If you don't want to read about a sick bird, don't read this

Last week a friend of Mom's called her and said that her parakeet was looking funny, and asked if she could come check on it.When Mom arrived and looked at the bird, she assessed the situation and called a friend of ours to get a second opinion on his condition. He was tilted to his side, with one leg pulled into his feathers, which were alot more fluffy than is normal.Our friend said that he probably wouldn't live through the night, so Mom offered to take the bird home, so that Carolyn (the owner) wouldn't have to worry about him.
Because we already have Mac, and we weren't sure what was the cause of Jimmy's (the bird's) odd condition, we kept him outside in our garage with a fan. In the mornings we would take Jimmy's cage outside on our deck, so he could have fresh air and enjoy the other birds. Once a cardinal and a gold finch flew to his cage and freaked him out! Unlike our bird, Mac, Jimmy had never been out of his cage, and he lived with a older married couple, so he  wasn't very friendly, and was very scared around other people.
 Over the few days we had him (about four or five) he became increasingly more friendly, and would even chirp back when I whistled to him. I tried my very best to not become attached to him, knowing he wouldn't stick around very long but I did a a little, unfortunately.
Every day his leg grew more useless and shrunk up, until it was completely useless and he had to use an outstretched wing to keep himself upright. We didn't want to put him down so long as he was happy, and could get around in his cage, but by Monday he was looking really bad. We came into the garage and he was laying in the bottom of his cage breathing slowly and was very tired.
When I picked him up he barely even moved, and I wrapped him up in a towel and put him in a small box so he would stay warm. He was looking so very bad off that we didn't think he would live past a few more hours, and it was raining so hard that we couldn't go get what we needed to put him down.
Through the day he remained about the same, he would get small bursts of energy every 30 minutes or so, but then he would get even worse off than before.
After dinner I went to the garage to check on him, and picked him up and held him in my hand. I was talking and whistling to him when Mom came out to the garage, getting ready to go to the store since the rain had stopped. She came over to look at him and I then noticed his cere (the colored part above his beak) had tunred an odd dark color. Then he started shaking like he had a seizure, and tilted his dead up. Then all of a sudden he stopped moving, and I just kept staring at him, waiting for him to move. After a few seconds, I said "did he just die?" I whistled and touched him but he didn't respond. I felt really bad, but there was really nothing I could have done, he was old, and his time had come. So we wrapped him up and buried him in the backyard.
Although it was a little sad, he was really happy while he was here, and we knew we did everything we could have done. Before he died I took some pictures of him, so we could give one to his owner.
A day or two before Jimmy died Mom picked up two new parakeets for Carolyn and they are already adjusting to their new environment. They seem really sweet and will be good company for her. We got new ones for her so quickly, because her husband hadn't come back yet from recovering from  from being sick, and we didn't want Carolyn to be lonely.
Carolyn's birthday is on Friday, so Mom is going to give her a framed picture of Jimmy then.

Jimmy

These are the two new birds

I hope everyone has a good rest of the week!
~Kelsey

And I thought I had bad hair days...

Crazy isn't it!   That's a parakeet by the way, with a genetic mutation.

-Kelsey

Appriciating "The Chicken" :)

Wow! It was ABSOLUTELY CRAZY at The Chicken! Many thanks to everyone who made the time and effort to come out and support CFA and Dan Cathy today! In over 2.5 years of working at Chick-fil-A, I have never seen anything like it- people were willing to wait in line for well over 30 minutes- even in drive through! All the customers were extremely nice, even helping out where needed- it was awesome! Physically exhausting for us as employees, but really cool! :)
Have a great remainder of the week, everyone!
-Kendal

Chris Tomlin at Busch Gardens

This is the video I took at Busch Gardens a few weeks ago. We had a really good time at the concert, and it was an unforgettable experience! I think Chris Tomlin is the only person I have ever cared to see at a concert. It was fun to be able to see him in person, and see his personality. He definitely doesn't put anything on for anyone, he is very real. It was really neat the way it wasn't like a concert, it was more like 5,000 Christians together to worship  God. (there we supposedly 5,ooo people in the concert area) We didn't even have to pay any extra to see him there, because we already have our Fun Passes.

