35 things I love about you!

Happy 35th Birthday.

.

1. You make me laugh.

2. You make yourself laugh.

3. You make your kids laugh.

4. You think positive about everything.

5. You will take the girls on dates and show them daily what they will want in a husband.

6. I love your work ethic. It is off the charts.

7. You always say yes when I come up with a crazy new project for you. 

8. I love your passion for showing kids that hard work always trumps talent.

9. I love that you are secretly in love with Jinxie, our cat.

10. I love that you encourage me when I lose perspective. 

11. I love the way that you accept hurt and disappointment with such dignity and faith. 

12. You have taught me what grace truly is. 

13. You are not ok with superficial relationships.

14. When you pick out the girls outfits.

15. I love when I come home and see you and Kyndall cuddled up watching Little House on the Prairie.

16. I love that you are so protective of what the girls are exposed to.

17. I love that you hold me accountable of what I am exposed to. 

18. I love that you still drive the first car you bought 13 years ago and truly think that it is still awesome.

19. When you make the bed every day, with the bedspread side ways and too short on each side =)

20. When you make me laugh when I am mad.

21. When you say "sorry I will try better." as a way of telling me to be quiet =)

22. Love your humility.

23. I love when you pray with the girls at night before bed.

24. I love when you take the girls to Toys R Us to buy them a surprise and have to come up with a reason that you are doing it so they won't think they didn't earn it. Knowing the real reason is because you just love seeing them get excited over little things.

25. I love that you know grocery shopping for me is one quick way to my heart.

26. I love how much patience you have.

27. I love that you line my shoes up in the closet so I can find the matching pairs the next day.

28. I love that you get so excited when you do something nice for someone.

29. I love that I know that I can't wake up Sunday morning and tell you I am too tired for church. 

30. I love that you are always concerned that I am getting enough rest.

31. I love that you are a passionate man with strong convictions.

32. I love that you are my human diary.

33. I love that you encourage me to be the best version of me.

34. I love that you don't care what anyone thinks.

35. I love that you are my biggest cheerleader.

finally!

Life sure is crazy. I took a break from writing on my blog, and it's been so long now, I don't even remember the initial reason. I am so forgetful  that my family teases I have early onset dementia. HAHA. I know saying "I forgot" is the lamest phrase ever, but I promise that I am not lying. I am having an ADD moment and analyzing my sentence "I forgot" and just checked to see what the subject noun and verb was. I am doing Shurley English with Kylie and we are classifying sentences right now. =) So fun. I have realized that I love to learn, not just about things relating to my profession, but just about everything. I hope when all is said and done, my kids will have the same love for learning as I do. I do not sit still enough to watch movies or read novels, but if it's something that I can learn, then I will do it.  Everyday we make the kids read out loud to us the books they are reading just so we can make sure they aren't over their head and they actually know the words and what not… and today Kylie said, "hey mommy I think I will do my reading when Daddy gets home today." I said, "why is that???" and she said, "well, he told me that if I read to him and he falls asleep, that is a bonus and I will get 2 stars on my chart instead of 1!!!" I could not stop laughing.

I had my sisters kiddos today and we had a fun, but crazy day! Addie is 18 months and she calls me mommy. I love it.  She also says "STOP WYATT" really well!!!!! She is feisty as ever and you can tell she's had a big brother to drive her bonkers so far in life.

Wyatt decided to take a plunge into the creek in our backyard this morning. So he came up with Kylie crying to me and saying "Aunt Chelley, I am so cold!!! Am I in trouble????" He said he "fell" in which cracks me up. Such a boy thing to do. Unfortunately, Wyatt didn't have boy clothes at the house, so he was stuck wearing Katie's clothes and Kyndall's boots. He was so sweet about it, but when we got in the car to go home he took off everything but his shorts and said he could not WAIT to change. I ran around like a nut for a lot of the day tending to everyone's needs and I think I was grouchy for some of it, but now that I sit here in bed I realize that I am really thankful that we have days like this together.  I would like to think that these are the kinds they will remember!

Off to Haiti I go!

