let's get organized

i'm not a neat person. i throw clothes on the floor. i leave dishes in the sink. and i take shoes off and leave them anywhere and everywhere. i can only pray that my husband (whoever and wherever he is) doesn't mind picking up after me (and cooking. and paying bills. and scratching my back.)! in the last couple of weeks, i've realized that it's time to get organized. i have tons of stuff. and by stuff, i mean clothes. i have 4 closets full of clothes. and 3 dressers. full. of. clothes. it was time for a good cleansing.

i mentioned to my friend MJ (who, by the way, i'm forever indebted to) that i wanted to get organized and she was up for the challenge. can you believe she actually ENJOYS doing this kind of stuff?!?! we started at 5pm. we cleaned everything out. and then started putting it all back in. i got rid of TONS of stuff. and still had tons of stuff left!! and 8 hours later...with almost everything done....i was worn out and hurtin'! but oh man does it feel good to have everything cleaned out (except for the nightmare of my 3rd bedroom where any "stuff" that doesn't have a place ends up).

i didn't take "before" pictures, but here is the give-away stack along with the "after" pics. you can only imagine what it was before!!

this is the give-away pile. partini and the pumpkins were not given away. the pile just got so big that it overtook the "get a bin to store in the top of your closet" pile. it ended up being 1 box of shoes and 5 1/2 trash bags full of donations to the YWCA.

this is the closet in the guest room. also known as the "spring wardrobe closet." look how neat the jeans are all stacked up instead of stuffed in several drawers!!!

i think i still have too many spring/summer clothes. believe it or not, i really weeded through it all!

you can't really see here, but i have tons of dresses. seriously. a bajillion dresses. and you know what?! i want more!!!! :)

ahhhhh......the drawers. not only did i have a bajillion dresses, i also has 50 trillion t-shirts. i kept a lot of them, but i surprised myself by getting rid of a lot of them as well. but all drawers look all nice and neat. **check out the autographed gene chizik shirt on the left. "auburn has the winning gene"!!! war eagle!

and now to the fall/winter closets. in my bedroom, i have 2 closets. here's one, complete with shoes (and this is the best shoe rack ever!), pants, and tops. of course, the pants are in order of khaki to brown to grey to black. and the tops are short sleeve, 3/4 sleeve, long sleeve, button up.

this is the second "master bedroom" closet with longsleeve tops, sweaters, skirts, and shoes. it pains me to even think about the shoes that i gave away. but it does feel good to look in my closet and every shoe is next to his friend and they're all lined up in order!

finally, the dresser in my room. this just gives you an idea of how neat everything is!!! every item has it's own little home. and there's plenty of room in that home. no stuffing of anything anywhere!!

like i mentioned before, i still have a little ways to go, but it really is a great feeling to get so much done!! and again, special thanks to MJ for being so crazy/OCD/ridiculous about organization. (p.s. she's for hire!!!)

things that make you go hmmmm

i’m a people pleaser. i try to make sure that whatever i do is going to make those that surround me happy. it’s probably why i’m not a good decision maker. so much thought has to go in to everything and, let me tell you, that makes things a little more difficult than they should be! but at what point do you have to start doing what makes YOU happy?? i mean ~ i’m a happy person in general. most of the time life is nothing but roses! but if there’s that one thing out there. that one thing you want to do. or see. or be. that others may not “approve” of. or agree with. or it may disappoint. that’s my biggest fear: disappointing those that i love. so do you suck it up and get over it? or say i do what i want!! because i’m grown!

i do this all the time. i say i'm going to grow my hair out. it gets to a certain point. i get tired of it. and i cut it all off. i'm just not made for long hair. my hair has looked

exactly the same since i was about 10. and right now it's soooooo long!! practically down to my ankles. at least it feels that way. i'm trying to grow it out for my brother's wedding in may, but i'm not sure i'm going to make it.

so i need your help. should i fight through?

or just go for the chop???

for your listening pleasure

i’ve been on a christian music kick for the past few months. i’m one of those that starts listening to christmas music the beginning of november. so when christmas was all said and done, i didn’t quite know what to do. i was listening to country before christmas and even 2 months later, they were still playing the same songs over and over again. the other station i really liked seemed to be playing weird stuff…..even though i think it was only weird because i hadn’t listened in so long. at that point, there was no other choice but to mix it up a little with some contemporary christian.

