White

I've been wanting to do a white post for a long time. Oh, there will be a bit of color among the white but not much; it'll be mostly white. So let's get on with it.

A dresser, lamp and shade, frame, curtains and walls all white except for a painting of a rose on a white frame.

White walls, shelves, bowls with a bit of flowers and the door.

Lamp and shade, measuring cup, walls, table and frame on table.

Mostly white with sofa, stairs, lamp and table, pillows, bookcase, walls, dining room table and chairs and white wallpaper with flowers on it.

White walls, sofa, table, chair, pot on table, a bit of color in curtains and pillow.

White walls, rug, sofa, hanging lamp, heater behind sofa, table on far wall.

White kitchen except for the stove, mixer and a plate of watermelon.

White walls, doors, table, chairs, plates.

White walls, glasses and paper in glass, candle holder, round white candles, white picture.

White walls, windows, doors, table and chairs, cover on sofa,

White walls, chair, chest of drawers, rug, bed.

White walls, floor white and beige check, cabinet, doors, sink, table and chairs,

White chairs, basket, cover on table, white pot on table.

White everywhere in this living room with just a touch of red in the pillows on the sofa and red flowers in the pot on the coffee table and chandelier and lace curtains.

White sofa, chairs, ottoman, walls, doors, curtains, armoir, floors painted white

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Tidbit:

Highest legal drinking age in the world: 21, in the United States.

Linking up with Pink Saturday.

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What? No Television?

I plan these posts ahead and schedule them ahead. I inadvertently scheduled two for 3/22/2013. You may have missed the second one that came up that day so check back if you weren't viewing two of them for that day. I knew I had scheduled two and meant to reschedule one of them but forgot. I don't like doing that and shall take special care in the future to not let that happen again. The correct one was A Trip to the Supermarkets and the one I meant to change was Trip to Washington. I'd sure hate for you to miss a single post of mine with all the glorious photos I post! ;-) I really blog for the photos as I'm an "eye candy" person.
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Hubs was driving a friend with him to a meeting several days ago and the man starting talking about television shows. Hubs said he hadn't seen one particular show the man mentioned. Then the man asked if he watched the football game. Hubs said he hadn't because we don't have a television. The man turned and looked at him and asked, "Then how do you watch football?" Hubs said, "I don't; we don't have a television." The man was stymied and just kept repeating, "How do you do it?" What is so hard to understand that some of us don't have television and prefer it that way? I know it's not for everyone, but it is for us. We live in a very quiet world. We prefer it that way. I rarely, rarely even have the radio on. But what's so important that we'd need a television? We get news on the internet and can filter what we want to read. And if there's any big catastrophe I'm sure friends would let us know. You might give it a try, maybe for a week and see how different it is in the house, especially with kids. It is much calmer and you do things together as a family if you have kids at home. For us empty nesters, it's also time to be with each other without interruptions. If anyone does this, let me know how it worked for you, please. I'd love to know.
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Gorgeous, gorgeous pillows!

Just sweet bits of fluff for a vignette.

Another cute storage shed made into a respite cottage.

I wish I could do something similar to my back yard but it just wouldn't work I think.

I absolutely looooove white houses with black trim. I hope to paint mine that way when it needs painting.

This little settee would look perfect in my home. ;-)

Cute and inexpensive way to display flowers with a lot of pizzazz.

Looks how rustic this house is but it's decorated fancy. Gorgeous!

A truck bed full of flowers.

A beautiful art deco door done in pink. Lovely.

Just more roses. :-)

Another little pink shed to dream about.

I love these clothespins. I have some decorated ones but think I'll paper them and put some little roses on them like these.

What a beautiful pin cushion.

A perfect girly room!

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Tidbit:
Our state is #1!
Starting with Alabama and all the A states, I'm going to list what each state is #1 in.

Alabama is first in:
Lowest taxes on goods
Adult-onset diabetes

Alaska:
Heliports
Teen death

Arizona:
Copper production
Alcoholism

Arkansas:
Best trained math teachers
E. coli infections spread by petting zoos
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About The Tragedy In Sandy Hook

It has taken me several days to absorb the tragedy in Connecticut, but while it is still fresh in our minds, I want to give you some words of consolation to allow them to percolate in your mind. Yes, it's a horrific tragedy and I hope to never, ever experience something this grievous. This story about my son is the closest I hope to ever get to such a tragedy. (And yes, I truly meant it when I said in that post that I actually felt no hate at that moment, only sorrow for the four young men AND their parents who beat him to a pulp and changed his life. I knew the Lord was with me at that point and felt like it would turn out well for this family.) We are advised to forgive in our Church. If we don't, then we are worse off. Is it easy? NO! Is it necessary? Yes! It begins the healing process for all of us. The Parkers are member of our Church—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Robbie Parker speaks to the media.