Well I am packing now as we speak! I am blown away and should not be, of God's faithfulness! I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous. I would love more than anything prayer while I am there! I am departing from Atlanta this Sunday at 6pm, and will stay the night in Miami. We will get up early Monday morning and fly into Haiti. I will be home very late on the evening of the 21st. I hope to goodness that I will find a spot to get online and write about my trip. If not, I will make sure to share all of the details when I am back =)

Here's my wish list of prayers:

1. Most importantly, that God will be glorified by all of the work we do in Haiti. Pray for healing of all kinds too!

2. The flight... I am anxious about the little plane... Eeek.

3. Dave! He is super dad but 6 days with 3 little ones isn't easy for me to do and I am pretty used to it haha. 

4. Pray that I stay healthy while I am gone.

5. Pray that when I am missing my family I will find comfort in God, who is the God of comfort! 

6. Pray I remember that! 

Thanks y'all!! I know I will never come back the same. Earlier this week I was sickly and not feeling well...i think it was just anticipating Christmas, and getting it all taken care of before I leave and now that it's pretty much done my heart is about to explode with thankfulness. I am so, so overwhelmed with gratitude for my sweet family and friends who have supported me in this trip in so many ways. 

Ps. No better feeling than to be able to be the deliverer of this medicine!! How awesome is that. Bringing 1000s of antibiotics, tylenol, and children's multivitamins, as well as many other things! Pray that customs is in a super wonderful mood Monday morning!! :)))

You can't make this stuff up!

No, you aren't seeing things, she's back to a full arm cast! Purple is her color of choice this time. We have had 5 now. That's terrible I know..The past couple of days have been a action packed. Thanks to my family and friends to help me laugh through it. Lots have asked if I get the special look at the hospital??? Well, thankfully, no! I am sure it's hard not to see my posts and not to judge me, but I am totally ok with that..HAHA.   I am fine with the transparency of motherhood. I could write and pretend that I am awesome, but then who would that be helping? =))) SO..... here's how yesterday went... We skipped a friends birthday party because it was at the skating rink, and we thought it wouldn't be a good idea to bring our non skaters to the rink. One already has a broken arm, and the other two have tried to skate so many times and it's sad how ungifted they are in this area. So, I think I am doing my family a favor, and staying home and trying to replace the day with something fun. The girls LOVE making Christmas cookies so I decided that would get them excited. We made the dough and I needed to put it in the fridge for a little bit to get hard. As little girls do, they were hanging on my legs waiting on the dough to be ready and I said, " Go upstairs for 5 minutes and just find something fun to do!!" So, Katie and her friend and Kyndall went up there and put on gymnastics leotards and got out the beam and the cheese mat and decided to perform =)) In one second I heard "the cry". I didn't even need the girls to come get me. She was doing a cartwheel on the beam and fell off! For the love of Pete!!!!!!!!!! She has one good arm! She immediately passed out in my arms (which always happens when she breaks a bone because that is the way her body protects itself from severe pain).....I called Kitta and Jon to come save the day and finish making cookies and Dave and I took her to the ER.  I will spare the details of our evening at the hospital but long story short, they sent us home telling me she was in pain because she already had a broken arm and that she was fine =( No matter my arguing, the lady just thought I was nuts basically.  So I called her orthopedic doctor this morning and tried to fit her in at the same time as Kylie's appointment we already had at the ENT.  I got to the orthopedic and everyone in there greeted us with hugs and asked Kyndall what in the world she has done now. She proudly tells the Dr. that she was doing a cartwheel. He said I thought I told you, "no running, no jumping, no showers and no gymnastics!" And she just smiled a big cute smile. The Dr examined her elbow and told me immediately she had fractured it. So, off with the Christmas cast and on with a new purple one.

I might add, that during this time and my trip to Atlanta for the ortho, Kyndall was nervous as could be and even had diarrhea on the way. We had to stop in a terrible area and run into a mcdonalds to let her poop. As I was waiting to turn right out of there, a homeless lady started knocking on my passenger window. God Bless her. She just needed some money but told her whole life story in a minute and asked for prayer and Kylie was able to chat with her for a bit. I loved how God used that little diarrhea moment for us to run into her and help her out. So anyways that was a little side note. My poor girl with her nervous stomach... It got worse later in the day..... But more about that later........ We get to the ENT where we are 2 hours late because the ortho took forever... I am sitting in the waiting room with the girls who are both crying because they are hungry and tired and my little monthly friend appeared. So as awesome as my day was... I had to scoop up both girls and walk over to the hospital store to buy my "goodies" and then walk back to the ENT oh and then explain to the ladies up front that I wasn't trying to be rude but had a woman emergency LOL. I could have scratched this appointment, but I just knew it would be a few months before I would be squeezed back in and something in me felt like I needed to go. Kylie needed a hearing test because she had ruptured her ear drum a couple months ago. So fast forward a little, and the Dr and I are talking to Kylie and explaining her hearing test. I tell her, "You have to pay good attention to the lady and what is on the screen so that your test will be accurate." And her reply is, "Well mommy, I will read the screen really good out of this eye, because I can't see out of the other one!' I mean.... REALLY!!!!???? The Dr looked at her and said, "Kylie, are you serious?" And Kylie said, "Yea. I can't see out of it," as calm as she could be. We covered her eye and asked her what she could see out of on one side, and it was fine and the other side she said, " I don't see anything but blurry." Awesome!!! So, I guess the good out of the ENT was that her hearing is fine, and we discovered she can only see out of one eye! Otherwise, I don't know how long she would have waited to tell us!?? So tomorrow we will make a visit to the eye doctor =)  As we were leaving,  Kyndall said, "mommy, I am gonna throw up." I looked at her for a minute, thinking surely this is not real life. someone pinch me and wake me up??????? But she was white and I ran down to the bathroom and barely made it with her in my arms as she barfed in the toilet.    And that ended our day. I got home and took a shower and am sitting here reflecting on the fun. We will start over tomorrow and be thankful for a new day!! And to be honest, this one is over and I don't think it was that bad =))

