02/16/2005

Happy birthday to Grandpa Scott!!

We have been busy as can be the last few months. There is always something going on, it seems, but it's nice to have things to do and people to share our time with in our lives.

Christmas - We had a GREAT Christmas. Having Macey with us made Christmas even more special than it already was before. Amazing!! The weekend before Christmas we went to Michigan and got to spend time with family up there. We all had a great time and just wished that we would have had longer than a weekend to visit. Christmas Eve we were home and Papa & Mimi (Kelly's dad and step-mom) came over for a nice big lunch and we all really enjoyed ourselves. That night we went to one of the Christmas Eve services at our church and that really set the tone for Christmas Day in a beautiful way. Christmas morning we woke up at home and had our morning time together just the three of us. Then we drove down to Albany and first visited with Grandma Joyce and then went to Nana and Pa's for our family celebration there. We had a big crowd (Nana, Pa, Gran, Pop, Charlie, Liz, Lawrence, Vikki and us) and had such a wonderful dinner and evening together. Christmas was just perfect!!

New Years - Poor little Macey rang in 2005 by getting her first case of croup. She had her first sick visit to the pediatrician in quite a long time and had to go on icky meds, but she was well within about a week. Meanwhile, I had bronchitis and was pretty well sidelined right along with Macey, so we got to veg and recoup together with lots of TLC from Mickey.

January - January has not been the greatest of months for the Mellen family on the whole in a few years. In January of 2003 Mickey's Grandma Lois passed way. In January of 2004, his Grandpa Vic passed away. This year, we lost Mickey's very good friend Brian to cancer in January 2005. We traveled to Michigan to be there for the visitation and funeral. Thankfully, Mickey had gotten to see Brian in December and they had a good visit together. The reason for the trip itself was very sad and it was a hard journey to make emotionally, but at least we got to visit with family there so that at least was a good part of the trip itself. We're just looking forward to a good January next year and we just have to believe it will be.

February - thus far, February has been a good month for us. We celebrated Mickey's 29th birthday on the 10th although his birthday is actually on the 11th. He went on the confirmation retreat the weekend of the 11th, so we had to celebrate early. Nana (my mom) sent me out to get him a big cookie which he LOVES, so he got that at lunch on the 10th. That night, Macey and I took him out to Fuddrucker's for dinner and we all loved it. Macey and I spent that weekend in Albany visiting Nana and getting properly spoiled.

So, that's where we are right now. We're getting ready for a lot of big things coming up though. Next weekend we're meeting Grandpa Scott, Grandma Linda, Aunt Julie & Uncle Adam in Lexington, KY for the weekend. Then two weekends after that, Mickey is going on a great youth retreat to Sharp Top Cove while Macey and I go to Hot Springs, AR for a friends retreat weekend. Then, Charlie (my brother) and Liz are getting married on April 9th, so we have the wedding and all the festivities leading up to it. The Mellens are a busy bunch!!

'Til next time...
Kelly

12/02/2004

Hi, all! I hope this finds everyone doing great! We just had a fantastic Thanksgiving and are really looking forward to an amazing Christmas.

We're continuing to really enjoy being back in Marietta - in fact, we LOVE it. Mickey's job at Mt. Bethel is going great and he is enjoying it tremendously. Macey is in a Mother's Morning Out program one morning per week and it has been so fantastic for her. She has the best time at "school" each week and really enjoys playing with her teachers and friends in her class.

Speaking of Macey, she's doing GREAT! She is 17 months old now if y'all can believe it. Where has the time gone?! Wow!! She's been walking for awhile now and also loves climbing up and down our stairs and trying to run. She's also talking more and more these days which is too adorable for words. Mickey and I both just looooove Macey hugs and kisses which we get lots daily and relish completely.

Mickey's parents came down for Thanksgiving and had a Southern feast on Thanksgiving day. It was great having them down here for several days and we enjoyed the visit very much. Macey also got a visit from Nana (my mom) and Mr. John this week and she was thrilled to see them both as well. One thing we can definitely say with certainty is that Miss Macey is surrounded by people in her life that love her. We are too and we're all blessed!

Hope everyone has a beautiful Christmas!!

Love,
Kelly

09/08/2004

We are back in Georgia!! That's right, we moved back to our town home in Marietta in mid-August after being in Dothan for almost two years. Mickey is now employed at our church (Mt. Bethel UMC) as the webmaster and is LOVING it! I'll post on here to let everyone know when he gets the new church site(s) up and running.

Macey is doing absolutely great and I will update her page as soon as I can. She's a full-fledged toddler now - walking all over the place and getting into everything. She's just amazing!

