How very interesting...

As the results came in last night for the Alabama Republican primaries, there were quite a few of my so-called liberal facebook friends gawking at the winner, Rick Santorum.  Things were thrown around like "is the whole state stupid?!" and "if you voted for Santorum we can't be friends".  

Firstly, I feel as though I should point out that I do not live in Alabama, and so had nothing to do with the results of that primary.  Secondly, I think it necessary to stress that it was just, in fact, a PRIMARY for the Republican party.  Those voting had a choice of Republican candidates.  That means that anyone of the liberal stance already disagrees with them.  It doesn't matter who wins that primary, there will always be opposition from the other side.  That is ok.  That is why we have different political parties in our great country.  The great thing about living in a free country is that we all, as humans, have the right to have our own individual beliefs.  It is a beautiful thing.

However, I would like to point out that liberals are those people that pride themselves on being the most open-minded of our population.  By definition, a liberal is favoring or permitting freedom of action, especially with respect to matters of personal belief or expression.  I find it quite ironic that those people who always call for, nay demand, respect for everyone's beliefs and lifestyles, would be so quick to judge those whose beliefs don't mirror their own.  Since when is "if you don't believe what I do, then I can't associate with you" a liberal thought?  That sounds awfully close-minded to me.

I don't care if you are republican, democrat, conservative, liberal, black, white, green, or purple.  I don't care what you believe.  I don't have to agree with you, and thank God we live in a country where I can voice that.  I do, however, have to respect your belief.  It is my job as a human to respect everyone.  It is my job as a Christian to love everyone.  If I disassociated myself with anyone who didn't believe everything I do, then I would be a very lonely person. 

So to those of you who don't agree with voting for Santorum (or any other candidate that you don't like), you will have your chance to voice that come November.  Until then, play nice.  There is no place for hate in the world today.  We have enough of it around every corner to add petty things like political differences to the mix.  Besides, the candidates do enough mud-slinging for all of us.

Love,

Whitney

Mission: Accomplished

I have been hard at work trying to get my house ready for our guests.  One of the goals I set for myself was a little project I dubbed "Operation DVD Relocation".  (Note:  "Little" is a grave misrepresentation of this project.)

You see, I have an obsession with movies and music.  In fact, our DVD collection had taken over our linen closet, one of our large storage ottomans, and two drawers in our entertainment center.  No really.  At last count, we have 569 DVDs, 82 of which are kids' dvd's.  That will be important later.

In any case, we were being taken over by DVDs and I finally decided that enough was enough.  I was taking back the linen closet, ottoman and entertainment center.  I didn't want to get rid of the movies, as we are avid movie-watchers, but we needed to streamline our storage and make for easier selection when the mood strikes.

I, of course, stalked Pinterest to find some good organization ideas and finally decided to get some plastic DVD/CD sleeves.  I found a pack of 1000 on Amazon.com for roughly $20 so I got two packs.  (I am going to pack my CDs the same way and I have roughly 700 of them.)  I then went to Old Time Pottery during their after-Christmas clearance sale and got 10 deep plum storage boxes.  They have almost an iridescent look to them.  They match our curtains really well.  I had received a gift card to OTP from my mother-in-law so I put it to good use.  (I also got a TON of Christmas stuff but that is for another post, I suppose).

Anyway, after putting off the inevitable for a few weeks, I finally pulled ALL of the DVDs out of their storage locations and proceeded to stack them in ABC order.  I actually went with the 'one stack of A's, one stack of B's, etc' because it would have been ridiculous to try any other way.  Here is a picture of the linen closet.  The DVDs are actually four rows deep.

Unfortuantely, I neglected to take a picture of the ottoman or entertainment center OR the stacks and stacks of DVDs in my living room floor as I was sorting.  (D'oh!  Note to self: Self, get better at documenting each step of a project for the blog.) The sorting actually took a couple of evenings to complete.  However, once I was done I began putting them in true alphabetical order and sticking the DVDs in sleeves.  I separated the movies for kidlets from the movies for adults - not "adult movies" -  I am calling them "Big Kids movies".

So the little kids movies went into one box (i.e. Disney movies, Baby Einstein, Sesame Street, you get the idea) and everything else went into the other.  The DVD cases were put into plastic storage bins.  It took 6 of them.  (Later we decided not to "waste" the nice storage bins on empty cases so we put them into cardboard boxes.)  Um, yeah.  They take up A LOT of space.  

So how many decorative plum boxes does it take to hold 569 movies?  Two.  SERIOUSLY.  I WAS SO EXCITED!!!  Observe.

Did you spot them?   Canon has a box of his DVDs right under the TV.  He uses the DVD player the most so it sits on top of his box.  Our movies were placed on the shelf of a nearby table.

Oh yeah, don't mind all the mess.  Or the too-short curtains.  Or the fact that I took this picture at night and the light in our house is terrible.  Yeah, look past that and into the glory that is our minimized DVD space.