Dave Checketts is not a professionally trained clergyman.  The former chairman of Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks is currently CEO of Legends Hospitality, the concessions and merchandise company he jointly owns with the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys.  But he’s also a lay minister for the Mormon Church with oversight of ten Mormon congregations in Fairfield County Connecticut, including the one in Newtown.

On Friday morning Checketts had left his New Canaan Connecticut home and headed to his Park Avenue office to prepare for a weekend business trip to Dallas for Sunday's Cowboys-Steelers game.  He and Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones planned to host a group of new investors. But late morning he got an email about a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.  From his laptop he accessed the church records for Mormon families in Newtown.  Five of them had children that attended the school.

A series of phone calls confirmed that all of those children were accounted for except one – six-year-old Emily Parker, a first grader.  Suddenly, it wasn't possible to focus on business.  Checketts cleared his calender for the afternoon.

Robbie and Alyssa Parker had just moved to Connecticut from Ogden, Utah.  Along with Emily, they have daughters ages 2 and 4.  Robbie, a health care professional, worked at Danbury Hospital.  When Checketts reached him there, the facility was on lockdown due to the school shooting.  Robbie was on his way to meet his wife at the fire station in Newtown.   She was there with other parents awaiting word on the children.

Checketts emailed leaders of Mormon congregations throughout western Connecticut: “Pray for Emily Parker.”
 
He also organized a prayer service for that night.  Then he headed back to Connecticut.  He was almost to the Parker’s home when he got word that Emily was among the 20 children who had died.  “I didn’t know what to say,” Checketts said.  “I go back and forth between tears and anger.  It is just hard to comprehend.”

The business trip to Dallas got canceled.  In an email, Checketts notified Jones and the investors. One by one, they expressed condolences and promised prayers.

When Checketts reached the Parker home, Robbie asked him to lead his family in prayer.  While praying, Checketts felt impressed to say that Robbie would deal with his grief by speaking publicly about the tragedy, and that he would emerge as a powerful voice for compassion and peace.

After the prayer, the family's needs were discussed.  Chief among them was finding a mortician.  But funeral homes in the area were overwhelmed.  Checketts promised to take care of everything, including all burial and funeral expenses.

He called a funeral home in a nearby town.  Six years earlier Checketts had attended a service there for a young Mormon missionary who was killed by a drunk driver in Argentina.

“I had to go tell that boy’s parents that he wasn’t coming home alive,” Checketts said.  It was the hardest thing he’d ever done as an ecclesiastical leader [In the LDS church he is what we call a Stake President and is the leader of a stake, which is around 2,000 to 3,000 people in a geographic area].  However, that experience had introduced Checketts to an unusually empathetic funeral director.

Suddenly facing an even harder situation, Checketts reached out to him and asked if he would prepare Emily’s body for burial.  The church, Checketts explained, would cover all the expenses.

“There will be no expenses,” the funeral director said.

The following day, after authorities released the names of the victims, Parker was the first parent  to speak to the national media.  Without notes or a spokesman, Robbie choked back tears and expressed sympathy for the family of the man who killed 26 people and himself.  "I can't imagine how hard this experience must be for you," he said.

Checketts was moved to tears.“What happened in Newtown is unthinkable,” Checketts said.  “But little children are alive in Christ.  Though the nature of the crime is the essence of evil, our faith tells us that these children burst into the presence of God and are safe in his arms.”
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Grief, while heartbreaking, can also give rise to powerful acts of compassion.  By the time Abraham Lincoln gave his second inaugural address on March 4, 1865, the American Civil War had claimed roughly 750,000 lives, resulting in 37,000 widows and 90,000 orphans.

Why did God allow such devastation?  It was a question Lincoln had pondered.  Plus, there were many in Washington that wanted to punish the Confederates for all the carnage. Against that backdrop, Lincoln said:

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.

One month later Lincoln was assassinated.  But those words – with malice toward none – live on.  It reminds me of the story of Kenneth Brown, a U.S. Marine serving in Japan after the atomic bomb.  It was just before Christmas when Brown encountered a Japanese professor of music who introduced himself as a Christian.   He said he had a small children’s choir and asked if they could perform a concert for the American soldiers.
 
Brown belonged to a unit of hardened fighters that had spent four years away from home, battling the Japanese from Saipan to Iwo Jima.  The concert took place on Christmas Eve in a bombed out theater.  The closing number was a solo from ‘The Messiah’ by a girl who sung with the conviction of one who knew that Jesus was indeed the Savior of mankind.  The soldiers cried.