City Harmonic Opened up for Chris, and they were definitely entertaining to watch. :) We all agreed that they're alot better on the radio.

The first two pictures are of City Harmonic. You can actually see some of Chris Tomlin's band in the background of the second one. I took a really interesting picture of the lead singer for C. H. standing on top of a piano, but since super tight skinny jeans aren't exactly modest, I decided to not post that one. :)

Have a good week!

~Kelsey

Hold Me, By Jamie Grace

Kendal got the ukulele chords for this song, and we've all enjoyed singing it recently.

After you hear it I think you will find yourself doing the same! :)

~Kelsey

Music Video- by Kendal

This is Andre Rieu and his orchestra playing "My Heart Will Go On" in Dublin. Absolutly amazing.  Enjoy- and let me know what you think! -Kendal

Happy Independence Day!!!

Happy July Fourth, everyone!
Enjoy your hamburgers and hotdogs and try to stay cool. ;)

~Kelsey

ps I'll try to do a real post soon!

Fun songs post

Hi guys! I'm sorry I haven't been a faithful poster recently, it just isn't one of my top priorities.
I've had so many posts in my head for a while, so hopefully I'll finally be able to put some of them on the blog.

   I have had so many songs stuck in my head recently. Basically at the point where I'm tired of singing the same song over and over, and Kendal stops playing it on the piano, I find a new one. :)
Here is a list of some of my favorite songs, and the ones are most often stuck in my head.
*note* Most of these songs are not Christian songs. I appreciate most of them for their beat, not necessarily for their words. :)

 "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz

"Somewhere Over The Rainbow" Taylor Mathew's version

"When You Believe" Sung by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey

"The Call" by Ragina Spektor


"City On Our Knees" by Toby Mac

"Something That I Want" from "Tangled"

Obviously I don't sound like Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey when singing "When you Believe" because I'm not African American. But I still love the song, and have since I first heard it when the "Prince of Egypt" came out. I love the first two songs because they have such a catchy tune. Tim Hawkins did a parody on "I'm Yours," and we liked the tune so much we looked for the original.
Before hearing "City On Our Knees," I thought I didn't like any of Toby Mac's songs. After hearing it in "The Grace Card" I changed my mind. :)  Even though the words are really silly in "Something That I Want" I think it's so catchy.

Yesterday we got to see Chris Tomlin at Busch Gardens, which was so neat! I took some videos and pictures, so I'll try to post them soon. 

Have a blessed week, 

Kelsey

The wedding cake, and semi-trial wedding cake

(I started this post on the third Saturday of April, but didn't finish it until now)The third Friday of April  I practiced making Grandma's wedding cake.
I used the six inch cake pan I'm going to use for the top tier. This was the first time I've made fondant that actually worked, and I was very pleased to discover it is absolutely amazing to work with.
Friday we had our last Preparing to be a Helpmeet book study  :(   so I decided I could just serve it then.
The actual thing is going to be flavored with almond, and it's going to have a lot more flowers. Kendal forgot exactly what the picture looked like that I was copying the cake  from, and I didn't have time to show her what it looked like. Since she was helping me, and we had about five minutes to decorate it, it ended up with  quite a few less flowers than I had originally been shooting for.
No worries, since it was just a "semi-trial cake." :)

I was really glad I practiced putting the fondant on, because then I knew exactly how smooth it was nesscesary to make the icing under the fondant, and how thick to roll out the fondant itself. On the real thing I changed both.

I was so nervous that something would happen to the cake on the way to the house where the reception was being held. I was also relieved that it was out of the house, because if anything happened to it once it left, there wasn't anything I could do about it.
I thought the picture below was really neat. I took it once the cake was in the car.
Kendal and Dad took it with them on Friday to the house, since they were going there for the rehearsal anyway.
Most people will take extra fondant and icing with them to the location in case something horribe happens, but I decided that everything would be fine,and if all the fondant fell off, then so be it. :)

If anyone is curious to see pictures of the process, just leave a comment asking to see them, and I'll post some. Otherwise I won't since it'll take a few extra minutes to upload.

