Guess what time of year it is??

I have always had pretty good performance reviews. Although, I seriously don't like having to write them or receive them.

g

Enjoy!

g

Love, K

I've Been Busy!

In case you missed me last week, I was busy! I was out of town for 3 days for my work, and my beautiful step daughter got married on Friday evening. This is their wedding cake that I made for them (in my spare time last week).

g

The cake was inspired by our recent trip to the Butterfly show. I handmade and hand painted all of the butterflies with fondant. The bottom later is French vanilla bean with blackberry filling, the middle layer is lemon pound cake with lemon curd, and the top layer is strawberry with strawberry mousse. There wasn't any cake left :).

g

I'll show more pictures later in the week. Now, I need to get caught up on my work email!

g

Congratulations Jes and Art! We love you!

g

Love, K

There's a Mouse in My Piano!

What I'm about to tell you is absolutely 100% true. If it weren't Monday and time for Wendy's Life is Funny Carnival, I probably wouldn't admit it, though. You know the "rules" by now, but if not, you can find them on her blog weightwhat.blogspot.com.

This past weekend, I was working on the never ending kitchen renovation project. I promise it's getting close and I promise to share the before and after pictures when it's finished.

I was on the kitchen floor grouting the new tile I put in last week, and kept hearing a noise from my living room. I wasn't sure what the noise was, but assumed I wasn't in imminent danger. I forgot about it after a bit.

About an hour later, I decided to take a break and sat down to watch a TV show in the living room. There it went again. It sounded like a "plink" on my piano.

I waited a few minutes and it happened again...."plink".

I turned off the television and waited.

"plink"

I walked over to the piano and started to study the piano keys. I hit a few notes and figured out that whatever it was, the "plink" was a high E Flat. (Yes, I can play the piano. My dad was a music teacher, and I didn't have much of a choice :-)).

I was staring intently at the piano when my husband walked up behind me.

Him: "Honey. Are you ok?"

Me: "Not sure."

Him: "Honey. What are you looking at?"

Me: "I keep hearing a noise. It's an E Flat. But the key isn't moving up and down when the noise happens!"

Him: "Well, maybe it's a mouse." He says this rather calmly like I wouldn't care if there's a mouse living in my piano.

I just stared at him.

Him: "Watch out! There it goes!!!"

Me: I punched him. Hard.

Him: "Honey. Have you thought of lifting the lid to see if it's a mouse?"

Piano: "Plink!"

Me: I stared at him.

Him: "Honey. Or, you could just plug in my cell phone so it won't keep making that noise."

Yep! That's right! I spent 1 hour and 20 minutes of my life worrying about the mouse that was playing Beethoven's 5th in my piano only to not see my husband's cell phone sitting on the piano telling me it needed to be plugged in!

"Plink!"

Love, K

More Beautiful Things...

My 86 year old grandmother and my 10 month old niece.

How beautiful?

Love, Kelli

Beautiful Things

I wanted to share my weekend with you...in pictures...

On Sunday after church, our family had a wonderful brunch at a really fun restaurant in Northern Kentucky. I've lived here for 25 years, yet have only eaten at this place one other time. The restaurant is on the top floor of a hotel and the floor of the restaurant actually revolves in a circle. During our 1 hour brunch, we enjoyed a panoramic view of downtown Cincinnati and Covington, Kentucky.

This is a view of the Ohio River and downtown Cincinnati. That's Paul Brown Stadium you see behind the bridge. For those of you not "up" on your stadiums, that's the home of the top-notch Cincinnati Bengals. The Reds (who are actually a decent ball team) play at the Great American Ball Park, which you can't see in this picture. The tallest building you see is the Carew Tower. It's the tallest structure in Cincinnati, and I have walked the stairs to the top of it!

This is Mainstrasse, in Covington, KY. Covington (and Cincinnati, for that matter) was settled in the early 1800's by mostly German immigrants. We LOVE our German heritage in Cincinnati, and celebrate Oktoberfest and Maifest every year!

This gorgeous building is the Cathedral Basilica, also in Covington. I apologize for my amateur photography, but this building is probably a good mile from where I was enjoying lunch. This beautiful structure was modeled after the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and is a must see if you are ever in the area. It also is home to the world's largest and third largest stained glass windows. Beautiful!!!

After brunch, we went to the Butterfly show at the Cincinnati Flower and Garden center. This year they featured native species to India. I usually insist on going each year, but this year I remembered my camera! This Common Tiger butterfly was beatiful and rather friendly. Shortly after I took this picture, he (she?) flew away.

And this is where he landed. He actually stayed here for quite some time. Plenty enough time for my sister-in-law and I to take plenty of pictures. That's my husband's forehead, by the way. He says it's because he's so sweet and all. Not sure about that?!?!

I loved the pattern on this beautiful Common Sailor butterfly. Even black and white is beautiful!


I have no idea what this is, but doesn't that big spot look like an eye staring back at you?

This is an orchid, that was in the flower part of the show. Isn't it stunning?