I'm getting involved with a wonderful new organization here called Coaching for the Cure. It's a group that raises money for pediatric cancer research, etc. and I can hardly wait to help get the word out! If anyone would like more information, please let me know.

That's all for now.

God Bless, Kelly

07/21/2004

Has it really been THAT long since updates on this page? I'm afraid so. I've been a slacker about updating the baby page (at best) and really didn't even think much about this page because, really, aren't most of you more interested in Macey these days anyway? HA!! Recently it was called to my attention (by someone whose initials are M.O.M. *wink*) that I should either update this page or delete it, so I'm updating.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. Ours has certainly been very busy and going by quickly. Besides celebrating Macey's first birthday earlier this month, we have been keeping busy doing other fun things like mission trips (Mickey), visiting with family (the three of us), going on excursions such as to the Florida Caverns in Marianna (all three of us), going on walks, etc. Life is very good!!

I'll update again soon. :)

Kelly

02/16/03

As usual, it's been awhile between updates, but at least I did manage to post Baby Mellen's lastest ultrasound picture in a pretty timely manner. (SMILE) Speaking of which -we found out last week that Baby Mellen is a girl and she's doing great! She's growing right on schedule and everything just looks wonderful with her. Thank you, God!! We just feel so blessed to be a part of this miracle and we can't wait to meet our little girl later this summer.

Not much else is going on. Oh yea...I got a part-time job and I'm really enjoying it. I now work at D. Bailey & Associates here in Dothan and that's going really well.

Mickey still LOVES his job, so that is definitely a plus. He is really enjoying working in the church. He's also playing some recreational basketball, so he's liking that as well.

As for me...just getting rounder every day and loving every minute of it. Stay tuned to our baby girl's page for details regarding the pregnancy, etc. Also, don't forget to sign our guest book...we love to see signatures. (SMILE)

Until next time,
Kelly

12/31/02

We are ringing in the new year at home...and most likely asleep. We have to leave EARLY in the morning to travel to Atlant to catch our flight to Michigan, so we stayed in this evening. I'd rather be in, really...less worry about traveling with crazy people out there on the roads.

Anyway, just wanted to say THANKS to everyone who has stopped by to offer congrats and sympathy. We have been so anxious to tell about our wonderful baby news...we both want to shout it from the rooftops...we are so excited!!

Please continue to lift up prayers for Mickey's Grandpa Vic, his mom and the family in the loss of his precious Grandma Lois. The visitation/viewing is on Thursday and the funeral is on Friday.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Love, Kelly & Mickey

12/30/02

Today I am writing with sad news and also some happy news.

I will start with the sad news so that I end with happy news. Mickey's Grandma Lois (his mom's mom) passed away today in Michigan. She had been hospitalized since Friday and passed away this afternoon. We don't know when the funeral is yet, but we will be traveling to Michigan this Wednesday. I only got to meet his Grandma Lois once, but she was a real sweetheart last Christmas when I met her. She has been battling Alzheimers for quite some time and that's sad to see someone go through - I know because my great-Grandma Macey went through the same thing. Anyway, we would appreciate prayers for Mickey's mom and family during this time.

Now...for the happy news!! Mickey and I are going to be parents!! We are expecting our first little one next summer - June 30, 2003 is our estimated due date. We are both VERY excited! I am just barely into the second trimester now and feeling much better. We waited to tell so that we could make sure that things were going smoothly and, of course, they are. We have seen the baby twice on ultrasound (6 and 7 weeks) and heard the heartbeat at each of those visits. I also got to hear the heartbeat on Doppler at last month's check-up. Things are going great!! I'm getting a baby poochy belly, so if you see me just know that I'm not getting fat...just preggo. Click here for a link to our announcement.

We wish everyone a bright and blessed 2003. We have lots to be thankful for ourselves and definitely lots to look forward to.

Love,
Kelly & Mickey

12/27/02

My goodness, I've been a slacker at updating this page. It's been exactly two months to the day since my last update. I really should get better at this. Maybe that will be one of my new years resolutions. (smile)

First of all...belated MERRY CHRISTMAS wishes from Mickey and me. I hope everyone had a very blessed Christmas holiday. We celebrated with my dad, Dorothy and Whitney on the Saturday before Christmas and had a very nice time with them in their beautiful new home in Carroll County, Georgia. On Christmas Eve Mickey worked sound for the 4:30 Children's service at church and then I went back with him to work sound for the 7:30 service later that evening. The service was beautiful and I'm very glad we went. On Christmas Day we went over to Gran and Jack's for lunch and spent most of the day with Gran, Jack, Mom, Mr. John, Charlie, Liz, Lawrence, Vikki and James. Again, it was so incredibly nice to spend time with family. After that we visited Grandma Joyce and also got to visit Daddy and Dorothy. It was a wonderful Christmas day!! That night we came home from Albany and vegged in front of "Ice Age" which we got on DVD. Fun!

