Hubba Bubba

It has been pretty quiet since the last update.  I guess no news is good news!  John Thomas met his first and (hopefully his only) imaginary friend!  If you look very closely, you will notice "Indy-visible".  Indy is, in many ways, the opposite of John Thomas…mostly because he likes to break rules! Indy spent the better part of his short stint at the lake in time out for hitting and being an all-around stinker!  

Thanks to the McAffry family adoption fundraiser, there aren't too many people who have to wonder what to wear for the UT games!  Thanks Mrs. Tia and Mr. Wes for always being so sweet to John Thomas!

But the biggest news of all is that this little fella taught himself how to blow a bubble!  He was determined to do it before he turned six!  Now if we could just get him riding a bike and tying his shoes, he'd be ready for first grade!

Step one:  Chew and prep gum.

 Step two: Focus and blow!

 …and blow!

 Step three: Grin, celebrate and repeat!

 Our nature boy also found this cool critter!  Honestly, I prefer nearly any critter to Indy!

The obligatory pumpkin gut picture.  Despite the fact that he loves to dig and isn't afraid to get dirty, he is not a fan of gooey pumpkin guts.  

Last year John Thomas was a hammerhead shark.  This year he wanted to be a whale.  Lord only knows what ocean critter he'll scheme up for next year!

Thank you to the Stooksbury's for having us over for Halloween!  It was a haunting good time :).

Good Ole Rocky Top

Fall Break was mostly amazing!  A few guilt-free days off work never hurt anyone, right?  Not to mention that East Tennessee in the Fall has to be one of the best places on the planet!  Jeff and John Thomas took a little time to go sniffing around the woods for something to put in our freezer.  They sure are hard to spot when they're all decked out in their camo. :)      

Jeff and I also took advantage of the extra time together to go on a 14 mile hike to Rocky Top!  Part of me was hoping that the Pride of the Southland Band would be serenading us when we got to the summit.  Instead, it was an amazing panoramic view of God's creation!  

You know how a picture never does the real thing justice?  This is definitely the case here.  Also, my bear cub, Jeff, insisted on climbing to the top of the highest tree to get the best vantage point for this pic.      He is such a "go-getter" and I am definitely one lucky lady!

Love this man and getting some extra time by his side.  I also love that he carried all the water and food for the entire trip because my lil pups were "dog" tired by the time we got back to the car!

This is within the first mile of the hike.  Notice the smiles that seem full of energy :).

We hiked up to over 5000 feet, so we got to see all the stages of Fall in a matter of hours.  

This was taken at mile 13.  Notice the absence of energy.  I can't even raise my lip enough to show my teeth.  We were both exhausted but had an amazing day and will do it all over again the next time we get the chance!

Kindergarten field day was also this week!  I played hooky on Friday to spend the day rooting on all the little Brickey Bears, especially this little cutie!  (Apparently, I am fond of this UT hat.)

After watching John Thomas run sprints, relays, and soccer dribbling drills --it has confirmed my belief that he is much better at precision events.  He and his class won first place in the egg relay!  He didn't drop the egg once!  Granted he was walking so slow that turtles and snails were using him for analogies.  But as they say, "slow and steady wins the race!"  

 He pretty much wore this smile all day as did most of the kiddos!

An update from the last blog about Monday Manies, there were THREE EXTRA VOLUNTEERS!  The five of us pampered and loved on lots of ladies at KARM!  Thanks Kim, Sue and Savannah for all your help!!  Next Monday Manies will be on November 2nd and I would love to serve by your side if you are interested!

Bah Bah Baaah (Thanks Neil Diamond)

There are many things that are "just like riding a bike," and for me, blogging is not one of them.  It took me 10 tries just to get that first sentence down!  But there is no better time than now and no better place than here to get started.  When I felt led to blog, I didn't realize that it was almost exactly two years ago when I updated my last blog! I guess I should fill you in...

(...look at the night. And it don't seem so lonely.  We fill it up with only two.)

 Jeff and I celebrated our one year anniversary this summer!  I love sharing life with him.  Between work schedules, family schedules, and life's curve balls we somehow seem to find time to laugh, love and grow.  It's not perfect and it's not always easy, but it is ALWAYS worth it.  I admire him, lean on him, and learn from him everyday.

