My amazing nephew

This child is awesome!  Yesterday was his 6th birthday, and being that he is my oldest nephew, he has always held a special place in my heart!  The kids is clever, cute, sweet, gentle, and overall amazing! 

Yesterday when he received a birthday card in the mail that held $50, he decided that he wanted to use the money to donate to Children's Hope Chest.  At first he thought that he would give 40 of the dollars to feed children in Africa, and the other 10, he would use to buy himself a remote control car. 

I spoke to him when he was on the way to drop the money off at Hope Chest, and he said "Do you want to know how many children I can feed?  163!!!"  He was so excited! 

When he got there, he decided that he wanted to give all the money instead of keeping any for himself.  How wonderful is that?!?!  Brandi, my sister-in-law told him that they were well on their way to feed one child for an entire year.  He was so excited about that... he even asked Brandi to 'tweet and ask other people to help'.  Adorable.

Currently in the Brayden's birthday fund there is $199.75 which is enough to feed 799 meals!  If you would like to participate in my nephew's charity, go to http://www.hopechest.org/ and click give. In the notes section write "Brayden's bday / Africa food" They'll give me an update or you can email my sister-in-law at brandi@hopechest.org and tell me how many meals so that I can share with Brayden. (one meal is $0.25)

Bray,

Aunt Laura and Uncle Slim are so proud of the man you are becoming!  We want to be just like you when we grow up!  Keep up the awesome work!  We love you!!!

The end of an era

When I first moved to SW Florida, I started meeting with a great group of girls. One of our first small groups consisted of Carly, Kate, Mel, Abby, and me. I learned so much from each of these ladies over the past 7 years. They have been people I have turned to for prayer, encouragement, and comfort. They have each brought me so much love and joy and I am eternally grateful!

Kate was the first to leave in 2005 when she left and married her true love! She is one of those people who is the best friend to u even when you may not talk for months on end. She sends the nicest letters and always is a blessing. I always say that when I grow up I want to be as good of a friend as she is!!!!

As you all know, it has been 2years since the bff Carly moved with her doll baby in her belly and her hubs by her side. There isn't a day that goes by when I don't miss her! If u didn't know, she is expecting baby 2 right around New Years.

Tonight I went to a going away party for my darling Mel!!! She and her husband Mike are moving to Northern Cali to commit full time to running a Christian camp! This is a perfect job for their adorable family of 4... But that doesn't mean I won't miss them like crazy!

So Abby and I are left here... Abs, I sure hope u stick around for a while!

We're Moving

HOORAY!

Slim and I will be moving into this lovely house at the end of this month! 

For more of an idea of the inside of the house, here is the layout

These are pictures from another house's main space. Ours is just like this but flipped around.

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!