the accordion on christmas

shelly trivia: i own and play an accordion, but i only play one day a year. that day my friends, is christmas day. the most wonderful day of the year. last year i gave a glimpse into the fabulousness that is our christmas sing-a-long, and this year i'm doing the same. you may notice my playing seems to be getting worse instead of better...but i guess that's what happens when you only practice once every 365 days. my uncle mick is the dashing gentleman heading up the percussion section with...

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the things i'm thankful for

in honor of my 99th blog post, and the national day of thanks, here are 99 things i love and am thankful for [in random order]: camping . sharpies . vanilla steamers . sbu . the beatles . missions . egg nog . elf . bike rides . cupcake sandwiches . settlers . my mom . laptops . exploring . flowers . the cosby show . sunshine . quick trip . popcorn on the stove . the office . flip flops . Jesus . planet sub . blogs . my family . mix cd's . christmas . my piano . stars . dancing . my friend's...

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i can't wait to meet my newest little friend

his name is g.t. and he's coming soon...

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welcome to the family

my 'cousin' matt with his new wife lindsay christy . matt . shelly the senior meinhardt delegation jackie . bob . paula . donna . rich . marilyn . mick . linda...

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what makes a little girl smile

this is lizeth, she is eight years old. i met lizeth and her two younger sisters a few weeks ago on a trip to mexico. lizeth is a serious little girl. before coming to live at casa hogar de gozo she had a lot of responsibilities. her mom went to work very early in the morning and did not come home until very late at night, so lizeth was in charge of taking care of herself and her sisters most of the time. she made sure they were dressed and fed, if there was food to be had that day. recently the...

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the behrs and the vikings

matthew and jacob have the distinct privilege of playing football for the francis howell vikings. i have the distinct privilege of showing up at their games and embarrassing them to no end. it is quite enjoyable. sometimes their teammates tease them, but i know they're just jealous that no one has brought a large sign with their name on it. i mean really...what's better than that? matthew . shelly . the sign jacob . shelly . the homecoming game i also took some matthew.jacob.gracie...

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una semana en mexico

our small but mightily hilarious team of five just returned from a week in san pedro mexico. [which is outside hermosillo for those of you with stellar mexican geography skills.] there is an orphanage there called casa hogar de gozo which just opened two weeks before our arrival. right now there are seven children from three families living there, so we spent the week helping them make their new house a home. we painted all the interior rooms with fun, bright colors and gave the doors and windows...

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the finale

yes it's true...the summer of fun is officially coming to an end. i realize it's a bit of a stretch to refer to the early days of october as part of summer, but that's the way it goes. it's been a fabulous few months. i spent a lot of time with people i love and i enjoyed them immensely. i often found myself talking with a friend and being a bit overwhelmed at how glad i am that we met. i have some fun, inspiring and lovable friends for sure! one thing i wanted to do this summer was to simply...

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mr. and mrs. carr

this past weekend i had the privilege of coordinating owen and susan's wedding in champaign, illinois. since i love weddings, organizing and sometimes telling people what to do...i had a great time! i also took a few photos for them when i wasn't busy doing something else.  owen and susan...thank you so much for allowing me to be part of your special day!...

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shelly and the terrible horrible no good very bad day

i was robbed. i don't think i've ever been robbed before. it is no fun. wednesday morning i went to church as usual for our weekly meeting. i also hooked up the bike rack on my trunk and brought along my bike so i could stop for a ride on my way home. i was trying to be wise and combine trips. before i left church i safely stowed my wallet in the console and the church laptop in my trunk. out of sight, out of mind. so i went to my biking destination and had a nice ride. as i came...

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health awareness month

due to the inspiration of my friend tara, i have declared the month of september to be 'heath awareness month'. initially i was curious to see if drinking the recommended amount of water per day would really make a difference in how i look and/or feel. considering my current liquid consumption was approximately 2oz. per day, i figured if there were results to be seen, i'd see them. but i went ahead and added a few other stipulations to make it interesting. here are the requirements: drink...

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fun flight facts

total air miles traveled from june 2009 to present: 30,080 most surprising inflight movie selection: summer catch [starring jessica biel and freddie prinze jr.] best airport food find: nathan's corn dog nuggest for $2.50 annoying airline that doesn't give you a snack even when you're flying across the country: united/u.s. air most exciting airport for landing: tegucigalpa, hondura...