BUT......... just in case....Tuesdays are my day to work at the pharmacy, and I think I will go =))  I think it's sounding pretty good right now, to let Dave handle the school, the eye doctor, the one armed child (who still has diarrhea??) and the gymnastics and cheerleading run =)

Disclaimer: I didn't even want to share with anyone that Kyndall broke her darn elbow because I can envision anyone's gut reaction thinking "geeez can that woman just watch her children????" But it's ok, it is what it is, and I have a busy little girl on my hands. She will grow up and not let anything stop her. I envision her being a leader, or just someone that has their mind on what they want, and will go after it.   I have learned that having a child like this, is a bit of a challenge to parent, but honestly it's the way God made her. I pray we parent her in a way that doesn't break her spirit, but also in a way that she always respects authority. So for now, I will consistently tell her that she may not do flips in a cast, and consistently discipline her when she does, and just love on her.  xoxo

Keepin Up with KYNDALL....not possible!

Well, we decided on pink this time. Kyndall is a mess! There are just no words. I was supposed to be at home getting ready to host a baby shower. The girls had a friend over and they were all sitting on Katie's bed, and then Kyndall decided that she should do a forward roll =) While this was happening, I was downstairs. Well, she fell off the bed. I heard her cry and knew that it was something bad and saw her arm =(  She has only had her cast off for 2 weeks! Thank goodness, Nakitta had come over to help me get ready for the shower and she drove us to the hospital. I remembered the procedure well since we had just done it 6 weeks ago. (Dave is out of town helping a friend with Hurricane Sandy relief). We got to the hospital around 945 and didn't get home till 4am today. She has to stay in bed for a few days with it elevated and our prayer is that the bones stay aligned or this time she will need surgery. The break was an ugly one. How can this sweet little girlie girl be so busy and crazy all at the same time???!! Boy, she has made us many memories at such a young age LOL. You should have seen her attire for the hospital. She was wearing one of Katie's old dance recital costumes and no shoes. Little honey boo boo doesn't have nothin on us! HAHA. I had a hard time not cracking a smile when the nurse said, "Maam we have to ask everyone this, BUT should we be concerned for Kyndall's safety at your house?" It's not funny, but at the same time.. It just is. What do you do when you have a child that is this busy though!!?? I can't stand over her all day. She already knows she is not allowed to run, do gymnastics, jump on the bed, or play on the monkey bars. I thought I was doing good eliminating those things for a few more months while her bones healed. Clearly, she has a mind of her own at 3 years old and I am going to need to be covered in prayer that either she survives me or I survive her through the next 15 years =))

PS. Wanted to show off my girls in their Halloween costumes. I have the best friends ever who have helped take the big girls and entertain them and keep them busy while I stay at home with miss priss. AKA: Dennis the Menace.

Keeping up with what God's doing in our lives!

Happy Fall! Keeping up with the williams family is tough sometimes, but keeping up with what God is doing in our family is pretty darn hard these days..I honestly just can't keep up!

