It’s a Beautiful Day to Re-Decorate!

Happy Sunday readers! We attended the 11 o’clock service at church today in celebration of Pentecost. The sermon was inspiring (as always) and with the windows open in the sanctuary, it was a really beautiful service! I love having guests in our home and am lucky enough to have my good friend, Emily, from Colorado visiting this weekend as well as my little sister, Claire. We’ve been having tons of fun!! Now… on to nitty-gritty.

I’ve had some people ask about our home here in Fayette and how we’ve decorated it. Most of the people who have asked know that we moved from a 3-bedroom, 2-story home in Kansas City to a really small apartment here. I think the real question is, “What the heck did you do with all your stuff?” In all honesty, we have a small storage unit for a lot of our bigger furniture pieces and memorabilia but mostly I’ve just had to get really good at organization and making the most use of our spaces. I’ve also learned to use functional items as decorations. Today I’ll feature our bathroom because it is my favorite room in the house! I’m still changing things: adding some decorations and removing others but I’ll share where it is now.

Thomas and I have made a lot of the decorations and have re-purposed a lot of it as well so it’s really been a labor of love.

I just recently made this headband holder and love it so much that I will share how to make your own in an upcoming post.

This is by no means all I’ve my headbands (I have a bit of an obsession) but I love that I can feature some of my fancier headbands and double it as a decoration. I have the rest of my headbands in a white ceramic container that I actually bought in the kitchen area at Wal-Mart.

We knew we needed a way to keep things organized to avoid having all of our hair products and my make-up becoming clutter so we purchased an entertainment unit from Wal-Mart and white bins. Thomas has a bin of his own, one is for all of our hair products (we have a ridiculous amount) and the other two bins are mine (duh). LOL.

I needed better organization for Q-Tips, Cotton Balls, Hair Clips, and Bobby Pins so I went on the ultimate hunt. I wanted to keep the look crisp, clean, and modern so I found myself back in the kitchen department at Wal-Mart. I found the two larger jars (with the metal lids) there and the two smaller ones (actually candle holders) at Hobby Lobby on the ultimate sale (LOVE THAT PLACE)! The plastic Rubbermaid container is used for smaller items, such as eye shadow I don’t use on a regular basis and nail polish. I also have a bit of an obsession with smelling good so I have LOTS of lotion that I store in the metal container on the top shelf. By the way, that shelving unit used to have legs but it was very unsteady so Thomas sawed them off and nailed it to the wall. It works so much better that way!

We have built-in shelving but it isn’t very deep so not much will fit. We have our cologne and perfume on there because some of the bottles are really neat so they double as decorations. (I told you I like smelling good.)

When we moved in, the bathroom was a very ugly peach color (every room except the bedroom was that color…eek!) so we’ve slowly been painting (with landlord approval, of course). I love the color we found for the bathroom! Decorating it has been so easy and I’m starting to add little bits of color like on the frame above the sink. Also, since most of the decorations are white, black, or metal, I can add tons of pictures to personalize. That window was also covered with a very heavy set of blinds and made the bathroom so dark. We don’t have it covered at all anymore and it makes it feel so much bigger! And don’t worry, you can’t see into it from outside… we checked. ;0

I love our shower curtain! After we found it and the paint, the room just started coming together. It has been so much fun to watch the transformation!

Proof that we actually use this bathroom… wet towels.

If I’ve learned anything from living in a smaller place, it’s to think outside the box and have fun! I hope this inspires you to pick a space to transform.

God Bless!

Cort

 

 

Make a Memory

Today is May 24th… I’ve been dreading it for a few months now. You see, I’m really good at remember dates.

This can be good… I’ll never forget my mom’s birthday.

It can be odd… I still remember my first serious boyfriend’s birthday.

And it can be bad… I will always remember the day my grandfather died.

It’s been 2 years and I still remember exactly what I was doing when I found out about his passing. I’ve talked about this before in an older post so I won’t go into details but with this being the anniversary of such a memorable day, I’ve decided to share some of my favorite memories… I figured it would cheer me up. If you have any memories you would like to share, I would love to rejoice, laugh and maybe even cry with you. Feel free to share below.

