and a happy veteran's day to you

i invited my students to participate in writing letters to my granddad for veteran's day. here are a few gems they created...

"dear Mr. Kelly, Thank you for fighting for our country. That was amazing for you to do that.  I thought anyone who fought for the war would not make it. Thanks again hero"

"dear Mr. Kelly, how was it like to hold a gun? so sorry many people died each day."

"thanks for saving the world."

"mrs. Alberts told us that you were alive and that you still are. thanks. I thank you for your hard work."

 "thank you for riscing your life to save us. i hope you stay alive for a long time now."

"you saved your army members and beat your enemys. I'm thankful you saved the united state."


"Truly, your grandchild's student, ________"

"My grandpop was a veteran, too! he fought in vietnam, he did not kill many people. he mostly killed wild dogs" [wait, what?!]

"Dear Mr. Kelly, thank you for fighting in the war for use i am so happ you are alive right this moment."

annnnnnnnnnnnnd my favorite:
"Dear Mr. Kelly, I am verry geatfull you fought in the war for our country. I wish I could hug you. Thank you hero. P.S. Have a nice day"

a fall road trip to VA

last weekend my cousin tom got married. it was awesome not only because now we (finally) have another girl in the family (welcome, kai'li, to this wild world of kelly boys) but also because so many family members were there together.

the wedding was lovely. my cousins were hilarious. my granddad was darling. my aunts & uncles were fun. joel was a champ, as always.

 joel & i shared a cabin with mom & allen at shenendoah crossing. the fall foliage was amazing and the weather was perfectly crisp!

 we took a tour of UVA since there's so much fam. history there. it was homecoming, which made the crowd a little crazier than usual, but we enjoyed seeing the sights our parents saw & chatting together.

i have the best husband

 i love this man.
reason 1: just look at these photos from our walk tonight.

reason 2: this conversation actually happened about an hour ago....
me: welp, that was the first time i've ever dropped chicken off the grill. straight onto the ground.
joel: did you put it back on?
me: yes.
joel: good.

survey

if I want to make another photo book (of our first year of marriage!), should I use shutterfly, blurb, or pinhole press?


any opinions? anyone?

this week

this week i'm looking forward to...

more sunshine (if possible!)
showing off what i've learned as a teacher in my observation on tuesday
3 day work week (because tomorrow's columbus day and I took a personal day on Friday!)
spending time with melissa <3
mom & brother coming on thursday night
beautiful charlottesville, VA wedding
seeing these family members:

a little self-reflection on a chilly thursday night

any regular reader of this blog knows i read a TON of other blogs. tonight after dinner/clean-up i sat down at my computer. at least 45 minutes later Joel asked me what I was doing online and I realized i had just opened facebook. for the first time today. i'd spent an entire 45 minutes reading about other people's lives online.

why do i do this to myself? am i not happy living my own life? my job is wonderful. my students are freaking hilarious and precious. i live with probably the most amazing man on the planet. my home/town/church/family all rock.

and i don't really think i'm discontent. sure, i wish a few things were different. like i wish i took more creative (aka just more) photos. i wish my meals were a bit more unique each week. i wish my job didn't require so many hours of work from home. i wish i spent more time listening carefully to my husband as he shared about his day. i wish my family & favorite friends lived closer and/or had more free time to hang out with me. but truly,  i'm so grateful.

and convicted: i need to make better use of my time and energy than i do. it's okay to read others' blogs, but not to the extent that it's taking over my free time & my thoughts.

now... just because posts are better with photos, here are a few from almost one year ago.

a half-way reunion

of course the weekend i head to upstate NY is the first weekend of VERY cold weather they get this fall.

we stayed at a darling little B&B that was a million miles from nowhere (no cell service unless you drove 15 minutes away, back toward the highway!!). we didn't spend much time there, other than to sleep, shower, eat breakfast, and watch old Felicity episodes while snuggled into our beds. it was seriously cold!

lauren was a great running partner at the 5K. we ate at hairy tony's. twice. we tried on some sale items at the GAP, but didn't buy anything. we had amazing mexican food at Viva! in ithaca, ny. PLUS, apple fest was happening, so we hung out and explored there, too.

not sure why i didn't take many photos, but here's the only proof that lauren and i spent a weekend together.