Today was a day where all day I felt like gosh..I have GOt to write this down. Maybe I should keep my lap top and every time something comes to my mind, write it down. I woke up with my mind going 90 mph and by noon it was going  175.  I always get these thoughts and think, gee could someone benefit from hearing that? would it make their day?? or geee is that TMI?? HAHA.  Dave is home now and it's allowed me to take showers, and, well, do the things I love again. lol. I feel like when he was gone, I was stripped of that, but believing Romans 8:28 I knew not to worry. God has been working so much in my life though, that what I used to love is not exactly the same as what I do now.  Anyways, turns out it was a pretty awesome time to just be forced to slow down and stay home a WEE bit more. God reveals so much to us, we only need to be STILL!We still missed the head honcho terribly, but a lot was accomplished spiritually in his absence. On both of our ends! So praise God. Now he's home and already has my shoes all lined up in a row. (not kidding) We do not operate well when we are without each other. We just miss each other so much, we are functioning at 50%.  I don't mean to sound cheesy, but just stating the facts. We both are committed to our marriage, children and what God has called our family to do, so it gets us through the rough times where I am stressed and have to eat chickfila every day and gain 10 lbs a week. HAHA.  I am always good at writing about and sharing what God is doing in Dave's life or sometimes my kids.. but if I talk about myself then that's like bragging. Braggers get on my nerves. But when I brag... I am bragging on what God is doing because trust me, it is NOT me!!! I can take no credit. Just a little disclaimer for the future haha.   It's kind of a long story but I think I will put it into words because it's pretty cool how God answers prayers. Even sometimes YEARS later. Here are a couple things from this month =))

Prayer #1:
I am begging Dave for more kids.
Answer to the prayer--Dave thinks we should buy Kyndall a gerbil. Lesson-- keep praying.. Dave will change his mind. =) or maybe God will decide that a gerbil is just what our family needs... last I checked it does not say anywhere in Psalms 127, "Behold, gerbils are a heritage of the Lord"

prayer #2: have prayed that God would use Katie's heart for His glory. (she is my little evangelist).  If you do not want your child to be asked if they know Jesus, do not let them hang out with her. LOL. She blows me away with her courage to just blatantly ask her friends if they know Christ. answered prayer---She's informed me that she has witnessed to 3 girls on the gymnastics team and they have all asked Christ into their hearts. I know they are young, but that seed has been planted. Apparently she gave them a pretty good spill on His awesomeness =))) Praise God for this and I pray that she will always remain humble in her evangelistic measures. =)) Humility is a character trait that is a requirement of our family. If you don't have it, you are in deep doo doo. Obviously, we all fall short, but we will die trying to teach them that.

Answered prayer #3: This is a lengthy one. I will try and give the cliff notes version. While in pharmacy school, God really began to shape my heart for missions. There were times that I thought I should apply to medical school and become a physician. I just began praying my first year in pharmacy school about this. What kept me from doing it, was a few things. Dave was playing in the Major Leagues and I wanted to have kids and have a house full. I knew that even if I only planned on going to medical school to become a medical missionary it wouldn't fit so great into our lives. How would I be a mom, how would I homeschool my kids?? Medical school would have taken me 8 more years. I mean, Dave was seriously living out his dream and he needed me there alongside him. If I had kids, they would need me there AND they would need to see their Dad too. So I couldn't really be in two places at once! (Although I often try that and fail miserably.)  God soon revealed to me that He could still use me and He knew the desires of my heart! Being a pharmacist is the ultimate "mom job" if you love medicine and serving people (of allllllllllll walks of life!) and want to work a little or a lot. I never dreamed anyone would put up with me to only work in the off season, but it has always worked out beautifully. I am not saying that physicians can't be GREAT moms too, because I am blessed to know a few! But, just with our life and situation I knew that wasn't a possibility.  So, fast forward a few years..  3 kids later,  I tell Dave that my life isn't complete and that I HAVE to help people that have no access to medicine.  It's just eating at me. If he doesn't help make this possible I may be forced to fly to a third world country with our 3 children =) He's always been so apprehensive about me leaving the country without him, but I tell him it's too expensive for him to join me! haha. True Story. It just is. Well, this winter I finally have a chance to go to Haiti for medical missions AND have something brewing in my own backyard.  HOW cool is that. SO.. planning on Haiti in December. If the children of Haiti have a special place in your heart, and you feel led to give to this mission. Just say the word. I hope to be there for a week, and God willing.. I really would love to bring Dave with me. I am thinking he would be pretty good at just loving on those kids...playing baseball and being my wingman.

My lesson--always know that God knows the desires of your heart....be careful what you ask God for, because in His time He will show up big time.