The happiest place on Earth…

• I will NEVER forget going on a family vacation with my mom, dad, Ceres, Grandma and Grandpa. We were lucky enough to go to Disney World and a cruise to the Bahamas. It was amazing! I was only 12 years old but the memory is fresh in my mind.  However, my favorite memory from that trip is my Grandpa wearing Ceres’ Minnie Mouse Hat (she was 4 years old at the time). I don’t have a picture of him wearing it (my mom does but not digital and she lives 2 hours away from me) but I did manage to find a sketch of the hat online…
  

  He wore this hat all around Disney World just to make people laugh… He was amazing like that.

  Our family still laughs about it to this vacation.

The way to a man’s heart…

• When I was 4 years old, my mom met a man named Andrew at work. They fell in love instantly and so when it was time for me to meet him, my mom suggested that I sell him a ticket to the Pancake Dinner at my preschool. I had no idea he was anyone special at this time so I walked in and sold him a ticket… I’ve always been a convincing salesperson. Although I later learned the whole thing was planned to have me meet my mom’s boyfriend in a non-threatening way. Andrew (Dad) has always told me that he fell in love with me first… that cute little girl with blonde hair, big blue eyes and a ticket for pancakes. (He LOVES pancakes.)

My beautiful mother and me on my wedding day.

• I am extremely lucky to have a fantastic woman of God as my mother. She is my hero! She was very involved with United Methodist Women when I was growing up so as soon as I became old enough, I also joined the organization. We had the opportunity to do some wonderful mission work, travel for conferences all over the U.S, and bonded in a way most mothers and daughters don’t get to do. My favorite trip we went on together was for the South Central Jurisdiction (every 4 year) meeting in 2008, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We went a few days before the conference, rented a car, and drove through the mountains. It was beautiful! Seriously, I know many girls will say they have an amazing, supportive mom and I know I’m biased but I really did get the best one. Planning my wedding with my mom is a memory I wouldn’t change for all the riches in the world. I have a plethora of stories about my awesome mom but we’ll save those for another post.

• Thomas’ and my first date…
• When my Grandparents renewed their vows on their 60th wedding anniversary…
• Hearing Ceres’ first cry…
• Seeing Claire for the first time…
• Watching my Dad & Grandpa dance over a fire in the Bahamas…

I have been blessed with a great life. Ya, there have been tough times of course, but when I look back over the years, I wouldn’t change a thing. I pray this post helps you look back at your own life, smile, and then praise the One who gave it to you.

May the Lord bless you until we meet again.

Cortney

P.S. I’ve been struggling with headaches & migraines so prayers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

People of God: Rise UP!

I say all the time how blessed we are but I think I still take things for granted. I know that if all else failed and Thomas and I were to completely lose the ability to make money and take care of ourselves that we have lots of family and friends that would love and help us. We would never end up on the streets or starve. However, many people are not as lucky as we are.

I love when God reminds me just how blessed I truly am…

What if you lived here??

I was in Columbia on Saturday night and stopped by our church. I got to talking to our pastor’s wife and learned that a couple was camped out in their van behind the church. “They are trying to sell their puppy to buy a tire so if you know of anyone interested, pass it on.” I’m not sure of the whole back story of how they ended up in this horrible situation but it sounds like they’ve just hit some extremely bad luck. First of all, let me say that I think it’s amazing our church is allowing this couple to do that. The man even said, “I think most churches would call the cops if a couple showed up and asked to sleep in their beat up mini-van in the church’s parking lot…” And that’s really all they asked for… they used the restroom, borrowed a book from the church library and thanked us for our prayers.

Unfortunately, that man is probably right and I hate knowing that someone thinks of church that way. That if we are afraid or don’t like what someone is doing, we’ll turn them away. That if we are afraid of the way it might make us look or that people are just out for our money, we will turn them away and even get law enforcement involved.

That really got me thinking: Are we really doing what we should as Christians? How many of us go to church, give some money during the offering, and label ourselves as “Christian” somewhere on our Facebook page but are never actually Christians in how we live our lives? How many of us say the occasional curse word, talk behind people’s backs, and only pray when it’s convenient? I have to say, I’ve been guilty of ‘Talking the talk’ but not always ‘Walking the walk.’

