Three Glorious Days Off!

It just doesn't get any better than this last Memorial Day weekend. Jason was off Saturday and Monday and we were able to spend two and a half days together!! We had an absolute blast relaxing and enjoying each other's company. Saturday we met up with our friend Alicia and her mom Suzanne and we headed to the Watertown Drive-In to see Pirates III and Wild Hogs. It was a perfect night and the fireflies were in full effect. We LOVE going to the drive-in, its probably one of our favorite things to do together - we load up the truck with blankets, pillows, sweet tea and lawn chairs and we're set for the night. Then of course we have my favorite cheeseburgers along with crinkle fries for dinner, popcorn and maybe an ice cream bar for dessert :-)

Jason had to work on Sunday night, which was fine, cause he gets off earlier than usual and it gave me a chance to work on Kelley's wedding invitations. But Monday was the perfect day off. We slept in late, went to see Fracture, had dinner at PF Changs, sipped coffee on the patio at Starbucks and drove around Franklin dreaming of places to live. When we got home Jason baked up some grubbin brownies with ice cream.

Life is good and we're so grateful for the time we've been blessed to have together. Jason is off again tonight and we're looking forward to dinner at home and watching So You Think You Can Dance. I feel like I've been spoiled to have so much time with him lately, but our love tanks are full & we're ready for the week ahead. I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day as well.

Much love, the Keiths.

Back in Seattle Again!

I had a fabulous weekend back home in Seattle to surprise my mom for Mother's Day! She had no idea either, which was perfect! My dad flew me in late Friday night and from there we headed to the house where mom had fallen asleep for a nap. When I tried to wake her, she thought she was having a dream, but alas! It was me! It was so beautiful too, no rain and all blue skies. The mountains and lakes were there to greet me and I had missed them so! And with a sigh of relief, there was never a Starbucks or coffee shop that wasn't within a few blocks distance. I mean really, how much better does it get than having your very own barista in the house, sleeping down the hall?!! (love you Kris!) And for those of you that don't know what a barista is, wel now that's sad! Oh and who was on my flight this time you ask? Bucky Covington - and he's still as redneck as ever.

The weekend was filled with movies, late night conversations, a soccer game along with many other things. I tried to fit in as much as I could and for those of you that didn't know I was coming home, I do apologize, but I was sworn to secrecy :-) However, it worked out just right that I was able to see my friend Chad from New Zealand, and I think it had been close to three years since we last saw each other! He's been back in the States to do some acting in LA, attend a wedding in Florida and see friends in Seattle and Portland. And the cherry on top, was running into Asher on Sunday morning at CCK! It was our own little mini reunion, just the three of us again. I also got a little time to hang out with Aaron & Heidi Powell and Jill Sonsteby at Kati's soccer game. I've missed everyone so much, I could seriously spend a month just trying to make up for the lost time with all my dear friends.

As you can tell, I had a lot of fun messin around with my sisters. And wow! Let me tell you, with six of us women in the house at one time, I don't know how my dad does it! It was crazy! For those of you that don't know, my cousins Kolleen and Kathrine still live with my parents and they've just recently turned thirteen - so you can imagine, there was enough estrogen for a few households! I loved having so much time with my sisters, it had been almost four months since I last saw them! Kris is working at a small coffee shack now, building for herself quite a reputation as the best barista there. They actually request her to make their coffee - now there's a Seattle coffee-snob for ya when you can tell the difference in coffee by who makes it! She's also going back to school to finish up, and I'm very proud of her for it! Kati has two weeks left of school at the UW before the summer and she's been super busy working part-time in an office job, babysitting and now being trained also as a barista for a different coffee shack in Bothell. I've commented to Jason before that if by some random act of God, my sisters moved out to Nashville, we would have to buy a big old warehouse and renovate it into an awesome coffee house complete with super comfy furniture, old wood floors, floor to ceiling bookcases with those cool ladders that roll across them, a stage for all these asipiring Nashville artists to perform on and big ol espresso bar. I can totally see it in my mind. Coffee is in our blood and it would be the hit of the town! We could call it the Kelly Cafe - or something like that... It's definately one of my many dreams. So, what do you think girls?!! (Don't panic mom & dad, like I said, it's just one of my dreams!)

Now that I'm back in town, I've been pretty busy with a couple invitation gigs. One was for a friend from work for her parents 50th Wedding Anniversary and the other gig is for my friend Kelley Skiles who's getting married July 7th to a worship pastor! I've attached the finished product of what it will look like when we mail it out. Simple, but classic and it will be printed on very pretty ice blue shimmer paper. I thought their idea of wanting to represent themselves with the treble and bass clefs was very sweet, since they're both very musically involved. Once I get the whole paper resource issue figured out, I hope to put up a simple website to advertise our invitation business, which I hope to get up and running in the next year. I've run into quite a problem out here not having any resources for quality paper - there's no PaperZone or anything like it here in the South and it sucks! So I've got to continue to keep a portfolio of paper I can order, build my designs and get crackin. My hope is that in the next 2-3 years I'll have built enough of a reputation that I will be making some good money making invitations, so that I can work from home and spend more time with Jason. Plus, it will make it much easier to be home raising a family when we're ready to take that step. This will be my 12th set of invitations - which includes all weddings, showers, private birthdays & anniversarys. I'm well on my way and already have another opportunity for another wedding out here. That's one thing about this town - word of mouth is the best form of advertisement, cause everyone knows everybody. So be praying for more opportunities and lots of creativity!