I simply LOVE the color of these leaves. I think this is called a Red Ti, but not certain. I'm pretty sure these aren't native to Kentucky, but I'd plant them in my front yard if they were!

I also love this red Peace Lily. My grandmother's name was Lillie and everytime I see one, I think of her. She would have loved this red one.

This is what I found after I finished up in the gift shop. Don't they look content (aka bored out of their minds!)?

Love, Kelli

A Nice Reminder

As part of my "day" job, I work with business teams to solve business issues, brainstorm new ideas, create new products or strategies, etc. It's a really fun job, and I'm very lucky to have it. There are 2 things that I particularly love about my work. First, I absolutely love the people. I have met some of the most incredible and interesting people. I have found and heard some absolutely inspirational stories that have brought me to tears. I've also heard some stories that I've retold at parties for years afterwards, too.


Check out the video below. I usually use this at the beginning of my brainstorming. Please don't read any of the descriptions or comments ahead of time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pK0BQ9CUHk

How did you do do? I like re-watching this video from time to time, because it reminds me to take my own personal "filters" off of what I'm seeing. I like looking at problems and challenges through a fresh pair of eyes. You can usually solve your issues much faster!


Enjoy!


Love, Kelli

Snapping Turtles and Kitchen Wars...

I wanted to share some completely random things with you that don't really make for a post. But because I'm writing it and it's my blog, it counts :)!

When my beautiful 8 year old baby boy first started at his school last year, he simply had to join the chess club and the ski club. After looking into it, he decided that he didn't want to do the ski club, because he was a better skiier than the rest of the kids. Keep in mind that we live in Northern Kentucky and our ski season is 8 - 10 weeks long at best. So it's not harder to be better than the other kids.

He did join the chess club, though. Chess was something we taught him back in pre-school as a way to talk to him about "war". What do you know? He picked it up and can hold his own in tournaments now. Since he wasn't doing the ski club this year I told him he could do something else. He chose Fishing Club....

Don't ask me, I don't know either. But these kids absolutely LOVE fishing club. They talked about all kinds of stuff at these meetings. Every Tuesday, my son would come home with a fishing story or a list of things he needed to have for his next fishing outing. He even came home with a 10 foot long cane pole (should have seen me trying to put that thing in my little car when I picked him up that day). Last Friday was the last week of club, so Mr. L organized a fishing tournament. I'm figuring this is going to be Colin and about 8 of his friends with little cane poles around a dinky lake.

I had a PTO meeting at school that day, so I called Grandpa (gotta love Grandpa's - especially this one) to see if he could bring Colin's fishing pole and tackle box and meet us at the lake at 4:15. It started to drizzle on our way out, but I figured I only had to do this until 5 or so and then I was free and clear to start my weekend. I pulled up to what is normally an empty lake, and there were at least 50 cars with three times the number of kids and parents. There are only 250 kids in the entire school!

This was a serious party! They had refreshments and grilled hot dogs under a tent at one end. Kids were scattered all around this pond. Luckily, Grandpa brought his fishing pole too, because these people were serious. Mr. L was even set up with a measuring tape and scale pully thing to measure the fish the kids caught. They had serious prizes too. My son had his eye on the second prize. A pretty new red fishing pole.

I gabbed for a bit and then heard a bunch of commotion. Some kid had pulled a big snapping turtle out of the water all by himself. I decided to walk down there and there's my baby boy nose to nose with one of the biggest snapping turtles i've ever seen in my life. Mr. L came running and it measured at least 16 inches, but he wasn't going to get too close. It took 3 grown men to try to wrestle the fishing line from this turtle. Mostly cuz the turtle wasn't too happy about being messed with. He was snapping at anyone that came too close to him. It was a site! I wish I would have brought my camera, but I didn't really know about the outing, so I guess you can either believe my fish/turtle story or not! Either way, it's true :).

Now, for the continuing saga of the Kitchen drama. To catch up, click here. Hubs came home on Saturday morning with everything he needed to make my Mother's Day weekend a living heck (aka paint the living room and kitchen). Recall, that he was bent on painting kitchen "Limelight".

Which is not very different, AT ALL, from "Contemplation" that I wanted.

So, what did he come home with, you ask????

Wait for it....

No, seriously, wait for it....

Are you even kidding me?!?!?!?! And you know what his excuse was? That he had picked out a different brand paint chip (AKA SOLD AT LOWES!) and he was trying to "color match" to the original color.

OK #1) you didn't...not even close there, my dear! #2) everyone knows that the Orange Home Depot will color match any swatch of paint for you...HELLO!?!?!?!? it's on their commercials!

Where are we on the neverending home renovation, you ask? Well, my one finished room in the house (my living room) has now been repainteda lovely shade of boring tan, but I no longer have any face plates, molding, base boards or curtains. So, I now have ZERO finished rooms in the house. And my kitchen has a blue tarp on the hardwood floors and not an ounce of paint on the walls. Go figure!

That's all I have time for right now. I'll check back soon!

Love, Kelli

PS - even though C had the longest "catch" of the day, some kid who caught a 15.5" catfish won the tournament. Semantics!!!!