Thomas and I went out to talk to them and see if there was anything we could do to help. By no means do we have extra funds and although I really wanted to, we can’t afford a puppy for many reasons, mostly our sanity, but what good are we as Christians if we can’t at least try help others? We ended up taking them a $5 Hot & Ready pizza from Little Caesar. I wish we could have done more, mostly because they didn’t ask for more. If I had my own washer and dryer, I probably would have done some laundry for them. The man also said, “I’m sorry but we won’t be going to service tomorrow. We’re filthy and have dog pee on us. We’re in no shape to walk into a church.” This may have bothered me more than the other comment. They don’t feel welcome in a church because they aren’t “clean enough”!!?? What are our churches telling people? We tried to encourage them that it didn’t matter and no one in our congregation would judge them but when you’ve had a thought in your minds like that for so long about the church, one young couple isn’t going to be able to convince you differently.

James 2:14-17 says, “What good is it if people say they have faith but do nothing to show it? Claiming to have faith can’t save anyone, can it? Imagine a brother or sister who is naked and never has enough food to eat. What if one of you said, “Go in peace! Stay warm! Have a nice meal!”? What good is it if you don’t actually give them what their body needs? In the same way, faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity.”

Now, I am far from perfect and honestly all of us are but I know that after meeting that couple, I will change how I interact with the poor and down-trodden. I have been afraid to give spare change to the man at the stop light because society tells us that he is just going to use that money for drugs. But WHO ARE WE to judge that man!!?

I think it’s important that we live on the 90% of our income so we can give the other 10% away. Isn’t that what God calls us to do? Thomas and I are not there yet. We’re trying our best to following the amazing Dave Ramsey’s plan but we have a long way to go. With both of us as full-time college students, we can barely make ends meet… so I understand if you don’t have spare cash to throw out to everyone in need and I know this could spiral into a political argument and a huge mess but I encourage you to avoid all that and just pray. Pray for that couple, pray for all those who are on the streets, hungry and cold tonight, but mostly pray for our society that we may live more to the teachings of our Lord and Savior.

God Bless.

We Are Family… I’ve got all my sisters with me.

Wow… A new post 2 days in a row! I think I might be on to something here.

Claire and me as our usually silly selves.

My little sister, Ceres, graduated from high school this past Wednesday. We drove to Kansas City to cheer her on and were so excited to see her with her diploma. I can’t wait to witness all the awesome things she’s going to do with her life!

My beautiful sisters at Ceres’ graduation

It blows my mind how quickly my sisters are growing up! Ceres is 18 and headed to Northwest in the fall to major in theater. Claire is 10 and almost finished with 4th grade. And my sister-in-law, Kathryn, is 16 and will be a junior in the fall at the same school Ceres just graduated from. I’ve always loved having little sisters so God truly blessed me when he sent me a wonderful man that had a little sister too!

I consider all these girls my sisters…
(From left to right) Kathryn, Kendra, me, Ceres, Bekah, & Claire

Taylor Swift has a great song, Never Grow Up, that describes exactly how I feel about my little girls. God has blessed me with amazing sisters, and friends that have become sisters. I pray everyday that they live to their full potential, find love and happiness, and never forget how much I love and appreciate them. I love you girls… this one’s for you.

God Bless.

Cortney

 

 

Hello… Is It Me You’re Looking For?

I am so sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted. My last post informed you that we were moving and life would be a bit crazy so I wouldn’t post for a bit. I never intended that delay to be over 6 months! I have so much to write about to catch up! It may take a while to get caught up but we can do it. I think…

Our lives aren’t perfect but they sure are beautiful.

I also didn’t post for a while due to being informed that a friend of Thomas’ and mine stopped speaking to us due to my blog. I read over my posts time and time again, trying to figure out what I could have written that would have been so offense to our old friend but never found anything. I guess that happens a lot in life. You meet someone, get to know them, become good friends, and then something happens… One of you moves, there is a misunderstanding, you have an argument, one of you is in a relationship with someone the other person doesn’t like, etc. Unfortunately, this happens and I can think of a few times it’s happened in my life. I asked several friends of mine if I was the only one this has happened to. Ya, ya, ya, I’m a bit paranoid. Everyone I spoke to said things like that just happen and we have to get over it and move on for our own happiness. Maybe that’s my problem… Maybe I’m too worried about other people’s happiness that I forget to remember my own… maybe not. I guess questions like that get answered as life goes on and we all grow up a little each day. I’ve decided that the Christian outlook on this would be to pray for the other person’s happiness and make sure not to say anything that you’ll regret. That being said; we miss you friend (you know who you are) and pray that you may find all the happiness in the world.