(How can I hurt when holding you?)

This big fella here started kindergarten this year!  He loves it mostly because he has an awesome teacher and his best friend, Charlotte, is in his class.  He comes home from school with all sorts of new songs and stories!

(Good times never seemed so good, so good, so good!)

If you were ever curious about life inside the walls of the Kimmel house, it looks a lot like this.  Underwear on the head, dog hair on the floor, laughter in the air, and love in our hearts.  Sure, there are "timeouts"and challenges, but most of the time grace and gratitude eventually win out.  

(Hands, touching hands.  Reaching out…)

The main reason I felt led to blog today is because I need your help.  Just over three years ago, God called me to serve the homeless women at KARM.  I grappled with this for months, not understanding why He wanted me to give manicures to the women there.  If you have ever seen my nails, you know that I would not be anyone's first candidate to give manicures.  One restless night I asked God, "what am I supposed to tell these women who realize that I can't paint nails very well?"  He told me (not audibly, but in my heart) that I was supposed to tell them that He loved them.  And so it began.  On the first Monday of every month, a small group of women and myself have spent a couple hours with the women at KARM loving them and bringing them a little bit of dignity.  I have learned that this ministry has nothing to do with manicures at all.  It's about conversations, sharing, caring and trust.

For the past several months, our small group has dwindled down to myself and a very faithful and beautiful friend, Angela.  There are so many women (sometimes close to 70) that we cannot serve them all.  So if you are interested in joining us for an evening of girl time, please just let me know.  It is always on the first Monday of every month.  We start at 6:30 and you'll be home by 9.  You don't have to go every time, just once would be awesome!

Harvest Mooning

Let me start out by saying, I'm so sorry :).  Our handful of followers may have realized that this blog has gone from a weekly to a monthly publication.  It is solely a function of being crazy busy and not because we don't want to keep you up to date!

 Where to begin...?  Well Jeff, John Thomas and myself are still having lots of fun finding adventures and making the most out of our time together.

 We've also been "soaking" up some family time!  John Thomas asks to go swimming in the "hot pool" every time he's at Gramma and Poppy's.

 Thanks to Nana Gay and Tony, we got to go to our first family UT football game!  It was about 200 degrees though, so we only made it about halfway through the first quarter.  We came, we saw the power T, we heard Rocky Top, we ate a Smokey Dog, and we left.  John Thomas had a blast and, in spite of the scorching heat, wasn't really ready to go home when we headed out. #VFL

 Over our much-needed Fall Break, we drove up to spend some time with Jeff's family in Pennsylvania.  The leaves were gorgeous as we drove through West Virginia!

 If you want to see something really cute, just ask John Thomas to say "Pennsylvania."  We did some hiking and sight-seeing while we were in the area.

 This one makes my heart so happy!  My handsome boys, doing what they love the most.

 The gang (Jeff, Wes, Tia, and Me) decided to go to a local haunted house/forest/corn field.  I have no doubt that they were thoroughly entertained at my expense.  If you want an idea of how funny it was to them, just watch this clip from the Ellen show: http://www.ellentv.com/2013/10/22/andy-and-amys-haunted-house/

 Here is my beau with his super sweet mom and dad (Ms. Viv and Tom) at the ski resort.

 We had such a great time going up on the ski lift and sledding down!  There was also music, BIG construction machines (like bulldozers and snow blowers) and hot chocolate!

 You can tell Ms. Viv is no stranger to fun!  Thanks so much for being such a gracious host to us both!

 They even had a hay bale maze for the kiddos!

Couldn't resist sharing this holiday yard decor with you all!  Made me laugh out loud!  Hope that you and your family have a spooktacular Halloween this week!

Hot Diggity Dog!

The last several weeks have been filled to the brim with lots-o-fun!  Who knew the gigantic hot dog at Dollywood would be the highlight of the trip?!  It only took three mommas with their cameras and twenty or so pictures to get these kiddos all standing still, looking at the camera, and flashing their sweet grins!

John Thomas has really started trying to be more independent lately, which is bitter sweet for me.  I love it because it is so much fun to watch him discover his place in the world.  I struggle because it is a daily reminder of just how fast he's growing up!  

 Move over dog whisperer, John Thomas knows a thing or two about managing these mangy K-9s!