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happy times in honduras

*disclaimer* - sorry if i worried some of you with the last post...the policemen always come along when they take groups to the street [political crisis or not] just as a precaution. we were safe the whole time! that said, i have to admit i was surprised at how fond i became of this country in one short week. other than knowing it was somewhere in central america, honduras wasn't really on my radar as a place i was too interested in. there are, of course, many similarities to mexico, which isn't...

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a landing to remember

our honduras adventure began with quite an entrance. we had heard stories of the bumpy landings that are common in the tegucigalpa airport. the runway is very short, making it a difficult place to land a plane. in fact, there are a limited number of pilots who are even certified to fly here. so needless to say, we were prepared for a less than smooth landing. as we bumped down on the runway, i thought “is that all? that was a lot of hype for nothing.” immediately following that thought the plane...

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simply be who you are, where you are

that's a quote the bible study girls and i came up with while we studied ecclesiastes this summer, and that's what i hope to do next week in honduras. my mom and i are leaving in the morning with a team from calvary, our church in st. louis, to spend a week at project manuelito. calvary has been partnering with this ministry for a few years now. it is a place for kids who were formerly living on the streets to live, be loved and have the opportunity to choose a different kind of life for...

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the body cast adventure

three weeks ago my friend tara called to tell me that her daughter sophia had broken her femur and was in a body cast for four weeks. naturally i responded as any caring friend would, which means i laughed and said she should have practiced her delivery more because her joke wasn't believable at all. but after hearing her recount the story of her fall off a balance beam at the park, i figured out it was for real. as you can imagine, the thought of caring for a three year old in a body cast, along...

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for my dear friend

happy thirty lindsey! you are special because you are... it's great getting to visit you...you're one of my favorite friends. love you bunches!...

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the pickle pop

bet you didn't know about this southern delicacy... i found this little gem at a peach farm in georgia while visiting the broomes. it tastes exactly like you would expect a pickle flavored popsicle to taste. luckily we also made a batch of our legendary peanut butter balls, so it all evened out. as always, it was a super visit...i love me some broomies! ...

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so now i'm thirty

it's not too bad so far, except i've already had to check the "30-34" box when filling out a form...that wasn't so great. there were many fun surprises to be had...lots of e-mails and facebook messages, yummy treats, cards in the mail, flower, a blog post, and a bouquet of fruit! on thursday some of my best friends and i stayed at a hotel down by the plaza, and saturday we had a 'park party' in lee's summit. thanks so much to everyone who made my birthday special...in person or from afar! kim...

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mr. & mrs. talton

after a very quick turn around from africa, i was on my way to the beach in north carolina for a great friend's wedding. we had so much fun! this was my first destination wedding and it did not disappoint. i got to hang with some really fun [and hilarious] people, lay on the beach, help with the wedding details and dance the night away! i would do it again in a heartbeat. here are some pictures of the fun... beach day shelly and jenn jenn and tyler's first dance...they were groovin'...

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africa the sequel

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three days in africa and so much to say

in the mornings we've been doing a vbs at the african bible college for the children of the missionaries and the kids that live in the city [as opposed to villages]. these kids are educated, well fed and have families. not the sort of kids you generally think of people going to serve in africa. but whenever teams come they want to help with orphans and these kids are often overlooked. it's been great to see how much they've been looking forward to and enjoying this week. and many of the parents...

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the best welcome ever

after spending an obscene number of hours on an airplane, i am really in africa. it's a bit surreal still...we just arrived at the african bible college in malawi this afternoon, so i haven't had too many adventures just yet. [unless of course you include the countless times we've loaded, unloaded, checked and claimed our seventeen pieces of luggage] but we've already seen why malawi is called "the warm heart of africa". as our plane from johannesburg to lilongwe was taxiing to the terminal today,...

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give out grace

the african adventure officially begins in thirty six hours and i am ready to go. it is becoming abundantly clear that the major theme for me on this trip is grace. both accepting grace for myself and giving out grace to others. a month or so ago i was reading "what's so amazing about grace" and had the idea to write the phrase "give out grace" on my hand as a reminder of what i'm doing on this trip. sometimes it's hard to see the point of traipsing halfway around the world for a few weeks on...