A picture of some of the guys in our wedding… bittersweet memories.

 

Thomas and I are beyond blessed and I’m reminded everyday just how much God loves us. We have fantastic family, loyal friends, a loving marriage, and bright futures. We love our new lives here in Fayette. We’ve met so many marvelous, talented, and caring people. We’ve joined a church here that has already supported us so much and we can’t get over how awesome God is! I have some really exciting developments in our lives that I’ll share with you as time goes on. Get excited.

If there is one thing I’ve learned from all the craziness that has occurred over the past year it is: Trust God. A year ago, our lives were so different but we felt a push and we believed it was from God so we went with it and we couldn’t be happier with the outcomes.

Until next time…

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. 

 

 

Goodbye. Hello.

Goodbye big city living, everything we’ve become accustomed to… familiar family, friends, church.

Kansas City

Hello little town living, everything different… new friends, college, surroundings.

Gorgeous Home in the Small Town of Fayette

I suppose I should actually let you all in on what is going on here. Thomas and I are moving. We have decided that a University in the very small, very cute town of Fayette, Mo will be our new home and we will be finishing our degrees there beginning in January. We are so excited! Thomas will, of course, be majoring in Religion so he can be working towards attending Seminary. I will be finishing my Music Education degree so I can teach music in the High School setting.

GO EAGLES!

We appreciate all your thoughts and prayers and will keep you updated. We will be moving next week so I will post again once things settle down.

God Bless!

Blessings In Disguise?

Blessings

Have you ever just had the worst luck in the world and it just keeps coming? You just can’t seem to find the end to the madness and you wonder if the craziness will ever stop. Ever wondered how in the world God can still be there in all of that?

Let me tell you, I’ve been there. Heck, I am there. Life has gotten really hard lately and it’s really hard to know how God can allow this kind of pain but I know he is there through all of it. Non believers ask Christians How do you know HE is there? How do you know HE cares? That can be a tough question to answer. I think each Christian has to come up with their own answer, to be quite honest. I know HE is there because through everything I’ve been through in life (which is a lot, I promise as time goes on, I’ll tell more about myself) HE has always brought me through. There is no way I would still be alive if it were not for Jesus Christ, My Savior!

I think the song, “Blessings” that I have a link to at the beginning of this post says it perfectly:

“…Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching(s) of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise…”

I have believe God puts the tough things in our lives so we will value the good times more. Believe me, it’s hard to understand why HE would do this to us. I’ve talked about death and other difficult things in past posts and how hard those subjects are but HE does not leave us to deal with those hardships alone.  Tonight I will leave you with one of my favorite poems and I would like you to remember that I am here to pray for you, all you have to do is send me an email.

God Bless!

~Cortney

“Footsteps In The Sand”

One night a man had a dream.
He dreamed he was walking along
the beach with the Lord.

Across the dark sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene, he noticed
two sets of footprints in the sand,
one beloning to him and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.
He noticed that many times along the path of his life
there was only one set of footprints.
He also noticed that it happened at the
very lowest and saddest times in his life.
This bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it.

“Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
you’d walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life there is
only one set of footprints.
I don’t understand why when I needed you most
you would leave me.”

The Lord replied “My precious, precious child,
I love you and would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffereing,
when you see only one set of footprints in the sand,
it was then that I carried you.”

Keep It Holy…

¹² Keep the Sabbath day and treat it as holy, exactly as the LORD your God commanded: ¹³ Six days you may work and do all your tasks, ¹⁴ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. Don’t do any work on it—not you, your sons or daughters, your male or female servants, your oxen or donkeys or any of your animals, or the immigrant who is living among you—so that your male and female servants can rest just like you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, but the LORD your God brought you out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. That’s why the LORD your God commands you to keep the Sabbath day.

~Deuteronomy 5: 12-15 (Common English Bible)

I just saw a bank open on a Sunday! Really? What happened to places being closed on Sunday? Granted when things are open on Sunday it makes it easier to get things done but it sure does totally go against Deuteronomy and the 7th Commandment. “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy!”