The last couple days have been spent cleaning and preparing for Mickey's mom, dad and Heather to come down for a few days' visit next week. We are so excited to see them and are very much looking forward to their visit. We haven't seen them since the summer, so this visit is much anticipated by us both. They will be here the 30th of December through the 2nd of January and then will spend a couple extra days in Pensacola. Mickey is going on a ski trip with the youth from January 2nd through the 5th and he is QUITE excited about that! I am not going on this trip - I learned last year that I am a much better beach bum than snow bunny.

That's about it for now. I'll do my best to get back more often for updates.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! We wish you all a blessed and bright 2003!

Love, Kelly

10/27/02

Today is our FIRST ANNIVERSARY!! It's really hard to believe that a year has passed since our wonderful wedding day. This has been an incredible year - such a great start to our marriage, really. I doubt that I would have believed anyone this time last year if they told us we'd be celebrating our first anniversary in Dothan, Alabama...but, here we are and it's going great. Dothan is a sweet town and we have a wonderful new church - we couldn't ask for things to be going much better. As for our first year - I don't have the right words to describe how much it has meant to us both. We talk a lot about how happy we are and how much we love being married. Being with the one God intended for you is just an incredible thing...one of those things in life that is so wonderful it sort of defies a good means of explanation. I'll can just sum it up by saying these things...God is good ALL THE TIME...married life is the most amazing gift...and I look forward to spending the rest of my days as Mickey's wife.

Thanks to our family and friends for sharing this year with us. We look forward to celebrating many more happy occasions with you all in the future.

Love,
Kelly

10/20/02

I thought I posted an update a LONG time ago, so again I find myself apologizing for the delay. (*smile*)

We are officially all moved in here in Dothan and things are going really well. Mickey absolutely LOVES his job, so that is great news. Our house is really nice too. We are settling in and are just about ready for visitors, hint hint!! I still don't have a job and we still haven't found a renter for our condo, so please continue to say prayers for both those needs. Other than that, life is GRAND.

Also, it's hard to believe that it's almost been a year, but we will be celebrating our first wedding anniversary next Sunday. What an awesome year. God is SOOO good!!

Love,
Kelly

08/27/02

Sorry it has been SO long between updates AGAIN. But, I'm returning with VERY good news...WE'RE MOVING!! That's right, we are leaving Marietta and heading down to Dothan, Alabama. Mickey has been offered an incredible position at First United Methodist Church in Dothan and after prayerful consideration, we decided he should take it. We will be moving somewhere around the 25th of September, not sure of the exact date yet. We are both so excited about this upcoming move and all the opportunities that come with it. Keep checking back for more details and we'll post updates as we can.

IHPL,
Kelly <><

07/21/02

It's been a REALLY long time between updates. Sorry about that.

I just returned from the most amazing retreat I have ever been on in my life! I had the fortunate experience of spending all of last week at The Lighthouse Family Retreat in Santa Rosa Beach/Grayton Beach, Florida.(Click here for pictures) I can honestly say that my life has been blessed beyond all measure by the time I spent at the Lighthouse. The Lighthouse Family Retreat is a Christian retreat that serves kids that have cancer and their families. I am not even exaggerating when I say that no one comes away from it unchanged - the experience is something that I know I will never ever forget. It was simply amazing and I wish I had the words to describe it all accurately enough. All I can say is...GO GOD!!! God is so good and He led all of us that were there to be right where we were last week - totally by His design. Mickey will be going with me on the next retreat and I know he's going to love it too. God moved in amazing ways over the course of the week and I can't even start to describe it all. I was a "Family Partner" to a family with a precious 5-year-old that had leukemia. Our partnership was awesome - she was a beautiful, sweet and FUN friend to hang out with all week and her family was as sweet as can be. I hope to come back soon and update more on my experience, but for now I am tired and so I'll close with a verse of scripture that reminds me so much of the Lighthouse experience..

Philippians 1:3-6.

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

GOD IS GOOD!!

Kelly <><

05/31/02, 7:45 p.m.

Wow, it's been quite awhile between updates. Sorry about that. Not sure if anyone reads this anyway, but it would be nice to have it updated just in case. *Smile*

Not a whole lot going on lately other than remodeling our dining room. We finally stripped down the wallpaper (which we hated) this week and intend to paint this weekend. It's been a CHORE, but it's a fun learning experience.

