New move, New business

I'm back in Beaumont today. Getting a late start since Mark and I had dinner last night at McAllister's and I drank a 32 ounce glass of sweet tea! Ummm, good but not good at helping me go to sleep. In fact, I was up until a little after 1:00 a.m. because I could NOT fall asleep. So my brain just mulled over all the changes that are about to occur.

Moving is bringing about a lot of changes. One of which I'm very excited about! I have decided to launch my own business in creating custom invitations. God greatly blessed me with a job opportunity here in Beaumont that allowed me to fall back on skills I had acquired while in high school. The ability to layout text and artwork came from my years in yearbook and newspaper. I had no idea I'd fall so in love with the invitation world and enjoy working with brides so much! So my new endeavor is to try to make a go at my own business. I will launch a website soon, hopefully by the end of next week and then see what doors open.

E. Clare is named after my precious Ella Clare. She's the daughter I never thought I'd have, truly not knowing how much my heart longed for one. My three boys are amazing and each love on me in different ways but the love I receive from Ella is different. She and I are connected in a special way...and I am constantly amazed at her ability to hang tough with all the craziness in our house. We both MUST stick together. So although Mark Thomas is the only one who has expressed a concern for why the business is not named for him, we are embarking on this new journey. God willing it will provide income for our family and allow each of us the joy of using our talents. The kids are all skilled at helping me in various ways and Max has already caught my vision of opening a store. He wants to be able to run the cash register! I hope and pray that E. Clare Paperie will open doors for us beyond our wildest imaginations and that the people we'll encounter will change our lives as much as I hope we'll change theirs.

Cousin Time

Reese and Mark Thomas just catching up and trading their Silly Bandz.

Bath time is always fun at Mimi's house and Molly and Ella
discovered a way to make LOTS and LOTS of bubbles.


All the kids decided to make some snacks. So Reese,
Mark Thomas and Max made some puppy chow, a family favorite.
They're coating all the cereal with powdered sugar in the
trash bag, while Haley looks on hoping there will be
something that falls from the bag!



There is only one year that separates these two, almost to the day!

Carson and Ella decided to make chocolate chip cookies.

Several of us had to do some quality control on the

dough just to make sure it was satisfactory

enough to cook in the oven.

Coming Full Circle

Mark Thomas photographed the skyline as we approached Dallas.

This move is like coming full circle. I have lived in a lot of places and several different states both as a child and as an adult. But I was never more upset to move than when we were transferred to Kansas from our home in Plano. My Father worked for J.C.Penney and my two sisters and I were more than familiar with the drill of moving and adjusting to new surroundings. However when we moved back to Plano for the second time we were told that we would not move again.

Sadly when I was in eighth grade that turned out not to be the case. We moved to Topeka, Kansas and my parents stayed there for nearly 12 years. We all loved living in Plano, we had a lot of friends, attended a great school and the sports, mainly soccer were awesome and continuing to grow at the time. Topeka for the most part seemed pretty awful at first. We were used to a sprawling city and when my parents took us to Topeka, my Dad showed us the store he would open at the new mall, it was on Wanamaker Road, we drove a little further down that same road and our new house was being built, and then a little further down that same road and there was the middle school, and then again a little further, the high school I would attend. It blew my mind that everything was all on the same road! We all eventually found friends there and adapted to our new surroundings but our hearts were somehow always still connected to Texas.

I graduated from high school in Topeka and longed to return to Texas, applying to Texas Tech and TCU among other schools. I was offered a scholarship at Texas Tech, visited and liked the campus but in the end was not quite ready to be that far away from home so I decided to attend Kansas State University and stayed there for three years. After my second year, I again visited Tech and even looked at apartments but again the timing was not right. I was involved with Campus Crusade for Christ and participated in two summer beach projects. One summer living in Panama City and the following summer living in San Diego. In San Diego one of my roommates went to the University of Alabama and I decided to visit her over Labor Day. I fell in love with the campus and decided to visit again that January over Winter break. I fell in love with something, or rather someone else during that visit!

Mark had just transferred to Alabama from the University of Pittsburgh. We began dating over Spring Break when I visited again and from there on things were a whirlwind. I spent part of the next summer in Italy, where we wrote letters to each other and learned how to communicate through the mail. Those letters are treasured possessions of ours. I transferred to Alabama that fall and we were engaged and married by the next summer.

