s totally sweet but I also think she’s absolutely insane for planning something so soon! It’s going to be small and intimate in my grandparents backyard. I think it’ll be nice. I’m just gonna be praying it doesn’t rain, because that’s never fun!

I guess I should go since the power keeps flickering on and off. Kirstie’s computer just shut off, but mine got lucky. I wouldn’t have been a happy camper if I lost this entire post!

We have a whole lot of purchases coming up in our future that I’m pretty excited about. Tomorrow we’re going to Ikea to get our new bedroom furniture! So the entire weekend will probably be spent putting it together. That’s the only dislike I have for Ikea.

I’m also thinking about getting this coverlet from Target…

I have Kevin convinced we need a king bed, but unfortunately can’t afford a new mattress this month. Normal people would wait and get the mattress before the frame but I just can’t wait! So we’ll be using a queen mattress in a king bed until we have the funds! I wish I could just stretch our mattress out to a king, because I LOVE our mattress!

We are having a guy come out from ADT today to give us as estimate of how much it’ll cost to install an alarm system. I’ve wanted one since we moved into our house, but have pushed the thought aside. A couple nights ago Kevin’s friend, Nick (who is a Police Officer) was saying how he has an alarm system AND a gun for protection. We don’t really have anything! I would just feel safer knowing our home was constantly being monitored.

And just for fun..here are some other things we’ve been drooling over! The TV would look just perfect over our new dresser!

Those will have to wait though since we’re going on our cruise in less than 2 months!!

I love how accomplished I feel on Sunday evening, it’s such a great feeling. The house is clean, the fridge and pantry are stocked for a week’s worth of yummy meals, Milo and my car are both bathed, and my legs are sore from running. It seems to start my week off really good when things feel orderly on Sunday evening. We had a great 3 day weekend. Friday we spent most of the day just being lazy and watching movies. Friday night we spent time with Kevin’s family since his grandparents were in town and his parents were leaving for vacation the next day. It was a nice way to spend the 4th of July. Great food, great fireworks, and loud games at the dinner table. I always have a good time with his family. Saturday was spent in Orlando with our favorite Meitzler family. I wish I had gotten pictures of Cale to post. He is such a cute little boy…definitely turned the baby mode into high! I hope once we have a little one running around I will be able to feel this accomplished on Sunday evenings! I saw the cutest little family running the lake a couple of days ago. The woman had to be 6 months pregnant, had 2 little girls riding their bikes, and her husband pushing the jogging stroller with a baby in it. It was a huge motivation for me to keep running. If she can do it, I can too!

Well, I’m gonna go enjoy rest of my Sunday evening curled up on the couch with Kevin.

Sometimes I wish I could make cute little things like this, instead of spending more money then I probably should on them. Why wasn’t I born with the gift of creativeness?!

So we’ve been back from the beach for 4 days now and I’m still very much in vacation mode. I’m happy about having another 3 day weekend, that’s for sure! We had a great time in Anna Maria. We stuffed our faces with some awesome food, cruised around on a mini boat for half a day, watched the sunset from bed, and did quite a few handstands in the pool. The ocean was just the right temperature to swim and relax in. We saw a crab and I lost one of my sandals. Dolphins were our friends for the day. I became convinced that we NEED a king size bed after actually sleeping in one. The whole weekend was one of pure bliss with my sweet hubby. I still can’t believe we’ve been married a year. I’ve never been more in love with him, and that love just seems to grow every day. Monday night I surprised Kevin with a reserved table set up for 2 at one of our favorite restaurants, Cafe Roti. Complete with balloons, polaroid pictures of our most memorable events, and a cake topped with a picture of us eating cake from our wedding. Nothing fancy, but it made for a great surprise and an overall amazing 1st anniversary! Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from the weekend…

(Click on them to see full size).

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