Tonight we'll be getting back into the swing of things by joining our awesome friends at small group, discussing chapter 3 of Simply Christian by N.T. Wright and then running off to Brentwood for Jason's softball game. And I don't know about y'all - but I'm pumped to see the finale later tonight of Dancing with the Stars and the Season Premiere of So You Think You Can Dance on Thursday - yeah!!!! I wish you all a fabulous week and much love!

The Keiths.

So much happened this last week, I don't even know where to begin. Jason and I left for CA last Thursday night and spent five fabulous days in California with his family. Unfortunately, my camera broke from the get-go, so I have absolutely no pictures to share from our trip, other than the ones I found online from the rodeo. To begin with, let me just tell you how crazy this trip started out. The number one place to see Celebrity's I've come to realize, is the airport. It seems like we always see at least one. My last trip out to Seattle, Jason and I flew back with LeeAnn Rimes and her band. The time before that when I flew back from Seattle, I flew back with Ronnie Milsap and his band. The first time I ever visited Nashville a couple years back, I saw Pam Tillis in baggage claim. You never know who you're going to run into. So anyway, Jason and I check in at the airport and head to our gate. We go to sit down and see Scott Walker standing in line at the counter. Scott is Billy Walker's grandson and therefore a distant cousin to Jason. So Jason goes up and says hi and asks where he's headed. Scott says "Clovis", Jason's like - "no way, we're going to Clovis". Scott explains he's touring with Trick Pony and they're doing a gig at the Clovis Rodeo. "No way! We're going to the Clovis Rodeo!" What a small world. As we're standing there, Jason recognizes a familiar face about to walk by and reaches his hand out to this guy to say hello. This guy, who I don't know from Adam, looks at Jason and says, "I know you". Jason explains they've met before through a friend. Then Jason goes to introduce me, "Sweetheart, I'd like you to meet Clay Walker". (see picture below) Holy Crap! It's one thing meeting a celebrity, but its a whole other thing when you don't even recognize them to begin with and get caught off guard. As soon as Jason said his name I yanked my hand out of Clay's like he had turned into a snake or something. Of course in true Kelly fashion, I turned all blotchy and got embarressed, trying to find what was left of some coolness. We said our goodbyes and he walked away. Also standing there with Scott and Trick Pony was Daryl Singleterry - though I never really found out why he was also on his way to Clovis.

After arriving into Clovis that evening, we had dinner with the family and started a puzzle (its becoming a tradition!) . On Friday, Jason spent the day with his dad out golfing, while I went shopping with Sherry & Grandma. It was such a gorgeous day too! That evening, Scott Walker came over for dinner before his show and afterwards Jason and I had planned on just dropping him off for his show at the fairgrounds, when Scott invited us to join him backstage for the concert. Wow! And talk about a good time! We met Aubrey, the new lead singer for Trick Pony and Jason got a chance to talk to Blue County, who opened the show. Turns out that Blue County had one of Jason's songs on hold for a while, which was a great conversation starter and in the end business cards were exchanged and Jason is going to meet with them again in the near future. The show was amazing and we had the best seats in the house - right up front with the security, ahead of even the crowd! At this point, you can imagine I'm kicking myself for not having any way to take pictures!!! I've included a picture each of Trick Pony and Blue County.

(Trick Pony)

(Blue County)

Saturday & Sunday was full of some hot sun and some awesome rodeo! We had fifth row seats in the center of the arena and the bulls and broncos were fiestier than ever. It was so much fun and made it well worth sitting in 98 degree heat for three hours each day. And yes, I did get a little bit of a tan!

Monday we celebrated my 29th birthday with lemon cake, a fabulous steak dinner and lots of family and friends. Even Steve O'Hara, one of Jason's friends and groomsmen was able to join us. One of the absolute highlights though, was when we dropped by my sister-in-law Kelly's 3rd grade class. The class had been studying baseball and Jason was the special guest to show off his baseball skills during PE. It was too cute. When we first walked into the classroom, all the kids immediately burst into song with Happy Birthday, and I totally teared up, it was just so sweet. Then we went up to the front of the class and the kids were able to ask Jason all kinds of questions about baseball. Then to end our visit, we went outside for PE and they alternated with him pitching & hitting. And to top it all off, they each gave me a little homemade heart that was colored with Happy Birthday written on it. I was blessed with wonderful gifts and much love from all the phonecalls from my friends and family. It was truly a wonderful birthday. Tuesday afternoon we got on a plane and made our way back to Nashville. It's good to be home and back in the swing of things.

Before I end this entry, I got a picture from my friend Genesis of our Easter brunch out together with our friends from church. We absolutely love our new friends and anytime we can, you'll find us going to the movies together, hanging out at each other's homes, shopping...whatever we can squeeze in. From left to right there's Steven, who's also the Worship Arts Director from church, me, Jason, Ben and his wife Alicia, Ashley and her husband Cody and then Steven's wife Genesis is the one taking the picture.

Have a blessed week and we'll be back soon with more from the Keith family!