OK, I feel like I need a drum roll before I tell you the exciting news thats happening in our town..................so just imagine those periods are a drum roll. A family has donated a 3 story brick medical building to our church. We are BEYOND excited about this. I am on the organizational team for this project and if I get on your nerves bragging about what God is doing, sorry in advance! But please make no mistake, this is all to further God's kingdom here on Earth and has nothing to do with me. I am just a warm body with a pulse, being led by the Holy Spirit. I want to make that clear. I am not doing anything fancy, just what God asks. This is going to provide FREE health care to those who meet the certain income requirements, are residents of Douglas County and are working and have no insurance or are underinsured. You will show up at this clinic and you can bet on being shown the love of Christ and receiving wonderful health care. I joined the team kind of late but when I did, I had to be willing to help fundraise for it. I am going to be honest, at the beginning it made me queezy just to think about having to ask. I was worried that people would just wonder why I didn't pay for it myself HAHA. Which is totally not possible. I really just trusted that God would intercede for me and help me to spread the word and that others would be equally as excited as me. It also dawned on me that if I didn't ask anyone or spread the word, just think of all of the people that would miss out on God's blessings.  In our community there is a GREAT need for this clinic. This will help keep people with no insurance out of the emergency room as well. Wellstar has donated $600,000 in equipment already, and we have a building with no mortgage. how awesome is that!

SO... long story short..... I am living my dream right now being a part of this. If you see me you will notice that I am GLOWING. I have to pinch myself that God seriously just placed in my life a project that I had hoped to be a part of. God is allowing me to somehow juggle homeschooling the girls, working some, and being a wife to Dave (full time job alone LOL). My house is messy and I may appear a tad more scattered than normal, but being able to do God's work has is SO much better than a clean house and appearing as if I have it all together. which I am pretty sure that I have never appeared to have it all together! LOL.
I am spending the next two days out just meeting with people about The Care Place. If you would like to be a part of this, please contact me. There is a great need for local businesses to sponsor this project. There are several levels of giving and each donor will have their families name or business name on a special wall listed under founders. I would like to go to everyone I know personally and invite them, but I waited to do this until Dave was home =( I didn't think that most would enjoy my 3 year old climbing on top of their desk and eating out of their candy bowls while I shared! (Can you tell this has happened already?  So now my mission begins.. We are having a fundraising dinner at our church (Church at Chapel Hill) on Thursday, November 15th. If you would like to host a table, filled with people who love to serve that would be awesome. You will be responsible for inviting 3-4 other couples to come along with you that you think would love to be a part of this ministry.. If you want to come to this dinner, but are not able to host a table that is great too. I have to have all RSVPs by next Wednesday, October 31st.  You can email me directly at chelleyw@mac.com or call me!

"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms." 1Peter 4:10

Mom shame

I get asked a lot how I do it when Dave is gone. (Now trust me, I think it's pales in comparison to some of my sweet friends who have husbands overseas so trust me, I know it could be even longer! and I could be worried about his life daily.. ) 
So I thought for fun I would answer that!  I feel like I should be a little more transparent. Maybe it will help someone. I am just barely keeping my head above water! I think Kyndall has asked me for something at least 30 times since I sat down to write. Katie keeps crying that the open blister on her hand needs preparation H before bed and Kylie just came back from her room due to an enormous fit she just threw. UGH. Just pure craziness. The girls don't have clean laundry. Today they wore Matilda Jane clothes that were in my trunk from my shows this week. On Thursday I had to take a dirty uniform shirt out of the laundry and fluff  it so that she could wear it to preschool. The girls just said "mommy, we are so lucky you cooked us dinner tonight." (It was mac n cheese and it was 8:30). My house looks like it could be on an episode of hoarders. My yard needs cut, my hair needs to be highlighted, my bathrooms need to be cleaned, and I really need to go to the grocery store. You are probably wondering why I am sitting at the computer and not actually doing some of these things but it's a stress reliever to just sit down and write about the craziness. I just video taped Kyndall telling me that her and Katie decided to paint their nails in my bathroom while I was slaving over the mac n cheese. HAHA. Of course remover was spilt all over my bathroom and they cleaned it up with toilet paper. Now we are all 3 going to bed without baths today. We are going to watch Barbie movies in my bed and all sleep together and cross yet one more day off the calendar that we survived another day. I really wouldn't trade this for anything.. I have an amazing friend that I know would come over here right now and help me clean, and take my kids but honestly I am just OK with it like this. One day my house will be clean, and one day I will have time for hair dos and the gym.. till then I will just keep going. I seriously don't think there is one aspect of my life that I would change or subtract from it. Not even having a clean house. After all, I love when people come over to my house and tell me it's so comfortable. I'd rather have a house full of people and us having fun then be uptight about the laundry and the messes. Dave will be home soon enough and all of my shoes will be lined up perfectly in my closet. If you know him well, you know he is a cleaning maniac. We have a deal..whatever bothers me in the house, I take care of with a smile. Whatever bothers him, he takes care of with a smile =) and so far, it works. xoxo