This got me thinking so I did some research… What stores/ restaurants close on Sunday? I could only find four! How pitiful is that? I got frustrated! Of all of the business in the world only four of them close on Sunday. Sure, places like insurance companies close but obviously since I saw a bank open today, places like that are started to stay open on Sunday. We need to remember the 7th Commandment!

 

Now, it’s time for a shout-out to those four awesome businesses who are closed to allow time for their employees to worship and spend time with their families!

*Lifeway Christian Bookstore

*Chick-fil-a

Godfather’s Pizza:

Hobby Lobby

These business are founded and owned by Christian people. Please join me in supporting these businesses during the other six business days of the week!

P.S.

A little clarification for the more astute readers:

Sabbath mean “cease.” Stop. Take a break. In other words, rest. In Old Testament times the day of rest (Sabbath Day) was part of the law and over time the spirit of that law was lost. Hebrews 4 tells us that observance of a day of rest is, for us, a glimpse of the heavenly rest to come. Early Christians and Jews met together on the Sabbath but the first day of the week, the day of Resurrection, soon became the Christian Holy Day. Whatever day we observe, the message of the day of rest remains the same.

I’m sorry I haven’t posted recently. It’s kinda been rough lately so I could kinda use some prayers. Thanks guys!

God Bless!

Sweet Revenge?

⁹ Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. ¹⁰ Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. ¹¹ Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. ¹² Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. ¹³Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

¹⁷ Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. ¹⁸ If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. ¹⁹ Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”says the Lord. ²⁰ On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

~Romans 12

I set out to blog about something completely different tonight. I was going to talk about how much I love my church and it’s members so I’ll have to do that later. They deserve the shout out. However, when I was trying to find the scripture that was in my mind Thomas led me to Romans 12, instead of the verse I was looking for (things happen for a reason) and I was inspired so I completely changed what I was doing.

I have done some things I’m not proud of and I’m going to come clean. It’s time. No one is perfect but I am especially far from perfection. However, I have spent my entire life trying extra hard to be as close to perfection as possible. I have done everything in my power to make people think I am perfect, and up until college I did a pretty good job convincing most people around me that I was pretty amazing. It was all a lie (well, not all of it, but a lot of it was.)

I was 19 years old when I moved into my first apartment. I was extremely naive and had no idea what the real world had to, eh, offer. I came home from work extremely late one night and parked in the only spot left in the entire complex. The next morning when it was time to leave for work, my car was no where to be found! I called the police and reported it stolen. A little while later, an officer called me back and informed me that it had be towed because I had (very stupidly) parked it in the covered parking and the person who rented that spot had it towed. It took me 2 days and about $650 to get my car back, which was more than the value of the car itself! Now, here comes the part I’m not proud of… I needed revenge. So, a few days later, my friend and I watched as the girl who had my car towed came home from work. We sneaked outside and let all of the air out of  her tires

and boy did it feel good… for a while. And then it felt crappy.

Why did it feel so good? Why did revenge feel so good for a while but then feel so bad? Why do I still feel bad about this situation 4 years later? I mean she cost me $650 and a lot of trouble when all she would of had to do was park somewhere else. I didn’t mean to cause her any harm by parking in her spot. She meant to cause me harm. I think it’s because I have a conscience.

In Romans 12, Christ calls us to “Bless those who persecute you,” but that never seems to be the first reaction when someone wrongs us. We always want that sweet, sweet revenge. The scripture specifically says “Do not take revenge… but leave room for God’s wrath.” He will take care of all of us. It isn’t our job to make those who wrong us pay for it. God says He will take care of it and ya know what? I believe Him! Most importantly, the scripture says, “Do not be conceited.” NO ONE IS PERFECT! Do not think you are! I am not, you are not. You are no better than the person who is sleeping under the bridge downtown

and the person sleeping on the $800 mattress in no better than you. Let’s all help each other out some and make all our lives a bit easier. K?

God Bless!

Everything

Lifehouse Skit

 

You may have already seen this and if you have then it wouldn’t hurt you to see it again, and if you haven’t then you are in for a treat.

The makers of this video did an excellent job! Please watch the whole video!

God Bless!