Rocking Out with this Crew Tonight..

Slim and Fellowbliss have been away for a mini-tour with SRT throughout central and northern Florida.  Today, Amber and I will be joining them for their show tonight in Bradenton, Fl!  I CAN'T WAIT.

If you are interested in learning more about SRT, check this out!

Oh how time flies

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to visit one of the best friends anyone could ever have. Jess was one of my college roommates, and we lived together in Long Island before I moved to Naples.

Her sister Kim was graduating from Palm Beach Atlantic University on Saturday, and so I decided that I would drive over to spend the day with them.

It was so much fun!  She is now a mom and we realized that it had been exactly 5 years to the day that we had seen each other.  That was way too long.  More pics will come from our weekend together, but here is a lovely picture of her that I stole from her facebook  page.

Jess.  I promise that we aren't going to wait 3 more years until Britt graduates before we see each other again!  I love ya!

Flat "Brayden" visited us this week

Sometimes I really miss being a teacher. I was so excited when I heard that my nephew's kindergarten class was doing the "Flat Stanley" project. Flat Stanley visit My parents, Brandi's parents, and then came to visit us.

This is the letter that I am sending back with Flat Stanley about his time here in Naples:

Dear Friends and Classmates,
You would not believe the adventure that I have had with Uncle Slim and Aunt Laura. I have been with them since Saturday, and during that time, we have visited so many places in South West Florida! Have you ever heard of the Gulf of Mexico? That is where they live! I thought that when we visited the beach, we were actually going to the ocean, but instead, it was the Gulf of Mexico. The west coast of Florida beach meets up with a body of water that divides Florida from Texas. Wow was it beautiful!!!

On Saturday afternoon, Uncle Slim’s band, Fellowbliss, was playing at an event in Cape Coral, Florida. A cape is a piece of land that goes out into the water past the rest of the land. Of course Cape Coral goes out into the Gulf of Mexico. We had to take a bridge there, but I wasn’t scared. It was actually so cool! The band did a great job, but it was way too hot for picture taking, and I was too busy signing autographs. While I was there, the band invited me to come with them to their music video shoot on Tuesday. I had never been to a video shoot, so of course I said yes.
Not knowing what to expect, I made sure to bring my brief case along! The first part of the shoot was at a place called Allied Recycling. This place was so amazing!!! They take old trucks and any kind of machinery and smash it down to reuse it again… that way they don’t have all that metal hanging around our dumps and junk yards. When we got there, the recycling plant had actually just made a huge sale of $200,000 worth of used metal, and so the owners said that because so many people would be working to transport all that metal, it was not a safe place for the band to film.

We moved on to a warehouse in Fort Myers, Fl and that is where I got to star in the music video. Uncle Slim let me hang out with him and the band, and he even let me play his guitar! Wow, it was AWESOME! The band took some pictures with me after, and it was so cool.



I can’t wait to get back to see you in Colorado Springs, but I sure am going to miss Uncle Slim and Aunt Laura. I have had a lot of fun with them!

Your friend,





Flat Stanley (As you can see I have been practicing my autograph)

I have another sister!

On March 5th, we welcomed Rachel to the McElheny family.

It was a brisk but sunny day on a golf course in Harmony, Fl when Little Jimmy married his one true love, Rachel! The ceremony was beautiful, the reception, a blast, and the cookies... oh the cookies were delicious!

Rachel,
Thank you for always loving and honoring our Jimmy. We look forward to many years for family fun together. Here's to a lifetime of happiness and lots of little kids running around your feet!

Love you both!

These two...

...are coming to visit on March 17th-24th. Be jealous, be very jealous! I can't wait!

Some people that I am missing...

Carly Jo Jones:

Gosh I could write a novel about how much I truly miss this person. She is the best friend anyone could ask for. Carly knows me and knows when to tell me that I am acting crazy! As you know, she moved to VA just before her sweet Liberty Rose was born, and though we don't see each other everyday like we used to, we do talk almost every day. I love her, and everything in me wishes that I could just go to Starbucks with her and talk to her for hours. I also would love to just shop with her. Since she left I haven't really had someone to 'just shop' with. Come back to visit us soon, Carly Jo!

Jessica Terry Burke:

It was on her blog that I got the idea to write about who I am missing. Jessica and I went to HS together from 10th-12th grade. We became instant friends from the time that I transferred to FHS. I adore her sweet family and miss her like crazy. We have made wonderful memories over the years, and I can't wait to make some more with her. She is a doll, a wonderful mother, amazing friend, and such an encouragement. I wish that I could just drive around Syracuse with her, coffee coolatta in hand, shooting the breeze and loving life!

Jessica Miller Jackson:

It has been almost 6 years since I have seen the lovely Jessica Miller Jackson, and gosh do I miss her! Jess and I have had our ups and downs in our relationship, but we always settle on the up and up! We lived together in college, and were inseparable, moved in together after college and taught together at Our Savior Lutheran school. Despite not seeing each other over the last 6 years, I still think of her daily and can't wait to see her again. She is an awesome mom, fun-loving spirit, and amazing dancer. Love you Jess! The above pic is from our college days, man we were so young!

Finally- The rest of the Ham House:

These loves were part of the best years of my life: college! We had a blast. We love to eat, dance, go on trips, and just be together. This pic was taken at Jess Jackson's wedding, so here are the rest of us hanging together. On the top: L to R. Lacey Jo Plymel Hoobler- Lacey is living in Nevada, married to her bullfrog, working part-time at Gap and going for her Master's in education. Joette Richardson Kelleher lives in NY, teaches English and is crazy in love with her husband Patrick. Jenn Carl Bullock aka MamaB. She is a stay at home mom blogger who will have her second little girl in March. She lives in Charlotte, NC. Sarah Marie Moore Marquart is another English teacher who lives with her hubby near Syracuse. She has an adorable 9 month old named Owen. Bottom Row R-L Jessica Winebrenner is a paralegal from Raleigh, NC who is single and loving life. I love catching up with her and being able to see when I am passing through or every few years at weddings. I adore her! Heidi Martinez Hanes is a mom of 3 boys with her 4th child on the way. She married Ryan right when we graduated college and has been teaching school and making babies ever since- pretty much missing from our lives, but we recently reconnected through Facebook! Last is me of course!

New things in our lives

Slim has become a spokesperson for the Special Olympics! Crazy, I know, but so amazing. We will be helping with a lot of events that will be in the South West Florida area. I am super excited and cannot wait to see how God uses us.

We have recently become super-convicted about our nonchalant use of the 'r' word.

Check out some of these ads for the Special Olympics.




Pretty heavy huh?

What can you do to help? Well, you can take the pledge to end the 'r' word! Click on the badge below and you can learn a lot more about putting an end to this term.