My history of moving did not stop when I went to college. Mark and I have lived in several states too and those moves were both wonderful and hard. I fell in love with a part of the country I had never been to. The Northeast is beautiful and I loved living in New York so much as did the kids. But it was hard being so far away from my family. They slowly returned to Texas and were all within 45 minutes of each other for years. I'd call and they'd all be in the same house over the holidays and I'd long to be with them.

We moved to Beaumont three years later after I attended the funeral service for one of my cousins. I listened to people talk about him in a way that I simply did not know him and it was because we did not live that close to him while we were all growing up. I did not want that for my children. Beaumont was a short 5 hour drive from my family and we saw them so much more than we ever did during the first 10 years of our marriage.

Well, now God is taking us back. When Mark received a call from the APNC in Plano we were so surprised that God could actually be taking us that close to my family. Strangely enough Mark prefers the climate down here and I still long for the Northeast but being so close to my family is a concession I would gladly make. As I drove down here last week with a trailer and the kids in the truck I felt a strange sense of completion in bringing them back to a place I loved so much as a child. Our two oldest children are in middle school and Max is going into 8th grade. The grade I had just finished when we left Plano.

It is such a gift that we'll be close enough to see my family so often. I love that the kids will be able to be here in such a great area for schools and sports and that the church that God has called us to will be a place where they can grow in their faith. We have not yet been able to visit the church as a family because we're awaiting some final steps through the Presbytery but there are so many things we're excited to become a part of in this new journey.

So although we'll live in Prosper, Plano, my old stomping grounds will be where we'll spend a lot of time at the church and with the people who live there and in the surrounding area. This growing metroplex is not going to know what hit it when the Keffer Crew arrives in full force! We hope to be settled by the end of July and will be ready to get into our regular routine the second week of August. God is good, all the time and we're very thankful for the provisions he's put before us allowing us to partner in ministry with a wonderful congregation while being so close to my family.

Did you think I'd left the Planet?

Photo disclaimer....there will be no photos in this post. For some reason my computer is not reading my flash drive.

Well, so much for my New Year's resolution to try and update a few times a month. March seems like forever ago and there have been so many things I wish I had posted to our blog. Honestly sometimes it's the time it takes to upload pics that bogs me down. I just wish it was faster. And sometimes it's just life in general, thinking that I'll sit down and do it and then things keep popping up.

So I'll try to recap briefly. April and May were just baseball, baseball and more baseball. With the three boys all playing we were at the fields most week nights. All of them did great. Mark Thomas' team only won 2 games during the regular season but advanced through the brackets much to our surprise to play the best team in the league. We had them on the ropes and were up by several runs when Mark Thomas was put into pitch. He caught a pop up and threw the first runner out at first and then struck out the next batter. We thought we were golden. I was standing behind the bleachers praying and trying not to cry I was so nervous for T. Some sloppy errors and some not so great calls by the umps, missing two calls that should have been outs and well....we lost. It is nothing short of pure devastation and heartbreak to see your son want a victory so badly and not achieve it. We just tried to pump him up as best as we could and let him know he did great!

Ben's team also had a great year. He played for the best coach in the league, Coach Terry Falgout and we had a great time sitting in the bleachers every game with some super fun parents. Ben's team suffered a heart breaker too, just two days after Mark Thomas. One of the biggest issues in Little League is pitch count and we had bases loaded with our lead off hitter up to bat who had already hit two home runs in the season and one grand slam. The opposing pitcher had reached his pitch limit, we knew it, the press box knew it and so did the head coach but he did not remove him. We didn't protest immediately thinking we'd be able to pull out a victory but we didn't so a protest after the game did not put us back into the tournament. Our coach did an excellent job of communicating to the kids the importance of playing fairly and winning the right way. We all knew who the real winner was even if they didn't advance in the play offs. Sometimes winning is more about character development.

And Max's team advanced through the third round too. This was his first year in the Junior League and boy was it different. Such a drastic difference to Little League. The field was huge, same distances as a Major League field except for the distance to the home run fence. I felt like I needed binoculars to see him most days. He did well. Learning to hit with more confidence and field it in quickly since the batters had to book it to even have a chance to get on base and stay there.

May brought about the end of school for Mark Thomas and Max at St. Anne's. They had a great year and we just fell in love with the school community. May Crowning, worshipping during Mass; Mark Thomas was asked to read during closing Mass and he did a great job, and wonderful teachers and parents. It's a fabulous place to learn and grow and we're thankful the kids had the opportunity.

