Kel and her family have been a steady part of my family’s lives since…forever. Kelly and Ali remained close through all the years sharing some of the funniest memories. a couple years ago adam and i had the pleasure of photographing kelly and pat’s wedding. Ali was starting to dabble in wedding planning at the time and helped kelly plan a beautiful event. well, kelly got to return the favor in august when she spent countless hours helping us with ali’s rock pink fundraiser. thanks so much for helping with everything kel, we are very thankful for all your time and effort. i know ali was so happy to have you close again the last couple years. i’m sure she will always be close to your heart. thanks for reminiscing the times that seem like just yesterday. and ps. when the hell did you hear Escapades on the radio?? jealous. xoxo. mel

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So there is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of you in something that I do.

…When I listen to the radio and I hear the song Escapades by Janet Jackson and it makes me think of grade school when you and Julie practiced your routine in the east wing at victory for some talent show.

…Passing the big brown barrels in the back of church thinking of unloading the barrels every week and our trips to the soup kitchen with Mrs. Muldoon and starting the clothing drive.

…When I see a station wagon (they do still exist) I am immediately thrown back to grade school and the many car rides with your mom and all of us piled in the car on the way to the Elder game or home from someone’s house and how much fun we had talking about who was going with who, and the latest grade school or high school drama and singing at the top of our lungs and me driving your mom crazy with mom questions! ha ha, sorry Denise.

…During Christmas I was watching a SNL special and they had Letters from Jack Handy. You came to my head instantly because you had a Jack Handy calendar and we would sit in your bed and read them and laugh hysterically and think they were so funny. Now that I think about it we probably did not get half of what they meant.

…Being at your parent’s house over the past few months and remembering all the parties and sleep overs and cutting through the backyards to meet up with everyone aka the boys. You know we had a nice little set up between my house and yours with Adam living on my street, Julie right down the street,  Jamie and Lindsay in between house and Andrew next to you. We had it pretty good. Your house was where I went to my first girl boy party. We always could talk your mom into letting us have people over. Either we were good negotiators or she was just tired of listening to us.

…When Pat begs me to scratch his arm at night and It makes me think of all the sleepovers at your house laying in your water bed, yep a water bed (I was always so jealous you had a water bed) and somehow making me scratch YOUR arm or back because it was the ONLY way you swear you could fall asleep. I would always put up a fight but somehow always ended up doing it for you.

…Or every time I go into or pass Homegoods because while planning my wedding you introduced me to this fabulous place and I have been addicted ever since. (Pat thanks you for that one by the way.)

…Going to Christ hospital the other day passing Planned Parenthood seeing the people protesting made me think of our trip to Washington to the pro-life march, man that was a long bus ride but we had so much fun and saw some crazy things.

…Every time I see a peacock feather or some kind of crazy flower it makes think of you planning my wedding and how much I drove you crazy with all of my 1000 different ideas from week to week sometimes day to day and how I could not make a decision to save my life.  No matter how much I threw at you and how I knew you and mel wanted to strangle me, you would always smile and give me that look and put me back on the right path and say, “now KEL let’s pick a theme and stay with it please.”

…Or every time a Zulily add pops up on my screen.

…every time I see a pink sky.  Anything pink these days really my mind automatically goes to you, I mean how could it not.

…But mostly when I rock Carter at night I think of you and how excited we were to become moms. How we talked about how we drove Pat and Ben crazy and wanting to stay home and have lots of babies. We would talk about going on play dates to the park or museum center. We’d talk about all the crazy things we thought they would do just like us when they got older and sigh realizing we were in trouble if they did half the stuff we did! ha ha.

…i miss hearing you giggle at something stupid I say or some off the wall story I would tell you.

…I really just miss you.

love, kelly