Since my last update, I have had a birthday that was GREAT!! Mickey took me out to the Melting Pot on Friday night - YUM! Prior to that he had already given me my cd burner because he just couldn't wait. How cute is that?! Oh my, how I love that man of mine. So, on Saturday evening, Daddy & Dorothy took Charlie, Liz, Mickey & me to the Braves game and we all had a great time. It was so nice to finally have Charlie and Liz up this way. Now that we have furniture in the guest room, maybe we'll have more company - hint, hint.

I guess that's about it - Mickey is downstairs watching the Red Wings clobber Colorado, so I'll go join him.

Kelly

05/12/02 - Mother's Day

It's been awhile between updates. Things have been quite busy. This past weekend, we both played in the Thompson Fellowship/Sheffield Memorial co-ed softball tournament at church. We had a FUN team and it was a great tournament. We came out of it 2-1, so that's not bad at all. We were happy to have a winning record. Saturday night we also went to see Third Day in concert with the Paul Coleman Trio and Bebo Norman. That concert was FABULOUS!

So, today is Mother's Day and we want to say HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to our moms (Linda & Pattie) and our grandmothers (Joyce, Charlotte & Mariclay) - we are so blessed to have so much motherly/grandmotherly love in our lives. Last year on Mother's Day, we got engaged. It's hard to believe that tomorrow will be one year since that beautiful & wonderful day. We were happy then and we're HAPPIER now even though we didn't know we could get much happier at the time. Married life is the BEST!

Two of our kitties went to Another Chance Cat Rescue (the place we got Eden) to be adopted today. It was hard to leave them, but we know they will be going to great homes and so that makes it easier to take.

Thats all for now. Thanks for stopping by...

Kelly & Mickey

04/29/02

Just wanted to give a little plug for Brain Tumor Awareness Week which is coming up next week, kicking off on Sunday, May 5th and running through Sunday, May 12th. This weekend Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and The Brain Tumor Foundation for Children will be hosting Tools for Living: A Symposium for Parents of Children with Brain and Spinal Cord Tumors at the Crowne Plaza at Powers Ferry in Atlanta. Even before my job as Brain Tumor Coordinator started, I have been on the planning committe for this Symposium. I'm really excited about it and hope to have great reports about it next week.

Kelly

04/27/02 - OUR 6 MONTH ANNIVERSARY

It's hard to believe that 6-months ago today we were married. It was the best and fastest wedding day ever. Married life is every bit as wonderful as I hoped it would be...and then some. So, to celebrate our 6-month mark, new wedding pictures have been added. THANKS again to Mike Gutting for scanning them in for us. Also, thanks to our WONDERFUL photographers, Rick & Jennifer Falco of Falco Photography for their unbelievable work. We simply cannot say enough wonderful things about the Falcos - they did a fabulous job with our wedding photography and videography. We will be happy to make referrals for them if anyone would like more information. Also, the candid shots were taken by various people - Allen, Mike Gutting, Sherry Hawes, Deedie Long, and a few others. Thanks to you all!!

Don't forget to sign our guest book to let us know you were here...we love seeing signatures in there.

Kelly

04/18/02 - MORE PICTURES ON THE WAY!

Well, better late than never...we're going to be posting some "new" wedding photos on the site hopefully this weekend. We don't have a scanner, so we finally asked Mike Gutting to help us out & scan some pictures in for us. Luckily for us, he was kind enough to say "yes." THANKS MIKE!! We'll put the latest pics up on the site ASAP - in case anyone is *still* interested in seeing them. (SMILE) ~Kelly~

04/15/02: TAX DAY!!

Not much new to report this week, so far. This past weekend was our first one "apart" since we got married. Mickey stayed in Atlanta for a PS2 Madden tourney and I went to South Georgia to visit friends and family. From my point of view, the best thing in the world is having someone you love and who loves you to come home to. That works in many ways for me, I feel so blessed. I went to South Georgia and that was a homecoming, of course, with those I love and then I came back home to Marietta to the man I love and who I know will love me forever. Maybe I'm a sap, but hey...I'm the luckiest woman in the world.

The kittens are really mobile and fun these days. They are getting into anything and EVERYTHING. They are learning to navigate the stairs now, so that's a little scary for us. Hopefully they'll catch on to eating canned food and using the litter box REALLY soon as they are going to their new homes in two and a half weeks.

I guess that's it for updates for this week. Stay tuned.

As always, if you have a question, comment or compliment about the site OR if you just want to say HI, we'd love to hear from you.

Have a great week,

Kelly