~Kelsey

Pictures of Cakes We've Made

I made this cake for the three little girl's birthday party this year.
It was the first time I used fondant, and it was definitely an experience. :) It was not a  good recipe, and so it was very hard to handle.
It was something like 2 pounds confectioner's sugar, 1/2 cup shortening, 1/2 cup corn syrup.
It melted really easily, and it didn't hold it's weight well. We  tried to put a purple fondant bow on it, but it ended up looking like a purple octopus(The plan was to make it look like a present). That's why the icing isn't as smooth in the middle, because when we took it off, it left a mark.

We made this cake for a friend at church who has a Thirty One business. She gave us a picture of the winter logo, and that's what we used as a guide.

This is probably one of my favorite cakes we've made.

I baked this cake, and rough iced the brown on. Dad, Kendal and I went to a party that night, so Mom decorated it based on a picture we pulled off the Internet.She stayed up fairly late working on it,and did a fabulous job. It was for the birthday of one of my friends.

This was a cake I made for a little girl, to whose family we were taking a meal that afternoon. It was spur of the moment, and I used some leftover purple fondant from the little girls' birthday party. I think it turned out really cute.

I made this cake for a birthday party for Gavin Larum, Katie Larum, and myself. I was actually going to put chocolate curls on the entire cake, but I didn't have time, so I just put it on the top.

Today I'm going to meet with a lady who does cake decorating, and she is going to give me some tips for using fondant, and how to actually construct a three tiered wedding cake.

Hope you enjoyed the photos!

~Kelsey

You're Tagged!

Here are my questions for the people I'm tagging.

FBI agent or chef?

If you could have any car you wanted, what would you pick? (has to be an actual car)

Vacation in the mountains or at the beach?

Laptop or ipad?

What was the age of your parents when they married?

What is the  color that  you love but can't wear?

Do you prefer skirts or pants?

Would you rather have a debate with someone, or shallow conversation?

Would you rather go horseback riding or go have tea at an expensive tea house?

Have you ever been to an amusement park? (Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens, etc.)

Do you want to go sky-diving?

Okay, those are your questions,and here are the people I'm tagging. I think it's actually supposed to be eleven people, I don't know if I'll be able to think of that many.

Abigail Taylor

Gavin Larum

Katie Wilson

Homeschool on the Croft

Munck Sisters

Anna

Oliver Alexander

Graham Donahue

Daniel

Matthew

Yesterday, Today, Forever

Okay, that's eleven people.... I have alot of blogs on my dashboard, but about a third of them haven't posted for at least six months. *Clears throat* and two  of the people I picked haven't posted in two years! Is it a rule that you have to pick people who are actually connected to the blogging world currently? *hmmm*
Hope y'all have fun with it!

~Kelsey

My Tag

Here is my tag from Our Family View From Us Two
I was just now reading their blog, and realized I had been tagged... thank you, this should be fun.

1. What color are your eyes? They are a blue green, and my left eye has a brown spot in it...funny, cause genetically I'm not supposed to have brown eyes
2. Do you enjoy reading? Wow, you must be joking! From my point of view, if someone doesn't like to read, they're weird :)
3. Sweet Frog or Coldstones? Sweet Frog, or the Skinny Dip
4. Have you ever been given a surprise party? No, I haven't
5. What is you favorite TV show - I love Lucy, Undercover Boss, Restaurant Stakeout,  Roy Rogers etc. ? Definitely not Roy Rogers, I've seen plenty of that to last a lifetime... I love Lucy is one of my favorites
6. Have you ever broken one of your bones? I'm not sure, definitely not a major one, but I might have broken one of my toes this last Fall.
7. What is your worst fear? Wow, that's a hard one. Not very many things scare me. If I had to pick one though, it would probably be a roller coaster's track to break and I'd have to suffer a painful death. But since there is such a small possibility of that happening, I ride them anyways. ;)
8. Subway or Zero's ? Neither
9. How many siblings do you have? Well, come November I'll have NINE! Whoohoo! (I'm really excited) I'll have to change my blog title to "Second Oldest of Ten" :)
10. What is one of your bad habits? forgetting to thaw supper meat in time
11. Do you like flying? (In a airplane that is) Never have 