 Last weekend, Jeff and I had people up to the lake.  A Labor Day Eve soiree of sorts.

 We ended up having quite a house full.  There were great friends, great food and great times to be had by all!

 Maggie even brought the karaoke game along, which always makes for some laughs and some healthy competition!  Girls versus boys.  I'll just say, we'll be ready for the rematch guys!

 Even had our own panel of judges, who actually ended up being more like background singers!

 I won't mention names, but these guys were not afraid to leave their masculinity at the door so that they could "rock" Sonny and Cher's "I got you babe."  We may not of won, but we at least had a great time getting beat!

 This weekend, we had the first camping trip of the Fall!  John Thomas, has learned his way around a camp site: helping mommy put up the tent (sort of), roasting marshmallows, finding all sorts of treasures...  We all had a blast!  Thank you Stooksbury's and Courtney's for letting us join in on all the fun!

 I made him his own little palate for a bed, but when I crawled in the tent he was snuggled right in the middle of Mommy's bed.  It's the first time we have ever slept in the same bed.  Needless to say, I didn't get very much sleep.

John Thomas LOVES getting to spend time with all his friends, sleeping in a tent and enjoying the great outdoors!  

Saturday the Hayes and McAffry families came up to join the party.  Watching John Thomas be so sweet with Brooksie just warmed my heart.

 When we weren't busy throwing parties or camping, we were still having a blast spending time together.  John Thomas, Jeff and I can have fun doing just about anything.  Baseball in the yard, grilling out, chilling on the couch...

Jeff, thank you so much for bringing so much richness into our lives.  From helping with all life's chore list, to making up hide-n-seek games to avoid the "lions," you make everything so much more fun!

Macho Macho Man!

The Three Amigo/as!  Even though summer is officially over for us teachers and students, as long as the weather holds out, we are going to be soaking up the great outdoors!

 We took this little selfie on the back of Jeff's four wheeler.  Notice who gets the drivers seat.  John Thomas has had a summer full of firsts: four wheeling, jet skiing, tubing, boat driving, bee stinging, skiing, tee-teeing in the potty, and just general awesomeness!

 Look at this little surfer showing off his balancing skills!  "Land ho!"

 Whilst riding the four wheeler last weekend, we stumbled onto a whole mess of deer.  Initially, John Thomas invited them to come ride with us, for which they declined with blank petrified stares.  Then he decided he wanted to catch one. Go for it buddy!

 As you no doubt know, he came back empty handed (thank goodness).  But he got an A+ for effort!

We've also planted the second round of our garden this year.  By we, I mean mostly Jeff.  John Thomas loves to piddle in the garden, so we extended the season a few more months (hopefully).  

It is so nice having such a manly man around take care of man-tasks!  Besides tilling, mowing, staining...and an abundance of other wonderful demonstrations of love and support, Jeff caught a bird with his bare hands and saved it from a short life of suffering as it struggled to liberate itself from the garage.  Don't tell him, but I think I might get Jeff a superhero cape for Christmas!  Da-da-Da-Daaa! Love him :).  But, John Thomas got to free it, so now he wants to catch all birds so that he can hold them and let them go.  My response goes something like this: "Ummm....no, but do you want to go pick in the garden?!"

 Had a back to school slumber party a couple weeks ago.  LOTS OF FUN!  I lucked out on the best singing team, so in spite of my lack of vocal skills, we won the sing off.  I may or may not still be gloating over this :).  Thanks Maggie for hosting!  Thanks to the rest of the ladies for making it such a fun night!

Speaking of girl friends, I forgot to mention on the last blog that I did something kinda cool a few weeks back.  I was asked to speak at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church for their women's group and I said yes.  After a month of prayer and preparation, it was time.  Some of my dearest friends showed up to support me and I can never thank them enough.  But thank you to Janiece, Andrea, Tamara, Sarah, Beth, Katie, Kelly, Maggie and, of course, Mrs. Viv! Nearly 70 women were there and no one booed me off the stage!

On a side note, I loved speaking to these women.  In fact, if anyone needs a speaker for your church or group of folks, I would love to help you out.  I think speaking in front of groups is a talent God has given me, and I love the challenge of trying to decipher His purpose for me in that capacity.