Son Valley Ranch & a side note of Dorkiness

Jon & Kelsey — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:35:54 +0000

I know we’ve mentioned it before, but want to remind you to check out the new Son Valley Ranch website and blog.

Check out the latest blog with video and pictures from our February 27th work day! Be sure to subscribe to keep up to date on all the latest news and happenings! We would love to have you or a you and a group of volunteers help out for the next work day!

ALSO, in other news, Dave & Brian’s “The Dork Anthem” music video is doing well and is now over 28,000 hits in less than a week! Thanks to everyone for viewing and passing it along.

Jaffa says “hello”!

“The Dork Anthem”

Jon & Kelsey — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:16:16 +0000

Normally we don’t put much “business” work on here (but we do put it here), but we wanted to share with you a project we just finished with some friends of ours. Dave and Brian are comedians out of Philadelphia that we worked with to produce a music video for their song “The Dork Anthem.” We shot it at our new house and even redecorated a bit to fit the theme. Here is the result of our collaboration.

Repost/tweet this link for all your friends to see!

Introducing…

Jon & Kelsey — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 22:13:29 +0000

JAFFA!

Jon and I have wanted a dog for years and decided that now was the right time to get one! We’re so excited to have him and get used to him being part of our family. We talked about tons of names for him and decided on “Jaffa” because we think it’s fun to say and it reminds us of our time in Israel. Jaffa is a Morkie, half yorkie/half maltese. There is some white showing up underneath his black fur, so he may turn more silver colored the older he gets. Anyway, besides today, we promise not to post pics as though he is our child! haha.

Those of you in town, drop by for a visit and to meet our new pup!

I’ll leave you with a few pics from a couple hours after we picked him up this morning!

p.s. he was born on my bday, Dec 22nd!

Claudia has been sponsored! + a new ministry

Jon & Kelsey — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:05:13 +0000

Just an update to let you know that Claudia has been sponsored! There are thousands more in need of sponsorship, so if you would like to get involved with Compassion International, visit www.compassion.org.

+ + Also, a big shout out to our friends who started their new ministry, The 1:27 Call. They are dedicated to helping people to respond to the call to help orphaned and vulnerable children around the world. Check out the latest and subscribe to their blog for updates! (www.the127call.org).

All I want for Christmas…

Jon & Kelsey — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:27:15 +0000

…is for someone to sponsor Claudia, my “Christmas Child”!

Would you like to help rescue a child from poverty?

I can help you sign up to partner with Compassion International this Christmas to help make a difference in the life of a child!

This Christmas, I signed up to help find Claudia a sponsor. She is a beautiful 8 year old child from Indonesia who would love to have you and your family as her sponsor!

Jon and I have sponsored Juan Carols (from El Salvador) for several years. It’s been amazing to see how Compassion has helped provide him with adequate food, education and a Christian spiritual foundation. We are privileged to partner with them to help make that a possibility. We correspond with Juan Carlos through letter writing and have even received several letters and pieces of artwork from him.

If you are interested in sponsoring Claudia, please let me know and I’ll send you her packet of information! Sponsorship involves a monthly commitment of $38/month. That simple $38 can change the life of a child. Is there something you can financially sacrifice to make this a priority?

With compassion,

Kelsey

kelseybufkin(at)yahoo.com, 615-496-2826

All Moved In!

Jon & Kelsey — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:33:26 +0000

We are so thankful! Having unpacked about half of our boxes is already giving us a sense of relief and excitement for living, working and chillin’ in our new home! We’ve been praying for it to be a place of peace, rest, life and love.

We want to give another big shout out to our friend and contractor, Eric Dill. He really is the best at what he does, and we are so grateful for his expertise and hours spent caring for our big house project. We love you, man! (aww, cheesy sigh)

You can see some “before” pictures here and here.

Here are a few pics of the “after” that I snapped before we moved boxes in on Thursday:

The front of the house will be landscaped soon, and it’s looking even more different with things in it. We are glad that mom is coming in tonight to help us unpack, put up some storage and tile our backsplash.

Come over for some tea and coffee soon!

Kelsey & Jon

like father, like son

Jon & Kelsey — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:21:48 +0000

my daddy and brother are a treasure in my life. both of them are distinct and unique in their own right, and I can’t imagine life without them.

i’ve recently been thinking lots about them because of a few photos that daddy sent me. dad does not have many photos from his high school and 20-something years, so when i saw these for the first time it was almost like a weird time warp of “wow, dad was young and hip and normal,” haha! i know it sounds silly, but you know, with your own parents it’s hard think of them before you existed!

i’ve always thought my brother favored my mom’s looks and I was a little in between them both, but when I saw this one particular picture it shocked me. it was so neat to see how much Morgan looks like dad (Harper)! i know it sounds cheesy, but i get those little butterflies in my stomach and a well of joy within me seeing father and son.

so, anyway, just some random thoughts and fun pictures…

Love you Dad and Morgan!

Harper, around 1964

Morgan, fall ’08

Love old photos!

May ’09 July ’09

Floors!

Jon & Kelsey — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:51:04 +0000

We finally decided on a floor stain and here are the results. One more final coat of polyurethane and they’re done. We debated it for a while but the natural variation got us in the end.

Sneak Peek: Cabinets!

Jon & Kelsey — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:35:39 +0000

Just a sneak peek of the cabinets. They’re finishing up the install today and countertops will be in late next week.

Kitchen Island:

lovely, just lovely

Jon & Kelsey — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:11:53 +0000

the floors are down, the shower tile is in and the paint is 80% finished! i’ll have pics of the paint soon. took these pics early last week, so behind on my picture snapping. you’ll notice that the floors are thin slats which adds a little uniqueness to the floor. it matches the original and what is still in two of the bedrooms. they will be stained next week, and we’re still debating on color!

only a few weeks of work left! it’s flown by and seems like we still have quite a bit of little things to do, but they’re coming together quickly. hoping to get a bit of landscaping done before we get in as well.

when i was grocery shopping yesterday, i got super excited about soon having our own kitchen and place to make our own. we look forward to having everyone over for dinner, bible studies, game nights and movie nights as well! we want it to be a place of rest and love and life!

we have been so blessed to stay with such a beautiful family (inside and out!) since june. their generosity and kindness is to be admired. it has been such a great situation and we will miss them very much!

ha, it’s going to be like christmas after opening our storage unit! will have forgotten about half of the stuff in there. i guess it’s a great lesson for how little we actually “need.”

anywho, will post more pics soon!