Well that was lots of fun! I've been studying up for my grandmother's wedding cake, and here are some pictures of the basic idea.

It will be three tiered, and the flowers, which will be more like the ones in the  first picture, will be a dusted on pale blue instead of pink, to match Grandma's dress.
Hope you enjoyed the tag, and later on I'll think of some people to tag.
Have a blessed week!
~Kelsey

The finished results

Isn't it pretty? I was very pleased with the results! Mom and Kendal did the white decorating, Kendal smoothed out the frosting once I put it on, I baked the cake, and made the icing. We're a good cake making team.  Mom bought some edible gold dust and I decided to add it to the leaves. It was a nice addition, I think.

Speaking of additions, we have a new addition to our family! It's too early to know if it's a boy or girl yet, but I think it's a boy...

















It's a parakeet! We got it for Dad's birthday, on the third day of Christmas. (Dec. 27th) We  had originally named it "Mack,"after Mack Powell. Mack Powell is the band leader of "Third Day," a Christian band we like.Then we decided to name him "Woodstock" from the Peanuts cartoons.
Most of the time I forget and call him Mack, though. :)

Doesn't he have funny little chicken feet? They almost look like dragon feet up close.
Isn't he cute? He is quite tame, and enjoys riding around on our shoulders. The only problem is that he is so tame, he isn't afraid of anything. That includes walking around on the floor upstairs. He likes to pick up the loose hay from the guinea pigs from the floor, and the only way to get him off of it is to pick him up like a chicken. He doesn't really seem to mind though, and the only thing he does is make funny squeaky noises. ;)
Have a good week,
Kelsey
This is also my fiftieth post!

Today

Today I have lots of things to do.
That is actually quite unusual for a Saturday, because we mostly just hang out and play games.
Tomorrow, though, we have a family coming over for  lunch, so I'm making the food today.
I was in the process of making a chocolate cake, but found out we didn't have enough eggs, (I need twelve, and only had four) so the process was paused for a while.
Mom and I have gotten into making and decorating cakes recently.
I usually use the same recipe, and then we go online and look for photos of decorated cakes.
We just use whatever photo we like as a guide, and it's worked quite well. Mom is a very good cake decorator! I'll post some pics soon of the cakes we've made.
Our grandmother is getting remarried in the late spring this year, and  she asked Mom and I to make her cake! I'm very excited, and have a few designs picked out already.
I really like what I guess you would call "stylish" cake designs. Wilton has some nice techniques, which are good to use, and they have nice flowers that are good to. But I don't really like their cakes as a whole. I like a little more "modern" designs, while theirs are a little more "old fashioned."
It might just be that I've watched too many cake competitions on the Food Network. :)

This is the cake we are using as a guide for the cake tomorrow.
I'm going to make mine round, though, and with a brown background and white leaves.
I hope y'all have a blessed week!
Kelsey

I Love This Song... and T-shirt war

 

I haven't seen the actual movie yet, but I've met two of the actors! (that counts as something , right?)

I met Rusty Martin Sr. and his son, Rusty Martin Jr. who plays Dylan in the movie.

Mom and Dad saw the movie in theaters, but decided to just let us kids watch it when it came out in dvd.

We do have the movie soundtrack though, and I quickly memorized the words for "Couragous" and "When we're together,"  which is my favorite. :)

The video below is hillarious, it's done by the same guys who did the Taco- Bell song.

If you have younger brothers or sisters, you might know these guys as the "Bentley Brothers."

Tell me if you like it!

~Kelsey