Ben and Ella finished up at Regina and had some fun field trips. Ben got his cell phone early so he could collect numbers for the summer and one day while I was at work he texted me to see if I could come get him early. I said yes that I had to pick up Ella for something so I'd get him when I got her and he said, "ok, I'm in Port Arthur by the playground, so look for me." Well to those of you unfamiliar with the area Port Arthur is not that close. I cracked up and immediately texted back saying, "sorry bud, you'll have to wait until the bus gets back to the school." My Ben.

Well June brought about additional change. Mark and I had been praying about discerning a new call for the last year or so and what that might look like for our family. God has faithfully provided a new call for us and we're excited about this new adventure. The kids are thrilled and that makes the transition so much easier. I'll be able to post within the next few weeks exactly where we're going. Just more red tape in this Presbytery. But if we still have readers and you're still awake at this point then we'd covet your prayers over the next few weeks and months as we transition into our new surroundings. We will be putting the house up for sale the first part of July and I will venture off to our new location so hopefully it can sell quickly without me stressing out about showing a home with 4 young inhabitants. Mark's last Sunday is slated to be the first Sunday in August and then we'll start at our new post middle of August after a week of vacation in Maryland.

So, updates, updates, updates. I will try to post more regularly and include some photos in the next post. The kids have changed a ton! Growing up too quickly for me.

Opening Day

Opening Day arrived the same weekend as Max's birthday! We had a fabulous weekend of sports and celebrating a milestone. We live in a BASEBALL household and we LOVE it! All three boys play and all three continue to grow and develop into great players. We have the luxury of playing year round down here in Southeast Texas. Of course it's not always easy on the bank account but we head out to Academy twice a year, ATLEAST, to get prepared to play. Max has moved up to the Junior League now so he plays at a different location but W.E.L.L. is run by committed parents who work hard so that we can have a fabulous facility. We love to watch games, eat dinner at a teriffic snack shack and cheer on our boys and other boys we've grown to know well during our three years here.

Both Ben and Max are playing for the Rangers this year!

Mark Thomas is quite the pitcher! He was put in to close up a game the other night with two runners on base and two outs. No pressure there, but he came through with a strike out to tie the game at 9. It's a lot for a 9 year to shoulder that responsibility but he did great! I was definitely sweating it out in the stands texting Mark with a pitch by pitch description.

A Teenager in the House

Are we seriously old enough to have a teenager in the house? Well I guess we are since Max turned 13 on the 14th of March! I really cannot believe that my little 6 pound 4 oz first born son is a teenager. I remember when Mark and I had him we felt so unequipped to be parents and just marveled at his existence. He's been a wonderful son and continues to amaze us. I'm not saying he's perfect....because he definitely does his fair share of mixing up trouble in the house but on the whole he's a wonderful young man.

We celebrated at Buffalo Wild Wings with most of the guys from his seventh grade class. He switched schools this year and every time we're around his classmates we are reminded of why we chose to move him. It's a wonderful group of young men and their camaraderie is quite an experience. You should have seen them when they decided to take on the Extreme Wing Challenge. Each boy who wanted to participate was given a Blazing Hot Wing and they had 30 seconds to eat it and refrain from drinking anything. It was absolutely hilarious!

Max wanted to add onto his drum kit for his birthday this year. He recently received a scholarship from our church and received $250 to add towards a new piece of equipment. So off to The Guitar Center we headed and quickly spent a lot of money on a new high hat, stand, bass pedal and two new sets of sticks. But to hear him play makes it all worth it. Max has been playing the drums since he was a toddler and the rhythm patterns he creates now just blow my mind!

We're headed into the unknown with a teenager but he's got a good head on his shoulders, still tells me he loves me daily and can clean up the kitchen like you wouldn't believe. We love you Max!

Dudes and Darlins

Ella got to spend a fabulous evening alone with her Daddy. Those moments are rare in this household and they had a blast! Ella has been involved in Daisies this year and she and I go to meetings every other Saturday. It's a fabulous Troop and we've been able to do several things in the community that are helping to shape her little mind.

Every year there is a Dudes and Darlins dance and the theme is obviously Western. Mark and Ella got all gussied up and I took some photos of them before they left. Earlier in the day Ella said to me, "I need to take a LONG bath, not just a play bath." She chose every element of her attire and looked just precious.

Mark said they danced and he twirled her around the room. Her smile while listening to her Daddy recount the evening was priceless.