Afterward, Brown asked the Japanese music professor: “How did your group manage to survive the bomb?”

“This is only half my group,” he said softly.

“And what of the families of these?”

“They nearly all lost one or more members.  Some are orphans.”

“What about the soloist?  She must have the soul of an angel the way she sang.”

“Her mother, two of her brothers were taken.  Yes, she did sing well.  I am so proud of her.  She is my daughter.”

Brown was moved to tears.  “We had caused them the greatest grief,” Brown later wrote.   “Yet we were their Christian brothers and as such they were willing to forget their grief and unite with us in singing ‘Peace on earth, goodwill to all men.’  That day I knew there was a greater power on earth than the atomic bomb.”

So if Brother Parker can forgive the young man of killing his daughter, wish peace for the remaining relatives of that man, then who am I to hold a grudge or speak ill of him. I certainly am sad for that family also and the anguish they must be feeling at all of this.
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Darling shabby chic bedroom.

Pretty porch with lovelies.

Pink fabrics are always my favorites.

Interesting old sturdy door.

A chair and pillow I should love to have. There are chairs for company and chairs for reading. This is definitely a chair to sit in properly with company.

Beautiful sparklies.

Very interesting covers for chairs.

Another gorgeous sun room with lace curtains.

Just some darling eye candy cupcakes. I have many sitting around my home.

Italy? I should think living here would be kind of noisy with the breaking of the waves but it sure looks beautiful for a visit.

A shop somewhere with interesting and cute displays. I love this one of bottles and cans matching.

Basket of flowers

A small quiet village.

Oooooh, the plethora of roses over this entrance!

I have cans like this here in my office holding things. Paint a large can, add decals and voilá you've got a stunning display for pencils, paint brushes, flowers, etc.

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Tidbit:
The four hotels at the intersection of Las Vegas Blvd. and Topicana in Las Vegas have more hotel rooms than all the hotels in San Francisco combined.
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Grocery Shopping and Mommy Teasers

I went grocery shopping by myself today. I'm tired of th' Love Bunny grabbing my cart and trying to prevent me from killing/running over/maiming a shopper! I made him stay home. The problem with sending him alone with a grocery list with 5 items and he arrives back home with 8 is I told him to stick to the grocery list and NOT get a thing else not on the list. Never, ever happens. You've heard this story before but I've now decided it's time to go it alone. Sheeeesh!
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When we were at my granddaughters a couple of weeks ago for the birth of her second child, I taught Caroline, her 2 1/2 year old a new thing—cover your ears and wag your tongue while saying lalalalalalala. She took to that like a menopause woman takes to chocolates! Her dad looked at me and I gave him the look that said, "Forget it; I'm doing my own thing with her whether you like it or not." He acquiesced and I think it's because he thought it was cute. What Dada wouldn't?! LOL BUT I also told her to tell her mummy afterwards: Mummy teaser (this to lighten the occasion). And every time we'd practice it, she'd say "mummy teaser." I instructed her well.

Well, a few nights ago, I called granddaughter to see how the girls were and asked if she had done it to her. She said, "Yessss!" Just the night before Caroline said she didn't want to eat the dinner and after a few "back and forths" she covered her ears and said, "Lalalalalala." She said she didn't like the dinner and wanted pear sauce (we get that here at our local Church cannery and it's delicious and Caroline's favorite dessert.) I asked if Caroline said, "Mummy teaser." Nuuuuuu she didn't. I said, "Oooooops." I'll have to correct her error next time we go over. She is one of the smartest kids I know (All grandmothers/great grandmothers say this!). She never forgets something we tell her. I think she was just full of herself at the dinner table that night. But that will NOT stop me from teaching her funny things. ;-) We're humorous and her mom and dad did laugh at her.
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I guess you know by now I was looking at a plethora of sofas and accessories a LOT while trying to decide on a sofa for our home. These are two that I love. Actually, I love that whole room.

Romantic roses in a rustic setting. Adorable.

A cute tea cart.

A place I know most of you would love to go visit. Me? I'll stay here and watch th' house for ya! ;-)

Another little jar I'd love to have.

Are these adorable or what?!

Looks like a place in a Scandinavian country.

Pretty basket of tiny pillows.

I do love this living room also. What a cute coffee table.

Paradise!

More decorated bottles.

I might even cook more if I had this kitchen. Cute!

There's enough froufrou here for me. I love froufrou!

While this is adorable, it sure doesn't make for pleasant conversation at the table if none of the guests can see each other. Love it for its "darling-ness" though.

Imagine. ;-)

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