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summer o' fun part one

the first installment of shelly's summer o' fun [aka - two weeks in st. louis] has been a little on the crazy side, but good just the same. i ended up spending the whole first week at church helping with camp edge, the new all-day version of vbs...yes that's right, i said ALL-DAY!! welcome to the world of crazy. my mom basically becomes an unpaid employee of children's ministry when the summer starts and i told her i would tag along on sunday and monday to help with the final preparations and...

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this is a stick-up

last friday my super fabulous friends at john knox threw me the going away party of the century. it all started when i came back to the office after serving lunch to the residents and amber jumped out at me shouting, "this is a stick-up! don't say anything...do what i tell you!" this is me being surprised/frightened i followed her to the parking lot where i was blindfolded and told to put on a large shirt, which i couldn't look at. we drove for what felt like a long time, while amber...

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my life in a nursing home

today was my last day at john knox village. it was bittersweet. i just celebrated my three year anniversary [officially making it my longest lasting job to date] and though the job has had its share of annoyances over the years, it also provided many fond memories. i will miss my residents. i will miss the way they make me laugh and the sweet things they say. i'll miss they way they will sing and dance with you when they're in a good mood. i might even miss the way they make mean faces and occasionally...

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pictures and pedicures

it's almost my friend sophie's second birthday, so we spent saturday morning documenting the occasion with a photo shoot. is this girl cute or what?!? the fun continued in the afternoon with some pampering. our friend jen surprised missy and i with birthday pedicures [a bit of an early gift for me!] and it was my first pedicure ever! i do have to say, it's quite an enjoyable experience. ...

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the beginning of a beautiful summer

it’s not often that adults get the chance to really enjoy the freedom of summer, but since i have no kids, no house and no career ladder to climb…i’m doing it. school’s out, tax season is over and i’ve put in my two week notice at john knox. goodbye work...hello summer. lest you think i have an aversion to work [although i’m sure some people would argue that i do] here are a few of the reasons i’m doing this... life is just better with other people. one of the reasons i so love to visit...

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we love the umpire

my cousin matt is an umpire for double-a baseball in the southern league. he's been working his way up the ranks for a few years and has one more level to go before he gets to the big leagues, which is pretty amazing. my mom and i were anxious to see him in action, sot we hopped in the car with christy and her three year old son tommy to head to jackson, tennessee. the game wasn't exactly filled with thrills, but we were much more interested in the guy behind home plate, so it didn’t matter...

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the end of an era

for the past five years i have been a big fan of walgreens. i've given them so much free publicity i've often thought i should be on the payroll. in the event you haven't heard me drone on and on about the benefits of the walgreens easy saver rebate program, i'll spare you the details and just tell you that it has supplemented my income significantly by providing free toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, soap, light bulbs and dozens of other household necessities. but the day i feared...

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a delightful discovery

i've never been a fan of 'sports drinks'...gatorade, powerade, etc. they all taste like watered down kool-aid, and why would one drink watered down kool-aid when you could be drinking the real thing? but thanks to the magic of coupons, i recently fell in love with vitamin water. does vitamin water taste better than its competitors? nope...still has that same old watered down taste. so why the change of heart? read on and you shall see... that's right folks...30 is the new 20....

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happy thirty to missy

thirty reasons missy has always been, and will always be, my friend: 1 - she knows the exact location of the sunshine bus stop 2 - she invites me to eat with her family, and she does it often 3 - we share the same feeling of mortification when we think back to the skits we performed every year at the salem camp talent show...and when we remember they are well documented on video 4 - she has that sweet little sophie rose 5 - she has read a larger volume of books than anyone else i've ever...

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the life of a fifties housewife

amber, one of my good friends from work, is getting married in a few weeks so today we threw her a bridal shower. she really wants to be a fifties housewife so we made that the theme of the party! we all wore aprons and i made these fun centerpieces for the tables... opening gifts dia . amber . shell...

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tea time

this post is two days late but... happy 30th birthday jackie! i drove down to bolivar after work on tuesday to spend the evening with the birthday girl [and boy...it was ted's birthday too]. we ate at lambert's and played settlers until the wee hours of the morning. i also got to surprise jackie with a really fun gift that i had 'acquired' for her...a silver tea set! i knew she had been wanting one for awhile and was hoping it was just what she dreamed of. she was real excited so...

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