Now that this is done, we can actually put the extra blankets in the ottoman (which is why we bought them in the first place) and we can put our linens back in the linen closet (WHO DOES THAT?!).

We can check one thing off the list.  Here's a recap just to keep a tally.  And because I like to mark things off of a list.  Makes me feel accomplished.

my house projects to tackle before we have company

•  prime and paint the pantry door
• hang the pantry door (yes, right now we have no pantry door)
• remove shelving from the guest room
• remove desk and file cabinet from the guest room
• hang curtains on window and closet in guest room
• move bed to the center of the wall in guest room
• put sheets and comforter on guest bed
• clear master bedroom of clutter
• hang something on the wall above the cat's food
• complete (so obviously, also begin) Operation DVD Relocation Project
• store living room blankets in ottoman
• hang SOMETHING in large frame on living room wall
• hang SOMETHING in frame over bed in master bedroom

Woo hoo!  Two things down!  I am well on my way...sort of.  My goal is to have everything done by next weekend.  I am beginning to think that may be a little lofty.  We will see.

Wish me luck!

I've got big plans for you, humble abode...

I have a ton of catching up to do on posts.  I know that I haven't posted about New Year's, Christmas, or even *gasp* Thanksgiving!  I will get there, eventually.  In the meantime, though, I feel that I must put this out in the blogosphere.  My son will be two in less than a month.  Wait, did you get that?  MY SON WILL BE TWO IN LESS THAN A MONTH!!!  How did we get here?!  How can this possibly be?!  I have no idea, but there it is. 

Of course, I am planning a party for him that will involve his grandparents come from far and near to visit.  Because of this, I am on a personal mission to be sure that I have certain house projects done before we have visitors.  I am determined.  Now that I have a goal, I will be more motivated to complete the tasks at hand.  Maybe if I share my specific tasks that I am creating for myself, I will be held accountable.  You know, since it is now "out there".  I will even blog about the projects so as to (hopefully) keep me on track.  So without further ado:
 

my house projects to tackle before we have company

•  prime and paint the pantry door
• hang the pantry door (yes, right now we have no pantry door)
• remove shelving from the guest room
• remove desk and file cabinet from the guest room
• hang curtains on window and closet in guest room
• move bed to the center of the wall in guest room
• put sheets and comforter on guest bed
• clear master bedroom of clutter
• hang something on the wall above the cat's food
• complete (so obviously, also begin) Operation DVD Relocation Project
• store living room blankets in ottoman
• hang SOMETHING in large frame on living room wall
• hang SOMETHING in frame over bed in master bedroom

Doesn't seem too bad, right?  I have exactly one month to complete this list.  I can do this.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

Even in the hard times

My apologies for being gone for a while.  My family received some very sad news over the holidays that my aunt finally succumbed to cancer.  She was a wife, a mother, a daughter, a grandmother, a friend.  She was a beautiful, kind, funny soul.  She was a fighter.  She was also so special that God had another plan for her that required her to return home much sooner than any of us hoped.  We rejoice in the fact that she is no longer in pain, even as we mourn our loss here on Earth.  Join me, please, in praying for comfort for her husband, children, and mother as they try to pick up the pieces of their hearts that were shattered this weekend.

(Photo taken from my cousin's facebook site.  I hope you don't mind, Jeani.)

We love you, Aunt Donna, and we will see you again soon.  Say hi to Granddaddy for us.  I know he is so excited to hug his little girl again.

Tradition!

Did you catch that Fiddler On The Roof reference?

No?

Ok, then.  Anyway...

We have a tradition in our family that dates way back.  Like 6 years.  Ok, so that is way less than a millisecond in geological time, but for us it is important. See, Craig and I,on our first date (that lasted 10 hours and several different locations), went to Bellingrath Gardens to see the Christmas lights display.  We also got engaged there, a year after our first date.  (Not to the day or anything, but you get the idea).  This place is special to us.  So, we make sure to go every year to see the lights.

This year, we were especially excited to take Canon since he has been gaga over Christmas lights all season.  Though he wasn't as vocal about it as I had anticipated, he was mesmerized by the sights.  I think he was also a little overwhelmed.  Not that blame him.  It is a lot to take in.

This year, we took my youngest siblings with us.  My sister and two of my brothers, along with my brother's friend, made the hour long journey that did not disappoint.  Amazingly enough, even the too-cool-for-school young adults enjoyed themselves.

So without further adieu, feast your eyes on one of our Christmas traditions. Oh, and fair warning:  photo overload ahead.

One of my brothers and my sister being goofy...

Another brother being goofy...notice a family trend?

Ah, here is the spot where Craig and I we got engaged!

My sweet baby angel

 Never forget the real reason for the season!  Praise Him from whom ALL blessings flow.

