Jessica Kelso

The past week has been very difficult for a whole lot of people. Joel Wade Chastain, a beautiful soul passed away April 20, 2009. He was Kevin’s cousin and one of his best friends growing up. He battled a very strong addiction and ended up losing the fight. My brother was also friends with him growing up and although I remember having crushes on a couple of my brother’s friends, Joel was the biggest one. Every time I saw him he had a smile and something nice to say, and now after talking with so many people this past week who knew him, I’ve learned that was always the case.

The service was beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. It’s gut wrenching to see the pain in everyone who knew him. The confusion on faces of people wondering how such a young life was cut so soon. For the viewing there was a steady stream of people out the door the entire time. He touched so many lives in lots of different ways. In this I’ve drawn so much closer to God and leaned on Him for understanding. Knowing Joel is in His loving arms and finally at peace is the only comfort we have. I know Kevin misses him a lot. Please say a prayer for him along with Joel’s family.

Well a couple of days ago I wrote out a nice long post, pictures and all. . . and it magically got deleted when I tried to save it. Out of frustration, I haven’t even wanted to think about writing in here again. Until today. So I’m saving this one as I write it!

We’ve had a busy couple of weeks. Two weekends ago I set out to paint our new patio set. I wasn’t completely in love with the color it was. I wanted something brighter. So I went to Lowe’s and bought a couple cans of white spray paint, set up old sheets all over the driveway and spent a whole afternoon covered in paint. While I was busy with the patio furniture, Kevin was in the back yard working on staining our deck a nice chocolate brown color. He came out to see how things were going with me and noticed how windy it was and thought we should probably cover the cars in the garage just in case. But we were a little too late because the Volvo ended up covered in little white specks. Booo. So we’ve been trying to figure out how to get it off.

Easter was lovely. My parents came to visit Access with us and really seemed to enjoy it. Later that night we had my family over for dinner and to hide eggs with my nephews. That was really cute and they had a lot of fun. This past week Kevin’s family from Tennessee were here and we were able to spend a couple of days with them. Kevin and his brother took 2 of our nephews to Lowry Park Zoo and I stayed and kept Mary company since she was stuck at home with a sprained ankle. My owl and bird burp cloths finally got some legs thanks to her. Being terrified of the sewing machine kept me away from doing that on my own. Thanks Mary

Here are before and after pictures of our fabulous deck that we worked soooo hard on!

Lack of writing lately = way too much I want to squeeze into one post!

A couple of weeks ago our pastor came to us with an envelope and asked if we would use the money inside to just go out and bless someone in the community. However we wanted, no strings attached. So after a couple of days wondering and praying about how we were meant to use the money, I came across the website for a non-profit organization called Broken Chains Ministry. They offer a helping hand to people who have recently gotten out a jail and are just getting back on their feet. On their website they had a list on donations needed, so we took the money and doubled it with our own, went to Walmart and loaded up on the main necessities. Towels, kitchen gadgets, hair brushes, shampoo. Along with cleaning out our closet and donating a whole huge bag of clothes. We were so excited to be able to help out and felt this was the ideal way to do it. It was something that hit really close to our hearts. We have seen first hand how hard it can be for people getting out of jail trying to start over. Society is not very quick to give them a second chance. Broken Chains Ministry is a huge advocate when they have nobody else and I absolutely love that. Our Pastor Jason came to us and a few others early to see how all of it would work out. So last Sunday he announced to the church that everyone would be receiving an envelope when they leave and it would have anywhere from $1 to $100 in it and just told them to do the same thing he told us, to go out and be a blessing to the community. I’ve absolutely loved reading and hearing about what others have chosen to do with the money. Access Gives Back is the website that has been created for everyone to write about what they’ve done. It was huge for us in realizing that you can give small and really make a huge impact. The local newspaper heard about what Access was doing and wanted to do a story to publish on Easter. Us and our friends Ian and Heather were interviewed and we’re really excited about how it turned out! You can view the article here. I thank God every day that he has given us a church that just wants to serve and be a blessing to others.

Today has been absolutely lovely! This morning Access had two services and my parents joined us for the first one, and I worked in the nursery the second one. It was really nice having my parents there and they seemed to enjoy it. Later on, we are having my family over for Easter dinner. You’d think I should be in the kitchen cooking and preparing but thankfully my parents are doing most of that. I’m still not very confident in cooking enough food for 8-10 people and getting the house ready and looking nice. Stresses me out a little too much! Maybe one day I’ll get better at that.

Kevin’s family reunion was this weekend and we are a little bummed about having to miss it. Trying to save money and prior commitments we made for this weekend left us with no way of going. Though we’re really looking forward to getting to spend time with his brother’s family this week since they will be staying with his parents.

So I tend to go through phases where I have some really crazy dreams. Most of the time I can’t remember a single thing about them though. Last night’s dream was so intense, I woke up a couple of times wondering if it was real or not. You might think somebody was trying to kill me or something, but that wasn’t the case at all. Milo was teasing this big lizard on the porch at my parent’s house. We were all inside just talking and I had my eye out watching this lizard climb up a window. Milo kept trying to get it to come play with him like he does all lizards, pulling and poking at his legs. I guess the size of this one was not something of concern to him. Oh, have I mentioned yet that this lizard was HUGE? I mean HUGE. Almost like an alligator. Well, the lizard got tired of Milo constantly picking at him and decided he was hungry and would just have Milo as his dinner. We all sat there in fear watching this massive beast tear Milo apart. The poor little thing just wanted to have some fun!

In my search to find a picture to show you how big this beast was, everything has fallen short. Maybe because there’s really not a lizard that big? So no more letting Milo play with lizards. I don’t want to see him get torn up again.