as you know, some of it is cheesy. but i’ve found (with the help of others) some really good music. check it out if you get a chance. (some of these videos are a little cheesy, but just listen!)

tenth avenue north - by your side

tenth avenue north - hold my heart

jimmy needham - forgiven and loved

needtobreathe - something beautiful

mikeschair - let the waters rise

i was on a boat

i'm going to be honest. the cruise wasn't what i thought it was going to be. not at all. there were a lot of contributing factors though. first of all, i was sick. i started feeling bad and went to the doctor. he gave me a flu test and strep test and said if either came back positive, i couldn't go on my trip. i cried. he took it back. i think he got scared. luckily for both of us the tests came back negative. he gave me 2 shots and a 10-day antibiotic and i was on my way. i was laid up on my sofa thursday and friday to get ready to hit the road saturday.

7am came bright and early, but we were all so excited that it didn't really matter. we jumped in the car and headed south. the plan was to get to mobile around 11:30, eat lunch, and get on the boat and set sail by 4pm. ha. not so much how it happened. we got to mobile on time. ate lunch. and then sat. and waited. forever. the weather was a little rough and the boat wasn't able to make it back to port. we were told it shouldn't be too much longer though. we were herded into the mobile civic center to wait. the auditorium was packed. luggage was everywhere. it was miserable. long story short - we sat in the civic center for about 12 hours. then we finally were able to get on the boat. it was quite the process. i felt horribly and was in an ill mood. everyone was frustrated with the situation. and to top it off, they took away one of our ports. instead of making 2 stops in mexico, we were only going to make one. and they were going to make it up to us by giving us a $20 credit. wow. awesome.

so we got on the boat around midnight. we walked around and checked things out and i went to sleep. i was hoping to wake up feeling better. i did wake up feeling better, however, the boat was a-rockin'. it woke me up because i felt like i was falling off my bed!!! my fabulous roomie told me to go ahead and take some sea-sick medicine just in case. boy am i glad i did!!! several people out of our group got sick. luckily by that afternoon, everybody was feeling better and we all got to hang out.

we all had a blast. it was just a different kind of fun than i expected. with our group, it's usually a huge party. this was more of a laid back relaxed trip. i guess we're getting old!!!! cozumel was by far the most fun. i wish we had another day there because it was awesome!! we did a zip line adventure which scared me to death at first, but after the first one, it was so much fun. we ate lunch at la choza, an authentic mexican restaurant, and it was oh so delicious!! the margaritas were AMAZING. oh to have just one more of those....

overall, the trip was so much fun. nothing beats being around (almost) all of your favorite friends for 5 days straight. when i got home, it was a big adjustment to be by myself and not have at least SOMEONE nearby to hang out with!! and to not have ice cream at my finger tips at anytime i want! can't wait until our next trip for our thirty-oneth birthday!!

wordless wednesday - cruise style!

hello?

i work in a mall. well, my office is in the towers of a mall. it's very very convenient (most of the time, too convenient) to run downstairs and grab breakfast, lunch, and snacks. on this particular morning, starbucks was the ultimate prize. i got on the glass elevator with 3 of my friends going down to the mall. as the doors are closing, i hear this man's voice. "hello? hello??" we all looked around at each other with confused looks as you might imagine. i had a flash of one of the first private practice episodes where addison got on the elevator and the lady started having a conversation with her. anyway. we all talked back to this man, but all he seemed to say was "hello." we laughed and laughed and finally figured out that it was coming from the emergency speaker phone. we figured someone somehow accidentally leaned up against the phone and called the fire department or something. so i lean down and start talking to this guy. i think he was just as confused as we all were!! "i'm looking for {insert name here} but i can't seem to get in touch with him. all i need is the name of his regional vice president. can you give that to me? and his number too." by this time, we were down to the main level of the mall. the doors had opened and there were about 5 people waiting to get on the elevator. i was crouched down talked to the speaker, all the girls were laughing (as was i), and everyone waiting to get in probably thought we were crazy. it was most likely one of those "had to be there" moments, but it really was hilarious!!

in other news.....i went on a cruise!!! (as if you didn't know!) pictures and details coming soon!