I will be back with more Christmas goodness soon!

I hope you had a wonderfully blessed Christmas!!!

A Plethora...

As promised, I am back with a look into my gallery wall.  I have been a little obsessed with them since I saw a little blog talk about one.  You may have heard of them.  www.younghouselove.com  They are only like the gurus of DIY.  They've got mad decorating skills and I am happy to be a stalker follower of their daily grind.  Anytime I start talking giddily about something I saw online, my husband immediately says "did it come from younghouselove.com, bowerpowerblog.com or jasminestarblog.com" in a jeering sort of way.  I still don't know know why he isn't as obsessed as me.  He will come around.  Oh yes.  He will come around.

But I digress.  Back to my gallery wall.  I started collecting pictures frames - some from IKEA, a couple from WalMart, a few from yard sales - but the bulk came from the Waterfront Rescue Mission (aka my favorite can'tfeelguiltycausemyshoppingisdoinggood store).  They kept piling up until one free Saturday when I took them out to spray paint them. 

See, in order to have the gallery wall of my dreams all of the frames had to be white.  That way everything looks unified even if they really aren't.  So I laid out an old tarp and lined up everything that needed painting.  (Note:  there are some non-frame items here but that will be for another time - when I have figured out what to do with them.) 



I wiped everything down with a damp cloth to make sure it was clean then got straight to priming everything with spray primer.  After a couple of coats each, I proceeded to spray a high white gloss paint over everything.  I sprayed to my hearts content.  Once my heart was content I found that I had two more coats to paint.  Not so fun, but it was worth it.

Once everything was dry (and several weeks passed since I am a procrastinator), I made a template from scrap paper and used painters tape to mark off the wall placement.  In retrospect, I probably didn't have to do this and I doubt I would do it again since I think eyeballing it would get the same result.

And, several weeks later (since I am the world's worst procrastinator), I actually hung the frames.  Only then did I put pictures in them.

So let's chat about what is in the frames.  All of the photos, save for the 8x10 of Canon on the far top left, the beach shot on the far top right (WRM), and the wedding picture of my man and me are our personal photos.  There is an oversized key and a carved cross (found at Waterfront Rescue Mission, heretofore mentioned as WRM).  The large awesome frame was found at WRM and will (hopefully) soon house a world map as soon as I find something to back it with.  Yes, I was stupid and got rid of the picture that was in it - it was a hard back painting!  For now, it is holding the Christmas cards we receive.  The letter 'd' and the small yellow garland ball both came from the Dollar Store.  The green botanical print came from the WRM.  It is really cool.  It is actually printed on canvas and has a handmade quality to it.  Of course the prize of the entire wall is the original artwork by none other than Canon Dupuis.  Yes, it is the only one available.  Yes, it is extremely valuable.  No, it is not for sale.  ;)

Most of these frames do not house what shall forever remain in them.  I am still shopping through my house for the perfect addition to the wall, so I will keep you updated.

Until then, have a great day!!!

A Call for Love

I read a very powerful blog post today.  Let me preface this by saying that although I may not agree with everything said (i.e. I DO believe that the only truth is God), I do agree with the call to love everyone.  After reading this post and some comments towards it, I felt the need to comment.  Then I felt the need to share this comment - not because I want praise for it - but because I need the reminder every day to let my light shine.  To make that my priority.  To To profess always, with my actions and words, the love of God to those around me.  So here is my response, my reminder to myself.

"I am a Christian and I have never understood the bigotry that some people feel. I absolutely believe that we should hate the sin, but not the sinner. We are actually called NOT to judge, but to love one another as Christ has loved us - that is the second commandment and one of the most important. It doesn't say love one another unless you don't like something about them. The disgusting behavior that some so-called Christians perform furthers Satan's work and shows all non-believers not who Christ is but who Satan wants them to see. God has never, and will never, hate anyone. He loves each of us. We are His children, regardless of what we do. If your child were to come home drunk, high, covered in tattoos or profess to be gay, would you stop loving them?! I know I couldn't. It wouldn't matter if I didn't agree with their lifestyle. They would still be my children that I love more than life itself. We are completely incapable of understanding, but God loves each of us even more than that. I can't fathom that. While we as humans sit around writhing in our hatred for others, His heart breaks for all of us. Sin is sin, no matter what type. Our judgements, our hatred, our stone throwing is just as "bad" as those we are judging. Actually, worse, since we profess to be something we are actually not living. So this is a call to all CHRISTIANS. Be the light. Stand firm in your faith and remember that God loves EVERYONE, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or lifestyle choices. Profess the gospel always - use words if necessary. The more we do this, the more His light shines throughout the world. THAT is our calling. THAT is our job. THAT is what we will be judged for when our time comes."

If you would like to read the blog post that started all of this, please follow this link.  

Have a wonderful day!!!